Doing As the Viennese Do

I'm back! I just returned from a weekend in Vienna (or Wien, as the Viennese call it) with my friends. Our flight left at 6:15 am, which means that I have been up since 3:30, so don't mind if this post seems a bit scatterbrained. My original plan was to go back to my host family's home when I got back to Copenhagen this morning, but in my sleepy state, I misread the bus schedule. Turns out, when I got to the train station near my house, I would have had to wait another hour for a bus home and would have had about 10 minutes to shower and leave again in order to make it in time to class. So I hopped right back onto a train going into the city, and here I am! Also, I was looking back at some old posts and realized that I use parentheses after every other word, so I am going to make a conscious effort to reduce my overactive parenthesis-usage.

Anyways, Vienna. In a nutshell, it is the most beautiful city I have been to! Absolutely gorgeous. I'll get to that in a little bit though. This was my first trip completely on my own, with just my friends, a map, and some money (or in Kelly's case, a credit card that refused to work) to get through the weekend -which means no chaperones, and no DIS dinners. As usual, the trip started off on a comical note. Our seating was random on the plane, so I was hoping I would have a good seat buddy since I would probably get to know them pretty well, considering the size of the plane. I lucked out! They were quiet, respected their space, and never had to get up to go to the bathroom. When I got to my seat, which was basically in the cockpit (2A, one of the first one's out!) my new friend was already there. She was a little old lady from Vienna and was so nice...although a little peculiar. She had a huge bag filled with a plant that she got in the city. She was afraid it was going to tip over on the flight if she put it in the overhead storage and there apparently was not enough room to put it near her feet on the floor. Since the flight wasn't full, the flight attendant found an extra seat that she could sit in, which means that yes, I sat next to a plant (buckled in the seatbelt and everything). I assured the worried owner that I would look out for it and make sure it didn't fall over during the flight. I must have left a good first impression or something, because she also left her purse on the seat next to me for the entire ride while she sat at the very back of the plane. This definitely wasn't an accident either -she came back right before takeoff to turn off her phone! I found this pretty funny considering I watch over my purse like a hawk...pickpocketers have a lot of clever little tricks. I learned that in trafficking class. You're probably wondering why I am ranting on about this random woman on a plane. Well, once we got off the plane, she came up to us and asked us if we knew how to get to the hostel. Kelly's immediate instinct was "trafficker!" but I told her later about our earlier meeting and she soon found out for herself that she really was just trying to help. We ran into her again at the train station and on the train, where she sat down next to us (again, she hung up her coat and bags in the front of the train before taking her seat) and we got talking. We found out that she had come to Copenhagen to see the opera, which she goes to almost every night in Vienna. Since music is such an important part of the culture there, she suggested which shows we should see and told us in extensive detail everything we needed to know. She was not completely sure what opera was playing over the weekend (shocker!), so she looked through every newspaper on the train to find out. When she couldn't find it this way, she took out her phone and called the opera house! After we got off the train, we came to the conclusion that we probably had just spent the past hour with an ex-Opera star or some Austrian celebrity. Paragraph parenthesis count: 5

I was hoping to get this post up before class, but that didn't really work out so I'm finally getting around to finishing it now, two days later (study break!). Our flight didn't land until close to 11:00 pm, so it was pretty late by the time we started looking for our hostel and let's just say Vienna's beauty wasn't exactly my first impression of the city. The street our hostel was on was pretty much desolate and it was located a block away from a strip club and across the street from a munitions store. I'm not one to judge a book by its cover, but I was totally judging. I should really start taking a picture of all of the hostels we stay at for reference.
Fortunately, the next day proved me wrong. Not only was it 70 degrees and sunny (I even got some color on my face!) but the city was bustling and just amazing! My pictures really do not do it justice. We basically spent the whole day walking and sightseeing. We started out at the museum quarter and worked our way through Hofburg, which has this gorgeous imperial palace, the National Library and the Spanish Riding School, among a bunch of other gorgeous (I'm running out of adjectives!) buildings that I don't know the purpose of. We tried to find the entrance to the main portion of the library, but could only seem to find the area for research, which we were not allowed into. I'm not sure how you could ever get any research done there though because it is so big that I doubt you would be able to actually find the book you were looking for, and it is so pretty that while searching for your book, you would probably stop to examine every wall and ceiling, and then proceed to stare out the window for 10 minutes. The biggest letdown of the day was probably not being able to see one of the horse shows at the riding school. The shows are only on Sundays and are pretty expensive, so most people go to watch a practice session, which are only on Tuesdays. There was a little video clip of part of the show playing outside of the school though, which did not fail to remind us of what we were missing out on. Parenthesis count: 2!

