Berlin birthday

Berlin in one word was Unforgettable. 
Before I tell you about Berlin, let me tell you about my girlfriend Tania.
As you know from my previous blogs, I've been seeing Tania for a bit over a month. She has made a remarkable semester in Germany into an unforgettable chapter in my life. Since being with her I feel no longer as a youth with not much to care for, not much to get up for but for getting up itself, to wishing the day would never end while at the same time not being able to wait for the next one to start.  The fact that I will leave to a country across an ocean on the 7th of May is unthinkable to us both. 
But what was coming nearer as we approached the week the AIB would take The tamu bmen group to Berlin. We could not avoid it. And when I told Tania that my birthday would fall halfway through that week in which we were to be separated. She immediately made up her mind. She is coming too.
Since some of the students in the program we're going to be in Prague the weekend before Berlin, we thought it would be no problem for Tania to come in the same bus as the group and me. Thankfully, Kristin didn't think it was a problem either. 
The trip to Berlin was not very comfortable, but it would have been far worse had Tania not been at my side. Everyone seemed to be on edge studying for next week's signals exam. A couple of hours after the 9am departure, we were at the hotel. Hotel Alex. Tania would be staying in a nearby hostel because the rooms at hotel Alex are too cheap, by not cheap enough.
Not an hour after we arrived at he hotel, we met at the lobby to go take a bike your of Berlin. I used the little time we had to take Tania to her hostel, and to get some curry wurst. 
The bike tour was amazing. We saw Berlin's main attractions including checkpoint Charlie and the Brandenburg gate where we were told we would meet on Thursday morning. Our tour guide was excellent. And very knowledgable. He told us about the amplemen, which are he green an red men of the street light walk signs which I loved. He said that the eastern Germany had gotten rid of all of its soviet past but decided to keep their amplemen. 'cool' I thought. 
That night, I met up with Tania for dinner and I slept spectacularly well.
Next day was tuesday. 

more to come...

You sound like you're NOT from London...

You sound like you're NOT from London...

Easter weekend was fast approaching after my spring vacation in Spain, which was incredible. Still, the time to pass, the two weeks in between, were full of tests and projects and all-around school-stuff. There was little going on other than studying and celebrating a one-month anniversary of being with Tania. We decided to try and go to London, but did nothing of it during the first of the in-between weeks. The beginning of the second week we started to worry. Looking up the flight, we were appalled by the prices. We might not go. Then we found a cool-looking tour bus that left from Cologne on Saturday. We almost took it but then decided not to since we would really only have 1 day in London. It took all of Saturday to get there and all of Monday to get back. We kept looking, checking on ride sharing websites and couch surfing to lower the budget of our dream trip. Wednesday came and we had no plan. The next day was our ideal departure date to another country, but it was looking more and more like we'd be spending the break in Bonn. Having exhausted all our options for the trip Bonn-London, we called one last possible ride that was coming back from London early Monday. Tania spoke with him and, just for kicks, asked him if he was already in London, or when he was leaving. Thursday! Did he have room? Yes! Can we hop on? Yes! What would he charge? 30 Euros each way! That's less than Ryan Air on a good day! So we rejoiced and told our ride, Daniel,  'yes, yes, a million times yes'. We're going to London!

Holy Thursday we ran after the bus to the hauptbanhoff (which is my new favorite word) and took a train not to Chinatown, not downtown, but to Neus, the tiny town where we would meet Daniel. We ate a Durum and took off. Daniel was a nice, extremely tall German with a friend in Oxford. It started to snow as he started the car. And we talked in broken English until we got to our first of many rest stops where Daniel had a cigarette and I moved to the back seat to accompany Tania. It was cold as we crossed the border to the Netherlands, and we tried to find comfortable positions to sleep while Daniel took his Supertramp CD out of the case. We stopped at a gas station about three hours after we started, and it was freezing cold. I tried to speak German to the cashier handling a packet of cookies I had intended to purchase. Tania laughed at me (ouch) and said, "We're in Belgium, he speaks French." Half awake and confused, I succeeded to muster enough French to buy the cookies. Then it hit me, we just went through the borders of two countries! That's amazing! I told Tania and Daniel what I had discovered, and they obviously thought not much of it. This is Europe; international travel is a weekend thing.

When we crossed another border, remembering my previous enthusiasm for worldly propiolocation, Daniel let me know we were now in France. I wanted to share my excitement with Tania, so I woke her up. Droopy eyed and with a smile, she asked "Huh?"

"Tania, we're in France"

She turned her head right then left in a confused half-awakedness and uttered "...Bonjour"

As we woke up from a second nap, we were at the passport check for the ferry. We had to get out of the car in the freezing cold of the northern French coast and show our faces.

