Only one Week Left :(

It's unreal how fast this program has gone. Things are starting to slow down and I'm very sad to leave, although I am ready to see my loved ones from back home. This week we had to catch up on class a little bit. I don't mind since it's because of the extended excursion to all the wonderful places we just got back from.

I spent another day in Cologne. First we went to the zoo to see the animals. Zoo's normally aren't really my thing. I just feel like its blistering hot and the animals just sleep. The weather was nice and we got a special tour so it was awesome! I loved going behind the scenes and feeding the elephants. I got to feed them and pet them with the other hand. I don't know what I was expecting elephant skin to feel like. I knew it was rough but you just can't explain it until you actually feel it. probably 6 or 7 elephants came up to say hello. It was very very cool! Their trunks were slimy from I guess putting food in their mouth and feeling them suck the bread out of my hand was something I never though would happen. We went to see the gorillas as well. Our guide had a very special relationship with a few of the monkeys so things got a little lively! This one monkey he raised since birth so she ran up and was blowing kisses and putting her hand on the glass where his hand was. It was really adorable. She also tries to give him a branch to rub his scent on and give it back to her. The other male monkey would get upset and try to I guess protect his mate and kept running into the glass to attack the guy. Another monkey was showing off and grabbed a huge branch and started running around with it. That is for sure the most entertainment I have ever gotten out of a zoo!

We went to uniclinics this week as well. I got to see prostate removal. It was all done endoscopically and was neat to watch on the screen. It took two and a half hours which to me seemed like a long time. It honestly wasn't the most exciting surgery in the world but the experience of getting to stand in an OR room was incredible. Being and engineer that wasn't something I was very actively pursuing but maybe I should have. It would be interesting to see a doctor implant one of the possible devices I could be working with in the future.

Today we hiked up to a castle. The castle was really cool and my favorite part of the day for sure. I thought it was kinda funny that our tour guide had us go underground and into this very short, skinny, slippery, and dark hallway all just for fun. I was expecting there to be something really neat waiting for us on the other side and to my surprised we resurfaced above ground and were exactly in the same spot we had been previously. We literally went in a circle underground. The views were outstanding and I guess I was surprised how many castles were still left in the whole Rhein area. Everywhere I turned there was another one and then another one.

I absolutely love this trip and am so glad that I made the decision to come abroad! I can't wait for Berlin, but I am very sad that it means our trip is coming to a close.

5 Capital Cities, 5 Weeks

In the span of just three and a half weeks, I've visited four current or former capitals of the world and will be in the fifth one by the end of this week. I've used public transportation systems of varying efficiency, drank tap water of varying sources that are far superior to College Station water (almost anything is better than CStat water, haha!), and have enjoyed meeting people of various nationalities with amazing stories to tell. I'd like to describe my experiences in the four capitals I've been to so cfar in this blog post; next week I'll blog about Berlin.
Bonn, Germany
I know that Bonn, the former capital of Germany, will always hold a special place in my heart. I can say that I truly lived in this city, although for a brief time, and got to really understand how a German version of my family back home lives like. The metro system is so ridiculously convenient that our host family rarely uses the one car they own as opposed to my family back in Dallas who has more than one car and has used Dallas Area Rapid Transit once in a blue moon. Our host family also likes to travel like my family does and I've realized the huge advantage that Germans have in being able to take 6 weeks off from work to ultimately use for vacation. Our host family goes back to visit their relatives in another country each year for a few weeks and also have the time to volunteer at an orphanage nearby their relatives' home for a few more weeks afterwards as well, which is so so so amazing! I've enjoyed my host family experience for the most part and really enjoy being here in Bonn, so close to the Rhine and many beautiful parks, universities, and architectural sites.
Vienna, Austria
Honestly I have to say that this was my favorite city I've visited in Europe. Vienna is not only relaxing, romantic, and beautiful, but it also has an amazing café culture and is amazingly historical. It makes sense why Dr. Wasser described it to us as the city that famous people go to die in. Not only is the city important to the history of music, but it is also important for the history of medicine! We visited the Josephinum which houses one of the first versions of a Body Worlds-type exhibit with wax models of human anatomy and a giant obstetrics model collection. After having shadowed an OB/Gyn for a few weeks earlier in the summer, I was so pumped to see some early accepted practices for handling difficult pregnancies that may be a bit grotesque to describe to the general reader. One thing I found intriguing about these models is that they made our internal anatomy and fetuses look perfect and that these were models used to teach medical students. I'm really glad that in the 21st century we can study these things with our huge advances in assisting technology.
Our four days spent in Vienna were my favorite part of our two week excursion because so much of what we had already learned in Dr. Wasser's lectures came to life for me in places like the Josephinum and on our historical tour with the pestartz doctor, Dr, Schnabel.
Budapest, Hungary
Nishah and I visited Budapest for our long weekend and I wrote about our visit to the Holocaust Memorial Center here. I'm really glad that we decided to travel here because the city is so rich in history. We visited the naturally formed labyrinth system under Buda Castle and saw Dracula's supposed tomb in one of the rooms, which was so cool! We also went to a Turkish bath for the first time and had a relaxing experience. The locals seemed like going there was a regular occurrence for them, but Nishah and I were intrigued by the different temperature pools and sauna rooms and amused a couple people when we jumped out of a 42 degree Celsius pool after a split second. The Hungarians were also very accommodating people and we never met someone who was too busy to help us when we needed directions. I hope to get the chance to return in the future!
Paris, France
I realize that this is the middle of tourist season and also I hope that I don't come across as sounding snooty, but Paris has an overwhelming amount of gorgeous sights overburdened by confused tourists. It was tough to truly enjoy some of the famous sites that Nishah and I went to this past weekend without getting stuck in slow-moving crowds and having to keep an eye on our possessions at all times. I also feel that Paris is over-romanticized. While we enjoyed visiting places like the Tuileries and the Musee d'Orsay, we also saw the city's raw features in less picture-perfect areas like that around our hotel in the 19th arrondissement. I did not want to close my heart to the fact that the city is rampant with poverty and immigrant communities who struggle to make this place their home and find success. In the future, I hope to be able to return with a reasonable understanding of French so that I can meet the locals to better understand this city rather than seeing it from the glass wall of a tourist's eyes.

All in all I've had an incredible study abroad experience so far. I have enjoyed being able to learn about the history of medicine as well as things about myself as a person outside of the classroom setting. Having the world as my classroom is such an enriching experience and I am so happy that I became a "yes-woman" and took the plunge to go on this journey!

