Week Three!

This week was filled with so many exciting trips and opportunities! The first couple of days we had class in Bonn. It felt like it had been forever since we had attended school in Bonn and went home to our host families every night, but it felt so good to have a “home” again after ten days of living like nomads.

On Monday, Dr. Wasser gave a lecture about the evolution of people’s perspectives about pain. It’s crazy to believe that pain was seen as “necessary” at one point in time, that pain was thought to be “deserved by women”  when they gave birth as a result of the fall of Eve. We later went to visit the Horst-Stoeckel Museum of the History of Anesthesia, where we were personally guided through the museum by Professor Stoeckel himself. The museum consisted of a huge variety of items from the development of anesthetics over the years, and it was incredible to see Professor Stoeckel talk about his exhibitions because it was obvious that he was so passionate about them. We then visited the Haribo Store in Bonn, where we saw just about every type of gummy sweets. It was surprising how cheap the candies were. I definitely did not buy enough candy that day and plan to go back to the shop before I leave Bonn, because I envied everyone who had Haribo candy to munch on throughout our excursions during the week. The next day, we visited the Beethoven House in Bonn after class. Olivia warned us about the creaky wooden floors of the house before we went on the tour, and indeed she was not exaggerating when she described how squeaky and loud the floors were, but this only made the house and Beethoven’s house more real to me.

On Wednesday, we left Bonn early in the morning to take a train to Hannover. We visited the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and enjoyed a presentation given by Dr. Schmitto, a cardiovascular surgeon at the hospital. He explained the workings of the LVAD—Left Ventricular Assist Device—that the hospital used to aid patients with heart problems, particularly Dilated Cardio Myopathy (DCM). We then got to talk to one of his patients as he so kindly and openly shared his medical history with us. The next day, we spent the entire morning at the medical school and received lectures from Dr. Reimers and Dr. Kielstein. Dr. Reimers gave a presentation about the genetic research they were doing with axolotls and methods the researchers were using to pinpoint the genes associated with the animal’s highly exceptional healing ability. Before this day I had no idea such animals existed, but I never thought they would be so unbelievably adorable. When we went inside the lab to look at the axolotls ourselves, I couldn’t help but to think about where, and exactly how I could get an axolotl as a pet back in the States. Afterwards we went inside a room full of spiders that were also being studied in the MHH. The silk from the webs of these spiders were apparently stronger than any other species, and Dr. Kielstein shared a neat story about how inserting the spider’s silk in her open cut vastly helped heal her wound. We then had a lecture from Dr. Kielstein about health care systems and dialysis followed by a visit to see one of the patients that were on the dialysis machine. I honestly felt bad for disturbing the patient, who looked quite uncomfortable with tubes sticking in and out of his body, but it was neat to learn and see how dialysis really worked.

Later that night, we traveled once more to the beautiful little town of Emden, and checked in at a lovely hostel. On Friday, we took a ferry to Norderney Island to go on the mud flat hike we have all been waiting for all week! The island is considered a “National Park,” where the nature is practically left alone without any boundaries. I thoroughly enjoyed the mud hike, as we walked through many different kinds of clay/sand/mud and learned about the land and its animals. Going through this hike was neat because it made clear of the “healing effect” of this island and further brought attention to nature and its necessity in our lives. We then visited the rehab clinic on the island. There, they had plenty of unique machines and methods, many of which involved their natural surroundings, to improve the health of the residents of the clinic. It was quite a pleasant place and I certainly wished that I were attending this rehab clinic. From the beautiful scenery that we saw to the relaxing clay that felt so good on our feet, I loved visiting Norderney Island this week. It has been yet another amazing week in Germany and I can’t believe we’re already more than half-way through the program. I hope to spend the next two weeks soaking in Germany as much as I can and enjoying my time in Europe while I’m here.