The Final Countdown

The final week in Bonn has gone by so fast. On Tuesday, I got to watch ear,throat, and nose pediatric surgeries in the OR. Being in the operating room was terrifying. I didn't want to be in anyone's way and tried not to touch anything. However the anathesialogist kept asking me to do things which terrified me too. I was scared I would hit the wrong button and kill the patient especially because every button was in German. Many of the procedural operations were similar to American hospitals which was cool to see how medicine in different countries can still be so similar. The anathesialogist explained everything he did. Towards the end he also let me help him anesthetize a patient. It was terrifying and exciting all at the same time. It was hard to concentrate and do all that he was telling me to do. In the end, I succeeded. During the surgeries, I got to watch them remove some polyps on patients throats and place ear tubes into the patients middle ear. Overall, it was a fantastic experience even if I wasn't watching open heart surgery (one of the students got to do this)

Wednesday we went on a Rhine cruise. The landscape was gorgeous and vineyards were all along the side of the mountain. Also there were so many castles! As soon as you passed one castle on the river another would be visible. Definetly not something you would see when going down a river in America. We toured Rheinfels Castleand got to walk through the mines with candles as a our light. Such an authentic experience. These mines were just dirt tunnels and when enemies were outside the soldiers would cause the mines to collapse. So like the first land mines! 

On our last day in Bonn, we talked about Nazis Medical Experiments. It was a hard topic to talk about but our professor did a really great job. The thing I found most interesting was that until after the Nurernburg trials there were no universal laws about human medical experiments. To me it just seemed like these things are implied, but in a court, they have to be established.

My last night in Bonn my host mom took me out to eat then to get a giant bowl of ice cream. Now when I say giant bowl, I mean giant. It was so hard to finish all of my ice cream but I did. It was such an amazing opportunity to stay with her while I was in Bonn. She was a very generous person and very informative always trying to answer all of my questions. I loved getting to experience German life with her. Saying goodbye this morning was hard.

Now, I am in Berlin for the last few days of my trip. I am excited to see what this city has in store! 

City of Sin

Ah Amsterdam, the city of sin. I wish I could have spent more time in Amsterdam because the weather was almost frightening. The apocalypse started on Saturday, so we were almost house-ridden all day. Trees fell on cars, power lines split apart, and trains and buses couldn’t go anywhere because of the fallen trees. Not to mention it felt like 0 degrees C with the cold wind and icy rain. We managed to check out the Heineken factory. I did not know Heineken was such an international beer; I would call it the Coca-Cola of beer. Also Heineken contains only four simple ingredients: water, barley, hops, and yeast. According to the Heineken experts, the yeast defines Heineken. Heineken hired a scientist, who happened to be an ex-student of Louis Pasteur, to formulate the perfect yeast, and he came close. The yeast is still in use today. (I am not getting paid by the Heineken people to write this. I actually gained respect for Heineken on the tour.)

              The first night in Amsterdam I was exhausted. I had no desire to go out, but my group eventually wore me down, so I went out. There is only one place to go in Amsterdam past midnight, and that is the Red Light District. I know what you are thinking, but the Red Light District has much more than prostitution. Bars and clubs line the streets along with “coffee shops”. Supposedly, the coffee shops do not only sell coffee, but they also sell more “herbal” cocktails. I think once in the Red Light District is enough. That’s all it takes to get the jist of the place. We played it safe that night. We only went to an Irish pub for a few drinks which is probably the safest thing you can do in the Red Light District. After that, we took a cab back to the hostel. I neither like nor dislike the Red Light District, but other people have strong opinions about it. One waiter in Amsterdam told us that he likes it. His logic is that the prostitution is going to happen anyways, so it is better that it be regulated by the government to protect everybody involved. I understand that, but I understand the other argument as well. To each their own, but I hope that Amsterdam never changes. 

Fun in Amsterdam

Amsterdam wasn't a city that I'd always wanted to go to, but the opportunity opened my eyes to a really beautiful and interesting city. Amsterdam is notorious for being a city that is 'out there' and I can definitely tell why. We thought the smell of cigarette smoke was bad in Germany/Prague, but there was a very different aroma choking the streets of Amsterdam. This was somewhat of a culture shock since it's very taboo/illegal in the U.S. and was something I was eager to escape.