The majority of the sights to see are in Vienna's historical district. If you walk through it, you are bound to walk through a handful of parks along the way. There are open green spaces basically everywhere you turn, and I think that is what makes Vienna so beautiful (not to mention, the extremely elaborate and exquisite buildings). After lunch, we headed over to Wiener Prater Park, which is a small amusement park in the city known for its famous Ferris wheel, the Wiener Riesenrad. We were planning on riding it and getting a good view of the city, but were crushed when we found out that the student discount was 1 euro off of the original price, not 1 euro. Bummer. Instead, we indulged in some over-priced gelato.

On Saturday night, we decided to follow the advice of our friend from the flight over and went to the opera house! We figured we would enjoy a ballet much more than an opera. Plus, one of my friends already had to sit through a two hour opera with her host family, so the decision was pretty easy for her. We got there two hours ahead of show time like we were instructed to, in order to ensure that the standing room would not sell out. I'm really glad we got to see the ballet -it was really good, even though my feet weren't too happy with me. We left feeling very cultured, but our newfound Viennese-ness was pretty much shot five minutes later when we got Chinese food on the street for dinner.

The next day was a lot more relaxing, since we saw most of what we had wanted to on the first day. We climbed up to the top of St. Stephen's cathedral, which had a great view of the entire city (and made up for not riding the Ferris wheel).

We spent the majority of the day though at Schönbrunn Palace, which was the summer residence of the Habsburg dynasty and where Maria Theresa grew up (apparently Hofburg was their preferred winter residence). If that’s the case, I'd be curious to see what their summer and spring sites of residence were because you wouldn't believe the size of this thing! It was so gargantuan and perfect that certain parts of it actually looked fake! I was already in shock looking at the front but when we walked around to the "backyard," my jaw literally just dropped. There are more gardens and a huge hill with the Gloriette on top, which was built as a symbol of Habsburg power. It was a little windy, but we spent a good amount of time there, laying on the hill and enjoying the view. There was also a little market at the palace that sold all sorts of food and crafts, including these really pretty Easter eggs that looked too nice to touch (but I did anyways). We also saw the Belvedere Castle later on in the day, which was just as gorgeous as all of the others.

That night, we tried Sachertorte, which is a chocolate cake that Austria is known for. Surprisingly, it was not really my cup of tea. It was a little dry and just didn't do the trick for me. Those Danish pastries just hold a special place in my heart. I ate the whole thing anyways though -there isn't exactly such a thing as a bad piece of cake!

We stumbled across plane tickets to Vienna pretty randomly and it certainly wasn't on any of our lists of must-see places to go to heading into this study abroad experience (it really should have been). It was an awesome trip and I am so glad we went! I'll probably be MIA on this blog for a few weeks now though because we have a two week travel break starting next week. I'm heading to Spain on Saturday and then I'll be seeing my family the following week. I am SO excited!  Hope all is well back home and you are enjoying the 80 degree weather. If it were raining right now, I think we'd officially be having a hurricane in Copenhagen. Also, quick side note...I'm actually starting to feel like  a Copenhagen-er (even though everyone else can probably peg me for an American from a mile away). I've even started to recognize some of the regulars on the morning commute -I've seen Sudoku Man and Joe Pesci's Danish twin multiple times. It really is amazing how quickly this semester is flying by!

I Feel Like Currywurst

I hope that you have all been sitting at the edge of your seats, waiting for my next post! So sorry to keep you waiting, but it has been a very busy week! I hope you breathed a sigh of relief though when you didn't see, "Land of the Hamburgers" as the first thing to appear when you load the page this time (Wow, look how sarcastic I am becoming!)

