Can you swim in Germany? Monday July 4- Friday July 8

Monday morning was the first day of class and orientation. We had to leave the house by 8:25 AM because it took around 30 minutes to get from Heidenbergen to Beethoven. We walked to AIB and we began the first orientation. This orientation covered basic stuff. Don’t get really drunk in a bar, and don’t get lost on your way home. Don’t take back drugs from Amsterdam because officials in Germany might check young people for it. But basically, act the culture, and absorb it while we are here. This initial meeting didn’t last too long because we had a Bonn city tour after it. Going into Bonn is totally different from any other city in the USA. Brick pavers line the streets with small stores on the side. It is almost like an outdoor shopping mall. However, the architecture is European and doesn’t look all the same. We started in front of the large Bonn Cathedral. It is called the Minster of St. Martin’s and was built between the 11^th and 13^th centuries. Two heads of Saints Cassius and Florentius are in front of the cathedral because they allegedly disobeyed Roman Emperor Maximianus Herculius to kill fellow Christians. They were beheaded in the city of Bonn. I thought it was simply amazing how ornate the structure was. The flying buttresses help support the church’s roof and sides. The Romansque architecture really highlighted the building’s past. With our guide, we walked through the church and then to the center of the courtyard. This is where the priests meditated as well as write Bibles. Several important church leaders such as archbishops where buried here. We then walked out into the sanctuary. The inside of the church was ornate with statues and stained glass. After the church, we walked over to the statue of Beethoven in front of the concert hall. Beethoven was born and raised in Bonn. Next we walked over to a point overlooking the Rhine River. This point was used for shooting out cannons to enforce tariffs on people crossing the Rhine. Right next to the Rhine was Bonn University. It was originally built for the Prince Elector of Cologne. Next, we walked over to some ancient Roman underground ruins. We actually had to walk underground a few meters to reach the ruins. It was simply amazing how the Romans figured out how to heat the floors. They had two levels. One was used to heat the floors which were about one meter tall. There were stones dispersed throughout to hold up the second floor. On the first floor, there was a furnace that could make a fire which would heat the second floor. In addition to heated floors, it could also warm a tub of water. All of the water came from a clean water source carried in by aqueducts from 70 km away. As I have learned on this trip, the Romans were much more advanced than the people in the dark ages. After this, we went to a lunch underneath a business building. We were eating here with a bunch of people dressed in suits. Anyways, I ate a salad with American dressing and schnitzel. After eating, we had a class about the Ancient Romans and Germans. Germany was formed much later than France, Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain. One reason Germany formed as a country so late may be because of geography. France has two sides of water along it with the Pyrenees and Alps mountain ranges. Great Britain is landlocked. Germany didn’t have any significant land borders. Other people’s opinions of Germans included barbaric people that lived in a cold environment. Germany’s medieval times were filled with war and constantly changing boundaries. Not until 1871 by Prussia was Germany really a defied state as we know it today. Germany is a country formed out of a similar language rather than the same people. In the next class, we had to learn about our own German stereotypes. For example, the class thought German language is harsh, Germans eat bratwurst, and drank a lot of beer. Nils, our program coordinator, tried to challenge us to combat these stereotypes during our stay in Germany. In the afternoon, we went to the zoological Museum Alexander König. It was a natural history museum. One of the interesting facts I learned from the museum was the amount of work it takes to stuff the birds. Each bird is dissected and is treated with special chemicals. The stuffed birds are very delicate and are not meant to be touched. The carrier pigeon bird used to be numerous in the tens of thousands earlier in the 1900’s. However this bird was hunted heavily and became extinct. This is just one example of how humans have killed an animal ruthlessly without thinking about the repercussions. After the museum, it was the end of the day. Drew and I went home after this and had dinner with our host family. Afterwards, we went out to the bar, Painless. This was an Irish bar that actually had English menus. I went there with Andrew, Drew, and Sam.

The next morning we had to be at Haptbahnhoff (Central Station) at 6:15 in the morning. I was pretty tired from the previous night so I slept on the train. We arrived in Hannover at 10:28 AM. The group headed over to the hospital cafeteria to have lunch. I had schnitzel. After lunch we met up with a doctor to talk about dialysis as well as EHEC (Enterohemorrhagic E. coli).The EHEC crisis in Germany put this specific hospital in a definite strain. News reporters were always at the hospitals covering this disease. After a few weeks of the start of EHEC, researchers had finally determined the source was from a sprout farm. When people contracted this disease, their kidneys would go into failure fairly quickly. They would then need to have dialysis. The doctor also explained how dialysis worked and explained the differences between the US and Germany dialysis. In Germany it is more common to have a fistula in the forearm rather than have it through the neck.

