This week was quite bittersweet because it was our last week
in Bonn. When I got home from Paris on Sunday night, I couldn’t believe that I
was about to start my last week in this place with my host family. I know I’ve
said this a lot, but the time seriously has flown by so fast. It feels like
I’ve hardly been here for any time at all, and I wish I had more time, but
sadly I do not.
Monday
morning started off with a bang when we all woke up to an email from Waltz
asking where the hell we all were because class was supposed to start at 10:15.
Everyone had told us 11:45 though so that was awkward. I kind of panicked and
got ready in 7 minutes and made the next bus to Bonn. He was very understanding
though which I appreciated, since obviously there had been a miscommunication
somewhere. Also, props to him because he managed to still fit two lectures into
one lecture time slot, and we didn’t really lose any time. Those lectures were
rough though because they got into neuro, and neuro is super complicated. The rest
of the day went relatively smoothly. We got to visit one of the largest organ
factories in Europe later that afternoon. This was not what I had expected, but
it was
very cool. I was blown away by the amount of work that goes into one of these
organs. The whole process from ordering to installation usually takes about 3-4
years. That is mindboggling to me. It takes them upwards of 4 months just to
even install the dang thing. These people have to be so committed to their
craft because it requires so much patience. There isn’t any instant
gratification; it’s all delayed. So I have a lot of respect for those people
that put their heart into their craft. They showed us how they make the pipes
and all the different kinds of pipes, as well as demonstrating what some of
them sound like. The amount of pipes that go on one organ is unreal. These
instruments are incredible masterpieces that are truly works of art. That tour
was something I thought would be boring, but I’m really glad we got to go do
that.
Tuesday was a pretty
awesome day because we got to go to the Uniklinikum and observe surgeries! I
wasn’t sure how this would go because typically in the US, you have to stand
far away and you can’t see much and they don’t let you touch ANYTHING. This
experience was quite different though. I was paired with an anesthesiologist
who spoke really good English, and he was really cool. Right off the bat, he
had me interacting with the patient and helping to put her under. I got to bag
her, which was something I had never done before. It’s a really weird sensation
to know that you are breathing for someone, and you quite literally have their
life in your hands. Very cool though. After this they had to intubate the
patient, and this anesthesiologist looks to me and is like, “Hey, have you ever
intubated?” I’m like, “uhhh no, no I have not,” while quietly thinking, I’ve
never even witnessed an intubation before. And so this guy has me visualize the
epiglottis and then HANDS ME THE TUBE. HE’S LIKE OKAY YOU GOT THIS. LIKE WHAT.
So yeah I got to put the tube down her throat, and that was pretty sweet. I
definitely don’t think that was legal, but oh well. Everyone then continued to
prep her, and he starts having me prepare syringes. I’m getting a little of
this, a little of that, and then he’s like okay give her 7 mLs. So I gave her 7
mLs. Also pretty sure it can’t be legal for me to administer anesthetics, but
once again YOLO. I continued to administer drugs the whole time. Basically this
guy had far too much confidence in me, but it worked out. This first surgery
was a kyphoplasty, and the lady had apparently fractured one of her vertebra,
and they had to inject this cement stuff in there to stabilize the vertebra. It
was a fairly quick procedure, which surprised me. They also squeezed out some
of the cement stuff for me to feel, and it was so strange. It started out like
silly putty, and very quickly got harder and warmer. The warm sensation was
something I didn’t expect. It was really interesting though…the things we put
in our bodies am I right ;) Our patient had a difficult time waking up from
surgery. I know what you’re thinking, and no it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t push
too many drugs. Have some faith. It took quite a long time, but the
anesthesiologist remained so calm the whole time. Never once was he worried,
and he was so patient. I think that must be a prerequisite for the job, because
they all seem to be like that. I however was starting to get nervous.
Eventually, she did wake up, and she was fine. He said he thinks he probably
over anticipated how much pain meds she would need and that made it more
difficult for her to wake up. With the next patient, it was pretty much the
same routine. We got to the part where he was going to put her IV in though,
and he looked at me with those crazy eyes again and says, “Have you ever placed
an IV?” NO HOMIE I’M AN UNDERGRAD. I’ve done it on a dog, but it’s a little
different. Dogs are much easier, and nicer, and they can’t yell at you. So I’m
like, “No I haven’t.” And he looks at me like, you want to try? And I guess my
face said it all because he goes, “Okay, I do this one, you do the next one.
