The week I learned that sometimes you just have to pull a ferris beuller

Monday. I struggled to get out of bed. The next two weeks are crammed with exams, projects, and a never ending list of homework assignments. To put the cherry on top, I started to catch the cold that was floating around. Despite my desire to waste the day in bed, I mustered up the energy to go to school. This week, the pharmacology professor was visiting from college station. She generously hosted a pharmacology workshop for the non-pharmacology students. Monday was the first day. We spent about three hours looking into different medical research databases. She introduced us to pubmed, google scholar, and another resource that I cannot remember. After a break for lunch, we had an afternoon full of classes. First was BMEN 253, then German and finally an enmodes meeting. We continued our discussion on FDA regulations and the approval process in BMEN 253. Our professor also gave us the project of modeling an electronic toothbrush in SolidWorks. As cool as solid works is, it's a pain in the neck because I can't download on my mac. So, stay tuned to see if that issue gets resolved before the due date. German is always a pleasure, Hilde is so candid while she teaches us. Finally, we worked on our Enmodes project. Im really satisfied with my groups project. I think that our idea is really innovative and a viable real solution. I can't say much more about it because of the nondisclosure agreements, but its pretty cool. Happy that the day was over, Madeline and I stared our routine journey home. We recently discovered a tram stop 3 minutes away from the AIB, so we no longer had to make the 15 minute trek to the hauptbahnhof. Finally we were home. I went to bed early to try and prevent whatever cold I was catching.

Tuesday, I woke up early. I dilly-dallyed downstairs a bit while making coffee and eating my breakfast portion of fruit. I headed back up stairs to do some light studying before going to school  for the pharmacology workshop. My cough had worsened from the day before and I began to feel achy. I decided it was best to try and tough it out since I only had the workshop and DFQ. During the workshop, we learned about the drug creation and marketing process. It paralleled a lot with what we had learned during our excursion to Bayer. It takes a lot of patience to work in drug development. There is an endless amount of research, testing, and paperwork that comes with bringing a new drug to market. As I have learned in BMEN 253, this is also the case with bringing new medical devices to market also. After sitting through another DFQ lecture, Madeline and I headed home. I went to bed right after dinner again, hoping that a good amount of sleep would help me feel better in the morning.

Wednesday I did not want to get out of bed. My head felt like an overblown balloon, pressure was pushing against every surface. I had chills, a terrible cough, and a runny nose. I gathered enough energy to make it to the AIB. I sat in class for about two minutes before deciding it was time to take care of myself. Ibk being the angel she is, helped me find someone who could get me to the doctor. I soon found out that doctors in Germany are only open during early morning hours on Wednesday. I talked to the student workers and they told me to come back the next day for an appointment. I eagerly headed back home, excited to spend the day sleeping. Madeline soon followed me as she began experiencing the same symptoms I was. I got home, made a cup of warm apple tea and went to bed. I woke up once for dinner, but spent the rest of the day asleep.

Thursday I woke up, dragged Madeline out of bed and went back to the AIB to go to the doctor. I found it a bit annoying that I could not just walk into the doctor like I could at home. Nevertheless, a very sweet student worker graciously walked Madeline and I to the doctors office. We walked in and there was a single attendant behind the desk. Unlike doctors offices in the states, this one was clean, organized and totally un-cluttered. After writing down our names, addresses and phone numbers we were shown to a room behind double doors. It was a clean room with chairs sitting along the perimeter. There was a circular table in the middle with a pile of popular German magazines. In the corner was a fenced in area with toys for children to occupy themselves. Madeline and I sat down in two chairs, both rather uncomfortable. There were other patients in the room, from what it seemed like most of them presented the same symptoms as ours. I found it peculiar that people would say "hallo" and "tschuss" as the came and left the waiting room. Of all places for Germans to greet each other, the waiting room of the doctors office was last on my list. After about an hour and a half, Madeline and I were finally called. They permitted us to go in together. After a brief discussion of our symptoms and a routine evaluation, the doctor diagnosed us with the flu. She sent us the the Apotheke with a perscription and told us to rest for the entirety of the week. Madeline and I picked up our medication and went home to sleep for the rest of the day.

Friday I woke up feeling a bit better. I stayed awake for the morning and looked over some homework. Madeline woke up and we went for a short walk to get some fresh air after not leaving the house for two days. We went back home after a few minutes and went back to sleep. We ate dinner with our host family later that night, then went back to bed.

Saturday, Madeline and I were back on our feet. After sleeping for three days, we both desperately needed to get out of the house. We hopped onto the tram and went into town to go shopping. We were still recovering from the flu so we were only out for a couple hours before our energy was drained. We went back home and did some homework and spring break planning. We ended the evening by eating with our host family and neighbors than watching Harry Potter. Im really glad my host family is watching this series with me because I would not have watched it on my own. I now understand a lot of Harry Potter references that confused me in the past. Once our peaceful evening ended, I went to sleep.

Sunday consisted of studying and homework. I woke up early and cleaned my room, then after family breakfast I started studying for the differential equations exam I had missed. I watched a days worth of Kahn Academy videos. Not to be critical, but I learned more from those videos than I have from my professor. I am frustrated with our online professor because the structure of his class is not conducive to student learning. Anyway, I went to bed relatively early on Sunday to prepare for the week ahead.

CHAPTER VII

For the most part, this week was classes, homework, and see some more of Bonn. I found a nice café that’s on my side of the Rhine. It has Wi-Fi and is definitely welcoming to people who need to stay for a while and work on homework. (I haven’t quite figured out which cafes are okay with this and I miss the college station coffee shops that are open til 1 am.) I’ll definitely be spending some more free mornings at Café Cultura.

On Wednesday, we visited Bayer as a group. Bayer headquarters are only an hour away from Bonn in Leverkusen. We spent all of our time in the Baykomm, their PR and communication area. They have many small exhibits showing the history of the company, their current work, and goals for future directions. The company history was really interesting. They started out as a textile dye company and transformed into working with other chemicals, mostly pharmaceuticals. Recently, they have identified ten major challenges to overcome, all about innovation and paving the way for future cures.

 

On Friday, I went to the Deutsche Kunsthalle with some friends. It was the perfect size for a short trip to an art museum. They had a nice variety of art! One of my favorite rooms looked like a kid’s creation. They walls were covered with colored cardboard, and all of the craft supplies and workshop area was carefully staged in the middle. It reminded me of the countless crafts I made up with my sister. We decided to take the long way and walk back along the Rhine to get to our bus. I really, really appreciate the Rhine. It’s lovely and relaxing, I could spent lots of time just watching the river and boats go by.

I went on a couple runs this weekend. There’s some nice trails a few bus stops past mine – I haven’t quite made it that far on any of my runs, but once I’m in better shape, it will be the perfect spot! I think I’ve finally adapted to the cold water; I’m a little less fazed by now and suddenly 35 degrees seems like a warm day. We have also been getting lots of sunny days recently! Lois and I explored the woods behind our house too.

Sunday, we went to the Beethoven House museum. I had forgotten that Beethoven lost his hearing so early. They had some of his hearing aids on display. It just makes some of his work all the more impressive! Another interesting tidbit from the house from a newspaper ad for Beethoven’s concert. His father published that he was only 6 instead of his real age which was a few years old to gain attention as a true prodigy. To top of the day, we find a shop that sells a scoop of gelato for only a Euro! It was a great discovery, even for a cold day.

Random Takeaways

The woods are meant to be explored. "Just use your phone as a compass and walk through the woods" - Regina

Heidelberg - Germany Week 6

              This week was very full of pharmacology. At the beginning of the week, we had two pharmacology workshops, where we talked about a variety of topics. It was all very interesting and I enjoyed this added on to my pharmacology class. The best thing was that Dr. Fajt gave us lots of tips and tricks about using PubMed and looking up scientific articles, which will definitely be helpful in the future! We also had two more pharmacology classes for the week, making 4 out of 5 days with pharmacology. I enjoy the class so it wasn’t bad on top of my other classes. Other than pharm, the week was a pretty normal week with normal classes.