Our first day in Amsterdam after eating a pancake bigger than my head that was topped with whipped cream, chocolate, and bananas we arrived at the Anne Frank house. We got there an hour early to avoid the crowd, which was a good decision since when we got out we couldn't even see the end of the line. This memorial was different than any I've been to in Europe because it was very personal knowing Anne Frank's feelings and dreams and knowing her struggles while hiding from the Nazis. This gave it a very real quality when walking through the house and seeing the perspective Anne and her family had for 2 years in a tiny hidden apartment. To walk the steps they did and be in the rooms they lived in was a very powerful thing. The museum also had Anne's actual diaries that opened the eyes of the world to her own world. In them she secretly wished to be a famous author and to write a book about her time in hiding, but she never knew that she had already done that. Something that also struck me in this museum is the fact that this is one person's diary out of millions, millions of people with something to say and people they loved and dreams they had. We will never know the stories of these people, but thank God we can hear the words of at least one little girl.

The rest of our time in Amsterdam we spent walking along canals and eating amazing Dutch Apple pie and stroopwaffles (delicious thin waffles with hot caramel inside) and suffering from 30 mph winds and 50 degree temperatures. Europe must be trying to eject tourists because we have had the "most extreme" weather conditions everywhere we've gone. With everything considered I really think I will come back to Amsterdam one day, it has a very quaint quality with a thrive for life and beautiful streets and architecture. This trip is such a whirlwind and is going by so fast, but I guess that's just life....

Bye Amsterdam
Annie

Never Stop Traveling

Last Wednesday we left Hannover to go to Norderney, which is a German island in the North Sea.  We took a ferry out to the island, which was an interesting trip. Seagulls were following us the entire way, hunting for any snacks we may leave unattended. I saw a seagull take an entire hamburger out of a child’s hands when he wasn’t looking; it took a few seconds for him to realize what just happened before balling his eyes out. That day in Norderney, we ran along the beach and did some exercises and yoga, the chanting was a little weird, but overall it was relaxing. That night we rode our bikes to the lighthouse, there were bunnies everywhere. Apparently a few of them caught a ride on a boat and now overpopulate the island. Last Thursday we gave our presentations and spent the rest of the day at the salt-water spa. My favorite was the body temperature pool with a high salt concentration, It was so relaxing that I dozed off a few times.

On Friday we left for Amsterdam and spent the night there. It was a cool city with a lot of canals, but because we had to walk forever to get anywhere and the prices were very high, I wasn’t too sad to leave and go to Belgium the next day. In Belgium we saw a cool church that was see through dependent on your perspective. We also visited the Texas A&M war exhibit in Bastogne; it was really cool to see how A&M was recognized for its involvement in the Battle of the Bulge and Normandy. I finally got to try a real Belgian waffle and it was ten times better than I was expecting to be, I’m already having withdrawals. I really want to go back someday.

On Sunday night we traveled back to Bonn so that we could head back cologne and visit the zoo. Yeah, we never stop traveling. The goats were definitely my favorite part of the zoo; I was bummed when the goat area was closed during our free time. On Tuesday we got up early to watch some surgeries at the Uniclinics of Bonn. I was expecting us to be observing the surgeries from behind a window in an observation room, but we got to be inside the operating room with the surgeons and the anesthesiologist. It was so cool. The first surgery I watched was on an older overweight woman who was a heavy smoker. She had a growth in her tibia that needed to be biopsied. It was a pretty simple surgery, but because she was a heavy smoker, she went into respiratory arrest when being woken up. It was cool seeing how the doctors dealt with that. The second surgery I watched was the removal of a woman’s tailbone. They said this was a very rare operation so it was cool to get to see that. My favorite surgery to watch was the replacement of a man’s aortic valve. It was an open-heart surgery so I did get to see his heart. I watched them stitch in the new valve and restart the heart by slowly taking him off the heart-lung machine and squeezing all the air out of the heart. The doctors said that the heart will usually start back up on its own, this man’s heart tried to, but it couldn’t establish a rhythm. The doctors jump-started it with little paddles they stuck right on the heart to shock it. The heart started right up and he began to breath again, which was cool because I could see his diaphragm and lungs moving right up against the pericardium membrane that surrounds the heart’s cavity. Unfortunately I had to leave before they closed his chest. Watching surgeries was a great experience, and kind of makes me want to consider being an anesthesiologist. Yesterday, we went on a Rhine cruise and saw more castles than I could count. Afterward, we hiked up to one of the largest castles on the Rhine, it was cool to see how they designed it to withstand attacks, and also dump their sewage on enemies if they got too close.

Today is my last day in Bonn, we head to Berlin tomorrow where the program will end on Tuesday.  

Last Days in Bonn

Our last days in Bonn are now coming to a close. It is very sad that it has all gone by so fast. I have really enjoyed getting to know my host mom and learning my way around Bonn. Bonn has become a home away from home so it will be very sad to leave tomorrow morning.