I spent the past week traveling with my Human Health and Disease class and I think I can say it has been the best week abroad so far. I don't even know where to start though, so I guess I'll just go from the very beginning! I'm sure this post will be extremely long, so hang in there and try to excuse my run on sentences and poor grammar!

Side note: I'm currently watching the "X-Factor DK." They perform basically all American songs, but Danish music is so catchy!

We left Sunday morning bright and early because we had a long bus ride ahead (12 hours to be exact). Thankfully, we had a two hour ferry ride and a couple of mandatory 45 minute breaks for the bus driver to split it up a little, but I still think flying may have been a bit more time efficient. Anyways, we arrived in Poznan, Poland just before dinnertime, and to our excitement found out we were staying in a four-star hotel instead of a hostel, which made the long bus ride a little more worth it.

The first nights dinner set our expectations very high for the following few days (which did not disappoint either...I'll get to them in an hour or two probably). We had an amazing three course meal at a really pretty restaurant in the middle of the old town square. I'm not sure if it was traditional Polish food, but there was pork, so I guess that counts.

The next morning we had our first academic visit of the study tour. (Brief side note: the academic sessions on this trip were awesome and even though they have not changed my decision to not apply to medical school, they were definitely worth my indecisive last minute program selection!) We went to the Pediatric department of the Poznan University Hospital, where we got the chance to shadow some of the doctors! My group worked with a doctor in the gastroenterology department, where we got to see her perform an endoscopy on a patient. It was our job to hold the boy down during the procedure. Considering the small size of the patient, you would think this would have been an easy task, but he squirmed and screamed the entire time. A few of the girls I was with were considering going into pediatrics, but I wouldn't be surprised if they change their minds because I wanted to cry just watching. I mean, I'm 20 (2 months and 1 day until 21...don't forget!) and I would no doubt be balling my eyes out if someone tried to stick a tube down my throat and into my intestines. I also think the HIPAA-like rules and health care regulation measures are a lot less strict and way more flexible in Poland, because I'm not even sure if the doctor asked the patients if it was okay for us to be there, and she seemed to have no hesitations in spilling the family's entire medical history to us! We also spent a lot of time discussing how the Polish health care system works. If anyone is planning on living in Poland anytime soon, it may be worth noting that it is “best to get sick during the beginning of the year" (direct quote from the doctor) because government funding tends to run out at the end of the year if it has been busy. Also, if you lose your job, you will still get treatment and the logistics and financial matters will be, "figured out later." Excellent. That makes me feel really reassured!

We had a couple hours of free time after our visit to the hospital while the other groups were in their academic sessions. We decided to wander around Poznan to get a feel for the city. I think now would be an excellent time to describe the public transportation system in Poznan, which we became quite familiar with. The "easiest" way to get from place to place (not very quickly, I may add) is using the trams. The trams looked like they were made about 100 years ago and riding on one feels pretty similar to being the passenger in the car with me when I first started driving (think braking). It is important to pick your spot wisely on the tram. They are extremely crowded so once you get on, you are suck in one position for the rest of the trip and every time it stops, you are almost guaranteed to fall into the person standing next to you. I didn't pick up on this the first few rides, and ended up standing next to a little old lady who I would have crushed in an instant with my backpack had I not quickly flung myself the other way onto my friend instead.

Once back into the main city, we quickly found out that there was not really that much going on in good ol' Poznan. We realized pretty early on though that it was probably going to be the cheapest city we travel to in Europe (for anyone thinking about auditioning for Jeopardy, they are not on the euro...they use the złoty). So, I stocked up on all of the necessities: two toothbrushes and chocolate. My plan was to save them all for when I got back to the US, so that I could always have a little taste of Europe. But, I soon found out that Polish chocolate is actually delectable and that plan failed immediately (I do have some left though! I hid them in my suitcase). We also came across a really neat outdoor flea market with vendors selling everything from fruits to underwear. We found a slipper stand where an old lady was trying to sell me a pair of slippers. She kept yelling to me in Polish even though it was quite obvious that we didn't speak Polish (I think not speaking the language is half of the fun while traveling!) Later on in the day, we had another fabulous and filling meal and then were sent on a scavenger hunt to see some of the historical sites of Poznan. They are really pretty and I took tons of pictures, but not really worth going on into detail here. Although, there was an absolutely gorgeous church with an organ that weighed 2 tons.