             This weekend, Darby, Lois, Camella, and I decided to take a trip to Heidelberg. I didn’t really know much about Heidelberg (other than there was a castle), so I didn’t really know what to expect. We arrived late Friday night (Saturday morning) and made our way to our Airbnb, which was a little apartment near the central station.

             Saturday morning, we got up and made our way to the castle. It was supposed to be warmer than Sunday, so the plan was to do outdoorsy things then rather than when it was going to be close to 20°C. After climbing a lot of (vertical) staircases, we made it to the castle. It was so big! And so much of it was still standing. It was so cool to see and to wonder about what it looked like in it’s prime. We spent hours taking in the sights. Being up high also gave us a good view of the city. We wondered the gardens and the grounds. Oddly enough, within the castle there was a pharmacology museum, which we also spent a lot of time in. Once we got our fill of the castle, we wondered back down to the city and strolled through random streets. We got these really interesting pastries called “Snowballs”, which I really don’t know how to describe. We decided we wanted to cook dinner instead of eating out, so we got some groceries, and Lois and Darby graciously cooked dinner for all of us.

             Today was a much colder day, although the wind wasn’t near as bad as yesterday, so it did not feel as bad as expected. We also wore all of our clothing we packed, so maybe we were just better dressed for the weather. We walked around the Heidelberg University and made our way through their botanical gardens. We spent lots of time in a cute café, where Darby and I had normal hot chocolate and Lois and Camella had Spanish hot chocolate, which was a mug of hot fudge. Not what any of us were expecting! We decided to do part of the Philosophenweg, or Philosopher’s Walk, which is a path that professors and philosophers walk to think. We went right around sunset, so we got a beautiful view of the sunset and the city lighting up at night. The castle was also lit up, which was really pretty.

             We are currently on the bus headed home, getting ready for the stressful week ahead. A week of tests and projects and papers. But then we are off to France! Wünsch mir Glück!

Some Confusingly Juxtaposed Events

Week 5

This week went by more similar to a typical week in College Station in that it was mostly class and schoolwork. There were no major parties like in Karneval or personal trips on the weekend. But, I am coming to realize how much these types of weeks create a sense of stability and sanity for me and are therefore incredibly necessary to make all the excursions more fun and impactful.

The one programatic excursion that we embarked on was to BayComm: the Bayer community communication center. This is a building in Leverkusen (near Cologne) that Bayer uses partially for research and laboratories but mainly for community interaction and image management. Here they have a large lecture hall where lectures, meetings, and scientific movies are played on weekends for the public. There are interactive exhibits on DNA, cardiopulmonary physiology, and the food crisis. Bayer is attempting to educate the public on the need for science to solve some of the major crises facing the population currently such as overpopulation, food and water shortage, healthcare accessibility, etc. We also got to see how countries differ with packing tablets. For example, Germany prefers to have ibuprofen as 400 mg tablets in blister packs within paper boxes while in the US they are sold as 200 mg in plastic bottles with twist off lids. I thought these differences and the reasons surrounding them was interesting. I was told, in Germany the pill bottle would never be accepted because it reminds the public too much of gum containers.

The most impactful part of the Bayer experience for me was the Leaps Initiative that the company is implementing to help solve ten seemingly impossible medical problems. In order to this, they are funding start ups and helping them research and guiding new minds to think on their own in order to make strides towards solving these conundrums that one day might be trivial. One of the problems that I remember was to give sight to those people born blind. There were ten equally hard or harder problems on this list and I was astounded by the amount of vision and foresight that this program must've taken and how it reflects the intended future of medicine that Bayer sees. As a large and influential pharmaceutical company, Bayer may have some guidance over the directions in which the medical development industry heads. 

Other than this trip, the week was fairly typical. It snowed a lot and the busses did not come to Heidebergen for more than 2 hours so I had to miss a history of medicine lecture. Other than that, I am feeling relatively stable and comfortable where I am. Small issues arise here and there but I am becoming increasingly able to handle them on my own. Also, I have developed friends and enjoy spending time with everyone on the trip with me. I miss things from home of course, but I am loving my time here and wouldn't trade it for just about anything.

During the weekend, Camella and I went for a hike through the forest outside our house. We had assumed there would be trails but we couldn't find a substantial one. Also while in the forest, we witnessed people in costumes (including one in a bunny costume) performing what looked like "first aid" on a person laying (unconsciously?) on the forest ground. But the "first aid" was to wrap the passed out person's ankle in ace wrap. Overall, the situation fully confused me. We excited the forest near Gielgen and went into a different section of trees back there. While in this section, I noticed all the trees were planted in perfectly straight rows and there were large gaps between some rows. Here in many cases large tire tracks, looking like they originated from a vehicle the size of a tractor or tank, went perpendicular to the direction of our hiking trail. This also fully confused me.

I guess in conclusion, this was was usual with some surprisingly confusing events sprinkled in.

Vienna/ Budapest (Whoops, meant to publish this 2 weeks ago)

Vienna

For our first of two main excursions, we woke up extremely in the morning on Tuesday (which gave me flashbacks to the Corps) to catch an early morning flight to Vienna, Austria. When we arrived at the hotel in Vienna, the program coordinator gave out room keys to everyone.  Well everyone but Corey and I- for whatever reason, our room was the only one that was not ready, so while everyone took naps in their comfy beds, we sat homeless in the lobby. At around 11, everyone took pity on us homeless and woke up from their naps to come join us on a tour of the city. In the city, we followed Dr. Schnabel (Dr. Wasser dressed up as a medieval plague doctor) around the old downtown, as he told us the history of the city.

It was an extremely windy day, but the sun was out, so that's more than I could have asked for after living for almost a month in cloudy Bonn. After grabbing gnocchi for lunch, we took a tour of St. Michael's church, where we got to tour the crypt. I can't imagine going in those crypts alone, as they were littered with skulls, other random bones, and wait for it....  mummies. And no, these mummies were not like the halloween mummies wrapped in toilet paper- these mummies were completely preserved bodies covered in the same clothes that they died in over 200 years ago. Some of them still have their teeth.  Creepy as it was, it was fascinating getting to visit such a unique trip to the past.  That night, we ate as a group at the Gulasch museum where I ate, as the name suggests, Gulasch.

The next morning, we took a tour of the Narrenturm, translated "fools tower". This was one of the first mental institutions in the world that actually attempted to research patients with mental diseases, rather than just writing them off as insane and locking them away. Today, the building serves as a museum with a variety of wax models of different health conditions. They had wax models depicting every disease imaginable, from carcinoma to ichthyosis (a skin disease).
We had the rest of the afternoon free, so we explored the Vienna National Library, got delicious Wiener Schnitzel, and then explored other parts of the city that we hadn't seen the day before. That night, we hung out at the Winter festival in front of the beautiful Rathaus, where we celebrated Camella's birthday by drinking Gluhwein and eating pastries.

On Thursday, we went to the Josephinum, the old hospital/ medical school used during the Hapsburg Dynasty. In contrast with the Narrenturm, this museum had life size wax models of humans which highlighted various body systems. Medical students back in the 18th and 19th centuries used these same wax models to learn about human anatomy, as they were not allowed to dissect actual human beings. Afterwards, we ate a traditional Austrian lunch and then headed to the Sigmund Freud house for a psychology lecture and a tour of his house. Finally that evening, we attended a classical concert in a exquisite 17th century chapel (St. Anna's), where we listened to the quartet play songs by Mozart and Beethoven, two of Vienna's most famous composers.

