Back Home!

Hello everyone-

After about twenty hours, two plane rides, and a bus from Boston to Augusta, I'm finally back home. We left our hotel in Munich around 4:00am (10pm Eastern time) and made our 7:30 flight from Munich to Istanbul. We had a couple hours worth of a layover before our flight from Istanbul to Boston at 1:30pm (6:30am Eastern time). I was able to watch four movies on this plane ride in between some naps and meals. We finally landed in Boston at 5:30pm and everyone successfully went through customs.

A lot of people, including myself, took the 6:30 bus from Boston to Portland while others were picked up/drove from the airport home. Josh and I continued our journey by taking a bus from Portland to Augusta where we were picked up. It was a long, exhausting day of travel.

I thouroughly enjoyed my time in Europe. It was a beautiful country. I was able to learn a lot from the tours we took and I also learned a lot about the culture. It was a fantastic experience, and I wanted to take the time to thank all of our donors. Thank you so much for allowing me and 13 other students to have this once in a lifetime opportunity. Without you, this trip would not have been possible.

Thank you so much for all of your support-
Katrina Lessard

Monday Activities

Hello! I'm so sad we're close to the end of our TREE Trip but we still have a full day to look forward to tomorrow!  We needed some extra sleep and got a later start to today than usual.   We explored outside a huge palace (Nymphenburg Palace) this afternoon and went back to the Olympic stadium.  There we were able to play some frisbee and then look out over Munich from a tower. We were about 200 meters above the ground. The group tried to catch a movie tonight but it was in German so instead we got gelato! Back at the hotel half of our group got stuck in the elevator for about an hour but they are out now!

Thanks for your continued support! I still can't believe we're even on this trip!

Munich Adventures

Hello all,

We have been in Munich since Friday evening and have been having a blast learning about German culture and history.  I must admit, it has been quite nice not having to change cities every evening and we are starting to feel comfortable with our surroundings.  We have practically mastered the tram and train system.  Well mastered is probably the wrong word but we have handled it for sure.

For dinner on Friday we ate at the second largest beer garden in Munich which was the Augustine Beer Hall.  Here we enjoyed some typical Bavarian food and drank a few brews.  Well technically it was like one or two brews but they sell them by the liter so who knows really?  None the less we had a great evening enjoying eachothers company and sharing stories about all of the tours and locations that we had travelled to over the past week and a half.

Saturday was the first free day that we had in Munich.  I elected to go check out Allianz Stadium which is where the revered Bayern Munich play.  They actually had their last soccer game of the season on Saturday and we were able to experience all the celebrations as they won their league title.  This was pretty cool.  We also travelled to Olympic Stadium which is where the 1972 Olympics were held.  I was really interested in this because I recently watched a biography on a famous runner named Steve Prefontaine who competed in the 72 games.  You may recall that during the 1972 games, there was a terrorist attack and ultimately members of the Israeli teams lost their lives.  It was very interesting to learn about the history as well as see the area in person.

On Saturday we also visited the BMW Museum and learned about the history of the BMW company.  It was very nice to see so many concept cars that I will never own.  I really enjoyed the motorcycle portion as well as a display that they had on jet engines.

On Sunday we travelled to Dachau Concentration Camp right outside of Munich.  For everyone on the trip, I believe this was our first first hand experience with the Holocaust.  I cannot describe how intense and moving a walk within the compound is.  I was constantly in thought at the camp and this was truly a sobering experience.  It is one thing to watch movies and see pictures in text books, but when you actually stand in a gas chamber, or walk through a barracks, you are able to comprehend the horrendous events that occured during WWII.  I will never forget what we saw at Dachau.

On a lighter note, we went to dinner at the Haufbrauhaus Sunday night.  For those of you who have experienced it, you know.  For those of you who haven't, you need to.  I have never been in a place where 1300 people are drinking beer and yelling, screaming, and singing songs.  Wait, nevermind, I went to UMaine.  But this place was unreal.  People were dressed up in traditional Bavarian clothes and singing German drinking songs and giving praise to the holy Bayern Munich!  We had some great food and again enjoyed our group's company.  What we didn't expect was to enjoy the company of everyone in the restaurant.  People were extremely friendly and we all shared stories.  What an incredible experience!

Thanks for following our adventure!