Good?” At this point, I just say, “Yeah for sure, sounds good.” *upside down
smiley face* Luckily, that moment never came. Turns out they were doing the
same exact surgery again, so he encouraged me to go see if there was anything
else I wanted to see. Naturally, this meant I went next door to visit Hailey
because I’m too scared to walk into an OR full of Germans who speak German and
just start observing if there’s no one in there I know. Go me. This surgery was
far different though. I had walked into urology. Admittedly, I didn’t see much
of this first surgery in Hailey’s room because I was too short to see over the
sheet. Hahaha hilarious I know. I did however get to see all of the next one.
The next patient had hydrocephaly in one of his testicles, and wow, it was
huge. I have no idea how something like that gets so bad without the person
doing something about it, because it couldn’t have been comfortable. The
surgery itself was very cool though. Afterwards, the surgeon took Hailey and me
to the next room where they were resecting a prostate. It was pretty much all
done endoscopically so all you could see was what was on the screen. Also, the
room reeked of burning flesh, but that’s beside the point. Sadly, we ended up
leaving after this because we were hungry. Granted it was like 2 o’clock when
we finally left, so it’s understandable. After taking far too long to find a
bus stop, we headed back to Bonn and went to grab something to eat. By the time
we finished lunch, it was close to 4, so we decided we didn’t have time to go
to the Birkenstock outlet. However, we (Jules, Hailey, Alana and I) did have
time for a little shopping. So we shopped for a few hours, and then I headed
home to have dinner with my host family. They took me to dinner at a restaurant
called Tao in Bonn, and it was delicious. These people were so nice. They
always want to feed me so much, so they got 3 appetizers and ordered me champagne
and wine. My meal was delicious. It was a spicy beef dish with jasmine rice,
very Thai. And of course, when we had finished our meals, they insisted that I
eat dessert, as they always do. I ordered the mango lasagna upon recommendation
from host dad, and I’ll admit I was initially skeptical, but it was probably
the one of the best desserts I’ve ever had in my whole dang L. And that’s
saying a lot because I’ve had some pretty amazing desserts in my short 20 years
on this planet. They also ordered me some espresso which was equally good. My
plan was to buy their dinner, because I felt like I needed to do something for
them since they had let me live in their house and had fed me for the past 5
weeks. But, being the amazing kind people they are, they refused to let me pay
for their dinner. Sorry mom and dad, I tried. I’m really glad I got to have
that dinner with them though because it was the last time we were all together,
and it was a really enjoyable meal.
Wednesday morning,
we were up bright and early for our Rhein river cruise. I was very excited for
this because I knew we’d be on a boat, and I have missed being on the water so
much. It turns out, the river cruise was actually a very small portion of the
day, but oh well. We first went and visited the Hildegard von Bingen museum.
This really truly was a cool museum, and Dr. Wasser gave a really good tour, as
usual, but for some reason, I couldn’t focus to save my life that day. I think
the sleep deprivation was getting to me, because I do not have ADHD, but my
mind was in 5 million places all at the same time. I also think I may have been
delirious based on the way I tried to illustrate to picture of an octopus
reaching down to grab Hilde that wasn’t actually a picture of an octopus at
all. It was pretty freaking funny though. Jules and I almost lost it at one
point after I had done my little demonstration of the octopus. We gathered
ourselves though and didn’t make a scene. Go us. After the tour, we went into
the Hildegarden (hahahahaha) to do a scavenger hunt of sorts. We were given a
plant to try and find, and Gabe, Hailey, and I found ours pretty quickly. We
ended up being the very last ones for Dr. Wasser to make it to though, so we
stood there waiting basically throughout the whole exercise. That’s okay
though. We occupied ourselves. Lunch was next, and it was provided by AIB woot
woot. It wasn’t super filling though because it was basically charcuterie.
Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but I was a little hungry still when we left.
Finally, we got to take the highly anticipated river cruise!! It was only about
an hour and a half from Bingen to St. Goar, but it was still really nice. The
scenery along the river is so picturesque. You look around and feel like you’re
looking at something that isn’t real because it’s so beautiful. On top of that,
there were schlosses about every few minutes along the river, which was pretty
cool. When we finally arrived in St. Goar, we climbed to the top of a schloss
for a tour. Our tour was pretty cool. We go to go through the old mine tunnels
and see the dungeon. We also went up the top of the tower, and the view from up
there was incredible. Obviously, we took lots and lots of pictures because it
was so pretty. This one’s for you Carter. I told you I was saving it for later.
On Thursday, we had
lecture, since we had been in the first group to go shadow at the hospital. The
lecture was really interesting, probably one of my favorites that we’ve had so
far. It ended up lasting far longer than originally planned though, so Dr.
Wasser let us go for the day when we finished, which was very nice of him!