Every time I show my Mexican passport I feel special, especially when I travel with the AIB group - because they all have U.S. passports.

We went in the ferry and had a small free meal.

After the boat-ride, we drove for about an hour before we got to outer London. It was awkward driving on the wrong side of the street.

We turned and out of the corner of my eye - no!

it can't be!

It is!

Big Ben                                           

An incredibly majestic tower.

It awoke in me the same feeling that the Aztec pyramids gave me when I visited Teotihuacan some years ago.

 We arrived at our hotel really early. hoping they could lend us a closet to drop off our bags. Tired as all hell, we asked if they could give us a room early. To our surprise they could. It never hurts to ask. It was a downgrade from our booking, but we were not expecting luxury either way. We took the offer and took off to the room. Then we slept. Waking up a couple of hours later, we agreed to make the most of our London trip and not waste any time . We were hungry and we opted for the traditional fish n' chips. It was good, but greasy. The guy attending us did not really speak English. This is a phenomenon into which we ran over and over in London. Nobody speaks English - at least not proper English English - in  London!

That night we took a ride on the London Eye which was inspiring.

That night was cold and we were hurrying back to the hotel, but we  were also hungry. We found a Mediterranean restaurant and had an amazing meal.

Next day we woke up late, breaking our pact, and we took a hop-on hop-off tour. It was a lovely freezing raining typical day in London, but we braved the top deck of the double-decker bus.

The tour, we then realized would take about 4 hours.

We stopped about halfway through, frosty and hungry again, and went into a place called EAT. Because it's name screamed exactly what we wanted to do. What a coincidence. The cashier, again in broken English, gave us a couple of cake squares for free. He was nice.

We finished the tour and went to a modern art museum. It was much better than the one in Spain.

That night we stayed at a flat in south London, gracefully lent to us by a brother of a friend of Tania's.

Our last full day in London we decided to go to Stonehenge. No trip to UK is complete without it. It was difficult to find, hearing over, and over again that a bus to Stonehenge should be booked at least 2 days in advance. We thought the whole trip would cost us 30 lb. total but it cost more than twice as much because of our lack of planning. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. Oh well.

Stonehenge itself was amazing. Really worth the trip. What we did not expect, maybe a little naively, was the cold there. The sun was out, but a chilling wind was blowing. And the cold wind won, and we eventually wanted to go home. But apparently, we missed the penultimate bus back by some minutes, and the next one came in an hour and a half. So we took shelter in the gift shop. There we found some funny beanies that looked like sheep/polar bears. I bought one for Tania. And we had a great time making sheep noises and laughing the rest of the time we waited for the bus.

We made our way back to London where we wanted to check out Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station.  We were hoping to see a cool Harry Potter display, but what we got was a half-cart merging into a wall for photo-ops. Kind of disappointing. We left, hoping that it was just the Muggles trying to be magic and failing. We ate some pizza in a close-by place.

That night we packed, and the next morning we were picked up by Daniel and made our way back to our home in Bonn.

Spain

It's been a long time since my last blogs but that is not because I haven't written,... well partly, but mainly its because I started some blogs but then kept editing and then forgot about them. So I left off at the beginning of one of the best weeks of my life. And it was a bad beginning. Needless to say it got better. We did not crash entering Spanish airspace, nor did we land somewhere in Ireland or Finland where our plane was from. No; we landed safely in Gerona, Spain - an hour outside of Barcelona. This hour was quickly (as quick as an hour can pass) consumed by Tania and me in a 25 Euro charter bus. But afterwards we had finally reached our long-awaited for destination. Starving and tired, we were torn between eating and finding our hostel. We decided to head to our hostel, but if we found any good-looking cheap-looking clean-looking restaurant. We laughed because the first one we crossed was a Indian döner shop. This was funny because döners are everywhere in Germany, and they're delicious but really bad for you. Besides, we wanted to try something more Spanish for our first meal in Barcelona. We didn't find any other open place before we got to our hostel, and we were completely exhausted. A man let us in even though it was close to midnight. The outside of the hostel had marble inlays of angels which made us think we were in the wrong place since we booked the cheapest place we found, but the man assured us we were in the right place. He let us into a small room occupied only by an empty wooden desk and a staircase. He showed us up to the next floor, and into an apartment we were to be sharing with up to 8 other people. However this place was surprisingly nice. It was neat, and large, and it had a kitchen. The man showing us the room was really nice. Maybe too nice. We were exhausted and after what seemed like hours of hospitable chatter, I wanted to make him leave. So I paid him and he left. As tantalizing as sleep was at this time, we were still hungry. So we agreed to meet a couple of friends for dinner.