Monday we had class with Dr. Wasser. As always, he made it very interesting. Then we went to the Cologne Zoo. It was interesting to see that they had a raccoons in their zoo. I never thought I would see an enclosure for raccoons in a zoo! I really liked getting to see all the behind the scenes things for the elephants. I never realized how much work went into taking care of them.

Tuesday was really cool. I enjoyed watching the surgeries. I watched a laryngeal arthroscopy and 2 surgeries for some type of sinus problem. They were interesting. I really liked watching the arthroscopic surgery. I liked being able to see what the doctor was doing on the screen. The sinus surgeries were interesting. At one point during one of those surgeries, the doctor had a probe/scraper type tool in the patient's nose and the nurse next to him was tapping the other end with a mallet. It was very interesting to see all the different aspects of the surgery from the anesthesiologist at the beginning and end to the doctor performing the actual procedure. After the surgeries, we went to the Anesthesia Museum. I found this museum very interesting. I never realized there were that many different types of instruments that had been used 1846 to now. Thank goodness we have today's technique and not the same one from 1846! Dr. Stockel was a very interesting man. It was really cool that he could tell us so much information and a story about each piece in his museum.

The Hildgard von Bingen Museum was very interesting to see especially since women were not equal to men during her lifetime. She was a very independent and determined woman. Once she made up her mind, it seemed like there was no stopping her. I really enjoyed learning that aspect about her. Then we went on a Rhine Cruise. The Rhine River is absolutely beautiful. Seeing the castles along each side and the farmland on the mountainsides was great! I really enjoyed getting to do that with this program. Then we went to Rhinfels Castle. It was really cool. The "land mines" were incredible. I had no idea they had something like that in the 13th century.

Thursday we had our last lectures at the AIB. It was very interesting to me. I really enjoy learning about WWII. I did not realize human euthanasia was already such a hot topic before the Nazis ever came to power.

Now it's off to Berlin!

WE WENT TO A ZOO!

WE WENT TO A ZOO! I LOVE ZOOS!

So some context. After Amsterdam we came back to Bonn for a rest! Four days back in Bonn before we leave for Berlin. On that Monday we went to the ZOO! And I LOVE ZOOS! We saw adorable fuzzy donkies, baby meerkats, cute penguins, suprised giraffes, hefty hippos and some awesome elephants!

The giraffes were really cool because they were in the barn and we could get right up next to them. Someone in the building made a weird noise a one point and suddenly all of the giraffes were staring over at this one person. It was awesome. 

The next day was intense. First we shadowed human surgeries at the University hospital and I felt uncomfortable. Just knowing that it was a person kinda made me feel weird. I still was interested and thought it was cool but I couldn't be a doctor. I saw three surgeries. The first was a bone biopsy of the tibia right below the knee. That was cool but afterwards (because she was a heavy smoker) she went into respiratory arrest. Which was kinda scary but mostly cool. The second surgery was the removal of a tailbone that hooked and was causing great pain for the past 5 years for this young woman. It was a very rare surgery to see so I was happy that we got to see it, but it still makes me cringe a little. What was funny was that as they were setting but we didn't know what the surgery was so when they taped down her butt cheeks we kinda freaked out. The third surgery I saw was on an older man who was getting his aortic valve replaced. It was really cool also and seeing the heart finally beat was awesome to watch, but I still felt uncomfortable so I saw the valve get replaced, I saw the heart get restarted and then I left. After the university we left for the anesthesia museum which put us to sleep. It wasn't that it wasn't interesting but we were all so tired of waking up early two days in a row that we were reaching our limit. My knees kept giving out during the tour but I finally woke up when I say that there was an iron lung! That was super cool to see. 

Then I met my cousin in Düsseldorf! She was amazing. We met at the train station and traveled around the town. She first took me to eat where we had krakauer which was a sausage in a baguette and it was delicious! We then walked to the Rhine where the sun was setting and it was beautiful. She was awesome as well and hearing about how she got in contact with my cousins and aunts was really cool. Definitely needed more than two hours to meet but we did what we could. At the end of the day she took me to have spaghetti ice cream which was vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce but it looked like this.

   

Then came wednesday which was rhine-day. We woke up early and took a train down to Bingen and took a tour of the Hildegard museum. That was cool because there were images from the middle ages and also precious stones. I really liked the Hildegarten which contained many different plants used as medicine in the middle ages. Afterwards we went on the boat down the Rhine which was beautiful. On every curve was a castle and then we passed a giant cliff called the Lorely which was incredible.

