T-2 days... for me at least

It's now Wednesday, and I hop on the plane (with three of my classmates on the same flight) on Friday. I'm torn between absolute excitement and holy crap stressed. There's still so much to get done between now that then... a business plan to finish... a marketing plan to submit my sections on (and thanks to my team for being okay with wrapping it up after I've left the continent)... laundry to do... a few specific items to buy... packing to get done... I feel like I've barely had time to really sit back and think about the trip!

We'll be visiting Hungary and the Czech Republic, and then about half of us have chosen to continue on and visit other counties afterwards. In my case, I'm planning on traveling solo to Paris. I have a little bit of trepidation about the trip - there's going to be three different currencies to learn, for instance - but I'm sure that stuff will work itself all out. The support and camaraderie will be great. A few of us girls are collaborating to reduce the amount of duplicate "just in case" items like aspirin and whatnot we bring, and I've been able to borrow electrical converters from a couple co-workers.

The company visits will be very interesting. In preparation, Chris, George, and I had to do a write up on a company called NABI. NABI designs, manufactures, and sells buses for public transportation and shuttle bus systems. Given that I drove buses back in undergrad (best paying job on campus!), I got a kick out of reading about NABI. A few interesting facts:

• NABI is impacted by "Buy America" requirements. This mandates that government purchases must consist of buses that were at least 60% manufactured in the USA. To satisfy this requirement, NABI builds the bus shells in Hungary then ships then to Alabama for final assembly.
• NABI is owned by Cerberus Capital Management (who also owns GM). I think this could make for some interesting discussion when we are on site at NABI.
• Community Transit here in the Puget Sound has bought a half dozen NABI buses.

Well, back to work now - there's a lot to wrap up for that too before I leave!