The next day was the best day of my life. We left early into the heart of Barcelona where we ate tapas at a cheap restaurant. Then we went to Gaudi's park in the north of the city. It is on a hill so you can see the whole city. It was really awe-inspiring. And the Gaudi's architecture is fantastic! The air was fresh with sea salt and the height of the hill, and the inhaled air from being chronically aghast was reviving. That night we went to the Ramblas to get some paeya. We found a nice place and ate too much. We were tired and pregnant with food so we decided to call it a night so we took the tram back to our Barcelona home.

The next day was the best day of my life. We woke up late - which if one can spare to do in a vacation (and it is arguable whether we could spare the time or not) can be a highlight in and of itself - and headed to the Sagrada familia cathedral. We saw an ice cream stand, and I sighed when they said they did not have pistachio. Tania took charge and took me out of that shop and around the park in front of the cathedral to find me a pistachio ice cream. I was telling her to give up when we finally found one. Two large scoops of pistachio gelato later, we were sitting on a bench admiring once again Gaudi's work. We saw the sky change colors as the sun set behind the soaring building and then headed once more to las Ramblas. We had a coupon given to us by the hospitable innkeeper to a tourist bar for a free dinner, but the food was horrible. The plate of chilly that we got was nothing but ground meat with water. We were watching the soccer game in the TV - as was the whole city - but we didn't want to stay in the restaurant. We headed to anywhere else the Ramblas area and went into a huge market. We got a couple of HUGE strawberries to snack on before dinner. We had a hard time finding a restaurant that had the a TV and seating, finding many that only met one of these conditions. We passed by a nice looking place called 4 Catos, but it had no TV, so we agreed to get a drink while we watched the game and then come back to that place for dinner. We found a little paeya restaurant and watched the game. Barcelona demolished A C Milan, and the city went wild. The waitress - who by the looks of it also co-owned the restaurant with her husband the bar-tender -  tried to convince us to stay for a meal, but we wanted to find 4 Catos again so we apologized and left. We walked to where we had seen the 4 Catos, but didn't find it. We spent close to an hour retracing our steps before we gave up and went back to the paeya restaurant.

After Barcelona, we went to Madrid.

In Madrid we saw my cousin, Susi with whom I get along with amazingly.

She recommended a hostel that was located smack in the middle of the city.

The first day in Madrid we met up with my cousin and one of Tania's friends who is studying physics and Math.

We went to a Tapas place which was nice and fancy.

Afterwards we went to an Irish bar close to the hostel, drank and ate and played pool. It was AWESOME!

Next day we slept in. We went late to the Museo del Jamon which is actually a restaurant not a museum. there are many of these in Madrid, each is as great as the last.  We then went to a park and had ice cream and talked. Tania succeeding at Spanish more than she would admit. We liked the bar so much the night before that we decided to go back. We ate and drink and played pool. And we met a person from Ohio who had just graduated and wanted to travel Europe before he started working. He was pretty cool.

Next morning we woke up and went to the Museo Sofia which was amazingly abstract. All modern art. All very weird. We met Susi afterwards to go to the Prado Museum which was amazing but a little to classical for my taste. The paintings were all very religious and that got tiring after the 6th room out of about 30. We said goodbye to my cousin and went to nice restaurant bar which we were attracted to because of nice piano music emanating from its door. The restaurant was very well decorated with art and quotes from mainly Spanish authors. We saw that we didn't feel like eating tapas again and because Tania had liked the quesadillas at the Irish bar the previous night, we went to find a Mexican restaurant. this proved to be a more difficult task in Madrid than we had anticipated.

We went to a karaoke bar, and I, along with everyone within hearing range was aghast at Tania's voice as she sang 'Black Horse and a Cherry Tree'.

The next day Tania got woke up feeling sick. The quesadillas had poisoned her!

The next day we went back to Bonn through 11 hours of miserable travel

The trip was amazing altogether even though it was sandwiched between 2 horrible travel experiences.

"That's Amore"

"That's Amore" - Dean Martin

"When the moon hits your eye 
like a big pizza pie, that's amore. 
When the world Seems to shine 
like you've had too much wine, that's amore 
Bells will ring, ting-a-iing-a-ling, ting-a- ling-a-ling 
and you'll sing, "Vita bella" 
Hearts will play, tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay 
like a gay tarantella."

ALGHERO, SARDEGNIA, ITALIA: Well, I have officially failed with keeping up with blogs. I'm sitting in the airport waiting to leave Germany for good and I'm just know blogging about my Italy adventures almost a month ago. Anyway, I have once again fallen in love with Italy in every way: the food, the people, the sun, and the lifestyle! We only spent two days in Alghero but it was definitely impressionable. Most of our time was spent laying out underneath the sun that we hadn't seen in so long, but we did get a few other things in! Here's a little glimpse!

