My stomach will probably never recover

I don't really think I will ever really recover either. It's not like Europe has been some huge culture shock, it's actually been pretty much the opposite really, it is just so odd to find out that somewhere, thousands of miles across the globe, people are getting along just fine. Vienna was so similar and so different from anything I had ever experienced.

I am now going to attempt, perhaps unsuccessfully to chronicle absolutely everything that happened in Vienna starting with the night beforehand. This will probably take more than a few posts. I have a remarkable talent for sleeping through alarms no matter how many I set on my phone, or the 3 other devices I can use to wake me up in the morning. Seeing as how I had to meet the bus at 5 am I decided that I should just stay up all night, it was a good decision in as much as I managed to catch the bus, but for the rest of the day I felt like I was going to pass out in the street, which probably had something to do with being terribly sick as well. When I didn't feel like I was about to pass out I had a great time though. The plane ride itself was remarkably pleasant as well. The Germans aren't as obsessed with security, so I managed to keep my shoes on through security, they also let us walk on the tarmac a la Casablanca, so that was fun.

One of the themes that kind of spanned the whole trip, other than overeating of course, was architecture. I took an architecture history course this summer never thinking that I

would use anything I had learned in the class, but now I see buildings I thought would only ever be in a power point in person, heck, I can reach out and touch them. One of the first buildings we walked into on our tour was a Baroque church which, naturally, was incredibly beautiful, if only slightly gaudy. Then there was the university building, the Karlkirche, which I barely managed to get a picture of, even though it is a very important building as far as architects are concerned, and various others that I will show you instead of just talking about, here you go.

Then of course there was the concert we attended, which is not really something I can put into words, you go to a rock concert and everyone already knows who will be playing what, how they will play it, and what it will sound like. That's not quite how this went down. I can't really

describe the various subtleties of the music that were different at this concert, I certainly can't describe the virtuoso trumpet player that was there that night, and all in all words fail me when it comes to that concert, it was

truly incredible.

Another thing that was incredible was the food, I haven't really been dissatisfied with the taste of anything I have had over here, but I have been kind of miffed about portions on occasion, and I really hate having to pay so much for drinks. In Vienna however, I didn't really have anything to complain about, the portions of schnitzel and everything else were simply enormous, here are some pictures to prove my point.

Oh no not again...

Okay so I know this isn’t exactly a tale of awesome adventures or cool places, but this has definitely been a part of my experience in Germany that I feel needs to be documented.  So here goes.  What is this wonderful topic you might ask? Spiders.  Lots and lots of spiders.

Okay really just one more spider of late, but it was HUGE and RED and HAIRY and CRAWLING ON MY BATHROOM FLOOR.  I came into my bathroom after dinner all ready to dispose of my kidney excretions when I noticed something crawling by my foot.  This spider was at least an inch long and hairy.  It was like the monster cousin of those spindly ones I had to crush in my shower.  Fortunately I was able to swallow my scream and quickly trap it under a cup.  I am not ashamed to say that I avoided touching this one and instead chickened out by asking my host mother if she was good with spiders.  She laughed and got a piece of paper to slide under the cup to pick it up.  Apparently her sister-in-law just picks them up with her bare hands.  We both agreed that was a little crazy.  Anyways so thankfully she took care of it for me and I held open the door as she dumped the spider outside.  As my dad would say, that spider is right now probably recounting the tale to his friends of how he made his narrow escape.  I would have squished it, but now I guess I don’t have to worry about its friends organizing revenge.  There is one disturbing thought though.  According my host mom they don’t have spiders like that in Germany.  This leaves the question of how long that spider has been wandering around watching me and where in the world I brought it back from. I certainly hope that the rate of spider appearances in my bathroom is not mathematical.  The rate has been decreasing but the size has been getting bigger.  I could quantify it and guess what comes next, but I have a feeling my efforts would be better spent on my biomechanics homework and that I wouldn’t want to know the size of the next spider in store for me anyways.  Ugh I do not like spiders.

On a slightly happier note, the physiology test is over for the week! WHOOP! It seems like everyone came out decently intact and no one is hating their life too much so the world will go on.  Tomorrow we get to visit the Beethoven house, which I am very excited about, and then hopefully I will stop being lazy and get back into training for the marathon.  I will leave you today with a picture (not of the spider unfortunately) of our late-night studying for the physiology test.  Some of the group chose to stay late at AIB to study for the test.  We were actually pretty productive despite the ping-pong table and piano and I only had to dance around the room once or twice to keep myself awake. 