On our last day in Vienna, we got to observe the "Morgensarbeit mit Musik" (Morning practice with music) at the famous Spanish riding school. I sat next to Madeline who used to ride horses competitively, so I got my own private lesson on horse riding. On our way out of the riding school, we stumbled upon a large ceremony outside, which turned out to be the arrival of the Serbian president. I was surprised by the seeming lack of security, but it was an unique experience witnessing both the Austrian and Serbian presidents meet in the palace square. Afterwards, we took the subway across the city to the Schonbrunn Palace, where we hiked up the hill to overlook the entire city of Vienna.  Although it was a cloudy day, it was still a breathtaking site, looking down on the massive yellow palace with the beautiful city surrounded by hills in the background. After hiking around the hill and palace gardens for a couple of hours, we returned downtown and went to the Viennese natural history museum. During our short but interesting tour, we were told that this museum had over 30 million artifacts, making it one of the most complete natural history museums in the world. Unfortunately, we only had about an hour to explore the museum, but I definitely want to come back and explore more if I ever visit Vienna again. Finally, we returned to the hotel to collect our baggage, and then headed to the train station to catch our bus to Budapest. We very nearly missed our bus, but after running like frantic idiots throughout the train station, we finally found the bus terminal and off to Budapest we went!

Budapest

We got into Budapest at around 9 at night and walked about 2 miles from there to our Airbnb, which was right by the river. Walking across the river that night was straight out of a movie with the lit up buildings and bridges glistening off of the Danube.

The next morning, Corey and I woke up and went for a run across the river and up to Buda Castle to overlook the city below. To make things even prettier (but also freezing), it was snowing. After our run, we headed over to the Schnezki Baths, one of the famous hot baths in the city. The bath house is actually a collection of about 20 baths of varying sizes and temperatures. Over and over again, we would sit in the sauna for around 5 minutes, and then quickly hop into the cold bath (which was an icy 18 degrees Celsius). After every dip, I felt so refreshed, but the actual two seconds of standing in the water were absolute torture. After a relaxing afternoon in the baths, Corey, Katie, Emily, and I hiked up Gellért Hill as the sun was setting to look over the city.

After taking pictures and freezing our butts off, we RUSHED down the mountain to meet Alwin at a haunted house that none of us particularly cared to go to (although we were going cause we thought he had already bought the tickets). Well, long story short, after hustling across the city to make it there on time (granted he texted me multiple times to make sure we were still coming), we meet him outside and then go inside. As soon as we get inside, this man asks “So do you you guys really wanna do this thing? Cause I don’t.” BRUH- COULD YOU NOT HAVE SAID ANYTHING 2 HOURS AGO!? Then, this man took us to “the best burgers in Budapest” and lemme tell you, Budapest must not be known for its burgers, cause I couldn’t tell that burger apart from a 1 dollar cheeseburger from McDonalds. Anyways I’m over it, but I will not be using Alwin as my travel agent anytime soon.

Sunday, we woke up early to hike up Buda Hill and watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, it was cloudy in the east, but it was still beautiful watching the sky brighten over the city. We then explored the old cobble stones streets of Buda, before stopping for breakfast at a delicious omelette place. Probably my favorite part of Budapest was how cheap everything was- huge meals like this one were on average 5-6 euro! After eating, we continued exploring the pretty buildings, going inside the Buda Castle art museum and later on the Parliament building. The Hungarian Parliament Building is by far one of the prettiest buildings I’ve ever seen, with its beautiful location along the Danube River. Inside, it does not disappoint, guilded in gold with maroon carpet covering the grand hallways and staircases.

For the rest of the day, we continued to walk all around the city/ metro hop to see all the main sites in Budapest. In the evening, after walking 14 miles throughout the day, we rewarded ourselves with a traditional Hungarian meal consisting of Gulasch and dumplings from a local restaurant. Best 7 euros I spent the entire trip- it was absolutely delicious. All in all, our trip to Budapest was incredible, and I would definitely enjoy returning again in the future. I guess you can probably tell that I’m still alive since I’m writing this blog post, but I wasn’t quite sure I would make it home on my 28 euro Wizz Air (yeah Wizz who?) flight, which I kid you not boarded from a barn.

Doctor Dash

This week was all about medicine. I had my first pharmacology workshops. These were designed to teach me more about the pharmaceutical industry. It brought back a lot of old knowledge from high school, such as statistics and what makes a valid trial group. However, they were quite long and I felt myself losing focus towards the end of each workshop. Later, I had an appointment with an allergist to discuss my weird allergy testing. However, the doctor could not give me a proper diagnosis and just referred me to another physician. All he could say for certain was that I did not have an allergy.  This was not good. I skipped a couple classes for an appointment that could’ve just been a phone call. However, I had a new appointment the very next day. The only problem was that I had a math exam that day. So now I couldn’t cram just before the test. But the next doctor was just as perplexed as the last one. He said to go see someone else, which did not really help me much. Right after I got back to the AIB, however, we found out that I could have my appointment immediately. So, I left and postponed my exam for Friday. Finally, this ENT specialist had a better treatment plan! She gave me some medication and told me to come back in a few weeks. So, I went to school the next day, took my math exam, and spent the weekend catching up on all the stuff I missed while I was at different appointments. All in all, not the most exciting or fun week I have had during the program.

A Few Days Off

Monday
Test week. That's really all I can think about today. We have our Differential Equations test coming up on Thursday, and I'm still not sure how to study for that one. Today we also had the Pharmacology Workshop, which was pretty cool. We really just learned how to search drugs and information about drugs. The rest of the afternoon we had classes, ending with an enmodes meeting. We have about two weeks to get our first presentation together.

Tuesday
The second half of the Pharmacology workshop. Today's half was more interesting- we talked about the more social or societal aspect of drugs, and also learned what is expected of medical students when it comes to pharmaceuticals.

Wednesday-Friday
I'm grouping these days together because I ended up finally catching the virus that was floating around school (and all of Germany it seems). I attempted to go to classes on Wednesday, but ended up going home after German (my first class). I spent the rest of Wednesday in bed, and then woke up early on Thursday to walk with Lauren (who was also sick) to the AIB so that they could direct us towards a doctor. After some phone difficulties, one of the student workers walked us to a doctors office around the corner. We sat in the waiting room for about 2 hours before a nurse finally came and got us (they let us go in together, which I thought was interesting). Once the nurse realized we only spoke English, she went and got the doctor right away. The doctor was really cool. We ended up spending a while in her office, talking to her about school and medical school/life in Germany. She wasn't surprised we were sick- she said about 90% of her patients had what we had, and the most she could do was prescribe bed rest and an advil-type medicine to help with the pain. So we went home and slept for about two days straight.

Saturday-Sunday
I'm grouping these days together too because they aren't much more exciting than the rest of the week. Lauren and I got out of the house Saturday and went shopping. The city center was packed with people, and we ran out of energy pretty quickly so we came back home and hung around the house for the rest of the day. The neighbors came over for dinner, which was a lot of fun. We ended the night with the sixth Harry Potter.

Today (Sunday) is dedicated to homework. I slept in this morning, ate the usual Sunday brunch with the host family, and am now locking myself away to finally study for that differential equations test. Wish me luck!

Adventures in Germany: Week 6

Another week down!  I just want to say that this trip is going by too dang fast!  I've been having so much that it sometimes becomes a struggle to stop and smell the roses, but I feel like I've become better at that especially during my past trip to Amsterdam.

