89. Women

I don’t consider myself a die hard feminist, but I am a woman so I have some female pride. Today we went to the BMW world. After walking around the showcase room, we spent a good 2 hours in the museum. Being a woman and an engineering major, I do tend to look out for women in the engineering field. Especially at companies that provide jobs commonly considered masculine. Between the engine models, and the cars on display, there were exhibits explaining the history of the company and with the history came pictures of people in the workplace, both in the past and current events. After 4 floors and a lot of cool models, I saw three pictures of women, and one picture was of the same woman. So, really, I only saw two women. What was their job? Designing the carbon fiber centerpiece placed in the middle of the spiral ramp that lead out of the museum. In America, the PR people for any company would be all over this. BMW did not even try to look diverse in any way. It was actually entertaining to try to find something that wasn’t about a Caucasian male. At least I know what booth to skip at the career fair next year!

Luckily we chose today to spend inside, because the weather was horrible. We got to see a stunt guy ride a motorcycle up and down stairs, play a racing video game – I got the fastest time in the family - , and sit in all the vehicles that cost more than my house. Which I did. And touched all of the buttons. The coolest car we saw was this one. Not sure of the name, but it needs to come back into style.

I learned that BMW also made planes! I could actually name the components of the plane engines. On car engines I could maybe point out the pistons.  There was only one sitting out, but it was nice to know that I hadn't lost everything I learned last semester.

Surprisingly, Brody wanted nothing to do with the car museum, and Arden spent most of her time studying her dead ends. I’m not sure where Mom and Scarlet went, but by the time Dad and I made our way to the lobby, everyone was sitting on the couch ready to head out. We split up after the tram ride home, Mom and Dad went to the store with Brody while the girls all went home. Really, we went to the pastry shop down the street. We only have another week to spend all our euros!