Note the lovely stick-figure drawings reminding everyone of who presented
what condition

Tschüß for now!

Your-under-attack-once-again-from-spiders-friend,

Megan

Vienna: City of Music

(Dr. Wasser--this post is for last week)


     Vienna was an amazing experience for me--especially since I didn't come back with a huge scar on my shin this time......another story for another time. My favorite part of the whole trip was the concert we attended as a class; it returned to me my appreciation for classical music, and made me want to find a French horn and practice again. The first thing that struck me on Thursday when we arrived at the concert hall was the immense detail covering every inch of wall and ceiling. Frescoes, gold leaf, and carvings adorned each surface with some allusion to history or myth. Busts of famous composers even adorned the high walls of the performance hall itself. Crystal chandeliers cast a warm glow over the room, but when they went out the focus was drawn by stage lights to the performers themselves. 

     The musical selections for the night included Le Baiser de la Fée, by Igor Stravinski; Konzert für Trompete und Orchester, by Henri Tomasi, featuring the virtuoso Håkan Hardenberger; and finally Symphony no. 6, op. 74, "Pathetique," by Tchaikovsky. I definitely regressed to "band geek-dom" and reveled in the French horn soli passages. Our seats were perfect for someone like me, who was trained for years to listen for any and every mistake, because we were far enough that we received the full effect and couldn't pick out any individual sounds with ease. The performance was the best that I have ever heard! 
      
     I hope that I have the chance to be exposed to more classical music in some form or another during my time here! And for now, I will just try to keep the idea of wanting to practice in my head so that when I return home, I will go straight to it!

Test Time

As much as I wish I could spend this week writing about the amazing places we're going and things we're doing, so far this week I've done nothing but study. Monday was our first Biosolid Mechanics class and on Wednesday we have a test in Physiology. Sometimes it's really hard to remember that we're not out here on vacation but to learn. I have to say though, being out here has made me more eager to learn. Maybe it's because I'm so consumed with trying to soak up as much as I can while I'm here. Maybe it's because attendance is mandatory and you can't get away with not paying attention in a class of twelve people :P Whatever the case may be, I feel like I've already learned so much more, and that I'm enjoying it so much more. I have to say, I am very excited that Biosolid Mechanics is starting up. I am an engineer at heart and while physiology is interesting, I think in numbers and equations. I'm looking forward to what we will learn in that class. Our professor, Dr. Moore, mentioned on Monday that we might take a trip to check out the "Aritheum", which is a museum in Bonn of just 4 function calculators. I think that would be a really cool thing to check out. Well, I wish I could keep putting off studying by blogging, but I want an A on this test! Guten Abend!

My Favorite Things

I want to take this blog post to talk about my favorite parts of Vienna. First of all, the Vienna Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra was stellar. The concert hall was very beautiful, with baroque-style decor. As far as the music goes, it was amazing. The first two compositions were beautiful, the second one having a trumpet soloist who performed with what seemed like perfection. After the intermission, it was time for the Tchaikovsky piece. Now Tchaikovsky is one of my favorite Romantic composers so I was really excited for this piece. It was everything I wanted to hear and better. The symphony had four or five movements. There were places of suspense and excitement, as well as beauty and tranquility. What a cool experience to see a world-renowned symphony orchestra perform such awesome pieces by composers who were revolutionary in the art of music at one time.

My other favorite part of the trip was the Vienna Natural History museum. The place was full of many animal species and specimens. I am a Zoology major, so as one can imagine, I was in awe at the vast collection. The museum guide that we had was a good one; he was very knowledgeable and a good communicator. I only wish that some of the captions were in English. I could spend hours in there just learning about the Earth and its natural history. After we were done in the museum, we went to the cafe. Here we had the most delicious hot chocolate. It was a special type that was thick and soupy rather than thin. It came in different flavors, and I got a white chocolate with fruit flavor and it was sooooooooo good.

