Wien Week

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

48 Hours Interlaken

48 Hours Interlaken

This weekend was one that I will take with me for a long, long time. We spent the weekend in Interlaken, Switzerland at a hostel located in the city. The town of Interlaken is located in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps and is absolutely beautiful. The town is surrounded by mountains on almost all sides, including one that was still covered in snow this time of year. It was quite a journey from Bonn to Interlaken, and we didn’t get into town until around midnight. The first night we just walked around the city, which while it was quite a tourist town was still relatively calm and peaceful at night. The next morning I woke up to a beautiful surprise of the mountains that were hidden by the darkness the night before.

Our morning started off with a nice tram ride up the Harder Kulm mountain from a station next to the Aar River which runs alongside the town. On top of the mountain there was a large deck and restaurant that overlooked the town below. The view from the deck was beyond breathtaking. The town sits between two lakes, Lake Thun and Lake Brienz with the river connecting the two, and in the background the peaks of the Alps could be seen for as far as the eye could see. We then hiked down 3.4 miles of steep, rocky trail that had countless picturesque views and was also a pretty good workout. After this first hike, I felt as if the trip had already been a success but we also had a lot of the weekend left. Later in the day, we went on a rafting trip down a glacier fed river that flowed into the Lake. It was an awesome ride with several fast moving rapids and great views. We all put on several wet suit layers because the water coming from the glacier was freezing but it was a nice to hop in every once in a while after a long spell of rowing. It was also really neat that six of us from the program were on the boat all working together to get down the river.

Sunday was a day that I most certainly will never forget. Alex, Shannon, and myself planned a sky-diving trip on Friday before we left Bonn and after 2 days of suspenseful waiting, today was finally the day. The first part of the day we just checked out of our hostel and grabbed some lunch. Every hour after lunch I got more and more excited about our adventure to come (I’m not really sure excited would be the correct word for Alex and Shannon). When we finally took off to go out to the sky diving hanger and get some lessons on how to skydive I was quite excited. There was a front coming in when we got to the hanger though so it was a quick process once we got all our gear on and learned the art of skydiving. Next thing I knew we were in the air and on the way up to 13000 feet. I could tell with every 1000 feet when got higher in the air Alex and to some extent Shannon and myself got a little more nervous. Finally at our target altitude, Alex was the first one to jump, well maybe be thrown is the better way to put it out of the plane. I heard her scream as she fell like a rock out of the sky towards the Earth. Now with quite sweaty palms, I thought to myself, that’s it, I have to jump now there is no way I will ever live it down if I don’t go and a girl that I know did right in front of me. The free fall out of the plane was something that I am not sure anyone has the words for. It was an experience like no other and I will hang on to this weekend for a long, long time.

Vienna!!

What a week it has been in Vienna!  It was quite a whirlwind of a week in a city that has had such a significant impact on the history of modern medicine.  I had never realized the history that was in Vienna, specifically the medical history.

            After arriving on Monday, we started the afternoon with a guided tour of the city.  Vienna truly is beautiful; with a unique mix of old cathedrals and new buildings and shops.  St. Stephen’s Catacombs were an eye-opening thing to see.  We have all heard about the plague and how detrimental it was to the populations in Europe, but to see the piles and piles of victims demonstrates how horrible it really was.  On Tuesday, the medical walking tour with Dr. Schnabel was quite interesting!  It’s sometimes hard to imagine what these cities were like hundreds of years ago, with plague doctors walking and the horrible hygienic conditions.  The funeral museum was also an unexpected adventure.  The way the Viennese recognize and treat death is certainly a cultural difference.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a funeral museum in the States!  On Wednesday, we visited the Medical School of Vienna and Fools Tower.  The lecture with Professor Marz was very informative, but also really got me thinking about the admissions process for medical school.  I am currently in the middle of the application process, and I can’t wrap my mind around the European application system.  I can’t even imagine sitting in a room at age 17 and taking a test to determine my entrance into medical school.  Over the past four years, I have thought long and hard about the commitment medical school requires.  I have also matured significantly.  I hope that admissions committees see me as more than a test score.  Being a good doctor isn’t about whether you have good test taking skills; it’s about your social skills, intelligence, ability to interact with people, and ability to integrate the things you learn into treating your patients.  Fools Tower was also very unique.  The huge amount of specimens they had was mind blowing.  On Thursday we visited Freud’s house, heard a lecture, and visited the Josephinum.  I’m interested in obstetrics and gynecology, so to see their huge collection and emphasis on the field was fascinating.   On Friday, we visited the Natural History Museum.  This and the Josephinum were probably my two of my favorite things we did in Vienna.  I feel like I could’ve wandered throughout the museum for hours.  Body Worlds was also really exciting.  I had never been before, and my favorite exhibit was probably the one on fetal growth and development.  I am always amazed by how small a fetus is at four, five, six, and ten weeks. 

            Overall, our time in Vienna was quite interesting and I feel like I learned a lot.  We’re off to Prague for the weekend, so see you in Bonn on Monday! 

Week 3 - 3 out of 6

Week three is now officially over, weekend included. Innsbruck turned out more urbanized then I thought it was going to be. I was expecting more of a city in the middle of nowhere with mountains and grassy rolling hills surrounding us. However, it turned out to be, as a lady on the bus told me, not too big and not too small. Speaking of the lady on the bus, Saturday we were trying to find the place to hike and we ran into a lady with a thorn in her paw. I guess we looked really lost or something because she approached us first to help out. After which I had to sit next to her on the bus and hear about how she hated the corrupt politicians. She thinks that they are leaking money into private parties and causing the European economy to crash. I haven’t been keeping up with the news for the European Union, but I do remember hearing something about Spain and a few other countries being bailed out.