The final stop on our Rhine tour was an awesome castle! Built over 800 years ago, this castle was incredible. We traveled through tunnels underneath the castle and it was so small and dark but cool. 

Overall it was an awesome experience and I would totally do it again! Soon we leave for Berlin and then for the USA. Its also my last day in Bonn today so we are having a "last hurrah" before we leave. Can't wait for what comes next! 

Oh my Norderney

We had one day in Bonn, which was well deserved after the weeks that we have had. And then we immediately left for Hannover. Hannover is now on my list of things to go see when I turn 50. It was so green everywhere we went and we went to a beer garden that was sooOOooOOoooOoo good. I got something called a strawberry bowl that had fresh strawberries floating in it and it was amazing. While we were in Hannover we also got to see spiders and salamanders. The salamanders were actually axolotls which were super duper adorable!

My favorites were the golden axolotls which were of course golden. The spiders were also super cool because we went into a room filled with them and there was one right on the door frame. The science behind them was also super cool because they use axolotls for researching about regrowing limbs and the spiders for cell bases for things like skin grafts. The next day we left for Norderney and it was cold. It wasn't that the air was cold, but the wind was horribly terribly cold. I was not prepared for a Texas winter. However!, we went to a spa there that used treated sea water and mud. My favorite was a pool with more salt concentration so you were able to float easily. It was also heated to body temperature and it felt utterly amazing. I can't even put into words how relaxing it was. Also it had a water slide and a wave pool!! So much FUN! The other thing that we did was do a mud peel with mud from the wat ["vat"] which is mud from the Wadden sea intertidal zone where the tidal change is over 2m of water! The mud has huge biodensity, but no worries, the mud was treated. After doing the peel, my skin felt baby soft! So soft. Norderney was fun, the north sea was cold and the sunsets were amazing.

That weekend we went to Amsterdam and it was surprising for me. This is because I came into Amsterdam with a blank slate. For instance, I didn't know what the Red light district was, that was an experience. Even so, we went to the Anne Frank house which was incredible. We were able to go into the actual hiding place which was much larger than I expected. The saddest thing for me was learning about Otto Frank and about how he had so much hope that his family alive after the war. Just terrible. On the happy side, I went to the Van Gogh Museum afterward and it was AMAZING! They had nearly all of his works and they also had over 800 letter written between him and his brother. While they didn't have my favorite piece they had my other favorite, the Sunflowers.

I took the multimedia tour so it was really awesome learning more about Van Gogh. The next day was really relaxing and we just traveled around the city before we left. The canals around the city are beautiful and not only that but we went through a park that had an amazing tree.

 Overall everything was beautiful. And one day I will go back. This was our last free weekend so it was bitter sweet, but mostly sweet because we had stroop waffles. We then went back to Bonn and now we are getting ready for Berlin. I can't wait.

London in a day...aka mission impossible

I still got to see London, but by the time we arrived in the central part of the city after a delayed flight (3.5 hours to be exact), it was a short day. Even if the flight had been on time, there's no way I could have seen everything on my list in the city. And having 3 and a half hours of sleep the night before didn't help. Sarah and I jumped on and off the tram to see the London tower, London bridge, London eye, and the Buckingham palace. The lines to get into any of the attractions were at least 3 hours, so waiting wasn't an option. That just means that I'll have to go back to London another time, which I can't complain about.

After doing a little sightseeing, we shopped all afternoon because it's cheaper for Sarah to shop in London than in Germany. They had a lot of the same stores that I have access to in America, but there were some nice European stores that were fun to look through. Germany doesn't have Victoria's Secret stores and the UK only has one and it happens to be in London. We spent at least an hour exploring the three floors. When we finally got back to the hotel around 11 and got ready for bed, wouldn't you know that the toilet broke. It wouldn't stop running and I had to go get someone to fix it...at midnight...and I lost my voice starting Saturday and I stubbornly kept talking, only making it worse.

It was worth the amount of traveling just to visit with Sarah, who I haven't seen in over a year. We spent Sunday afternoon in her city, Aachen, walking around and eating Mexican food. I had been told to NEVER trust the "Mexican" food here, but by that point I figured it was worth a shot and I relied on Sarah's judgment of good food. I have to say, I was impressed by how good it was. It was definitely different than Mexican food in Texas, considering that Sarah ordered a burger with sweet potato fries and I had lemon coconut fajitas...but everything tasted really yummy. When we were done eating, her cousin and nephew met us at the restaurant so that I could meet them. Her nephew is about 2 and has too much energy for his own good. Reminded me of my niece!