All in all Vienna was a wonderful trip. It was very tiring, as we had to get up early every day and do a lot of walking. But we visited many interesting and beautiful places, and ate delicious food. I would really love to go back at some point soon in my life

Wien, days 3 & 4

Friday was radiology day, and although we unfortunately didn't get to hear about Ötzi, we did get to walk around the facility and look at some of the imaging instruments, which was interesting. We also had a lecture about ion beam therapy and plans for a building where patients can go to receive this therapy. I found the whole topic of ion beam therapy extremely interesting. Since we had some free time, several of us decided to go to the Albertina to see the Impressionists. I think I have already mentioned that Impressionism is one of my favorites, so this was a dream come true. I saw some old favorites, like Monet's Waterloo Bridge and one of the Water Lily Pond paintings, and also found other artists to admire, like Paul Signac, whose landscapes I really liked, and Seurat, whose sketches were amazing. On the third floor was a special exhibit entirely devoted to Magritte. I had never really considered Surrealism to be one of my favorites, but I found many of Magritte's paintings very thought-provoking, and I enjoyed discussing them with the others. Some of my favorite paintings from this floor were:

Universal Gravitation

Personal Values

Time Transfixed

The Key to the Fields

Saturday morning we went to the Sigmund Freud house and heard the second half of the lecture on Sigmund Freud. It was really neat to be in Sigmund Freud's library and look around to see all the books that were either written by Freud or about him or psychoanalysis. I also enjoyed learning hearing about psychoanalysis itself. We briefly covered it when I took psychology in high school, but this time I seemed to understand it better, and I'm looking forward to reading The Interpretation of Dreams.

(left) What my future library will look like. (right) Sigmund Freud's living room/waiting room for patients.

After lunch we went to the Museum of Natural History. After some initial complications due to our tour somehow being scheduled on the wrong day by the museum people, we had a brave guide volunteer to show us around on the fly. He did a remarkable job, and I learned many facts about the animals and other artifacts exhibited, as well as took a multitude of pictures. Everything seemed worthy of being documented, and I felt a reconnection with my inner child as I got excited over dinosaurs, large cats, giant turtles, wooly mammoths, gigantic blue whale baleen, owls, harpies, snakes, and lizards. After some coffee/hot chocolate, we were ready to grab our luggage and head to the airport for our flight back.

Wien, days 1 & 2

Vienna was amazing; as many have already said the buildings were beautiful and so full of history. I took over 200 pictures and still felt that I had missed many things. I guess that just means I'll have to go back, and soon.

Getting up early Wednesday morning was not my favorite part of the day, but the advantage to having such an early flight was that we got to spend the rest of the day being introduced to the city. We had a walking medical tour, and then went to the Museum of Vienna and St. Stephan's cathedral. Even though we've seen a couple cathedrals/large churches by now, it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful and awe-inspiring they are, and how expensive it is to build them! Like the Cologne cathedral, this one had to be halted mid-production due to lack of sufficient funds, and in this case one of the towers was never finished.

We were pretty tired by this time, but our perseverance was rewarded with a trip under the cathedral to the catacombs. The temperatures plummeted as we ventured underground for a look at the dark, earthen halls and rooms piled high with bones. What with being underground and surrounded by hundred-year-old bones, I felt a little like I was in an Indiana Jones movie. We didn't find any priceless artifacts, but we did see royal Hapsburg organ containers which may or may not leak from time to time, causing a smell so bad that tours have to be stopped for a week.

St. Stephan's cathedral

Harry Potter is everywhere!

That night after dinner, the girls all went shopping and had a girls' night which consisted of eating 2 liters of ice cream, watching a Disney movie, and talking. I really enjoyed getting closer to all the girls on the trip and having the opportunity for everyone to talk about what's on their mind. Also, that ice cream was possibly the best ice cream I've ever tasted.

