I should have written this before I left, but due to the fact that I was in Amsterdam this weekend, I was unable to write good blog posts. Also, the fact that I left my computer at my host house made it hard to post to this blog. I am back home now, but I like my bed in my own room and can hear my bed calling to me. Tomorrow will either be one large post of the weekend an one post of the pictures, or three smaller posts with pictures.
On a related note, I am leaving for Vienna in Austria early Tuesday morning and though I will be ringing my computer and will most likely have time to post, I may miss a day or two due to time constraints. After all, if I wasn't experiencing things, I would have nothing to write about.
Thank you for reading, your regularly scheduled posts will resume shortly.
Until later today
Erin Z
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Day 26 - Test
So today wasn't that bad, the only things I have to complain about are the test and the train situation for tomorrow. Let me start from the beginning. I started out class with physiology and figuring out the mechanisms of breathing and what's required to actually make the whole gas exchange thing happen. It was pretty cool, and though we didn't do the experiment about breathing out as much as we can, then even more, our professor brought in a blood pressure cuff for us to play with since we were just learning about how blood pressure works and what the numbers even mean. In actuality, the blood pressure that we record is not the pressure of the heart. It would be too low because the ventricles go down to about 5 mmHg after they empty out the blood. If our vessels went down that low, the blood would just be sucked backwards because there's not enough pressure to push the blood through the entire body. Luckily the Aorta is sorta elastic and when the valve closes and blocks blood from going back into the ventricle, the Aorta squeezes the blood forward so the pressure doesn't get too low. And that's how we get the lower number of our blood pressure reading. Anyway, we all tried it out, and there was one who just kept getting more stressed and pushing her BP up because her BP was too high. So she got more stressed and tried again, which pushed up her BP, and that kept happening until we gently pulled her away from the device. By the time she stopped, she was practically hyperventilating because her BP was almost at "alert someone" level because she was just so stressed out.
After Physiology, we had a free period where most of us frantically studied for our test in the following period. I did that too, but then I sat back and drank mint tea while listening to my new musical obsession (music from the musical Jekyll and Hyde) and doodled to calm myself down before the test. Just before the test, we found out that our plan to get group tickets for a cheaper price had fallen through. The train company didn't email us after their initial email about a week ago and when we emailed them asking about the tickets, they sent back that it's not possible. Unfortunately that means that we're getting tickets at an even higher price than they would have been if we had bought them a week ago. That's not going to stop us from going to Amsterdam though, so tomorrow I will be in the Netherlands, experiencing another culture. Then came the test. Our teacher brought us gummy bears for us to eat during the test and handed it out. I'm glad I studied as much as I did because although I knew everything that was on the test and I am very confident with my performance, I know that most of it was because it was really fresh. At the end of the test, we all talked about it like the students we are and the more people talked, the more secure I became. Needless to say, I'm not concerned about that class anymore.
We went out to lunch, and though we were craving pasta, we couldn't find the cheap but good Italian place our teacher had recommended, so we settled for sushi. When we got back, we had a talk with one of Wasser's good friends about the ethics of our profession, focusing in on embryonic stem cell research when he needed examples. What he was saying was really interesting, but the lights were out and his voice was so monotone that when I looked around, everyone was fighting to stay awake. Every once in a while, people fidgeted to try and stay awake, but it was hard going. Personally, I resorted to playing with my hair, putting it up into a bun held up by pencils or trying to braid my hair starting on my forehead at one side and swooping around my neck to end on the opposite shoulder. What he was saying was really interesting though, mostly talking about the hard choice of doing nothing and letting a lot of people die, or choosing to do something and having less people die because of that action, but saving all the others.
Just when we were all stretching after the talk was over, our TA got up and started preparing for his review over physiology. I started to make tea so I could pay attention better, and while I was in our kitchenette, two or three people came up and thanked me for playing with my hair because it allowed them to focus on something and stay awake. Considering I was in the front, I'm glad to know that I wasn't a distraction and helped people to focus in on the lecture. Anyway, our review started and we went over the cardiovascular system and the most important info was drilled into our heads again. Finally, we were done with school so we all sat down and started in on the homework due Monday. Hey, no one wants to do stuff on Amsterdam weekend!
Soon after I went home and worked on...you guessed it, more homework! It's amazing how much time is devoted to doing our schoolwork while I'm here in Germany, but I guess it is still school and we need to learn stuff. Unfortunately, I've decided not to bring my computer to Amsterdam, so there will either be no updates until Sunday/Monday (depending on how tired I am after the trip home) or I will upload from my phone and not have any pictures. Since I like working from the computer better, I'd bet on the former option. Now off to finish some more homework due Monday so I don't stress over the weekend.
