The Finale (sadly.)

I didn't want to end this entire experience with a bad note... so I shall write one more journal entry.

 There have definitely been some really sad things that happened along the journey of the last three months, but the absolutely amazing experiences that I have been fortunate enough to undertake far outweigh the missteps. Yes, I lost a good friendship that I had with my professor, which I deeply regret, and I miss being able to talk to. I saw him in the hallway today and he walked past me like I had never existed... and since it was the first time that I had seen him in four months... it was kind of hard. But as we learn through development and growth, sometimes things happen that you have absolutely no control over and you simply cannot blame yourself. All you can do is move forward and work towards a brighter future.... and with my friends and family by my side... it promises to be incredibly bright.

It's been difficult adjusting to being home. I miss so many things that I didn't even realize I had. It always lights a smile on my face to see an email from Poland or a Skype IM from Spain. I now have friends all over the globe, which is not something that many 21-year-olds can boast. I have been blessed beyond belief, not only with the experience of this summer - learning how to cook broccoli to perfection, or that they really DO check your tram tickets for a time stamp, or that traveling to an extremely foreign culture is equal parts nerve wracking and exciting, and then you get there and have an indescribable high. Home is lonely though. I never knew I could be with someone 23 hours a day for 86 days straight and not get tired of them, but it's possible. Write me down in the Guinness Book of World Records. Now I don't even know how to be alone. Ash will leave the living room and in my head I'll be screaming "Don't leave me!! I need human contact!" Hahah I'm silly. But I make Courtney spend the night and I go over there a lot, too. It seems I've found a new fixture in my life... the L-squared I've grown to know and love. Friends really are the family we choose.

You don't realize how much you impact other peoples' lives.. even in the tiniest ways. I cannot even begin to count the sheer volume of my friends and acquaintances and PARENTS who have come up to me and said "I religiously read your blog" or "It was great seeing all of your adventures unfold through Facebook photographs." I know, now, that I have a incredible network of people rooting for me to succeed. It's invigorating and stimulating and it feels... quite frankly... wonderful. Life can be such a scary thing and everyone needs a solid foundation on which to build. I'm lucky to have found that in Birmingham and Florida... I'm just plain lucky.

Most days I'll be doing something random and insignificant and suddenly flash back to a memory of this summer. I haven't taken the time to read my personal journal or my blog yet, but I still have so many memories that are fresh in my mind and snap me back across the Atlantic. I went to lunch with a friend, Paul Sparkman, and a stray mushroom in my soup made me launch into a random European story about shopping at Andre and a crazy old Polish lady yelling mercilessly at Courtney over spilled redbull in a glass soda jar. A boy at a frat party two weekends ago asked me what the craziest thing I had done this summer was.... and I took about four minutes flipping through snapshots in my mind, trying to figure out what crazy thing really deserved the number one spot. A fallen photograph in my room from last year reminded me of the night Courtney and I desperately jumped on the metro in Paris to go see the lit-up Eiffel tower and ended up only catching a glimpse from the coach on a bridge over the Seine, but not before we purchased the world's most delicious chocolate ice cream from the McDonalds on the Champs Elysees. The metros cut off and all of these people (tourists) were waiting for the next train, which wasn't going to come until 5:45 a.m., but nobody could read the signs in french, except for me, and nobody believed me when I told them there were not any more trains coming... so Courtney and I just forsoke all those dumb people (haha joke) and ran off to try to make a different connection. That didn't work, of course, and we ended up at the Arc d'Triumph; me, desperately trying to tell a cab driver, in french, that I had no idea where our hotel was but that it was near a certain metro stop and we needed to be taken there.... and befriended a nice young American guy in a Red Hot Chili Peppers shirt (and aren't they the best?) who lent us his map so I could affirm my crazy directions to the Jamaican driver with avid pointing at the spot on the grid. We gathered about 100 Euro for the ride, and I was worried it wouldn't be enough... and then it ended up being six dollars. Oh the joys and the tribulations.... and the smiles. How could one photograph evoke so much? Where will I store all these anecdotes to assure they never disappear? How can I guarantee that I never lose a single detail?

