So close!

After thoroughly saturating myself with forms, pre-travel-I can’t-sleep-jitters, and wool clothing, I cannot wait to step foot in Deutschland! I feel as though the past few weeks have been hurdles to get through before this, the most incredible classroom I could possibly imagine, is staring me squarely in the face. My biggest goal for this trip is to be a huge sponge. I want to take in all I can, both of the German culture and locals, and of this new perspective into medicine. We’ve been given an awesome opportunity to consider how people worldwide have solved medical problems in the past, and how different cultures approach current problems in medicine. This alone would knock my socks off, I hope that it sheds a new light on what possible role I personally can play in helping the advance of medical technology. I guess I really would love a fresh way to think about biomedical engineering problems too; it’ll be like having a whole new set of mentors for three weeks! And, I’ve never seen a surgery on a human being in person, let alone a cardiac one, so I seriously get close to the point of jumping around whatever room I’m in when I think about it.

On top of all that, excited doesn’t even begin to describe being immersed in German culture, art, architecture, people, history, (I could list a million things here). The only thing I’ve come close to as far as cultural immersion goes is my grandfather telling stories of Sweden and the endless string of Lena and Ole jokes, which quite frankly doesn’t compare to seeing and hearing firsthand what countless generations of people have built up and accomplished so that Germany can be the intriguing and beautiful country it is today. Forty-nine hours!