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23 Signs You Studied Abroad In Europe

Posted by BuzzFeed Video on Sunday, 17 May 2015

Speaking of Travels…

I’ve been terrible at updating this blog, but here’s an actual list of places where I DID get to travel to in my time here. Notice how it differs a lot from the list I initially posted at the beginning of the semester 😛

• Germany
  • Munich
  • Stuttgart
  • Frankfurt
  • Berlin
  • Dresden
• Portugal
  • Lisbon
  • Sintra
• France
  • Paris
• Belgium
  • Brussels
  • Brugges
• Spain
  • Madrid
  • Toledo
  • (soon: Segovia, Barcelona, Cordoba, Sevilla + more!)

It’s been a wild, and amazing ride. 🙂 It’s crazy how there’s still so much out there to explore, even in the countries that I’ve been to! But seriously, a huge thank you to everyone who was a part of these experiences. These trips would not have been the same without people to share them with!

I’m definitely going to miss this country

I can’t believe I only have 3 more weeks here before I’m headed home. It’s weird how when I first got here I was so scared and felt so alone… and yet 6 months in Europe has made this place feel like home. I’m forever going to treasure all of these experiences that have transformed my life, as well as the incredible people I have met from all over the world. The video below was created by one of the international students here on his travels to Andalucia: Cordoba, Carmona, Sevilla, Ronda, Malaga, Granada. I think it sums up the way I, as well as a lot of other people, feel about our time here, which is why I decided to include it on my blog. Enjoy 🙂

Stuttgart: German Family Life

The next stop on our journey was Stuttgart. We stayed for a couple of days with this amazing family that Clare knows from an Au Pair experience years ago. Clare’s friend, Lena, was so kind in giving us a place to stay. She also went through so much trouble and cooked some German dishes for us which was unbelievably generous. Furthermore, her kids were absolutely adorable! Although I like to deny that I miss my parents, staying with Lena made me realize how much I had missed staying with a family. Being so far away for college, and now on the other side of the world, I like to go by the mentality that “if you don’t think about what you miss, you won’t miss it.” But I guess somewhere deep down inside, I really have missed my family, and staying in Stuttgart somehow just reminded me of home.

Anyways, it was so funny because her two and a half year old daughter is so chatty but doesn’t speak a word of English. After the first day, this little girl really warmed up to us and started asking us questions. However, Clare and I obviously had no idea what she was saying, as we don’t speak German, and consistently responded to her by nodding our heads slowly and saying “yeahhh….” Soon enough she caught on and talked to us cautiously, looking at us as if to say “do you understand?” with her eyes. It was adorable! (Although she probably thought we were aliens or something).

Lena’s son was also the most adorable baby ever. He is less than a year old and is this little ball of energy that crawls all over the place. Basically, if he’s on the floor, he will be in a different room in the blink of an eye. Guaranteed. He also makes these really cute smacking noises when he eats his food, and eats a LOT which made dinner time very entertaining. And he’s even more adorable because he’s a cuddler! If you pick him up he will lay his head down on your shoulder and give you a big hug!

It was so much fun playing with these two kids and it was also great meeting Lena’s best friend, Mimi. On the last day, Mimi met us downtown and took us up to this tower in the train station that had an amazing view of all of Stuttgart. We also did some shopping before eating lunch together and picking up the kids from daycare. It was sad to say goodbye to this family and the city, but Clare and I were thankful for a great experience and resolute to move onwards with our journey.

Here’s a picture of Lena, Clare and myself on top of the train tower overlooking Stuttgart.

First Stop: Munich

I traveled around Germany with my friend Clare for our Spring Break. It was a blast! I also wrote a lot on the way since I realize I’ve been neglecting this blog… (sorry guys!) Anyways, here you go 🙂

Let’s start from the beginning….