This summer has merely reconfirmed my beliefs that I want to go overseas and save the world - practice medicine in north African and do what I can to help who I can. There is nothing that gives me more pleasure in the world than connecting with people... and this summer is a testament to that. I can't wait to start chasing after my dreams... really start.

But then again, there is no time like the present.

Thank you all for being such a wonderful audience this summer. It's been lovely to express myself through the written word and just get my thoughts out there. Even if they aren't always the most well formulated... if I use commas far too often and say "incredible" about fifteen million times an entry... thanks for putting up with me. Sharing everything I've been through somehow makes the last three months even more real.... and I'd like to believe it's something that all of us will never forget.

Our final destination...

Well.... we made it to Warsaw (barely) safely.

This day started at 6 a.m., after three hours of sleep due to last minute packing. All of our luggage had been dragged outside and we had paid for the four days in August that we stayed in our dorm, when the maid said she wanted to do an inspection... and then proceeded to make us get down on our hands in knees with Mr. Proper to scrub everything to a sparkling sheen. I'm not exactly sure WHY they have maids if we're the ones doing the cleaning.... but we had to furiously clean at top speed to get out the door on time to catch our train to Warsaw. She even thought we stole half a lamp. Half a lamp that wouldn't even work in America because of the current and European plugs. Yes, I find it likely.

The drive there turned into an ordeal in itself. There was construction everywhere, and traffic moved more than half the trip at a snail's pace. And considering that our babysitter, Zibi, got a speeding ticket last time he drove us around, he refused to go a kilometer over the limit... although I don't blame him.

To purchase train tickets, we had to wait 20 minutes behind an old lady yelling at the ticket attendant in the one window where they actually sold regional tickets, only to see her walk away without purchasing a thing. We were late already and had to rush our massive amounts of luggage onto the tiny door opening of our second class coach. Thank GOODNESS Zibi was there to be the brawn behind our efforts. 

Ten hours on the train, which I slept through, thankfully, deposited us in Warsaw. The four girls had to come up with a plan to move all of our luggage from the train to the platform in a minimal amount of time because the train only stops for about two minutes in each station. Two stations before I knew we were slated to get off, we started a "baggage relay" line down the corrider and into the little compartment between coaches. Only we had a little bit too much luggage, and so it spilled over into the area by the disembarking platform, along with our four bodies. And of course, as fate always seems to love to taunt Courtney and I, every ornery, old lady who lives in the country of Poland decided to try to exit in our one doorway, and thought either that it would be helpful to yell at us relentlessly in Polish, or just found it satisfying. Either way, I was about to just open my mouth and retort back when Kristen pointed a strong finger at the other, very available, exit at the other end of the coach and shooed the old ladies on their way.

So we disembarked in Warzsawa Centralna and started the search for our hotel. It was 800 meters from the train station, which I quickly discovered is almost half a mile. We left the two girls sitting in the terminal, which a cell phone, to watch half the luggage while I tried to find our hotel. I had directions but I wasn't sure exactly how far it would be. And as I peered down a side street, a man in a car pulled up alongside me and said "Hey Beautiful, get in the car." I declined, quickly, but he kept talking to me in english and trying to convince me to get in the car with him. 

After the harder 800 meters of my life (I must have been carrying at least 80 pounds), we spotted the wonderful green glow of the Hotel Camponile. We quickly checked in, because I was really worried about the safety of the two other girls, and found our room. There was literally a haphazard pile of our stuff strewn across the room as we each threw off our bags and grabbed a jacket to go find Sonda and Kristin.

Oh! I forgot to mention that we didn't realize there would be a food trolley on the train, so nobody ate ANYTHING from 7:45 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. this evening. When we finally made it back to Sonda and Kristin, Sonda stood up and almost passed out from a lack of nourishment and too much excitement. Thank goodness for McDonalds. I have never seen four girls eat hamburgers and french fries so quickly in my life.

But the fun didn't stop there. Sonda has a knife that she carries with her at all times just in case. And this evening, while they were alone waiting for us, a man grabbed Kristin's hand.... the hand which thank goodness had a knife in it... and it scared him off. And there was apparently a huge fight in front of them which ended in a man chasing a girl away while swinging a hammer at her.

