Andrea talks about her experience in Europe

This was my second experience in Europe, the first being a physics study abroad in Geneva. The purpose of this trip was to present research at a workshop on Advanced in Cardiac Dynamics at the Max Planck Institute and also at the BCAM Workshop on Nonlinear Dynamics in Biological Systems, as well as attending the EUTrigTreat where my advisor presented. During this trip we were fortunate enough to visit many locations including Frankfurt, Gottingen, Berlin, Milan, Santander, Bilbao and Madrid. It was a great experience. I absolutely loved getting to try a lot of wonderful foods and also enjoyed practicing some German, Italian and Spanish (even though I only had formal study in Spanish, Latin and French). At the workshops and conference, I enjoyed meeting the other physicists, most of whom were local, who were able to share about their lives in physics and told us about the areas nearby and local practices. We try to fit in as much of getting to know the local areas as possible during these conferences so we were able to pay a visit to the cemetery which held Max Planck, Karl Schwarzschild, Max Born and others, as well as visiting the Berlin Wall and of course visiting very local restaurants. I really enjoyed trying to practice the few phrases I learned of the local languages to order really authentic food from places where did not know English. I also really enjoyed the culture of going to a bar after work with friends to have a drink and eat these small plate type things called pinchos in Bilbao, which I was able to do with my advisor and other people from the conference. This was such a wonderful opportunity for me in all respects: presenting my work, listening to other present their work, meeting and forming bonds with other physicists, growing closer to my labmates, experiencing more cultures through language, food and sights, and also being able to explore some of these areas on my own.