Undergraduate Study Abroad

It pulls you out of the typical college routine and makes you see that there are so many different ways people live day-to-day. You pick up habits, cultural things, and small ways of seeing life that genuinely stick with you for good. It gives you a lot of perspective on how you want to live your own life. 

Definitely how relaxed the startup culture was. In the US, AI startups usually feel high-stress and move at a very fast pace, so I kind of expected that going into Germany. But the startup I worked at in Berlin was super organized, had zero expectation to work outside normal hours, and nobody was stressed out over impossible deadlines. It felt like a really healthy, solid team culture. 

How green and easy to navigate the city was. There are huge parks everywhere, greenery all over the place, and the public transit makes it so you never need a car. It feels like a city actually built for people to enjoy, and you really feel that thoughtful city planning every day. 

I really missed the student bubble. In Berlin, most of my time was spent as an intern, so I didn't get the university vibe or spend much time with other students in the university in Berlin. It made me miss just being a college student at Brown, going to class, struggling through assignments late with friends, and just running into people on campus. 

How easy it is to travel around Europe. You can literally just take a train or a cheap flight and spend a long weekend in another country without needing to plan it out months in advance. I wish I had taken advantage of that even earlier in the semester.