'Till next time,
Erin Z
After Physiology, we had a free period where most of us frantically studied for our test in the following period. I did that too, but then I sat back and drank mint tea while listening to my new musical obsession (music from the musical Jekyll and Hyde) and doodled to calm myself down before the test. Just before the test, we found out that our plan to get group tickets for a cheaper price had fallen through. The train company didn't email us after their initial email about a week ago and when we emailed them asking about the tickets, they sent back that it's not possible. Unfortunately that means that we're getting tickets at an even higher price than they would have been if we had bought them a week ago. That's not going to stop us from going to Amsterdam though, so tomorrow I will be in the Netherlands, experiencing another culture. Then came the test. Our teacher brought us gummy bears for us to eat during the test and handed it out. I'm glad I studied as much as I did because although I knew everything that was on the test and I am very confident with my performance, I know that most of it was because it was really fresh. At the end of the test, we all talked about it like the students we are and the more people talked, the more secure I became. Needless to say, I'm not concerned about that class anymore.
We went out to lunch, and though we were craving pasta, we couldn't find the cheap but good Italian place our teacher had recommended, so we settled for sushi. When we got back, we had a talk with one of Wasser's good friends about the ethics of our profession, focusing in on embryonic stem cell research when he needed examples. What he was saying was really interesting, but the lights were out and his voice was so monotone that when I looked around, everyone was fighting to stay awake. Every once in a while, people fidgeted to try and stay awake, but it was hard going. Personally, I resorted to playing with my hair, putting it up into a bun held up by pencils or trying to braid my hair starting on my forehead at one side and swooping around my neck to end on the opposite shoulder. What he was saying was really interesting though, mostly talking about the hard choice of doing nothing and letting a lot of people die, or choosing to do something and having less people die because of that action, but saving all the others.
Just when we were all stretching after the talk was over, our TA got up and started preparing for his review over physiology. I started to make tea so I could pay attention better, and while I was in our kitchenette, two or three people came up and thanked me for playing with my hair because it allowed them to focus on something and stay awake. Considering I was in the front, I'm glad to know that I wasn't a distraction and helped people to focus in on the lecture. Anyway, our review started and we went over the cardiovascular system and the most important info was drilled into our heads again. Finally, we were done with school so we all sat down and started in on the homework due Monday. Hey, no one wants to do stuff on Amsterdam weekend!
Johanna loves her tulips
Doing selfie's old school...with a camera. I'm amazed this came out so well.
Just hanging out after all our lectures
Soon after I went home and worked on...you guessed it, more homework! It's amazing how much time is devoted to doing our schoolwork while I'm here in Germany, but I guess it is still school and we need to learn stuff. Unfortunately, I've decided not to bring my computer to Amsterdam, so there will either be no updates until Sunday/Monday (depending on how tired I am after the trip home) or I will upload from my phone and not have any pictures. Since I like working from the computer better, I'd bet on the former option. Now off to finish some more homework due Monday so I don't stress over the weekend.
'Till next time,
Erin Z
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Day 25 - Orchestra concert
Yay, I have something to say about today. I woke up and got ready like normal before heading towards school for my first class of Physiology. We finished up the cardiovascular system with various cardiovascular diseases and started in on the respiratory system. After that class was more German where we split into two groups according to our gender and played a small game using the various words that we've learned so far. Unfortunately the girls lost, but it's OK because we had a lot of fun...and there's the promise of a rematch soon. The rest of class was dedicated towards learning more verbs so we can explain what it is we like to do.
After German was lunch, and a few of us went to the student's cafeteria by Bonn University and got a really good lunch of potato soup, sausages, and bread for about 2 euro. On the way back, we stopped by the gelato place on the way back and bought ice cream. Yes, the best thing to do on a relatively cold day is to get ice cream and I stand by my decision. It was delicious. Anyway, when we got back from lunch, we started in on our physiology project with some basic brainstorming ideas among our group of what we could improve or the questions we would need to ask our Otto Bock representative when we meet. That actually finished relatively early and I went home to work on my homework and study for my test tomorrow (AHHH!!)
At about 5:30, I heard the door close downstairs, so I popped out to spend some time with my host family before I had to leave at 6:30 to meet up for the concert. It was Sophie and her friend, and they were going out to get some ice cream at their local parlor. They asked if I wanted to join them, and of course I said yes. Before we left, they saw me putting on my cowboy boots, and were really excited. They'd never seen them before because my other boots are more suited for walking around town or hiking, and they won't get ruined if they get wet. We walked to the Eisparlor and I have to say that between the one in Bonn and the one right by my house, I will take the one by my house any day. We came back home and saw Marie, but she was really upset because she wanted ice cream too, so we all walked back to the shop and bought Marie her treat. When we came back, Sophie and Vicky wanted me to play just dance with them. We played for about a half hour before I had to leave and we all had a lot of fun laughing at the crazy dances that we were doing. When I left, I said goodbye to everyone, including 1 1/2 year old Timmy who was visiting with his mother (he was so cute!!)