I wasn't about to risk anything else happening to us, so we grabbed a taxi for the remaining luggage and finally arrived, all four, at the hotel. But check in for Kristin wasn't as smooth as for us... and they lost her reservation. It's not the first time the Polish have lost our reservations, including for a rented car, a hostel, and various hotels... but it doesn't make it any less stressful or downright annoying. That, and the fact that they never take credit cards and always ask for smaller bills or exact change. I'm just not used to carrying around 15 pounds of change in my butt pocket. But, after fighting with the hotel clerk and showing her the conformation number for the hotel booking, Kristin and Sonda finally got into their rooms too, and we are now all safely settled in. Let's hope there isn't a bombing tonight or a plane crash tomorrow.

There were more than a couple of times tonight that I felt uncomfortable. Thank goodness I'm a very well experienced traveler and Courtney has been to more than her fair share of exotic places because if we had been four novice travelers in this foreign environment, especially with the language barrier, it would have been insane. I can almost guarantee that something bad would have happened somewhere along the way.

But we come home tomorrow. All of us are in good moods and excited about the clean beds and plush towels. And to be all together, and in one piece.

It has been an insane day.

Goodnight darlings.

Return is near

This morning marks the beginning of the end.

We move out of the Czech Republic today (at 7:30 a.m.), spend all day on a train to Warsaw, and then take plane from Poland to American tomorrow at noon. 

Yay yay yay!!!

That means I can use my cell phone in a little more than a day... and that I'm finally returning to American soil.

I've missed you guys!

I'm supposed to be writing a six page review, but instead I'm updating my blog. Just add it to another list of ever-expanding ways to distract myself from my actual, pertinent duties.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!!!

If you have nothing better to do, check out her photography website - she takes stunning pictures of children. And she turned 21 today!!

We (Sonda, Kristin, Court, and myself) returned from Dresden yesterday. I studied for MCAT almost the entire time on the train (except for that small break I took when our coach was detached from the rest of the train and we almost got stranded in Zittau)! Germany was fun... every city is starting to look the same... lots of old buildings, similar cobblestone patterns in the streets, and a winding metro system that I almost get on going in the wrong direction once a journey... so instead of seeing more grand buildings whose troubled history escaped us and whose names we would surely forget in the next 24 hours (German is quite complicated, after all), we decided to spend some time in the glorious green park in front of the Zwinger palace. 

Lots of laughs and silliness ensued. 

The dappled pathway...

Ta da!

You Tarzan, Courtney Jane.

Tree climbing is the best way to stay young at heart.

We are quite the pair... and we love old buildings and cute, old people very much.

It was more fun upside down!! Plus, we needed the laughter.

Tumble break to catch our breath and nurse our handstand wounds.. :)

After kindergarden recess in front of the palace, we walked down a winding path that brought us to an exquisite fountain... which immediately and simultaneously invoked the thought (in both Courtney's and my mind) to CLIMB IN! 

Pretty water, cold water.

The one shower she took all week long.

The fountain was formed entirely out of tiny mosaic tiles. 

... and the colors were gorgeous in the sunshine.

After the park and eating 

Why am I always running late?

Check out the amazing car factory we are going to tomorrow.... it's in Dresden, Germany.

The four girls just needed to escape so we are going to Dresden (for the second time this week) to shop for dresses (fun!) and check out the fully automated Volkswagen factory. 

It looks incredible...

Look!

Ahhhh must pack.

I want that Camel.

ONLY 11 DAYS UNTIL I RETURN HOME!!

I'm getting really exciting about sorority recruitment and having a piano again and being able to fall asleep with my doggy cuddled into my stomach... there are some things that just can't be replaced.

While I wait to return, we've been traveling places after work (since we usually get off around 10 a.m.) since we've maxed out all the places of entertainment in Liberec.

Thus, I present to you our trip to Praha... and the delights and adventures we found there (besides FINALLY being able to see "Wanted" in a cinema in ENGLISH.)

