Heyyy, wow haven't written in the good ole blog since February 13th! Get ready. Many crazy stories heading your way! Seems like those are becoming a normal occurrence in the life of little Lauren Whitney...
Do you know what the day after I last wrote was?! Happy Belated Single Awareness Day! Despite calling Valentine's Day this in high school along with friends (and some teachers), suffice it to say Dr. Wasser informed us they have had some relationships and maybe a wedding or two happened before because of this program...and some stuff is definitely going down/ went down in this group over the past few weeks!
Monday the 15th was a long day of classes and a test, which is to be expected considering our (easily-forgotten) obligation to academics needed to be fulfilled before embracing the fun and intriguing events of WIEN, AUSTRIA. Despite traveling since 4:30am on Tuesday morning after only two hours of sleep (yay packing, laundry, life...), I had a safe, though delayed due to plane malfunction, trip to the Hotel Deutschmeister in Vienna. After a quick lunch with much-loved Dracula schnitzel and discovering Viennese schokolade in not one, but TWO yummy stores on the return to the hotel (we're fatties), we made our way into the city center.
Let me just say, the "kid in a candy store" look some students had earlier was probably nothing in comparison to my faces that afternoon. Vienna. Is. Gorgeous. I was absolutely intrigued by the places we went, the incredible buildings I saw, and the rich history of fine arts, religion, and medicine. Walking through the wealthy stores lining the street where we exited the train, I equated the feel in Vienna to that in Munich. But then we turned the corner. All my attention was immediately drawn to the architectural masterpiece at the end of the street -- the large, white, pristine building decorated with four statues, each about two stories tall, of different labors of Hercules, a mythological figure frequently seen throughout the city in addition to the many green statues of key political figures mounted on their horses. Over the center of the building stood a large green dome (all the key buildings were white and green, a combination which made the city look fresh, well-off, and consistent, which I liked) and walking through the street tunnel underneath, one could see the intricate ceiling of the dome inside. This building, the Spanish Riding School as we came to discover later, houses the Lipizzaner stallions that we were able to watch in practice Wednesday morning.
However, Tuesday afternoon was far less perky than watching stallions prance around. Catacombs aren't the most lively of places, but they are definitely interesting. Underneath a breath-taking Viennese church, the piles of bones, complete skeletons, and even a few mummies spoke of many interesting aspects of burial processes and medical problems of the 18th century. Our tour guide also shared how mummification occurs-- that the airing out process occurs faster than the decay process, leading to a steady preservation. A few hours of roaming around by ourselves culminated in the group reforming and going to the Goesser Bierklinik for some flavorful food and fun times.
After watching Lipizzaners, Wednesday's free afternoon passed quickly as several of us strolled through the Albertina, an Impressionist art museum and enjoyed picking out our favorite pieces in every room. When the others left for dinner, I stayed at our hotel to study, as I did on several mornings, and later met them to ice skate in front of the city hall of Vienna, called the Rathaus. Just let me say, I am quite proud of the fact that I navigated a major European city, transit and all, by myself. Boom. Independence. Right there. It was a night for the books-- nine super fun people at an ice skating course with inclines and declines, turns and tunnels, lights and music in front of the city hall of Vienna. That's pretty cool.
Then my most anticipated day came--the day of our concert at St. Anne's Church. From 9:00am to 7:30pm, I anticipated the fun of everyone dressing up and listening to string music float through the air, the music that I have loved since I was little but haven't heard in person in so long. When the concert finally came and ribbons of Mozart and Beethoven spiraled between the murals and sculptures which lined the ceiling and every wall, the anticipation was not in vain. :) To make matters better, I got to sit next to Elaine, who played cello in high school and loved it just as much as I did.
Thursday and Friday were our most medically intensive days, with trips to the Freud House, Josephinum, and Narrenturm. I would say that the Josephinum-- a museum housing spectacular wax sculptures of individual organs, full bodies that emphazied the lymphatic, vascular, reproductive/pregancy, and muscle systems-- was my favorite simply because of the chance to contemplate the human body's intricacy as well as the effort it took to both build and study these models. However, the Narrenturm certainly interested me. The Narrenturm, nicknamed "the crazy tower" in our trip, previously housed mentally and physically disabled individuals, whom the town would label as possessed or burdensome to society. Thus, the commission of a building to attempt to care for these individuals was truly revolutionary, though at the time any medical aid given was severely lacking. As we walked through the large circle of the second floor, the thought that frequently passed through my head was both amazement and gratitude for modern medicine. The many skin conditions, genetic deformities, and processes of bodily decay documented by the sculptures and sketches on this one floor were not for those with a weak stomach...The variety of diseases led me to imagine the people I would have certainly seen had I lived only a few hundred years ago. Yet, why have I never seen, gosh, maybe 97% of these conditions? Simply because of the prenatal vitamins, preventative measures, and medicinal drugs of modern medicine. Seeing all those gruesome and sad conditions leads me to be even more thankful for my health as well as the chance to impart health to others.
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