            Despite the helpful, but crazy, lady we had a great adventure Saturday. We spent about four hours hiking up the mountain where the Winter Olympics once took place. It’s really cool being and walking somewhere you know some of the world’s best athletes have been. It was a long hike though because John started making his own paths and taking us practically straight up the mountain at one point. At one time we ended up on the ski slopes and another time walking up the bobsled course. My feet didn’t like me after the hike, but it was a great hike with beautiful views and few people to bother us. After the hike, we found a lake called Lanser See to swim in. The water was a spectacular twenty-four degrees Celsius or about seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. The lake was the highlight of my day because we could just jump in the cool water and relax for once. It was soothing on my feet and prepared me for a long walk back to the bus stop.

            Really we didn’t have much time in Innsbruck, only that one full day. Today we woke up, had breakfast, and then left. All our adventures had to take place on Saturday, of which I’d say we did a good job of. I am a little sad that we never made it to the summit of the mountain, but if we tried we probably would’ve still been stuck up there. It’s funny how distances can be misleading at times. A seemingly twenty minute walk turns out to be an hour walk. In our case an hour and a half walk turned into a four our journey zigzagging through the mountainside enjoying our time.

            I’m finally home and it’s 11:30pm. I’ve been traveling for more than twelve hours. It’s nice to finally be home and off the prison train. It was torture being on that train for that long. They kept turning off the train too and since there were no windows it turned into an oven. Well I’m going to bed before I lose any more sleeping time.

Third Weekend

This weekend of the 27-28 I decided to stay in Bonn. I Enjoyed not having to get up at 7am.... I mostly stayed at home and caught up on my Sitcoms. I did not interact very much with the host family because they brought their friends over and they usually stay to themselves and their friends when this happens. I did manage to go into the city on Saturday. It was very hot... 91 degrees. I recycled some water bottles and sent off a postcard. I did manage to fully build some financial accounts on my computer for this trip. This basically means I gather data each day from spending and then analyze the data on an excel spreadsheet. For me this is a lot of fun to do, I like to see where money goes and how to improve. So not so much of an eventful weekend. Just how I like my weekend!

Vien Woche

     This week I traveled to Vienna Austria! The 9 hour Train Ride was actually fun on the way there! I got to see all the country side. When I got to Vienna I was stressed because, I was a little late and I had to figure out an entire subway system and make it to a hotel I have never been to. When I first got on the subway I was thrown back as the drivers in Vienna accelerate much faster than drivers in Bonn. Once I finally got to Rossalander I easily found my way to hotel deutchmeister thanks to Olivia's Detailed instructions. I was relieved that when I got there I was not late.
     We then went to Stephansplatz and then met up with the tour guide. She was fairly quiet but informative. The highlight of the day was when we went into the cathedral catacombs! I never thought in my life that I would ever go into such a place. I was amazed by the age of the catacombs and the famous bodies and entrails that are stored there. The most shocking part was the lowest part where we saw the actual bodies in mass graves. It seemed so unbelievable. It looked staged but I knew it was completely real. I thought how each bone told the story of an entire person. The experience really altered my paradigm on how we view life. I thought the tour guide was "interesting" (In a good way). I just thought it was so weird that he was so indifferent to being in the catacombs on a regular basis and even turning off the lights alone. Maybe that's how everyone in Vienna is about death. Anyway we then went to a much needed group dinner and went home.
    Tuesday was a bit less exciting. I thought Dr. Wassers costume was funny. I thought it really enhanced the medicine tour of the city. I actually did not know it was him in the costume for about 15 seconds. The funeral museum was unique but I really could not understand the accent and English of the tour guide. Lastly we went to cafe dremel. The drink I had there was so good! Thank you Dr. Wasser for Inviting us.
   The rest of the week continued with many tours of different placed like the Freud house, foolstower, and josephinum.
     On a personal side, I got to gamble at the Casino Vien! Won 23 Euros! It was one of the best experiences I ever had and It was something I always wanted to do. In regret I forgot to look up where the Central Bank of Austria was... I turns out that I was literally 0.1 km from the josephinum and the Freud museum AND THEY HAVE TOURS!... and I even think they were free tours... to most people a place like this may seem boring but I love central banks. They change the outcome of a countries financial future. They are filled with great scholars and economists instead of politicians. Luckily next weekend I am going to go to Frankfurt and see the German Central bank and go on the tour as well as stop by the Euro Tower (which is the European Central Bank).
    Lastly, I really think Vienna, Austria is on of the best cites on earth and a place far better than what I have currently seen in Germany. The atmosphere there is much more like my personality then that of Germany (as what I know of Germany so far)

Week in Vienna

This week I really enjoyed going to Vienna. It is a beautiful city with a lot of history and some fantastic music. The concert on Wednesday night was one of my favorite things that I have done so far. The string quartet played some great music from Mozart, Vivaldi, and a few others inside St. Anna’s, a really pretty, baroque church.  I really like classical music, but I had never heard it in concert until Wednesday night, so I really enjoyed it. Another thing that I really enjoyed was seeing the Impressionist art museum at the Albertina. The Albertina displayed some beautiful art from artists like Monet and a large collection of Picasso, one of my favorite artists. The Albertina also had an exhibit by Gottfried Helnwein who creates hyper-realistic art. The entire exhibit showcased some pretty creepy pieces of children and violence. Almost every picture was of the same girl about twelve years old, in a disturbing scene where she is either crying or covered in blood or with a very intense or sad look on her face. Despite the creepy nature of the paintings, they were all very pretty and intriguing, and the hyperrealist style was awesome. From 10 feet away each painting looked like a picture of this little girl, but as you got closer, you could see brushstrokes and little globs of paint and then it is possible to discern the image as a painting rather than a picture.

