Wien Week

     So its been a great week in Wien!  We arrived Monday afternoon, and went straight to find some lunch.  We found a place that served pita with various types of fillings.  I ordered a warm pita with sour cream, salami, corn, and cheese.  Es war sehr gut!  Later that day we took a tour of the city of Wien.  We saw how the people lived in Mozart and Beethoven's time.  I thought the housing situation looked cozy, but I don't think I would want to live there.  Afterwards, we took a tour through the catacombs.  I've never seen so many bones in my life.  Although they were cool to look at, the stacked and piled bones were creepy.  That night, we had a group dinner.  I always enjoy our group dinners simply because the whole group is there.
     On Tuesday morning, we had our history medicine walk with Dr. Schnabel.  Dr. Schnabel was a peculiar man.  He is a black plague doctor and wears his black plague doctor outfit everywhere he goes.  I really enjoyed the looks people gave him and the strangers who were taking pictures of him.  Later that day, we went to a funeral museum, and I got to lay in a coffin.  It was surprisingly roomy and comfortable, but I don't want to be in another one anytime soon.  We ended the day with Eiskaffe in Cafe Demmel.
     On Wednesday, we learned about the path medical students in Austria take to become doctors.  It blows my mind that they don't pay for school, but I would still really enjoy the doctor's salary in the states.  I almost want to go to medical school in Germany starting this fall.  I do like how in the states we have the four years of college to figure out our lives.  I really needed these past three year at Texas A&M, and the doctor salary in the states is really nice.
     That afternoon, we visited a building that used to be a psychiatric ward.  It was a really old circular building that was under construction and full of old models representing different diseases.  The first room was full of preserved lungs from tuberculosis patients.  I felt like I was going to get tuberculosis.  We continued walking around the building learning about other diseases.  They were really freaky.  Being so close to real preserved diseased specimens made me think I was going to get them.  I was of course just being paranoid.
     We finished the day by going to a classical concert.  A quartet of two violinist, a viola player, and a cello player played multiple pieces in a beautiful classical church.  My favorite piece they played was "Ave Maria".  I loved the somber viola solo.  So beautiful.
     I am also really excited to wear my new euro clothes.  I went shopping with Samantha and Carson, and I bought a new pair of shorts and a new shirt.  Also during our free time, Rock, Will, and I went to the Albertina art museum.  The museum had a  couple of exhibits.  One called Monet bis Van Gogh and another exhibit called Retrospektive containing the works of a man named Gottfried Helnwein.  Helnwein, as I understand him, grew up in wartime and saw lots of disturbing images.  For this reason, his paintings are promote anti-violence by showing you the disturbing images.  A good amount of his paintings are of the same girl covered in blood.  The violent pictures are extremely moving.  The first painting of his I saw was an oil painting on a canvas about 10 feet by 6 feet, and I had no idea it was a painting until I read the tiny description at the bottom.  It looked like gigantic photograph.  You had to look really close to the painting to see the brush strokes and paint globs.  The amount of detail put into the paintings show his talent.
     On Thursday, we visited the Freud house.  Dr. Wasser gave us a lecture on Freud, which was very interesting.  I really enjoyed learning about the Id, Ego, and Superego.  I'm really interested in reading some of his books like Moses and Monotheism.  I also find the analysis of dreams really interesting such as everything in the dream representing something in real life.  I'm not going to lie, I was very hot and uncomfortable in the Freud House, but I found everything very interesting and really enjoyed it.
     I really enjoyed our goulash experience.  I had never had goulash before, but it was sehr lecher.
     The final day, we visited the natural history museum which was housing Body Worlds for a while.  We walked through and looked at all the different things they had which were all really cool.  Wilson, Kyle, and I then gave a presentation on CPR, which we were all familiar with.
     Vienna was a really cool city.  I really enjoyed walking around Stephansplatz and walking down the river.  I surprisingly had some good mexican food.  They called flautas tacos though.  The beautiful city of Vienna was good to us.