I met up with everyone at new AIB and we all walked to the university where the concert was going to be. Everyone was so dressed up that I had to take a few pictures to preserve the memories. The concert was really good. It was both a choir and an orchestral event, with 4 soloists in each of the major voice parts. As far as I can tell, they basically did the songs of the mass in the original Latin. It was beautiful and I was very impressed with the quality of the singers. Unfortunately the lighting was just right to lull me to sleep, and the songs went on forever! I'm serious when I say that one song lasted for 45 minutes. Granted, most of it was soloists singing, but I'm amazed at how many times the same 30 words can be sung in a different way. I was very impressed with the choir for the simple fact that they had kept their pitch after keeping quiet and letting the soloists sing for 20 minutes straight. The soloists were also very good and I enjoyed listening to them. Unfortunately they helped to put me to sleep. I don't know what it was, but when the entire choir sang, I was awake, but I had to fight my eyes when the soloists sang alone. Anyway, I left with my friend as soon as the concert was over. It was a good thing we did because the audience clapped for so long, the soloists and director came back out. When we saw that, so many of the students left because we didn't want to get caught up in an encore if there was one, especially since we still needed to study for our test!
I came back home and continued my studying. I think I'm finally ready for tomorrow, and I can only cross my fingers that the test isn't too murderous on us. Now to just work on all the stuff due monday so I don't have to worry about it over Amsterdam. Tomorrow we get a talk about ethics in the medical field, so that'll be fun. Oh, and the test of course.
Wish me luck!
Erin Z
After German was lunch, and a few of us went to the student's cafeteria by Bonn University and got a really good lunch of potato soup, sausages, and bread for about 2 euro. On the way back, we stopped by the gelato place on the way back and bought ice cream. Yes, the best thing to do on a relatively cold day is to get ice cream and I stand by my decision. It was delicious. Anyway, when we got back from lunch, we started in on our physiology project with some basic brainstorming ideas among our group of what we could improve or the questions we would need to ask our Otto Bock representative when we meet. That actually finished relatively early and I went home to work on my homework and study for my test tomorrow (AHHH!!)
Typical "after lunch funk" in our classroom
At about 5:30, I heard the door close downstairs, so I popped out to spend some time with my host family before I had to leave at 6:30 to meet up for the concert. It was Sophie and her friend, and they were going out to get some ice cream at their local parlor. They asked if I wanted to join them, and of course I said yes. Before we left, they saw me putting on my cowboy boots, and were really excited. They'd never seen them before because my other boots are more suited for walking around town or hiking, and they won't get ruined if they get wet. We walked to the Eisparlor and I have to say that between the one in Bonn and the one right by my house, I will take the one by my house any day. We came back home and saw Marie, but she was really upset because she wanted ice cream too, so we all walked back to the shop and bought Marie her treat. When we came back, Sophie and Vicky wanted me to play just dance with them. We played for about a half hour before I had to leave and we all had a lot of fun laughing at the crazy dances that we were doing. When I left, I said goodbye to everyone, including 1 1/2 year old Timmy who was visiting with his mother (he was so cute!!)
I met up with everyone at new AIB and we all walked to the university where the concert was going to be. Everyone was so dressed up that I had to take a few pictures to preserve the memories. The concert was really good. It was both a choir and an orchestral event, with 4 soloists in each of the major voice parts. As far as I can tell, they basically did the songs of the mass in the original Latin. It was beautiful and I was very impressed with the quality of the singers. Unfortunately the lighting was just right to lull me to sleep, and the songs went on forever! I'm serious when I say that one song lasted for 45 minutes. Granted, most of it was soloists singing, but I'm amazed at how many times the same 30 words can be sung in a different way. I was very impressed with the choir for the simple fact that they had kept their pitch after keeping quiet and letting the soloists sing for 20 minutes straight. The soloists were also very good and I enjoyed listening to them. Unfortunately they helped to put me to sleep. I don't know what it was, but when the entire choir sang, I was awake, but I had to fight my eyes when the soloists sang alone. Anyway, I left with my friend as soon as the concert was over. It was a good thing we did because the audience clapped for so long, the soloists and director came back out. When we saw that, so many of the students left because we didn't want to get caught up in an encore if there was one, especially since we still needed to study for our test!
Melissa looks monochromatic, but it's cute
Shannon, Nicole, and Robert are all dressed up too
My friend Kelsey prepared for the cold/rain
My teacher Sarah even came with us
Chase got really dressed up too
Kristin's friend and Kristin (Left to Right)
Ready for the concert
ORGAN!! Oh, and all the people performing are there too
I came back home and continued my studying. I think I'm finally ready for tomorrow, and I can only cross my fingers that the test isn't too murderous on us. Now to just work on all the stuff due monday so I don't have to worry about it over Amsterdam. Tomorrow we get a talk about ethics in the medical field, so that'll be fun. Oh, and the test of course.
Wish me luck!