Courtney and I jumped on a bus to Prague sometime in the morning and made the one hour trip to Prague. There's a shuttle bus straight to IKEA from the bus station, and although I was tempting to spend half the day sauntering down the aisles of my favorite store for the greater part of my lifetime (after K.B. Toys in my infancy, of course; and PacSun in that awkward middle school stage), I took Courtney's feelings into account and we caught the subway swiftly into town.

With no Wikipedia research to guide our footsteps, and no maps to help us make our way, we checked a small information booth in the subway terminal and confidently went in the direction of the astronomical clock. (A clock from the medieval times located in Old Town Prague that shows astronomical things such as the relative positions of the sun, moon, zodiacal constellations, and sometimes major planets. - Wikipedia).

We got lost once on the way there, tried to sit down for breakfast only to end up eating a hard pretzel and come Subway cookies, and were entranced by a toy shop filled with marionettes (famous in Prague), wooden toys, 3 person chess sets, and endless baby nursery decorations. I even found the PERFECT gift for a friend's 21st birthday (and no Ash, it isn't you, sorry), and HARRY POTTER PUPPETS! It was pretty cool.

For you, Dad.

The biggest nose I've ever seen on a tiny wooden creature. Also for you, Dad.

Courtney in awe.

But we finally did find the clock, complete with at least 1000 people anxiously looking up at it's ancient faces - an action which left Courtney and I perplexed and led me to actually, for once (gasp), tap on a person's shoulder and ask for help. Everyone knows I hate to do that. But I found this cute old guy in the crowd who looked pretty harmless and asked him what was going on, and although he didn't speak English (he was from France), his lovely wife explained to us that at noon something special was going to happen and that's what everyone was waiting for. So, just liked animate puppets, we followed everyone elses' lead and stared up at the clock, camera zoomed in and ready for whatever wonderful thing was sure to take place.

The astronomical clock tower... and clouds.

I still cannot...

... comprehend the sheer...

... volume of people that were there to see the clock strike noon.

It turns out it was just like a giant Cuckoo clock, with doors that opened and a random moving skeleton on the outside... which quite frankly was lame. But we saw it; we experienced; mark the astronomical clock off of our "To Do Before We Die" lists.

We somehow pushed through that insane crowd and got front row, dead center seats to the show.

There is the funniest story behind this picture. We had to ask four different people to take our picture in front of the clock, and finally... the man who took this one... was an old guy who didn't speak a word of english and clearly did not know how to operate a digital camera. He looked down at the LSD screen/view finder and saw us through it, then tried to hold it half an inch from his face and LOOK THROUGH the screen. It was really quite amusing to watch, although I stifled my laugh and tried to use sign language to show him which button to press. He was... adorable.

After that we spent the rest of the day ambling around... getting lost once on the tram (thanks to my wonderful intuition), checking out a retro/vintage party, and getting well acquainted with every street in Prague that includes the letter "K." Which is nearly every single one. 

She said the Lion was doing the Heisman Trophy pose so I made her show me.

Random dancing festival we happened upon.

The most adorable show in Prague. I want that camel.

AND.. even cooler, all of the toys and stuffed animals are safe for our asthmatic and highly allergic to EVERYTHING friends (i.e. Miss Courtney Meghan Styres).

I would have to say the most remarkable thing all day long were the clouds. After the constant rain in Liberec for the past three weeks, it was wonderful to see blue skies and gorgeous puffy white clouds again.

Clouds.

Pretty flowers at a subway stop.

Listen to my french accent...

In Germany there is a song and it goes like this:

"Ein leben lang, die selbe unterhose an, die selbe unterhose an, die selbe unterhose an"

which means:

"I live my whole life in the same underpants... the same underpants... the same underpants."

Voila. My new favorite song!

What's the Game Plan Stan?

I'm downloading "Yoga for Dummies" so that Courtney and I can make fools of ourselves to an empty kitchen. 

At least the skillet and the wooden mixing spoons will be entertained.

Test Prep and Admissions

THIS is what happens when you stick me in a foreign country with no work, and forbid me from traveling.

I start nesting.

In other news, I started studying for the MCAT today because I was that bored.