Friday:

Late night flight to Alghero. I'm pretty sure we were the ONLY Americans, or English speakers even,  on that flight. We were soon to find out that that's because most of the island was about the same. Alghero is situated on the island of Sardenia west of Italy. It's not necessarily remote, but  it's not to touristy either, just the perfect combination of both!

After being picked up by a driver, we were taken to the little "Inn" we booked.  Turns out it wasn't an Inn at all, we were brought to our own villi/flat! It was probably the most accommodation I've had during any of my travels in Europe! We even had our own kitchen!

Saturday

After a good night of sleep we were ready to go! We walked into town in the morning following along the city walls, it was gorgeous!. The waves were crashing, the air was fresh, and the flowers were blooming! 

Okay, so maybe in this picture the flowers were blooming, but I swear they were!

Down town of Alghero was so cute! It was decked out in cobblestone and all the classic Italian architecure which gave it an old time charm, like stepping back into ancient times. 

After a little shopping, fresh made Italian Pizza (Sooooo good!), and sight seeing we were ready to go to the beach! We didn't have bus passes so that mean walking the 2 miles down to the beach but we didn't mind! That is until the rain decided to come in..... There was a reason everything there was so green and lush, because it rains everyday.

An hour and a half later after thinking we were lost and almost giving up on it all together we decided to stumble through a little jungle to get dry. Low and behold, there was the beach in all it's glory! All of our frustrations instantly melted away and everyone's mood got about 10 times better!

About 500 pictures later and we were ready for the long walk back in the rain! We had picked up food earlier in the day to make an Italian feast back at our flat and we were ready for it! The only thing that I was still disappointed about was that I hadn't found a Cannoli yet. You see, my Dad and I have had this thing going on for year. We're on a mission to find the world's best cannoli and I didn't want to disappoint him and not try a Sardenian Cannoli. Fortunately for me, one the walk home we passed a bakery. Not only did it smell heavenly but they had Cannolis!!! I think I almost peed myself from excitement... You can ask Laura and Paige who were with me. That night we gorged ourselves. Italian Pasta, pesto, sausage, and cannolis! 

Sunday

The sun finally decided to show on our last day there and we went to soak up everybit of it! Sunday morning we set right out for the beach again! Of course on our way there I picked up one more Cannoli for the walk, can you blame me? It was a super relaxing day and a much needed breaj from the cold and snow of Germany. Even after we were headed back to the airport we managed to get a little more time in the sun. There was little tiny park right in front of the airport and we took the opportunity to get in a little more sunbathing. When you've been through a 4 month winter, there is no shame.  

All of us were sad to leave little Alghero, but we had another adventure to set off on the next day. The next morning at 5:00 we were heading off to Berlin!

 

Final Week

Tomorrow is last day of final exams!

I sat in front of my computer wondering what I should study for tomorrow's oral exam. Tomorrow will be another busy day, but I really look forward to the theater play at night：What's the outcome of an entire semester of dancing and screaming?

When I got off the bus in the afternoon, I found my host sister's Maibaum on the edge of the house. It is quite large, but there is another one twice as large located right across from our house. Germans do cut down a lot of trees for love, hehe :D.

I checked my broken suitcase again, It seems like I can kind of fix it and make it home without purchasing another large suitcase. European suitcases are more expensive than what I expected.

After we return the cellphone we will get 50 euro deposit back. What is everyone's plan on how to spend it? Maybe hang out together and have a final party? Or buy some gift for others back home?

Rhein cruise

Oh man...living the life. In between exams and stress and hw and everything else, we were able to take the day off for a visit to Bingen. We visited the Hildegard museum and then had an amazing lunch right on the Rhein. The morning was cloudy so I was a little worried for our cruise but the sun came out right after lunch and the weather was perfect!! We boarded the boat and grabbed a chair and just relaxed. I was kind of planning on taking a cat nap but when there's a castle every couple hundred feet, sleeping becomes hard. Apparently Germany has 25,000 castles....and we saw about 20 just on our one and half our cruise. It was crazy. Once the cruise was over we made our way to Marksburg (1 of the 25,000 castles in Germany). We got to tour this castle!! It was up on a hill with a beautiful view of the Rhein. Once we made it to the top we grabbed some ice cream and began our tour. Fun fact: this castle was the only castle in Germany to not ever be conquered. Super beautiful castle filled with history. But back to the school world!