            The lecture walk with Dr. Schnabel through the streets of Vienna was quite a bit of fun. Partly from watching the puzzled reactions of people to the plague-doctor outfit that he was wearing, and partly from listening to Vienna’s medical history and how they thought about and dealt with the spread of diseases like the plague. It was interesting to learn that the people thought that breathing miasma coming up from the waste caused the plague. They were right about the cause of the disease which was the foul conditions that people lived in, but not about the mechanism by which people caught the plague. The plague is caused by bacteria that are transmitted from a bite from a flea. The flea first bites a rat, which were everywhere because of the filthy conditions, and then bites a human. The disease is not spread by miasmas like was believed back then. But, there is no way that they could have known about the transfer of bacteria because germ theory was not developed until much later. Some of the methods behind the prevention of catching the plague were pretty interesting. It seemed to be if it smelled bad, you could get sick, and if it smelled good, then you were safe. In order to combat the plaque people walked around with cloves in their mouths, which we did, and while cloves may smell nice, they are no fun to suck on. Another interesting thing that doctors did in those days was to don a “plague resistant” outfit. It consisted of long black robe covered in oil or fat to repel the miasma, and a beak-like mask to avoid breathing in any foul air. This outfit did not repel the bad air of course, because there is no such thing as miasma that causes plague. It probably repelled more people than it did the plague.

            The Freud House was really cool and has made me want to learn more about psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud’s thoughts on the mind had come a long way from the ancient belief that a misplaced uterus caused hysteria. Freud’s ideas on the psyche were very interesting, and his attempts to split the mind into the Id, the ego and the super ego are an attempt to explain the mind, but who knows if it the mind will ever be fully understood. I do think his reduction of every mental disorder to some sort of sexual trauma was wrong. I am interested in Freud’s analysis of dreams though, because I’ve always wondered if dreams actually have any meaning or not. I had a fun week in Vienna and now I’m about to go explore Innsbruck!

A Week in Wien

Well our week in Vienna has officially come to an end. I feel like I blinked and it was over. The city was absolutely beautiful, and I think the architecture has easily been the most impressive I've seen thus far. We started off the week by arriving in Vienna

on Monday around noon

. I really like the subway system, and we had no problem at all finding our hotel. After dropping off the luggage, we wandered around and grabbed a quick lunch. Then it was time to check in, and after that we the city tour. I loved our tour guide, she was so sweet and very knowledgable. Then we had the tour of the catacombs, which was awesome, albeit a little creepy. Dinner that night was fantastic, and I had my first taste of Wiener Schnitzel. All I can say is "ser gut".

Tuesday, we started off with the medical history walk with "Dr. Schnabel". It was really interesting to go back through some of the sites we had seen the day before, but to hear how they relate specifically to the history of medicine. I definitely enjoyed "Dr. Schnabel"s costume, and the accompanying looks we got from confused passerbys. The funeral museum was like nothing I've experienced before, but it was very unique. It helped me understand the Viennese fascination with death a little bit better, yet it still seems slightly strange. I enjoyed our cafe experience, which made me feel like I was truly experiencing the culture of Vienna. Plus that Eis Kaffee was delicious. 

Wednesday, we started the day with the lecture by Professor Marz about the differences between medical school in Austria and the US. While I knew that med school was basically free in Austria, I had no idea that the application process was so different. I like the objectivity of the Austrian system, and it would definitely save on time and effort. However, I can't even imagine the amount of stress those students are under right before they take that test. I don't know if I could handle that. I loved walking around the university, although I do like that A&M is more isolated, as opposed to being interspersed throughout the city like the university of Vienna was. The tour of the Fools tower might have been my favorite tour to date. I could have stayed there all day. I'm just so impressed that people thought to save all of those specimens. The classical concert was a great experience, and my favorite was easily the "Ave Maria". 

Thursday started off with a lecture on Freud. I had taken a psychology class in high school, so I knew a little about him, but nowhere near all of he details we learned that day. He's obviously made quite an impact on the medical field, and it was pretty special just to be in the house he lived for so long. Then we were off to the Josephinum. Despite the heat, it was still really interesting. I can't believe those models are from so long ago.  Dinner at the Gulashmuseum, was really good, although to be honest, I think I enjoyed the Wiener Schnitzel a little more. 

Before I knew it, I woke up to our last day in Vienna. The natural history museum was incredible. Our tour guide was awesome, my only complaint is that I wish it would have been longer! And then Body World was just unlike anything I've ever seen before. The week in Vienna was truly spectacular, and I have learned about and seen so many wonderful things. I'm on a train to Innsbruck, Austria right now, and I am looking forward to experiencing even more of Europe these next few weeks!

Week 2.5 - Halfway Done

It’s already been three weeks of program material now. It’s currently Friday, our last day in Vienna and we are traveling on the train. The week in Vienna has been wonderful. This week was full of great music and museums. Now we are off to our weekend destinations, in my case to Innsbruck, to do a little scenic sightseeing and hiking.

The first day in Vienna started out miserable. First thing that went wrong was the lack of sleep we all got the night before we had to catch a train. Then, once on the train I picked, on accident, one of the seats that face backwards. It wouldn’t have been as bad if it weren’t for the fact that I get motion sickness. Luckily we didn’t have to make any connections along the way and I was able to sleep, off and on, through most of the ride.  Except the bad events don’t stop there, once off the train Kurt and I went on a hunt for food the completely wrong way. The hotel in Vienna gave terrible directions, even when I was trying to find the post office they didn’t explain things well enough for me to find them. Finally, to add to the bad first day in Vienna, it was extremely hot and I didn’t have any water to drink at the time. So I was running on fumes, no food and no water. Other than that it was a good day. My favorite thing Monday was the Catacomb tour. It was amazing to see how they used to discard the remains of people and walk through the maze under the church. Had it not been for that tour I never would have know something that extensive existed under the church.