Is it terrible that I now cannot wait to get out of here? I'm not being spoiled, I just have nothing to occupy my time.

Look! It's Mr. Coleslaw!!!

Oh the things that we do in lab....

A sample in the chamber, with a plasma cloud of methane glowing around it. Cool, eh?

Polishing a sample before depositing it into the chamber. I'm the supervisor... I make Courtney work.

(Kidding, of course. =)

This is what Kristin and Zibi do when I leave my camera laying around.

And sometimes we employ them as a human timer for the etching process. 

A regular steel screw that became a pretty purple and blue screw because Courtney is so good at controlling the microwave frequency chemical vapor deposition parameters. That's a mouth full.

The equipment. 200,000 Euro.

A wood-cutting tool in a blue plasma cloud.

Us, initially, trying to understand the equipment, the method, and the science behind the entire apparatus. It took us exactly one day and one clearly defined set of directions.

See? We learn quickly. All we need is someone taking the time to explain it to us once.

Zibi with our freshly coated nanofiber paper. We analyzed it by SEM and the fibers were to small to be clearly defined at 5000x magnification.... which is excellent news!

And just for kicks, a photograph of Courtney and I with an infrared camera.

Dr. Dudek, from Poland, was trying to determine the surface temperature of a screw that he as coating, so he brought in the camera for a demonstration. While waiting for them to set up, we convinced the two (male) technicians to let us play around with the camera and take pictures of ourselves! And I think the professor who owned the camera was also quite impressed when I started spouting off on a tangent about black body radiation and the Wien Distribution. 

Thank you PH352 and Dr. Camata for helping me on that one.

"Will You also bother me when you go back to the USA?"

The Czech is definitely prettier than Lodz, Poland.

The last couple of days have been a flurry of factory tours and deciphering english accents: on Monday we visited a high school in Jablonec, Czech to take SEM (scanning electron microscopy) pictures of the samples we made in Liberec. Although our samples turned out horrible (I believe one lady working the machine even called them "idiotic").. the fact remains that we actually did get to make samples (yay!), and we made friends of the two ladies who worked there.

The microscope in the high school.

Entertainment through cheesy photography?

One was 20, in school for biomedical engineering, and had the wonderful job of escorting our small bladders to the restroom any number of times during the day, and trying to find means of entertaining us on our five hour "sit against the wall and watch someone take pictures of your samples with a 4 million dollar machine that you aren't allowed to touch" extravaganza. She resorted to 360 degree photographs of Prague taken from 100 towers in that far-too-steeple-y city, and pictures of her dog AND her dog's Dad. The other lady was getting married in 11 days, and after many exclaimations from the four of us, we convinced her to show us pictures of her fiancee, dress, and the church where she'll be getting married. We even got pictures of the mother-in-law, brother-in-law, and father-in-law in a silly wig.
I even found the time to use Courtney's arm as a canvas, creating a brilliant tattoo (!) of our experiences together in Europe. The two ladies handed over some colored pencils and computer paper and I ended up making a "Thank You!" sign that all of us added a small message and a signature too.

Checking out a gold plasma inside a coating device. In a sick turn of events, someone had coated a cockroach in gold. I freaked out a little bit when I saw it.

My awesome tattoo. It had nutella, a witch's broom, the pyramids, us running in front of the pyramids, a butterfly, a heart, "Audrey loves you!", us jumping in puddles in the rain, a "Big and Little" pillow, a rainbow, a purple pony, a cannon firing a cannon ball (because I couldn't draw the Sphinx without his nose because I'm simply not that talented.), and... a fried egg.

They were sweet though, and I'm glad to have met them.

From left to right: Courtney, Vladena, Kristin, me, Clara, and Sonda.

Wednesday found us traveling in a car through Czech, Poland, and Germany in a five minute time span. There are open borders because of the European Union (and they've even started calling the countries "states")... so we easily went between countries, ending up in a small town in Germany with a name that escapes me. Dr. Louda (our new professor here) had to mail some stuff via DHL, and the office wasn't open yet, so.. being the teenage girl that I am... wanted to go shopping. We found ourselves in a quaint little market in the center of town, and wasted 15 minutes looking at huge granny panties with lots of lace and silly suspenders. They have fake purses in large quantities and more socks than I'd know what to do with.

