After spending three incredible months traveling through Europe, I am officially back in the states and ready to take on my 3rd year at USC!
This summer I had three parts to my European Adventure: Viterbi Overseas in London for 7 weeks, Research in Karlsruhe, Germany for a month, and backpacking through Italy for 2 weeks! I already blogged about my experience with Viterbi Overseas , so here’s what I did the rest of the summer and my first 2 weeks back at USC!
At the end of my sophomore year, I was lucky enough to have my professor approach me and ask me if I wanted to join her lab this summer in Germany! I said yes with absolutely no hesitation. I spent a month of my summer researching nanomaterials in Karlsruhe, Germany at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. I worked Monday-Friday on my own project analyzing indentation pile up on the nano scale in a sample. Germany is an incredibly green country, so in order to get to KIT, I had to take a 30 minute bus through the forrest! Such a different experience than taking the LA metro, but I LOVED IT!
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- The view of the forrest from my window at KIT
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- The entrance to KIT!
Since my weekends were typically free, I spent them traveling around Germany and other parts of Europe! As a lab group, we went to Baden-Baden, Germany for some beautiful hiking though the black forrest, and took a road trip to Prague! I met up with friends in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and Heidelberg on other weekends. Throughout my experience I know I have to go back to Germany, there are way too many things to do and places to see. Even just taking a train through the countryside was too beautiful for words. Here are some pictures from my adventures:
After my month of work in Germany, I flew over to Venice, Italy (for only $20! Thnx RyanAir) for a two week solo backpacking trip! I went to Venice, Florence, all of the cities in Cinque Terre, and Rome. It was an incredible 2 weeks and I met so many interesting travelers. Here are some pictures from Italy:
I’ve officially returned to the mother county and the first 2 weeks back have already been a whirl wind! less than 12 hours before landing, I went to work at the Viterbi Luau to welcome incoming Viterbi Students, and then last weekend we had the Viterbi President’s council retreat where we went camping in Temescal Canyon. In addition, I have officially begun the infamous MechOps course; while its one of the most difficult classes of the engineering curriculum, I am so excited to tackle it head on and learn more on report writing and conducting experiments!
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- Sunset view over the ocean after our hike at the VPC Retreat
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- Coaches and VSAs at the Viterbi Luau
I can’t wait for what else this year has in store. Ciao for now!
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