Berlin Wrap-Up

Wednesday we visited the Charite where we were able to get a little hands on training at the skills lab. The Charite training center is run by students who are able to help fellow students hone their skills. Best of all we got to work on some of their training equipment. I am by no means ready to be a doctor, but I think I might be a little better at sewing up a wound, just don't ask me to intubate anything. I loved getting to play with coolstuff in the training center, but my favorite part of the day was definitely the Charite museum. We had yet another lovely tour guide who led us through the museum and provided some history on the development of medicine along with some good anecdotes. The museum also houses a collection of medical curiosities and specimens which I found quite intriguing. With our free time we visited the Pergamon museum which houses beautiful, not to mention enormous, Roman and Babylonian artifacts as well as a really cool Islamic art exhibit.

Thursday we visited Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp outside Berlin. I knew that seeing a concentration camp would be a difficult experience but the gravity of the topic was only amplified by the cold and drizzling rain. I can hardly imagine the daily lives of the people subjected to the concentration camps. While I used to think it completely absurd that people would try to deny the holocaust, I am beginning to see how one might really find it hard to believe. While it was difficult to force myself to think about the reality of what happened in Sachsenhausen, I am really glad that I had the opportunity to go there. It is a piece of history that should not be forgotten.

After we returned to Berlin, we visited the Otto Bock Science Center. I loved seeing the mechanics behind prosthesis and how things I've learned in my basic sciences tie together to create miracles for people who might otherwise be seriously disabled. Prosthesis is amazing, because it gives people an independence that they could probably never have without it. So cool.

Today, Friday, was our last day in Berlin and we wrapped it up by visiting the Max Dellbruck Center for Molecular Medicine. My favorite thing was the MRI. I had not realized that there might be other uses for MRI other than imaging, but after speaking with a scientist working on a 7T MRI I know that there be uses for killing cancerous cells non-invasively. Yet again, so cool. Science never ceases to amaze me. These are they days that I am so glad this is the route I chose to go down. Every day brings new discovery and new opportunities.

Now off to Prague!