Munich: Hitler’s rise to power

This was rather appropriately placed as the first stop on our journey, for Munich was the place where Hitler learned from his mistakes and used his failure to rise to power. I love WWII history, so here’s a brief summary of what went down:

The German Government following WWI, was in shambles. Due largely in part to the Treaty of Versailles, people were on the streets of Munich, starving. Theft was rampant and people were doing anything that they could to survive. So the government did the most logical thing it could think of… and printed more money. By the late 1920s, 1 US dollar was equivalent to 15 billion German currency notes. People had to haul barrels of it to the market to buy a loaf of bread and were burning tons of money just to stay warm.

Change was imminent, and there were 2 separate political parties that came into play to stage a coup to overthrow the German government. One of them was Hitler’s party while the other party was headed by the chief of the local (and powerful) police force in Munich.

FYI In Germany, beer halls were “the place” to get messages out to people. (Think about it: alcohol + political ideas + radical people = one really politically charged atmosphere). Anyways one night the leaders in charge of Hitler’s opposing political party held a large meeting at a beer hall to plan the final stages of their coup to overthrow the government. But Hitler found out about this meeting and had the beer house surrounded, taking the leaders of the meeting hostage. However, Hitler had to attend to something else, and left one of his goons in charge of the men. This goon did not know that he was supposed to guard these men, and simply let them walk off into the night.

What happened next? Well, by the time Hitler returned to the beer hall, the place was empty as everyone had left. However, the entire police force had been alerted to arrest Hitler and his men. So Hitler and his supporters decided to march into the city to confront the police force. However, as they turned the corner to come up the alleyway to approach the right side of the plaza (pictured below), they found that the police had barricaded the entrance. So, Hitler and his men turned around and came up the alleyway to the left side of the plaza. The police force was not prepared for this at all, and literally had to run over to the other side of the plaza as fast as they could, dragging their barricade with them as they went. However, they were not successful in getting there in time, and Hitler and his men spilled into the plaza, clashing with the police force.

Needless to say it was an absolute bloodbath. Both sides lost men, but Hitler’s side more so. In the middle of the battle, Hitler actually fled for fear of his safety, and by the end of the battle, Hitler’s side had surrendered with approximately 20 men dead. Why is this important? Well, believe it or not but Hitler reflected on this absolute catastrophe. He learned that the only way he could truly rise to power was through being democratically elected, and so he ran for office and won fair and square in 1936. Furthermore, this plaza was revered as the “birthplace of Nazi-ism,” but you can read more about what that actually meant for the people of Munich in the pictures below:

When I stood in the plaza of Hitler’s failed Nazi coup, the weight of the matter didn’t really occur to me. It wasn’t until I went to a museum in Berlin that I actually found a picture of the exact same plaza in Munich, with tons of Nazi members during Hitler’s reign. Talk about creepy….

Whenever people walked past the left side of the plaza, they were forced to do the Nazi solute past a plaque commemorating Hitler’s rise to success. Two guards were stationed on either side of the plaque, watching people to make sure they saluted. If they didn’t, well bad things would happen… In the picture at the top you can see the dark spots where the plaques once were before they were stripped off by American forces. I found the bottom picture in the same museum in Berlin, giving people a glimpse back into that dark period of time.

Of course, there was resistance, and this memorial pays tribute to the people who stood up against Hitler in subtle ways. People who refused to walk by the plaque and salute would sometimes take this shortcut which cuts through to the the right side of the plaza. However, there would be a guard stationed in the archway, waiting for people to walk by. If the guard saw you walk through this shortcut more than one time a day, you could be killed. The place where the gold trail ends is the spot where many people lost their lives as a result of this.

CÁDIZ

Hello everyone! Since I´m doing more things and classes are picking up, it´s getting harder to update this blog. So, I will try to give a short synopsis of my week in a sort of weekly digest. But for now, I´ll catch you up on what you missed!

