Anyway, Saturday was basically a recovery day from Vienna. Now, I enjoy spending time with all the people here, but after about a week in close proximity to them, I was happy for the time in my own room with a good book on my kindle. That's not the only thing that happened though. No, when I first came downstairs, I talked with my host family and gave them some of the Mozart candy balls that were a specialty of Vienna. They're really good and made of pistachio, marzipan, and a small amount of sugar covered in chocolate. Unfortunately, I couldn't just hang about all day because on Monday, we are going to the history of anesthesia museum after we observe a surgery. Why is that important? Well at the museum, various groups of us will be presenting over various forms of anesthesia before our modern medicine provided better alternatives. So I had to go in and work on that with my group for a while. Then came working on the ending for Vienna, which lasted the rest of the time I was there, and then two more hours besides that. And...that's it for Saturday. Yes, a bit boring, but I was in total "recovery" mode from the crazy week I had just gone through.
Today was a bit better. My friend Melissa and I finally made our way to the English mass. Turns out that it's closer to my home than the one in central Bonn, so I think I'll be going to that one a lot more often. Unfortunately, this mass was at 9:30, so I woke up rather early to get there. It was totally worth it though because I got up and ready for the day earlier than normal and could get a lot of work done. On the way to the church, we had to walk down Kennedyallee, and we saw a memorial to John F. Kennedy at one of the corners, which was pretty awesome. The English mass was nice because I could actually understand what was being said (Never again will I complain of confusion during a mass, I will figure it out) and the homily was pretty good. And then they just had to sing "How Can I Keep From Singing." Now, throughout this trip, I've been able to stave off homesickness and have been fairly successful through Skype and Face-time and Facebook. That's not to say that I haven't missed things like my friends or Tex-Mex or trucks, but I've been able to remotely separate myself for the most part from what I'm missing back home. But that song is near and dear to my heart because it reminds me of my girls in the Women's chorus at St. Mary's Church. It was sorta our theme song last year if that gives you any clue. So the church choir sang that song and the feeling of missing them came in like a knife to hurt my soul. It didn't help that I was at church with a choir that was made up of all women. Needless to say, I was a bit emotional when we left church.
This was just off the bus stop
The John F. Kennedy memorial
Above the church, which was really pretty inside
Also, I was super nice out today, like the high 50's (in F)
On the bright side, I now know where to go for confession and Ash Wednesday service (I plan on spending Easter Mass in a nice French church somewhere near Paris.) I went back to my host family and spent the day with them until I had to go back into Bonn. Why you may ask? Well, I had to go to school! Yes, our T.A. had a review for our Physiology test on Friday, and if the theme from last year is any indication, I'll need all the help I can get for these tests.
Once that was done, I went back home and had a delicious dinner with my host family before we all sat down on the couch to watch Grey's Anatomy. It was getting really intense by the time that I left, and we had gone through 4 straight episodes to what I believe was one of the season finales. I left, because although the action on screen was captivating, 1. I hadn't ever gotten that far into the story, 2. I could only catch 1 word in every 20, and 3. I have to get up early tomorrow for the surgery.
Which reminds me, I am going to observe a surgery tomorrow! I have no clue what I'll be observing, but I'm super excited for it. So be ready for a cool post tomorrow on that and the anesthesia museum.
Erin Z.
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