The market in Germany, and Courtney's enormous cranium.

Sneaker Socken. I have nothing to add!

I even brought my Euro, but no matter how many tiny shops I asked, nobody sold Coca-Light. It seems the Germans do not drink Diet Coke. =)

Our primary destination was a titanium/aluminum alloy coating factory named Techno-Coat that Courtney and Kristin quickly renamed "Technicolor Dream Coat," that specialized in coating medical tools and Kohler sinks. It's kind of funny, actually, because we recently renovated most of the bathrooms in my Florida house and all of our sinks are Kohler. It makes me wonder if any of our hardware parts came through this tiny factory in an obscure town in Germany.
The man who ran the factory, Burkhard Scholz, was completely sweet. He explained everything to us about his machines and the techniques, and answered all of the questions we fired back at him. He gave us business cards, brochures in english, and most excitingly.. let us play with medical instruments after they had been coated.

Skin retractors. 

Mr. Scholz explaining a 1.2 million Euro machine to Kristin and Sonda.

A new part of the factory... it will soon be filled with equipment.

The nice man who showed us how professionals do layer thickness tests. He put in the sample, had a spinning ball rubbing against it, and added some synthetic diamond liquid in a line. Then he let it come into contact with the layer for about a minute and measured the diameter of the scratch on the sample with a computer program and an optical microscope. I was actually completely impressed with the technique.

I picked Tuesday to die, though. We were standing in a small group, listening to Mr. Scholz speak, and I suddenly felt light headed and couldn't hold myself up. Try as I might, I was sure I was going to fall on the floor, or faint, and I the feeling of all of the blood draining from my upper extremities was in full swing when Courtney suddenly rushed over, with Dr. Louda on her heels, and asked if I was okay. I guess that there wasn't even oxygen in the factory, or that I just didn't have enough sugar in my blood that morning, but two more seconds and I would have been sprawled out all over the factory floor.

Again, Mr. Scholz was really sweet... pushing me to get outside and breath some fresh air, grabbing me a chair, and even running to get a cold bottle of water right away. It had gas, which I hate bless his heart, but he was definitely trying really hard. And Courtney and Dr. Louda didn't so bad either. =) I hate being the sick kid. I think I apologized about nine times.

Pre-Audrey episode. The four of us in Germany with medical tools in the background, and a giant PVD device.

Wednesday (today) we woke up early and drove to another town, Turnov, to visit a ceramics factory. It was pretty cool to see all of the assembly lines in production. (Who am I kidding, I sat there in awe and was mesmerized by the constant perfect motion).

From what I understood, the factory took very fine aluminum composite powders (tiny nanospheres with diameters in the range of 12 nanometers) and compressed them into different molds, then sintered them to melt everything together and shrink the product, then coated them if necessary. They made these tiny rings that were used in oil field machines that were ever-lasting. They were super light weight - it was insane - and it was a world wide effort to make them, including different stages of production in Germany, the United States, the Czech Republic, and Austria I do believe. And they literally never had to be replaced. It was over 800 Euro per tiny ring, which seems like a crazy amount considering it weighed about 2 ounces, but Dr. Louda explained to us that if a worker had to stop the oil machine to change the ring it could cost 1000 barrels of oil instead of just the 800 Euro to buy the piece that won't ever break. Good point.

Our guide at the factory was very nice too, although he really only spoke German. It still pretty cool to see the entire ordeal, and he let us each have a sink gasket (thing) and tiny random pieces that they made at the factory. I shall tape them in my journal and keep them forever. They can't be broken! Not even with a hammer and all the force I possess...

The Saint-Gobain Ceramics factory.

Court and the factory. It was pretty cool.

Assembly lines amaze me.

One of the various products that they let us keep. These are in almost every person's sink. They control the amount of water that comes out of the faucet. And they cost 10 cents a piece to make, although the mark-up is a couple hundred percent for the consumer.

And just for fun, because it's cute and she's cute...