Feeling grateful to be able to keep exploring!
This week definitely had its highlights and lowlights but all in all, I’m in Europe so who can complain?
Monday I was in Brussels to spend my boyfriends last day in Europe. We had a blast, bought berets with our friends, and of course- tried a Belgian waffle. We also had Belgian fries, which I was not expecting to be good because it had “Mayo” on it. But it turns out, that it is not actually what we think of Mayo to be. It was actually really good! Everywhere I go, I’m so excited to try new foods. I’m almost always happy with the choice to try something! After that, we took the train home and fell asleep. After a long weekend, we definitely needed the rest!
On Tuesday, I went into research early and got a lot done to make up for the national holiday on Monday causing me not to be able to work. While I’m still in the beginning stages of my research and receiving trainings on all of the equipment, I’m still always super excited to go in and get stuff done. Starting next week (hopefully) my trainings will be done and I’ll be able to start my experiments on my own. To train, I’ve been making hydrogel support baths and probably will continue to do that for another week. After a couple more trials, I’ll be making my support bath with thrombin, and once I’m really good at my job, I’ll be 3d bioprinting a fibrinogen solution with smooth muscle cells isolated from human umbilical cord into my support bath. The 3d bioprinter will follow a CAD model of a ring that I make. After it is printed into the support bath, I’ll put it in the fridge and the thrombin support bath will melt away, leaving only my structure. This structure has actual smooth muscle cells in it (supposedly) so if I have more time in my research, I’ll be able to slice open my muscle ring and do some analysis on it to see how many muscle cells are in it and essentially how good of a job I did at isolating and transferring the cells into my ring. That was a LOT of information- if you’re really into tissue engineering like me, you’re probably really interested, but if not, sorry for the wordy rant. That whole process will take a really long time, so it will probably fill the rest of my time here. Hopefully by the end, I’ll have successfully 3d bioprinted my muscle ring!
Tuesday night we surprised one of my friends because his 20th birthday was Wednesday! When the clock hit midnight, we brought out 2 small cakes and balloons to celebrate him. It’s so crazy how good of friends I’ve become with the people on this trip in such a short time. I’m so glad to have met all of them!
On Wednesday, we went to the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Unfortunately, we were not able to take any pictures during this trip, but it was so fun! While I am not super into the aerospace sector of engineering (sorry to all of my aerospace people out there), I found it incredibly interesting, especially the institute of the center that deals with trials in human health. The DLR wants to mitigate the adverse health effects that affect astronauts who have been in 0 gravity for 6+ months and afterwards, return to Earth. They deal with high eye pressure and blood pressure, muscle deterioration, and cardiovascular problems (amongst other things). The DLR takes human participants to undergo 2 month long studies to research how to combat these health challenges. I really enjoyed touring the DLR, and you should definitely check it out if you’re in the area (especially if you’re into aero!)
On Thursday, I was really beat from the long weekend and honestly feeling pretty homesick. After research, I spent some time calling my family. I got to FaceTime my little 2 year old nephew, and I got a little emotional (happy and sad both!) when he pointed to the screen and said “auntie!!!”. Before I left, he couldn’t really recognize people on FaceTime because he’s really young and didn’t understand it. I was so happy to see him, but it’s really hard watching the rest of my family’s lives go own and my nephew grow up without me there. I miss them terribly but I know that this is the experience of a life time and I will not regret it.
After I talked to some family, I went out with some friends to the local karaoke night. It’s a little embarrassing to say, but we were in fact recognized by some people because of how often we frequent the Thursday night karaoke. It was so fun, and I love just having a great time with friends after a long day of research!
On Friday, after work, I was lucky enough to visit my UMich roomie studying abroad at #IPEParis for the weekend. After spending Thursday feeling a little home sick, it was really awesome to see a familiar face. I got in late on Friday night, so we only went to get a quick snack and then went to bed to get ready for the long day on Saturday.
Saturday may have been the busiest day that I have had in Europe to date! I walked 33,300+ steps for the day, which is my highest count for a single day in Europe so far. We barely sat and just were on the move the whole time- so much to see in Paris! To start the day, we got a pastry at a local bakery and then went straight to the Louvre. While the line was long, I would say it was 1000% worth the wait. We went to Greek History/Artifacts exhibit as well as the French/Italian Paintings exhibit. Everything was so beautiful. One thing that was really surreal was getting as close as one can get to the Mona Lisa. It’s behind bullet proof glass, and thankfully, by the time we got there it was cleaned off from the recent cake mishap! It was a really crazy moment to be able to stand in front of the real Mona Lisa.
After that, we did a little souvenir shopping and then got some lunch at this small cafe near the Notre Dame. Of course, when I saw we were near it, I had to go walk over and see it. It’s still under reconstruction from the 2019 fire, so we could not go inside, but even seeing the front of it was a really cool experience.
Next, we booked it to the Sainte-Chapelle, a really beautiful chapel in Paris! It was one of the few chapels I’ve been in that was not free, but it was worth the fee to see the insanely detailed stained glass.
After the chapel, we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower to see it in the daylight (I had made it known to my friend that if I only could do one thing in Paris, it would be to see the Eiffel Tower at night). Walking up to the Eiffel Tower genuinely felt like I was in a movie- it simply did not feel real. After we saw it just appear in the sky during our walk, I could not stop smiling and it really was the craziest feeling. You always see the Eiffel Tower in movies or on social media, but it is such a different feeling in person. I couldn’t beliebe that I was actually there. That was one of the moments that I’ve felt the most blessed for this opportunity to be in Europe. I’m so thankful for these 11 weeks and all of the opportunities and experiences that have been afforded to me. At this point, we were feeling REALLY tired. We had not stopped walking practically all day long.
We went back to where I was staying and took a 10 minute power nap- that was all I needed to get back on track for the evening. We grabbed some meats, cheese, and a baguette and went back to the Eiffel Tower! Ate a quick dinner there, watched the sunset, and then started our climb up to the middle of the tower from the inside. While it seemed intimidating, it really wasn’t that hard of a walk and I’m so glad we did it. To be able to say I climbed the inside of the Eiffel Tower is worth any leg pain I feel today. While we were up on the middle floor, the lights of the tower came on, and a little bit later, we got to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle from the inside. After we took a thousand pictures from the top, we came down and waited until midnight for it to sparkle once again. Seeing the tower sparkle might be my favorite experience in Europe so far (definitely my favorite in Paris at least). If you go to Paris, you must see this. It is so worth it even if you think it’s dumb. Our view was beautiful and that memory will be stuck with me forever.
This morning, we went to the Palace of Versailles. I’ve seen the pictures and heard the stories thanks to my history classes in the past, but it was even crazier to actually see it in person. We had to get back for my train back to Aachen so after a good visit, we went back to Paris.
As I sit on the train home and write this, I’m truly reminded of how amazing this experience is. I’ve been here for about 5 weeks now, and I’ve got 6 more to go. I cannot believe how much I’ve been able to see and explore during these first 5 weeks. I’m blown away at this opportunity, and I know I’m making the memories of a lifetime. Thank you to UMich and RWTH Aachen for giving me this awesome ride.