After visiting the hospital, we headed over to the Axolotl research lab. The Axolotl’s have a unique adaptation of re-growing appendages. If their limb is taken off, the Axolotl can fully re-grow it back. The researchers are trying to figure out a way to discover the gene sequencing and hopefully pass it on to humans. We also saw spiders they were researching. They are researching them because of the amount of web they can create. The researchers actually spin web out of the spider by holding it down. They were able to make over 22 meters of web per hour. We also went to a room with free roaming spiders. The spiders were allowed to make their webs freely in the room. After the Axolotl excursion, we headed back to the hotel. A group of us decided to go eat nearby at an Italian restaurant. It was nice because I felt like it was authentic. I have white wine to go with my meal. After the meal, we headed back to the hotel. In my room, several of my colleagues watched the USA versus Sweden game on TV while we had some wine. It was funny because four of the girls (all played HS soccer) were glued to the TV, while Andrew, Drew and I sat in the back of the room. If this were American football, it would have been the other way around.

In the morning, we had to get up pretty early because the train was heading to Norddeich-Mole. This place was a popular tourist spot for Germans because of the beach. Since it was an island, we had to hop on a ferry. The ferry moved very slowly, but we still got to see some seals lying out on an island. When we got to the island, we ate at Power’s Fischkiste. It was funny because at one point, it rained very hard for about ten minutes. We got a little scared however when Drew lifted up his food and found a fly. It was funny because of course everyone looked at it and made a big deal about it. However, Drew still ate the food. After lunch, we headed over to the Haus Detmold hostel. Luckily, only Drew, Andrew and me were staying in the four person room. After checking-in, we headed over to IFR-Norderney. In their presentation, it was explained to us how this rehab facility worked. This facility is a place for people to go after surgeries primarily for orthopedics or COPD. A patient will spend three weeks at the facility exercising, learning about their health, and ways to prevent their condition from worsening. The supervisors have each patient wear a heart rate monitor 24/7 to make sure they are getting adequate exercising. They can choose from a variety of activities including yoga, running, lifting weights, basketball, and swimming in the pool or beach. They have scheduled activities, but the heart rate monitor makes sure the patients are putting a full effort. The patient must also learn about parts of the body they damaged and ways to improve their health. A patient is usually assigned to this rehab facility by their doctor after a failed attempt of rehab. This can be an intense three weeks for some people not used to exercising and following directions. The success rate is only about 5 to 7 percent. A success means the person altered their lifestyle by making better choices and avoiding another surgery. The rehab is paid by the government and cost about 5000 Euros which is equal to $7500. The cost obviously is a big factor, and the government has had programs taken way. For example, analysis on how people sleep has been taken away because it costs too much money. After the rehab visit, Nils challenged us to take a dip in the North Sea. This was pretty exhilarating because it was pretty cold. Not many people were swimming, but we all just ran in to the water. I was jumping up and down trying to get my blood flowing. We only stayed in for about 15 minutes but it was a blast. Nearly everyone got in the water including Dr.Wasser. After swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, we had a game of ultimate on the beach. It was sometimes a little rough on my feet because of the shells and hard sand. But it was fun anyways. I will always remember swimming in the North Sea. After drying off and changing clothes, we went across the street from the hostel to eat at a beer garden. I had Hawaii pizza. It was pretty good, but except for the fact that they don’t put sauce on their pizza. After dinner, we went out to the beach because it was nearly sunset. The horizon was beautiful and sand was soft. It was a bit chilly, but the gentle breeze really made it special. We went to bed after watching the sunset.

The next morning we had breakfast. I had some rolls and salami. This morning we set out to go Wattwanderung. We first had to take a bus onto the other side of the island. We met up with a guide, and we started hiking. The terrain was mostly sand dunes and short grasses. He explained to us that this part of the island was only about 300 years old. The sand had accumulated and built up the island. Since this was a national park, there were no houses or civilization on this part of the island. We walked for about 2 kilometers and then we started the Wattwanderrung. This activity is pretty much hiking in mud. We had high top converse sneakers so we could walk through it. Some of the time it took much effort to walk, but other times the ground didn’t sink. The Warren Sea is special because the low tide and high tide are drastically different. The high tide is about 3 meters high, while the low tide is at the sea floor. This allows us to walk from one island to the other. If you were to stay out in between the island, you would become flooded and trapped in the water. In fact there was a boat out in the middle of the sea. Since there was no water it couldn’t go anywhere. They have to wait out in the middle of the sea until the high tide comes. There were oysters that we cracked open as well and several people ate them. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to eat one. We also saw oysters bury themselves in the sand. We placed them on the mud and after a few minutes, they dug themselves to the bottom out of sight. We also saw crabs having sex. We picked them up and disturbed them. When I was grabbing one of the crabs, the one on the bottom finally slipped and fell. We walked about 4 km in the mud. It was pretty exhausting but worth it. After getting to the next island we all had fries and beer. After eating, we went to the sealcenter to watch the feeding of the seals. This was pretty interesting because even though the seals look cute and cuddly, they eventually have to be left out in the wild. They become more aggressive as they got older. After the sealcenter, we headed over to the Walloseum. This was a whale museum. They actually had a skeleton of a sperm wale. It was very neat to see how big this animal was. After the museum, it was time to head out to Amsterdam.