Saturday, May 21, 2011

Post Course Celebration

The class participants all got together at the Paderborner Brauhaus for a end of the course celebration. Great fun was had by all as international friendships started during the course work were cemented with a night of fun. Here are some photos.....



Negotiation Class

We had a great week with the negotiation course. 21 Americans, 15 Germans, 5 Spaniards, and 1 Chinese formed the class and we had an excellent experience. The photos below are some of the images from the week of lectures, negotiations and presentations.....




Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Winning Koln/Bonn Scavenger Hunt Presentation

Yoseppi the Koelne Ente (duck from Cologne) Duck (born in Italy, but he grew up in Germany) and his teammates scavenger around Koln and Bonn!


Sunday, May 15, 2011

Koln / Bonn Scavenger Hunt Video

Here is the link to the youtube video of one of the group's scavenger hunt experience....

Pretty cool job, but the song is like 3 years old!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDJjbCSaOpM

Back in Paderborn

Wow did we have a great trip. We learned a lot about German Business and Culture. The students were great - always ready to tackle the next challenge. Yesterday they did a scanvenger hunt in Koln and Bonn and then did presentations about the experience. I will post things soon but I can tell you now: they had a blast and proved to me and more importantly themselves that they can be independent and successful in Germany.

That theme gets more emphasis this week as I morph into Professor and they into student. We have returned to Paderborn and the students are already bust with their German counter parts working on their "Cultural Cheat" assignment. I got a smile out of the conversations I overheard that included moments of hard work, and moments of social recommendations!

I will add more photos and comments after I get some work done ..... I do have this class to teach tomorrow and I should probably verify all is set to go. The students can't be the only ones working on this Sunday evening.

But before I sign off, we want to say good by (aufweidersehen) to the three classmates who headed back today. We will miss you. We wish you soft beds, air conditioning and ice!

Tony ...... Jon....... and Sunjay........

Saturday, May 14, 2011

In Cologne after the Rhein


We have had a great trip up and down the Rhein, with our home base being in St. Goar. We arrived wednesday in Koblenz and had a nice 3hr boat trip down the Rhein to St. Goar. We stayed at the "Jungenherberge" which means youth hostel. It was not swanky, but we had a great spaghetti dinner and then hung out on their deck overlooking the Rhein for the evening. Brent Brock won our 15 person card game of "screw your neighbor" pocketing about 3 euros for his victory.

On Thursday we took a feery across the Rhein to St Goarhausen and jumped a train to Rudesheim. We did a bit of shopping there and then took the cable car up the mountain and visited the Neiderwald Denkmal. From there we took a great hike that included a couple great Rhein River viewing points and included a trip through the haunted hole!

After this we took the Sielbahn (chair lift) down into Assmannhausen and had a great wine tasting & lunch. After a quick train ride back to Rudesheim we jumped on another KD Boat and cruised back past Loreley Rock to St. Goar.

Friday we visited Burg Rheinfels and explored the tunnels and paths of this castle ruins. Groups explored dark tunnels using their cell phones as lights. Small groups found their way to different lunch spots and had a last relaxing time in the tiny burg of St. Goar.

Friday afternoon saw a hectic train ride to Cologne and then a nice dinner out as a group at a traditional German restaurant in the Heumarkt platz area of Koln. Many of the group sampled Kolsch style beer - the only beer that is also a language (dialect of German).

Today the students got sent on a scavenger hunt - it will be interesting to see just how good/comfortable the group has become with self navigation (actually small groups) in Germany. We meet together later to share stories and have a final group dinner.

Some photos from Wed - Friday.....

The "Rhein River" group giving their location presentation from a pretty sweet location - the deck of our youth hostel in St. Goar on the Rhein.

The group on the Ferry across the Rhein .... just one of the many forms of public transport we have used on the trip. On Thursday we ....walked, ferry, walked, train, walked (and shopped) cable car up, hiked, chair lift down, walked, train, walked, boat, and then walked. Now that is traveling!

The group outside the restaurant in Assmannshausen....

On the KD Boat leaving Rudesheim on Thursday - the Neiderwald Denkmal is on the top of the hill behind the group. (That statue is the photo at the start of this blog entry)


The ruins of Burg Rheinfels in St. Goar. This castle ruins area was a favorite of the students as they explored all the tunnels and pathways and got a feel for what the largest castle/fort complex on the Rhein once looked like.

Dr. Eckert's Daughter, Emily in one of the many tunnels at Burg Rheinfels.

On the hike overlooking the Rhein...

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Case Competition in Paderborn


Yesterday we had the case competition at Uni Paderborn. The day started with a welcome from Martin Schroeder, the Associate Dean of the Business College, and then Dr. Andeas Eggert presented the research he is working on involving the concept of Value-Based Selling. This was followed by a presentation by Dr. Eckert on how to give better presentations. Then the real fun started. Teams of 2 German students and 3 or 4 WMU students had 4 hours to work together to create a case solution. We reconvened at 4pm and each team made a 15 minute presentation. After we all freshened up at the hotel or home we got back together at the Paderborner Brauhaus for a celebration dinner. Since it was a beautiful night we sat in the Biergarten and had a wonderful meal and even better companionship. The best part of the day and the evening was the way the students embraced each other and the friendships formed and the lessons learned. It was definitely one of the best days on the trip.

The photos below are the groups and the students at the Brauhaus celebration dinner.

The Groups......


This was the Winning Team!






Some casual shots of the students at the Paderborner Brauhaus Biergarten


Sunday, May 8, 2011

The First Week in Review

We have finished the first week with great success. We arrived in Paderborn about an hour ago. Many of us are sitting in the lobby working on the internet. It is a beautiful afternoon/evening and we will be going down to the Fruhlings Fest at 6pm.

The montage below are shots from week one..... Hamburg, Wolfsburg and Berlin. The things we have done.... Harbor Tour, Uni Hamburg Lecture, VW Tour, the Autostadt, Deutsche Bank, Bike Tour, Berlin Zoo and lots of great meals.