End of a Journey
By Nash Dean
6/17/2018
Today is the end of our program in Salzburg. While I am excited to go back home and be in America, I will still miss the beauty and culture of Austria which I have grown to appreciate. The nature in this land is unreal -- like nothing you have ever seen (unless of course you have been to Salzburg or the surrounding Austria before). The mountains were easily visible from my dorm room window along with the fortress on the large hill, looming in the distance. I was fortunate enough to get on top of one of these mountains before the trips end during a weekend excursion to the Eagle's Nest. The views from that height were majestic and stunning; my breath was taken away from this sight. Not to mention, I was able to take some amazing photos while I was there.
Berchtesgaden below the peak where Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest) sits in the Bavarian Alps
Hitler's Eagles Nest, Germany in the back drop
Me in the alps with a mountain peak in the backdrop
I also was fortunate to take several excursions on my trip abroad to places like Budapest, Hungary, Wolfgangsee and Vienna, Austria, and Bologna, Italy. It would be hard to choose a favorite excursion among all of these because they were all so different and unique when it came to the experiences I had.
Budapest offered a unique night-life scene while also harboring gorgeous scenery which I was able to take advantage of viewing. During our extra-curricular trip there, I met a girl from Maldova at the famous Roman Baths who offered to show me around some of the more famous sights of Budapest. Not having seen these sights yet, I of course accepted and met up with her later. It was one of the coolest exchanges I had while abroad. We visited Liberty Statue, saw the sunset behind the hills and shimmer across the river, and climbed the steps to Budacastle.
Me Standing on a statue on Gellért Hill
My Maldovan friend and me posing in front of the Buda River
The Sunset behind the hills on the river bridge
Liberty Statue
My other extracurricular trip took me to Bologna, Italy. I had been trying to plan a trip to another Eastern European country such as Serbia or Croatia based off of recommendations from other people I met on my travels but the logistics of getting there just wouldn't work out and stay within a reasonable budget. Another alternative was to travel to Geneva, Switzerland, but after calculating the estimated cost of my stay, it would be extremely expensive for my overall budget. Ultimately I chose Bologna, Italy because I met someone while I was in Vienna who was studying there. This trip turned out to be more eventful than I had imagined. While I was there, a cultural and political festival was occurring all throughout the city.
During my first day there, I was just walking around looking for things to do and happened upon a queue that I thought was for a museum. After discovering that the entry was free, I got in line and was shocked to see the amount of security the facility had. It wasn't until I got inside that I got a real shock. I walked into a televised interview with the former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni. I seriously felt like Forrest Gump in the encounter! It was an experience I will never forget.
Former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni giving an interview to Italian News Magazine La Repubblica
Me outside of Paolo Gentiloni's interview with the Neptune Fountain in the background
Me posing with the Leaning Towers of Bologna (Torre Garisenda) in the background
Outside of my travels, I will miss the European Union Economics and Politics class with Professor Wally. He not only made learning fun, but taught me more than I could have imagined about the structure, economic situation and political future of the European Union. I specifically enjoyed the term paper he had us write on a particular topic that interested us most. I wrote mine on the causes, effects, and solutions to the Debt Crisis in Greece (I have attached a copy of my paper under the projects tab). Doing my own research on a topic I was extremely interested in was very liberating compared to the stringent outlined projects I've had to do in the past at the University of Florida. In fact, it was very cool to learn more about the economic structures and causes for the Debt Crisis since my studies in Finance tend to deal more with the economic nature at the firm level and strays away from taking a macroeconomic perspective. Additionally, the course taught me an important lesson that I now use when I invest: firms' market value (the price on the stock market) is largely impacted by the business cycle and macroeconomic indicators can lead an investor into predicting future trends for the market and potentially individual stocks.
My other course in Cultural Business was more of a disappointment than a thrill. I had expected to expand upon the marketing course I had taken at the University of Florida and learn more about how to market and manage a company within an international setting. Instead, I learned the same basic concepts taught in the University of Florida's principle course and only learned how they were applied to arts organizations. However, rather than the course teaching marketing/management techniques that only apply to the arts, the course instead acted as an example of how basic marketing and management ideas could be applied in real life. The fundamentals course at the University of Florida does the same thing, but includes other industries rather than limiting itself to just the arts industry.
In the end, the experience of studying abroad was life changing; though I didn't become fluent in German (a very ambitious goal to achieve in six weeks), I did become more proficient and was able to ask questions and make statements to get a point across. Additionally, I met some great people along the way, many of whom I hope to keep in touch with for the years to come. Ultimately, this study abroad is a great stepping stone for a future in international business and will give me the courage to be successful in my next study abroad in Innsbruck!