Elisa Vengalil '16

The power of healing

We had such a short time in Hanover it is hard to say much about the city. But trying not to fall in love with an Axolotl is a whole new story. They are incredible reptiles that can regrow lost limbs. A 'natural form of science' they are using is taking spider silk, creating a cross pattern and using axolotl cells to fill the spaces basically creating a later of skin.
While we are on the subject of natural healing, there is no better place to visit than the island of Norderney. The air is so clean that you will pay a tax on it for every day that you stay. It contains little to no pollutions or pollens because the air is pushed in from the North over the sea. It might not be so ridiculous sound after all right?
Among the things you HAVE to do, is to go mudflut hiking. Make sure you get a fun tour guide because it will make for an interesting trip! (Just don't hold and of the mud worms and be wary of a flying crab.) The first layer of mud is easy to navigate, almost like walking on the beach. The next layer is a little slicker and more painful because it is covered I a shells. The final layer of mud is probably where the idea for the mud in Lord of the Rings came from. You sink to your knees, and test your balance! When you least expect it you sink even farther. Here's the catch, people pay a ton of money to get covered in the stuff. It's high in sulfur and minerals so it is very good for your skin. -We all got the opportunity later to take a mud bath and who would have thought being covered in mud could feel so refreshing. The one cool thing is how many creatures live in one square meter of the mudflat. More than just a few hundred thousand, which is mind blowing. Along with the fact that one mud worm can ingest over 50lbs of sand a year. They actually clean it and then let it back out.
There is one more special thing that Norderney is known for. This is the Badehaus. If you believe in the power of natural healing, this is the place for you. They have many different types of baths, all are salt water but each contain a different percent based of of the oceans all over the world. The Dead Sea as many know, contains a high salt content and minerals. This is why when it meets with other water it does not mix. They have a bath that contains water of the same contents, I suggest trying it. It feels very unique to relax in, and you can float with absolutely no effort at all. They also have saunas, to help detox your body and a mud bath. You cover yourself in the mud that is very much like what you hike in. Sit in the sauna for about 15 minutes and then rinse with the salt water shower afterwards. You smell very unusual for a bit but your skin feels wonderful. All of these treatments might just sound like a spa, but in reality the different types of water and heat can help with physical problems or treatment. They have a vapor system that lets you breath the minerals which can help with respiratory problems. People can be prescribed to stay here for weeks at a time to help with health issues and then return to work, this is all covered by insurance most of the time.
This unique little island is a must see, not just to heal but to relax. Since relaxation and rest is a huge part of the healing process. Rent a bike so you get in your daily exercise (it's all flat land, so it's not to tough) and enjoy the beach, go for a swim (hopefully it's warm) and watch an incredible sunset. It has a power all on it's own!

From 7/24: A Distant Past

This week’s adventures so far included a trip to Hannover as well as a trip to Norderney. Honestly, both exceeded my expectations (particularly Norderney). Our first night in Hannover involved a slight mishap on my part. I booked a reservation at Hotel Marjani but turns out, there are three Hotel Marjanis. Of course, we ended up at the wrong one. I mistakenly figured there was only one and since I don’t have service, we all “Google Maps-ed” the wrong hotel. Hilariousness ensued. The struggle was so real that night… For starters, there was a woman at the wrong hotel trying to help us. However, her English was limited and she believed that we were trying to check into the hotel and brought out a manager. In reality, we were asking for help finding the other Hotel Marjani. Three of our friends were already at the correct Hotel Marjani and were confused. To top it all off, the real Hotel Marjani manager was on the phone thinking we were near his hotel. Struggles, what struggles? Oh and of course, the cab service we called could not understand our pronunciation of “Charlautenstrausse”. So… our friend tried spelling this street, but failed to pronounce the letters in the German way. For example, “H” is pronounced “Ha” in Deutsch. Needless to say, this night was a struggle bus.

After we made it back safely, we met our full group the next morning at the Hannover HBF. Then, we had a lecture on some curious creatures called “Axolotls”. These creatures are researched because of their ability to regenerate limbs, organs, etc. Perhaps one day, scientists will find a way to transfer these genes onto humans. After seeing these adorable lizard-like creatures, we went to the Hannover Medical School for a lecture. The youngest certified cardiac surgeon visited with us briefly and then, his colleague showed us various devices used for heart treatment. We then briefly visited with patients with heart implants waiting for heart donors. It was a bit eye-opening; these patients clearly made the most of their situation. My concerns seemed petty and this experience helped put life in perspective. I will be honest—Hannover was not my favourite city. The hospital and research facility was amazing, but the city was a bit underwhelming.  The next day was the highlight of the week: the island of Norderney!

The past three days could not have been any more perfect. The weather was a breezy 70 degrees (Fahrenheit, I promise) and it was sunny all three days. To travel around the island, all 16 of us received bicycles. Imagine 14 college students riding bicycles together… Yeah. The first night, we went to the beach and swam with my professor and program coordinator in the North Sea. We also saw one of the most beautiful sunsets and took photos together, one of which was the most awesome human pyramid ever!!! The diversity of the past week overwhelmed me: from Salzburg to paragliding to Munich, to the beach. I never expected such a beautiful beach to exist in Germany; Norderney was paradise.

Day 2: bathhouse. After a lecture on alternative medicines (particularly in Norderney through the climate, natural remedies, and the spa), we had the opportunity to utilize the baths in the bathhouse—an application of our knowledge per say. The spa was absolutely amazing. There was a shower with a head from 60 m above—basically a waterfall (and unusually pleasant back massage), a “fire bath” that basically made me infertile (water temperature of 40 degrees Celsius), a salt-water bath, and of course, the mud bath. Norderney is very special. The air is so fresh and clean that for visitors, there is a tax of 3 euros/day to breathe this air. Their mud also has various minerals that provide benefits to skin. Fortunately, our group was given the opportunity to use this mud bath. The only catch—we were nude. Someone told me people bond quickly on study abroad trips and for sure, they were not wrong. After we enjoyed this relaxing spa, we had the awesome opportunity to visit the boat of a sea rescue service. They rescue humans trapped in the water, lost, injured, etc. and they are essentially a volunteer organization. The nice men showed us around the boat and described their work. And of course, for group dinner, we sat in a restaurant by the beach and ate a fish platter with wine—yum!!! Afterwards, our professor bought us gelato. Best day ever!!!

And Day 3: today. Right now, I’m on a train back to Bonn for the first time in 12 days. Today consisted of our group presentations, which I felt that everyone nailed! Afterwards, our program coordinator led us in a workout with power walking, skipping, planks, squats, lunges, crab-walking, and some yoga with Tai Chi. Afterwards, I felt amazing. The Tai Chi and yoga were on the sands of the North Sea and my mind and body felt at peace. I will come out and say it: I’m in love with Germany.

A classy experience

Arrive in the beautiful city of Vienna, and take a walk with the plague. This historic town holds many homes of previous doctors that were famous during the ages of the plague. In a small cove of the town you find a building that was once the main school for the men. Now these weren't just your common man, these were your dueling, and ruckus types. The city people were not very fond of them for all the trouble they caused. You will even see the "doctors square"-they all had houses that were based around one area oddly enough. You will also find monuments dedicated to popular musicians that were from/or died in Vienna. Along with a gothic style Cathedral near the center of the city. Vienna has a very classy feel with its nice restaurants and clean landscape. It is a wonderful town to explore for everyone since there is a variety of music, museums, fantastic cafes and fun.
Walking through the Josephinum was fascinating because you see these intricate molds of bodies all done with wax. It makes the "Bodies" exhibit not near as unique because they were designed  much later, while the wax bodies we saw were done by a group of people ages before. The majority of them are very accurate from the organs to muscle groups that are shown. These wax models were used by the classes for the students to see the many different systems and anatomy of the body. They also have some of the very first x-rays and an assortment of operating tools separated by box for the type of operation that was to be performed.
The "Insane Asylum" or Fools tower is just about as mortifying as it sounds. Not in the way you would expect though, it is what is presented within this learning facility/museum. Every possible human defect, fact or fiction is modeled in this asylum. Beware walking past the walls filled with molds of dermatological diseases and preserving jars that hold anything from organs to babies. It isn't for the faint of heart -attempt to look at everything from a medical standpoint! At first it is an overwhelming sight, but quickly becomes interesting with the stories about what they used as lung plugs when a person had T.B. and can also show you preserved lungs with the filling. There are even skeletons of Siamese twins and the different places some were attached.  I won't ruin the best part, just expect the unexpected is all I have to say.
A few fun things we added to our free time, was the markets and the theme park! If you have a thing for roller coasters, you absolutely have to try it. The indoor roller coaster was by far our favorite one. Buy some food or fruit at the market, and if you see something you like then have a little fun bargaining with the sellers over it! It is quiet the experience and most of them speak decent English.
At last we arrive at the Freud house. The term "Freudian" might sound a bit familiar to you. It's an interesting walk through what used to be his home and also his office where he provided therapy. His psychoanalysis concepts are still talked about today due to the theoretical nature of them. -things that can't or haven't necessarily been proven. He wrote a book on the interpretation of dreams, one of his most famous writings. Many of his other theories brought on controversy and were often rejected. He did become a very famous name in medicine though, and was watched very closely for a time during the 20th century. What I found most interesting is how unusual of a person he was described to be and in a way it made perfect sense for his odd theories.
The city of Vienna is beautiful, it is worth going to explore and learn it. There is no where else with the same type of feel that the city surrounds you with.

