Probably my last Blogger post

The other day we got to go on a field trip down the Rhine river on a cruise ship.  Luckily for us the sun was out and we were able to soak in some much needed rays.  On the banks of the river, we were able to see some of Germany's oldest castles.  Apparently, only one of the castles on the Rhine has survived without needing to be rebuilt due to various wars and other conflicts.  After the cruise we got off the ship and toured that particular castle.  The castle was pretty neat and we were given some perspective on how people lived back in the day.  I cannot lie, however, my heart will always belong to Disney Castle.

I know that this is an over do blog, but when exams come around you really become pressed for time.

With that said last Tuesday was one of the most awesome experience of my life. I got the opportunity to shadow one of the anastesiologist at the Uniklinic here in Bonn. Now before you say anything, it was no ordinary shadowing experience.

It started off really really early in the morning and I was going to meet Dr. Delis whom you all would enjoy and I recommend you get in touch with him if you want to learn anything about medicine. Our first patient was in to have a sample of tissue taken from his spinal column. I will say for being an old man he was tough to opt to be awake for this entire procedure and it wasnt' very long but I bet it was painful.  But that wasn't the cool part of my day. It only got better...

The second patient was the golden ticket. Yes. This poor man was fairly old and had an issue where his vertebrae were fracturing and had to have a special cement put in to help with the pain and prevent further damage. An unfortunate issue to have. But, Dr Delis was so awesome that he allowed me to do somethings that a medical school student wouldn't get to do until they were in residency. I got to perform a tracheal intubation on  this patient. Oh yes, I just said. I got to intubate a patient and not just one I also got to intubate the patient afterwards. I was so terrified. All i could think in my mind is this man really going to let me intubate this patient on my own. And he did. Although he did help me he mostly let me do it on my own. And it was AWESOME!!! it was great.

Dr Delis said he wouldn't let me do it if he didn't think I couldn't. It was great, that was a time in my life where someone had faith in me and I had faith in myself. Sometimes I ponder about how my life is going to end up and although I tell myself that I can achieve my goals I don't always have faith in myself nor do people have faith in me. It was a great moment in my life because it helped me realize that who I want to be is very possible and that there is no reason to be scared. That I can do this. I am grateful for the experience that I had and  I am more than grateful for Dr. Delis for not only teaching me some of the coolest things ever but for having faith in me.

Almost the end of the semester!

Next Tuesday we depart from Frankfurt Airport back home. It will be a sad moment when we have to part our AIB staffs, German friends, and host family members.

After the final exams, there will be a lot of activities on the weekend. Theater play, fireworks, bike tour, and AIB party on the cruise! We will definitely have a great time before we leave Germany!

I bought a postcard illustrating the firework event in bonn, with a huge Beethoven firework exploding above the Rhein. I had never seen Rhein River at night, and I am excited to explore more of the beauty of the river and the city!

My host mom recommended some places to visit before I leave Bonn, then suddenly I realized that I haven't been to the Beethovenhaus yet! It is only a few steps away from AIB and I have only took a picture from the outside! On Saturday before the firework event, I want to visit Beethovenhaus so I can tell daddy I know more about Beethoven than him! :D

And There Goes the Amygdala

Last Thursday, I had the amazing opportunity to view two surgeries at the Neuro Clinic up at the Bonn Uniklinic.  With all the studying and test taking going on, it was refreshing to get out and get a glimpse of what I am trying to work towards. 

                Collin and I arrived at the clinic around 7:30 in order to meet up with Dr. Podlager, the doctor that would be showing us around that day.  When doctor Podlager came in, we were extremely surprised that he appeared to be no older than 30.  I myself was expecting someone more seasoned, so it was pretty cool to get to talk to a neurosurgeon that’s not a whole lot older than we are. 

                For the next 45 minutes, Dr. Podlager went over his day to day routine.  I was surprised again when he said that surgery is pretty much an 8-6 job there, with the occasional emergency case.  I was expecting crazier hours I suppose, but it was interesting to find out differently.  Doctor Podlager then took us to change for the surgeries.  After we were changed into our scrubs and weird clog/crock shoes, he toured us around the different OR’s before depositing us in the OR where the day’s first surgery would take place.

                The first surgery we watched was the removal of a pituitary adenoma.  Basically, the patient had a pituitary tumor that was pressing down on her ocular nerve and was causing her to slowly go blind.  In order to remove the tumor, the surgeon had to go up through the nose and then through the sphenoid sinus to access it.  First the surgeon showed us some X-rays and talked about how he would approach the tumor.  It was really cool to see the growth on the X-ray since we learned a little bit about how those images are produced.  After telling us his plan, the surgeon then proceeded with the surgery.  First, he made an incision on the inside of the patient’s nose, and then basically cut his way up to the brain.  It was amazing how much septum he removed.  It seems to me that it might be weird for the patient afterwards to basically have a hole from his nose to his brain, but I guess that’s not all that important.  Anyway, when he finally got to the tumor, the whole tumor removal was a lot less calculated than what I thought it would be.  Basically, he said, “If it’s yellow it leaves, if it’s white it stays”.  That didn’t sound all that scientific of a way to go about brain surgery, but he’s the one that knows what he’s doing and has the years of experience.  Maybe a little was lost in translation?  Anyway, after he scooped all the “yellow” out, he cleaned up the septum and sewed up the incision in the nose.  It was fast and pretty simple.  It was awesome to know that that woman would now be able to see better because of the surgery.  In a couple of hours, the surgeon had made this woman’s life drastically better.  That is what makes surgery special to me.