Tuesday might have been the best day just because we got to see Dr. Wasser dress up. I knew something was fishy when he didn’t come with us on the subway, but I wasn’t expecting to see him in the full plague doctor gear. It was hilarious watching and hearing him talk the first time in it because he was trying to hide his true identity. He was able to fool a few people, however, those of us (myself included) that had him for physiology back home could tell it was him from his voice. In addition to the costume it was still a very interesting and fun lecture.  The funeral museum also was very unique. I found it strange how death and burial can cause fear in people differently here then back home. The bell system was an ingenious way to settle the mind of people because it gave them the comfort that if buried by accident they could signal for help. A not so fun way to ensure death was by stabbing the person in the heart. To me, that sounds like a terrible way to settle someone down. For example, if the person wasn’t dead before, they would be then. It’s essential murdering someone or stabbing a corpse, either way it’s creepy and wrong. At least creepy and wrong to me because I was taught different traditions about death growing up.

Wednesday was a different story.  It was spotted with interesting things at times. Sometimes I would be at full attention and other times I would be trying to stay awake. Unfortunately the lecture with Dr. Marz was one of those times. I was interested in what he had to talk about, except his voice made it difficult to pay attention. I didn’t fall asleep or anything, I could just tell I was zoning out at times. The most interesting thing I learned from his lecture was how in Vienna they go directly to medical school out of high school, unlike us. Also, how instead of interviews and formal applications they take a single test and take the top 750 people. In some ways it seems like a good system to cut down application time, but it doesn’t account for those bad test takers who could actually be great doctors. Fools tower was not what I was expecting. I was thinking it was going to be a museum of what it used to look like and how rooms looked like prison cells or something. Instead, it turned out to be a large collection of formaldehyde specimens and wax models of diseases and deformities. Regardless, however, it turned out to be a good museum and great tour. Also on Wednesday was the concert inside St. Anna’s church. I didn’t realize how small the venue was going to be, but it was quaint and turned out very nice. My favorite song of the night was Ava Maria, even though it did make me a little sad because of the background it has with my family.

Thursday was another lecture by Dr. Wasser. However, this time it was a little less enjoyable due to a hot room and uncomfortable seats. I feel as though we should’ve done the lecture in the conference room in the hotel and then walk to the Freud museum. In reality it wouldn’t have made a difference because the lecture was in a random room not directly inside the Freud house. Too late now though, it’s already been done. The lecture tied in really well to the tour and, just like Dr. Wasser said, it was cool how we could go from lecture to the real thing. Josephinum was also done this day and, just like the others, was interesting in its own way. The 200-year-old wax models were beautiful in the way that they were so detailed for the time. It was amazing to see how the models of the day used to look and how helpful the 3D nature of them was. Now all we get in classes are 2D pictures of the anatomical structure of humans. I am a person who learns by seeing and I feel like 3D models like that could be very useful.

Friday, the last day in Vienna, was only a half-day. Today we went to the natural history museum and body works exhibit. The natural history museum felt massive and a little rush though. We had to skip a bunch of exhibits just to finish in time. The same happened for the body works exhibit sadly. I feel like we could spend an entire day in some of these museums because they are so large.

That’s the week in a glance from Vienna, now we are off again. Next destination is Innsbruck, so until then…

Week 3-Part 1

Our first weekend on the loose was a great experience. The journey to Munich was stunted by a delayed, then cancelled, then magically reappearing train, but we finally made it to the hostel late Friday night. This was my first experience at a hostel, and I can definitely say it was a positive one (for those of you looking into visiting Munich, it’s called Wombat City Hostel). The employees were friendly and helpful, and the atmosphere was great for mingling. It’s amazing what a small world we live in; our dorm-mate at the hostel was from Houston, and we met someone at another hostel that is a student at t.u.

On Saturday, we first spent a few hours walking around town. Munich is a beautiful city with a magnificent town square. We checked out some of the cathedrals as well as many of the little shops around the square. I hit the hostel for a nap in the afternoon since I wasn’t feeling well but later we visited the one and only Hofbrauhaus, which definitely lived up to my expectations. Drinking an entire liter of beer was a daunting task, but we all managed to enjoy all of the delicious brew and a hearty meal of meat, dumplings, gigantic pretzels, and the like. The only aspect of the Hofbrauhaus that we did not enjoy was the unfriendly nature of the wait staff which we experienced at other similar venues in Munich as well. 

On our final day in Munich, we first visited the BMW museum and showroom. I did not think I would enjoy that particular venture but it was actually very neat to see the Rolls-Royce exhibit and check out the Minis and their accessories. I myself drive a baby blue Mini Cooper named Ricardo, and it was very difficult to resist buying some accessories to take back with me. Next we headed to the home of the 1972 olympics where we enjoyed some delicious bratwurst and explored the park. The architecture of the park was really neat; it appeared as though the roofs of the buildings were strung up like tents. Our final stop was the English garden. The weather was beautiful and the park was lovely with plenty of trees, water, and places to stop for food, drinks, and of course gelato. After a nice nap in the shade we went looking for food. We all broke down and had KFC, which was a most delicious and American birthday dinner.