Lets Go to the Beach

After a long week and a half of traveling across Austria and Germany, Norderney was the perfect way to end the trip. We were able to relax and enjoy the warm weather for three days while on the island. I can now say that I have swam in the North Sea, been given a spa treatment with mud, and have eaten the coastal shrimp (called krabben in German). 

Before this trip, I had no idea that Germany even had islands. Now I would love to go back to them! What I loved most about the island was the our time spent at a bade haus. This bath house is similar to a spa in America, with many differences. 

The bath house offers treatment for many types of health problems.  In Germany you can even be given a prescription to come receive different types of therapy. We were given access to all of the baths, as well as to a treatment using the mud that comes from the island. The baths are all salt water from the ocean to help draw out the toxins in your body. A bath here is what we think of as a salt water pool or hot tub. There was a hot bath, cold bath, extra salty bath, family friendly bath with a slide, baths with massaging jets, and saunas. Being able to relax was something I am very grateful for. I also received a treatment with the mud in which I put the mud on my body and sat in a type of sauna while it sweated off of me. It was an interesting experience but it left my skin feeling smooth and my body rejuvenated.

Exceding Expectations

Now that it has almost been an entire month abroad, I am realizing that this experience is opening my eyes more than I ever could have thought it would.  Last week we traveled to Hannover and Norderney where we were learning about alternative and complimentary medicine.  If you would have asked me 4 weeks ago what I thought about the subject, I probably would have told you that I didn't care much about it, and that I didn't think any of it was actually beneficial.  So when we arrived in Norderney, I was certain that my views wouldn't change, and that I was just going to enjoy the experience of being on a German island. 

The first day in Norderney was awesome.  We arrived, breathed in the perfect air, and headed straight for the mudfluthiking experience.  Mutfluthiking was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced.  The mud was so soft, and felt great on my skin.  Learning about how many different healing aspect are in it was really fascinating, but being able to experience and learn about it first hand really made me think that alternative medicine could be beneficial.  I honestly wouldn't mind going mudfluthiking more often!  The picture below shows a fear I conquered while on the hike! I always thought crabs were scary, but it was actually a blast to hold them!

Holding sand crabs while mudflutkiking

After mudfluthiking a few of us headed to the beach for some fun relaxing and swimming.  The water was nice, and it made my skin super soft for the remainder of the trip.  Even though I already knew this was normal, I chose to believe that the saltwater in Norderney was special! haha

The next day, we had the opportunity to tour the Badehaus which is a sort of healing spa.  The Badehaus offered all sorts of healing baths with different salt solutions, temperatures, and many different jets.  There was also a mud treatment that you could do which included rubbing the healing mud all over your body and sitting in a sauna.  I unfortunately didn't try the mud sauna because I don't like saunas, but everyone in the group raved about the experience, and how amazing it was for their skin.  After hearing a great lecture about all of the different healing methods the spa offered, and experiencing them first hand, my views on alternative and complimentary medicine were quickly changed somewhat.  I really do believe that they are beneficial to people, but I still have a hard time believing in the healing techniques.  I now strongly believe you cannot shut an idea down until you have experienced it for yourself.

Also while in Norderney we presented our group projects over alternative and complimentary medicine, and mind body healing methods.  This was also a great way to shape my ideas on the subject.  My views on this matter are very much more braod than they were! Hopefully, I can start to apply some of these techniques in my own life, and to patients in the future.

Travelling and learning about all of these different hings is continually exceeding my expectations.  I don't want this experience to ever end!

Enjoying the beach in Norderney!

Third Free Weekend

While everyone else in our class had their weekend planned out, Chanel and I decided to just go with the flow. After our two weeks of nonstop traveling it was actually really nice to just relax. Even though Norderney was relaxing too it felt awesome to be home. I definetely gained respect for people who travel for work all the time, it's so exhausting. 

After class Friday we said our goodbyes to everyone going to catch a train and then casually walked around Bonn in search if the perfect place to eat. We found a cafe with well priced food and ideal for people watching and ended up staying for three hours. I can't remember the name or even where it was but not paying attention to the time was amazing and I tried gnocchi for the first time!

Afterwards we headed home and were surprised to find the whole family present. Our host sister had celebrated her birthday which was on Wednesday in köln and now we were going to celebrate it all together. We cut up a bunch of raw meat and veggies as a fam and then set up a table in the backyard for fondue! I was scared because you're not allow to season anything before placing it in the pot but it ending up being really good. 

Since we live right off of the Rhine Aue we attended the Beer Fest that evening. It was actually really cool to see how much if a family event it was. Our host mom and brother would buy different beers that you couldn't normally find here and compare (we tried cherry beer and honey beer). It was the first time I really noticed a difference in family dynamic because of the drinking age. Drinking felt so casual with them, and seemed to make them closer, like an activity they were able to do together. I also noticed how open our brother was to introducing his mom to all the friends he bumped into. Then again I'm not sure if this is a German thing or just our family. 

I really appreciate all the time spent with our family. And it's nice to know that the feeling is mutual because they have mentioned multiple times that they wish we were here longer! I wish we were too.

The Island of Healing to La Ville-Lumière (The City of Light)

The past week has been a whirlwind of activities. From Hannover to Norderney to Paris, France, the adventures just keep coming. The thing that’s most fresh on my mind is the past weekend in Paris. I was a bit worried at first because the other groups that had gone to Paris on an earlier free weekend came back with mixed reviews. I was impressed with Paris overall and had absolutely no complaints about the cleanliness of the city or the attitudes of the French.  Everyone we talked to was friendly and willing to help if we had a question. On Saturday, we went to the lovelock bridge, Notre Dame, Louvre, Arc de Triumph, and the Eiffel Tower before taking a night boat cruise. Of course, I spent way too much money on macaroons but it was totally worth it! I had never had a macaroon before and I was not disappointed. I’d have to say my favorite flavor was raspberry but vanilla comes in a close second. And even though the blue one looks really pretty, the ice mint flavor is not very good…

Heaven in sugar form. 

We finished the night off with champagne under the twinkling Eiffel Tower – talk about a perfect night! It was like a scene from a romantic movie.  

Eiffel Tower

I would have to say that my favorite part of the weekend was stumbling onto the Tour de France. We were trying to get to the gardens in Paris, but when we got off the subway we were not allowed to go up the stairs like we normally would have because the police were blocking the way. Instead, we were directed down a hallway and up another set of stairs that actually led right to the viewing area of the Tour de France. It was awesome! We had an idea that the race was going on but we did not know where it would be exactly and we had no intention of trying to see it. It was so awesome to see and I can’t believe we were lucky enough to stumble upon it.

Tour de France! 

Norderney last week was incredible.  The beach was a nice change of pace from the things we have been doing so far. The day at the Badehaus was so awesome! I loved being able to go into the baths and experience that type of healing. The mud bath/sauna was definitely quite the experience. I know that I would have never done anything like that back in Texas so I am glad I did it here. It was a bit weird at first but it felt awesome at the end. It was also really fun to visit the family bath and play like 5 year olds on the slide and the wave pool. Being able to relax at the beach was also pretty cool. Even though the water was pretty chilly, we went swimming and I can say that I have now been swimming in the North Sea, which is something I never thought I would be able to experience.  In addition, the mud flat hiking tour was also a fun way of learning about something completely different from what we have in the States. I think we all enjoyed the excuse to walk around in the mud and get all muddy. Plus the little sand crabs were so cute and fun to hold!

Sand Crabs!

