The first week has officially been survived (I say survived because of all the parties that are constantly going on). At the moment I have Biology (consisting of Zoology and Botany) and Anatomy Lectures. The highlight of all the classes was probably the Zoology Lab. The labs are 3.5 hours long and I thought they would seem like they go on for ever but that was not the case. We started out with DNA replication, moving on to looking at Mitosis stages of onion root cells under the microscope (so cool!) and finally determining our own Blood group. As I expected I am blood group "A" and Rhesus positive (my blood donation pass says so as well). Below are pictures of my blood mixed with different Anti-Serums to test which blood group one belongs too. The first serum is Anti-A, second is Anti-B and the last is Anti-A and B. The single one is a Rhesus test. If the blood clots its positive. Since my blood i.e. clotted in the Anti-A, I have "A" blood because the serum was against "A" and made it clot. Same principle with the Rhesus.
Some really interesting facts I took from the classes were as follows:
The human body produces about 70kg of ATP a day!
The Mitochondria a person has comes only from the mother, not the father!
Extracurricular activities contained A LOT of walking around. I don't have a bike yet and this is a problem that will be fixed very quickly. Currently my classes are at furthest 20 minutes walk away but once Chem and Physics start, I will not be able to walk there. I received a starter package from Neni's (my best friend) mom and sister and one from my mom. I had to walk 4,4km for the one from my mom because I personally had to pick it up from customs! No idea why, I didn't really have the time to ask either because I had to hurry up and get to class. The one from Neni's mom and sister was at the post office at the train station because it didn't fit into my mail box.
Thursday night I went to Shmorti's house with Simon (my roommate) and some friends. We ate pizza and hung out until about 11PM when my friend and I left to go to a Med-student party. We were the first ones there but it didn't take long until others came. She had to go home early because she had class at 8AM the next morning. I met up with the leaders of our O-Phase group and stayed out with them.
I had to run some errands for my Aunt today and soon I will be leaving to go to the Business-student party for a little bit. I leave for Bremen early tomorrow to meet up with relatives so I will not be staying out too late.
I survived. I survived the last four days of partying. Orientation week is so much different in Germany than it was in the States. At UW (okay I will admit I was in Europe the whole summer where events were taking place) I went and signed up for classes and learned how to use my student account. Here in Germany, it is one big drinking party. The first event I went to was our greeting meeting. The Anatomy building is 2 houses away from my apartment. Once I arrived at the building (it was 10AM) I was given a beer and a sticker was put on me that claimed that I belonged to a certain group. A different girl came and ripped the sticker off my jacket and told me to come to her group instead. It is a good thing I did. After the infos and introduction we went on with group competitions. I was in my skivvies three times for extra points for our group. The next day we were informed that our group had won. The last four days have been filled with parties, hanging with new people and the occasional hour of sleep. Today I am chilling (almost forced into doing so because my muscles are aching from exercising). Tomorrow we have our last day of orientation meetings and then Tuesday it all starts. I am going to go donate blood before heading to the Anatomy building for the meeting.
Some really interesting facts I took from the classes were as follows: