It's been a long time....

So I know it's been like a million years since I've blogged.  Two reasons:  1. I have been so incredibly busy traveling, seeing patients, and more traveling I've hardly had time to sleep, let alone blog.  2.  I forgot my username and password because I'm an idiot.

I have a lot of catching up blogs to do over the next few days, so I'm just going to try to go in order from memory of where I left off.  Seriously, a ridiculous amount of stuff has happened!  It has gone from like summer to fall.  The leaves are starting the slightest hint of changing and I can see my breath in the mornings/evenings!  I'm getting use to the Army, though I am still not a fan of the PT that goes on at the drill field about 20 feet from my window.  Clinic is good, I've gotten to do some school screenings at different bases, and am seeing patients on other days. 

Boooo clinic!  Now to the good part....TRAVELING!

So one day a few weeks ago I was getting to the point I needed some alone time (which I get like NONE of here).  Everybody wanted to go to Munich for 1 night to get some special train pass and go to Dachau concentation camp.  Since I was just there a few weeks ago I decided this would be a good opportunity for a day trip by myself!  The night before I got out my little Germany book and looked for places that sounded interesting to me.  I decided on a place called Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  It's an extremely well preserved medieval town in Bavaria which also has a HUGE Christmas store/museum!  So I got up the next morning and set out on my 2.5 hour trek. 



Adorable streets of Rothenburg!  The whole town was like this!



The town did NOT disappoint!  It was a cool but gorgeous day (which always helps!)!!!  I spent a lot of time just wondering the absolutly picturesque streets and sitting on steps watching people.  I went to the Kathe Wolfhart Christmas store and Christmas museum.  So this wasn't just a shop, this store was like an entire experience!  It was so amazing decorated with GIANT Christmas trees and twinkling lights in the ceiling to look like stars, I felt like a small child in one of those magical Christmas wonderlands!  However, this was not cheap and cheezy looking, this was truly amazing, and I got lost wondering around the place several times (I think they want you to do that so you'll buy more).  I bought a couple things of course!

Outside Christmas store.  Unfortunately you couldn't take pics inside.

I went in a pretty church and walked along the old walls to the city.  You can actually walk ON the walls, which was kinda cool. 

Walking along the old wall of the city.

So I kept seeing this things in the bakery windows that looked like the tops of muffins or some sort of round pastry.  But like nothing I had ever seen before.  When I finally went into a bakery to get a closer look at these strange, but delicious looking food, the lady just asked me "which one do you want".  Though I had no intention of eating one when I walked into the shop, I reflexively pointed to one that said "limon".  She wrapped it up and I was on my way down the street with a "Schneeballen".  Apparently they are famous for the pastry-like treat.  It is like a flaky pastry/cookie/candy covered in icing/chocolate/powdered sugar/cinnamon or whatever.  I mean what's not to like....

Schneeballen in the windows.  They were everywhere!

I wandered into a "Medieval Crime and Punishment" museum only because it was just 2 euros and it had a nice clean bathroom (difficult to come by in Europe).  I quickly walked through, so I saw a lot of old weapons and stuff.  Kinda weird, but I can do whatever I wanted.

Can I just say that while I love traveling with my friends, I also LOVED doing whatever I wanted to do.  If I was hungry I ate, if I wanted to sit on the steps of the town hall for 30 minutes watching people I did that, if I wanted to wonder in the Christmas museum reading the little signs at my own pace, I did!  It was just so nice (and efficient) to do what I want without a care, worry, or time frame in mind!

Part of the old city walls on a beautiful day!

Wurzburg!

On Saturday we decided to take a day trip to Wurzburg.  It's about 30 minutes away from Schweinfurt.  Mindy, the physical therapist at our clinic, was going there anyway so she volunteered to drive us.  Our first stop was at a lederhosen shop because the guys needed to get some traditional German man clothing to wear to fests since we girls have our dirndls now!  Seeing American guys in tight leather overall shorts is pretty much the funniest thing ever!  The shopping trip was a success!  Now we are all set for fests!!!!  Germans love their festivals, they take any excuse to party, it seems like every town has a few fests a year, with the biggest being Oktoberfest!

Lederhosen:  Traditional German man outfit.

After the lederhosen adventure, Mindy dropped us off at the Wurzburg train station to meet Kevin.  Kevin is some like 20 year old German dude from Wurzburg that the other externs met on a train last week.  They ended up talking for a bit and he volunteered to give us a little tour of the town.  He's a nice kid, he seems to really like American culture and wants to practice his English, so it works out well for both parties.  He took us up to the castle/fortress overlooking all of Wurzburg.  Wurzburg is a pretty city with a few beautiful bridges that survived WW2!  This is also wine country!  Since it is almost harvest time the vinyards, which line the hillside, are at their prettiest!!!