Erin Z
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Days 23 and 24 - Regular days and Austrian ways
So sorry for not posting yesterday, but it really was just a normal get up, go to school, study, sleep - rinse, wash, and repeat - day. Though now that I think about it, that's not entirely true. It turns out that school was postponed for an hour yesterday, but I didn't know about it and was super surprised to show up right on time and only see three other people there. When we found out why no one was there, we laughed and looked for the best Superbowl commercials that we missed. Most of the students, barring one or two, missed the football game (blasphemy! I know) because it was on too late (12:30 am) and we deemed sleep more important than the game. My favorites were Budweiser's "puppy love," Jaguar's "British villain rendezvous," and Coke's "America the beautiful" in all the different languages.
Then school started and we sat through signals, not really knowing what was going on because the material is just so hard to grasp. Seriously, the last homework I had to do had me rereading the book like 5 times before I understood the method that they were coming from to get the answer. I'm just glad my test on Thursday is over circuits and not signals because I would not be able to relax if that were the case. After that class was lunch, but I used it to add more money to my phone and get some much needed supplies like toothpaste and a nail file. German followed with us doing "head, shoulders, knees and toes" in German and I was the one to lead them since it's an American thing and Fenja had no clue what we were talking about. We then went on to things that we like to do as hobby's, with homework due on that...tomorrow. Wow, homework is really piling up again. The finalized trip to Amsterdam isn't helping matters that much as I'll be having too much fun to be worrying about homework, and a lot of things are due the day after we come back, with the trip to Vienna starting the day after that.
And....that's it for monday. I went home and had dinner with my family and played a few games with my host sister Marie, but nothing major happened.
Now, today was a completely different story. We started out with the history of medicine class going over the Holocaust and the different ways that the Nazi's killed people and why anyone even though that this was an OK thing to do. It's actually stemmed from social Darwinism that says that anything that isn't contributing to the society (is sick, mentally deficient, comatose, old, etc.) should be gotten rid of in the most humane and painless way. It evolved into the idea that people can have negative worth, such as taking supplies but not contributing to society and should therefore be eliminated like natural selection would have done in the natural world. From there, it went to entire races having negative worth. Now through all this, if someone wished to not die, then those wishes would be respected. Then the Nazi's came and took it to the extreme. They didn't actually start the Holocaust by killing Jews, but by killing the German people who were deemed to have negative worth and had to be cut so that the whole could thrive. We moved through the war all the way to the end and I was actually nauseous at learning that doctors would have killed thousands of children unrepentantly and were actually still killing children that were mentally disabled all the way up till they were arrested, thinking that what they were doing was the right thing to do. Needless to say most of us were a little depressed after this lecture.
Our teacher Sarah came in and saw our unhappiness, before trying to cheer us up by saying "now we can focus on helping people instead of the things the Nazi's did." So our class proceeded as planned and we learned more about the requirements that our ZK systems company would have to go through to be able to sell our product in the US. It was actually quite fun and though we tend to get on tangents a little bit, we learned a lot about legal procedures. Let me just say that I have much more respect for lawyers if they have to go through so much paperwork. I got a headache just looking at all the paperwork required for a device to be accepted, and a good chunk of the warnings the FDA handed out last year was because people didn't document everything. I'm just glad all this is theoretical, if we actually had to go through the whole process, I would be very concerned about all the requirements and if I would mess anything up.
After that class was done, Kristin came in and gave us soup for lunch so that we could listen to her talk about our upcoming excursion to Vienna. There were two types, goulash and carrot soup that tasted sort of like a really sweet potato soup. Then we started in on the presentation. It's gotten me so excited for next week! We'll be taking a plane at about 6:45 am, so we're meeting at 4:40 to get to the airport on time. Then we fly to Austria and arrive in Vienna just in time for breakfast before a full day of tours and getting to know Vienna. Our stay will mostly be tours of medical places like the Freud house (so excited!) and a museum of the human body that has wax figures of people with their organs and systems the way that medieval people though it was like. There's even a tour of the museum of natural history and we're going to go to an opera or concert while we're there. I'm rooming with two of my friends for the trip, so I'm excited for that, and we'll be able to walk around and see Vienna due to the chunks of free time we're being given. It's going to be utterly exhausting, especially after Amsterdam weekend, but I'm so excited to see everything. And don't worry, there's supposed to be wi-fi available in both Amsterdam and Vienna where we're staying, so I can still post on here the exciting things that are happening and the thing's I'm seeing.
When the presentation was finished, a lot of us stayed at AIB to study for the test Thursday or to work on the ever growing homework for our signals class. After a few hours, I went back home and had a traditional German dinner called linsensuppe (lentil soup) that was delicious. Then I brought down my homework and worked on that for a while with the kids (Annette was out) while they did their own work. After a while, Marie came up and wanted to play Monopoly. It was the first time that I'd played with the new electronic card and calculator combo. It was fun, but when we switched to the traditional Monopoly game a bit later, I was relieved. When Annette came home, it was only a matter of time before bedtime, so I finished some more homework before being informed that Marie and Sophie were heading to bed. Then I went upstairs to work on homework some more and I swear this signals homework is being intentionally difficult! Hopefully I'll be able to understand it when I get it all done, but I'm more concerned with the upcoming test, though less so now that this harder material is being introduced.
