Multiculti Berlin

   The first impression of Berlin I experienced during the festmile on New Years was that it was a culturally diverse and vibrant city, and throughout our stay this remained true. "Multiculti" Berlin offered so many opportunities to learn about history and the German's past. On our tour of the city it was surreal that we were standing over the very spot where Hitler took his last breaths, or where the first victim of the Berlin Wall was killed.  History lessons pale in comparison to experiencing and learning  simultaneously.
   Dreaden was our destination for one day and it was quite beautiful. The street musicians played  classical music as we walked along the old buildings and enjoyed Turkish cuisine.  The treasury housed some of the most incredible and intricate objects from centuries  ago as well as the world's largest green diamond. We visited the Hygiene Museum and acted as our own tour guides, which was quite a  feat  considering  all of the captions were in German.
   Our last  full day in Berlin we visited the Charite  Hospital and  learned about the old and somewhat barbaric practices of medicine. The museum housed a collection of preserved diseased or misshapen body parts, and it was fascinating to see conjoined twins or the brain of a Syphilis patient. We also had the opportunity to visit a practical training center of the medical school and speak with German medical students. Getting  their perspective on medicine and learning the steps to becoming a German physician was interesting, and they even taught us how to intibate a training dummy. There are many similarities between the United States path towards becoming a physician, however it shocked me that the only basis of being selected for medical school was grade point average.
    Before leaving for the free weekend, we made a visit to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. This was extremely humbling and brought the Holocaust into reality for me. At that very  location, thousands were murdered and their bodies burned. Such a horrific camp now seemed so peaceful and it served as a reminder to be thankful for all the blessings I have.  As we rushed to make our train to Prague , I hoped for the best since we had absolutely nothing planned. As the train rolled away, Berlin became a memory and I will never forget my New Years spent there.