Looking down on Wurzburg from the castle.

Emily and I at the wine fest!

We then walked down the hill into town.  We walked over the main bridge, to a couple big churches, and he showed us a display of what Wurzburg looked like after the war.  It was pretty much burned to the ground along with every other city in Germany.  They managed to rebuild in the old style to Wurzburg has kept its charm!  We stumbled upon a little Wine Festival going on in a main square, so we stopped for some wine and bratwurst.  I know that sounds like a weird combo, but it really worked great!  Kevin acted as a good tour guide showing us all of the interesting a cool parts of the city!  Of course, as with any international meeting, we had to be diplomatic and teach each other curse words in each language. (Haha!)

Later that night we met Mindy and a German friend of hers for dinner and drinks.  They told us they were going to take us somewhere cool.  They drove us up to a hill overlooking the city and we pretty much parked in an empty field.  We walked down through a tiny field and down a little path (mildly confused if we were actually getting anywhere) and found a restaurant/beer garden with a wonderful view of the city at sunset!  How anybody can find this place, is beyond me!  Saw a new place, made new friends, all and all a good day!

Emily walking over the bridge.  I don't know why I randomly like this pic.

First week in Schweinfurt!

So the night we arrived back from Berlin we met the other 3 externs from Pennsylvania College of Optometry.  They have 2 guys and 1 girl...Andrea, Adam and Ketan.  They're pretty cool and we all get along really well so far.  It's funny how in just a few days I feel like I know these people better than people I went to school with for 3 years.  That's what happens when you work together, live on the same hallway, eat together, and do pretty much everything else together.  In 3 months we'll either be best friends or never speak again, I guess we'll see!  Haha!  No, they're really cool, I'm excited to have such a fun group to hang out with in Germany for 3 months.

These are the laundry facilities on our hall, this is how I found it.  The common kitchen looks similar, which we dont use.  However, I have used the machines, they do work!!

As for the barracks, it keeps things interesting.  It's like living in a really old, kinda dirty, boys dorm in college.  Except the boys are crazy!  We don't know all of our neighbors names, but we give them nicknames based on their tatoos.  There's a guy we call "Dragon", he's really loud and possibly certifiably insane.  He got his name because the other night he comes knocking on our door, since there were 3 people in our room we decided to open it.  He had a fresh bloody tatoo of a GIANT dragon across his chest that he wanted to show off.  Never a dull moment with these guys!  (But don't worry, we've become friends with their commander's girlfriend who works at the clinic and he's given the guys a briefing not to bother us, so we shouldn't have any problems.)

This is a lot like college, except we're in Europe!  It takes some adjusting to get use to again and I never thought I could get use to dorm living, but I'm getting there.  We hang out in the dorm room watching movies, we take our laundry down the hall, and we have to take the bus to the store.  Lots of college de ja vu moments, but I'm 25, it's weird.

Old church in town.  One of the few building that survived WW2.

Work is good.  Seeing patients right off.  Nothing too exciting, except I'm seeing more kids than I would like to.  Hopefully that will end when school starts.  But work is boring, who wants to talk about that...

So Friday night we decided to stay in town because we were told there was some sort of festival going on in town.  Even though it was raining we made our way to down town with the promise of music and beer.  I must say, I love to hear 1980's American music sung with German accents, it cracks me up!!!  After sampling some of the local beverages, listening to some bands, and making a bad decision to eat a late night burger at McDonalds we decided it would be a good idea to head to a local nightclub that many of the soldiers told us about.  Keep in mind it is somewhere between 11:00 and 11:30 at night, so not too late, by nightclub standards.  We get to the club, and it was just okay, we just felt weird, we felt OLD, and we didn't know why.  After a little while their we decided to catch a cab home.

All of the externs at the Schwinfurt Festival

1. 

   Sarah and I with a Schweinfurt pig.  You see these around town.

The next morning at the dining facility we talked to one of the dudes the recommended the nightclub to us and told him how we felt we must be too old for this sort of thing now.  Come to find out in Germany night clubs are open to teenages (16-20) until midnight, and the over 21 crowd doesn't get there until about 1:00am.  So basically we were partying with a bunch of kids almost a decade younger than us, most excellent.  Don't think we'll be going back there since I like to be in bed by 1:00am these days!  Haha!  But kinda a funny story!

Dirndl Shopping

Emily, the other girl extern Andrea, and I all bought dirndls to wear to the fests.  Especially Oktoberfest!  People actually wear them!  It's awesome!

Berlin Pics!

Nazism, Communism, Capitalism.

At the Berlin train station.  Reminded me of Perception class.

