Sorry this is a little late everybody.
Anyways, these past few weeks have been fairly interesting for me. About a week
ago I had my wisdom teeth removed, which means I got to hang out on the couch
for a few days eating ice cream and Popsicles. While that was going on, I was
not in the mood to learn German in any fashion except listen to some music.
However during these past two weeks, as we all know, the 2014 FIFA World Cup
has been going and now we are into the knock out stage! Also in these weeks I
reached the halfway point; the half way to paying for this adventure point.
Most recently however, I was able to shadow an orthopedic doctor for a day
which was amazing! With so many random events and diversions these past two
weeks there isn't much else to say than "it was interesting."
Last Thursday, the 19th of June, I had my
wisdom teeth removed. A bright and early morning I walk in, sit down, and they
start hooking me up to the machine. Next thing I know there is a shot in my
arm, and I am out cold. After that I was placed in a wheel chair and rolled out
to the car so we could grab my medications. After about an hour we get home and
I go to make myself comfy on the couch so I can watch some soccer (football).
Not long after that I get up to go change out my gauze pads in my mouth and the
next thing I know, I am laying on the ground and my mom is yelling for my dad.
For a brief moment I had fainted then proceeded to throw up blood into the
toilet. After a couple wet rags and some of my nausea medication I was good to
go. It took about a week before I felt back to normal, however there is still
an occasional stiffness in my jaw. Anyways, fun experience, never want to have
to do that again.
I managed to get through Unit 2 in Rosetta
Stone! (I had previously called it Level 2 instead of Unit 2, my mistake) I am
now working on Unit 3 which is starting to use some of the words I have heard
in songs and while emailing my host family. With my wisdom teeth removed I was
not in the mood to learn any more German, however I did manage to find a sitcom
in German which is pretty funny. It's about this American guy who goes to
Germany to live on his own for a while. He is paired up with a couple of girls
and a guy who don't speak English and so he has to learn the language quickly.
The words they use are fairly basic and the mistakes he makes are pretty funny
so it is an enjoyable show. It's called "Deutsch Lernen Extra auf Deutsch
Abschnitt 1-(however many there are)."
It has been a pretty exciting time these
past two weeks all over the world though! The 2014 FIFA World Cup has been
going on and it hasn't been this awesome to watch football sense the last World
Cup. The first game Germany played was outstanding beating Portugal 4 to
zip! The USA also pulled an amazing win against Ghana 2 to 1. Next was a round
of ties then Germany managed to beat America 1 to 0. It's OK though as we will
both be going into the knock out stage! So can't wait for these next games to
come up.
I have to thank
everyone who helped make this amazing trip possible. First of all of my Grandparents,
I love you all very much! Also I have to thank my parents who have also helped
a lot. While I was working out the finances, I had to find a way to pay for 20%
of the trip. So far I have paid off the half of what I am supposed to!!! I did
receive some scholarships through AFS of the Rockies which helped a ton! I have
been applying for jobs to help pay for this but nothing has turned up so far.
So far I have been doing some small jobs here and there which is slowly working.
If you are trying to pay for this type of trip I would recommend getting a job
and applying for scholarships as soon as you can as these things go away
quickly.
On Wednesday I was given the opportunity
to watch an Orthopedic Surgeon down on Fort Carson. Overall awesome!!! Even
though I only got to see him operate on one person, it was still interesting to
see what he does during his office hours. He started out with patients who had
previously had Surgery and were back for their checkup. He would show me the
cross sections of the injury on the computer and explain how the joint worked
on the patient. He would also explain the injury and the types of procedures
that they could do for an injury. During lunch he brought me down to the
operating room where I got to see how they repaired a torn ACL and Meniscus.
After lunch we went back to his office where he talked with patients who were
having pains and were concerned. He liked to call it "Baiting the
trap," which is pretty accurate. Overall the experience was awesome, and
he is willing to allow me to come back and watch him for another day while he
repairs two shoulders and another knee.
So as I said before, a fairly interesting
week. I have not seen any comments on my question from last week, so if you
wouldn't mind scrolling down, or going to http://journeytoaalen.blogspot.com/2014/06/as-of-my-last-blog-i-said-i-was-going.html
and answering the question in the second to last paragraph in the
comments, I would love to hear what you have to say. Again I will be posting my
next blog on Friday, July 11th. If you have any questions, comments, or
suggestions leave them in the comments below and I will do my best to answer
them!
Thanks Everybody,
~Michael Steiner~