I wasn't thinking, I was investigating

So since I'm the token radiological health engineer I was able to spend the day traveling to the Roentgen Museum. Not gonna lie, the entire train ride, I kept thinking this was my own personal version of a pilgrimage. I mean, I'm visiting the museum of the man who basically started my degree....
I woke up on Wednesday and made my way to Remsheid (the cutest little town a little north of Koln). Roentgen was born there so it seemed appropriate that the German Roentgen Society have the museum there. Once I arrived at the museum I visited with Dr. Busch who had worked in the medical physics field for about 20 years and then decided to dedicate his time to history and education. He was incredibly welcoming and was really passionate about medical physics. We chatted about the history of the museum, how the museum works (super hands on) and what he plans to do with the building in the future. Once we were done he set me loose in the museum with an awesome audio guide. It was my lucky day. I was one of the only people there. I think I read every piece of info and touched everything that could be touched. The first part of the museum was dedicated to his personal life and when he won the nobel prize. He seemed like a really fun person. He enjoyed hiking and nature and was generally curious about the world around him (I guess what every scientist has to be). And my favorite part, he always kept chocolates on his desk; we probably would have been best friends. Some of the rooms displayed his research equipment (one room had a replica of the device he used to physically prove maxwells equations). Then further into the museum, hundreds of machines were displayed. Gammatrons, betatrons, and a portable x-ray machine for military use. That's something I hadn't really thought about before but it was really useful to locate bullets. Instead of just guessing, the doctor would actually know where to look. Good for everyone. There was also a room dedicated to the infamous x-ray parties. Yes, in the early 1900s it was a fad to have x-ray parties. The rich would rent a machine and invite everyone they knew and they would all look at each others "insides". Now we know the consequences of this so we don't get to have fun parties like that. Owell! Once I was done paroosing the museum (I really felt like I was in a candy store, it was so fun) I met up with Dr. Busch to talk about my thoughts on the museum. He started to tell me about his plans to have an interactive iPad problem solving guide through the museum and also an x-ray lab for students. Cool stuff. Like I said, he's very passionate about education. After the museum he showed me the house Roentgen was born in, then walked me back to the train station. Such a good way to spend the day! I'd definitely recommend the museum to everyone. Soo if you're ever in Germany...

Bonn Uniklink Radiology Department Visit

Last Friday I was able to visit the radiology dept. here in Bonn. I had no idea what to expect except that I was going to meet up with Dr. Greschus to talk about radiology and maybe sit in on a review of the weeks images. Well....I showed up about twenty minutes early and asked for Dr. Greschus. Apparently she wasn't there yet but would be in about 5 minutes so I was told to wait. One hour later I asked and the man told me 5 more minutes haha. So I waited a little longer and someone came out and told me they were taking me to meet with Michael. I was thinking, "who's Michael?? I thought I was supposed to meet with Susanne?" But I didn't worry about it and thought they just had something else planned for me. And they did!!! An entire day of touring basically everything a radiology dept. has to offer in a hospital, which is a ton. I started out meeting some people in the office. Everyone was so nice! But I did get the mandatory German joke... Once someone figures out where I'm from (Texas) they always have to ask if I had to leave my guns outside. They think it's hilarious and it's actually grown on me. After I laughed at the jokes I scrubbed out and was sent to the MRI room for about an hour. I saw two MRIs and got to watch the images coming into the computer. I didn't know why they were scanning the first man but the second women had been complaining of schwindel (dizziness). So she was getting a scan of her brain done to see if there was anything wrong. Everyone moved so efficiently in the dept. Each person has a job, whether it's prepping the patient or the machine or setting boundary lines on the images. They tried to point out areas of the brain to me on the computer they might look at further. In nuclear medicine there are two major paths, imaging and therapy. Now, I've kind of known that I don't really want to be a radiologist, which is imaging, I'd rather work in radiation therapy. But all of this was still really interesting!! There is still some patient work (although not as intimate) and the work seemed intersting. After an hour in the MRI room, Michael came to get me and brought me to the CT room. Everyone in the CT lab was even nicer!! CTs go by much faster then MRIs. Images can be taken within minutes versus the avg 30 minute MRI scan. So I got to see a lot. I walked into the room when the CT group was trying to insert local antesthetic needles into someones back to treat lower back pain. They were using the CT scanner to get the placement exactly right. Took about 7 different scans to finally get both needles in place but because of the speed of the CT, it wasn't an issue. After the back pain patient left they prepped the scanner for another patient. This lady only had one lung because of lung cancer. It was really cool to see the scan of her chest. One side was all air but on the other you could see her other organs. The next patient was an emergency stroke victim. Everyone was a little frantic before this scan because it was unexpected but they prepped the scanner and went about their business like usual. So by this point, I'm definitely glad I'm going for a career in medical physics. I don't think I could scan patient after patient and not really get to get to know them. The radiologists are doing a very important job but I just don't think it's for me. I want something a little more challenging and patient related. Also after the stroke victim there was a really long break because there was no one else scheduled to scan. So all of us (5 people in the lab) took a coffee break and looked up houses online (one of the workers was looking for a new place) until I left for lunch. Michael came to get me around 12:30 and treated me to lunch in the cafeteria and we chatted about differences between American and German schooling, daily life of a radiologist, and other random things. He was ready to answer anything so it was really good to get to talk to him. After lunch we toured the radiology dept. a littler more. I saw a couple more scanning machines, including one specifically for blood vessel imaging. After the final tour we went to his office and we browsed some of the scans I saw during the day. He showed me what was what on the brain scans and told me some basic differences between MRIs and CTs. He told me that anything more in depth would involve another visit so I learned some important basics.
So the MRI uses strong magnets to image atomic nuclei in the body which can then be read by the scanner due to radio frequency magnets that can alter the alignment of the atomic nuclei. Advantages for the MRI include good imaging for soft tissue, good CSF analysis and being non-radioactive always helps. However, the MRI machine shows more artifacts (elements in the images that do not exist in the person) and it takes a pretty long time to get the scan. However, Michael showed me a way to find artifacts. If something in the scan is bright and symmetrical it is most likely an artifact; however, more analysis is necessary to confirm this. He also talked a bit about FLAIR (fluid attenuated inversion recovery) which is used to null the fluid interference. There are also differently weighted scans an MRI can give. He showed me the difference between T1 and T2. For example, in the brain image we were looking at, the T1 weighted image contrasted the white and dark matter very well. The T2 weighted image has the ability to make fat look darker and water look lighter. So T2 is especially useful for tissue edema imaging. These weighted images are accomplished by using contrast agents which alter the relaxation times of atoms in the body.
CT (computed tomagraphy) are a bit different. It uses computer processed x-rays to gather 2D slice images of the body, which the computer can then create an insanely accurate 3D image of. The CT scanner is a better imaging system for bone and is completed much faster than the MRI.
All in all, my trip to the radiology dept. was amazing! Everyone tried to show me around the best they could and it turned out to be a great learning experience for me. I have high expectations for my internship this summer now. If I can learn that much in a day, who knows how much I'll know when the summer is over.