I was very impressed with Norderney. I did not find the island to be extravagantly beautiful compared to Islands in the Caribbean or Hawaii but it had such a calming quality about it that is unmistakable and special. I like that biking is the main form of transportation. The lack of cars enhances the simplistic lifestyle that the island promotes. The perfect weather we experienced also helped form my positive view of Norderney. The bright colors of summer in this mural painting emphasize the beautiful summer weather we had.

Norderney

I think the time spent on the beach was a great bonding experience for our group. The group dinner and ice cream stop were both wonderful and watching the sunset on the beach afterwards made the evening even better.

Beach Pyramid! 

We were not able to see much of the city of Hannover but the program activities we did there were awesome. I felt as if the stop in Hannover was a bit more engineering directed which is perfect for me. Even though it was so hot I thought I might pass out, the lecture from the doctor about the LVADs and modern advances in heart transplant technology was awesome. I found it very interesting, especially since I spent the end part of last semester learning about cardiovascular pathophysiology and LVAD technology. It was also super interesting learning about the research being done with the Axolotls and spider silk concerning cellular growth.

Can’t wait to see what this next week in Bonn has in store. The trip to the Cologne Zoo and the Uniclinics seem really exciting!

Gig ‘Em and God Bless,

Emily Thompson

A Week Already?

It feels like I was just blogging yesterday. The last week has very quickly flown by, and what a week it has been. Monday set the standards pretty high to begin. While visiting the cardiology department of the MHH in Hannover, I was quite intrigued by the techniques and experiences related to heart surgeries and transplants. I have never found much interest in any form of surgery, but this visit made me want to learn more. I feel like that was somewhat of a theme for the week. I greatly enjoyed each and every aspect and found myself developing a deeper passion for medicine with each passing day.

Aggies forming a pyramid on the beaches of Norderney!

I really loved the time spent in Norderney. It was the perfect combination of learning and relaxing. While researching for the group project, I discovered a great deal about the island and its healing baths. I thought it was so absurd that we had to pay tax for the air and that doctors literally write a prescription to visit a spa. However, I am certainly not complaining. The baths were more refreshing than I could have imagined. I would love to have stayed for weeks!

Rebecca, Amy, Emily, and I in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Lastly, I had an absolutely fantastic time in Paris during our free weekend! The entire weekend was full of fun and excitement. I quickly fell in love with the city. From the Notre Dame to the Arc de Triumph and everything in between, this weekend contained some of my favorite activities yet. I really enjoyed the Museum d'Orsay and how many of the pieces were of real everyday life, things I could understand and relate to. Additionally, I crossed one more thing off my bucket list by adding a lock to a Love Lock Bridge in Paris. Lastly, the girls and I just happened to stumble upon the Tour de France as it came to a finish today. We were attempting to go somewhere completely different, but closed metro rails and loud police offices dumped us on a street full of people cheering and flags waving. There was so much excitement as the cyclist rode by! All in all, Paris was pretty great! It is a beautiful city that far surpassed anything I could have imagined. It feels like the weeks just keep getting better and better, so I cannot wait to see what still lies ahead.

Throwing my key into the Seine River in Paris after locking a lock to a Love Lock Bridge.

Mein Insel Norderney

These four days in Norderney have truly exemplified the importance of this trip for me. It felt like I was on a very relaxing summer vacation. We rode our bikes around Norderney, visited the beach, and for the first time, I went to a spa (bade: haus). But before I release my thoughts and sweet feelings about this island, mentioning our one day stay in Hannover is important too.
Elisa and I were stuck on the train for 14 hours during the ride back to Budapest, and so we started our day in Hannover in a rush with no time for breakfast or lunch. Our first stop was the research center on axolotls. Cuteness coupled with the ability to grow perfect sized limbs, these amphibians were simply stunning. We learned about their importance in plastic surgery and amputations, since regrowth is not something that human beings can do, but these animals can. We also saw spiders in the same research lab that are very important in discovering a better solution to burns than skin grafting. Next we visited the cardiology department of the Hannover medical school, and we were fortunate enough to meet Dr. Shmitto and his assistant surgeon. Dr. Shmitto has carried out many successful VAD surgeries throughout his life, and it was very enlightening to understand the process of installing a device that essentially carries out the function of a heart in a patient. Dr. Diaz talked about the various complications with the replacement, and also successes. In addition, we met and saw patients with the device installed, however we did not get to converse with the patients this summer. Once we were outside, Dr. Wasser talked about the patients he saw last year. Surprisingly, one of those patients chose to receive a VAD rather than having the option to get a donor heart. He believed that the device functioned very well, and that receiving a human heart would only cause a long stay at the hospital, followed by possibility of rejection.

axolotl

Coming back to our stay in Norderney, the first day was the highlight of the trip with the mud flat hike. We rode our bikes to the site and took off our shoes. Then, we stepped into mud and it felt GREAT. Squishy and slimy mud. These are things that we do not do in our daily lives, so knowing that walking in such mud was okay excited me. We saw crabs and worms that lived in the mud and I also held a crab. Next, we stepped into knee deep mud, and getting out was a struggle but fun. Our free evening shortly followed, and we went to the beach. It has been years since I’ve experienced the beauty of the sea, and therefore the walk along the shore was very calming. The next day we went to the very famous bade:haus, which is basically a bathing house and spa that supports the philosophy of healing the individual. We were allowed to make use of the house after a lecture. There were multiple saunas, mud baths, pools of various kinds including hot, cold, warm, waterfalls and lastly a pool depicting the Dead Sea. I enjoyed it all, and also was fortunate enough to use the mud bath. We applied mud all over our bodies and sat in the steam for 20 mins, after which the water falls started. Later, we visited the Sea Rescue Service and learned more about the lives of the medical aid workers on the boat. The most inspiring aspect of these workers was that they were willing to help people in any condition whatsoever, even in horrible weather. In addition, they were paid by donations. It requires an abundance of good will and courage to do such a job, away from home and family for 14 days and always being on call. On our last day in Norderney Olivia, our program coordinator, took us to the beach for an hour of physical exercise. Now we are on our way to Bonn. I will truly miss Norderney and everything that we experienced here, except the fresh air tax that Olivia paid for all of us. The beach, the fresh air and the pleasant climate—all would stay in my memory for years to come.

Hannover, Norderney, & Paris OH MY!

My first traveling slip up happened last weekend when heading to Hannover. We got a cab to take us to hotel Marijani, which turns out there's two. We kept calling the owner to let us in and causing all kinds of commotion. There was a strong language barrier between the owner and I. He asked me probably a good seven times which city the hotel I booked at was in. I repeatedly told him that it was in Hannover. Turns out he meant which street was I on the whole time. Some nice people staying at the wrong hotel were helping us and let us into the lobby to figure out crap out. We finally got the address of the correct hotel and called a cab. Rebecca was trying to tell them where to pick us up and they could not understand the street name she was saying. She said it about four times! She ended up having to spell it out in German for them to understand and they repeated it and to us it sounds the same! Haha

Norderney was a great experience! My favorite part was of course the mud bath. It was very relaxing and mostly just something I've never done or even thought I would do in my life. I was very surprised that they charge you for their air. I'm not sure I quite believe it was that pure gold of air that it needed to be paid for, but the island is definitely worth the small price. I absolutely loved the Badehaus! I can't believe they pampered us so much! The mudbath was quite an experience, and I actually loved it. At first the heat kind of overwhelmed me, but I adjusted pretty quickly. I could tell my skin was softer as well, if only the effects would last longer! I sort of regret not buying some schlick to take home with me but thats okay. My favorite part of Norderney was definitely the mudflucking. It was so fun goofing off and running around getting dirty in the mud. Our guide kept it interesting too, dying my hand from the acid a worm gives off.