The following day our academic visit was at the gynecology hospital in Poznan, which is also part of the Poznan University Hospital...I think. There we shadowed another physician and he had us take the patient history of one of his patients! It was so nerve-wracking. At the end, we got a little tour through the labor and delivery department, in search of delivery to watch! Unfortunately, every room the doctor went in to had a patient who had just recently been admitted. The one lady we did spent a little time with didn't really seem too thrilled about us being there (not that I blame her), so I guess it was for the best. We did get to go see two of the newest born babies as the midwives were preparing to take them to their families. They were adorable!! I thought it was really interesting that in all of the hospital rooms we saw, there would be up to four or five (sometimes more!) patients in one room! Could you imagine seeing your kid for the first time, and having three random strangers hanging out with you too? Talk about third wheeling.

I'm beginning to realize just how long this post is going to be. We're just leaving Poland now...I'll summarize a bit: another long bus ride to Berlin, arrived for dinner, and went to the German Heart Institute the next morning for our first academic visit. The German Heart Institute is basically a hospital specializing in cardiac care and does a lot of research and pretty high-tech transplants. We got to see some patients, had a brief tour, and a lecture there. After lunch, a group of us headed to the East Side Gallery, which is the largest part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. This was one of my favorite things that I saw in Berlin. The East side of it is covered in these pretty awesome paintings about freedom and filled with graffiti and tons of quotes. The murals are so good (that's really the only way I can describe it!). I think I took a picture of every one because they kept getting better and better. I'll only put a few here but if you want to see more, go to the family picture website or Facebook or ask me...or even better, go see it yourself!

We had another academic visit that afternoon, this time to a Family Planning Center in the city. I can't say I enjoyed this one as much. The sex-ed portion was a bit unnecessary and made me feel like I was in eighth grade health class. They did give us free coffee and snacks though, which is always a plus of course. It was interesting though to learn about their stance on abordtion. I got the sense that abortion is much less of a "not a dinner table topic" in Germany (and maybe all of Europe) and the rules governing it seem a lot more lax. I was kind of surprised by that, but at the same time it is not very surprising because Europe is much more liberal. After dinner that night (a delicious veggie pizza!) we had tickets for the symphony. The concert hall was really pretty and apparently it was one of the best ones in Berlin. Now, I am all about music and after 12 years of piano I definitely have an appreciation for it, but 2 1/2 hours is a bit excessive (although they were extremely good)! I enjoyed listening to the pianist though, as well as counting all of the people who were sleeping. Use your best judgment to figure out whether or not I was included in that number ;)

Okay, I'm almost finished (not really). Thursday was by far the best day of the study tour. In the morning, we went to the Center for Anatomy, where we got to go in the cadaver labs! For those of us who had never seen a cadaver before (including myself), it took a few seconds to get our bearings together, but then the science nerds in all of us came out. It was so cool exploring (this is actually really gross now that I think about it) all of the organs still inside a person. My personal favorite? The knee and the intestines. Also, for an organ, the liver is quite heavy! It's amazing how much you can learn with the real thing compared to the bone box in anatomy lab. Also, the thumbs on a dead person oddly enough look the most like their living counterpart, in my opinion. Weird...and creepy.

For lunch that day, we experienced German culture at its finest...currywurst at the subway station. Yum. For those of you who don't know what it is, currywurst is basically some type of meat (I'm not sure exactly what kind...and I don't really think I want to know) that is in hot dog form but cut up into small pieces. It is served in a little french-fray tray and has curry seasoning and ketchup on it. Kelly, Laura and I ordered one to split, but when we first got it, all three of us were about to just give it to a homeless person. However, the currywurst pleasantly surprised us and was actually really good! Following the currywurst adventure, we were headed to our next activity of the day: a bike tour of Berlin...in the cold, wind, and rain (the only day of the trip it rained, of course).

