Revival

Renewal. Regeneration. That seemed to be the theme for the past week. From Axolotls to rest, rejuvenation was certainly welcome.

The first weeks of the program were incredible and fast-paced, but by the half-way point of our trip, I was definitely getting worn out. Then came the third week. We still traveled, but with more experience now. Managing train switches is becoming old news, I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I’m in another country, and, honestly, this past week was wonderful.

It was very nice to have a few days in Bonn to start the week and recover from our whirlwind tour through Munich, Vienna, and Prague. Having class at the AIB felt more like the normal school routine I’m used to, and what better to relax you than anesthesiology? Really though, meeting Dr. Stoeckel was a complete honor, and being giving a tour of his mostly personal collection? It was unimaginably spectacular. Of course the sugar high from Haribo later that day re-energized us all.

Our visit the Hannover Medical School certainly brought to light current medical techniques used to give new life as well as plans for future revival. Artificial rotors that relieve stress on the heart muscle by pushing blood throughout the body and external filters that remove toxins from the blood when the kidneys are incapable certainly bring about new life, not to mention the actual physical replacement of those malfunctioning organs with transplants.Our glance into the potential future of medicine at the MHH showed us that new life can start anywhere, whether it be in the form of new skin cells encouraged to grow more quickly by spider silk, or the regeneration of entire limbs by Axolotls.

Then of course we experienced the rejuvenating properties of the entire climate of the island of Norderney, including its air, water, and mud. The tour of the clinic showed us how psychological as well as physical renewal can be possible.

Taking day trips over the weekend sounds exhausting at first, but in reality, this weekend was the most relaxing one so far because once in the city-of-the-day, we could walk where we pleased and just enjoy ourselves. Spending Sunday strolling along the Rhine in Cologne was the perfect close to a relaxing and renewing week three.

~Daily Blogs Posted Below Break~

A Week Gone By

I can't believe I've already spent an entire week in a foreign country. Sometimes it feels like I've been here much longer, but at others, it seems like I've just set foot in Germany for the first time. Every once in a while, I'll look at Victorian-era building or see something written in German and the fact that I'm over 5000 miles from home will hit me so hard I just have to take a moment to let it sink in again.

Many of those moments occur when I'm sitting at the breakfast table at my host family's house and notice the milk isn't milk--it's milch. Either way though, it still comes from cows, and I'm grateful to Family Schuck for housing and providing me with it amd many other delicious foods. The family all speak English incredibly well, so communication is usually very easy. They're always checking up on me and making sure I'm making it from place to place without problems, that I slept alright, or that I have enough food. They are very considerate and caring, and their experience with other study abroad students definitely shines through.

Being a study abroad student traveling across Germany and the bordering countries is definitely different than just being a tourist on summer vacation. When we go places, we're going to learn things, not just point, look, and take pictures, although there's certainly plenty of that going on, too. We've had historical tours of each of the three main cities we've visited so far: Bonn, Köln (Cologne), and even München (Munich), where we went on our free weekend. We've also visited museums, including the Haus der Geschichte (House of History) in Bonn where we followed the progress of Germany from immediately after World War II to present day, and Elde House, the former Gestapo headquarters and prison where we were able to see the inscriptions left on the walls by the prisoners and learn some of their personal stories. In Köln, we were also fortunate to go on two spectacular tours--one of the zoo where we went behind the scenes and fed an elephant, and one of the Köln Dom, Cologne's magnificant cathedral where we ventured 70 meters high and experienced an incredible view of practically the entire city. Both tours were also educational--we learned some of the zoo's history and how they care for dorm of the animals, and at the cathedral we learned much about its construction and how they are continuing to repair it today.

Learning has definitely been the central theme of this trip, along with incredible of course. We've only had a short time in the classroom so far, but every class has certainly been worth while. With Fenja, we learned much more of he German language, including other useful sayings, verbs and how to conjugate them, and many other words we just wanted to know. We also learned about the culture of Germany from a German's point of view, not the stereotypes applied by us ignorant Americans. With Dr. Wasser, we've only had two class times, but in that short amount of time we've learned much about the different health care systems around the world, and how the US health care system is a sort of mixture of many of those models.

After a week spent learning, traveling, and thoroughly enjoying myself, I can safely say that my feelings of anxious-nervousness were completely unnecessary, and that I'm still anxious-excited for the rest of my trip. I can't wait for Week Two, this time spent in Vienna--the city of music, Siegmund Freud, and, my favorite, the Spanish Riding School.

~Daily Blogs Posted Below Break~

Sprechen Sie Englisch?

Yes, I knew that my host mother didn't speak English before I got on the plane to head to Germany. But somehow, I just didn't grasp the reality of the prospect until I was right in the middle of it. As it turns out, pre-departure stress, lack of sleep and jet lag are not condusive to an optomistic outlook in a new/uncomfortable situation. So at first, I was a little shaken. The entirety of our conversation that night consisted of two words, "Danke" and "Bitte". Very polite, but entirely unhelpful when you can't figure out why the phone wont put a call through to your parents and you don't know how to connect to the internet. On top of that, she left shortly after bringing me home because she had a friend's wedding party that evening. She invited me along, but would be out later than I planned on being awake. All this I learned from her daughter Anna, who came over briefly to translate what she could. So needless to say, I was a little shaken. I did get everything figured out eventually, but I was not looking forward to an entire Sunday of "Danke" and "Bitte".

