Singing in Vienna

Vienna is a wonderful city! Yesterday we took a walking medical history tour of the city givin by our own Dr. Wasser (and his guide book). We saw alot of streets and places that belonged to famous doctors. We also visited the sight where Mozart died, it is now a department store but on the 7th floor there is a large bust of Mozart. The last thing we visited was the Pestzoiler, which is a monument to the plague. After a long lunch break we met back at Stephensplatz to visit the Sigmund Freud museum and recieve a lecture of his life and psychoalanysis by Dr. Wasser. It was interesting to learn that he called himself a 'godless' jew and he worked very hard to establish psychoalanysis as a non-jewish science. He was afraid that if was branded as such it would not be accepted by the scientific community. The exhibits where very interesting, even though only one of the rooms was furnished as it had been in Freuds day. This was the waiting room for the patients. Since Freud fled Vienna at the beginning of WWII, he took all his furniture to London with him, including the famous couch. When the museum was started in the 70's, his daughter Anna donated the waiting room furniture to the museum. The other rooms are devoted to the private and public life of Freud and his collleagues.

That evening we where taken to an operetta by Dr. Wasser and Dr. Zäck. It was by F.J. Strauss and is called Die Fledermaus. It had a very confusing plot and I think the only reason I understood what was going on was from reading the synopsis of the operetta givin to us. The music was great and the singers gave me chills. I really did enjoy myself, my only regret about it was the fact that I could not understand the speaking parts because they were in german. Other than that I had a really good time and would love to go again.

The best part about today is that IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!! We were able to sleep in today and got finished fairly early. The only thing we did was visit the Medical History Museum at the Josephinum. We where givin a short history of the Josephinum and a tour of the main exhibits. The most interesting part was by far the wax models of the museum. They show various body parts and organs. They where intended for use by the medical students to give them an idea of the human body without having to do dissections. All the models are from around the 18th century and are extemely detailed. I really liked the ones that showed various stages of birth and cessarian sections. Apparently the Josephinum is the only place that had gynecological wax models. The rest of our day was spent souviner shopping and resting up for tonight. Around seven we are all going to go to dinner to celebrate my birthday.

It's really hard for me to believe that we only have one day left in Vienna before it's time to head home. I have had a great time and have learned alot about medical history and medicine in general that I did not know before. I hope tomorrow is a great last day, because I will need that to reflect on my long flight home.