On Thursday the focus was medicine and physiology, including a lecture about how medical school in Vienna works by Professor März, a tour of the Narrenturm, and a tour of the Josefinum. I really enjoyed the lecture about European medical schools because it made me consider the future and where I might want to go to medical school (since that is my goal), but not in a way that made me freak out and want to drop out of school entirely. I don't know if I would want to go to medical school in Europe for many reasons, such as: the courses would most likely be taught in the native language, medical school lasts six years before another six years of graduate medical education (compared to four years of medical school in the US followed by about three years of graduate medical education), and it would be difficult if I wanted to get certified in the US afterward. On the other hand, I think it would be a really good experience, and since I would already have four years of undergraduate study under my belt, whereas most European medical students come straight from secondary school, I would be very well prepared for the coursework. The Narrenturm was also very interesting, and probably one of my favorite places that we visited, although some of the wax models were quite disturbing. I was equally fascinated and repulsed by some of the specimens, like the siamese twins, the hydrocephalic skulls, the tuberculosis lungs, and the skeletons with rickets. Another model I found particularly interesting was the gangrenous foot. It was absolutely disgusting, and yet I couldn't take my eyes off it. I could hardly stand to think about the conditions the soldiers lived in that caused this to happen. How horrible would it be to dodge bombs and bullets for days and then take off your boot, only to find a greenish-black, oozing lump at the end of your leg? After these gruesome sights and more, I almost wasn't hungry for lunch, but luckily I was, because we had a wonderful, schnitzel-filled lunch. The Josefinum had several displays of medical history, but my favorites were the wax models. We were told they were like the Body World of the 18^th century, but that did not prepare me for how amazingly detailed and realistic they were. We were even more amazed to learn that the details were sculpted, not molded. I also thought it was interesting that the makers chose to display the figures in classical poses from art. Even though the purpose was for medical students to learn about anatomy, it seemed like a bridge between science and art, or an exploration of the human body as both science and art.

outside the Narrenturm

outside of the Josefinum

That night was the concert by the Wiener Symphoniker, or Vienna Symphony Orchestra. It was a lot of fun to be able to dress up and see everyone else looking nice. As almost everyone has already said, the music was incredibly beautiful and the players were extremely talented. The great thing about music is that it's so universal; everyone likes some kind of music, and you don't have to be an expert to appreciate a well-played piece. As much as I enjoyed hearing the music, it was almost as much fun to see everyone else enjoying it so much as well. We could just look around at each others faces and understand, and most of the time found words inadequate to describe our feelings. The concert included a piece by Strawinsky, one by Tomasi, and one by Tschaikowsij, and while all three had their own merits, I think the piece by Tschaikowskij was my favorite. From the beginning I felt emotions welling up inside of me, and as it continued I found myself by turns grinning idiotically and holding back tears (yes, I am a huge dork). Also at one point, it seemed the composer purposely lulled the audience to sleep, and then startled them awake again, just to keep everyone on their toes, which was amusing.

Vienna part 2

Here's the second installment of Vienna memoirs.

Although a lot has happened so far during this study abroad trip, one of the most memorable experiences will be dinner Friday night in Vienna. We had great service, excellent beer, the best pretzels ever for appetizers, delicious Viennese food, all kinds of desserts, and just an all around memorable dinner. It really felt like a big family - perhaps that's a sign that we're becoming more tightly knit as a group. Dr. Wasser really treated us well with this one. If you're a prospective student reading this blog, all you need to know is Dr. Wasser is the man! Seriously, go to Germany with him and you'll see what I'm talking about. Other highlights from Friday were driving down to Neustadt to visit the University of Applied Sciences. I actually included some of the information about student and class size for this University in my previous blog post. I mixed up my information about the Vienna Medical School. We had some free time today so a few friends and I checked out the Hundertwasserhaus. It's a building designed and built

by a contemporary artist, Hundertwasser (see pictures below). It's a truly remarkable sight. It literally looks like something out of a Dr. Suess book, and people actually rent apartments and live in the Hundertwasserhaus. If I was a kid growing up there, I would such a distorted perception of reality - thinking that I came from a Dr. Suess book or something. There's also a souvenir shop right across the street that houses the Toilet of Modern Art, where you can pay .60 euros to relieve yourself onto "art." I didn't have any change, but I thought the idea was cool.

Saturday of the Vienna excursion was great. It was truly awe inspiring to stand in the house of the great Sigmund Freud. Dr. Wasser gave a lecture on pyschoanalysis INSIDE Sigmund Freud's house. Not only is that absolutely cool for us as students, but equally as great of an opportunity for him as an instructor. I ended up buying a couple of his books while we were there. I intended for them to be gifts for my girlfriend, Brittany, and someone else, but they may have to wait until I'm done reading them. They are fascinating! We also went to the museum of natural history. I don't care how old you are, dinosaur fossils are always cool. It still amazes me how large all the lifeforms were millions of years ago. But from what I remember in my entomology class, smaller is more efficient. It's also crazy to think that some animals haven't evolved since the Jurassic period (for example, turtles). This means they are some of the most successful biological designs thus far. We had a tour through most of the rooms with a very helpful guide then went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and fly back to Bonn. All together, it made for one truly amazing trip.

Until next time....

