Hello. My name is Morgan, and I'm a Pandora-holic. :-) I absolutely LOVE this website/radio station. I love that it lets me create my own stations. I love that it lets me be myself, while introducing me to new things. I love that it remembers what I like and what I don't like. I love that it stays up late with me when I'm studying. I love if for all these things. Especially that last one. In fact, that last one is the reason for this post. Last night (this morning) around 1:17am, in the middle of my BIO188 notes and my 3rd can of diet coke, when I was stressed and tired and really, really not wanting to review the golgi apparatus' involvement in cellular membrane flow for the 5th time, Pandora played this Missy Higgin's song:
Just lay it all down, put your face into my neck
And let it all fall out, I know, I know, I know
I knew before you got home
This world you're in now, it doesn't have to be alone
I'll get there somehow 'cos I know, I know I know
When even springtime feels cold
But I will learn to breath this ugliness you see
So we can both be there
And we can both share the dark
And in our honesty
Together we will rise out of our nightminds
And into the light at the end of the fight
You were blessed by a different kind of inner view
It's all magnified, the highs will make you fly
But the lows will make you want to die
And I was once there, hanging from
That very ledge where you are standing
So I know, I know, I know, it's easier to let go
But I will learn to breath this ugliness you see
So we can both be there
And we can both share the dark
And in our honesty
Together we will rise out of our nightminds
And into the light at the end of the fight
The English major in me immediately fell in love with the lyrics. The pre-med student in me needed to hear those words. Last week at a chemistry review the guy leading the review gently reminded all of us medical-school hopefuls that for the next x amount of years the world will be against us. And even though we all laughed, we knew it was true. The truth is our professors will try to trick us on exams, our friends will try to beat our GPA's, our applications will be scrupulously reviewed by the schools we apply to, and after all of that, two thirds of us will not get letters of acceptance reaffirming all our years of hard work. And most of the time all that stress and knowledge is manageable. But last night in my "nightmind," after days and hours of studying and a test looming nearer, I was feeling a little overwhelmed. So even though this "academic fight" isn't physically dangerous, it can still be tough. And this song helped.
So Pandora, my love, thank you.
Oh, and my BIO test was today. Pretty sure I rocked it. :-)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
American Girl in Paris
Ok. So basically, blogging-wise I really really lapsed during the last part of my trip. Rest assured many great sites were seen and many great pictures were taken! Here are some from my beautiful weekend in Paris!
Apprécier des amis !
L'Arche de Triomphe...
Apple Love in the City of Love..
Le Louvre!
The "key" to the DaVinci Code. Or so I am told...
The ANCIENT EGYPT exhibit!!!!
Seriously, the ancient Egyptians were rockstars. I LOVED this exhibit!
Why, yes! Those ARE mummified cats!
Pots for organs n'such...
Toys of the dead...because the afterlife can get really, really boring.
To my fellow tourist from L.A...if it's in the LOUVRE, yes. It is a REAL mummy.
More, non-Egyptian, artsy stuff...
Napoleon: the ultimate short-guy complex, or a really bad stylist. You be the judge. (Note the tiger saddle).
And of course, this famous lady. Not sure what I love most about this picture, Mona or Mona in the other cameras.
Strolling down the Champs-Elysees...
Versailles!
If I lived here, I wouldn't care of the peasants ate cake all day either...
THE Opera House! (**The following picture are best viewed with the "Phantom of the Opera" soundtrack playing in your head...)
Some more sites of the city...
Just before we left it started to rain. And even in the rain the city was beautiful.
Au revoir, Paris!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Spring Break Pt. 3: Munich
Once we got to Munich, we checked in at our hostel and took the metro to the Dachau Concentration Camp, located 16km (about 10 miles) outside of Munich. This camp was the only camp open during the full twelve years of the Nazi Regime (1933-1945) and served as a prototype that the rest of the concentration camps were modeled after.
The main area where the camp's orchestra played while roll was being taken.
The camp's headquarters.
The shower room. The wooden table was used to strap down prisoners while they were beaten with the stick lying on top of the table.
The barracks.
The sorting room.
The wash room.
The guard tower and camp walls.
I wasn't sure what to expect when we visited Dachau, but I knew that I had to. It was surreal to walk around a place infamous for so much pain and suffering and death. It's hard to read and to learn about people being so cruel to other people. And it would be easier if we could somehow erase that dark period of world history altogether and never think about it again. But we can't. Not simply because that's impossible, but because we really can't. As citizens of the free world we owe it to the victims of the Holocaust to remember. By remembering and teaching their story we are saying that it matters. That their horrific experiences and their agonizing deaths matter. For my European studies class this past semester we had to read If This is a Man the memoirs of Primo Levi, a survivor of Auschwitz. In his book he writes...
After we got back into Munich, we took a trip to the Hofbrauhaus, Munich's most famous beer hall and beer garden.
Kelly, Rachel, and me while we were wating for our food and ice water. ;-)
The next day we took the train two hours north of Munich to Fussen, the cutest little tourist town at the foot of the Alps. We were there of course on official matters of critical importance. Our posse was investigating the likeliness of the Neuschwanstein Castle to its more famous Disney impersonator , Cinderella's Castle.
See the resemblance?
Neuschwanstein was built by Ludwig II as a private retreat in 1868. Photography of the castle's interior is not permitted which is a darn shame because the inside is gorgeous! Ludwig had the entire castle's decoration dedicated to his favorite musician/composer, Wagner. So the throughout the castle different scenes from Wagner's famous opera's are portrayed in tapestries, wood carvings, even the floors. The castle was never fully completed however and Ludwig himself only spent just over 100 days in the castle. "Mad King Ludwig," as he was sometimes called, was declared unfit for rule in 1886 and mysteriously died two days after his removal from the thone.