TV tower in Alexander Platz put up by the Communists to show their wealth and power.  It was not in their plan for it form a cross when the sun hit it in the west, this was known as the "Pope's revenge".

Checkpoint Charlie, or what is left of it.  Basically a tourist stop now.

Back side of Brandenburg Gate, couldn't get the other side because they were having some event.

All of us in front of the Reischtag.  Now the parliment building.

Me in front of part of the wall at the East Side Gallery.

Emily trying Currywurst and pommes.  Basically a bratwurst with curry ketchup and french fries.

Getting of the train to go to the East Side Gallery.  Gotta love what those Commies left behind....

Sarah setting foot in both the former East and West Berlin!

Berlin: "Poor but Sexy"

Once again I'm blogging late about this past weekend.  So after spending our first night in our barracks Emily and I were awoken at 5:30 am by the yelling of sargeants and other people.  Apparently the army thinks it a swell idea to wake up before the crack of dawn, organize themselves, and shout orders in the field outside of our window.  Not cool army!

After possibly a couple more hours of sleep we (Emily and I) decided to get up and meet Sarah at the train station to head to Berlin!  Berlin is 4.5-5 hour journey, including a train stop in Bamberg.  We arrived in Berlin in the early afternoon, dropped our bags at the hotel, and headed down to Alexanderplatz.  As I recall (which for the record I may be wrong on any of this), Alexanderplatz was the main "square" (aka "platz") for East Berlin back in the day.  Now it has the TV tower which people like to go up in and it's overrun with tourists, gypsies, and people who like to wear fishnets and combat boots.  We were headed there to meet our bike tour.

I had done a Fat Tire Bike Tour in Paris 3 years ago and loved it, so we decided to go with the same company in Berlin.  We road about 6 miles seeing the sights around the city.  It was awesome and a great way to cover some ground in this very large and diverse city!  We saw part of the Berlin wall, the sight where Hitler's bunker was, other Nazi era stuff, beautiful modern achitecture built since the wall fell, had a snack in a beer garden, Checkpoint Charlie, and Brandenburg Gate, just to name a few.  After that we were really tired and decided to take advantage of the free WiFi at our hotel and call it a night (I know, LAME, given Berlin is a huge party city!).

The next day we had a lesuirely morning sleeping in a bit.  Then we got out to see some more of the things that had caught our interest the day before.  First we headed back over to the Checkpoint Charlie area to go to a free museum called the Topography of Terror.  It's all about the rise of Nazism, with an emphasis on Berlin 1933-1945.  Ironically, this is located adjacent to the Berlin wall, which was from the Communism era.  It was sometimes difficult to remember to differentiate these two times as you saw things throughout the city.  I have a great picture on here taken from there which I call "Nazism, Communism, and Capitalism", because it shows the Berlin Wall, an old Nazi headquarters building (which only survived the war because it was a good reference point for Allied bombers), and a huge Ben & Jerry's billboard all on one street corner.  Just to avoid confusion, the Ben & Jerry's poster does not represent Communism in this instance, haha, kidding!

We ended up walking around a lot, even though it was quite warm and sunny it still felt better than Houston in August!  We went to check out the Currywurst Museum (Currywurst is like a signiture food of Berlin), however it cost 8.50 euro and decided we weren't willing to pay that just for something that we thought would be more of a joke.  So bust there!

We then took the city train further into the old east Berlin to see the East Side Gallery, which is the largest area in which the wall was still standing and artists have painted it.  Very cool!

That night we checked out a place called Winerei which our preceptor doctor told us about.  It's kinda off the beaten path in a non-touristy area (a lot of half empty stores and apartments because Berlin is somewhat of any empty city).  The basic idea is you pay 2 euros for "membership" (a wine glass and entrance).  There are several kinds of wines out and a large bowl.  You drink as much as you would like and then pay what you deem "appropriate" for the amount you drink at the end of the night.  However, we were told it was important not to abuse the system since Americans have a reputation for doing so.  We were the only Americans in there and it a somewhat local/underground feel to it, which was pretty cool.

On Sunday morning Sarah headed back to the U.S., and Emily and I headed back to Schweinfurt.  All and all a great weekend trip!!!

Berlin was probably the weirdest city I've ever been to, but it was awesome.  Virtually everything in the city was built or rebuilt since the 1950s since it was pretty much leveled in WW2.  Then you throw in very strong reminders of the division of the city and Communist rule by seeing the wall, or the stones on the wall representing its former location, and in some areas you see the older very bleak Communist era buildings (not a good look, may I add).  It's amazing to think how much has happened in this city in only my short lifetime!  However, from this history of oppression it's obvious that they have totally done an 180 and are all about acceptance and freedom.  I mean it's a place where you see the funkiest dressed and weirdest looking people you can imagine, a very artsy/underground scene, and you also have wine bars where you have the FREEDOM to pay as you feel.  They had none of this just 20 years ago!  I'm not a very liberal person at all, but I somehow found it amazing that they were able to create a free spirited place from a place with virtual no freedom in a very short time.  There is also so much new growth and amazing architecture that has come about in the last 20 years, I don't know how they did it so fast!  So that's my take on Berlin, and that's why they call it "Poor but Sexy".