I just got home from Paris!  I loved it! I heard some kind of bad reports that Paris would be a let down, but for me it really wasn't. It was all I expected and I had a really great time. I liked the Museum D'Orsay better than the Louvre which I thought odd because all you hear about is how wonderful and grand the Louvre is. I found its hugeness a little overwhelming actually and much preferred the smaller crowd at Orsay. The subway system didn't bother us. In fact it was quite nice that anywhere you wanted to go you could find a route and if you missed one subway you could wait 2 minutes for the next. Very useful. Of course we got lost some but not too bad, and the French were pretty kind and willing to help. That's another thing. I've grown up hearing how the French are rude and force you to speak French even if they know English perfectly well. I found the opposite to be true. They would answer any question we had and I didn't run into one person who didn't speak English. It's possible that outside of the tourism parts things are different, but I really thought everyone was kind.

Hannover, Norderney, Brussels & my experience with homeopathy.

Well, our time is winding down here in Germany but we are still traveling like crazy. At the beginning of the week we were in Hannover which tbh didn't have much. The fun came when we were in Norderney and continued when me and Jessica went to Brussels.

We got to Hannover a day early and stayed at this random hotel in the middle of nowhere which was hilarious. The hotel owner also owned the restaurant next door so we saw a lot of him that day. He was kind of creepy but its okay, we were only there for one night. The next day we were still in Hannover but with the program and Jessica, Amy and I all roomed together and i seriously think we stayed up laughing all night haha

Norderney was so much fun. We got there and immediately started biking around town. Going mudfluthiking (or however you spell that) was one of my favorite things we did. Especially when got to the part of the mud that was ONLY mud and not a mix of mud and sand. I think we all sinked in the mud until about our knees. The next day we were at the Bade:Haus, and i gotta say... that was my favorite thing that i've done. I've been to a spa before so i'm glad that was my first experience with one, even though i know its more like a healing spa than anything else. It was great getting to test out the different sea waters and going down the slides like a child. The mud bath was my favorite part. It was really refreshing once we were down, but seriously once i was in there and the steam was coming out full force i was like OMG howwwww do people do thissss?? but i survived. I'm a mud bath survivor.

We got back Thursday night to Bonn and were so happy to see Erica and Makeda and the rest of our host fam. We found out it was Makeda's birthday on Thursday but they forgot to tell us so Friday afternoon we had this huge birthday dinner with her and got all dressed up and went to Dimi's bar with her! We met all her musician friends, and they were quite a unique crowd. One of the guys asked us if Texas Chainsaw massacre actually happened so yeah, that was funny lol

Brussels was our third free weekend and Jess & I spontaneously decided to head there for a day trip! We got to the city and headed to the Grand Place aka the city center and oh gosh it was GORGEOUS. we spent all day going into little boutiques and going to chocolate shops. We ate so much. We had quiche, pizza, truffles, meringues, macaroons, ice cream, waffles and sandwiches. Then came home and ate some more. We really wanted to try some Mussels from Brussels but we ran out of time, it was very sad. lol


Today is sunday and Erica made us crepes for breakfast and they were FLAWLESSSSSS. so so good. i had never had savory crepes and they were actually really really good. i fell in love. I also asked Erica if she had any homeopathic remedies to help me with my allergies because they had been bothering me since Paris. She gave me some coated ozone and put in under my tongue and said for me to let them dissolve. its been about 20 minutes and i feel better, but i also blowed my nose too lol so i guess i'll let you guys know in a few days if they stayed away.

Bonn and the World Cup Final

July 7^th was the first full week in Bonn. Within this week I became more comfortable with using the bus system and other local transportation. We had our first History of Medicine class and German class as well. Monday morning Dr. Wasser gave us our first lecture on the health care systems of Germany and some other European nations compared to the US. I really enjoyed and valued this lecture. It was very eye opening to be informed about how other countries deal with the complex and ever growing issue of public health. I have been aware for a couple years throughout my internships at hospitals of some of the problems with our health care system in the US. The mentality and logistical methods that Germany uses to finance and structure their health care seems to be very much more simplified and practical than our current system in the US. I also had no idea how many things in the Affordable Care Act, enacted by President Obama, was similar to the current European system. Personally, I feel like the current American health care system has let private health insurance companies obtain a monopolistic role over Americans. Instead of the companies being non-profit, many of them are for-profit which resulted in them all being able to charge whatever they wanted to maximize profits. There was not enough incentive to compete, but with a government option that should be more affordable, they will have to compete. Also, the fact that certain people with pre-existing conditions could be denied coverage makes no sense to me. The reason we have health insurance is so that people with large health expenses will not go bankrupt from the sky-rocketing medical costs of treatment today. In Europe, almost everyone if not everyone has some form of health care available so they do not have to worry about not having access to care if they need it. One mentor of mine put the current American health care system and its effects on society this way: we not have health care, we have sick care. Due to the current system many Americans must wait until their health issues are at a critical emergency status to get care instead of having preventative medicine and regular checkups.

We also had our first of five German classes on Monday with Susanne. We started with the basics and played fun games for practice with pronunciation and conversation skills.

Later in the afternoon, we went on a historical city walk with Rainer Zack. I knew Bonn had a strong rooted history, but it wasn’t until our walk that I realized how long it is and the many sites within Bonn that hold strong historical significance in Roman times and in World War II. Rainer made the walk very enjoyable and fun. We went to the Biergarten next to the old AIB and the Rhine. One of my favorite spots was the old Roman villa ruins that were discovered underneath the monastery. I was surprised that the Romans had established small civilizations and homes in present day Germany. I especially enjoyed Rainer’s explanation of the innovative engineering that went into these ancient Villas.

Tuesday we went to the House of History guided tour. This was one of my favorite tours that we have gone on so far. The set-up of the museum was very well done and our guide was excellent. Having a guide who has actually lived through these important events in history and hearing about his first hand experiences with life in pre and post WWII was priceless. Most of the museum focused on WWII and the division of Germany after it up until the fall of the Berlin Wall. Bonn was the formerly the capital of West Germany before the Berlin Wall was taken down in the 80’s.

Later that night we went to the public viewing of the Germany vs. Brazil semi-final game. Since it had been raining so much we went to an indoor viewing. This was my first public viewing so I was very much anticipating what the atmosphere would be like. The social experience was one of a kind. Because we were all standing and there is a lot of tall Germans I was not able to see much of the game but still enjoyed being around my group and other locals. I will never forget the game because of the number of goals Germany made on Brazil, the host country, in such a short time frame. Everyone was going crazy and I almost thought I was in a dream since I didn’t get to actually see how the goals were scored. By the end of the game we were all singing along to the German chants.

Wednesday we paid a visit to the Anesthesia Museum and was guided by one of the leading pioneers in Anesthesia in Germany. The tour was very informative and again, I was very appreciative to be guided by someone who has experienced much of the history first hand. We went through the inception and evolution of anesthesia to how we know it today.

Tuesday and Wednesday I experienced how much the weather in Germany can fluctuate. The entire day Tuesday was rainy and cold, at least by my standards. Wednesday and the rest of the week was very unpredictable. It would be bright and sunny for a couple hours, then become dark and rainy for about 30 minutes and then the sky would clear up and be sunny again. I have rarely ever experienced weather that has changed so fast.

Thursday we took a day trip to Cologne and nice warm weather returned for the whole day! We started off with a historical city tour through the city center area around the love lock bridge, the infamous Cologne Cathedral and market areas. Much like Bonn, there is a rich Roman and medieval history in Cologne. We ate lunch as a group at the Gaffel Dom restaurant where we got to try a lot of the German novelty drinks and dishes that Olivia and others had told us about upon our arrival in Germany. One of my all-time favorite moments of this trip was being able get a rooftop tour of the Cologne Cathedral. I took an architecture class my sophomore year at A&M and much of the class was studying the gothic cathedral period. Since that class it has been a dream since then to experience seeing one of these in person. The three wise men are known to rest there which made the visit even more special. The views of the cathedral and the surrounding city from the rooftop were breathtaking.