We are now on our way to Vienna, and since it’s past 7 AM I can now officially consume alcohol legally in the states! Can’t wait for our busy week ahead in Vienna. Tschüss!

first free weekend, adventures in Interlaken

For the longest time I was on the border with what I had wanted to do with my first weekend off. I had friends in both Budapest and Salzberg that I had wanted to see but at the same time had a whole list of other places. Interlaken being the number one choice at the time, the only thing making me hesitant was money and I turned out to be right, although if I could do it again I'd do it the same, not one regret I wouldn't change a thing.
Leaving Bonn felt different, I was gonna miss my comfortable living situations whilst stuck in hostels for the next couple weeks. We arrived in Switzerland and got lost going to the world famous Balmers hostel when I was nearly tackled in the street, looking up in a daze I saw one of my good friends from camp earlier this summer Cameron paschal half way across the world. Wound up spending a good part of the night following with him and made some great memories in a club that used to be a WWII air raid bunker.

The next day we did alot of scenic hiking and had the opportunity to go white water rafting on class 3 and 4 rapids which needless to say was amazing. Worth every penny spent. That night before going out I was sitting in the lounge writing a similiar blog when out of no where was ambushed by two girls with whom I am good friends with half way around the world back home in God blessed College Station. Spent the rest of the night and the following day with those two making memories and catching up.

If Interlaken was anything like the rest of my weekends are gonna be, I dont know quite how to handle it. It was amazing.  More to come.

Week 2 (2)

This weekend was our first traveling free weekend and a group of us decided to go to Interlaken, Switzerland. This city is by far the most beautiful city I have ever visited. Not only are there 2 crystal blue lakes that juxtapose the city, but it is also enclosed on almost all sides by the Swiss Alps. These two lakes are essentially reservoirs of the water that melts off of the alps, so even though it was the middle of the summer, what should be the hottest time of the year, the water was still impossible to leisurely swim in without a wetsuit. During my time in Switzerland, aside from exploring the city of Interlaken, I went white water rafting (down the flow of the melting ice) and hiking through part of the alps. This was not my first time hiking a mountain so this was not too new and awe-inspiring as was rafting. The experience of rafting was very fun as well as a great work out. We rafted a total of an hour and a half. There is simply no comparison to paddling down a river running between the Swiss Alps enjoying the ice cold water in a warm and cozy wetsuit. Since our time in Switzerland was somewhat limited, everything had to happen at a fairly face passed manner. Our mountain hike was up the smallest peak in the Swiss Alps, Harder Kulm. This peak, where we capture a short video blog was at 1322m and had a spectacular view of the city of Interlaken. Unfortunately, with all these amazing sceneries came a hefty price.  Not only does the country use a different type of currency (Swiss Franks, about 1.06 to 1 USD) but also prices everything extremely high. A pizza easily goes for 22-30 Franks, Big Mac meal 11.50, McDonalds (Basic) Hamburger 2.50, and even Döner, a relatively cheap turkish food (about 3.5 Euros in most of Europe), was 8 Franks. Overall, I felt that two days was the perfect amount of time to spend in Switzerland, to enjoy enough of the city and overpay for everything for just a short amount of time.

48 Hours in Interlaken!

Talk about a busy two days! We took Interlaken by storm, and are exhausted! We got into the ciy on Friday night around midnight.  On Saturday morning, we all got up early and met for breakfast.  We took a trolley up to the top of Harder Kulm.  We hiked down the mountain over the course of the morning.  It was alot steeper and slightly more treacherous than I expected! However, the scenery was beautiful and I really enjoyed the morning to take in the gorgeous weather and amazing sight that is the Swiss Alps.  After hiking down the mountain without any major disasters, we headed back to our hostel to be picked up for white water rafting.  White water rafting was an absolute blast!  I had never been before, and had no idea what to expect, but it was certainly more intense than anything I had imagined.  All six of us in Switzerland went together.  We were given wet suits, water shoes, wet suit jackets, helmets, and life jackets to wear while rafting down this glacial river!  We went over safety for quite a while, which made me even more nervous.  We then rafted down the river with our guide, listening to his commands and doing our best to row in sync!  We all had the chance to hop in the river, which was fairly frigid!  We had tons of fun together, and I can't wait for the opportunity to do it again.

On Sunday, we all got up and checked out of our hostel.  We walked around town, bought some souvenirs, and soaked up as much of the scenery as we could.  Our hostel had a hammock room, and we all grabbed a hammock and a nap!  It was truly a special experience to get to nap with the Swiss Alps as your view.  That afternoon, we did what has without a doubt been my favorite activity of the trip so far.  Alex, Kyle, and I went skydiving with a company called ScenicAir.  We had been talking about it for weeks, but had finally signed up on Friday before arriving.  I was so nervous!  We went out to the airfield and got suited up in our jumpsuits and harnesses.  I was excited, but nervous and dreading it at the same time.  Then, we loaded up into the airplane and took off for 13000 feet.  That was about the longest plane ride of my life! I'm a student pilot, so have spent a good amount of time in single engine planes, but I have never been this nervous during a take off! After getting to 13000 feet, the instructors opened the door and started jumping out, my heart was beating faster than ever.  There were six people in the plane, but Alex was the first of our group to jump.  After she jumped, my instructor started moving us to jump out of the plane! He told me to curl my feet up under than plane and lean my head back.  Before I could even think through the process, we were tumbling out of the airplane.  My stomach dropped as we started free falling through the sky!  I was nervous I was going to hate the experience, but once opening my eyes, I really enjoyed it.  It was unlike anything else I've ever done, and it was so humbling to see how small we are in comparison to the world around us.  We were in free fall for about 45 seconds, reaching a speed of over 200 km/hr.  At 4000 feet, my instructor pulled the parachute, and we shot back up into the air.  I have never felt so much relief as I did in that moment! We then glided down to the landing field as a storm was blowing in, which was a little worrisome!  However in the end, I am so glad I did it.  It was fun and a very unique experience.  I would without a doubt go again.

