Dresden and Bonn [1/3-1/6]

The third was another on-the-go day. As is the fashion, it involved a train; this one brought us to Dresden. Upon arrival and a little walking, we were greeted by our tour guide in front of a Lutheran, Baroque-style church. It was perfectly uncharacteristic of a Lutheran church, but perfectly Baroque. Later, we saw a large yet rather bare Catholic church. They are an intersting pair to share Dresden, but both wonderful and unique. It is interesting to note that for a city with such large churches, 80% of the population claims no religion. This is a product of East Germany's unique history. I was impressed by their resolve to rebuild. It can't be easy for a city that is bombed to pieces to wait so long or fight so hard to restore what they can of their beautiful city on the Elbe. After lunch, which I'm certain was something delicious, we headed to the Hygiene Museum, which is a very interactive museum on biology, health, and wellness. We had a lot of fun picking our favorite aspects of each room and presenting them to our groupmates. The fourth of January revolved around the Charité training center ann museum. We were given a tour of the training center and a presentation of what medical school can be like in Germany. Then they let us learn and practice some skills on their training resources. We got to intubate a dummy, suture, take a part a model brain, and many other things. The Charité museum was very intersting and had a great many kidney, bladder, and gall stones. The museum was full of examples of health and disease, and since we all made it through without passing out, I'll admit the mega colon made me a little uncomfortable. I wrote down a lot of words so that I can look up a description of the disease or defect in english. Definitely sparked my curiosity. January the 6th was a hard day, but one I expected from the start. Sachsenhausen required a lot of mental preparation. I tried to really see the the camp as it would have seemed to someone who was told "this is where you must live, and these are the rules you must follow. I felt it was necessary to let the reality of what happened at this concentration camp sink in and, as these museums and memorials are intended, to bear witness to the people who lived or died there. The Otto Bock Science Center was a really exciting experience for me. They are cutting edge biotechnology and had a really interesting exhibit of prosthetics and other real 'game changers '. This was fascinating to me from a PT perspective, and I know that keeping up with current biotechnologies is important for giving patients the best therapy and treatment. On Friday we went to the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine. Highlight there for me was the MRI machine. 7 Tesla and my earrings and bobby pins were trying to jump off my body. Even my body itself felt strange due to the magnetism. Also exciting: I had broccoli. Thats right, I stubled across a real, green vegetable in Germany and it was delicious. After that it was bye bye Berlin and Hello Prague. Welcome to even stranger languages and lands!