Berlin, Two Cities: The Art

Berlin is said to be two cities.

We took a week out to Berlin. Pretty much awesome. I've decided to split the week into two blogs. One considering the beautiful artistry, architecture and even beautiful engineering we saw. The other to see that of the history of the Cold War, Nazi influence and the foundation that make Berlin so monumental.

One of the Berlin Bears scattered around town

There was an interesting plaza present in old East Berlin, with two churches and a theater. There was a church with a red dome from the French and a German Church with a black dome. Appropriately named the Red and Black Churches. Also, the theater was repaired by the soviets from the war damage. And by repaired I meant covering the columns and damaged stone and marble with plaster, so one could knock on the columns and see just how superficial the Eastern life was in Berlin.

The Red Church and the Theatre

If you look closely you can see
 somebody  who wants to be Bono

Brandenburg Gate was amazing, a triumphal arch built by the Prussians to signify peace, and topped by the Roman goddess of Victory, Victoria! Also, we were serenaded by a lovely karaoke of Wonderwall by Oasis... And by lovely I mean surprising. And by surprising, I meant surprisingly awful. But the fact that all of us college Americans sang along probably didn't help the situation.

A horse, of course

Next there was the... horse. Outside the Berlin main train station. With a big blue eye. Nobody knows why it's there. The train station was also damaged and rebuilt by 2006, with a huge glass facade, and a glass tunnel covering the ICE trains that whiz around Europe. Ironically though, they built the tunnel too short, and many first class passengers began to notice as it started to rain on them as they left their train and ran back into the train station for cover!

There's a large memorial, covering a full city block dedicated to the Jewish populace lost during WWII. Probably my favorite memorial, in the sense of the emotion behind it. As you walk towards the center, the ground slopes until these surprisingly short 2 foot blocks are towering above you, and your stuck into a grid maze, where the snow doesn't melt and your sense of direction is consumed by strangers' footsteps echoing around every corner.

My attempt to panorama just a part of the East Side Gallery

 Just a few of my more favorite photos of the East Side Gallery.

 

My favorite photo was a two part-er. One part, a man seems to be consumed in fire and brimstone. The other, small animals such as mice in a deluge of water or cold. Luckily, Paco took a photo for me!

Saw this and couldn't resist:
Gig 'Em

 Lastly for this blog, there was a large amount of photos take at the Pergamon Altar. Depicting the fight between the Olympians and the Giants or Titans of Chaos, the Pergamon Museum contains more reliefs, levels and friezes and other photo opportunities than you can shake a flash drive at.

Oh, and the Gate of Ishtar was there. Or part of it. It's a really big gate, a humongous gate.

The upper half of the middle of
the Gate of Ishtar

SO close.

