The Cranfield bear travels to Stuttgart!

Did you know we have a Cranfield bear?! Myself and fellow supply chain management students took him with us to Stuttgart, where we attended a traditional German beer festival!

[su_custom_gallery source=”media: 6791″ width=”256″ height=”341″ title=”never”] [su_custom_gallery source=”media: 6815″ width=”256″ height=”341″ title=”never”]

Our fellow friend, Christopher Edwards, who is studying Procurement and Supply Chain Management, invited us to his lovely family home in Stuttgart, Germany.

We planned this trip in October last year and decided that together, eight of us studying Supply Chain Management would fly to Stuttgart and go to the local beer festival.

We were a very multicultural group! We had German Chris, Dutch John, Argentinian Nadia, Finish Antero, English Adam, Taiwanese JC, Chinese Bojia, and me, South Korean Kelly!

[su_custom_gallery source=”media: 6792″ width=”400″ height=”299″ title=”never”]

Cannstatter Wasen is a name of the beer festival in Stuttgart and is an annual three week festival. I’ve been to Germany few times but never heard about Stuttgart until I met my best friend Chris.

Stuttgart is capital of southwest Germany’s Baden-Württemberg state, and is known as a manufacturing hub. This city is well known as the city of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche because the headquarters are located in this city.

Chris’s family greeted us warmly. Simone and Steve (Chris’s parents) came to the airport to give us rides, which was really nice of them! Since we were a big group, us ladies stayed at the hotel near Chris’s place, and the boys stayed at Chris’s place. Before we went to our hotel, the family took us to their home, where we had very nice snacks and tried some local beer. It was absolutely wonderful – the food was so fresh and delicious!

[su_custom_gallery source=”media: 6794″ width=”400″ height=”299″ title=”never”]

On our second day of the visit, an amazing breakfast was waiting for us – a proper German breakfast of white sausages, pretzels and Simone’s homemade fresh orange juice.

[su_custom_gallery source=”media: 6793,6798″ width=”256″ height=”341″ title=”never”]

We enjoyed it so much! I could eat white sausages for breakfast, lunch and dinner – I loved it! After breakfast, we went by train to the beer festival which was 30 minutes away from Chris’s place. The first thing we did at the festival was try out some of the fairground rides, which took us back to childhood!

[su_custom_gallery source=”media: 6800,6799,6801,6802″ width=”256″ height=”341″ title=”never”]

We got our table at the festival from 5 pm until 11pm. We enjoyed nice German beer, roasted chicken, caramelized almonds, pretzels….I was so full after eating so much good food!

[su_custom_gallery source=”media: 6804,6803″ width=”256″ height=”341″ title=”never”] [su_custom_gallery source=”media: 6809,6810″ width=”400″ height=”299″ title=”never”]

I really enjoyed being in Stuttgart with my course friends. The reason why I want to share about this experience is that I want future students enjoy their student life at Cranfield. Being a student at Cranfield is not only for expanding theoretical knowledge but also for expanding multicultural knowledge while you’re there. Understanding the other cultures is very important these days, in order to become a better person. The creation and application of cultural knowledge is essential to the survival of almost all businesses. Most of students live on campus and the campus has essential facilities. So we get so close to each other! We help each other, study together, eat together and drink together. I lived in Australia for five years and I’ve been living in the UK for seven months now. I think I’ve got more cultural knowledge in the UK than during the entire time I was living in Australia. (Although you know Australia is also a multicultural country!) I have only four months left to live here in Cranfield – and I think I am going to miss this place a lot! But before the year comes to an end, I want to enjoy being in Cranfield with my coursemates as much as I can!

 

[su_custom_gallery source=”media: 6811″ width=”256″ height=”341″ title=”never”]

I would like to say thank you to Christopher Edwards again for teaching us about the great German culture!

[su_custom_gallery source=”media: 6812″ width=”256″ height=”341″ title=”never”]

Hope I have a chance to teach you proper Korean culture!

All the best wishes for your next journey!