THAT'S RIGHT!  We went to AMSTERDAM this past weekend and it was just plain magical.  Friday after school our group had quite a bit of time before our train departed from Bonn, so I went home to finish up my laundry and get some homework done.  That night, I made a pizza before saying goodbye to my host family for the weekend.  Even though I was only going to be gone for two days, I felt sort've melancholic leaving my host family.  I'm nervous that I will be really sad when I leave for Spring Break for two weeks soon.  Alas, we made our way over to Bonn Hbf before hopping on our train to Amsterdam.  We only had to change trains once in Cologne, which was a breeze.  We got to Amsterdam pretty late Friday night at 11:30 pm, and we quickly scrambled to find a way to get to Almere, where are AirBnB was.  Thankfully, we found a day pass that allowed us to get to our Airbnb and back the next morning.  Once in Almere, our Airbnb host promised to pick us near the station to take us back to the house, but none of us knew which parking lot he was referring to.  Thankfully, he pulled up to a lot right as we were walking past it.  Truly a miracle he found us because I wasn't sure how we were ever going to find him.  Our host was very gracious and hospitable, he offered to make us breakfast the next two mornings which was so thoughtful of him.  Once we got to the house, we put our stuff down and quickly went to bed because it had gotten really late.

The next morning we ate a strong hearty breakfast before taking a train to Amsterdam for the day!  Once we got there, we were all overwhelmed by the immense crowds there.  I guess I was naive, but I couldn't believe so many tourists decided to come to Amsterdam the same weekend as us.  Thankfully, we made our way to the town square and were able to start our walk around the city.  I have seen so many pictures of Amsterdam's canals and I just want to say that they don't do them justice.  I have never been to such a peaceful and picturesque location before.  Seeing all the boats float down the river while people zoom by on their bicycles was quite a sight to see.  It was also crazy to see the Dutch "coffeeshop" culture in person.  The carefree spirit the Dutch have is something that I wish we could take back to America.  We also got to visit some flea markets and tulip shops and it amazed me how many tulips were available even though tulip season is not for a couple of months!  After walking around for a few hours we decided to get a snack: Dutch pancakes.  We quickly found a place and I got a chocolate pancake which was just divine.  Following our gluttony, we continued our tour of Amsterdam by heading over to the Anne Frank House.  Our appointment was at 7:30 but we had some time to kill so we went to the nearby Cheese museum.  There, they had tastings for all different kinds of cheese and they were all fabulous.  After feasting on some cheese we headed back to the Anne Frank House for our tour.  It was very moving to be in the Anne Frank House and getting to listen to some pieces of her famous diary.  The bravery she and her family had was powerful and I hope that I would have the same outlook on life she had if I was ever in a life or death scenario.  After our tour, we were hungry again so we decided to eat at a burger place near the famous red light district.  The restaurant was packed but fortunately the host found us a table really quickly.  The burgers we had there were by far the best burgers I've eaten since coming to Europe.  I would easily go back even though I can find that type of food back in the US.  Maybe I loved it so much because it reminded me of home a little bit.  After dinner, we decided to head to the Red Light District just to mark that off our bucket list.  I'm just gonna say that scene is not for me.  The culture there was unlike anything I have ever experienced before, and I know that I will never see that type of culture in the US so it was particularly interesting to see in person.  After that, we waded through the enormous crowds back to the central station because it was getting really late.  Thankfully, we got on a train and headed back home.

The next morning, we slept in a little bit from our arduous day before.  We ate another feast of a breakfast, before saying goodbye to our Airbnb host.  After arriving by train in Amsterdam, we walked on foot about a mile to this park which had the "I AMSTERDAM" sign.  We took some pics before touring the nearby food trucks.  Even though some of the food looked incredible, I was trying to save money so I didn't get any :/.  We then decided to take a canal tour of Amsterdam.  Thankfully, we found a cheap tour for only 11 euro.  The whole experience was magical. Getting to learn about the history of all the different canals and seeing them on the water was truly an experience I will never forget.  After the tour, my day of troubles began.  It all started when I had a diarrhea outburst.  Sorry for the gruesome image but it was truly terrible.  I would end up having to go to the bathroom at least 5 times on the way back to Bonn.  After walking around some more we had to head back to the central station to catch our train back to Bonn.  Unlike the train we took to get to Amsterdam, we had to change trains 4 times on our way home.  The first exchange went smoothly, but at the second change, we missed our train because we were unsure if it was the right train to get on.  I was beyond annoyed with everything that had happened so far, but I am so proud of myself for not getting too upset and for having a good attitude throughout the ideal.  In fact, the extra hour way gave me some time to find snacks as I was getting pretty hungry.  We finally got on the next train about an hour later, but my diarrhea had acted up again and I had to deal with the train bathrooms which was truly an out of body experience.  Thankfully, we made it home smoothly and we were able to get a good night's rest for the upcoming week of school.

School this week has been the first week where I have truly been stressed by the amount of work and tests that are coming up.  With 3 tests next week in lab, German, and Physiology, and our Enmodes presentation.  Next week will truly be a test of my mental fortitude.  But thankfully, our group has finally figured out a decent idea of implanting the lung device in the chance without breaking open the sternum.  After talking it through with Dr. Wasser and the TA's, we have committed to our idea and are going to begin making our PowerPoint presentation for next week.  Thankfully, I have finished all my homework for the week so I won't have to stress about it during our weekend ski trip to Garmisch-Parkinkerchen which I am BEYOND excited for.  I love skiing and getting to ski in the Alps will be a dream come true.  I will talk about the ski trip and about all of our school happenings on next week's blog.

Until then,

Tschuss!

When Karnival hits ain't getting anything done

Howdy folks!! So last week was an adventure. Monday was still part of Karnival so a group of us went to Cologne to celebrate and received loads of candy especially chocolate. It was the longest parade I have every seen and probably will ever see with at least 62 different sections and each section having at least 3 parts but not exceeding 15 parts. It lasted for four hours so when it started snowing people found cover because the parade was still going to be there. Most of the week following was classes and such but on Mittwoch or Wednesday we traveled back to Leverkusen where we saw some of the new thoughts and technology about to become implemented in everyday lives which is super exciting. They even showed us why packaging and medicine is different in Germany then the US for example we prefer things in bottle form and the German's prefer box form so all of their medications are packaged in little boxes and one of the reasons is because when you start getting older the box is easier to open than a bottle so older folk can easily get their medication. The weekend I decided to stay in Bonn I decided to go to the gym both days and ran for 5 miles one day which was an experience that I never think I could say I had done before. Pretty sad I know but there's a first for everything and I did it in an hour so I'm not super out of shape. Other then that it's been pretty quiet over here. So thanks for reading and look forward to the next post skiing may or may not be included!

Woche Fünf

Blog Post of Week 5: New Feelings and More New Experiences

February 20, 2018

Guten Abend!

It’s now been 5 weeks since I’ve been here in Germany and this study abroad is Finally starting to feel like less abroad and more study. Next week, I have 3 exams: physiology, physiology lab, and German, and I feel a bit overwhelmed. I guess I shouldn’t be complaining since the engineering students have felt this way since week 1 but here I am. I knew this was a long time coming, though!

On Friday, we celebrated Galentine’s Day, and I had Lexie and she had me. I guess you could say we’re the perfect match, and she nailed the gift giving. From her, I received the prettiest flowers, the yummiest chocolate, and the fruitiest face mask. It was a lot of fun as you can see in the blurry pictures.

During the weekend, I went to the Black Forest region to go hiking with Kate, Corey, Mitchell and IBK. First of all, this was the dream team. I had the best time with these people and I felt like we had luck on our side the whole time because it snowed, our rental car didn’t get stuck in the parking lot due to this snow, and everything just seemed to work out perfectly.  It was funny because the bus driver we had taking us to the train station made us all get off the bus at one point to help push a car out of the snow, and he repeatedly stopped to help other drivers in their fight against mother nature. We felt like we were in good hands going up the narrow winding hills with this MVP as our driver.