It's so close to the end of the spring semester. I can't believe it! 

It's crazy that my junior year is about to end as well as my time in Germany.

While being here I've experienced many things that I'll never forget. This has been such an amazing opportunity and I'm so thankful that I had the chance to do this. 

I remember back in the fall when I was applying to come on this trip and it seemed to just be a dream of mine. But for the past 4 months it's been my reality and I've absolutely loved every moment of it. There were times that I was sad, happy and a variety of different emotions. 

All the culture, people, different music, trips, etc. will be a constant reminder of the time that I have spent in Germany. 

After visiting the Women's clinic or Frauenklinik I've gotten to see how a neonatal intensive care unit works. I didn't get to see any surgeries so that's a shame but I got to talk to the doctors and give some thought into the profession for my future. I'm sure not sure what I want to do with my life but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

It's a bittersweet ending but after Monday I'll be hittin' the road with my parents on a European road trip.

I can't wait to show them a little piece of what I've been experiencing the past 4 months. 

It's been an amazing journey and I don't want to leave Europe!

Projects 485

Among everything I have enjoyed in Germany, some of the things I really appreciate have been all the experiences I have received through the 485 projects. Below is what I learned from each one of the three 485´s I did.

Dilated Cardiomyopathy at Hannover
Dr. Schmitto and Dr. Hanke did a good job explaining everything to us. Dr. Hanke first taught us what a dilated cardiomyopathy is in really simple words. I enjoyed her way of explaining because this is exactly how I would like to teach my students in the future. It helped a lot that we had physiology background, but even if we did not, I am sure we would of been able to understand. After teaching us about dilated cardiomyopathy, she explained to us the humanitarian side of being a doctor. It is important to have a lot of medical knowledge, but it is also important to understand people and know how to interact with them. This allows patients to have the confidence they need to have with the doctors, something critical in order to diagnose properly and have an adequate prognosis. Dr. Hanke didn´t only talk about it, but she showed us by going into the room and interacting with her patients. During the surgery to treat the dilated cardiomyopathy, a medical student was there to explain to us the LVAD procedure.
Things I learned: The heart is just awesome. I definately would like to do something with the heart. I know that specializing in the veterinary world is not that common, but I believe I would fill fullfilled if I specialize in cardiovascular medicine. Also, I now have a teaching model to follow whenever I become a professor. The way that Dr. Hanke talked to us makes me work even harder to be that one professor everyone would like to take because he explains things very well in a simple way easy for everyone to understand. And last but not least, being a good doctor is important, but being a good person with your patients might be just as important.

Uniklinik
At the Uniklinik, I was able to witness a really messed up heart. This patient had an aortic aneurysm, stenotic coronary arteries, and an insufficient aortic valve. In order to treat the patient, the cardiac surgeons performed a Dacron aortic graft, a coronary artery bypass graft and an aortic valve replacement. During the surgery, the surgeon and the anasthesiologist wouldn´t stop testing my physiology knowedge. They would show me what was wrong and then ask me how this would affect the health of the patient. After talking about physiology, I told the cardiac surgeon that I had thought about becoming a cardiac surgeon in the past. This really made his day, to the point in which he kept trying to persuade me into going back to that path.
Things I learned: I really want to be a professor. The surgeon having me explain to him all the heart concepts made me realize I like explaining. At the same time, it made me see my fear of saying something wrong. It was fine if I would of said something wrong with the surgeon because he was there to correct me, but whenever I become a professor, the students will expect me to always tell them the right info. Also, cardiac surgeons are really proud of their professions, or at least here in Germany. The way the surgeon reacted when he heard I love the heart was unforgettable.

Homeopathy and Zoo in Wuppertal
Homeopathy is a really hard concept to understand. Just thinking that something that gets you sick can actually get you well confuses me. Ms. Fürll, a homeopath, came to the AIB to teach us more about homeopath and allowed us to ask her many questions. Something that really surprise me was the fact that homeopathy can actually cause side effects. This doesn´t make sense to me because there is really no active ingredient in homeopathy treatment. Also, I was surprised on how Ms. Fürll would talk to the animal. When I asked her if there was a homeopath reason for doing so, she said it was important to talk to the animal in order to create a special relationship with it. This will allow the animal to create confidence towards you. This same concept was emphasized even more at the zoo. After talking to our guide and the trainers, they emphasized how understanding the animal´s behavior was important for their job.
Things I learned: It is important to be open minded. As stated above, homeopathy is a really hard concept to understand, but Ms. Fürll actually demostrated us with her own dog that it works. I believe homeopathy should be something that Americans should at least care to listen about. We tend to believe almost only in traditional medicine and forget about alternative medicine, when it seems like alternative medicine can actually work. One never knows if the cure for cancer or AIDS is actually in a plant. Also, animals also have a humanitarian side we should care about, just like Dr. Hanke had explained before. If we want to become great veterinarians, we should try to understand their behavior and create confidence with them.

