Bonn/Cologne – 12/30

Yesterday we visited the Kölner Dom, which is the tour I have looked forward to most during this trip. I am a devout Catholic and have never visited a cathedral with such a history, much less in a different country. I felt extremely lucky to attend mass there and was even luckier to know a decent amount of German to understand some parts. I was disappointed that the order of the mass was not in the hymnal, so I couldn’t say the common prayers, but I was able to sing along with the hymns. On top of it, yesterday was the Feast of the Holy Family, a holy day that is extremely important to me, and I was surprised to see that the Kölner Dom contained many images of Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary, patron saint of pregnancy, mothers, and grandmothers, and my personal patron saint. Having the opportunity to receive communion on this trip definitely made it that much more awesome!

On our city tour of Cologne, we were able to see many Roman ruins and also some preserved artwork, my first exposure to anything so old. I was shocked to hear the story about refugees sleeping in the old Roman coffins on display outside in the city center… I am glad to be hearing such small stories otherwise not shared in books! Learning about Agrippina and the gnomes that supposedly lived under the city in the old days gave us an idea of how deeply rooted tradition and stories are in the culture of this area. Learning about Tünnes and Schäl gave us a good idea of the dynamic between the East- and West-Rhine regions, mainly consisting of a competition. At the same time seeing the Love Lock bridge between the two regions (also an extremely busy train crossing) was a poignant indication of universal understanding of some kind.

Today we visited the University Clinics in Bonn, and I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to see an open-heart surgery. I have never technically been in surgery before but only cardiac catheterization labs; I was pleased to be able to extrapolate some of my knowledge from those experiences to this one. In addition I learned about the process of cracking open a chest cavity, prevention of blood loss, and the heart lung machine. I had a chance to talk more personally with the doctors in the break room, mostly about the difference between ‘stay and play’ and ‘scoop and run’ emergency medical care and which countries practice each. Megan and I were given some practical jobs, like sanitizing the patient’s skin and hooking up monitors, which was an opportunity impossible to have in the states. I wish that we could have seen more about the actual patient care in Germany, for instance how hospital stays are conducted and how doctors interact with nurses and their respective responsibilities. All in all, though, this was a fantastic experience, not to be topped by our New Year’s celebration in Berlin tomorrow ;)