I left my Blinddarm in Germany

I stopped by a Biergarten on the way home from work a few weeks ago.  There is a local brewery right where I change trams that has a 2 Euro special on their beer on Thursdays.  I stopped to enjoy the weather and try their April brew.  I noticed the phrase, "Eens geht noch!" at the bottom of the glass.  Its a great example of the Sächsisch dialekt.. in high German it would be "eins geht noch," but in Sächsisch the e's and o's are emphasized. 

Spring has come to Germany!!  With the new weather and extended days have come much more productivity (but not in my blogging life: fail much?) and a few new experiences as well. 

Signs of Spring in Dresden.  This is where I get on the tram
every morning.

My goal since the weather has warmed up has been to go take night photos down south in the Sächsische Schweiz.  Unfortunately, my body has undergone somewhat of a rebellion.  I'm going to start from the beginning of Spring to, hopefully, provide proper effect. 

As the weather started to warm up a friend brought up that there was a half marathon in Dresden in May.  "Perfect!" I thought.  I had been looking for a reason to get back in shape and ever since injuring my knee my Junior year of undergrad I've been hoping to get back into running and keep with it so I don't get hurt again.  I popped onto runnersworld.com and found a training plan.  I'd never used a specific plan before, discounting my time running cross country in high school. 

Toodling on the computer in my kitchen.

This was to be the first time I stuck to a plan for a long distance race only counting on myself to follow through with the plan.  At this point I'd been running a little all winter.  On the days that were above 23 degrees, my breaking point for it being too cold to run, and I got myself out the door quickly enough to use the light before it got dark at 4:30.  Once the snow showed no signs of coming back and the weather popped above freezing I had started to be a little more consistent.  My runs usually tracked sunset.  I'd hold off until there was just enough time to go before it got too dark.  When I started the training plan the ground was still frozen, the little creek in the forest was walled with ice, and the city had not yet cleared the gravel off the streets.  Before I realized it, flowers buds were getting ready to explode from the cherry tree outside my window and the weather started getting really warm (50 degrees!).

The days continued to get longer, as did my runs.  I realize when I'm active that I'm a much healthier person.  Inactivity brings cravings of chocolate, sweets, salts, and fats.  However delicious this is I usually don't lament the transition of those cravings to that of vitamins: fruits, veggies, trail mix (Studentenfutter:  student chow).  I had set a pretty ambitious but attainable goal for the half.  Experiencing Dresden and the Dresdener Heide, the forest just across the park from my place, was wonderful on foot.  Everything was going splendidly: my brother gave me a watch to track my runs, I was completing every run on the plan, and I hit my goal pace on a six mile tempo run.  Enter body revolt.

The first little sign that my body had decided it was to prefer cafés to the streets was an arch injury.  After traveling to Innsbruck and Vienna for Winter break my arches started their revolt. 

2 of 3 boofen buddies, Dan and Lauren.. excited to be hiking! Sidenote: little
bit of a hill, eh?

Through icing and taping I was finally able to get rid of the pain (I still need to buy insoles :-/ ) but not it has returned.  As that pain was going away I went "boofen" with a few friends.  "Boofen" is a wonderful tradition here where people go and sleep in a cave, or overhang, in the sandstone mountains to the South of Dresden.  Typical of European mountains, the Sächsische Schweiz is either perfectly flat, a brutal slope, or a stair-climb down.  While trekking out from our "Boofe" (see pictures), my knee was done.  My pervious IT-band injury returned with vengeance.  By the time we got home I couldn't walk a step without it hurting.  Frustrated, I started to ice, elevate, and rest it; still hoping that the half was in my future.  As if my body wanted me to know that it was not going to be possible it then delivered the knock-out blow. 

In the "England England" café enjoying some
tea and researching for Scotland. . well, the tea
was good!

The day after a little weekend trip to Poland I started to get a little stomachache.  Ironically, I went to the doctor for my knee that same Monday.  The next day I would be in the hospital for an "Appendektomie."  I decided on Tuesday morning that I needed to go to the hospital.  After calling every German I knew in Dresden to no avail I googled, "hospitals near Dresden, Germany" and set out.  On arriving at the hospital four of my German friends called back.  Yes, "it was ok to go to this hospital," "let me know if you need any help," "I went to this other hospital and it was very good but you can go to any."  I found where the Notaufnahme was and went in.  There was nobody at reception and only a couple people in the waiting room.  I finally tracked down a nurse and told her I wanted to see a doctor about an "akut Bauchschmerzen."  She asked if I'd gone to a general practitioner.  "No, they are all closed and it hurts enough where I needed to go to the hospital."  She sent me to another building to find a doctor.  Finding locked doors and no doctors I left. 

On my way to the other hospital, which my friend had recommended, the pain got to about a really really really hurts on a 1-10 scale.  The other hospital told me I could see the doctor and took some samples while I waited.  I had downloaded "Despicable Me" on my ipod to pass the time.  Once the film ended I was up. 

Having fun taking pictures in our "Boofe."  In attempt to make
this picture applicable to the paragraph it accompanies: this
is an expression of how my appendix made me feel.

The first doctor was very nice and the second was a typical surgeon (I hear).  Long story short, I learned several new German words and was in surgery 45minutes after entering the exam room.  The surgeon informed me that we needed to operate that day and suddenly movement towards going to the operation theatre began.  I asked if I could first make a phone call. 


I woke up the next day without a "Blinddarm" and with a tube poking out of my abdomen.  I missed my planned trip to Scotland (which I probably could have done.. quite disappointed) but am now close to better.  I can't do "Sport" for two weeks, putting the half marathon completely out of the picture.  Oh well, once again a new beginning.  Overall, I think I was pretty lucky.

This is from our boofen adventure.  This is on top of a rock formation that we slept in.  There is also a "Boofe" on top here for next time!  This is the little mountain that the old king had a little fort on to pretend he was a robber.  Quite the elaborate game of cops and robbers. .