Hailey, Jules, Alana, and I went to Burrito Rico to grab lunch. This place was
sort of like a Chipotle style place, and for Mexican food in Germany, it was
pretty good. I got nachos, and it was so nice to eat jalapenos and guacamole
after all this time. I really am a Texan at heart. We then trekked out to the
Birkenstock outlet in Bad Honnef. The train ride there and back was maybe the
most I’ve ever sweat in my whole life. It was so freaking humid and hot; it was
just gross. The Birkenstock outlet itself was actually not as big as I had
expected. Their selection was somewhat picked over, and you had to be careful
because some of the shoes really were only discounted maybe 4 euros, which in
my opinion isn’t even a discount. Side note: we are on the train to Berlin as I
write this and Jules just leaned over and started telling me about how she was
so sad because our time is almost up and things won’t be the same when we get back
and we won’t be able to travel to foreign countries together and we laughed so
hard we semi-cried and so now I’m sad. Back to the birks though. I still was
able to get a few pairs for myself, but they didn’t have what Maddie wanted or
one of the pairs Allison wanted. Sad day. More sadness. After we got back to
Bonn that evening, Alana and I decided to go to the Birkenstock store in Bonn
to see if they had the shoes we wanted. They didn’t. So I have to say, I’m a
little disappointed with the Birkenstock stores here. Y’all need to pull it
together. I got home that evening and Viky (host sister) and I realized it
would be just us for dinner, so we ordered Domino’s. The Domino’s there is like
fancy though. They have so many more European style specialty pizzas. We got
one that was salami, cheese and spinach or something, and it was sooooooooo
good. Shout out to Domino’s for being even better in Germany than they are in
America.
Friday was a pretty
busy day. We had lecture in the morning and then went to the Cologne Zoo in the
afternoon. The zoo was pretty fun. I mean what kind of person doesn’t like to
go to the zoo? A bad one. Our tour guide was pretty good, but she kept picking
the one single spot that was not in the shade for everyone to gather. This kind
of frustrated me because there were so many places in the shade, and it was
toasty outside. I stood in the shade anyways. They had a lot of meerkats that
were ADORABLE. There was even a little tiny baby one that was just a little
nug. It was super cute. The highlight of the zoo trip though was definitely the
elephants. We got to go behind the scenes with the elephant trainers to see
them. I even got to feed the elephant!!!! I didn’t get to pet it though because
I was so focused on getting the food in the trunk that I forgot to pet with the
other hand, and then the lady was like don’t forget to use your other had to
touch it, but she yelled, so I panicked because I just heard yelling and I
walked away. And I didn’t go feed it again because I was too scared I would
screw it up or get yelled at again. It was still cool though. The elephant was
a female, and she was about 30 years old. She seemed so friendly and playful.
We also got to see one of the new babies that was born a few weeks ago! It was
small, but for some reason I still expected it to be smaller. I’m not sure why,
because elephants are very large animals, so it makes sense that their young
are also large, but way, I was still surprised. After the tour was officially
over, we moseyed on over to the aquarium where they had all the fish, snakes,
bugs and other various reptiles. It was pretty warm in the building, especially
on the second floor. Jules and I went up there to check out the insects (why do
we do this to ourselves?) and it felt like we were going to suffocate. Also, we
only stayed for approximately 47 seconds because all the crickets and spiders
and centipedes freaked us out and we ran back downstairs. Everyone else was
still checking out all the fishies, but Jules and I were kind of done, so we
went outside and grabbed some gelato. Score. Just want to add in that I have my
gelato order in German perfected. I may not be able to say much, but you bet I
can order me some gelato. It’s all about priorities folks. It then came time to
head to the airport to catch our flight to MALLORCA!!!!! You may be asking
yourself, how in the world did they manage to arrange and afford a trip to
Mallorca just for the weekend? To you, I would say, that is an excellent
question, one which I regrettably do not have an answer to. My apologies. We
(Jules, Carter, Gabe, Hailey, Alana, and I) got to Palma pretty late, around
midnight or so, and we took taxis to Santa Ponça, where we were staying. Because
nothing can ever go right for us when it comes to taxis, our taxi driver went
the wrong way for the first 5 minutes or so. He realized his mistake on his own
though, and we ended up in the right place. No harm, no foul. Our little Airbnb
was actually pretty nice. It was your typical beach condo that you’d likely
find in Port A or Corpus or anywhere beachy. We quickly realized we were all
very tired though after we passed out not even all on our beds.
