Mini Break--Piper Davis

So not only did we get a 10 day Spring Break, but we got a 5 day Mini Break after our Management class ended. But before I talk about the trip, I want to share my experience of Management with Lane (and Julie!).

The class was not only fun, but also very eye-opening into the world of business. The concepts we learned in the morning could clearly be seen in our afternoon visits to markets, department stores, Ernst & Young, and the City of London Corporation. Of course, my favorite site visit was Harrod’s. This is the absolute largest store (and most expensive) I have ever seen.

Lane and Julie are so sweet. They invited us over to their flat several times for spaghetti, popcorn, and pizza. I wish they were still here!

On to Mini Break—Berlin was our first destination. We walked out of the subway station in front of our hostel and were greeted with complete silence. There was no one on the streets and hardly any cars. Okay, so maybe we were in a dead area? Nope. Everywhere we went, the streets were clear of cars and few people were walking around. I can’t say that I didn’t mind this (especially after walking on Oxford Street in London), but it was unexpected.

We finally found the usual tourists around the Brandenburg Gate and Berlin Wall. It was amazing to learn to about the Holocaust and the division between East and West Germany. We stood in the very spot where Hitler committed suicide (now a parking lot) and also where his body was burned (now a children’s playground).One night, we went up in the Fernsehturm Berlin, which is basically Berlin’s space needle. The view was incredible.

We took a bus to Prague on Monday. On the way, the bus stopped in a German city called Dresden. It was beautiful, and I really want to go visit it someday. It took four hours to get to Prague, so I slept most of the way. We all got money out of an ATM after we arrived. The smallest denomination was 2000 korunas. This is the equivalent to about $100 (Czech money is very inflated). Anyway, we walk down into the subway station, and we notice there is no place to insert paper money into the ticket machine (which is all we had). We walked over to the booth, but no one was there. We watched people for a few minutes, and all of them were just walking through without a ticket. So when in the Czech Republic, do as they do.

Bad idea. We transfer lines and then get off at our stop. A man sees our backpacks (obviously tourists) and asks for our tickets. Of course he didn’t stop anyone else. We tried to tell him that we didn’t know how to pay, where to get change, etc. He didn’t care and fined us about $40 each. Welcome to Prague.

Thankfully that was the only bad part of the trip. Our hostel was very close to the Charles Bridge, which was gorgeous. There were so many shops, restaurants, clubs, and beautiful buildings in this city. It might be my favorite city I’ve visited so far.

We got back late last night, and this week we have advising appointments with Andrew. Monday is the first day of my internship with Red Kite PR. I’m super excited, but also very nervous. Naturally, I didn’t bring my black slacks with me on the trip (instead I brought 5 pairs of pajama pants..). So off to Oxford Street for shopping!