To recap last weekend, I went to Cádiz in Andalusia for Carnival! Carnival is traditionally this huge festival that is celebrated in Catholic countries right before Lent. And Cádiz is one of the oldest towns in Spain, located in the south. Carnival in Cádiz is supposed to be the best place to celebrate in Spain, so I thought it would be worthwhile to check it out. Unfortunately, Cádiz is also an 8 hour bus ride away, and only accessible by bus, so I left on Friday morning and came back on Sunday night. Even though it was a lot of effort for one full day of fun, it was definitely worth it. The architecture in Andalusia was beautiful, and the weather was incredible (for the most part at least). It actually ended up raining on the second half of Saturday when we were attending Carnival, but that only hindered things a bit. The actual festival itself was so extensive, and not at all what I expected. Thousands of people came together dressed up in ridiculous costumes – costumes which were actually very well put together. I felt like I was in some sort of Universal Studios production, as all of us in our crazy costumes were surrounded by this beautiful architecture which felt like a movie set. The Cádiz locals also proved to be the friendliest people I have ever met. As we moved along the alleyways exploring the city, people were in pubs dancing, singing, and laughing and just having a great time. The atmosphere was electric, and, although Carnival turned into a drunk fest by the end of the night, the little kids that were dressed up in costumes made the whole thing feel like Halloween night but better. I must admit that I was initially confused about ¨what there was to do¨ at Carnival since I didn´t realize that the parade wasn´t until the 2^nd day. So while we ended up wandering around the city the whole time, I think everyone can agree that it was a great experience.

Some other cool things: Our hotel was a 15 minute walk from this beach, which was amazing to say the least. I also made more friends, mainly from New Zealand, but also from different parts of Europe. It was nice to meet people who weren´t only from the United States because it broadened my perspective in terms of how people perceive cultural issues. I also had tons of really intellectual discussions with the people I had just met. All in all, it was a terrific time. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Ski Trip! ❅ ❄ ❆

So on Saturday Micah and I decided to do something really crazy and go skiing! Micah had heard about a skiing trip earlier in the week through some Australian students she met at a social event. Believe it or not, but a single kid organized the entire thing… it was nuts. Ultimately 30 random students heard about it through word of mouth and signed up via Facebook. We all showed up at Plaza Mayor in the dark at 7am to take a private bus to the ski resort. Ultimately, the kid organizing this explained to us that we had to take a private bus in order to receive group discounts off of our rented gear and lift tickets. I was skeptical but somehow it worked out… Everything, including transportation, rentals (jacket, ski pants, gloves, skiis and boots) and my lift ticket came to a little over 50 Euros! That is a crazy good price for a full day of skiing! Anyways it was very ironic because we all met at 7am next to a Starbucks that was closed. Yes, closed. Apparently, like everything else here, Spanish Starbucks shops open super late at 8:30. But it was fine, as we were all very excited and bonded over the lameness that is Spanish time. We boarded our bus about half an hour later and all of us basically fell asleep right away. As we ascended into the mountains, most of us woke up. Looking outside, I realized that the Madrid mountains were dumped with snow, making the trees look like puppy chow. Here are some pictures from the ascent: We were all pretty excited by the scenery, but our excitement peaked when our bus driver got into an accident with a snow plower. It was fine, no one was hurt and our bus didn’t tip over or anything but the snow plower scraped against the side of our bus and we caused a small traffic jam. Here are some more pictures:

The snow plower was clearly in our lane….

Damage caused to the bus.

When we finally got to the top of the mountain, we had to wait in this long line to get our tickets and ski gear, which was kind of annoying. All of us were frozen solid by the time we were able to get inside since it was so cold outside and almost all of us had planned on renting our gear. Once we got our rented gear though, we were not disappointed! The jackets and snowpants were so nice and toasty. When we hit the slopes (both figuratively and literally) I was a lot drier and warmer than I had ever been when skiing before. Anyways, actually skiing was amazing! Since I haven´t skied in 5 years, I warmed up by ¨teaching¨ Micah and this other British kid how to ski. The reason ¨teaching is in quotes is because they picked up skiing so quickly that I didn´t really do any solid teaching. As far as the slopes go, they were not bad either! Not quite black diamonds but still super fun! Towards the end of the day I got overly confident and went straight down the mountain blasting Alt-J as I descended. It was a pretty epic experience. Here are some more pictures!

