(This
is one long post for the week of March 20th)
Everyone
always exclaims how the world is so interconnected and that 20 years ago none
of the communication we do today would be possible. This definitely true, I mean, back then the
idea of sending emails to people across the world or calling someone on their
cell-phone through your comp would be the stuff of science fiction books, not
something that is done every day.
Despite all of these advances in technology, I am here to testify that
it is far from perfect During spring
break, I had let my email pile up and I spent most of this week (not including the
time spent studying for the biomechanics test) sorting through it and
responding to the important ones.
One of
these emails had to do with housing. I
had applied to live in an on-campus apartment and the rooming assignments fell
out not to be what my roommate and I requested.
I could appeal the process but I had to do it in person. This meant trying to call the office during business
hours (with a 7 hour time difference that was more complicated than you might
think), emailing them, trying to coordinate the requests with my roommate who
is still in College Station, and a slow interconnection, all through the tiny
little screen of my netbook. Trust me,
this was way more complicated than it should have been. So while it is possible to stay connected to
back home while over here, it is definitely requires more work than is implied
when people talk about today’s technological advances.
This week
there were three major events of note (well four if you count the biomechanics
test): A bioethics lecture, anesthesiology museum tour by the father of anesthesiology,
and my 20th birthday.
The
bioethics lecture actually turned out to be very interesting, even if it did
run super late. The lecture reminded me
a lot of ENGR 482: Ethics in Engineering which I had taken along with Cameron my
freshman year. The section we were in
involved a lot of philosophical reading.
I hadn’t thought much of the class had stuck with me (I mean, how much
would you remember from an 8 AM Friday morning recitation) but listening to the
lecture over here brought it all rushing back.
It was interesting to hear the perspective of a guy who was based in
biology but was approaching the problem from the perspective of a
philosopher. It was nice to hear some
intelligent discussion of bioethical issues such as stem cells, and even
enlightening to hear how the German laws and culture deal with the issue and
comparing it to the US version. If only
the general public understood enough about the issues to have this sort of
high-level discussion about them.
The
History of Anesthesiology museum was a different sort of adventure. To be honest, I think I got more of a kick
out of listening to our tour guide, Dr. Stuckel than I did out of the museum
itself. While I appreciate and respect
all that anesthesiologists do, it is just not that fascinating to me. This combined with the fact that I had a
biomechanics test the next morning made it very hard for me to focus in the
museum. I tried my best though, and did
enjoy seeing the development of modern day anesthesiologist tools. I did get a kick out of seeing the iron
lung. The iron lung is one of those
things you always hear about in books or from teachers, but I had never
actually understood what it was. It
resembled a coffin a little bit, and I would have hated to be in one as a
patient. Then again it was a pretty
clever, if clunky, way to help patients breath.
Until you opened the side holes and screwed up the pressure gradient,
that is. One thing that has stood out to
me this semester is how modern medicine developed. Looking back at things like blood-letting or
not so well designed machines like the iron lung, you could scoff in disbelief
at how little the ancients knew about medicine.
Of course though, we are looking at it from a modern perspective. It is interesting to see the progression of
ideas through time, from failed endeavors to true facts. The one thing I enjoyed in the museum was
seeing the progression laid out in physical evidence of machines from different
time periods.
Also
this week, I turned 20. It was a
different sort of birthday, being in Germany, but it was definitely a lot of
fun. First I had decided to host a party
for everyone and to make tacos, salsa, and bean dip for this group of TexMex-deprived
Texans. This meant grocery
shopping. Cooking for 14 people means
making a TON of food! I had 11 tomatos,
2 kilos of ground beef, chips, onions, rice, and much much more, all stuffed
into bags to try to carry back to my house.
Luckily Joanna was able to help me carry them and we made it back to my
house with only minor injuries to the tomatoes.
Saturday I was woken up by my host family serenading me in German, and
then treated to a breakfast of fresh rolls and jam with candles laid out to
show 20. I also skyped with my parents
and a few friends, before turning to the kitchen to start cooking. I spent the rest of the day cooking and making
salsa with Katie’s help. My host mom
graciously provide the drinks, Black Forest Cake, and Apple Streusel for the
party. Eventually everyone arrived and
we had fun eating and celebrating for the rest of the night. So now I am officially no longer a
teenager. It feel strange, but I enjoyed
being surrounded by friends as I officially joined the ranks of the adults.
So that
pretty much sums up last week. With only
two more months left I think everyone is feeling the pressure of school, but we
are all trying to stay positive and enjoy our time here.
Tschüß
for now,
M
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