Doctor for a day

5:30 a.m. is like a shark. You know, like when you're swimming in the ocean there's always a possibility of it being there, but when you actually experience it it's awful and you never want to relive it again. 5:30 sneaks up on you and attacks in the dead of the night. We experienced 5:30 and it was awful. We got our coffee at the train station and took the bus to Bonn universitat medical school. After arriving we were shown to the changing rooms to get out scrubs and crocs. We got dressed then were assigned doctors to shadow for the day.

My anesthesiologist, Nicole, showed me to our first patient. He was originally in the hostpital for a stint in his coronary artery but during surgery the ureter was accidentally cut so for the las two months he has been in the ICU with catheters in his kidney and bladder. She said he did a lot of drugs and alcohol so it was hard to control his anesthesia because he had a very high tolerance. He came into surgery to change the bandaging around his kidney catheter. She also said that after he woke up from his first surgery he was violent and delirious so they have had to keep him sedated which makes his tolerance even higher. She explained to me that the anesthesia drugs were no longer as dangerous for long periods of time because they didn't require stress on the liver and kidneys to metabolize the drugs since they degrade easily.

After that we started on our second patient. He had blood clots in his femoral arteries and so they were planning on trying to remove the clot if possible. If it's not possible, they would have to do a bypass using one of the patient's veins. She began by inserting a corroded IV probe to monitor the right ventricle pressure and also have an access for quick medicine if necessary. After he was prepped for surgery they administered the anesthesia and inserted the ventilator tube. They then moved into the operating room and began sterilizing the patient with iodine. Before beginning their long journey to been find the arteries. It was a long process and unfortunately I wasn't able to watch until the end but I got a lot of insight into the German medical field.

We schlepped across campus to eat lunch before going to the anesthesia museum. It was very interesting and we were able to learn so much from such a knowledgable man. I thought that the nearly simultaneous discovery of anesthesia in both France and the U.S. was very cool. It was also interesting to see how quickly things progressed from the discovery to modern day anesthesia. 

After that we went home and ate dinner and slept.

6:30 a.m. Up again

7:40 a.m. Bonn HBF

And we are off on another adventure to the Bingen where Hildegard Von Bingen was from. We arrived and took in the beautiful sights of the town before arriving at the museum, we learned about the "mouse tower" and the interesting story behind it before going to the Hildegard museum. I really like the fact that Hildegard was a strong, powerful woman in a time where considered anything but. She literally changed history and that's incredible. I am interested to know whether her 'visions' were visions or were migraines like historians suspect. Perhaps she was prescribing some herbal hallucinogens to herself. We'll probably never know. Unless a time machine is invented. But she probably won't be the first stop on the list. We also so the medical paraphernalia from a roman doctor from the second century b.c. It was amazing how similar some of the instruments were to modern medicine. Things really don't change all that much. Besides the fact that we clean our instruments now but does that really matter? Next we had some time to explore and this really cool collection of messages in a bottle was upstairs. There were hundreds of messages that were sent down the Rhine and found sometimes even years later. 

We then ventured into the "Hilde-garden" and learned about the herbs and plants she described in her books as medicine. My favorite part was probably when she said that it'll either a) work or b) not work and you'll die because God wants you to die. Ultimate medieval medical insurance. 

We then walked to the restaurant for lunch before boarding the Rhine cruise. We saw so many castles along the banks of the Rhine and it was easy to see why Rhine Romantic painters were obsessed with the incredible landscapes. We then got off the cruise to go on a "baby hike" (according to Helen) up to Burg Reinfels. It was a medeival castle that has held its ground for hundreds of years (until the French blew it up). We visited the tunnels, dungeons, and slaughterhouse and we told the various stories and histories by our wonderful tour guide. 

It was such a great day and so much fun!

Time can slow down now please...

On Monday morning we had class as normal. Two hours of the history of medicine with Dr. Wasser. I’m pretty sure he is a human encyclopedia, he knows just about everything. After class we went to the Koln Zoo and had a private tour that was unfortunately only an hour long. Our tour guide was going super fast, which was to be expected because it was a big zoo and we didn’t have that much time. She kept saying that us Americans are too slow and too lazy and we should be able to keep up because we are young. She was telling me this as I was walking the same pace as her, keeping up with her step for step. So apparently not all of “us Americans” were slow and lazy. A lot of the group was extremely tired and some were sick also so I felt bad for them. Our tour guide also went on to talk about how our food industry shouldn’t be run how it is because its not natural and blah blah blah. I had to tune her out before I got mad. Most of what she was saying was completely wrong and biased, but hey maybe I’m biased too. After the first hour of the tour we got to go to the elephant house for a behind the scenes tour with an elephant keeper. He was really really nice and very interested in everything we had to say and what we were doing in Germany. He showed us the in’s and out’s of the elephant exhibit and we got to see them eating up close. We also got to see the control room, which was awesome. I never fully realized how much work and how much supervision can go on in one zoo enclosure. It really shows you how much of a team effort it is to run a zoo.

