Wien Part I!

This past week, we traveled to Vienna.

We started off the trip with a very early morning flight. Needless to say, the majority of us slept the whole plane ride. When we arrived, we took a medical history walk led by Dr. Wasser. I enjoyed having the time to take in the sites before we started visiting specific places. After that, we took a guided tour of the Museum of Vienna. It was interesting to learn about the history of Vienna and I especially enjoyed seeing the various models of the Vienna showing the progression and growth of thecity. Next, we visited the catacombs of St. Stephan’s Cathedral. Before we got there, I just imagined that the catacombs were used for prominent religious people of the past. I had no idea that it was also used as mass burial sites or that it was still in use today. We then had dinner at a traditional Viennese restaurant where I had a delicious mushroom and dumpling goulash. We ended the evening with a girl’s night where we enjoyed two liters of ice cream (sadly we finished the entire thing) and a movie. My favorite part of the first day was visiting the catacombs and then spending more time with the girls in our group.

The next morning, we met at 8:30 ready to go to the Vienna Medical School. Here, we listened to a lecture by Professor Richard Marz on medical education in Europe. It was really interesting to learn about the education system in Europe because it is so different from the one in the United

States. The students in Europe go straight from high school to medical school where the spend six years instead of four. In order to be admitted into medical school, every prospective student has to take an examination and their grade is what they are judged by. Then, they spend six years in residency as opposed to the three we spend. In a way, I think I prefer the European system to the American system. It would be really nice to go straight from high school to medical school. On the other hand, I like that we have to go to college first because I believe it makes us well-rounded students. After the lecture, we visited the Narrenturm, the Federal Pathologic anatomical Museum. This tower was built for the purpose of an insane asylum. At this museum, we saw a variety of specimens exhibiting different diseases. For example, we saw cross-sections of lungs with tuberculosis and black lung and we saw a large amount of wax models of people with skin diseases and mutations. In the beginning of the tour, I was very intrigued with the different pathologies of each specimen but after a while, the extreme nature of the models started getting to me. After the Narrenturm, we visited the Josefinum, which houses a collection of anatomical and obstetric wax models. The different models were previously used as teaching aides in the late 18^th century. After this museum, we were allotted some free time that some of us used to go shopping! After that, we went to a symphony. The symphony was my favorite part of the second day. I enjoyed getting dressed up, seeing everyone else dressed nicely, and then listening to an outstanding array of classical pieces by Stawinsky, Tomasi, and Tschaikowskij. I had never been to a symphony before so this was definitely an experience.