Once we got into Triberg, we hiked to the waterfall there and it was gorgeous. The scenery was just amazing because of the white snow covering the trees and ground and it was such a sight to see! We hiked about 8 miles and ended up having a snowball fight in this huge hilly field with one small house at the bottom, and we created forts and everything! The boys might say they won, but I’d say there was no clear winner.

The next day was even better as we went cross country skiing and I had never done anything like that in my life! The smallest hills were so fun to ski down and I would get scared once I started going fast down them because I never learned how to stop. Many times, I would stop by landing on the ground and bruising a couple of places on my body, but I’m proud to say I did not fall the most (cough IBK and Kate cough).

On a more serious note relating to this past week, I learned about the passing of my old friend, Matthew Gaikema. It was heartbreaking to find out about and even more heart breaking to find out about the reason why. Ill treasure his friendship forever. It’s difficult to hear about bad things that happen back home when you’re enjoying yourself in a different place, like I am here in Germany. Things like this remind you that you’re not really living in reality right now and when you get back, things will be different. I still feel that my life is changing for the better, though, and I’m hopeful for the rest of this journey to help me grow.

Thank you for reading once again and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Now I must study.

Bis Spater!

Karneval!

Week 4

During the week leading up to Karneval, I had my first BMEN 211 test. While I have been here, I have devoted more intellectual effort to my curiosities and travels than my schoolwork, especially when I compare how much I would have devoted to homework and studying if I were on College Station. I believe this is part of the beauty and magic of this trip, I am able to plant seeds of intellect that I may later go back to investigate further and increase my knowledge. I have recently been trying to learn some theology, philosophy, and culture. However, these actions did not benefit me when I approached my 211 exam. However, I did study and prepare some for this test and felt relatively primed for the test. Overall, (knock on wood), I felt like I did relatively well but one question on supermesh and the applications to circuit analysis tripped me up some. I am eager to see how I did on this test.

The week ended early as Karneval began on Thursday with a great parade in Beuel. The parades were unreal! For two or more hours, floats come by, the streets are packed, and everyone around you in jumping up and down yelling "Kamelle! Kamelle!". To top it off, you can't look up because you will get pelted in the face with candy, but you can't look down because you will miss all the fun. All around me, everyone had fun. I even got thrown a small shot bottle and a giant cookie. Also, from this parade alone, I had a lifetime supply of Haribo (so if you ever want some, hit me up because I will always have the hook ups!) Also, during Karneval, the cool-tempered, quiet, hardworking cities of Bonn where talking to a stranger on the bus is uncommon, come alive by dressing up in crazy costumes and face-paint, partying for five straight days, and smiling and laughing all day long. On Thursday night I partied out in Bonn and stopped by a bar to dance some. I had a wonderful night.

I used Friday as mostly a recovery day because I knew I had a long weekend of adventures ahead of me. I slept in and stayed around my host house for most of the day until the evening when I joined Darby and Deanna. We ended up going to the fraternity house of some people they had met the day before. I learned that German fraternities learn some basic fencing as part of being a fox (pledge) and they live in much fancier houses than American fraternities; however, they enjoy parties and drinking just as much. We stayed talking for hours and playing pool.

On Sunday, I participated in a parade by volunteering to help with a physical therapy center's float and members. I helped make sure no one ran underneath the truck and also got to throw candy. It was surprising how many kids will scream at the top of their lungs for candy and beg for it from you. However, my favorite part of the day was the lunch reception after the parade when the volunteers (including me) were invited back to the therapy center for a tour and lunch. I got the opportunity to talk to the program coordinator for the group home and hear his perspectives and opinions. While I don't currently know how I will use this interest, I find myself repeatedly drawn to the disabled community and I would like to dedicate some of my efforts towards improving their situation or better understanding or helping in some way.

On Monday, I went up to Cologne to see the Rosen Montag parade. This was the largest parade around and it was great! I got thrown two flowers and loads of candy. I had a wonderful experience in Cologne. While in Cologne, I drank some Kölsch and ate Currywurst while watching the Rhine.

My favorite parade of the weekend was the parade in Beuel because it was my first parade ever, it was focussed on the women and female empowerment, and it was a relatively small community but large enough that everyone wanted to celebrate and enjoy!

Viva Colonia!

Rosenmontag
Rose Monday was a DAY. Katie, Lauren, Emily and I got home Sunday morning around 2 or 3 and fell straight to sleep. We dragged ourselves out of bed Monday morning to celebrate the best and last day of Karneval. There was so much hype built up to this day, but my costume was destroyed, I lost my wig, and I could no longer feel my feet. But hey, the weather was beautiful, the day was young, our Airbnb host was friendly, and its Rosenmontag! We started the day off with gluwein because it was in the mid 20s, and we'd be outside most of the day. We chose a good spot to watch the parade, and eventually made our way up front. Its hard to describe the atmosphere of Rosenmontag. It sort of reminds me of Aggies on game day back in College Station in a weird way- everyone is so friendly, and in such a good mood. We spent the morning perfecting our pronunciation of "Kamelle," quickly filling our jacket pockets with all types of candy. There were a bunch of people handing out flowers too, but not one of us could figure out how people were collecting so many. We decided to switch settings after a while and chose a new spot to watch the parade. We ended up meshing with a group of Germans, who helped us move our way to the very front. One of the girls, named Vicky, had a whole bag of flowers, so I asked how the heck she managed that. She explained that it takes a little flirting and excessively yelling "Strussjer", and maybe kissing the cheek of whoever hands you the flower. It became our new mission to collect as many flowers as possible after that. We stayed until the end of the parade, and actually were allowed to follow the last parade float through the rest of the parade, which was pretty cool to walk through and see the massive crowds. We ended the night by going to another bar that our Airbnb host recommended, which turned out to be a lot of fun. But by the end of the night I was more than happy to take off that costume and go to sleep. Karneval was a lot of fun, but not because of the 5 straight days of partying. More because of the atmosphere that all of the Rhine region of Germany has during these 5 days. Generally (from what I've observed) Germans keep to themselves, but over that weekend everyone was so friendly.

Tuesday
Tuesday we woke up and made our way back to Bonn. We had an enmodes meeting and math that afternoon. Our enmodes project is really starting to come along. It was a little difficult to get started, because I feel a little under-qualified. Its hard to know where to start when I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I'm realizing that I know more than I thought. A big part of this project is innovation, problem-solving, and asking a lot of questions. We kind of have the ball rolling now, which is exciting. For math our professor had technical difficulties or something, so we got out class early.

Wednesday
Bayer excursion day! I was excited for this, mainly because I'm still so undecided about what I want out of this biomedical engineering degree. Bayer has a very cool set up over in Leverkusen, and it was interesting to hear what they do and what they've accomplished (other than aspirin). If anything it made me question how everyday contact with 'everyday' chemicals, such as simple medications, make up, hair products, pesticides, etc. affects the body over time. The rest of the day was spent in school, and at the very end of the day we had a meeting about cancelling our spring break plans to Morocco.

While this was a huge part of the week, I don't want to say much about it. I learned a lot about myself and about people in general. I know this is all very vague, but its very much something that one has to go through to understand. The only advice I can offer is to be as open and honest as possible from the very beginning, and maybe don't plan trips with large groups of people. And don't make a bad situation a personal thing, because chances are you don't know the full story of the other side. You can't avoid conflict, but you can learn to be mature about it.