The bike tour was probably one of the highlights of the trip and I would definitely do one in every country if I could. Our class (well the three of us at least) had way too much fun on our bikes and I'll admit, I couldn't help but show off some of my new-found biking skills (I’m getting better at the hill!). All geared up in two jackets and a poncho, Scruffy (my bikes name) and I traversed all over the city through the major must-see historical sites of Berlin. These included the Holocaust Memorial, the Reichstag, the TV tower, University where the book burnings took place, these 2 other buildings that were really neat and identical except one was built by the French and one by the Germans, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's bunker, another portion of the Berlin Wall, and the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his kid out of the window. Although my fingers felt like they were going to fall off for the first hour of the tour, Berlin is such a great city to see and there is so much history in it! Lucky for us, the sun came out with about an hour left.

For dinner on Thursday night, we went to unsicht-Bar Dark Restaurant as a class. This restaurant is exactly what it says it is: dark. You are served by blind waiters and eat in total darkness to experience your other senses at work (I think it would be a great place for a blind date!). Oh, and you have no idea what you are being served! I was a little hesitant about this at first. I didn't really like the idea of a) not knowing what I was eating, b) not being able to see who I was talking to, and c) not being able to see for over an hour. But at the same time, I was super excited. Plus, I would never be able to afford to eat there without it being a DIS dinner, so I was glad to have the opportunity. So, when I say you eat in total darkness, I mean pitch black, are-you-afraid-of-the-dark, can't see your hand in front of you darkness. I could have taken my pants off in the middle of dinner and no one would have known. It was really hard to get used to at first (it hurts your eyes for a little bit while they adjust). I also was on the end (my least favorite seat, of course!) and kept feeling a breeze next to me, which was a little scary. Also, I could not get used to the waiter coming up. Even though he would introduce himself and touch your arm (being super ticklish this did not help the situation) to let you know he was next to you, it would always startle me a little bit. I still don't know how the waiters did it. They put your plate exactly in front of you and even lead you to and from your seats. It's amazing! Now, the meal. It was a three course meal, which started with a salad with a tomato and an avocado (which we guessed correctly). I don't know if anyone has ever tried to eat a salad with their eyes closed, but it is virtually impossible. Since no one could see what we were doing, my whole table started eating it with our hands (needless to say, we needed a lot of extra napkins). At first we were a little shy about it, but then we all realized we were doing the same thing. It would have taken me an hour to eat the salad with a fork because I honestly couldn't stab one piece of lettuce without seeing it. It was hilarious. Also, tomatoes are not fun to eat when you do not know they are coming (who likes something squirting in your mouth when you aren't expecting it?) and avocados feel even more gross when you do not know you are touching an avocado. Next came the main course. As much as I hate to admit it, we ate this meal like cavemen as well as we gnawed away at what we thought was meat. My guess? Ribs. It was tofu. Close. (It smelled like J.B. Dawson's!). Dessert was delicious as well. It was cut up mangos with custard and chocolate petit fours. Since no one was looking, we literally licked our plates clean. Wish I were kidding...there was extra chocolate sauce on the dish though, so this was clearly necessary, and not to mention the only effective way to eat all of it. It was definitely an experience to remember and I surprisingly, thoroughly enjoyed it! Maybe I'll make my family eat in the dark with me sometime this summer. It was a great way to end our trip (although it might have been nice to see my classmates during our last dinner together). We went out as a class that night, and I even met up with a friend from Gettysburg studying abroad in Berlin! I know my parents won't want to hear this, but I can tell you that abroad has definitely made me relax a little about my school work because we all stayed up until 4 am and put together our group presentations the next morning during breakfast...forty five minutes before presentation time. I think we all got A's. Afterwards, we got to go to the top of the Reichstag and hang out a bit more in the city before heading home.

It was an awesome trip and I wish we had more study tours this semester! It is so fun traveling with a class and being able to learn in so many different places, outside of the classroom. Plus, it's great having all of the travel arrangements, lodging, and dining taken care of. We left Berlin exhausted, and feeling like sausages, or should I say, "feeling like currywurst." But it was totally worth it! I'm really looking forward to traveling these next few weeks and experiencing more that Europe has to offer! Again, sorry this is so long and detailed. This is probably the closest thing to a journal that I'll ever get to, and I feel like I should be documenting this trip somehow!

