Day of Charite...and other stuff

I got to see the megacolon in person today! What a completely unexpected treat. I know it sounds strange to be thrilled at meeting in person a 15kg, meter-ish long large intestine once filled most uncomfortably with fecal matter, but you must understand that only weeks before, I stared in disbelief at a PowerPoint image of the megacolon in developmental biology class, wondering if Dr. Lekven was really serious about such a thing. Weeks before that in the same class, we had learned about neural tube formation during human development and how important folate was for the neural tube to close anteriorly. If a mother was folate deficient, her child might be born anencephalic, missing a large chunk of the brain. Guess how many anencephalic babies I identified today....three! I think the museum trip today was among the best events of the trip so far, partly because I had one of those moments where you realize that the things they teach you through class and books are actually very real and applicable and also because we had the best story-teller museum guide ever who found remarkably vivid ways to ensure that his guests realize that the art of medicine was at one time incredibly primitive and actually quite brutal.
The visit with the medical students was quite enjoyable as well. I learned the basics of both intubation and suturing, which are skills that can never be learned too early in medical school or practiced too much. The visit also made me realize how lucky I am to be about to go to medical school in the USA. Yes, I will have to pay a lot of money, yes, afterwards I will have to deal with lawsuits and such, but I will be training at an institution at which students at even as medically advanced countries as Germany are longing to study. I gained quite a bit of inspiration, perspective, and gratitude for what I have as an American through this visit and am a bit giddy to be starting medical school come Fall.
The Pergamon visit during our free time today was a bit stressful. One hour was not enough to see and really take in everything in there. However, the Babylonian gate was quite impressive, and I really appreciated the free tour recording things that did an excellent job of explaining the significance of what I was seeing. Despite the stress of running around the museum, trying to see the most important stuff, I'm glad we went. I had no idea that Berlin housed such an important collection of ancient artifacts, and found it amazing that so much could be salvaged from civilizations thought to be among the first in the world.