On Tuesday we had to get up super early to go to the university clinics. It was so hard because we are all exhausted from constantly moving and never getting good nights of sleep. But never the less we were awake and at the train station at 6:30am. It was real hard, I had to tell people not to talk to me until I had some coffee. But I had some coffee and was good to go. When we got there we were led to the changing room and had to put scrubs on, including a hair cover and surgical mask. We all looked so official. After we got dressed we were all split into different groups and we were each put in different surgical rooms. The room I was put into was urology. The first procedure I observed I had gotten in the room a little after it started and didn’t get the full description of the procedure. One of the doctors in the room did tell me that the patient was the department heads father, so I told him they better not mess up then. He laughed at me. The procedure they were doing on him seemed to be that they were just cauterizing some areas of his bladder and then taking some pieces to do biopsies on them. That as much as I got out of it and it only lasted about 20 minutes.  The next surgery I watched was on a boy about my age (beware this might get graphic, I’m just going to vaguely describe what the procedure was) who had a torn/ dysfunctional urethra. They opened him up and put a catheter in and got everything prepared. They then went in and took out a big piece of his inner cheek to put onto his urethra to make it complete. The piece of cheek they took was thicker in some areas than others and so they had to pin it to a wax (I think it was wax, I didn’t ask) block to cut it down and smooth it out to make sure the whole piece they were going to use was consistent in size and thickness of what was already there. After they did that they went ahead and just sutured the piece of his cheek to the part of his urethra that was left and sutured it around (but not attached to) the catheter. It was pretty amazing to see that you could just take a piece of skin from somewhere, put it somewhere else, and have it to be completely functional again. Before they sewed him all back up they tested it to see if there was any blockage and of course there was not. It worked perfectly and looked pretty normal considering. After the surgeries we got to eat lunch, I was literally so thankful because I hadn’t ate or drank anything since 6 that morning and I thought I was dying. We ate lunch in the cafeteria on their campus because right after lunch we went to the anesthesiology museum. Dr. Wasser had warned us about the anesthesiology museum and who did the tours so we would be prepared for what was about to come. I drank another cup of coffee before I went in so I would stay as awake as possible during the tour. The man who gave the tour was the director and founder of the museum and he was such a cute little old man. It was really awesome to have him lead the tour because most of the instruments (if not all) were from his personal collections and he had a story for every single piece. I zoned in and out a couple of times, just because it had been a long day and sometime he was difficult to hear, leading me to zone out but overall it was still very interesting. The even had an iron lung machine in the museum, which I have only ever seen in textbooks before. The also had a 1930’s style operating room with all authentic equipment. It was fascinating.

Today we had a busy day filled with a museum tour, a rhine cruise, and a castle tour, but I am way to exhausted to begin talking about that. So goodbye for now!

Amsterdam Apocalypse 2015

Apparently the worst storm in the last century happened to hit Amsterdam the very weekend we we're there. We bring alllllll the crazy weather. But that definitely didn't stop us from having a great time! We began our weekend by finding a hotel then a yummy pizza place that had the BEST waiter! We then walked verrrry far to have our first (and only) taste of the red light district. It was definitely an experience. After that we walked back to the hostel and slept in until about 9 the next morning.

This was when the storm came. 

We had finished breakfast and were just walking around when it started raining. We decided to take find a place to take shelter. The shelter must meet our specific criteria: warm, dry, and full of culture. We had several viable options since we were very close to the museum district, but to us the choice was obvious: Heineken factory. We ducked into the building just as the torrential downpour began. It was amazing! Not only did we get the incredible history we also learned how Heineken was made, toured the stables and got a few samples! It was a great time and very educational......after that we schlepped through part of the storm to get lunch at a small cafe. Then we decided to try our luck at the Anne Frank House.having heard nightmarish stories about the three hour wait to get in, we were prepared for the worst. Little did we know the line was the least of our worries. We trekked through the city, passing hundreds of umbrella corpses and three fallen trees as well as entire road barracked off by police. 

That is a tree. On a car.

