Day 2 -- Classes Start!

Colin: Our first full-day on the ground in Zagreb and we start it by having classes over at the Pilar (pronounced PEE-lar) Institute for the Social Sciences. Each of the 4 classes met today and those that were not in class got a chance to explore downtown Zagreb a bit. The public health class met first for the day, and then we got a chance to explore ourselves before lunch. Here is the HPRB5160/7160 class after leaving our first class:

(see post above)

Charlotte: After class Colin, Ben, and I had some time to explore the city before meeting back up with the class for lunch. We found that many of the city construction workers were not practicing safety measures when they were working. We documented many of these observations (see the pics after the break). After class we ate lunch at the Restaurant Obrtnicki dom where we enjoyed a nice meal of Croatian dishes. In the afternoon we took a very long and jam packed walking tour of down town Zagreb. On completion of the tour we were given a free evening to explore Zagreb on our own with our new friends.

Ben: Classes started the next morning at 9, with the Public Health class meeting first. This was very interesting to me, because it takes a completely different view of healthcare and implementation than what I am currently learning in pharmacy school. After class (which I felt completely unprepared for; note to self: read syllabus in more depth next time), the 3 of us took the scenic route back to the hotel, taking pictures of various acts of people being unsafe in public (see pics above). I’ve already started picking up on things that I wouldn’t normally think of as pertaining to someone’s health and well being (in pharmacy school, its all about the bugs, the drugs, and how the 2 interact). After lunch, we took a walking tour of the Zagreb historic district(s) and learned a great deal about the history of this beautiful place, and burned a minimum of 10,000 Calories in the process (it was intense)! The tour was conducted by Dr. Vedran Perlogovic from the geography department of Pilar Institute. On our tour we visited the opera house, we learned about Ivan Mestrovic (pronounced MESH-tro-vich), a famous Croatian sculptor who combined Croatia folk art with classic sculpture techniques. We saw a variety of statues around Zagreb and learned that Croatias and leaned that they honor their scientific and artistic leaders more than their political and military leaders with statues. We learned the history of the original hill top cities of Zagreb. “Za-Greb” means “behind the ditch” because it referred to the people who lived behind the ditch of fortifications that surrounded the town. We also saw the painted tile roof of a very historic church that had been restored due to the damage from the 1991- 1996 Yugoslav civil war. In addition to seeing these historic buildings we also visited several of the cities green squares around the city, that are in the shape of a house shoe they provide leisure time space throughout the city of Zagreb for their residents. Lastly we were able to see the outside of the Catholic Cathedral where Cardinal Stepinic (pronounced Ste-PEEN-its), who is buried in the cathedrals, do to a current mass in session we were not able to visit this site or take pictures with in the church. Below are pictures of these events:

(see post above)

Later on in the evening, a few of us went to a pub near the hotel, and had the wonderful pleasure of interacting with some local folk who showed us a great time. We learned a great deal about their interests and backgrounds, and we made plans to meet with them again later in the week. Hopefully I can use this to get some decent health related information out of them…