Last Week in Bonn

Some highlights from week four included the visit to the university clinic, the bike trip to Remagen, and the Rhine cruise.  It was a wonderful way to end our stay in Bonn.

Tuesday morning started off on a not-so-good note.  In order to watch the surgeries, we had to meet up at the Hauptbahnhof at 6:30.  No big deal.  I set my alarm for 5:30 and went to bed relatively early, excited to watch some pretty awesome stuff.  The issue occurred the next morning when I sleepwalked to my alarm and turned it off.  I don’t remember this happening.  All I remember happening was waking up at 6:34 and running downstairs to see if Mikaela had left and then seeing her freaking out as well.  We booked it to the tram stop, then to the Hbf, and then to Venusburg.  It was quite a trek but we managed to make it to the clinic with time to spare!  The surgeries were amazing.  I love how ORs in Germany are called operating theaters.  It’s like a beautiful symphony is being played in the room.  Surgery is that to me so the name fits well in my opinion.  The first surgery I saw was an orthopedic repair of a osteoporotic woman’s spine.  There were fractures in her cervical spine and what the doctor did was inject this cement into the bone.  It was cool to see him do everything precisely and carefully, but still efficiently.  The next surgery I saw was the end of a bone repair of a tibia and fibula.  The patient had nasty fractures in both bones and had even had a skin graft 8 weeks prior so this time the surgeon was hammering plates onto both bones so they could reform.  It was the first orthopedic surgery I had seen with large incisions and with so many power tools so I definitely appreciated it.  I had read before that orthopedic surgeons were like carpenters in the day and watching the surgeon handle all of the hammers and screws and screwdrivers validated that statement.  It was crazy.

On Wednesday we biked 44km total to and from Remagen.  The bike ride was one of the most beautiful I had ever been on.  The Rhine River was gorgeous.  I think that if Texas/College Station had anything like that more people would be up and about and the obesity level would be down.  But then again, we had our bike ride on one of the most perfect days of the year.  There were people out everywhere.  Remagen itself was also a perfect German town.  I knew very little about the Remagen Bridge and its importance in WWII but I learned a lot from Mr. Kurten during the peace museum tour.  I don’t think I will never know how it feels to be in a war so hearing the perspective of a man who went through such a tragedy was a blessing and a great thing for me to hear.  The bike ride back to Bonn was exhausting but I felt like a champ and had a wonderful nap once it was over.

The Rhine cruise day was long but wonderful.  We first went to Bingen and toured the Hildegard von Bingen museum.  I found the surgical tools to be the most interesting because of how similar they were to today’s instruments, but Hildegard was really awesome too.  I found the pictures of her visions to be pretty interesting and I liked how she had a lot of ideas and opinions about things.  Even though most of them were incorrect.  Girl power?  We then took the cruise to St. Goar and toured Rheinfels castle.  I had déjà vu and after talking to my mom I discovered I had been there 10 years ago! Who would have thought.  We got back to our host families and had to say goodbye.  It was tough because I really bonded with my family and I appreciate everything they did for me.  My host mom had her birthday at midnight so we ended up staying up late and having a dance party.  We then took the train at 4am to go to Switzerland.  It was a bittersweet goodbye to Bonn.  I will have to return at some point.