When we finally reached our destination we were soaking wet and not happy campers. But the line was short and we were able to get into the museum fairly quickly. We could finally defrost our freezing limps. The museum was an incredible experience. It was wonderfully designed and curated where it was somber and insightful without being depressing and morbid. I learned so much I didn't know about the Frank family and the hardships they went through. I thought it was great that Otto Frank had input  into the museum and decided to keep it unfurnished and bare, representing his life after the war. Probably one of the most thought provoking parts was the end where they said that yes, Anne was important, but her story was just one of the thousands of untold stories from children who lived through that horrible time. 

After we finished we walked across the bridge and wandered through the Amsterdam Tulip Museum and sampled our way through the Amsterdam Cheese Museum before finding a traditional Dutch restaurant for dinner. I had delicious meatballs and mashed potatoes as we watched the police try to clean up the trees on the streets. All of the trams were shut down but right before we finished dinner, one of the tram lines broke and sparked and flashed, scaring nearby pedestrians and even most of the people in the restaurant. 

The next day we slept in again before checking out of the hostel and walking around the museum district a little more. We met Miffy, the children's book character as well as tried stroopwafels and Dutch Apple pie. It was so good! We took a cab to the train station and found our train without problem. Due to the weather (we think), the train had technical difficulties and ended up being late and we missed our connection so we stayed on the train to Köln before realizing all the trains there were also running late. We ended up making it home to Bonn once again.

Go, go, and go some more

 

 

  

-Technology hates me, so here's all the pictures up front -_-

Whoa Norderney was beautiful! I took my first ferry ride ever from the mainland to get to the island of Norderney. Also yay for not getting seasick. The ride was kinda chilly as the wind tends to blow quite a bit harder on the island and ferry than in Bonn and all other places we've been. This was a nice relief for a while from the heat, but at some points during our stay it was just downright cold. The seagulls made sure to provide some entertainment during the trip as we watched one poop on one lady's head and then make what sounded like a cackling noise as he flew away. Another group of us saw a seagull who managed to abscond with a sandwich from one poor unsuspecting little boy completely ruining his day.

After reaching the island, picking up our bikes, and checking into the hostel, it was time for a little workout led by Dr. Washer or yoga on the beach. I'm quite sure that at one point I fell asleep while laying on our backs and breathing because I don't remember a good chunk of our yoga time. I guess I was just really relaxed? Oops. Later that night we took our bikes way out to go find the lighthouse and see it up close. Islands are hilly...and on bikes, that sucks! But the lighthouse was worth it and the views we found on the way there. Side note about the island, it's INFESTED with little cotton tail rabbits. They are literally everywhere. Would make for some very easy hunting.

The second day meant spa day! Whoop! After all of our running around I think it was a much deserved and needed day spent at the spa. So many different pools of varying salt content and temperatures along with saunas were at our disposal. Pool hopping in its most relaxing form. One of my favorites had a salt content so high your whole body floated with zero effort. A few of us decided to try the schlik mud. It comes from the North Sea and we were told it was supposed to be amazing for your skin. Dilemma in deciding to do it: you had to be naked. No swim suits allowed. But I mean when in Europe, do as the Europeans right? Throwing all modesty to the wind we slathered ourselves with mud and enjoyed the sauna. They weren't lying about the skin thing though.....smooth as a baby's butt. To cap off a wonderfully relaxing day we watched the sunset on the beach and I'm quite sure that Norderney has the most beautiful sunsets.

Our last day on the island, Callie and I got up super early (5AM) to go see the sunrise and it was stunningly pretty. We did a mud walk on the flats at low tide and saw tons and tons of living organisms such as jelly fish, crabs, worms, and even a seal out swimming about. After the walk, it was one more trip to the beautiful white sand beaches for a picture and then we headed for the ferry and train to Amsterdam.

We finally had a train mishap getting off one stop too early and then missing our connection, but ever the improvisers we were soon on a new train and on our way. I think we managed to hit up most touristy things in our short day there. Shout out to Collin's friend, Jonathan, from Belgium for being the real MVP! He met us at the train station after already having taken care of booking us a hostel and together we figured out how to get there. Saturday morning consisted of Jonathan leading us to the I AMsterdam sign and then all through the middle of town and even to the Anne Frank House before we left for Belgium. 

We picked up the car from the airport and headed to this amazing little church that is pretty much indescribable other than it changes appearances depending on the angles. We really thought we would be taking pictures in the pouring down rain, but the 2 hour traffic delay and highway shut down provided us with a beautiful background and further proving everything happens for a reason.