The flea market

I have never seen such a huge flea market in my life. It was miles long.

The flea market was a pretty cool place that had almost anything you were looking for. I saw some pretty weird stuff that was being sold but also some really cool things as well. As a female, I love shoes and earrings...  my goal really was to find some cool things that I liked and take them home with me. I found a really cool tea set that was actually from the US but it was really cool and I liked it a lot. So that is going home with me. I also found some cute jackets and sweaters for like 3 euros each. But the ultimate thing I left with from the flea market was earrings. Yes, I purchased 5 pairs of earrings all of which are very pretty and unique. I got two that were from Colombia and two that were from Bonn made out of wire and wood. Then I got a pair that was made out of bottle caps from my favorite beer, Leffe. So good.

I will miss this flea market to be honest because you really can find some cool stuff there. Maybe in the subsequent years when I come back to Bonn I will be able to go again.

May Day

So we have no school today, but sadly that isn't a good thing. I have a total of 6 tests this week, so I've been studying nonstop since last week. As of yesterday, two down and four to go. And in five days until I'll be eating a delicious dinner in Sweetwater, TX. This weekend will be fun though. There are fireworks on Saturday, going away party on Sunday, and our bike tour on Monday.

Birch tree tradition... love is in the air!!!

Have you all walked around Bonn this morning?

I was told of a really nice tradition that occurs here every year on May 1st in Bonn. The really nice thing about this tradition is that it really only occurs in this area of Germany and no where else.

The tradition is real simple. If you walked around this morning in Bonn I hope you noticed the silly decorated birch tree branches outside doors with big hearts and names. Every year men put up these birch trees in the middle of the night and decorate them and leave them on the front steps of the house that the girl they like lives in. It's like Valentines day only sweeter. It is completely anonymous really. The girl has no idea who put the tree up, unless of course they are expecting it from the person they are dating. But... still it is a sweet gesture.

However, there is another side to this tradition.. it is also tradition to for guys to steal them from someone else and use it for the girl they like. It's really cute.

It was kind of hard writing about this in my blog today. This is when being single sucks... you have no one to hug you.

Host Family Gathering on May Day

Today we have 7 visitors to the family! 2 of them came all the way from Sicily, 3 from Munich, 1 from Cologne, and another one is my host sister's boyfriend (Where is the Maibaum?!). 

My host dad started preparing lunch since 9 in the morning...I had a yogurt for breakfast and smelled the scent of pepper and onion until 2:30 in the afternoon when I could finally put my fork and knife on the steak. 

There were some special ingredients in the food from Italy: A strong spice used in the soup, and some weird-looking leaves from a fresh plant brought by one the guest (Forgive me for not remembering her name, I couldn't even pronounce it), and some smoked pork used in Italy for panini. I remember having a "VIP" panini in a small airport in Venice, it was the best sandwich I've ever had. 

The guests from Italy both spoke wonderful German, and it made me feel so bad for not able to join their conversation after staying in Germany for 4 months....

Berlin Zoo (It's not too late!)

Yesterday I told my host mom about our visit to Berlin Zoo, and she asked me what is "zoo"?  It turned out that Germans pronounce zoo as "zou". Then I realized I have no post so far for Berlin yet.....

Berlin Zoo was one of my favorite places in Germany. Despite the fact it was raining on that Thursday, all the animals seemed happy and excited to show off.

We first met an extra-friendly rhino when we walked in. It saw us, came out from the cave  for 2 min for us to take pictures, and gorgeously walked back to continue its nap. 

Thanks for the fashion show walk rhino!

An awfully depressed sun bear with its "I hate life" face when we visited its room. I tried to say hi and it just ignored me! Ughhh!

My favorite baby in the whole zoo. Look at its fat smooth body and lovely soulful eyes... >///<

Btw this bear is not from the zoo. It my Berlin bear named "Chicken". And no I don't no why I name him Chicken.

Final week...

It's an odd feeling to know that in one week I will be in Texas. I can honestly say that I am not ready to go home, although I am excited to see my puppy. This has been a wonderful experience for me since I have lived in College Station my entire life. Sadly, I will be spending the rest of the week studying since I have 4 tests this week. The first one went well, so hopefully that's a good sign. On Friday, four of us are going to Amsterdam... by car! So we will definitely be able to say that we have traveled in Europe by every type of transportation possible. Let's hope we don't get lost... we will have a GPS that is in George Bush's voice. Haha. We will be back Saturday for the Rhein on Fire event and for the AIB farewell party on Sunday. Wow, has this semester gone by.