Overall, our weekend in Interlaken was fantastic!  It was busy from beginning to end, but we got to see and experience one of the most beautiful places on earth.  We then took an overnight train to Vienna and arrived here at the crack of dawn. I'm ready for another busy and eventful week, and can't wait to head to Prague next weekend!

Week Two in Bonn!

         This is the end of our second week in Bonn and it has been a great one. I have experienced and learned so much this past week. The week started off by getting to know about some of the important groups of people that have influenced medicine. Each of these different groups have contributed to how advanced medicine is today. Many of the theories and methods that they used had some of the right ideas to modern medicine today. Although some of the ideas in ancient medicine were right some of them were also wrong. Galen made several mistakes in describing the human body, such as the liver and uterus having cotyledons. Many of Galens theories were accepted in the medical field in many countries, even if they had evidence to prove otherwise.

          In another lecture we also learned about how the Nazi's got their ideas about eliminating the weak in their populations. Many men contributed to their ideology of having only the strong, healthy people be apart of the community. Once Hitler connected the weaker people to that of handicapped, jewish, and terminally ill, he decided that these people were a burden on the society. This led Hitler to create concentration camps where millions of people were killed. He created a secret operations called T-4 where he went to hospitals and collected all of the handicapped and terminally ill patients. After they were collected he would have them killed. This operation was done in secret, yet many of the german people knew what was happening.

          Also this week we visited Beethoven's house where he was born. I was kind of disappointed in this tour since he did not really spend much of his life here. But it was very interesting getting to know about his life and how he had lost his hearing. I am fascinated to learn more about Beethoven and other composers whenever we get to Vienna.

          I have had a amazing time so far, cant wait for what else is to come!

Week 2-Part 2

I can’t believe it’s the end of our second week in Germany. We are on a train bound for Munich, our first big adventure outside of Bonn. This past week we had a busy schedule in Bonn and Cologne. On Tuesday we had a tour of the House of History with Dr. Wasser. I was not very informed on the modern history of Germany before our arrival. I enjoyed learning about Germany’s recent history instead of just focusing on the atrocities of World War II in and of themselves. I definitely had a better understanding of the country we are visiting after the tour. On Wednesday we visited Beethoven’s place of birth, and I found some of the pieces housed at the museum interesting; the various hearing aids that Beethoven used were amongst them.

On Thursday we had our big field trip to Cologne. I find it amazing how far back the history goes back in cities like Cologne, all the way back to Roman times. We had a very good tour guide who showed us around the city and gave us an idea of what the city might have been like in the past. The Gestapo prison we visited was a humbling experience. We have all heard of what went on in Germany’s darker past, but it is a much more powerful experience to see first hand the nature of what went on and immerse oneself into the personal experience of those that had passed through the prison. Our last activity of the day was a trip to the top of the cathedral. The elevator was terrible. I also did not like being on the edge of the cathedral on the metal railing. Besides being terrified of how high up we were, the view was amazing and I had a great time experiencing the history of the cathedral. I love architecture, especially that of the gothic era.

Today we had our last German class. It’s amazing how much we have learned in just a few days of German class and History of Medicine. As a pre-vet student, I have enjoyed learning about human medicine for a change and comparing and contrasting it to veterinary medicine. For example, I found the lecture on the Nazi euthanasia programs interesting. In veterinary medicine, euthanasia is a common practice to alleviate suffering and I found the Nazi’s misuse of euthanasia appalling. I thought some of the original thinking of Binding made some sense, but the results of its misapplication a terrible misuse of a positive practice in its ability to end pain and suffering. I also found our lecture on ancient Roman medicine interesting. I find it amazing how far the field of medicine has come, from the bloopers of Galen to today’s ability to treat diseases that were impossible to cope with in the past. Learning about the long and diverse past of medicine makes me wonder what kinds of things we will one day look back on and say, “What were we thinking?”

This coming week we have a busy schedule ahead in Vienna and a great time in Munich to look forward to over the weekend. Until next time!

First Week of Class

First week Blog

This first week of class has been a week that was unlike any other week of studies I have ever experienced. It is one thing to listen to lectures and look at pictures of pieces of Germany history and medical history, but it is another thing entirely to actually see and walk around in some of these historic sites.

            The first week of classes consisted of 6 German language courses taught by Hilde, which to my surprise were not too painful and I am much more comfortable speaking with Germans in restaurants and around the city than I was when I first arrived. The history of medicine classes consisted of Paleolithic to Middle age medical practices along with a bit of necessary history about German history and German doctors. To say the lectures were teeming with information and important people in the history of medicine would be an understatement. We covered a lot of material in this first week, but it was nice to have talked about many of these things before actually visiting sites of history such as the former Gestapo prison in Koln.

            We also visited Beethoven’s place of birth this week. The artifacts on display in his house such as the ear trumpets that he used in his later years of waning hearing and his desk were very cool to see. It was a disappointment that he only lived in the house for three years though and the front of the house today was not the one that he lived in. Our trip to Koln was a lot of fun and very interesting. Our trip to the top of the Cathedral and all around the innards of the cathedral was awesome and our tour guide covered almost every inch. My favorite tour was the trip to the Gestapo prison. It is a miracle that the building did not get destroyed in the War and it is a very real and personable part of history. The horrendous conditions that the prisoners had to face was easily seen walking through and the old inscriptions on the walls made everything so much more personal and real. I have learned more this week that I could have imagined and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the trip has in store.

