What is your competitive advantage?

                Today concluded our final scheduled day of our journey through the Baltic States. It consisted of a morning company visit, and an afternoon visit to parliament that was followed by a farewell dinner hosted by Vilnius University. Half of the group will be flying to Prague tomorrow for the night and then returning back to Atlanta on Saturday. The other half of the group leaves Vilnius Saturday and has several connecting flights before their return flight home. Michael and Mary-Elyse will be staying in Europe for continued travels with their respective family members.

                With the trip coming to an end, everyone will be reflecting on the past three weeks in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Each individual member of the group will have a different perspective on what the trip meant to them.  I personally have taken more out of the past three weeks than a blog entry can begin to describe.  When college students study abroad the first things that probably come to their minds are typically “Spain, France, Italy”; I would be lying if I said I didn’t fit that stereotype when I first considered traveling abroad this summer. When people hear the three countries “Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania” who knows what the first thought is that comes to mind.  Just a few months ago I did not have the slightest clue about those three; other than Lithuania which triggered something about basketball in the back of my mind.

                Three countries meant three unique cultures and three different currencies. I have been able to formulate a new outlook on each country. All three independent states have an incredibly interesting history and it has been a fascinating experience furthering our knowledge on the deep impact of past events first hand from citizens of each state.  It has been one of the most beneficial learning experiences I have had during my undergraduate tenure at Auburn University.  We took our knowledge from our week of “boot camp” and applied that over the past three weeks. We have been lectured on the economic status of each country and the direction each one plans to head in the near and distant future; this gave us a great foundation going into company visits. The numerous company visits have given us the opportunity to interact with all sides of what goes into the heartbeat of a business: members of sales and marketing, finance, research and development and even a CEO.

                 Thanks to everyone who kept up with our blog.  The Baltic States will not be the same without us. Signing off from Vilnius, Lithuania.

Patrick Markham