When we decided to register for a field trip to Egypt within the framework of our introductory seminar course, we couldn’t imagine what is before us. If you think about Egypt, the tales of Arabian Nights, Pyramids and terror attacks come on your mind. We tried to envisage who we will meet, where will go, how is it going to be exactly. We could answer all these questions afterwards with a smile, because if there’s one thing we learned during this trip: it’s hospitality.
We were able to get to know many facets of Egypt thanks to an exciting and imformative itinary: We visited three German schools in Cairo and Alexandria. There we informed the senior student about the University of Applied Sciences in Heilbronn and about our diverse study programmes. During our conversations with the Egyptian students, we noticed some similarities with them and our young selves when we stood shortly before our final high school examens. We were impressed about the large number of pupils who were thinking about studying abroad, especially in Germany.
Furthermore we visited our three partner universities: The German University in Cairo (GUC), Misr International University in Cairo (MIU) and Pharos University in Alexandria. The students of all universities welcomed us with a lot of interest and openness and invested a lot of work and effort in common projects. At the MIU, we participated in a stock market simulation, and at Pharos University, we handled a marketing case. We solved both challenges jointly with Egyptian students what strengthened our intercultural interest so much that we often met with some of the students in the evenings to eat in a restaurant or to meet in a bar.
The itinary also included several business aspects: we visited the German chamber of commerce in Cairo, and the smart-village which takes after the Silicon-Valley and is situated in the middle of the desert. Corporations such as Microsoft, IBM, HSBC, and Vodafone have opened new branches there. Moreover we visited the ISIS farm that exports organic products all over the world. We had the chance to interview experts of these institutions about economically relevant topics. Their answers often were relevant for our seminar papers. We were warmly welcomed in each of these companies.
Of course we could visit some sites which a tourist should not miss on his tour, e.g. the Pyramids of Giza including a funny camel ride and the traditional bazar Khan el-Khalili. During our evening outings, we could try several culinary specialties of Egypt’s cuisine and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of Egyptian restaurants and bars.
We spent our last day in Hurghada where we got an insight on the new tourism project El Gouna thanks to the expert guidance of a doctoral student at the university there. After a remarkable and amazing week, we finally returned to Germany.
We would like to thank Prof. Dr. Lars Gaiser cordially for all the impressions we could gather along that trip. It allowed us to better understand the Arab world and to overcome some prejudices.
It is really important for us as international business students to get the possibilty to immerse in countries and cultures in situ. Nowadys we need to reduce prejudices in our world instead of building new walls.
Author: Olivia Materne; Translation: Marvel Yassa