Vienna part 1

Here's the first part of my reminiscing from the Vienna excursion. Above is a fountain we just happened to be walking by. We weren't told of any real significance for it, but it looked marvelous. This was pretty commonplace throughout the duration of the excursion. The elegance of this city was breathtaking. Everywhere you look, magnificent statues cover buildings and dance around in fountains. The whole time I kept thinking to myself, "normally, people pay to see this kind of work." In hindsight, one definitely pays a little extra for the everyday view of Vienna. The streets were surprisingly clean and free of litter, and the people all dressed and presented themselves in a very classy manner. We visited a catholic church on the first day near one of the old university buildings. The entire worship room was gilded and covered with paintings (see photo). The sophistication motif of this city even meandered its way into the religious realm. The first night we ate at Goulash Museum. I had a beef fillet goulash served from a cauldron suspended over a candle. It was so good that I forgot to take a picture of it until I finished. Our table also had quite possibly one of the oddest beers ever. It was a dark beer, so I was expecting it to be fairly bitter, but it was just as sweet as a root beer float. Afterwards, a few of us went to a local cafe/bar called Excelsior (talk about a classy name). We hung out for a while, and the bar tender liked us enough to give us a few bags of chips for free. All in all, it was a good first day.

Day two highlights were the Vienna Medical School trip, anatomical museum and the Symphony. It still appalls me that tuition is free in some European countries, while in the US tuition and fees for college continuously rise. Personally, I wouldn't mind going to school in Europe. Sure the cost of living might be higher, but you can save with the tremendous decrease in payment for classes. Not to mention, during your free time you can travel Europe. I also liked the smaller class sizes they had at this school. Albeit, it was founded in the 90's, there's only 2-3000 students total - really puts into perspective how big Texas A&M is with 47,000 students. We weren't allowed to take picture in the anatomical museum or of the wax models we saw. However, I was amazed at the attention to detail some of these artists had in creating models of diseases. I was thinking how awkward it might have been for the diseased patient to be sitting there posing for an artist while they sketch and sculpt replications of their condition. There were some really strange physiological anomalies in the anatomy museum. The preservation that shocked me the most was the coal miners lung: it was literally, black. Later that night, we all got dressed up to go to the symphony. Although we all looked classy, I knew it was only mask to hide our truly child-like disposition; for some of us anyway, myself included. I'd have to include myself, because like a teenage kid getting dropped off at the movie theater by his parents, I sneaked in some candy to snack on. But, I definitely wasn't the only college kid in this theater dressed nicely and eating Haribo sour straws, followed by a champagne toast. Afterwards, a few of us went out to another cafe/bar to get some late night foods. They had BBQ burgers there, so naturally a few of a us Texans had to try it. Although, I'm obligated to say I've had better, these Viennese folk knew what they were doing when it came to burgers and BBQ sauce - and the fries were amazing! I don't know what they do to the food in that city, but I could easily get used to it. Another great day in Vienna.

Never a dull moment in Candy Land. (3)

Did I mention how good the breakfast was at the Hotel Deutschmeister? Well, the breakfast was good at the Hotel Deutschmeister!! There was so much variety I'm getting hungry just by the thought of it.

Friday was a day of lectures. We traveled to the University of Applied Sciences and learned all about their program and studies. Although one of the lectures got canceled, the presentations we got were very interesting! Once we got back to Vienna, we got the most awesome dinner OF ALL TIME. Being our last night might have been a reason for this, but I'm pretty sure we all left 20 pounds heavier and happier. After, a few of us went to a wine bar in the center. The place was so fancy and nice that many people were giving Chase nasty looks as he was passing by with his backpack and Nike shirt. I enjoyed this very much.

Saturday we got to meet Sigmund Freud. He said what's up. No, but seriously, I truly enjoyed receiving a lecture over Freud in his apartment and learning more about this interesting man. Going through the house where Freud and his family lived was unreal. I also got a fancy Freud coffee cup to always remember these moments and pretend to be Freud in the mornings.

The Museum of Natural History of Vienna was my favorite! Amazing place outside and inside. Dinosaurs, bears, cats, birds, sharks, reptiles, insects, even bacteria can have a place to shine in this building. I felt like a little kid going around the exhibits and getting excited to see all the large animals. Although I was sad we didn't get to go ice skating, ending the Vienna trip in this museum with a cup of hot chocolate was not a bad alternative.

 Auf Wiedersehen!

Candy