Recap

Axolotl

It's a little over two weeks into the study abroad and I finally have all my pictures uploaded and good enough wifi to recap the first week! Right as we were getting used to Bonn, we left for Hannover where we spoke to researchers working with spider silk and axolotls. I was really interested in the research they were doing with the axolotls, which was replicating how they regenerate when a body part is damaged so that they can help human skin regenerate. This has the possibility to completely change cosmetic surgery and is extremely dear to my heart. When my younger brother was two, he had first, second, and third degree burns and had to have skin grafts from his neck to his bellybutton. As he grew, the scars only faded slightly and some of the grafts did not stretch as normal skin would. The result was limited ranges of motion for his arms and neck which could only be fixed with more surgeries. Skin regeneration, depending on the scale of the ability to do it, would mean much less scars (if any,) normal skin color, and that the skin would have a much better chance of growing as the individual did. There's such a wide range of medical uses from this one study that so many people would benefit from. I definitely hope to see significant progress with this soon! Next, we talked to a cardio resident about heart pumps and left for Norderney the next day.

The island was very cold, but beautiful and quiet. The air was so clean and unpolluted that we had to pay a tax just for breathing their air on Norderney!

My absolute favorite part of our few days there was going to the spa. The mud treatment ended up being worth it and made my skin super soft. I really enjoyed all of the different pools, especially the hottest one and the one with a salinity equivalent to that of the dead sea. The last day that we were there we had a guide take us to the mudflats where the tide had washed all of the water out from between the mainland and the island. She pointed out a variety of animals that lived in the mudflats.

Eventually we made it to the end of the mudflats where the sea was. She showed us the cute jellyfish that were floating around and as we enjoyed the view, the tide started to come back up very rapidly! I took a short time lapse video. (hopefully it will work below!)

When we left Norderney, Megan and I headed to Prague for our free weekend. We saw many things including the Charles Bridge, Prague Astronomical Clock, several squares and even a latin america festival. On Sunday we had quite the adventure. We started out at the Prague Castle where we just happened to see the changing of the guard which was super neat.

Next we went to the Petrin Lookout Tower on top of a giant hill/mountain. The map app that we used told us to go on a lot of small trails, some of which were very steep and narrow. I thought this was really weird that this was the only way to get up to the tower because it got pretty harsh at points. Regardless, we didn't have internet to look it up and we finally made it. We get all the way to the top, climb the tower, take in the beautiful views, come back down, and start going back down the hill/mountain. About halfway down, what do we see???? A CABLE CAR   .......


Needless to say we are probably never using that app again.

Once we got down, we saw the memorial to the victims of communism and the John Lennon Wall, which were both beautiful in their own ways.

Peace out,

Chey