Medical, Dental and Legal Frenzy

As I returned home from Europe, I had a stack of mail as tall as the papasan chair in the living room. I was so excited to find hidden in its depths real information from the PEACE CORPS!! I received two envelopes from the elusive agency, one that congratulated me on accepting my position in Eastern Europe and one that was chock full of medical and dental paperwork to fill out. It's a bittersweet moment, as I have been warned, to open up the medical documents. Inside you'll find a whole slew of shots and tests and pricks and jabs that the doctor and dentist need to give you but it also means that you are one more step closer to placement. 

Now the process starts in locating all of my medical records....oy. After having gone through a period of my life where I moved every two years and not having a primary physician since I was 12, I first wonder how I am even remotely healthy and second dread trying to locate all my shot records from the past 25 years.  

Today that journey begins as I try to call every doctor I've ever been to and take a jog down memory lane and call Queen Anne's County High School to see if they can dig through their closet to find my records. I can't believe I've been out of high school for so long.

Wish me luck!

Peace, Love, and Awesomeness

Sami

Germany Part Drei - Landschaftspark

One of my favorite, and most unique might I add, stops on the trip as a part of our curriculum was a little place called Landschaftspark in a town called Duisburg Nord. Landschaftspark in simple turns is an on steel mill abandoned in 1985 to be left and later converted into a public park. The pure size of the steel mill left your eyes in awe until you walk around and see all the careful thought that went into the conversion process for designer Peter Latz.

The idea for converting the park came from the desire to use the area to understand the regions industrial past and make it usable to the general public. To me, a public policy student, red flags went up as we were being guided around this area of how chock full of legal landmines this place is....I mean wouldn't this be considered a brownfield site or something? How much does it cost to maintain rusting metal? Something like this would never happen in the United States.

But sometimes that is the simple charm of Germany, Germans have the ability to accomplish things that could even be imaginable in the United States for the simple fact of not wanting to waste the space.

So now, Landschaftspark has become a destination park with something for everyone (not to let my public relations background filter into my post, but really......it has something for everyone). If you want to read more about the design aesthetic check out these sites.

And of course...here are some pictures of this awesome place :)

View of the campus 

Some of the steel holding tanks are converted into flower beds

Our group 

The entrances to the steel melting areas are made to look like an entrance to a secret garden. There were over thirty entrances and every door looked a little bit different and every garden had a different feel.

Some of the areas were built into rock climbing walls and obstacle courses

or just places to lounge and enjoy nature and reflect on Germany's industrial past.

View of the steel furnaces where you can SCUBA DIVE! I really wanted to but we didn't have time :(

View to the top. Note the juxtaposition of the steel and nature. It's truly a remarkable sight.

Europe Trip Part Zwei

My jet lag still hasn't straightened itself out so I apologize for not staying on top of blogging and updating about my trip, even post return, as I promised. Here are some pictures of some of the gorgeous nature and national parks that we visited. This was a core focus of our class. We traveled to different parks in Belgium, Germany, Austria and Switzerland to better understand their governance systems and analyze their management programs. Interestingly to us we found that despite the EU (with the exception of Switzerland) directives on natural resource management guiding their systems--every park that we visited was managed completely different. If you are interested in this, let me know, I'll send you my final project when it's finished. All in all, traveling these different areas was a great way to see Europe and all that it has to offer. Enjoy!

In the Bavarian Forest they have constructed a tree top walk that ends with this journey to the top of the tree with gorgeous views of the Bavarian Forest and the cities that surround. We were here on the most beautiful of days and the tree top walk gave an interesting perspective to the forest as you were looking down into it. They had lots of fun activities throughout the walk for children to learn more about the forest.

These are the views from the top of the tree top walk. The majority of the Bavarian Forest is the right of this picture.

The view from our hotel in Berchtesgaden. This was the most beautiful city we stayed in and had so much culture. During our time here we hiked through Berchtesgaden National Park. Absolutely breathtaking...and some delicious beer as Bavaria is known for.

A picture from the hike through Berchtesgaden National Park. We cheated on this hike by taking a bus to the highest point and hiking down the mountain. We were able to visibly see the management differences between the buffer zones and core zones and the different practices carried out in each zone.

A beautiful water fall in Berchtesgaden National Park. We also saw beautiful orchids on the hike.

View from a lookout at Eifel National Park (Germany). This part of the park is known for its limestone. Eifel National Park is very well funded by the state (National Parks in Germany are state run) with great facilities, signage, and trails. They have a fully handicap accessible trail as well as very well maintained more rigorous trails.

We were highly entertained by the giant slugs at Eifel National Park. See the orange spots on the tree?

Eifel National Park is also home to one of the training grounds for the Nazi party during Hitlers regime. It was so interesting as we visited many of these parks to see the necessity of cultural integration in natural resource management and protection.

Hohes Venn Nature Park. This area is known for its peat moss. When we visited, about two months prior, they had just experienced a fire...which if you know anything about peat moss, it is highly flammable. It was so interesting to see many of the trees and structures totally burnt to the ground. As we all know how much I love Disney, I referenced it to looking like you were walking through The Lion King when Scar takes over. tee hee. don't judge.

Hohes Venn also was home to a lot of different carnivorous plants. So cool!

This is our group hiking through Siebingeberge Nature Park, the first designated nature reserve areas in Germany. This day was a very rigorous hike for us but we made it to the top where there is a big castle and great views of the Rhine River.

Hiking through Siebingeberge Nature Park. So much green makes this girl happy :)

Siebingeberge means seven mountains in German. These mountains were once active volcanoes. This holes in the ground are condensed volcanic ash that bats and other critters use as homes now.