Thursday
Thursday was just a normal school day. We had History of Medicine in the morning, which is still one of my favorite classes. It doesn't involve any busy work, we only have to read- and the information we read is relevant to the class. Later that day we had physiology. We've moved from the cardiovascular system to the respiratory. Dr. Wasser knows a lot about the body, and he offers a lot of random little tid bits of information that are so cool- the body is an incredible system. I'm definitely still leaning towards becoming a doctor. After this class, Dr. Wasser came and talked to the Morocco group. He told us that he thinks the best option is to cancel the trip, mainly because it isn't the safest place to travel. And since we were already having conflicts over it, it would be best to just put an end to it. This sort of broke the weird tension between us all, which was a relief. We then had math tutoring and then math class. DiffEQ is probably the most difficult course this semester. We have a test coming up this next week, and I've never been more stressed, or more lost, in a class. Can't wait for this test! To top it off, everyone is sick, and I'm just now catching it. On a brighter note, Lauren and I are planning to stay in Bonn this weekend, and take an (a much needed) easy weekend hanging out here.

Friday
Today we had 211 and Enmodes. BMEN 211 is much better this time around- I'm more attentive in class, and I've started reading the book early. Our enmodes project is progressing. That afternoon Lauren and I just hung out with our host family, and watched the 5th Harry Potter that night.

Saturday
Saturday was actually really cool. I woke up fairly early to go with my host mom to see her horse a few villages over. His name is Chico, and he's really hairy, really old, and really cute. Astrid let me ride him while she walked the dog. She took us through the German countryside, through all of these farm lands, and up into a small hill/mountain. We had to cross rivers, and a few roads, and 3 hours later we ended up back home. It was a perfect morning. At the house I switched with Lauren- she rode the horse back to the barn, and I started homework (and ended up falling asleep). That night Astrid's friends came over and we had a game night. We played Uno and another game similar to Charades. It was super fun to try and communicate well enough to win.

Sunday
Sunday Lauren and I slept in until it was time for family brunch. After brunch we went for a run, which ended rather poorly because we were both fairly sore from riding. The rest of the day we spent doing homework.

Overall, Bonn feels more and more like home. I'm now comfortable being around our host family, and feel less like a guest and more of a family member. Even Jamie (the dog) greets me at the door when I come home. Naia is super funny and super friendly, and we spend most nights just hanging out at the dinner table talking (and making fun of Lauren).

Saufen, Morgens, Mittags, Abends

... is my favorite Karneval song by far. I only just found out what they were saying in it yesterday, when my host sister helped me find it and then kindly explained it. It basically means drinking, morning, noon and night. In my defense, I didn't know what it meant before I decided it was my favorite. Besides, I think the message it sends is very true to the Karneval spirit. Karneval week was definitely one to remember.

Monday
So Lauren, Katie, Emily, Corey, Mitchell and I all got back from Budapest Monday, with Lauren and I arriving in our normal late style to class that morning. That day passed in a haze, as we had to wake up at 4 that morning to make our 6 am flight. Naturally we woke up a little late and spent most of the early morning hours chasing buses and running through airports. I feel a little better about eating an average of six pastries a day because of the amount of running we do during traveling. I was also sort of freaking out because we bought really really sketchy flights through a site called Wizzair, and I was nervous my luggage was going to be too heavy and I'd have to pay a heavy fee to make up for it. Fortunately, we boarded out of a shed so we never had to weigh luggage. And when I say shed I literally mean an old airplane shed. I'd do it again in a heart beat though, the flight was cheap and just about as comfortable as any other plane. Once landing in Dusseldorf, we had to run around a bit more to find a bus, only to find that the buses wouldn't arrive in time for us to make our other bus that was going all the way to Bonn. We then ran back through the airport to find a taxi and ride our way to the main bus station in Dusseldorf, where we then ran some more to make it to our bus in time. I passed out on the bus, and woke up a few hours later to familiar surroundings. I have to say that Bonn is really starting to feel like home. It was nice to recognize where I was, and it was nice to hear German again (even if I still can't understand it) after being in Budapest all weekend. Lauren and I thought we'd be able to go home, change and still make it to school on time, but per usual we miscalculated a bit and showed up about 10 minutes late to class. After a full week of traveling school was hard to sit through, but I am here for school after all (right?).

Tuesday
Tuesday passed even quicker because I was in a panic about our BMEN 211 test that we had on Wednesday. I knew I was underprepared, and therefore it was harder to try and study. I did what I could, and went to bed (might as well sleep a little).

Wednesday
Romi's birthday! And test day! I don't particularly want to talk about this day because of the test, but I guess failing a test is just as much a part of this program as everything else. I definitely learned a lot-- that school needs to be put in front of traveling a little bit more. And since I'm writing this about a week or two later, I can say that I have gotten a bit better about school. After the test everyone was exhausted, sort of depressed, sort of ready for Karneval. Lauren and I went costume shopping, which was honestly harder than the 211 test. We had no idea what to be, and didn't want to spend insane amounts of money. So we decided to just dress up super brightly. Lauren really wanted to wear a wig, so she convinced me to buy one too. I was super against the wig at first, but quickly warmed up to it once I saw everyone else's costumes. The idea of Karneval is to dress up and have a good time, which is exactly what we did.

Thursday
Karneval! Lauren and I woke up late (this should just be assumed at this point), and of course putting on costumes takes a lot longer than just getting dressed, so we were about 40 minutes late to the AIB Karneval party. Walking to the bus we were kind of freaking out because no one else we saw was dressed up, and we were about as insane-looking as possible, especially with the wigs. Even when we first got on the tram, we were surrounded by normal looking pedestrians. But as we rode closer to the city, more and more people were getting on with some type of costume. We saw everything from  a guy with just a red clown nose to a guy painted completely blue and spray painted white hair. At this point I was super pumped about Karneval. The whole city seemed much more alive, and everyone seemed to be in a great mood. When we finally got to the AIB, everyone was eating berliners and drinking juice, looking at each others costumes. We soon left for the parade, and Karneval week began! We stood and watched part of the parade for a bit, yelling Alaaf and Kamelle right along with everyone else. My host sister Naia recommended different types of candy to collect and the ones to avoid, but I ended up trying everything. We spent the rest of the day in a little plaza dancing and hanging out, listening to the live music playing. It was my favorite day of Karneval by far.

Friday and Saturday
Friday and Saturday I did absolutely nothing. I spent most of the day in bed, and even caught up on some homework. This was mainly because we weren't sure where to go for those two days, because our little village didn't have a parade like most other villages. Lauren, Emily, Katie and I had also planned to go to Cologne on Sunday, so I'm pretty glad we took Friday and Saturday easy.

Sunday
Sunday Lauren and I met Katie and Emily at the train station around 11 that morning, and we rode our way to Koln for the massive parade on Rosenmontag, which is all anyone talked about when we asked what we should do for Karneval. While Fat Tuesday is the day of celebration in the States, Rose Monday is the party day here in Germany-- and Cologne has the biggest one. We arrived in Cologne and popped over to our Airbnb, which was a short 10 minute walk from the Dom (I'm still amazed we found this place, especially during Karneval). The apartment was beautiful, and the host was awesome. He and his friends gave us a list of things to do on Sunday and an itinerary for Monday. We quickly unpacked our stuff, changed into costumes, and went out. We spent most of Sunday walking around, just enjoying the atmosphere. We ate at a traditional German restaurant (and enjoyed a Kolsch beer) before heading back to the apartment. I had some last minute homework to turn in, so I did that and then we all went out to one of the bars our Airbnb host recommended. It had a 20 euro entrance fee, which didn't appeal to any of us, so we went into the bar next door which look insane. Turned out it was an older bar, filled with 50+ year olds. I met a girl named Valerie in the bathroom, who turned out to be 29. We ended up hanging out with her and her friend group, who then  gave us a few recommendations for younger bars. We found a pretty fun place, and spent the rest of the night there, dancing to Karneval songs.

