The end of our European journey began with one last corporate visit to Bunge in Mannheim, Germany. Only a short, ten minute bus ride from our hotel in Ludwigshafen, a mixture of saddness, happiness, or sleepiness could be seen on the faces of the students on the bus. To one of us, however, it was a very special day. It was our bus driver, Peter's, birthday!

We were happily greeted by Bunge's Human Resources Manager, Susan Paradiso, who gave us a brief overview of the day's schedule. Following her, we were led to one of Bunge's conference rooms, where we left our bags and grabbed a safety helmet and a pair of safety glasses each. We were excited to wear them for the first time, and quickly went downstairs to take a group photo with them. Each of us pulled off the look really well - definitely the first step towards becoming part of a field or plant-related career! Andreas Vogt, Industrial Director of Bunge, accompanied us on a tour around the Mannheim Biodiesel Plant, where Bunge's "once refined oil" is sold to and then processed into biodiesel. With Andreas' presentation after taking us on the plant tour, we were able to further understand the entire oil refining process. Oil from rapeseeds are refined into two different products: once refined oil, which is sold to the Biodiesel Plant, and refined edible oil, which is sold to Bunge's customers for further processing into different kinds of oil found in the grocery stores.

Both Andreas and our next speaker, Moritz Lücke, Deputy Plant Production Manager, provided further insight into the fire which took place on April 26, 2010. Bunge's plant was unfortunately destroyed during the fire, and operations had to be ceased. Since then, they have been working to rebuild the plant and hopefully begin operations again in August later this year.

To finish up our speaker line-up, Alan Medina, Senior Trader for Bunge, gave us a presentation on the topic of International Business. He shared with us several useful tips to succeed in the international business arena that he wished he had known before going abroad. Alan is actually from a small town, Towanda, just outside of Bloomington, IL, and went to ISU for his undergraduate. Because of this common background, many of us were able to click with him immediately. Alan was an inspiration for many of us - the fact that he was brought up in a small midwestern town but was able to gain much international exposure and rise to such a position in the international marketplace. He stressed the importance of knowing our world geography, especially those countries of great concern to the U.S. Examples of such countries are Libya, Egypt and Brazil, where there has been recent political and social unrest. Others include Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea, where the U.S. has troops stationed. Alan further encouraged us to pick up a language while in school. This will aid us in our future aspirations to possibly work overseas as well as reduce the culture shock when entering another country with a culture far different from our experience. Alan's presentation was a perfect way to end our IBIP trip to Europe as gaining the international exposure is one of the main reasons why each of us chose to participate in this program! After the presentations and thanking each speaker for their time and advice, we proceeded to the cafeteria for lunch joined by all the speakers. The chef prepared a sumptuous lunch consisting of pork chops, french fries, and the seasonal white asparagus soup - all of which were absolutely delicious!

The second half of our last day in Europe was spent with a free afternoon in Heidelberg, just a 30-minute drive from Ludwigshafen. With four hours to spare in Heidelberg, all of us broke into groups to walk around. A must-see in the city, we roamed the streets of the Altstadt (Old Town), visited the castle, took scenic photos at the River Neckar, and scrambled around to do some last minute souvenir shopping for family and friends back home! It was a fun last afternoon after a tiring but definitely worthy two weeks in Europe.

Once again, Happy Birthday, Peter! All of us in the IBIP Program would like to say a big THANK YOU for driving us around Germany, entertaining us, and taking care of us throughout the last week. We wish you all the best for the future!