And of course and really cool tree shot from Siebingeberge.

Weiner Heide Nature Park (Belgium). Here at Weiner Heide shepherds still have access due to historical reasons to graze on the land despite the fact that its a protected area....although I think that is strange those goats sure were funny and cute.

Amphibians had made a home in an old Nazi vehicle washing basin. We saw tons of different amphibians in this area. It is amazing to see how quickly they have made this their permanent home.

Views from Glacier Express, a World Heritage Site in itself. This train took us through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland showing us some of the most beautiful views of the region.

Here is a picture of the Glacier Express with all glass windows on the top and sides. Such a cool way to see this beautiful area.

Glacier Express again.

Swiss National Park. So beautiful.

We had a pretty rainy and cold day in the Swiss National Park but it still was amazing. This hike was the toughest for me probably because of the altitude difference but was amazing all the same. We stopped a lot throughout our hike to observe lots of active wildlife. The right of the this picture we saw a group of Chamois with little babies jumping around enjoying the rain.

If you look in the center of this picture we saw a two marmots. Sooooo cool.

The cloud cover really inhibited our visibility but you can still see how majestic the mountains are in the fade of the haze. Swiss National Park.

And of course - cows in Switzerland. I got a little bit too excited and got shocked by the fence trying to pet the cows. They were soooo cute.

Hope you enjoy the pictures! If you ever get the chance to go to Europe although the cities are spectacular take a day trip to one of the local parks and really get a look at how amazing this region is. Check my facebook if you want to see more pictures as I plan on uploading some later today.

Europe Trip Part Eins

Although I already blogged a little bit about my time in Bonn Germany I thought I'd start off my syndicated tour through Europe there. Bonn was a great city and that's it. 

Our metro stop, Heussallee, always
remembered by the bright yellow
station. All the stations were
a different color.

No, just kidding. Bonn was the capital of West Germany until 1990 when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and all the politicians decided to pack up shop and move to Berlin. Bonn however was left with a thriving international business market and many essential government functions are still in the area. Bonn to us however was our home base in Germany. We stayed in a dorm, that actually used to be the temporary residences for UN correspondents (how cool...!) and had our own kitchen, laundry facilities, lounge, and everything else. We took the metro everywhere however we could take the beautiful walk down the Rhine River into town and stop at one of the many beergardens along the way for a pint. I couldn't help but soak in the perfect weather (70 degrees, light wind, sun shining, ummmm yea be jealous) by taking a walk or running most mornings.

Our dorm room with a balcony and
kitchen on the other side.

Now of course we were there for school so we had class with the wonderful AIB crew. Our program was based on Natural Resource Management and Tourism in Europe. Our program coordinator, Ture, was super fantastic. He coordinated all of the classes and field trips and almost all of them were perfectly flawless. During our time there we were able to meet with representatives from the UN, UNESCO, German Green Party, and multiple environmental NGOs. We also had classes on park governance structure, European Union, German language, and German history to compliment the countless field trips we took to parks in the region but I'll talk about those separately.

Kolsh beer in a traditional Kolsh
glass of which one was
sent back to America and
even made it in one piece. 

The award winning Weinerschnitzel

And now we get to the good stuff - beer!!! The beer to drink in the region is Kolsh, which is the home brew of Koln - only a 20 minute train ride away. And in case you were wondering, it's a lie, beer in Germany is not served warm but it isssssssss delicious. The food was amazing too. My tour de Weinerschnitzel started in Bonn and continued throughout Germany but I have to give props to Bonn for having the most delicious Weinerschnitzel with mushroom gravy in alllll of Germany. Kudos!

My roommate (Lauren...who somehow managed to put up with me for a full 4 weeks...god bless her) and I spent a lot of time eating, drinking, and wandering the streets of Bonn. We made friends with some students from Texas A&T (and boy are they a proud bunch of texans..i'm not hating...) who spoke fluent German so hanging around them made life easier when trying to find cool places to go at night or just trying our hardest not to piss anyone off.

Of course there were lots of beautiful churches to see, great shopping, and how could I have forgotten this....Bonn is the home of Ludwig Van Beethoven. LUDWIG LIVES! <--yeah, I bought the shirt, don't judge. Unfortunately all the nitty gritty details of our time there are so muttled up in my brain with all the other amazing places we visited so I'll leave with some pictures of the beautiful city of Bonn!!!!

Haribo store....ummmm words can not describe

River walk where I would run or walk in the mornings, soooo beautiful

Market place in the city center
where we would purchase delicious
food!!

The university building in the city center

The park in the city center near the university

Really serious bocce players playing at the beirgarten

It wouldn't be Europe without a church, right?

My awesome roommate Lauren, she rocks!!

Home again home again jiggity jig

Words can not even explain the opportunity that I had to travel through Europe. I was able to visit six countries and over twenty different cities. I’m trying to come up with a way to summarize the trip but it’ll be difficult…not even the 5000 pictures I have can describe some of the experiences that I’ve had in Europe. The beautiful landscapes, the smells of delicious food, the interesting people, the sound of multiple languages floating around you, and so many more. I thought I would try to post on two different cities every day until I’ve shared enough of my trip to make you feel like you were in Europe too!


I arrived back yesterday morning and after backpacking for seven weeks I sure was glad to unpack that bag and put everything away in its rightful place. I had such an amazing time but I think the best quote to sum my arrival back home is – No one needs a vacation more than a person who just had one. Hmmmm…anyone want to refill my bank account so I can start planning again?