Kooky Karneval

This past week has been quite a fun ride! First, there was karneval week. It was one of the best times I had in Germany. First, there was the Bonn parade, where I got to see many different floats. The best part was how the people on top of the floats threw all kinds of candy, making me feel like I was in a very specific Halloween. The best thing that they tossed out was not candy; it was the incredible amount of weird bathroom items, like tissues or toothpaste. Next, I meet up with some German locals to have move the karneval festivities to their neighborhood. It was wild! People were jumping all over the place and I was filled with the karneval spirit. The final two days of karneval I took as a rest period and get some well needed sleep. The class week was more of the same, a lot of homework and not much time to relax. However, I really enjoyed our excursion to Bayer, where I learned all about a real pharmaceutical company. It was very interesting to see how they designed their products and use some of their equipment, like the "old man suit." Finally on Saturday I took a bus to Utrecht to see the state of trance festival. It was incredible! The music would vibrate my bones! It was a really interesting experience, as the music really did put me in a state of trance. I completely forgot about my life and I was "in the moment." I know that I'll be returning to the Netherlands again after the great fun I had at Utrecht!

Baykomm, Kunstmuseum, and Beethoven - Germany Week 5

              After Karnival, this has been a very calm and relaxing week. On Tuesday, things started getting back to normal.

Wednesday, we took a group excursion to Leverkusen to the Bayer Communication Center, or Baykomm. I always knew Bayer as a very large pharmaceutical company, but they are involved in more than I realized. They not only focus on human health, but also animal health and agriculture. It was also really cool to see how their packaging differs depending on the country that it is being sold in. I never would’ve thought it would be that different, but the different cultures cause different preferences. For example, the American packaging is large plastic bottles that contain more than 100 pills, but the German packaging is a small cardboard box with maybe 20 pills. These different packages are based on cultural preferences.

On Friday we had a Galentine’s Day celebration, where all us girls had lunch together and exchanged gifts. It was a lot of fun and there was so much chocolate! After that, Camella, Lois, Darby, and I went to the Kunstmuseum, which literally translates to art museum. It contained some very interesting art pieces that I am not sure if I liked or not. Once we had our fill of strange art, we walked to the Rheinaue park and then along the river and back over the bridge towards home. At the time, it did not feel like that much, but it was quite a walk, but the view of the Rhine was beautiful. Saturday was spent catching up on homework and watching some Netflix. My host family made Currywurst for lunch, so it was nice to experience it homemade rather than from a food truck, which had been my experience so far. It was better than I had eaten before, but the white sausage thing still gets me. I don’t think I am a fan of this type of sausage.

Beethoven House

Today, Camella, Lois, Darby, and I decided to do “touristy” things in Bonn. We went to the Beethoven House, which is where Beethoven was born and lived for some time. It is now a museum with things from Beethoven, including letters and ear horns and desks and pieces of the organ he learned to play on. It was really cool to take a step back in time in a way. After that, we walked around Bonn. We went to a few of the things on the Beethoven walking tour, but mainly just went where the streets took us. It was such a pretty day today. The sun was shining and so many people were out, even though it was still cold. They say spring is coming and it should be warming up soon. Fingers crossed! Tschüss!

Win some, lose some

Saturday the 10th was pretty uneventful. I was going to hang out with a few friends, but plans don’t always work out.

The weekend got a lot more exciting on Sunday. I went to Köln with Katie, Lauren, and Madeline. We dropped our things off at our Airbnb, which was within walking distance of the Dom (a hugh upgrade compared to last time), and headed out to explore all of the Karneval festivities. We went out again that night to a club our Airbnb owner had recommended, but the place ended up having an entry fee of 20 euros. None of us felt like shelling out that much, so we went decided to go into the place next door. The place looked pretty cool from the outside, but when we got in we found that the club was filled with mostly 50+ year olds. I still had a great time dancing to all of the Karneval songs though! We decided leave, and found a more age appropriate club that we danced at till about 2.

It was hard getting up for Rosamontag, but we all managed to throw on our costumes for one last Karneval celebration. After getting some breakfast at Kamps, we headed out to watch the big Rosamontag parade. It lasted forever! At the beginning of the parade, none of us knew that the Germans have a method to getting flowers and candy. We were getting frustrated trying to catch flowers that weren’t being thrown our way. Luckily, we ran into some Germans who heard us speaking English. They gave us a few pointers, and within minutes all of us had handfuls of Strussjer (flower bouquets) and Kamelle (candy)! It was such a nice day, that the cold wasn’t really an issue. A few hours in, however; the sun disappeared, and the blue sky transitioned into snow flurries! It was a one of a kind experience watching the horse drawn floats pass by, flowers and candy flying with the snow flurries, and catchy Karneval tunes blasting. The spirit of Karneval is contagious! When we couldn’t catch any more Strussjer, we headed to an Asian restaurant for dinner. It was nice to thaw after being outside in the crazy weather. That night, we headed to a club called Roonburg. Great music was playing; or I just really like Karneval songs. Anyways, it was a perfect end to the Karneval holiday.

Tuesday morning, we packed our things and hopped on a train back to Bonn. We had class that afternoon. I went to bed pretty early on Tuesday because I was starting to feel under the weather.

Our program had an excursion to Bayer in Leverkusen on Wednesday. A tour guide showed us around the Bayer communication center and shared with us the history and current projects of Bayer. It was neat seeing how the company packages the same drug differently based on where the drug is being sold. The Baykomm center was super interesting. There was a lot of fun interactive technology that we were able to play around with. I had German and 211 that afternoon. After class, the Morocco group met to try and sort out details for some of us no longer feeling comfortable with going. I didn’t appreciate some of the close minded and stereotypical thoughts thrown my way. One money comment really irritated me, so I would like to clarify that I am paying for all of my travels out of my own pocket, using money I saved for years working as a babysitter, cashier, janitor, and waitress. I was feeling pretty crappy by the end of the day, mostly from whatever bug I caught during Karneval but also the whole Morocco ordeal.

Classes started early on Thursday. I was feeling worse than I had earlier that week. I was just trying to make it through the day. I didn’t want to bother my host family when I got back, but they could tell I was sick. Anyways, my host mom is amazing and gave me fever and cough medicine.

Friday, we had a Galentine’s gift exchange. It was a cute and fun celebration. I got some great chocolate, gummies, and cute astronaut pug socks curtesy of Darby! After class, I went home to take it easy for the weekend.

Saturday was pretty crappy. I felt super dizzy and confused and I threw up. I spent the rest of the day in bed sleeping. I’m pretty sure I came down with the flu, because all my symptoms check out. 

On Sunday, my fever and aches were gone. I just have a lingering cough now. I went for a walk with my host mom, and have been working on homework all day. I know I needed a weekend off, but I hope I can do something more exciting next weekend.

The week I learned the importance of respect and compromise

This Monday was a special Monday. The most important day of Karneval, Rosenmontag. The entire reason we had booked an airbnb in Cologne was because of this day. I had heard of this day months before even departing for Germany. This day was notorious for the massive parades, elaborate parties and excessive alcohol consumption. Katie, Emily, Madeline and I woke up and jumped out of bed. We wriggled into our costumes for the last time, even though they smelt of sweat and beer. We went out the door and into the madness. We passed through hoards of people screaming "Alaaf" and "Kamelle" in desperation to fill their already brimming candy bags. After grabbing a bite to eat, we soon joined them. For three hours, we stood on the curb celebrating with the masses. About halfway through, a blunt wind brought in a gust of snow flurries. It was truly a sight to behold. Once we decided our fingers had frozen enough for the day, we popped into an asian restaurant for dinner. We braved the cold once more to get back to the airbnb. We dropped off our earnings from the day and fixed up our costumes.  We decided to go to a club called "Roonburg". During our last trip to cologne we had heard this club was infamous for its nightlife. The night ended around four in the morning and we trudged back to the airbnb for the night. 

