Day 67 - Bayer

today was so great. I woke up and left the house super early because I didn't know if the strike was still going on. if it was, I would have to walk all the way to the HBF to be in time for the train we were taking to Bayer. Luckily the trams were running, but that meant that I had arrived 45 minutes early, and I didn't feel like standing around for that long. Instead, I found a seat out on the platform and pulled out my newest book, Dracula. when 8:40 came around, I put away my book to meet up with all the people where were already waiting, which turned out to only be 4 people. So we waited some more for everyone else to come and boarded the train that would take us to Cologne. As soon as we got there, we rushed to the next train to take us closer to Bayer and just made it before it left the station. Then, we got off the train to catch a bus to the actual Bayer building. Yes, a lot of traveling and transfers, but it was fun.

Once at the Bayer communications building, we had a tour of the facilities, including getting a better look at what Bayer makes. And no, they don not just make aspirin like we all first though. They actually make a lot of products that are put into other things and aren't really seen. For example, they make polyurethane, which is used in everything from shoes to seats, as well as being the major supplier in DVDs. They also have a large interest in crop preservation and some antibiotics. They have products such as the visors that hokey players and sports people who use helmets wear that's strong but light weight, and a lot of their products in various cars (seats, windows, stuff like that.) Yeah, I was surprised too, but the entire tour was really interesting and had a lot of interactive activities so we could see first hand what Bayer's solutions to some of the various problems of society are and how they get to that point.

The front of the building

The ecocruise that they allowed us to "drive"

After the tour, we hopped back on the bus and train, but stayed in Cologne so we could buy tickets for our trip to Paris over Easter weekend. Yes, you saw that right, I will be in Paris for Easter, and I'm super excited about it! After settling the tickets, we got a little bit of lunch before heading back to Bonn so we could meet up with our teams to play in a soccer tournament. This tournament was with all of AIB, and everyone had a lot of fun. When we weren't on the field, we were throwing around the football or Frisbee or passing an extra soccer ball back and forth. We were also able to socialize with a lot of the people we don't normally see, which was pretty nice. During the final two rounds, everyone had to get up and cheer for the people who were playing, so of course all us Aggies had to go the extra mile and make a (small) human pyramid. It was a lot of fun to try and organize 6 people to be that coordinated for that amount of time.

 Kristin is so ready to officiate this tournament

And we're ready to get our game faces on

After the tournament ended, we went inside for pizza and Koelsh to hang out some more with everyone from AIB. I didn't really realize how late it was getting because the sun was still out, but I didn't end up leaving until like 6:45, which us usually when I'm back home. I left and got back to the house to see that Philip was there, and we all sat down to dinner. After dinner, we talked a little bit more before heading our separate ways to bed. It was quite the day.

Party time at Old AIB!

Tomorrow is more class, so not much new going on there. However, Friday is when we're going to a string quartet concert the Beethoven house id putting on for us as thanks for helping them out during the Big Event that will be happening in two or three weekends.

That's it for now!
Erin Z