After the Munich Weekend

Last night we all broke down and had KFC for dinner and it was delicious. I feel a little guilty about eating American food but it really hit the spot. A group of us went to Munich this weekend and we had a great time. We saw a lot in Munich but some of my favorite things were the Deutsches Museum, the 1972 Olympic grounds, the Englischer Garten, and the famous Hoffbrauhaus.  The Deutches museum was the world’s largest collection of science and technology and it was really interesting and huge too. There are thousands of pieces in the museum so I only saw a fraction of the exhibits. The best exhibit was an electricity display. A man went up inside a Faraday Cage and the cage was shocked with 210,000 volts leaving the man safe inside. Then I saw an exhibit on engines. It had everything from very early steam engines that are the size of a truck and only produces 1 to 2 horsepower, to advanced jet engines producing thousands of pounds of thrust. Everything was very interesting; I probably could have spent an entire day in there viewing the pieces. The Olympic stadium was also really cool. I really liked the architecture of the stadium. The roof looked like a giant plastic sheet being hung up by strings and the landscaping around the stadium was also really pretty. The Elglischer Garten was really pretty and gigantic. It is twice the size of Central Park in New York. I really liked going to the park to relax and leave the fast pace of the big city for a little bit. After walking around the museum on Saturday, we went to the famous Hoffbrauhaus and got the giant one-liter mugs of beer. Luckily the beer was good or that one-liter would have been hard to put back.

            The day-trip to Cologne on Thursday was fantastic. The tour of the city was really cool and I thought the moonies, the statues on the outside of buildings that moon the people below, were really funny. Then we took a roof-top tour of the Cologne cathedral was amazing. The cathedral is so big that it’s hard to imagine that people were able to build it using centuries old technology. Every little bit of the cathedral had some small, special detail to it, and I feel like it would take a year to learn the meaning and history behind everything I the cathedral.

            Now I am in Vienna getting ready to go on a tour of the catacombs, which I am really looking forward to. I will blog again soon. Tschuss!

            

A Weekend in Munich

It was a bit of a journey getting to Munich, but we made it. Everything was going according to plan until we got to Frankfurt and realized that our second train was delayed almost two hours. Then as we waited, we learned that the train had been completely cancelled. There was another train in about an hour going to Munich, so we decided to wait, but while waiting our original train strangely arrived, so we got on and arrived in Munich a few hours later. 

Never having before experienced a hostel, my first impression was definitely overwhelming. Immediately upon walking in the music was bumping and there were teenagers/young adults everywhere of all different nationalities. When I walked into my room I expected to find it either empty or with the same type of atmosphere. Instead, it was a family of two adults and three kids. They were very nice though and everything turned out fine. I feel as though hostels are a great way for you to get to know different people from around the world and to interact and learn more about them and their subsequent cultures. I now look forward to the other hostels that I will stay in while here. 

On Saturday, we did a lot of walking and sightseeing around Munich, ending at the Deutsches Museum(the largest science museum in the world). On our way to the museum, we walked past the Marienplatz, a huge building of beautiful architecture, the viktualienmarkt, the biggest outside food market that I have ever seen, and many other ornate and beautiful buildings. Once at the Deutsches Museum, we walked through as many exhibits as we could, but realized that it was a lot bigger than we had previously even thought. Some of my favorite exhibits included models of old ships including the Titanic, a 300-year old ship reconstructed indoors, many different life-size airplanes, a medicine portion that talked about a lot of what we have learned in class thus far, and a musical instrument section that had possibly every instrument ever made. We only spent a few hours there, but you could easily spend a weekend there and still miss some things. Following the Museum we went to the Hofbrauhaus, the largest beer hall in Germany and the ultimate German Experience. With a liter of house made beer, pork and potatoes covered in gravy, a pretzel bigger than your head, and a polka band playing as you eat, it does not get much more authentic than that. We were all EXTREMELY full and satisfied once the meal was over. 

On Sunday, we went to the BMW Welt and Museum, the Olympiazentrum (where the 1972 Olympics were held), and the Englischer Garten (a park twice as big as Central Park). At the BMW Welt and Museum, we got to see the both old and new models of BMW, Mini, and Rolls Royce cars. For the guys it was like a dream come true, but I don’t think the same could be said for the girls. At the Olympiazentrum, we walked around and got to see Olympic Stadium as well as the Natatorium, the track, and other places where the Olympic events had taken place forty years before. The Englischer Garten, which was packed with people, was extremely relaxing and equally as beautiful. All in all it was a day full of being outside and enjoying the beautiful weather. 

As a whole, Munich was definitely a lot bigger and busier city than Bonn. It was a good weekend trip, with us being able to see all of the landmarks we wanted to see. The only complaint that I could have is that the people we interacted with were not very nice. On a few different occasions we had waiters at restaurants give off an angry and unwelcoming vibe. This may be normal, but it was something that I have not experienced in Germany thus far. It was a great weekend though and I would recommend Munich to anyone who is coming to Germany. 

History Overload (Week 2 in Germany)