Sunday was packed full in the little amount of time we had left. We headed to Bastogne in the morning to go see the Texas Aggies Go to War exhibit at the Bastogne War Museum and it was incredible. We of course signed the guest book and were able to see just how many other Ags had been there before us. After the museum we made a pit stop back at Jonathan's house and his parents cooked us a wonderful lunch and then we were off the Brussels. It was a pretty hurried trip cramming in the Atomium, REAL Belgian waffles, Belgian chocolate, and a city center all into about 45 minutes. We then THOUGHT we would be getting on a train back to Bonn, but there were some other way more convoluted plans awaiting us (Because what is more entertaining than 4 Americans sprinting through a train station, with over-stuffed backpacks, to make their connection?). Instead we arrived back in Bonn around 1:30am exhausted and so ready to be home we basically all jogged over to the taxi stand. But hey, we all made it to class on time!

long. just long

So after our week in Vienna we spent 3 days in Prague. an interesting 3 days. plane. The first day I flew a plane. The guy that flew with me tried explaining the controls and buttons but he didn’t speak English. I was hoping they weren’t important. It was funny because it took about 5 or so minutes for the plane to start. He would start the plane and the propeller would start spinning then it would stop. start then stop. start then stop. It did that about 5 times. yolo.  He took off and landed the plane but I flew everything else in between. Collin had fun.

Now about the waitress that threatened to murder us. Well we went to the nice restaurant right on the river and had the worst service ever. like ever. It took like an hour just to order our food and when we did order our we didn’t get our food. 3 of us didn’t get our food. They just disregarded our orders. maybe they were trying to tell us we were getting fat.? That was probably it but a man’s gotta eat. I even asked the waiter if he got our orders and he like gave me head nod. I’m guessing that means no in Czech? So me and the 2 others that didn’t get our food left to go get fat. I mean food. The others ate their food, drank their drinks, and paid the bill and did not leave a tip. well. They left 1 cent.

Tip Formulaà   (type of service) + (attitude x 3.14) x 2 all divided by (the amount of time -multiplied- by the %of food you get)

I got zero food so the formula collapses. You can’t divide by zero. Funny fact, if you ask Siri what zero divided by zero is she replies with “Imagine that you have zero cookies and you split them evenly among zero friends. How many cookies does each person get? See? It doesn’t make sense. And Cookie Monster is sad that there are no cookies, and you are sad that you have no friends.” sassy.

So after not getting a tip a lady at the restaurant yelled “ People will murder you for this.” It escalated pretty quickly. I wish I was there for this but sadly I wasn’t.  We also went to the Prague castle, which was really nice. We had a nice tour of it. It was a city within a city. We also went to an ice pub, which the whole bar is made of ice. They gave us the ice jackets that kept us pretty warm for the most part. I met up with a friend that is doing a journalism study abroad in Prague through A&M too so that was nice.  We got to experience THE biggest club in Europe. Karlovy Lazne. It was a five-story club. five.  Each level played a different genre of music. Collin had fun. I didn’t know I had so many dance moves. Overall I really liked Prague! Just every time we ate at a restaurant the service was bad and they were rude to us. But other than that it was great.

Next up, Hannover. We were only there for one day but visited the Medical School. We got to visit with a Cardiologist for a while which was sooooooo awesome. The next 2 nights were in Norderney. Norderney is a small island just north of Germany. It was only a 50-minute fairy ride. On the fair I witnessed a seagull steal a burger from an 8 year old. you savage. Literally a whole burger. The kid took maybe 2 bites out of it. The seagull saw it, wanted it, and took it. He deserves it. It was bad cause the little kid was crying but everybody was laughing at what happened. Norderney was fun but I was sick for these 2 days. The first day we had a little workout/ calorie burner/beer burner workout on the beach. soccer. more soccer. And then a BBQ. a German BBQ. The second day I felt ten times worse. Sorry this blog is long. And boring. We went to the Thalasso spaaaaaaa. We did this mud bath where you get completely naked and cover your whole body in mud like you were a Cherokee Indian about to make a surprise attack on the Shawnee tribe. Then you sit in a room that slowly fills up with steam for about 15 minutes. Then hot showers come on and that slowly get colder. I felt like a butterfly that just emerged from its cocoon.

I went in to hibernation at 7pm and woke up at 7am. Solid 12 hours of sleep. So I was unsick the next day. The next morning we had healing mud walk through the North Sea. Had a worm pee Iodine on my hand. I think I need more cushion in my booty because it hurts because of these long train rides. more squats & queso.

Bae is still working and taking pictures so I’m happy.

I have my eye on a lederhosen but not sure if I will commit or not.

Spent this past weekend in Amsterdam and Belgium so I will talk about that next blog.

Lost my credit card so that’s a problem.

Everything is going by so fast :(

Chüs