In Between Trips

“We are always getting ready to live, but never living.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

April 1-3, 2013
I have to admit, I didn’t actually write a blog post for the days between my Barcelona and Munich trips. Monday was a National Holiday in Europe (Easter Monday.) From my observation, it’s pretty much a day where everything was closed and everyone was out drinking. I only went out briefly to get some lunch—not having any food in the dorm from travelling—but I started feeling a bit sick.

Over the next three days, I think had a bit of a sinus infection. My face and throat were sore, I had a very dry/itchy cough, and my nose was running. I pretty much used Easter Monday to catch up on some sleep.

Tuesday was more exciting. We had our midterm presentation for the Skoda Auto project in International Management. Late Monday night, Martina and I exchanged emails to finish the project (although she did significantly more work than anyone, including me, put into it.) We gave the presentation to our professor, who gave us very little feedback other than we were on the right track.

I also had the second session of my International Human Resource Management class today. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before by my “professor” for this course is actually the Central European Human Resource Director for Procter and Gamble. She has worked in HR all over the world and has brought in some really interesting international cases.

This week, she focused on a case from America that dealt with women’s rights in the work place. I’ve linked the video she showed us below. It is a presentation by Sheryl Sandberg (the COO of Facebook) and presents what I thought was a pretty striking reality about women’s rights in America.


My professor’s final argument after showing the video was. “If a country really wants to have equal gender rights in the work place, then a woman should be able to pursue a career without being judged for it and a man should be able to pursue a family without being judged for it.”

After class on Tuesday, I went to the train station to buy my train ticket to Munich. When I got to the station, I noticed something I hadn’t before. There was a lot of English in the train station. Some of the signs had English subtitles, and every couple of announcements, the directions were given in English. I had to laugh. For the past two months I’d been so overwhelmed by hearing so much of the Czech language, I hadn’t noticed how prevalent English really was.

There were three options to get to Munich: a 5:20am train that was direct from Prague Main Station to Munich; a 7:30am train from Prague to Plzen, with a transfer to a bus from Plzen to Munich; or a 11:30am bus from Prague to Munich. Regardless of the route I took, the travel time was about six hours. I chose the 5:20 train, wanting to both get into Munich before noon, and not wanting to deal with the hassle of a transfer, I chose the 5:20am train.

On Wednesday, I had a midterm in International Management, followed by a presentation on PR events in International marketing. That night, I packed for Munich, Skyped with my Mom and then my friend James, and headed to bed about midnight to wake up for my next adventure!