Never Stop Traveling

Last Wednesday we left Hannover to go to Norderney, which is a German island in the North Sea.  We took a ferry out to the island, which was an interesting trip. Seagulls were following us the entire way, hunting for any snacks we may leave unattended. I saw a seagull take an entire hamburger out of a child’s hands when he wasn’t looking; it took a few seconds for him to realize what just happened before balling his eyes out. That day in Norderney, we ran along the beach and did some exercises and yoga, the chanting was a little weird, but overall it was relaxing. That night we rode our bikes to the lighthouse, there were bunnies everywhere. Apparently a few of them caught a ride on a boat and now overpopulate the island. Last Thursday we gave our presentations and spent the rest of the day at the salt-water spa. My favorite was the body temperature pool with a high salt concentration, It was so relaxing that I dozed off a few times.

On Friday we left for Amsterdam and spent the night there. It was a cool city with a lot of canals, but because we had to walk forever to get anywhere and the prices were very high, I wasn’t too sad to leave and go to Belgium the next day. In Belgium we saw a cool church that was see through dependent on your perspective. We also visited the Texas A&M war exhibit in Bastogne; it was really cool to see how A&M was recognized for its involvement in the Battle of the Bulge and Normandy. I finally got to try a real Belgian waffle and it was ten times better than I was expecting to be, I’m already having withdrawals. I really want to go back someday.

On Sunday night we traveled back to Bonn so that we could head back cologne and visit the zoo. Yeah, we never stop traveling. The goats were definitely my favorite part of the zoo; I was bummed when the goat area was closed during our free time. On Tuesday we got up early to watch some surgeries at the Uniclinics of Bonn. I was expecting us to be observing the surgeries from behind a window in an observation room, but we got to be inside the operating room with the surgeons and the anesthesiologist. It was so cool. The first surgery I watched was on an older overweight woman who was a heavy smoker. She had a growth in her tibia that needed to be biopsied. It was a pretty simple surgery, but because she was a heavy smoker, she went into respiratory arrest when being woken up. It was cool seeing how the doctors dealt with that. The second surgery I watched was the removal of a woman’s tailbone. They said this was a very rare operation so it was cool to get to see that. My favorite surgery to watch was the replacement of a man’s aortic valve. It was an open-heart surgery so I did get to see his heart. I watched them stitch in the new valve and restart the heart by slowly taking him off the heart-lung machine and squeezing all the air out of the heart. The doctors said that the heart will usually start back up on its own, this man’s heart tried to, but it couldn’t establish a rhythm. The doctors jump-started it with little paddles they stuck right on the heart to shock it. The heart started right up and he began to breath again, which was cool because I could see his diaphragm and lungs moving right up against the pericardium membrane that surrounds the heart’s cavity. Unfortunately I had to leave before they closed his chest. Watching surgeries was a great experience, and kind of makes me want to consider being an anesthesiologist. Yesterday, we went on a Rhine cruise and saw more castles than I could count. Afterward, we hiked up to one of the largest castles on the Rhine, it was cool to see how they designed it to withstand attacks, and also dump their sewage on enemies if they got too close.

Today is my last day in Bonn, we head to Berlin tomorrow where the program will end on Tuesday.