                The next surgery we watched was the removal of temporal, hippocampal, and amygdalin tissue that was causing seizures for the patient.  The surgeon performing the second operation was much less talkative than the other guy.  It was understandable though.  I would much rather him concentrate on the open skull in front of him than talk to us.  I cannot describe how crazy it was crazy to see an actual brain.  It was truly an awe inspiring moment to see the gray lump of tissue that is responsible for everything that makes us who we are.  I would be so nervous having this man’s existence at the tip of my scalpel, but this surgeon calmly and confidently removed what needed to be removed, stopped whatever bleeding occurred, and fixed this man’s seizures that were creating so much suffering in his life.   After the surgery, we changed out of our scrubs, left the clinic, and returned to our lives full of tests and studying.  It’s not as painful now though, knowing what could possibly be in our future. 

A Hike through the Siebengebirge

The Siebengebirge is a cluster of 40 hills just southeast of our town, Bonn. We took an excursion with other students from the AIB internation study abroad program. Penn State-ers, LMU students and even some of the Texas A&M Visualization kids we never see! One Sunday we hopped on a train and started our ascent.

The view from Drachenfels

Trees like this don't fit in Texas

You can see at the top of the hill the Drachenfels ruins.

We first went up to the top where both the Hotel Petersburg is (a modernized castle) and the ruins of Drachenfels, which was slighted by the Swedes. Slighted as in destroyed. But now there's a restaurant and a tram to take you up the 321 meters to the summit. It was a very nice day, and turned out to get nicer as the day went on. We hiked along to another mountain all through a forest that reminded me of home (or more rather of Colorado and New Mexico).

Except for the ruins, they aren't in my backyard

A beautiful hike that reminded me almost of my own backyard. There even was a path that we crossed of donkeys, and a few folk riding horses also were visible on this trip. Eventually though, as we kept on throwing the Frisbee back and forth and conversing with the other students we so rarely see in our Biosciences program, it came to an end. We ended in a town called Oberdollendorf, coincidentally where Kristen lives! We were treated to a gorgeous flamekuchen, which is 'flame cake' or more like a thin, delicious, Mediterranean pizza without sauce. Other than that, the trip was simple yet awesome. 

Andrew and I then visited our professors house and got some gelato! Turns out our professor was living in a house and doing a timeshare kind of approach, and the house owner is an architect of sorts. A very avant-garde modern house, complete with a Zen backyard, pond-pool thing with a slide, and the coolest library style ladder loft closet... things. But it was creepy seeing the lair of my professor, where within the grading is and my sorrow lives.

Other than that, here are some more of my photographer-like photos!

From Drachenfels

Some of the nice little fields we passed by

Felt like this cute farmhouse was too much to resist

Because the panorama function is the best reason to buy a digital camera

Vale Tío!

Your first impression as you walk about in Barcelona is....vas is das? Haha, just kidding, but it really is among those lines. For a native Spanish speaker, it is obvious that the language being spoken is not Spanish, but Catalán. So what is Catalán? It is best described as a mesh of French and Spanish. It is truly beautiful. I consider the aforementioned languages the best out there, so it is pretty much ideal to me! I will say that it is too different from Spanish to be understood. As Dr. Wasser wisely stated, Portuguese is an easier tongue than Catalán to decipher!

On Friday morning, Carlos, Stephanie, and I were all packed and ready to take off to the motherland-essentially! As my second to the last trip for the semester, I am filled with great pride at the accomplishment of packing my weekend necessities in NOT a weekender duffle bag BUT a simple backpack. That's right, my precious Plum (violet Northface backpack) even had room for the souvenirs that were to be bought! Expecting the weather to be sunny and warm, I also had the advantage to literally pack light.

Well, that backfired. We blindly expected the weather to accommodate our visit. That was not the case. Catalunya was both rainy and chilly-less than ideal weather for our planned endeavors. However, that was of little hindrance for our strolls about the city. Carlos, having visited during Spring Break, had high expectations of returning and guiding us about his "home." He did an amazing job at guiding us around the beautiful city. It was rich in architectural detail and color-two things I have high regards for and more festivities to which my pupils took delight in! The liveliness of the people was also so great. Everyone was very welcoming, and the endlessness of the nights reminded me a lot of my Mexican ways which can easily be attributed to Spanish influence. Barcelona is a place I can definitely live in and never fully discover-a priority of mine for the future since I easily bore by routine. (*wink, wink to endless possibilities*) There, I felt infinite. Rain, snow, hail, or whatever else could not dim the vibrance of the landscapes.

Vale Tío, hasta pronto!

Jessica.

My best friends (:

Cooking Chinese for family

Two weeks ago at dinner table my host family and I talked about different cuisine in Sicily (my host dad is from Sicily), Germany, and China. They are fascinated when I described rice soup and dumplings, so I decided to cook for them on a weekend and give them opportunity to be exposed to authentic Northern Chinese food.

I took the bus on Saturday morning to visit a Asian supermarket called Jin Long. It is located one block away from Friedensplatz. I got vegetables, special sauces, jasmine rice, frozen dumplings, and green onion "bread".

It took me  more than 2 hours to make 4 dishes. Since I have a vegetarian host sister, 3 out of the four dishes are veggie.

I used veggie meat (tofu actually) in one dish but it did not taste very good :(

Before I leave Bonn I should cook some more for them!