28 May 2013

Off to England!

Hey all!

In exciting news, I'm going to England tomorrow. YAY! In less exciting news, I got hit by a car today. MINUS YAY! It was still a pretty good day though, but I don't have any fun stories to tell you. I have to go clean and pack and do important grown-up things like cleaning and packing.

In other news, my favorite Rachael won Reserve Champ at Devon, so that's seriously exciting.


Huge congrats to her and the whole MMF crew!

That's all I got! Adios amigos!

24 May 2013

The German Drama Llama: Vaccines Edition!

I tried to get shots today. Silly me for thinking that was simple. Welcome to the German Drama Llama, Vaccines Edition!

As you all know, I'm going to Mexico, where if the cockroaches don't kill you, Montezuma's Revenge will. To this end I decided to go get some shots today. Typhoid I already have, but I need Hep A and probably rabies because foaming at the mouth isn't my idea of a good time. Luckily my university vaccinates students for free, so that was exciting.

Getting universities at my school in America was easy: walk in without an appointment, talk to the doctor about where you're going and what you need, get shots. The end. I assumed it worked the same here, so first thing this morning I headed over to the university hospital. Which as it turns it looks almost exactly like an airport on the inside, complete with bright yellow terminal numbers all over the place. Except airports don't usually do brown carpeting from the seventies.

Anyway, after some confusion I managed to locate my terminal elevator (B3) to gate floor 14 and then the office. I filled out the forms for Hep A and Rabies and marched inside determined not to have a panic attack when I saw the needles. Here's the conversation that took place:

Dr. Asshat: So, are you a medical student?
Me: No, I study anthropology.
Dr. Asshat: I see. Where are you going?
Me: Mexico, for six weeks.
Dr. Asshat: Is this a requirement for your studies?
Me: Well, it's a requirement that we do a research project, yes. I suppose it's not a requirement that we go to Mexico, but that's where my project is.
Dr. Asshat: Well, then you can't get your shots for free.
Me: ...What?
Dr. Asshat: Shots are only for free if it's a requirement. You're just having fun.
Me: I am NOT just having fun! This is field research for anthropology.
Dr. Asshat: You are going (in English) just for fun, la la la. You don't have to go to Mexico. You could study Switzerland, that's also anthropology, amirite?

Me: But my project isn't in Switzerland, my project is in Mexico!
Dr. Asshat: Well, your department will have to sign off that it's a requirement. Otherwise, you can either pay for your own shots or go to Switzerland.
Me: Speaking hypothetically, how much would it cost to pay for the shots?
Dr. Asshat: Hep A...Rabies...at least 300 euros.

Me: It's fucked up that my hospital bills in Mexico would be less than the cost of the vaccines that would have kept me out of them.
Dr. Asshat: There's always Switzerland.
Me: WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH YOU AND SWITZERLAND.

At that point I got up and grabbed my stuff and was like, "This is a) ridiculous, b) over." He gave me the website I could download the Mexico-Is-A-Requirement form from and wished me good luck on convincing my department to sign it. I decided that I hate him.

I immediately rushed over to campus to print out the form. But guess what?

After trolling the internet for a half hour, I finally fished the form out of the bowels of another website, printed it, filled it out, and went searching for the people in charge of the social sciences. I knocked on a bunch of doors before I finally found someone who knew who I should talk to, trekked over to that office, knocked on the door, and was cheerfully informed that they would be SO HAPPY to stamp my form for me so I could get my shots for free. But...

...and there is always a but...

...first the head of my department had to sign off on it.

Seeing as they could make the difference between me getting rabies and me not getting rabies, I was very pleasant. But as soon as I walked out of the office, I banged my head on the wall a few times.

So now I have an appointment with the head of my department, and hopefully he will sign off on my free shots. Then in the middle of June I have an appointment at the airport hospital to discuss getting shots. Then hopefully I can go back the next week and get some. And if that doesn't work, well, there's always Switzerland.

And thus concludes the German Drama Llama: Vaccine Edition. Peace out, partners!

Edit: Thanks to my lovely boyfriend, I have found out that this shit goes way easier if I make an appointment with a regular doctor and just let my badass health insurance pay for it. So that's what's I'm doing! 

20 May 2013

Prague Prague Prague!