      Now that we have gotten into the swing of things and have been consistently busy, this week has absolutely flown by. I can't believe that tomorrow is Friday and that I have been in Germany for over a week now. Most importantly though, I can't believe how much that I have learned within only a week of school. We had our six German classes, of which I can say that I definitely feel as though I know more German than I knew before (Mein Name ist Kurt. Ich komme aus Texas. Ich studiere medizen. Ich bin zwanzig). I only hope to learn more and that I can retain what I have learned up to this point. In regards to Dr. Wasser's History of Medicine portion of the course, we have gone through thousands of years of medical history in just a span of a few hours. It was a lot of information to grasp, but there were certain points to each time period that stood out above the others. Starting the farthest back chronologically, hunters and gatherers were not thought to have experienced much, if any, disease because of their isolated and nomadic way of life. Humans began to experience diseases never before seen due to their increased interaction with animals such as dogs and cows (known to have given humans measles and smallpox) when they started to not be nomadic, but to stay in places due to agriculture. In regards to the Greeks, a potentially fictional character named Hippocrates came up with the Hippocratic Oath, which consisted of "first do not harm" a patient. He believed strongly in treating each patient on their own basis depending on their specific conditions (something that modern doctors don’t always do). With the Romans we learned of Galen, who is one of the most famous doctors of all time. He was known for being very egotistic, telling others how great of a doctor he was. His work was frequently looked upon for the next thousand or so years by many other physicians. This wouldn't be a problem, other than the fact that some of his beliefs on the anatomy of humans were wrong due to him only dissecting animals. For instance, he believed that the liver had fingerlike lobes, which we now know to definitely not be true. We are able to know a lot of this information now due to Arabs translating works hundreds of years ago, which allowed the works to then be re-translated even if the originals were destroyed. A main theme throughout the lectures though regardless of the time period was that diseases were treated by how people were thought to have acquired the disease (for instance, if believed to be caused by a punishment from God, the disease would be attempted to be healed through religious means). One form of treatment in the 1600's even dealt with applying human feces to injuries. We switched gears one day, learning about the history of euthanasia. Some books written before the Nazi's rise to power made arguments as to why it would be justifiable to euthanize those that were of "negative value" to society and themselves, but also added that this would only be okay if consented by either the patient first, or the mother if the patient could not. The Nazi's however did not abide by this latter part, and killed tens of thousands of mentally handicapped people through euthanasia without any consent.

     Outside of the class, a lot of history was learned as well through different trips. This week we went to The History Museum in Bonn, Beethoven's House, Gestapo headquarters in Cologne, the Cologne Cathedral, and "Old Town" in Bonn. I learned a lot of new and interesting things from each of these tours and places. For instance, I learned from Dr. Wasser at the History Museum that part of the reason why people were initially allowed to leave East Germany before the official end of the Berlin Wall was a mistake by a political figure during a speech in which he said (because he did not know when asked) that people would be able to leave "immediately." At Beethoven's house, I learned that Beethoven had originally gone to Vienna on a trip, but once French troop's had driven the prince elector in Bonn out of town, that he stayed in Vienna for the rest of his life. The Gestapo headquarters in Cologne and the Cologne Cathedral were both very memorable as well. We learned a lot about the Roman history within Cologne itself, got to see the Cathedral in ways that are rarely seen by others, and got to learn about the horrific imprisonment of people in the Gestapo headquarters during World War II. It was definitely a week full of a lot of history, but one that helped me personally appreciate how we got to where we are today in regards to medicine and post World War II Germany. 

Munich: Home of the 1 Liter Beer

Our weekend trip to Munich was spectacular! It started off a little stressful but turned out to be a great experience. We left the Bonn Hauptbahnhof on Friday and made our way to Frankfurt for our connection to Munich. When we arrived in Frankfurt, we saw that our train was delayed 110 minutes due to something being wrong with the 22^nd cart (we are unsure exactly because the ticker was only in German so we picked out what we could). We went to the help center to see what we could do and he said there is a train coming in two hours that we could take but that they may bring one in to replace the broken train. John went back to check again with the help center and not long after he left, the ticker changed and said that the replacement train was coming into the station. I told the rest of the group to call John while I ran to get him before the train left. After sprinting through the full length of the terminal twice, we finally made it to the train and got on but there was nobody on the train…then out of nowhere an attendant started yelling at John and I and we had no idea what she was saying. We asked for English and she said to get off and go to the front of the train. We then proceeded on towards Munich.

That first night in Munich was pretty relaxing so we could rest up for a long Saturday! We basically went exploring on Saturday just trying to see as much of this enormous city as we possibly could. We went into the main part of the city and saw a bunch of random shops, the best one was the cuckoo clock store with a whole bunch of clocks, nutcrackers, and many other collectable items. We then proceeded to the big catholic church in the city (not nearly as big as the cologne church though). After walking around for a bit more and stopping for some pig knuckles (that still had some hair them), we went on the subway system to go to the Deutsches Museum which is the largest science history museum in the world. And I believe their claim. This museum was massive, we were there for over two hours and I don’t think I saw half of the exhibits they had in the museum. There were still two more wings and an underground area that I didn’t get to. The best exhibit was the Pharmaceutical/Medicine/Physiology/Pathophysiology exhibit. I think I stayed there for about thirty minutes refreshing myself on my VTPP 434/435 while also learning about the pathophysiology for quite a few diseases. After the museum closed at 5pm, we headed back to the center of the city to go to the famous Hofbrauhaus. This brewery lived up to its expectations and even surpassed them! We all had 1 liter original beers, and they were delicious! They had live traditional German music and there were many men and ladies wearing the traditional Liederhosen. I bought a 1 liter glass as a souvenir. After dinner, we went out on the town to celebrate Carson’s 21^st birthday.

On Sunday, our main goal was to see the Olympic park where Munich hosted the 1972 summer Olympic Games.  In the Olympic park vicinity, there was the BMW museum, show room and factory. We toured the show room for a good while just looking at all of the different BMW models and even their new line of electric cars. We eventually made our way to the Olympic park where we had a great lunch under the trees by the pond. The park was more crowded than I had assumed it would be, and there were a bunch of people in the natatorium enjoying their Sunday afternoon. We left the Olympic park and headed back towards town to go see the very large English Park. There were a ton of people here laying out and tanning, enjoying beer at the huge biergarten and playing various sports all throughout the park. We found a nice place in the shade that wasn’t too noisy and took a much needed nap! After this, we headed back to the hostel to rest up for our early four-hour train ride to Vienna!!