Tomorrow we're going to the Bonn University Orchestra concert where we will undoubtedly listen to Beethoven as it is Bonn, and they are very proud of the famous man that was born here. I'm excited for that. Since I don't have any pictures from the last few days, here's some from before I haven't posted yet.
Tchuss!
Erin Z
Then school started and we sat through signals, not really knowing what was going on because the material is just so hard to grasp. Seriously, the last homework I had to do had me rereading the book like 5 times before I understood the method that they were coming from to get the answer. I'm just glad my test on Thursday is over circuits and not signals because I would not be able to relax if that were the case. After that class was lunch, but I used it to add more money to my phone and get some much needed supplies like toothpaste and a nail file. German followed with us doing "head, shoulders, knees and toes" in German and I was the one to lead them since it's an American thing and Fenja had no clue what we were talking about. We then went on to things that we like to do as hobby's, with homework due on that...tomorrow. Wow, homework is really piling up again. The finalized trip to Amsterdam isn't helping matters that much as I'll be having too much fun to be worrying about homework, and a lot of things are due the day after we come back, with the trip to Vienna starting the day after that.
And....that's it for monday. I went home and had dinner with my family and played a few games with my host sister Marie, but nothing major happened.
Now, today was a completely different story. We started out with the history of medicine class going over the Holocaust and the different ways that the Nazi's killed people and why anyone even though that this was an OK thing to do. It's actually stemmed from social Darwinism that says that anything that isn't contributing to the society (is sick, mentally deficient, comatose, old, etc.) should be gotten rid of in the most humane and painless way. It evolved into the idea that people can have negative worth, such as taking supplies but not contributing to society and should therefore be eliminated like natural selection would have done in the natural world. From there, it went to entire races having negative worth. Now through all this, if someone wished to not die, then those wishes would be respected. Then the Nazi's came and took it to the extreme. They didn't actually start the Holocaust by killing Jews, but by killing the German people who were deemed to have negative worth and had to be cut so that the whole could thrive. We moved through the war all the way to the end and I was actually nauseous at learning that doctors would have killed thousands of children unrepentantly and were actually still killing children that were mentally disabled all the way up till they were arrested, thinking that what they were doing was the right thing to do. Needless to say most of us were a little depressed after this lecture.
Our teacher Sarah came in and saw our unhappiness, before trying to cheer us up by saying "now we can focus on helping people instead of the things the Nazi's did." So our class proceeded as planned and we learned more about the requirements that our ZK systems company would have to go through to be able to sell our product in the US. It was actually quite fun and though we tend to get on tangents a little bit, we learned a lot about legal procedures. Let me just say that I have much more respect for lawyers if they have to go through so much paperwork. I got a headache just looking at all the paperwork required for a device to be accepted, and a good chunk of the warnings the FDA handed out last year was because people didn't document everything. I'm just glad all this is theoretical, if we actually had to go through the whole process, I would be very concerned about all the requirements and if I would mess anything up.
After that class was done, Kristin came in and gave us soup for lunch so that we could listen to her talk about our upcoming excursion to Vienna. There were two types, goulash and carrot soup that tasted sort of like a really sweet potato soup. Then we started in on the presentation. It's gotten me so excited for next week! We'll be taking a plane at about 6:45 am, so we're meeting at 4:40 to get to the airport on time. Then we fly to Austria and arrive in Vienna just in time for breakfast before a full day of tours and getting to know Vienna. Our stay will mostly be tours of medical places like the Freud house (so excited!) and a museum of the human body that has wax figures of people with their organs and systems the way that medieval people though it was like. There's even a tour of the museum of natural history and we're going to go to an opera or concert while we're there. I'm rooming with two of my friends for the trip, so I'm excited for that, and we'll be able to walk around and see Vienna due to the chunks of free time we're being given. It's going to be utterly exhausting, especially after Amsterdam weekend, but I'm so excited to see everything. And don't worry, there's supposed to be wi-fi available in both Amsterdam and Vienna where we're staying, so I can still post on here the exciting things that are happening and the thing's I'm seeing.
When the presentation was finished, a lot of us stayed at AIB to study for the test Thursday or to work on the ever growing homework for our signals class. After a few hours, I went back home and had a traditional German dinner called linsensuppe (lentil soup) that was delicious. Then I brought down my homework and worked on that for a while with the kids (Annette was out) while they did their own work. After a while, Marie came up and wanted to play Monopoly. It was the first time that I'd played with the new electronic card and calculator combo. It was fun, but when we switched to the traditional Monopoly game a bit later, I was relieved. When Annette came home, it was only a matter of time before bedtime, so I finished some more homework before being informed that Marie and Sophie were heading to bed. Then I went upstairs to work on homework some more and I swear this signals homework is being intentionally difficult! Hopefully I'll be able to understand it when I get it all done, but I'm more concerned with the upcoming test, though less so now that this harder material is being introduced.