Hospital Visit, Subway successes, Classes & Daily Livin’

So I thought I would recap this past week and shed some light on the customs in Spain that make this country… well… Spain.

1. Hospital Visit:

Don’t be alarmed, I didn’t get hurt and rushed to the ER. However, I did have to wake up at 7am on Monday morning to take a train into the city to get to a hospital that I would be shadowing at for my physiology class. It’s a required component here, and I was initially pretty disgruntled about it since I hate mandatory things, but it turned out to be a great experience.

Since I got lost finding our meeting place, I was slightly late to my shift at 8:45 (I was pretty dumb and ended up following some random students because I don’t know who’s in any of my classes…). Anyways, a result, I was placed with a really nice Spanish girl named Celia in a later shift with Dr.Serrano. Dr. Serrano works as a Radiotherapy Oncologist, and proved to be an extremely insightful and valuable resource. As I followed him throughout the day, I noticed that he does not immediately diagnose his at-risk cancer patients, but instead schedules them for follow-up imaging visits. I could not understand a lot of what was going on as everyone was extremely animated and spoke very technical Spanish. However, Dr. Serrano clearly explained to me the different steps that one must go through for Radiotherapy. Radiotherapy is the process by which one uses high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells. First, the patient is identified as either an at-risk patient or one who has cancer. Then, the patient is scheduled for a follow-up visit to be imaged using a PET scan. Before the patient undergoes a PET scan, a custom cast is created so that the patient doesn’t move during the PET scan. After the patient undergoes the scan, a 3D image is created by technicians who take into account specially designed margins to account for the movement and spread of the tumor on a macro and molecular level. The technicians then present this image back to the doctor (in this case, Dr. Serrano) who either approves their image or comes to a compromise. Once the image is approved by both the technicians and the doctor, the patient is then called back to undergo radiotherapy. As the day progressed, I was fortunate enough to see the various steps associated with the process of radiotherapy, including the discussion of cancer treatment options, the creation of a custom Styrofoam cast, the viewing of a PET scan and the development of a 3D image. It was a pretty cool experience, and I wish that BME programs back home could give students these kind of opportunities so that us engineers can actually see how technology can be improved in the medical field.

I don’t actually know if this is the same hospital I shadowed at or not… but here you go.

2. Subway successes

Dat’s right! This week I mastered taking the subway aw yeahh. (No more getting lost in the middle of night by relying solely on Google Maps and not my brain). Towards the end of the week I went with Micah to a meeting for this company she would like to work for. It was pretty interesting to see how professional business meetings are conducted here in Spain, even if I didn’t understand a lot of what was going on. The presenters were very animated and dramatic at times… but when in Spain, would I really expect anything less? Anyways the highlight of the meeting was actually when I signed in and the guy at the front desk commented on how my last name was Portuguese! Half of the Portuguese people I’ve ever known don’t even know that, so it was pretty dang exciting. And Micah and I didn’t get lost taking the subway to the meeting or back! Here’s a picture of the conquest:

A subway selfie!

3. Classes and Daily Livin’

A lot of people have generally asked me, but I’ve never really talked much about how the classes are here. My classes, for the most part, seem really chill. I have my first homework assignment ever due this week… and it has been three weeks since classes started… This would not fly at Case lol. Anyways I am taking 5 classes total: Anatomy, Statistics, Thermodynamics, Circuits, and Biomaterials. It’s kind of weird since I am grouped with freshmen, sophomores and juniors in different classes, but that’s because the normal curriculum here is set up differently. Class sizes are limited to about 40 people, which is pretty cool. The teachers speak pretty good English for the most part, and are really nice and approachable, and have office hours just like at any other school. The class structure is a bit annoying; we have 1 hour and 50 minutes dedicated to each class with an optional 10 minute break in-between the hours. If the class mutually agrees to forfeit the break, we end up getting out of class 10 minutes early.

Typically classes are held twice a week. One day of class consists of learning new material, while the other day consists of actually going through problem sets. These optional problem sets are posted on our school site along with numerical solutions, but if you want to actually understand how to do it, it’s in your best interest to show up to class at least once a week. (But to my parents who are reading this, I’m a really good student and show up twice a week 😉 ).