Friday we had our final German class with Susanne and afterwards she took all of us out for ice cream! It was nice conclusion to our lessons and was a good feeling being able to order my food in German. That afternoon we finished off the week by visiting the Haribo outlet store.

Now we are to my favorite part of the week, and maybe even the whole trip. Sunday July 13^th was the 2014 FIFA World Cup final match between Germany and Argentina. While watching the world cup games at home in the US and seeing how solid Germany came out in their opening game, I had considered how amazing it would be if Germany advanced to the finals while I was going to be here. Once they won their semifinal game, I was counting down the days until the final. That day and a couple days previous I had tried to find a jersey to wear for the final but all the stores I went to were sold out. I made do with what I could find and geared up for the game. We went to a public viewing in an outdoor park with a huge stage and a giant screen big enough that I could actually see the game this time. A massive crowd had formed by the time kickoff came and the town was buzzing! We all watched in terror and anticipation as each team had shot after shot and still no goal. There was a couple close calls where Argentina scored but the referees called it offside and the goal was taken back. Then Germany had a near goal that hit the post later on in the second half. By the end of the 90 minutes in regular time the crowd was anxious for a goal. Toward the end of the second half it started to rain and pour down on everyone. Some left and I was tempted to watch the rest of the game inside but I knew I would never forgive myself if I missed something so I stuck it out in the rain. A little later it stopped and shortly into the first extra time period one of Germany’s youngest player had a spectacular goal off a volley past the Argentinian goalie. It was as if someone had just popped the cork off a champagne bottle. The entire crowd erupted in screaming, jumping, beer-tossing, and hugging. Some people around me even started to cry. It was just a matter of time until the game was over and sure enough Deutschland came out as the Welt Meister!!! That evening was an absolutely priceless moment that made the entire trip worth while and made me feel very privileged and lucky to have been able to truly experience the mentality and love for soccer here in Germany.

 

Maybe I'm Crazy

Craziness. Absolute craziness. There are no other words to describe this past week. After Vienna for 4 days, a group of six lovely ladies and I traveled to Salzburg, Innsbrook, and Munich in a span of 4 days. As I travel to Hannover, I reflect upon these life-changing few days.

As we arrived in Salzburg, the beauty of the city and the surrounding mountains overwhelmed us. From the beautiful bridges and river, to the towering palaces and churches, Salzburg was by far the prettiest city I’ve ever seen. The day after we arrived, we took a trip back to my childhood by going on the Sound of Music Tour. The tour took us to the film locations of the major scenes from the “Sound of Music” and the beautiful areas of Salzburg. While slightly touristy, the sights and sounds of Salzburg were breathtaking to a point where no photos or description of the city could ever do it justice. The tour bus driver was a jolly Austrian man wearing Lederhosen named “Ferdinand”. He and the tour guide made the tour very fun with sing-alongs, jokes, and laughs along the way.

After our Sound of Music tour, we went straight to a tour into the Bavarian Salt Mines, where I learned about the “white gold” (don’t worry, I mean salt). Did you know for example that salt can eliminate fresh stains with ease? I did not have high expectations for this tour, but it came with the Sound of Music tour. However, the old “don’t judge a book by its cover” came into play here. The tour was an absolute blast (pun intended). We started off by suiting up in appropriate attire—like a miner. Then, we took a train down into the mines and along the way, took two slides down into the mines, as well as a boat to cross a salt water lake. The tour exceeded my expectations and overall, Salzburg was amazing.

The next day, we took a train to Innsbrook to go paragliding over the Alps. As I soon discovered, I have a slight fear of heights. While going up the ski lift, I had my doubts. However, the experience was one I will never forget. “Run, just run”, my paragliding instructor told me. While we did aerials in the air and got scary to close to trees, it was a rather pleasant ride. Unlike skydiving, there is no free falling; it is all just flowing with the wind. I got to see the Alps from about 2 km up in the air and the view was breathtaking. The same day (post para-gliding), we traveled to Munich. 

After some struggles finding the hostel and deciphering the maze that is the public transportation of Munich, we explored the city. Finally, we were at the city center of Munich—Marienplatz (named after the Virgin Mary). For the weekend, Marienplatz hosted “Christopher Street Day”, celebrating the LGBT community and their allies. For me, it was amazing seeing the cultural difference from Munich and College Station. There were couples of all nationalities, ethnicities, sexualities, genders, etc. in the festival. As an advocate for LGBT equality, it was refreshing to see the freedom of these couples. In College Station, I feel that the LGBT community is sometimes recognized, but not celebrated. It was interesting for me to experience a completely unique culture; we picked a great time to be in Munich! On Day 2, we took a bike tour around the city to learn important buildings, monuments, history, and of course, visit the Englisch Garten (a massive park that was incredible). Overall, I’d say the brief whirlwind tour of Munich was fantastic. It is a city with a deep history that I was curious to learn more about. From the lions’ noses that locals rub for good luck, to the famous Hofbräuhaus, to the events from WWII and the 1978? Olympic games, Munich is a fantastic city.

As I head over to Hannover and reflect on this past week, I think of how life-changing this week was. I have always been open about my personal struggles with mental illness, particularly depression. I feel otherwise, the stigma of mental illness grows. I see it like any other disease or disorder that people fight through. My tour around Europe is making me realize that there is a world outside of depression and my life as a student. Sometimes, I lose direction in my life. Life seems to be point A to point B with no purpose. This lack of direction is a fairly natural part of being a 20 year-old figuring out life. Travelling is making me realize that we live in an amazing world to explore and learn. Some of my favourite parts of the trip so far have been conversations with random strangers and hearing their stories. I love meeting new people and hearing about their hometowns, the sights and sounds, and their intentions. I love listening and having my views of the world challenged. This is what studying abroad is about for me: change.

Always Confirm the Street Name

As you can probably guess from the name of this post, I'm writing this because we indeed did NOT confirm the street name. But first, let me start from the beginning.

The beginning starts in Munich. Well kind of, it starts right as we were leaving. We had looked up the train times and found a train departing around 6 for Hannover. As the train pulled up we noticed that it was quite full. We all lugged our luggage on board to find almost no seats. As we were pulling our stuff down the isles, we all discovered every seat on this train was reserved. Why hadn't the website told us this?! We found a place to drop most of the luggage and found a few seats spread out that nobody appeared to be sitting in. Rebecca and I found two seats across from each other, next to two guys who basically laughed and talked about us in Italian the entire time we were sitting there.  We thought they were just laughing about the 7 Americans trying to find open seats on a train that was 95% reserved. We soon found out why the guys were actually laughing… apparently 98% of the train was reserved and the people who had the seats we were sitting in were just in the cafe eating. After a couple train stops, only a couple of us still had places to sit and the rest of us were left standing in a passage way between cars. At this point all we could really do was laugh at ourselves for not knowing to reserve seats. After a while of us sitting on the floor, and having to stand up every time a person walked by, this nice young man popped his head out of his reserved air-conditioned box on the train and told us the hall had fold out seats built into the wall that we could sit on. We laughed some more at ourselves as we folded down the seats and tried to enjoy our train ride, while people still had to constantly climb over us. About 15 mins later, we finally found out some of the seats in the boxes belonged to people who had already gotten off the train and we're not reserved anymore! Thank you Jesus, we now not only got real seats but also air-conditioning, score!