Tomorrow we're going to the Bonn University Orchestra concert where we will undoubtedly listen to Beethoven as it is Bonn, and they are very proud of the famous man that was born here. I'm excited for that. Since I don't have any pictures from the last few days, here's some from before I haven't posted yet.
This was at the Vineyard, isn't it pretty?
The small church from the walk that first Saturday.
I'm really enjoying my time here with these people.
My first time on skates
Tchuss!
Erin Z
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Day 22 - Walk the town
I'm beginning to notice a pattern to my Sundays. Wake up, go to church, take a walk, do homework, go home and talk/play with my host family, go to bed early. I like it.
That's basically my day today, but more info would probably be appreciated. I woke up and went to the Munster church with my friends again today. during the last 20 min or so, this poor old lady suddenly fell over from a broken ankle. The paramedics were called and everything. By the time mass had ended, they had bundled her up into a stretcher with a sort of sleeping bag attached to it so the victim doesn't get cold, and she was just chatting with them and laughing about what happened.
After mass, two of our group left to go back home, but three of us stayed and went to a cafe because the person with the keys wasn't in town yet, so we couldn't work on schoolwork that required online access. after about an hour of just chatting with each other, the other two left and I decided to take a walk around the town. It was a gorgeous day today without a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining and warm. I walked from the HBF to the university, found the theater house, walked along the Rhein a bit, and made my way back to AIB about 2 hours later. I really like this whole walking thing, and I'm not the only one that does it. The entire time I walked there were at least 5 other people in my general vicinity just going for a stroll. And that was at the most secluded parts. Walking is really important here, and I can see why. After lunch, it's very nice to just go for a stroll and find new things. For example, I found the theater, and a lot of really cool graffiti on the walls that I took pictures of. It was just a really relaxing experience to clear my head and just walk.
Eventually I meandered back to AIB and waited with some others for the key bearer to arrive. When she did, we all piled inside and started in on our homework. Yes, call us nerds if you like, but we do it together and use it as a cool bonding experience. We finalized our trip to Amsterdam and made sure that we had travel and room were taken care of for everybody. I'm excited for that trip, but right after that is our trip to Vienna. By the time next week is over, I will be thoroughly tired and ready for sleep. When 5:30 came around, I left to go back home and eat and spend time with my host family. Sophie was out, but Marie and I played a sort of matching game for a while. When that was done, we cleaned up, I called home and saw the people and pets still at home, and now I just need to finish up a small amount of homework due tomorrow.
Till next time
Erin Z
That's basically my day today, but more info would probably be appreciated. I woke up and went to the Munster church with my friends again today. during the last 20 min or so, this poor old lady suddenly fell over from a broken ankle. The paramedics were called and everything. By the time mass had ended, they had bundled her up into a stretcher with a sort of sleeping bag attached to it so the victim doesn't get cold, and she was just chatting with them and laughing about what happened.
After mass, two of our group left to go back home, but three of us stayed and went to a cafe because the person with the keys wasn't in town yet, so we couldn't work on schoolwork that required online access. after about an hour of just chatting with each other, the other two left and I decided to take a walk around the town. It was a gorgeous day today without a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining and warm. I walked from the HBF to the university, found the theater house, walked along the Rhein a bit, and made my way back to AIB about 2 hours later. I really like this whole walking thing, and I'm not the only one that does it. The entire time I walked there were at least 5 other people in my general vicinity just going for a stroll. And that was at the most secluded parts. Walking is really important here, and I can see why. After lunch, it's very nice to just go for a stroll and find new things. For example, I found the theater, and a lot of really cool graffiti on the walls that I took pictures of. It was just a really relaxing experience to clear my head and just walk.
Just walking along when I turn the corner and see this
No big, just the 7th old church in a 1 mile radius
These were definitely just graffiti'd onto the walls of a random tunnel
A continuation of the picture above
The Theater house
Eventually I meandered back to AIB and waited with some others for the key bearer to arrive. When she did, we all piled inside and started in on our homework. Yes, call us nerds if you like, but we do it together and use it as a cool bonding experience. We finalized our trip to Amsterdam and made sure that we had travel and room were taken care of for everybody. I'm excited for that trip, but right after that is our trip to Vienna. By the time next week is over, I will be thoroughly tired and ready for sleep. When 5:30 came around, I left to go back home and eat and spend time with my host family. Sophie was out, but Marie and I played a sort of matching game for a while. When that was done, we cleaned up, I called home and saw the people and pets still at home, and now I just need to finish up a small amount of homework due tomorrow.
Till next time
Erin Z
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Day 21 - Melissa's birthday
So I got a wonderful amount of sleep today, just over 6 hours from the point I estimated I went to sleep to the time I woke up. When I went downstairs at about 1:30, my host mom was there and asked if I had a good sleep. I just laughed and told her the story about yesterday and how I got back super late (or early depending on your perspective). At around 4 they were going to have family over for tea and dinner, so I was able to shower and generally get ready for the day before anyone arrived. When they came, there was tea and this cool apple strudel type dish as well as a sort of but cake. I think I'm string used to the reduced amount of sugar in my sweets, because I can tell that there's not a lot of sugar, but I'm finding that I don't miss it that much. I wonder what my re-acclimation back into US society will be like. Anyway, after about 2 hours of listening to fast German and fighting to stay awake despite pinching myself, dinner was served. It was a wonderful dish with potatoes, cauliflower, and meat that was covered in a sauce. It was delicious!