You stay classy readership,

Jon Lee

Past few days

Hello everyone!

We haven't had wifi for the past couple of days, so now we are playing catchup with posts! We visited Schaeffer Rolls and MWN rolls on Tuesday which was incredible. It was really cool to see the machinery up close and personal. Wednesday we visited SKF and BASF. SKF specializes in lubrication systems. I never realized how intricate it can be until we heard the presentations. SKF will be sending us some information by mail later which will include the lubrication system in the pulp and paper industry and an explanation on their different bearings. I can't wait to read up and learn about this process. Later that day and today we toured BASF. Just to give you an idea of how big this place is, the number of employees they have at this facility is equivalent to the population of Bangor. They have three power facilities just to power the plant and we had to take a bus tour to see the entire plant. It was huge!

I've learned so much over the last few days. I didn't have a lot of knowledge regarding the mechanical aspect of the paper industry, so I'm glad we have had a wide variety of tours. We will continue to keep you updated throughout the trip!

Thanks for the continued support-
Katrina

BASF town

Hello All,

Today and yesterday evening we had the chance to see BASF town which is really named Ludwigshafen. We started off yesterday afternoon where we got a brief overview tour the 13 km long facility in a tour bus. This included seeing everything from the steam crackers to the harbor in which many of the supplies are delivered. The size of this facility was unfathomable when explained with words. We got to see this in person when many of the 36,000 employees frantically drove through the many roads located through out the facility.

The evening we stayed in the country side in a hostel in the hills. It contained a castle like structure where we had a wonderful evening of bbqing our own dinner and playing soccer with a few of the young children who also were staying at the hostel.

Day 2 of BASF we got to tour the pilot coater that services many pulp and paper related companies and their research. I was amazed at the capabilities of this pilot coater. I had the capability to run at 10 times the speed of any coater I have seen in person. We were luckily enough to see it run for a brief minute before a web break turned into a small fire which was easily and expect idly put out by the very experienced crew. We had the chance to also hear from many of the U.S. immersion employees and how they have adjusted to being Germany. They had high praise for the program and have no regrets. The part I found the most astounding was that the Haber-Bosch process was discovered right at this facility. For anyone who doesn't know this is the process in which ammonia is synthesized from the nitrogen in the air and the hydrogen from water. This reaction revolutionized many industries and really progressed chemical engineering closer to where it is today. For me this may have been one of the most astounding tours we have been on yet. 

Besten Wunsche,

Devin Weaver

Hostel in the Country Side

A nice competitive game of futbol

BASF Interactive table

Schäfer Rolls and MWN

Hallo Readers! 

On Tuesday we woke up and traveled from Reutlingen to Renningen to tour Schäfer Rolls.  We were all interested to hear about the largest roll cover facility in the world from Ms. Schäfer, the granddaughter of the founder of the company.  It was incredible to see all stages of the process that go into making a roll cover.  Schäfer Rolls produces rubber, composite, and polyurethane covers.  While onsite, we were fortunate enough to see one of the largest rolls they have ever serviced. Special thanks to Schäfer Rolls and J.T. Fisher for allowing us to see this impressive facility.  

From Schäfer Rolls, we traveled to Niefern to see MWN Rolls.  MWN services and produces rolls for the industry.  While there, we saw rolls made by Schäfer, Voith, and Metso all being serviced.  We were also able to see the impressive technology of a gundrill, used in order to create the suction rolls. 

Both of these tours were unique experiences, and gave us a better perspective about how much technology and effort goes into rolls and their covers.  

We're still having tons of fun, and appreciate all the support! 

Alexi Deering

Kelsey Bolduc

Occupy German Train Stations

Strikes are good sometimes.  If you are a pitcher in a baseball game or if you are bowling and trying to beat a group of college kids in Europe.  Unfortunately, some strikes can leave you in a bind once in a while.  We were informed on Tuesday that there would be a good chance that the railway would strike while we were abroad and they in fact did!  So, for the past few days we have been lucky enough to receive transportation from SKF and BASF.  So, special thanks to those guys.  

We have chartered a bus to take us to Heidenheim tomorrow for our visit with Voith and eventually back to Munich!  We knew something would go wrong during this trip and I'm proud to say that our group was able to handle it alright.  

Be on the look out for some more posts and videos as we have wifi for the first time in a few days tonight!