When we finally arrived in Hannover 4 and a 1/2 hours later after some train delays. We were all exhausted and dragged our luggage to the nearest ticket kiosk. Which, we could not figure out for the life of us. Half of us went to find food and the other half headed to the information desk. Apparently in Hannover, they don't sell tickets at the info desk. Oh, joy. We were however informed that our train wouldn't be until 12 am. Oh, joy, again. We decided to get a cab to the other train station where the hotel was going to send a shuttle to pick us up from. After trying and failing to find that address, we looked up the address of the hotel and saw it was only 9 mins away by cab. We decided it would just be easiest to take a cab straight there! After finally finding a taxi to hold all 7 of us and our baggage, we were finally off to our hotel. I had already been in contact with the hotel manager and he told me to call again when we arrived. We arrived at the hotel, in a dark and sketchy area, split the 10 euro taxi ride. and unloaded our stuff to find the hotel door locked and no one at the reception desk. I called the manager and he said he would come right down… after about 3 mins and still no manager we came to the realization we were probably at the wrong hotel. We called our other friends who were already checked into the same hotel we had reservations for and figured out we were definitely at the wrong hotel. They were by a McDonalds, and we were by nothing but a sketchy part of town. After spending at least 10 mins trying to find our reservation address and failing, finding a nice German girl who then went and woke up someone staying in the hotel that spoke english to help us, and many laugh attacks, we finally got sent the correct address. Who would have thought there were two Hotel Marjani's in Hannover? Not us, seeing as it was very small and more like a hostel.

We then tried to call a cab, again. After about 5 mins of trying to say the name of the street we were on correctly in German, and even spelling it all out, two cabs were sent our way. Thank the Lord, we were finally on our way to the correct hotel. As we drove, and drove, and drove, I watched the cost of our ride increase, and increase, and increase. We went all the way through the city and through some scary looking woods. I started to question if our cab driver knew where he was taking us, or if he was just taking us to these sketch woods to murder the 4 pretty girls in the cab. 70 euros worth of taxi time later, we finally arrived at the correct hotel. By this time it was one am. We practically all fell into bed that night and we all learned two important lessons:

Google sucks. Because when you search for this hotel in Hannover, only one address comes up
Always confirm the street name on the reservation before you jump in a cab

We all got there safe though, and we all got some good laughs at ourselves that day too!

My Week on the Road

The past week has flown by due to the amount of traveling we have done. I am struggling to remember exactly what we did each day because every day brings something new and exciting.Germany won the World Cup last week, which was incredible to see first hand while cheering along with the fans. Unfortunately this meant that we didn't get home until 1 am and had to get up at 3 for our flight to Vienna. This made for a very long first day in a new city, but it was worth the tiredness to learn about the history of such a cultural city. During the next three days there we saw several medically relevant museums, saw a string quartet play, learned about the medical education in Austria, and made countless memories with the group.

After leaving Vienna, a group of seven of us set off for a weekend of traveling and exploring. We first took a train to Salzburg where we spent time walking around the old town center. The next day we went on a Sound of Music tour and a Bavarian Salt mine tour. Seeing the different locations of where the Sound of Music was filmed was very interesting to me and had some beautiful views in the mountains. On our bus ride to the salt mines, we had a crazy bus driver who was flying through the twists and turns on the mountains. Thankfully, we made it safely to the mine where we ended up with a Germany speaking tour group and had to use audio guides to follow along. I will remember a lot more this time than just the slides that I remember when I came with my parents 10 years ago. Salzburg was a beautiful city to be able to explore, one of my favorite cities I have seen so far! It was a little touristy but the views were incredible and well worth the trip.

Then came one of the most exciting days yet, paragliding in the Austrian Alps!  We took a  train to Innsbruck where we met with our paragliding guide who took us straight up a mountain near the city. Soaring through the air over the alps was an experience I will never forget. The ride was comfortable smooth apart from a spiral the instructor performed. The view from the top of the mountain left me wanting to stay so much longer, but unfortunately we did not have enough time to stay. So we were off to Munich after being in Innsbruck for only 6 hours.

Munich was a big city, with people coming and going from all over the world. Even though we were only there for 24 hours, I enjoyed every minute of it! We made it to the city early enough to do shopping on Saturday afternoon, which was a relief to us, since most shops are closed on Sundays in Europe. One of the girls on the trip, Angelica, turned twenty one at midnight so we all helped to celebrate her birthday that night! The next morning we went on a bike tour through Munich which was  a great was to see the city with limited time. Englisch Park was one of the stops on the tour that made me want to stay in Munich forever. It was a giant park double the size of Central Park with man made rivers and everyone comes to swim and play sports and just be with friends. I wish that we had more places like this in Texas!

Traveling with the same seven people all weekend was a great experience for me, but there were times when we just needed a break from one another. When running on 5 hours of sleep it is hard to remain positive at all times in all types of situations. I tried my best to be someone who everyone wanted to be around even during stressful situations. You will have to ask the others in my group if I was successful in this though.

Small Experiences; Big Impacts

This past week we traveled to the Josephenum museum in Vienna.  I honestly didn't really expect to be so intrigued by wax anatomical models.  I've taken two semesters of Anatomy and Physiology, and was hoping I wouldn't have to look at bones and body models anytime in the near future.  Little did I know that the Josephenum museum would have a large impact on what I thought would be in my future.

We walked through the first couple of rooms with all of the wax models and I was impressed, but not fascinated quite yet.  I guess you could say that I was just plain burnt out of looking at anatomical models after studying them everyday for two semesters straight.  I did feel accomplished when I could still remember most of the muscles, though!  Then, as we walked into the room with all of the fetus and pregnant mothers, I suddenly perked up.  I had always had a small interest in working with babies and pregnant women, but had never really seen anything like the models to really spark my interest.  It was new and exciting, and I honestly didn't want to leave.

Later that night, I really got to thinking about wether or not I would want to be an OBGYN or not.  I haven't been this interested in something since I became so passionate about my major.  I do think that it is possible that I could work in this field, and be excited about what I would learn.  Now, it is just getting to that point that will be hard.  People have always said that studying abroad will open your eyes, and you will learn a lot about yourself, but I didn't believe them.  I was completely in the wrong to doubt them.

This small experience has made a huge impact on my future.

Amy Rawls : So Many Cities, So Little Time

Just as I expected this past week has been incredible! I’ve gotten to know the people on the trip a lot better and they are all awesome. This past week I’ve been to Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Munich, and am heading to Hannover right now.

Vienna was so neat! It was a cool city although I must say the citizens of Bonn seem sweeter than the citizens of Vienna. I didn’t have a significant experience of rudeness they just didn’t go out of their way to help as much as Germans. My favorite parts were probably the museum with wax figures, basically the first body worlds, the Fools Tower, and the Schonbrunn Palace. It was neat seeing how medical students used to learn and how people had to make wax figures before preservation was possible. Then seeing all the things that can go wrong with the body just fascinates me. It’s pretty impressive to know how many points in the body there are for absolute failure and yet it functions properly or close to most of the time. I hate to say that seeing the diseases were cool because disease itself is not cool, but the body just amazes me! The Schonbrunn Palace was just incredibly beautiful. I didn’t expect it to be that huge! Not even close to that huge! There’s an entire zoo in the Palace property. Going to the palace was finally something that felt like something Austrian to me. I definitely recommend going. I got there and immediately said “Now this is Vienna.” It sort of let me see some of the beauty without leaving the big city.

