Wednesday, January 08, 2014

I gotta hand it over to Hannover

As I sit now in the Vienna hotel, I have begun to reflect on my experiences in Hannover. It was such a quick visit.

Since we got in late, the first night we were there, a couple other students and I walked around the town to try to find something to eat at 10:20 pm. Little did we know, Hannover is a small town where everything is closed at 10.  After coming off huge metropolitan cities such as Prague and Berlin, I wasn't expecting a town to be this "sleepy."

The next day was spent at the University Clinics at the Hannover Medical School. I really enjoyed listening to the doctor speak about the new cardiac device that is serving as a temporary therapy for patients waiting for a heart transplant. As an engineer, I love seeing the effects of medical devices on patients and I enjoy seeing patients who were terribly ill now be able to live their lives almost as fully as they once could.

Today was an interesting one too. Today was all about animals, and deemed by the students "Meghan's Day" as Meghan Wanstrath is the only vet student on the trip for the wintermester.  I enjoyed learning about regenerative biology in the Axolotl Research Center and to understand a creature that has different properties than humans was really intriguing. The axolotls were so cute, and I was so close to wanting to take one home as a pet! The zoo was a blast too. I haven't been to the zoo in a long time, so it was fun to see the baby orangoutang and a baby elephant that was born only 6 days ago! 

For now, it's out of Germany and off to Austria!
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye!

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