Land of the Hamburgers

This week has been super busy, and unfortunately I wasn't able to write about my weekend before Wednesday, so there goes my goal of weekly updates. I have a feeling they are going to be pretty spotty from here on out because I have so much coming up! I'll try my best though!

This past weekend, I traveled to Hamburg, Germany with my Holocaust and Genocide class for a study tour. We had a 5 hour bus ride, so we left fairly early on Saturday morning. To get to Germany, we had to drive to the coast and take the ferry across. The bus came on board, but we had to get off during the trip. On the way out, it was so windy that the waves were splashing to the top of the ferry and rocking the whole boat. I never get sea sick, but I was definitely feeling it this time! On the bright side, the stores on board did not have any taxes, so my classmates and I indulged in some of our favorite chocolate bars for half the price (we also saw the largest jar of Nutella I have ever seen). Also worth noting- fun fact: we watched The Pianist on the bus ride to Hamburg, and I totally performed the song that the pianist plays in the opening scene at a highschool recital. Maybe my new summer goal should be to relearn it...

Our first stop in Hamburg was the Bullenhuser Damm School. During WWII, an SS (a Nazi military party) physcian was experimenting with vaccines for tuberculosis. **Warning: this entry does not contain the most uplifting stories, so read on at your own discretion. As part of the racist ideologies of the time in Germany, it was thought that a person's ethnicity was a contributing factor in developing TB, so he experimented on Jews, Soviets, and people from other "inferior" races at the Neuengamme concentration camp nearby. Later, he used 20 Jewish children from Auschwitz for his experiments. After being injected with the disease, they were brought to the schoolhouse and killed by the SS officers in order to cover up the crimes. There was an exhibit about the experiments, the perpetrators, and the children involved at the school, as well as a memorial garden. The museum was really small but it was interesting to read about the experiments and the tributes to the victims were nice to see as well.

After we checked into our hostel, we had the choice to have free time or go to an art museum in the city... so we had free time. My roommates and I took the opportunity to walk around Hamburg for a few hours before dinner. Luckily, two of them had already gone to Hamburg with their classes, so I had my very own personal tour guides and got to give my map skills a little break.  For some reason, I pictured it as a little town but it's actually really big...and so pretty! We saw some type of political protest by town hall which was pretty cool. There was also some guy whose job it was to make a pile of bottle caps, watch kids run through them and spill them across the street, and then go collect them and put them back in a pile for more kids to run through. Obviously, I joined the kids and kicked some around myself. We made sure to stop at the gummy bear store for free samples as well (okay, I bought a bag) because gummy bears apparently originated in Germany and they are ten times better than the ones in the United States. Also, if you didn't catch from the title of this post (so creative, isn't it?), I learned that the people in Hamburg are referred to as, "Hamburgers." Apparently, I am still eight years old and laughed every time it came up.

We had a three course meal waiting for us at a nearby restauraunt next. It was such a great meal and a really good chance to get to know my classmates, who I never really had a chance to meet.  Everyone was really nice (and very different, which made for some pretty interesting conversation). Unfortunately though, I ended up sitting next to Buzzkill Bonnie, who does not eat, "swine." The waitress kindly assured her that the meat they would be serving was beef. However, in Germany, dietary restrictions (especially those regarding meat) are not as well understood. Let's just say that when we discovered that the side of potatoes had little bacon bits in them (umm..yumm!), my dramatic classmate was not a happy camper, refused to eat anything else, spent the rest of the night sulking, and basically just killed the mood completely. It was at this point that I helped myself to a second serving of potatoes...hey, more for the rest of us!

After dinner, a group of us decided to continue our walk through Hamburg, but this time check out the red light district. Apparently, Hamburg has the second biggest red light district in Europe (second only to Amsterdam). I'm not going to go into much detail here, as we only walked through it anyways. Use your imagination though. We did manage to grab a picture with a person dressed up as "Where's Waldo," which made our night complete.