Free Weekend:

Salzburg was a surprise! I was just going because it was had the Sound of Music and salt mines my friend raved about and I’m a crazy Sound of Music fan. On the train ride in I was shocked at the beauty. I guess it was the first time I was outside of a city since I’d been abroad. It was a nice change of pace. The sound of Music tour was life changing! It shows you obviously different sets that were filmed but you also get to kind of go on a bus ride around the city and see some really neat stuff! Then we did a salt mine tour. Also awesome. It wasn’t quit as awesome as the Sound of Music tour but still neat and worth it.
The next morning we went to Innsbruck just to paraglide. It was kind of a crazy idea to travel to a whole town, but now I can say I went paragliding in the Alps. It was amazing! It was definitely something I will remember forever. I was scared and freaking out a little bit at first and then once we took off it was easy, peaceful, and not scary at all. The views are just unexplainable really. Innsbruck to my surprise was even prettier than Salzburg. Super great experience. Mountain Fly was the cheapest company we found and I had a lot of fun. We didn’t get to really walk around the little town because we grabbed the next train to Munich.
I wish we had more time in Munich, but I still enjoyed my time there. There was a lot going on this weekend in Munich. The biggest thing was probably that it was Christopher’s Annual Street Parade. That was for sure a cultural experience. We don’t really have LGBT weekend long festivals very often in Texas. It was pretty cool and looked like loads of fun. We were barely in Munich so we didn’t participate to heavily because we had sights to see and places to be. We had a bike tour for 4 hours with Mike’s Bike Tours. It was awesome! Im so happy I haven’t bought ticket for a tour and been disappointed yet. Since we didn’t have much time I think it was the perfect thing to do. We got around town quickly and got to see loads of stuff.
 The rest of the trip has a lot to live up to, but I think it’ll be equally as wonderful!

Amy Rawls

Is this real life?

This week abroad has been quite an adventure! The past week was mostly spent in Austria, Vienna with the program, and then Salzburg, and Innsbruck for our free weekend before heading to Munich. Even though the traveling has been exhausting, it has all been worth it. I would not trade a single minute I have spent in Europe for anything in the world.

Being able to see and tangibly experience the things you have learned about growing up is just an awesome experience.  I took piano lessons for many years when I was younger and my piano teacher would always make me study the history of the classical composers before learning their music. I spent years learning about Beethoven and Mozart for example and it was beyond awesome to stand in the same room that Beethoven had performed in and to see the place where Mozart died. They were such influential people and the only way to really experience those things is to get out of your little bubble of life and go forth and see the world. I am forever grateful for the experience.

I think it is obvious that the program activities were all pretty great. In the few hours we spent at the Josephenium, I feel like I learned more than I did all last semester in physiology class. And the Fools Tower? Awesome! I had never seen specimens like that before and after doing the project on Harlequin Ichthyosis last year, being able to see the young girl specimen with HI was really cool. Since the disease is very rare, I would have never thought I would have seen anything like that in real life.

Vienna was a very pretty city but I would have to say my favorite city so far is Salzburg. A few of us went on a Sound of Music and Salt Mines tour that took us up into the mountains. Luckily, it was warm and sunny that day and the views were spectacular. The lakes in the mountains were so blue and beautiful that it really looked fake – like something edited for a movie. Innsbruck was the same way. We visited Innsbruck on Saturday for a paragliding excursion, which was absolutely wonderful! The paragliding experience was something I will never forget and the views were something you see once in a lifetime.

Paragliding in the Alps! 

My week concluded with a visit to Munich, which I enjoyed very much! I am happy to have added a few Steinbach nutcrackers to my collection, as well as a few steins. The bike tour we took on Sunday morning was really good and I would definitely recommend it. I think it was a great way to see the city in a short amount of time. My favorite part of the tour would definitely be the English gardens where we were able to eat what I have always thought of as a ‘traditional’ German lunch of sausage, pretzels, and beer.

Overall, this has been a week for the books. Can’t wait to see what Hannover and Norderney have in store!

Tchüss,

Emily

As much as I love Bonn, my favorite part of the program is definitely the traveling. The group excursions and free weekends offer opportunities to experience a great diversity of cities each with their own unique culture and lifestyle. So far I've been to Paris, Cologne, Vienna and Amsterdam.

Paris was an amazingly beautiful city, oozing rich history wherever you go. You can go to a random place in the city center and start walking in an arbitrary direction and stumble upon monuments and landmarks that you probably didn't know existed, and we did this several times. In fact the city was so saturated with monuments that we sometimes had the bizarre problem of not knowing which fabulously adorned street and buildings to head toward. We saw the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Mont Marte (sp?), the Louvre, the Arch du Triomphe, and countless other points of interest. I especially enjoyed the Louvre, particularly wandering through the back halls and areas away from the throngs of other tourists. Near the famous landmarks were always enormous crowds, and a huge number of sketchy street vendors, scam artists and tourist-trap restaurants. At one point I even had to forcefully shove a woman away who had grabbed onto a member of our group and was trying to distract them to pick their pockets. We made an effort to leave the popular areas and find the locals whenever we could. Occasionally we encountered people who were very rude to us for no apparent reason other than us being Americans, but on the whole they were kind and hospitable. We spent the last evening sitting on the lawn before the lit up Eiffel Tower dark, having a picnic of French bread, cheese, and wine - a suitable way to wrap-up our Paris experience.

As part of the program, our entire group traveled to Vienna for three nights. I hadn't heard much about the city before, but it turned out to be a bastion of history and culture. We took a medical history tour of the city, guided by a mysterious man in a full plague doctor outfit complete with the beaked mask who turned out to be our professor. It was hilarious to see heads turn our way in surprise and confusion as he lead us on our walk through the city. We went to the Joesphinum and later the Fool's Tower, both old medical facilities that were now museums full of ultra-realistic wax models of the body showing different organ systems and diseases in great detail. These were previously used to train medical students, and occasionally showcased to the public to blow their collective minds (many of these figures weren't exactly modest or entirely pleasant, to say the least). I particularly enjoyed our tour of the crypts beneath St. Michaels cathedral, which ended up looking exactly like the.stereotypical catacombs in videogames and movies. With coffins lining the cool, damp chambers with dirt floors concealing thouadands of remains and enormous stacks of bones in the alcoves,  I half-expected a skeleton to pull itself out of the ground at any moment. There were also several bodies which had been naturally mummified by the conditions within the crypt, and we were right up close and personal with them. Later we attended a string quartet concert in a church of all places, whose acoustics uniquely complemented the classical music. We went out as a group a few times and had a full Viennese meal with plenty of white wine and Wiener schnitzel (Wien is the German name for Vienna). It was a nice city to explore, and on my own I saw the House of Music, the museum of crime and the Viennese Museum.

Of all the European cities I've been to, Amsterdam is definitely my favorite. The entire city is built at sea-level and has a spiderweb of canals everywhere. It looked like what I thought Venice would be before I visited it in a previous trip to Europe. Strips of land dense with buildings, narrow streets, and alleys were separated by long, open canals edged with cobblestone roads and spanned by dozens of bridges. Huge palaces and buildings that might as well be palaces could be seen from almost any major street. Further from the city center were large parks and open spaces which were incredible. I particularly enjoyed Vondelpark, a large park filled with bike lanes, gorgeous landscaping, and people grilling food, celebrating, or otherwise just enjoying the nature. I spent most of my time wandering the city on foot and later on a bicycle that I rented. The city was incredibly bicycle friendly, with generous bicycle lanes everywhere and often entire dedicated parallel streets complete with lane lines and traffic signals. I'd confidently guess that half of the area of paved roads in the city were for bicycle traffic. With these accomodations and everything so flat and close together its no surprise that cyclists far outnumbered cars. Bikes were parked absolutely everwhere, and I even saw multistory bicycle parking garages with thousands of racks mostly full. I saw the infamous Red Light District which was possibly the strangest place I've ever seen. It was a nice part of town like any other and was dotted with bars, cafes and stores as usual. Between these more normal establishments were hundreds of windows and glass doors on the street level where very scantily clad prostitutes would stand in a glow of red light, posing and beckoning passerbys to come in. There's even a large church in the middle of it all, a place of worship surrounded by redlights, working girls and drugs. It was an incredibly bizarre place, but also had a strange air of normalcy and other than the obvious moral objections did not feel sketchy or unsafe at all. It would seem that the Dutch ideology of bringing such vices out of the criminal world and into legal regulation works well for them.  Overall, visiting Amsterdam was an eye-opening experience in some ways for sure, but beyond its international infamy it was an amazing city which I will certainly be going back to some day.