What can I say? Almost one week in this program. It has been an amazing time! I have enjoyed every single minute of this trip. From the very first day landing in Frankfurt I knew that I had come to the right place and that the little "sacrifices" that I made would be worth it.
The first day in Bonn we learned the history of the city, walked around and learned a lot about traditions in our welcome dinner at a local restaurant. Then came our very first foreign lecture on the evolution of homeopathy. Personally, this lecture was very interesting since I had a tiny little background with the subject thanks to my mom and her all natural remedies, as well as with homeopathic remedies. I think that perhaps, I will try to incorporate some of this knowledge into my practice. The information and history of homeopathy were very, how shall I put it, informative and it shed light on areas of the subject that I did not know. In addition to homeopathy, the visit and audiotour of the Haus der Geshischte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland walked us through modern German history (post WWII). Our tour taught me some things I did no know, it was a totally different learning experience, a living history class. The museum was very big, but the expositions were all real and the tourguide very informative.
Köln, Cologne, whatever you want to call it, I will stick with AMAZING. The sheer sight of the Kölner Dom (The cathedral) left me so amazed that Cologne is definitely on my list of cities to revisit with more time. The tour of the city taught me a lot about this wonderful city and yes I did have my very first beer (German beer, second one in my life) in the little restaurant we ate at. Cologne's colonialism reminded me a little of San Luis Potosí, the city I grew up in, because the architecture resembles it in a way. Of course, architecture in San Luis is prominently more Spanish, but they all date back to Roman times right? Our visit to the cathedral was also very cool since we got to see the relicary where the remains of the Three Wisemen are supposed to be. It is a little, well not so little, golden box on the back of the altar before the chapels and it is heavily protected. It is only opened on January the 6th, King's Day and people walk by and can see the relics. In summary, I think Köln was definitely worth the visit and I will come back and visit the museums and glass galleries again!
Now moving on to Nazi Euthanasia Porgrams. This is perhaps the solemn part of this blog. Dr. Wasser's lecture really opened my eyes to the atrocities that took place at the time. It was sheer dehumaniyation of groups of people, people that could not otherwise defend themselves for being handicapped, blind, deaf, or old. I had never heard about these "forgotten victims" of Aktion T4, butlearning about them here was bone chilling. Just knopwing that the 'instigators' were people with high education and even some in health professions made me think that perhaps there is a lot that we will never understand, but at least we are glad those times have come to pass.
Neue Jahr! December 31st! Our arrival to Berlin was delayed a bit, but neverhteless we got there! We celebrated New Year's at the Festmeille and a group of us actually made it all the way to the Brandemburg Gate! We were there to count down and welcome 2009! (A Whoop!!!) I hope that this new year 2009 brings us all what we need and especially health to continue with experiences like this one. So far our days in Berlin have been productive. We visited Sachsenhausen, a model concentration camp and prison, and we got to know the Berlin Metros and Subways pretty well. Today's tour was absolutely awesome and I have many pictures of Berlin's most notorious landmarks. In short, Berlin is beautiful, cold (SNOW!!!) and super interesting. Tomorrow we are off to Dresden and then we move to Prague.
Bis dann!!!!
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