The next day can be described in two words: food and sad. (Terrible combination, by the way). We had breakfast at the hostel, and then went straight to see the Church of St. Nicholas, in the middle of Hamburg. This church was bombed by the Allies during the war, which ruined a large portion of the city. That is why most of the buildings in Hamburg are more modern looking -neighborhoods were literally destroyed. The church has not been restored to its former condition, so it's a neat place to see and really get a feel for what went on there. We took the elevator up to the top, where there is an incredible view of the city and some neat pictures of how parts of the city used to look from the top of the church before the bombing.

After our stop at the church, we headed to brunch (don't forget, we ate breakfast about an hour and a half before this...so no one was actually hungry). There was a huge buffet with so many amazing dishes (cheeses, meats, fruits, salmon, bread, anything you could ever think of). Somehow I ended up sitting across from, "I don't eat swine" again, but she was much more well behaved today. Everyone eagerly filled their plates up, wanting to try everything, and then went back for seconds when we discovered there was a waffle machine. Needless to say, we all left the place wanting to walk around with our pants unbuttoned for the rest of the day...well, at least I did. I'm not sure why I don't have a picture of this, since I seem to have a picture of every other edible item I've come across abroad...

Our final stop of the trip, and the main reason for coming, was to the Neuengamme concentration camp, which is located just outside of Hamburg. Neuengamme was a work camp (as opposed to an extermination camp) during the war, but it still had one of the highest death rates due to its location and conditions. I didn't really know what my expectations were -probably, along the lines of the classic textbook images I had seen so many times. But whatever I did expect, what I saw was nothing like it. In fact, there isn't really a whole lot to even see. For instance, a lot of the barracks had to be taken down, so there were simply walls of stones next to "roll call square" resembling where they used to be.

There was still a lot of the original parts of the camp in tact though, such as the railroad tracks, and the areas that the workers had to dig for clay. Even so, being there was just bone chilling, especially because our teacher gave us a tour of the camp himself and is so knowledgeable on the subject. The information he would tell us was unlike anything I had ever learned about before. Even though it is a really heavy subject matter, I really like listening to him because he just knows so much. One point of the tour that stood out most to me was a transport wagon situated on one of the railroad tracks. Across from it was a box outlined in the ground that was the same size as the wagon. Our teacher had our class of about 30 kids stand inside of it. It was a tight squeeze. He then told us that there would typically be about 80 people in one wagon, for days. It is just mind boggling.

I really don't know how to describe the feeling of being there. I guess 'sad' does the trick. It's a very sobering experience.  But I honestly think, if given the chance, people should take the time to visit a place like that. While it is a reminder of one of the worst atrocities in history, it is an important reminder, and one that should not be forgotten. (If you do ever go though, do not eat a large meal beforehand -it will not sit well in your stomach and make the trip more unpleasant than necessary). Oh, and before I forget, one very interesting note from our tour: Following WWII and to this day, the Germans fully accept responsibility for their actions and they are very ashamed of their past -and they will make the point of it. For instance, when we were visiting the church that was bombed, the information blurbs would basically flat out say that the Allies rightfully bombed Nazi Germany and that they deserved it, even if it did mean the loss of many innocent people. I respect that!

Overall, the trip was a really great educational experience and a nice opportunity to see another culture and meet some new people. I have to admit though, I am looking forward to a (hopefully) more lighthearted trip next week to Poznan, Poland and Berlin, Germany with my Human Health and Disease class.

And just a few random facts/observations/things I learned/etc. that I thought I'd share this week:

1. You have to pay for a bag if you want one for your groceries at the store. This would not go over too well with McCaffrey's customers...especially the, "I'll have the bread in double plastic" type.
2. The wind blows in every direction in this country. That, or it changes direction to face me every time I turn, which is highly improbable, although I wouldn't be surprised because I ride against it both to the train station, and home from the train station. Interesting...
3. Apparently, people will leave their babies out on the street while they are in the store. I haven't actually seen it yet, but a lot of people have. I'll have to keep you update on this.
4. I think I was born tanner than I am right now.
5. I wore just a North Face jacket today. No heavy winter coat :)
6. I'm actually enjoying writing in this blog (shocker, I know). I think I've "discovered my blogging voice," as Ali would say. Hope you are enjoying reading it as well...I certainly hope all of the page views are not all from me!