Something that really irks me about my classes is that the students blatantly talk to each other when the teacher is talking, making it really difficult to hear what the professor is saying. Also, since I have picked up on quite a bit of Spanish, I can understand that they are merely gossiping about people in a “he said,” “she said” dialogue. This makes me mad and I want to turn around and shout “TODOS CALLARSE,” but I resist and have learned to sit in the front of the room instead.

The classrooms here are also crazy nice with desks that pull in towards you so you don’t have to hunch over to take notes. Also, the blackboards look brand new. Here’s a picture:

Typical classroom with pull-out desks.

So many places, so little time.

I was brainstorming a list of places that I would like to travel to in and around Spain. Here’s the master list that I would like to get to in my lifetime:

Spain:

• Segovia
• Barcelona
• Sevilla
• Granada
• Cordoba
• Valencia
• Bilbao/San Sebastian

Other Countries:

• Germany
  • Berlin
• United Kingdom
  • London
• France
  • Paris
  • Versailles
• Portugal
  • Lisbon
• Morocco
  • Marrakech
• Greece
  • Athens
• Czech Republic
  • Prague

Coordinating this is going to be crazy but I accept the challenge 🙂

My first well-spent Saturday in Madrid

So today, after a full week of failing, I finally figured out how to use my stove. And let’s just say it was amazing. I toasted some bread and fried an egg. That’s right, you’re looking at the next Master Chef.

Micah invited me to go to Sol today and on the way we discovered a Farmer’s Market in front of the train station. It was incredible, to say the least. The produce was so vibrant, unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was very inexpensive too!

Initially, Micah and I wanted to go to Sol. into the heart of Madrid. However, due to some political protests, the government closed the Sol train station. So, we ended up in Atocha (the city right before Sol). As a result, we made the best of our situation and decided to see the world-famous Museo del Prado!

The art museum had a temporary exhibit on Francisco José de Goya, a revolutionary painter who chronicled everyday life of the late 1700s/early 1800s in Madrid. We weren’t allowed to take pictures but it was fascinating to see how Goya captured the interaction of different Spanish social classes through paintings, and interesting to learn about how his work was positively received by Royalty. Furthermore, Goya used tons of clever symbolism in his work and set the precedent for other famous artists such as Picasso.

Did you know there are actually TWO Mona Lisas? I sneakily took this picture because I couldn’t believe it either! Apparently this painting is identical to the Mona Lisa that hangs in the Lourve Museum in France. In fact, the changes that were made to the original Mona Lisa by DaVinci were replicated in this painting, suggesting that this Mona Lisa was painted by a pupil of DaVinci at the SAME time as the actual painting. How cool is that?

We went to a SPANISH STARBUCKS. And it was incredible… they had an entire section of their menu dedicated just to types of hot chocolate! Given Spain’s reputation for Churros con Chocolate, I knew any hot chocolate would be phenomenal, and decided to give it a try!

Needless to say, I was not disappointed. I ordered “hot chocolate with caramel,” and they gave it to me in a ceramic Starbucks mug. Who knew Starbucks could be so fancy and even more delicious than it already is?

After Starbucks, Micah and I walked to Sol where we strolled around the Mercado de San Miguel. San Miguel is basically Madrid’s equivalent to Cle’s West Side Market – it’s an indoor market with tons of food, fresh produce, and drinks. It was packed when we went, but we managed to score some delicious pizza and froyo.

The froyo here is, like all other things, delicious! It’s sweet and slightly tart, just the way I like it! My stomach is still in the process of thanking me for this decision.

Here’s a picture of a little girl sticking envelopes onto the train window before her mom noticed. I felt like this needed to be on here because she was so sassy it was great. The little kids here are adorable, and I love how openly affectionate families, and people in general, are with one another.

It was a cold but pretty clear night, as the moonlight shone on the ancient buildings surrounding Plaza del Sol.