A picture of the Alps and Neuschwanstein's neighboring castle, Hohenschwangau. (Go ahead, if you're not Libby and your mother country isn't Germany, I double dog dare you to try and pronounce Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. It'll be fun. You won't sound dumb at all. Promise).
Walking up to the castle gates...
One last look.
A shot of the Alps taken during our train ride back to Munich.
The next day we stopped by the Deutches Museum! I think it is probably the equivalent to the Arizona Science center as most of the museum's displays were more mechanical and engineering based.
A couple pictures of some Nazi fighter jets...
I'm not going to lie most of the museum was a little boring, especially since not all of the information plaques has English translations. BUT the display pictured below made me freeze in my tracks and took me back to elementary school.
My grandfather loved model trains and devoted half of his bedroom to a replica that looked vey much like the one above. I remember all of the cousins crowded around his set watching his toy trains chug along the tracks as my grandfather wore his conductor's hat. It was something that I hadn't thought about in a long time, and made my entire trip to the museum worth while.
After the museum we walked around the central part of Munich on our way to the metro station. Here is a picture of the Newtown Hall in Marienplatz, the city's central square.
Once we made it to station, we took the metro to Olypmic Park, the site of the 1972 Olympics.
The swimming hall, definitely a lot smaller than the water cube in Beijing.
That night we made one last visit to the Hofbrauhaus before heading home to Ireland the next morning. I still can't believe everything we managed to cram into just two weeks. It was definitely a very memorable spring break and I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to travel to places I had only read about or seen in movies. I'm going to conclude the last of my spring break blogs with a simple but true quote from Mr. Mark Twain that I have always loved...
"Work shall set you free."
The main area where the camp's orchestra played while roll was being taken.
The camp's headquarters.
The shower room. The wooden table was used to strap down prisoners while they were beaten with the stick lying on top of the table.
The barracks.
The sorting room.
The wash room.
The guard tower and camp walls.
I wasn't sure what to expect when we visited Dachau, but I knew that I had to. It was surreal to walk around a place infamous for so much pain and suffering and death. It's hard to read and to learn about people being so cruel to other people. And it would be easier if we could somehow erase that dark period of world history altogether and never think about it again. But we can't. Not simply because that's impossible, but because we really can't. As citizens of the free world we owe it to the victims of the Holocaust to remember. By remembering and teaching their story we are saying that it matters. That their horrific experiences and their agonizing deaths matter. For my European studies class this past semester we had to read If This is a Man the memoirs of Primo Levi, a survivor of Auschwitz. In his book he writes...
"For survivors, remembering is a duty. They do not want to forget, and above all they do not want to world to forget, because they understand that their experiences were not meaningless, that the camps were not an accident, an unforseen historical happening."
As the generation that witnessed the Holocaust and all the atrocities of World War II fades away, the torch will be passed to us. It will be our responsibility to ensure that their stories are told to future generations and fight to rpevent such wide spread genoicide from happening again.
After we got back into Munich, we took a trip to the Hofbrauhaus, Munich's most famous beer hall and beer garden.
Kelly, Rachel, and me while we were wating for our food and ice water. ;-)
The next day we took the train two hours north of Munich to Fussen, the cutest little tourist town at the foot of the Alps. We were there of course on official matters of critical importance. Our posse was investigating the likeliness of the Neuschwanstein Castle to its more famous Disney impersonator , Cinderella's Castle.
See the resemblance?
Neuschwanstein was built by Ludwig II as a private retreat in 1868. Photography of the castle's interior is not permitted which is a darn shame because the inside is gorgeous! Ludwig had the entire castle's decoration dedicated to his favorite musician/composer, Wagner. So the throughout the castle different scenes from Wagner's famous opera's are portrayed in tapestries, wood carvings, even the floors. The castle was never fully completed however and Ludwig himself only spent just over 100 days in the castle. "Mad King Ludwig," as he was sometimes called, was declared unfit for rule in 1886 and mysteriously died two days after his removal from the thone.A picture of the Alps and Neuschwanstein's neighboring castle, Hohenschwangau. (Go ahead, if you're not Libby and your mother country isn't Germany, I double dog dare you to try and pronounce Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. It'll be fun. You won't sound dumb at all. Promise).
Walking up to the castle gates...
One last look.
A shot of the Alps taken during our train ride back to Munich.
The next day we stopped by the Deutches Museum! I think it is probably the equivalent to the Arizona Science center as most of the museum's displays were more mechanical and engineering based.
A couple pictures of some Nazi fighter jets...
I'm not going to lie most of the museum was a little boring, especially since not all of the information plaques has English translations. BUT the display pictured below made me freeze in my tracks and took me back to elementary school.
My grandfather loved model trains and devoted half of his bedroom to a replica that looked vey much like the one above. I remember all of the cousins crowded around his set watching his toy trains chug along the tracks as my grandfather wore his conductor's hat. It was something that I hadn't thought about in a long time, and made my entire trip to the museum worth while.
After the museum we walked around the central part of Munich on our way to the metro station. Here is a picture of the Newtown Hall in Marienplatz, the city's central square.
Once we made it to station, we took the metro to Olypmic Park, the site of the 1972 Olympics.
The swimming hall, definitely a lot smaller than the water cube in Beijing.
That night we made one last visit to the Hofbrauhaus before heading home to Ireland the next morning. I still can't believe everything we managed to cram into just two weeks. It was definitely a very memorable spring break and I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to travel to places I had only read about or seen in movies. I'm going to conclude the last of my spring break blogs with a simple but true quote from Mr. Mark Twain that I have always loved...
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
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