We’re on our 11.5 hour fight home and I am so sad to be leaving! I can’t believe that three weeks flew by so quickly. I keep thinking of all of the things that I’m going to miss about Germany/Austria and it’s making me even more gloomy. Even though there are a bunch of things that I’m excited about doing again when we get back to America (like running and eating Cheerios) I am still surprised that I didn’t miss home at all during our time abroad. I thought that I would get tired of things being so different or I would be homesick but that didn’t happen at all. Maybe it’s because we were doing so many exciting things and I was surrounded by such awesome people.
On Thursday, we went back to the hospital in Vienna and had a lecture about the Austrian medical system. I didn't know this before, but medical students in Austria start their training right after they finish their equivalent of high school. Also, kids in Austria basically have to decide what type of university they will eventually go to when they are only 10 years old. I feel like this is a very life-changing decision to make so early in life.
I didn't really talk about the hospital at all in my last blog, but it was absolutely enormous. I’m so glad that Dr. Zack was with us when we went there last Wednesday, because even if I could read the signs, I definitely would have gotten completely lost on my own. One random thing that I thought was really cool about the hospital was that it had escalators that were like ramps instead of stairs, so people in wheelchairs could ride on them too.
After lunch we went to a museum that used to be an insane asylum but now had a bunch of wax models and preserved medical specimens. Our tour here was really cool and we got to see a bunch of diseased organs. One really cool specimen was from a man who was perfectly normal except that all of his internal organs were reversed so they were a mirror image of how they were supposed to be. I think our guide said that he eventually died of appendicitis. The doctors didn't know what was making him sick when he was alive, because they couldn’t find the appendix since it was on the wrong side.
We went to the Operetta that night, and the set was really cool because it was on this rotating platform that connected all the different scenes. It took me a while to get used to everyone talking in German and I wasn't always sure what exactly was going on, but I still enjoyed it. We had great seats in the balcony so I got to watch the orchestra play during all the musical numbers, which was awesome.
On Friday morning we watched the “Spanische Hofreitschule” horses training for dressage shows. These horses were cool because they are born with a dark brown coat, and then they turn gray as they grow up, and finally white when they reach adulthood. We then had lunch in a little café and I had really good soup!
We went to Sigmund Freud’s house in the afternoon and Dr. Wasser’s lecture here was really interesting. I had learned about Freud and his theories in my psychology classes before, but I really didn’t know anything about him as a person and the things he lived through. I didn’t realize that he was forced to leave his home in Vienna and leave most of his possessions behind, and I also didn’t know that he had around 40 surgeries on his jaw. Also, learning a little about his family dynamics kind of explains some of his theories that I thought were really strange before (well, maybe I still think they’re strange, but at least they make more sense now.) Afterwards we visited the Vienna History Museum and I really learned a lot from or guide. I especially like the model of the city that she showed us that was made by a bunch of different architects.
I loved visiting the Natural History Museum yesterday. The fossils and reconstructed skeletons of the prehistoric animals were really awesome, especially the one of the giant sea turtle. I also liked the display about plate tectonics with the spinning wheel that showed how the earth changed over time and what it would look like in the future. The “Body World” exhibit of animals was also amazing. My favorite specimens were the ones that showed the vasculature of the various animals because they really gave you an idea of how densely the blood vessels are packed into the body. Even though most of them didn’t even include the smaller vessels, parts of the models still looked like entirely red masses. We also found what we believed to be the only water fountain in Germany/Austria at this museum, so we were pretty excited about that.
For lunch, we went to this little Greek restaurant which some people had gone to the night before and said was amazing. I had never had Greek food before but Katie insisted that it was excellent so I went too, and it did not disappoint. I wish I remembered the name of the place because I would definitely recommend it to future students. We went souvenir shopping after lunch and even though I never found a stein that wasn’t crazy expensive, I got a glass mug with the Austrian crest on it that looks pretty cool. I also got plenty of gummy bears and chocolate to bring home.
Our farewell dinner was so much fun last night. I’m so happy that our whole group gets along really well together and everyone is really fun. I think it’s funny that we all ended up crammed in at one table instead of sitting comfortably at separate ones. Singing the Aggie War Hymn was also really fun even though we got some weird looks from the Austrians walking by.
We’re on our second plane flight now, and I’m already having symptoms of Germany withdrawal. I guess I’ll just have to try and make myself feel better by eating gummy bears and looking through all of the pictures I took. I had such an amazing time, experienced some awesome things, and met a bunch of wonderful people! I really hope that I’ll get to go back here some day because these have really been some of the best weeks of my life.
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