Hey all! Sorry it's taken me a bazillion years to write this post, things have been pretty busy and I had two good friends come to visit me for a few days, plus lots of work for school.

Anyway, PRAGUE! Our Prague trip started with an epically long day of travel. Left Göttingen at 12, got to Coburg at 3, hung out until 4, got to Nürnberg at 5.30, got on a train at 6-something and got to Prague at 11. Craziness. The Czech train was super fun though, it was one of those cabined ones, and Al and I had a whole cabin to ourselves. Fun times!

Once we got to Prague, British Friend from last semester picked us up at the train station and took us to a bar, where we got caught up over beer (them) and orange juice (me). Then we went to her (really really cool) apartment and passed out. Yay, being exhausted!

The next day was May 1st--Al and my one-year anniversary (woah, that's a long time to put up with me) and also a holiday in both the Czech Republic and Germany, except I'm pretty sure Germany doesn't have that traditional where you have to get kissed under this one particular tree or else you'll wither up and die (applies to women only. Men apparently don't require lady kisses to keep themselves from withering and/or dying). Anyway, that morning we walked through the city center...





...hiked up the mountain...

...stole some flowers off a tree...


...and then gave them to the poet and made out. As you do.


On our way down we found this very dapper man chilling on the hill. So we took a picture.

Also while running around we found the Museum of Sex Toys and the Museum of Medieval Torture, which by the time we got to the bottom of the mountain had merged in our brains into one terrifying Museum of Medieval Sex Torture that we elected never to go to.

Other fun things we did in Prague!

Karlštejn Castle

Located a half hour out of Prague in the middle of lovely Bohemia, this castle chills out on the mountain and looks badass. The town itself is kind of touristy but we really liked it. Also, there was frozen yogurt. It was a very nice hike up to the castle itself, then we did the cheap tour which limited us to the outer walls, but that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves (and the view). 




That's my "OMG CZECH CASTLES" face.


Strahov Monastery

Al and I met up with a guy I studied in Konstanz with, way back in 2008. He lives right outside Prague and offered to take us on a free tour of Strahov Monastery, where he works in the library. Which is gorgeous, by the way. We very much enjoyed running around and looking at everything!





Other than that, we really didn't do anything specific other than run around, look at things without paying for them, and hang out with British Friend/meet all of her friends, which was awesome. At one point we found a free walking tour and jumped on it halfway through it's route through the city. We also found this in a shop and didn't know what to think, so we took pictures.





Is that a Hitler vs. Eisenhower chess set? Why yes, yes it is. I'll take ten.

All in all, Prague was an awesome time, an awesome anniversary, and a brilliant de-stressor in the middle of a stressful semester. After travelling all day Saturday, we finally got back to Coburg Saturday evening, took hot showers, ate food, and passed out. Al's parent were on vacation, so we had the whole house to ourselves and spent most of Sunday sleeping, doing homework in the sun, and recovering from our trip. 

Yay Prague! You are awesome! Thank you British Friend for hosting us, you are awesomer!

10 May 2013

The Good News Train

For starters, here's the most recent Ask me Anythings's to the blog:

Anonymous asked: What's your mailing address?

Dear Anonymous,
Send me an email, Facebook message, PM, Youtube message, or something--and I'll send it to you!


Hey all!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a bazillion years. We got back from Prague last Saturday Saturday, spent most of Sunday at Al's parents' house recovering, and then went back to class on Monday. I'll blog about all that soon, I swear!

Why haven't I been blogging? Well, I had a massive presentation on Wednesday I had to prep for, and then on Wednesday evening my good friend Patricia came to visit me from America! She's on her way to Spain for a field school but decided to drop by for a few days first.

Until I get to blogging about Prague, here's a crap ton of awesome things that have happened in the last few days:

1) I found Patricia and she didn't die, YAY!
2) I booked my ticket to Mexico, DOUBLE YAY!
3) My research project received additional funding from the second grant I applied for, TRIPLE YAY!
4) One of my professors today told me he wants me to rework an essay I wrote for his class and submit it for publication to an anthropology blog. QUADRUPLE YAY!
5) Tomorrow we are going to Hamburg to run around at the harbor festival and see a so-called tugboat ballet. SO MANY YAYS I CANNOT DEAL.

In short, the universe has been hurricaning good news over the last few days, and I am a fan.

Adios! Prague post coming shortly!