Soon after I had to leave to catch a train so I could go to Melissa's birthday party. The party was a lot of fun and there was good and drink available for everybody. I also finally learned to play kings cup and we had an impromptu karaoke and dance session after a while, so that was pretty cool. At about midnight we left Melissa's host house to either go to another club or go home. I decided to go home, but to also take one of our members home because he really needed to get some sleep. Kelsey and I helped steered him towards where the night buses were, but we just missed the bus and ended up at McDonald's for some food and water. After about 20 min, he left us to go with another friend to a club. She said that he would be fine and that shed make sure that he got home OK, so I'm not too concerned about him.
At the night bus stop, Kelsey and I waited for our respective buses and found a group of students that were also waiting for their bus as well. We even met a real German that was studying at Bonn university and we had a pleasant conversation. Luckily, the night bus actually came at the right time and let people in, so I got home OK. Last night was fun and all, but two nights in a row is a bit much. That doesn't mean that the bus was boring though. Oh no, as soon as I sat down a very obvious drunk started talking to me and wasn't deterred by the language barrier or by my ignoring him when I could. Eventually, the people behind him pulled him back into his seat to stop him from talking to me some more. Then a guy sat down next to me and wanted to know about the stops. I pulled out my trusty bus schedule and he looked though it before starting a conversation with me. I even got a phone number from it, though I don't know if I'll call him or not yet. Probably not. He was a student from Bangladesh learning to be a businessman and we talked until he left the bus. And...that's it for the day. Yeah, short, but it's the truth.
Tomorrow is church and homework and studying, so I'm glad tonight was so much fun
Till tomorrow,
Erin Z
Soon after I had to leave to catch a train so I could go to Melissa's birthday party. The party was a lot of fun and there was good and drink available for everybody. I also finally learned to play kings cup and we had an impromptu karaoke and dance session after a while, so that was pretty cool. At about midnight we left Melissa's host house to either go to another club or go home. I decided to go home, but to also take one of our members home because he really needed to get some sleep. Kelsey and I helped steered him towards where the night buses were, but we just missed the bus and ended up at McDonald's for some food and water. After about 20 min, he left us to go with another friend to a club. She said that he would be fine and that shed make sure that he got home OK, so I'm not too concerned about him.
At the night bus stop, Kelsey and I waited for our respective buses and found a group of students that were also waiting for their bus as well. We even met a real German that was studying at Bonn university and we had a pleasant conversation. Luckily, the night bus actually came at the right time and let people in, so I got home OK. Last night was fun and all, but two nights in a row is a bit much. That doesn't mean that the bus was boring though. Oh no, as soon as I sat down a very obvious drunk started talking to me and wasn't deterred by the language barrier or by my ignoring him when I could. Eventually, the people behind him pulled him back into his seat to stop him from talking to me some more. Then a guy sat down next to me and wanted to know about the stops. I pulled out my trusty bus schedule and he looked though it before starting a conversation with me. I even got a phone number from it, though I don't know if I'll call him or not yet. Probably not. He was a student from Bangladesh learning to be a businessman and we talked until he left the bus. And...that's it for the day. Yeah, short, but it's the truth.
Tomorrow is church and homework and studying, so I'm glad tonight was so much fun
Till tomorrow,
Erin Z
Day 20 - A night on the town
Well, today is both better and worse than I thought it would be. Better because my first class (8:45) was no longer a test and the lecture was rather easy. Worse because of what happened at night. However, I did gain an great story for later
Let me start at the beginning. I woke up on time to go to school which just happened to be my circuits class. The actual lecture was rather easy and mostly covered things that have to do with basic graphing translations. The only downside was when we went over sinusoids and what were supposed to do with those types of equations, but that didn't take too long. Because of this rather easy lecture, I was able to upload the pictures from the postwar modern history of Germany photos from yesterday. In addition, I also started my scholarship essays and actually got a large portion of it done before my next class: history of medicine.
Instead of an actual lecture on HoM, our teacher brought in a professional art teacher to help us visualize the mechanisms if the leg and have us start thinking about what a knee prosthetic would have to do in order for it to still act like a human knee. We ARE very efficient in design you know, and replacing something to work like the original is never as easy as it seems. We went through a bit of introspection on how we as people tick and what we could bring to a group that would enhance the overall product. In the end we all separated into groups of 3 and were told that we would need to come up with a preliminary idea for the Otto Bock project in a months time and we would decide later which design was the best.
