Halfway Point

It's been a few days since my last blog so time to recap:

Tuesday 01-03-12
We took the two hour train ride to Dresden and started off by visiting the Frauenkirche and the Lutheran church definitely lived up to its iconic image. Dresden was definitely the most beautiful city that I have seen in Germany so far, which is probably why the people of Dresden are so proud of their city. This is all the more amazing considering the fact that almost the entire city was destroyed by the Second World War. After our guided tour, we then headed over to the Deutsches Hygiene Museum. Unlike all the other places we’ve visited, this museum actually required us to do a little bit of work. The museum contained information about things such as sexual activity, nutrition, and sensation, which was awesome since it provided a well-rounded perspective of health.

Wednesday 01-04-12
The Charité Medical School was a really fun and interactive place. Despite learning about the German medical school process from Dr. Wasser, it was interesting to hear from the perspectives of actual medical students. We were able to learn and perform various medical procedures such as intubation and suturing from the student tutors. They were very helpful and genuinely seemed to enjoy working with us which was really refreshing. The procedures which are routine for doctors were not as easy as they look and it was awesome just getting to do things that I hope to learn one day in medical school. Before heading out to the Charité Pathology Museum, Dr. Wasser gave us a lecture about Rudolf Virchow, who is considered the father of pathology. It was pretty cool that we got the lecture in the same exact room as where Virchow gave his talks! We got to see some pretty crazy stuff like the megacolon and babies born with only one eye. It was amazing to me to see how small errors can completely derail the complex machine that is our body.

Thursday 01-05-12
The concentration camp at Sachenhausen was one of the most “memorable” experiences in my life. I’ve learned so much about the conditions of concentration camps but to actually see it up close was slightly rattling. To know that more than 30,000 people were killed there at that very site was a hard fact for me to wrap my head around. In addition, the way in which they mechanized the killing process was super disturbing to me. After leaving the concentration camp, we got some lunch and made our way to the Otto Bock Science Center to see the prostheses exhibits. Since I want to get into sports medicine, it was really cool for me to see how biomedical technology is developing and its integral role in the future of orthopedics. And the interactive nature of the exhibition really made it enjoyable as I was able to experience how one feels while using some of the devices such as a prosthetic leg.

Off to Prague!!