In the Army now???

So I'm writing this several days later because I didn't have good internet for several days.   I arrived in the town of Schweinfurt, Germany, the location of my externship on Wednesday August 18. 

So I had e-mailed the doctor a few weeks before to tell him which day I planned on arriving.  This was good to go, or so I thought.  A few days before leaving for Schweinfurt, I e-mailed the doctor asking him what I should specifically do when I get off the train in Schweinfurt.  But due to the weak army e-mail system, he didn't get my e-mail in time, and I did not get an answer.  I figured I'm a smart worldy girl, I can figure this out. 

So Sarah and I arrived in Schweinfurt just before noon.  Sarah decided to take a cab from the train station to her hotel and I decided to take a couple of my bags and head toward the base.  I tried calling the phone numbers for a couple of the technicians who worked in the office, but neither of them worked.  However, I knew I had e-mailed with the doctor about my arrival date, so I assumed all was well.  When I asked the taxi driver to take me to the army base, he asked me "which one?".  I had no idea, but luckily I guess correctly.

German taxis can't go on base,  so I had him drop me off at the main gate.  I rolled up to the gate with 2 suitcases in tow and explained my situation.  I asked if they had a phone number for the health clinic and of course they were completely useless and had no phone numbers.  (Sure hope nobody has a heard attack near the gate!)  So I used my military ID card for the first time to get me on base and had them point me in the direction of the clinic.

So there I was walking down the street on a base rolling my 2 suitcases, it's lunch hour so lots of people in uniform are roaming around, so I felt like a spectacle.  Luckily the health clinic was only about 500-600 meters from the gate and everybody knew where it was, so it was pretty easy to find.  So at this point I really had no options.  I had no working phone numbers for the clinic or any staff and they were not getting my e-mails.  I rolled into the front door, followed the signs to optometry, and walked right up to the desk (feeling ridiculously akward since I was now sweating and carrying 2 suitcases+a large backpack).

It's lunch hour, so almost everyone is gone.  The woman working at the front desk was very surprised to see me since she was told all of the interns would be arriving 2 days later.  She was very nice and let me in.  After lunch two of the technicians came back from lunch, also very surprised to see me there.  This did not help the embarassment factor!  Everyone was really nice and showed me around the clinic.  When Dr. Eddis came back from a meeting, seeing me seemed to refresh his memory that this was the day of my expected arrival. 

So it gets better.  Dr. Eddis realized he needed to take me to get a base pass so I could more easily get on/off base.  However, a family of 3 had just walked in for their appointments.  In order to get done on time for the base pass office to still be open, he asked me to take a patient.  It was a healthy 8 year old and I really didn't mind at all.  But here's the catch...I was wearing JEANS, a black TSHIRT, and new balance TENNIS SHOES!  NOT EXACTLY CLINIC ATTIRE!  I felt so akward, and I couldn't help but laugh at the situation.  That all went fine, but I wonder if that girl's mother could take me seriously. 

They showed me around the base some.  I must say I've spent a lot of time on a lot of bases, mostly AF, but a few army, and this is the...how should I say it to be polite...it's the oldest.  So basically it's crummy.  However, everything is what you make of it, and I'm sure it will be an awesome time!  Next, I went by what will be mine and Emily's dorm room.  First of all, we are staying in enlisted dorms which are technically co-ed, and the building is quite old.  I've seen frat houses cleaner than this place!  For real!  The hallways kind of smell like cigarettes and urine.  Not lying.  Our room isn't too bad.  We share a bathroom with one other girl extern.  There is a common kitchen which I will eventually post pictures of because nobody will believe me if I describe it.  When Emily was at the dorm a few days later she looked around and was like "Is this real life???"  Haha!  We're safe and it's free and that's all that really matters.  It makes for a lot of laughs and some funny stories! 

Anyway, Emily (the other extern from Houston) arrived in Schweinfurt that night.  We picked her up from the train station and stayed at a hotel for 1 night in the cute downtown area.  We ate dinner at a cute beer hall.  The pictures I've posted are from us exploring the town the first couple of days.  No pics of our living situation yet. 

The people at the clinic are really nice and they are determined to make this an awesome experience for us, so I'm excited!  The living situation isn't exactly what was described, but it's fine.  I just have to get use to the army for 3 months....