Tuesday morning. Alarms were blaring, the sunlight was blinding. We hastily cleaned and packed up our stuff. We headed out the door and walked toward the tram station. Barely making it in time for the next train to Bonn. We arrived safely and split up. Madeline and I decided to go home first before heading to the AIB for classes. Once classes were finished for the day, a group of us stayed to discuss spring break plans. Originally, a group of twelve decided to expand our study abroad to the African continent. However, two suddenly dropped out. With their cancellation, the price for the ten others increased significantly. People had begun to panic with major concerns for our financials and safety. Madeline and I agreed that the cost both to our wallet and our livelihood was no longer worth pursuing this trip. We decided to express our concerns to the group before making any final decisions. The group decided it was best to meet and discuss the situation. Everyone's frustrations were very apparent during this meeting. Most remained mature and worked to find a solution that would be fair to everyone. However, others turned something that was just a bad situation into a personal attack. Tension rose as insults and glares were thrown across the room. This was the first time I was forced to deal with conflicting preferences in this manner. I tried to base my argument on the facts of the financial situation. My agenda was to find a solution that would cost the least for the most amount of people. However, there were others who disagreed and believed alternatives were more fair. In the end, we decided to give everyone time to cool down. 

Wednesday was off to an early start. Madeline and I got breakfast on our way to the bus stop. Once on the bus we sat in the back row which consisted of six seats. It was very clear that hostility still existed between opposing parties in the Morocco group. I decided it was best to put that behind so I could fully enjoy the Bayer excursion. At Bayer, we learned about the process of creating and marketing new drugs. I was surprised to hear about the time it takes to bring a new drug to market. The amount of research, testing, paperwork, and most importantly, money, that comes with a new pharmaceutical is astounding. I have been struggling lately with my career path. Biomedical engineering is not an easy major. Since my arrival, there has been a strong temptation to leave that path behind and start anew at medical school here. However, the presentation at Bayer reminded me about the potential within the biomedical field. Although a decision still needs to be made, it was refreshing to be reminded of why i chose this path in the first place. If I continue on this path, I would throughly enjoy a job or internship at Bayer. Their connection between human and environmental health perfectly parallels with my two passions. Plus, it opens the opportunity for me to live in various countries which is extremely important to me. After a brief nap on the bus and quick lunch we headed back to the AIB for classes. Following classes, was another Morocco meeting. At this point everyone was tired of dealing with the drama and hostility. We all wanted a solution. This meeting went similar to the first, but we were more focused on finding a solution than fighting. We finally reached a compromise that I believe everyone found peace in. Although the situation was mended, some personal relationships remain broken. I was disappointed and hurt to see someone I considered a close friend completely turn on me due to money. I feel like the attacks they made both on me and my family were completely unwarrented and absolutely false. I am frustrated because I enjoyed the company of this person and it hurt to see them attack me so quickly. Despite all of the drama, I learned a lot about myself and others. I learned the importance of respecting people with differing opinions. I learned the importance of removing emotions from a conflict. I learned to prioritize relationships over money. This was a bad situation that was the result of our collective faults, not any individuals. 

Thursday was another day of classes. We had a large break between our first and second classes in which I was able to do some homework. Stress levels are higher than normal with exams and due dates fast approaching. Nothing really happened out of the ordinary on Thursday. The most exciting thing was I went to bed early. 

Friday was nice because we finished class at 13. Normally we have classes from 9:00 to 17:00 or 18:00. That time schedule is extremely draining, so it was nice to have the afternoon off. For lunch, we celebrated Galentine's. I think this was much needed after the Morocco explosion. It was almost soothing to see people genuinely happy and excited about doing something for someone else. Once that was over, Madeline and I went home, thankful that the week was over. We did homework, ate dinner and commenced our Friday night ritual of watching Harry Potter. It was a much needed peaceful evening. 

Saturday, my host mom took me to meet and ride her horse. We went up into the mountains near our house and explored the riding trails. I have been riding since I was a little girl. I have gone on many trail rides in different terrains, but none compared to this. It was absolutely serene to be surrounded by the tall pine trees covered in leftover snow. Hearing the leaves crunch under the horse hoofs accompanied by a variety of bird songs.  I have always had a deep appreciation for nature. This is why I continue to be vegetarian and limit my carbon footprint. In nature, I can retreat from all the stress, social pressures, and chaos. It provides perspective and forces me to realize that the world is much larger than all my anxieties and routines. A reminder I desperately needed after this past week. After our afternoon ride, Astrid and I went to the grocery store then home for dinner. Two of her friends came for dinner and game night. We divulged into a large pan of vegetable lasagna. Then we shared many laughs while playing "Uno" and "Randomise". Randomise is a card game in which one card is chosen from the A, B and C piles. The player than must either draw, describe or act what is on the cards. The words were relatively simple, but the language barrier put a new twist on the game. It made it more difficult but we shared many laughs over the struggles. The night ended after we indulged in eggnog cake. 

Sunday began with our family breakfast. I noticed that the conversation flowed more naturally. The bond between Astrid and I, and Nia and I have definitely strengthened compared to when I first arrived. The conversation evolved from topics like the weather to more personal stories. We can now joke with each other without causing any offense. It makes me happy to see that I am no longer just their guest. It feels now as though I am part of the family, which is a feeling I have missed since leaving mine in Texas. After breakfast, Madeline and I went for a run through the city. I practiced yoga to stretch my tightened muscles. My body is more acclimated to walking up to five and six miles a day than it was before, but I still enjoy a nice stretch. After, we decided to translate our productivity toward schoolwork. We have our first differential equations exam this week which is making everyone nervous. Our professor is still very difficult to understand and quite terrible at providing us with examples of problems. I think our concerns arise more from not knowing what will be on the test than the difficulty of the material. Anyway, I am hopeful that this coming week will be better than the last. I am eager to find clarity regarding my career path and excited to plan new adventures. 

ALAAF a mental breakdown

ALAAF a mental breakdown.

Hi,

This week started off in the midst of KARNEVAL. Although Sunday started as sweet as ever visiting and helping out a center for people with disabilities. Sunday night ended with broken glass, flashing lights, and too much artificial smoke. Only to start Monday with the last, yet best day of Karneval. From all the free Camellia, yummy coffee, crowded parades, to dancing on street till the late hours of the night. Karneval was so good to us TEXANS. So much so that Tuesday morning I was in the NEWSPAPER! I really made it in GERMANY, please contain your excitement my adoring fans. There is enough of my fame to go around…JK I am still Lame.

Tuesday came and as school started again, I quickly realized that you must really STUDY during a study abroad. One sad, yet funny mental breakdown it all came together.  Wednesday where we tour BAYER COMPANY, they had the coolest learning set up around! Skip to Thursday where I find out that our Morocco trip must be CANCELLED. I am truly sad about this but now I am going to PORTUGAL and MADRID! Yeah, I know my life is super hard.

But I want to take a moment to thank my family! My loving and supportive parent CAROL and MIGUEL AGURCIA, THANK YOU for taking my joke seriously. We are a month and a half in and every day I wake up in awe that I’m in GERMANY. My life wouldn’t be the same without my parents.

Friday came and it was GALENTINES, cute gifts for all! S/O to WHITNEY for being the real MVP!! She got me fuzzy socks, sour candy and unicorn everything! Ended the day with a sunset walk along the Rhine. Then Saturday started with a hike, where 10 minutes in I thought I would die. This weekend I became IBK 2.0 this with a well-deserved sleepover then a girl’s night! I’m loving every second here, up until its Sunday and school rolls around. Time to focus once again, but my test this week got moved!

 Ending the weekend with another walk along the Rhine and a yummy dinner with my host family! This weekend started as what I thought would be a drag since our Amsterdam plans fell through. It turned out to be one of the best weekends!

                                Loving life and loving GERMANY since 1998.

                                                                        XOXO,

                                                                        GOING GERMAN :)