After that but of fun activity, it was time for physiology which is always super fun. After that was a mad scramble to get my essays done on time and turned in before feb 1 rolled around. During that time, the 6 people left in the AIB building at that time went out to go buy lunch...or really more like chocolate. After our chocolate fix, the 5 of us headed back to AIB to finish up homework and essays. During that time period, we finalized who was going to Amsterdam next weekend (as this weekend was Melissa's birthday) ad what hostels we could get into for a reasonably cheap price. It wasn't easy. After hours of comparing prices, I went back to my host home for dinner and to spend time with my host family.
Dinner was awesome! Annette made these little BBQ chicken wings and had jalepeños stuffed with cheese and breaded for dinner. It reminded me so much of the food I would get from home (chicken wings and jalepeño poppers) and I was super happy to have had them. And then Annette wondered if I didn't like them. When I told her about the similarities and described the poppers, she looked wistful. Unfortunately Sophie and Marie don't like spicy things, so I probably won't be making that dish anytime soon.
Soon after dinner I went back out to meet up with a bunch of friends to go to a karaoke bar. Unfortunately the bar was closed off for a private party, so we couldn't go in and have the fun we thought we would. However, we found some more American students outside that bar and we combined our two groups so we could all go out together. It turned out to be a really fun night full of laughs, funny situations, and one memorable moment where I was hit on by a guy that was 7-10 years older than me. He found out that I was from Texas, and said "that would make it hard to go back if you found a guy here right?" Needless to say that that conversation got really awkward really fast and we got out of there in the early morning.
After a little bit, we found our way to the night bus station and we waited for the bus to come together as we had just missed the 2:30 bus and had to wait for another hour for the next bus to come at 3:30. My bus came, and then left without letting anyone on it. We were all so confused: why? What's going on? Would the next bus come? Eventually most of the people cleared out, leaving behind some of us who were waiting for the next bus. Somehow I found out that the girl sitting next to me on the bench was an exchange student from Wales and we started talking. During that time, I don't know what happened, but it sounds like something straight out of a movie. A guy came up that was not the most clearheaded person and started talking to us and everyone around us. a few minutes into that conversation, some people from Libya were asking about the night bus and, seeing my night bus schedule out, asked if they could look at it. We all just continued to talk and it turns out that they were study abroad students as well, one going for their master's in electrical engineering, one shadowing people at a hospital, and one studying something like literature. They liked us so much that both Ellie (the girl next to me) and I were told that we were like their little sisters...
Soon after that the bus came. Or was supposed to come. Instead a fleet of taxis came up and we were told that we would need to take some to get back home. Ellie and I didn't want to, so we ended up going to the nearby McDonald's to get some warm food and drink in us and to wait for an hour for our trams to arrive. By this point, I had been outside for 1.5 hours and was literally shaking from the cold. We sat in that McDonald's and just talked to each other about the differences between our two countries and stuff like that. Eventually, it was time for the train and we separated to go home, promising to contact each other on Facebook. When I got home, it was 6:15 and I headed up for bead, ready to sleep for as long as possible. Although this night was fun, I don't think I want another adventure quite so soon, and even though I met some cool people, the whole experience was a little harrowing and unfamiliar because I've never encountered something like this before. Anyway, I'm home safe now, and ready to sleep.
After a little bit, we found our way to the night bus station and we waited for the bus to come together as we had just missed the 2:30 bus and had to wait for another hour for the next bus to come at 3:30. My bus came, and then left without letting anyone on it. We were all so confused: why? What's going on? Would the next bus come? Eventually most of the people cleared out, leaving behind some of us who were waiting for the next bus. Somehow I found out that the girl sitting next to me on the bench was an exchange student from Wales and we started talking. During that time, I don't know what happened, but it sounds like something straight out of a movie. A guy came up that was not the most clearheaded person and started talking to us and everyone around us. a few minutes into that conversation, some people from Libya were asking about the night bus and, seeing my night bus schedule out, asked if they could look at it. We all just continued to talk and it turns out that they were study abroad students as well, one going for their master's in electrical engineering, one shadowing people at a hospital, and one studying something like literature. They liked us so much that both Ellie (the girl next to me) and I were told that we were like their little sisters...
Soon after that the bus came. Or was supposed to come. Instead a fleet of taxis came up and we were told that we would need to take some to get back home. Ellie and I didn't want to, so we ended up going to the nearby McDonald's to get some warm food and drink in us and to wait for an hour for our trams to arrive. By this point, I had been outside for 1.5 hours and was literally shaking from the cold. We sat in that McDonald's and just talked to each other about the differences between our two countries and stuff like that. Eventually, it was time for the train and we separated to go home, promising to contact each other on Facebook. When I got home, it was 6:15 and I headed up for bead, ready to sleep for as long as possible. Although this night was fun, I don't think I want another adventure quite so soon, and even though I met some cool people, the whole experience was a little harrowing and unfamiliar because I've never encountered something like this before. Anyway, I'm home safe now, and ready to sleep.
Gute nacht/guten morgen
Erin Z
Written after the above events the early morning of the 1st of February on my phone
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