Friday, January 21, 2011

The Hills Are Alive

Austria looked absolutely beautiful as we passed thorugh the country side. Vienna itself seemed very well organized. The subway system was easy to navigate. This may be due to our experience navigating subways, but I think it was more that they had detailed maps at every station. Going through the catacombs was really interesting. It was neat to see a place that had bones that were hundreds of years old, and just to see and amazing underground structure like that. The cake at Café Demel was outstanding, some of the best that I have ever had.

Hearing how medical education worked in Vienna and Austria was interesting. I really like the idea of going straight into professional school. I have known what I wanted to do “when I grow up” since I entered college and would love to be in my third year of medical school instead of my junior year of college. I know that not everyone likes this aspect, but I really like it. The Operetta was fun to go watch. It was a nice cultural experience, and it was cool to hear them use all of the German words that our group had learned up to this point.

Visiting Sigmund Freud’s house was eye-opening for me. The only context that I had heard of Freud before this was from my sophomore religion teacher who is best described as a radical Catholic. He told us that Freud was evil and only wrote about sex and tried to destroy Catholicism. I never really believed him because I knew he was bigoted against anyone whose views do not strictly align with the Catechism, but I know now that he was very far from the truth. I was glad to hear about all of Freud’s other accomplishments and gain a true appreciation for him as a scientist and doctor.

The Natural History Museum was really cool. I liked seeing all of the fossils and artifacts from ancient history. The animal Body Works was neat. I had seen the human one before, but it was cool to see the variety of animals and amazing to see the detail put in, even on the huge animals.

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