I was surprised then, when Sunday morning came and everything was much better, as things tend to be when you're well rested. She had a dictionary and I had a phrasebook, so our conversations evolved to finding the most important word of the sentence, translating it and the other of us using every possible context clue to pull out the idea behind the word. We walked to a bakery to get bread for breakfast, which took a long time since we had to break to translate so often. She even showed me how to take the bus and find the AIB, told me where I should visit in town that day, and told me when to be home for dinner. Altogether I was rather impressed with our communication abilities.

As the time has passed, I have realized that I am so lucky to have Erna as my host mother. She gets up with me every morning for breakfast, no matter how early I have to be up, and she often offers to drive me in the mornings so that we can take out time eating in the morning. She gives me my full independance and she never gets bothered on the occasions where I can't say when I'll be home. Thanks to our dictionaries, the visits from her English speaking daughter Elisabeth, and some German lessons I had at the AIB, our communication gets better and better so that I look forward to the breakfasts and dinners that we spend together. I must say, I am glad that Elisabeth and Anna live in Bonn and stop by every now and then, they have been so kind and helpful. Now that Erna's granddaughter, Carlotta is visiting, I'm glad I can at least somewhat communicate. Altogether, I feel quite lucky to be more immersed in German language and culture than some of my friends more Americanized host families. I will miss Erna, and her family a lot when I have to leave.

Alex could've been a pimp... or the adventures of Stephanie and Caitlin part deux

Our last full day in Bonn, Stephanie and I decided to visit the famed Drachenfels, which is the site of two castles (one was built in the 19th century and is home to a rich guy, the other is in ruins) and the quarry sandstone for the Koeln cathedral was taken from until they realized they were destroying the mountain.

For this adventure I took the bus for the first time out of the city to meet Stephanie in Ramersdorf, this was weird because thanks to the fact that I live right in Bonn, I've really lived as a city girl and can walk you around good chunks of Bonn but have very little idea how to use most of the public transportation. Thankfully Stephanie met me on the bus and made sure I didn't get off at the wrong station. Of course, the both of us did get off two stops late in Koenigswinter so Stephanie led us through the city and we eventually came to the Drachenfelsbonn, the private railway we took to the top of the mountain. Unfortunately the donkeys were only for children, this was a huge disappointment, but on the train Stephanie and I did get to use our burgeoning ability to smile, nod, and generally give the perception that we can understand the kind people who chat with us in German.

The top of the mountain gave an incredible view of the surrounding countryside which would have been even better if it wasn't misty and threatening rain. We walked up to the ruins and took some fun pictures and I remembered that my camera has a timer feature, so that proved useful. Before leaving the mountain Stephanie and I had some pommes in honor of Alex, who pondered and then rejected the idea of staying in Bonn with us.


This is Stephanie's and my second most romantic outing for two, and of course the pommes.

The hike down the mountain provided even more wonderful views, and we purposely ended up in the town Conrad Adenauer used to live in. Although we didn't visit his house (it was starting to rain) just being in that charming little town was proof enough for why Mr. Adenauer promoted Bonn as the place for West Germany's capital so heavily.

I'm off to enjoy my last dinner with my host family.

Ciao,
Caitlin

I wish I understood more German...

Thus far in Bonn I've had a few minor adventures.

I live right in Bonn, which makes me very close to things, but I use the public transportation less than everyone else. I'm getting the hang of things pretty quickly, mainly because I have a weird knack for public transportation. On Sunday, Stephanie, Andrew, and I took the tram out into the countryside to this rock climbing place. The people there were so immensely helpful in explaining things. Although Andrew only had a little rock climbing experience and I had even less, Stephanie teaches at the A&M rock wall so they put her in charge of teaching Andrew and I what we needed to know. I had a lot of fun mainly because Stephanie and Andrew picked the easiest walls out for me. On the way back though I forgot to get my house keys out of Stephanie's backpack so I couldn't get into the house. Luckily Stephanie had only gone to the AIB, unluckily I got lost 3 times trying to find the AIB and had to call my host mother and tell her to go to dinner without me. I was worried that she was mad that she'd waited for me, she and some friends were going on a picnic, but I think she was just concerned.

Monday I made sure to be on time for dinner with my host mother, we chatted about the Museum König, a natural history museum in Bonn, and also about Konrad Lorenz a pioneering animal ethologist that Dr. Friend (my ethology prof.) is very enthusiastic about. It was fun because she told me a few interesting stories.

The German parliament first met in the Museum König and they hid all the taxidermied animals except the giraffe so in the pictures there are all these dignitaries and towering above them is this stuffed giraffe.

She also told me about this famous swan that imprinted on this boat (I think in Holland?) and so it would follow the tourist boat all around and got so sad when it was taken out of the water for the winter that they put it back in this special pond and tourists from all around the world would come to see the swan. It reminded me of The Trumpeter Swan this old E.B. White book my family listened to on tape when we were kids. In the story this swan cannot trumpet, but his father steals a brass trumpet for him and the swan spends some time bugeling for a summer camp and in a pond playing for a swan boat all in pursuit of this special lady swan who gets stuck in a zoo.

Today, Tuesday, we visited the Museum König to see a Darwin exhibit and we're supposed to write a couple paragraphs about one of the exhibits. The problem is that the exhibits explanations were all in German. Dr. Wasser and Stephie sorf of translated for us but it was a bit difficult and I'm one of those people who likes to read all the signs in an exhibit (this is why my mother and I were kicked out of two museums in Washington D.C. because they were closing and I was still reading the exhibit descriptions.) I can't help but feel that once again on this trip I would get more out of it if I understood more German. I think when I get home I'll endeavor to actually learn German, I've always preferred it to Spanish or French, I think German just sounds wonderful to listen to and maybe I'll have a German Expressionism movie binge while I'm at it.

Anyway This is already way too long so I'll end it here.

Tschüss!
Caitlin