Saturday morning, we
slept in until about 10ish and got up to head to the beach. We grabbed brunch
at this restaurant right across from the bay, and everyone but me had
breakfast…I had nachos ;) These were actually better than the ones I had in
Bonn. The tortilla chips were better quality, the guac even had some lime in
it, and the cheese was real thick and melted. We were in Spain though, so I
expect more from them than Germans. Can you tell I miss Mexican food? After
brunch, we headed to the beach! We grabbed a spot in the sand near the water
and all lathered ourselves with sunscreen. The water was so blue and so clear.
It was beautiful. We didn’t deserve to be there. Upon taking in our
surroundings, we were quickly reminded that almost all beaches in Europe are
topless beaches. That took a while to get used to. But hey, y’all you do.
Everyone was doing well for the first few hours out there in the sun. We
reevaluated everyone’s skin to see if anyone was getting burned and would
reapply. One specific time, we got out of the water, and I was doing really
well, I wasn’t burned at all, which for me is almost unheard of. Gabe and Carter
left us to go get some snacks and drinks and were gone for maybe 15 minutes. I
had laid down on my towel and had my eyes closed. I knew they were back without
even having to open my eyes because I just hear them yell, “Oh my god Kathryn
your stomach is roasted.” The words everyone wants to hear when they still have
another day ahead of them on the beach. Sadly, they were not wrong. I didn’t
feel the effects of it until much later though. We stayed out in the water
hanging out until about 8ish I think. Earlier that morning, we had spotted a
restaurant that overlooked the water, and we decided we would eat dinner there.
We did, and it was really good. We had some good Spanish sangria and Alana and
I had paella with lobster and clams. I had been craving paella for so long, and
it was amazing. Sadly, this feeling would not last. We got to watch the sunset
from our table, and then went back down onto the beach after we finished
dinner. Jules got some awesome pictures of the sunset and of us too, as she
always does. Gabe took some good pics too. We all stayed on the beach until
almost all signs of daylight were gone, and then we headed back to the room.
Update, by now, my stomach was legitimately bright cherry red. It no longer
looked like skin it was so red. Also I basically couldn’t move because it hurt
so badly, so that was fun. Love the sun. At this point, I had begun to feel not
so great, but I just chalked it up to my incredibly severe sunburn and my sleep
deprivation. The more time went on, the worse I felt. Things did not end well
for me that evening, and I missed most of the nightly activities and
conversations due to my sickness. Everyone else had a good time though from
what I could tell!!! I didn’t go to sleep until around 3 am, and I think
everyone followed soon after that. I had overheard everyone before I fell
asleep saying they wanted to wake up at 8 am, and all I just prayed and prayed
that that wasn’t going to happen. It didn’t. Even Alana, who is always up far
too early, slept later than 8.
I still felt pretty bad that morning, so I was moving a little slow.
Jules and I ended up waiting at the condo for an hour to hear back from the
Airbnb guy about how to check out, so we made it to the beach around 11:30. I
went ahead and grabbed brunch by myself at this little English restaurant that
overlooked the water. It was the first time I had had eggs benedict in weeks,
and it was maybe the best breakfast I’ve had since I’ve been in Europe. I’m not
sure if it was actually that good or if I just really miss eggs. It’s a
toss-up. When I finished breakfast, I went down to the beach and hid in the
shade with Alana on the beach chairs for a while. Luckily, after I ate I
started to feel a lot better. My sunburn was still there though, so I avoided
the sun for most of the day. It got really hot at one point though, so I did go
in for a little while. I put so much freaking sunscreen on though, and my
stomach stayed below the water the whole time. No way was I about to let that
get any worse than it already was. Sadly, around 4 we had to head to the
airport to catch our flight home. We hadn’t eaten lunch, so we were pretty
hungry when we got to the airport, and there were somewhat slim pickings. I’m
somewhat ashamed to admit it, but Carter, Gabe and I ate at Burger King.
Honestly, I thought it was pretty great. I haven’t had Burger King since I was
probably 12 or so, and it was better than I remembered it. It could have been
worse though because Jules and Hailey ate at McDonald’s *shudder*. It’ll be a
cold day in hell before I go to McDonald’s, so that was out of the question for
me. I’m still convinced they tried to poison me with their “chicken” mcnuggets
in 8th grade. I have refused to eat there ever since, and I will
continue to hold my ground. We got to the gate only to realize our plane had
been delayed. I’m not sure what it is with us, but we always have a train
delay, or train cancellation, or flight delay. Nothing can ever be easy. Our
flight did end up leaving about an hour later than it was scheduled to leave,
but we still made it home at a relatively decent hour. My host dad had made
Goulasch for dinner, so I had some at 11 pm, and it was delicious. My host
parents were such good cooks. I really lucked out there. I got to chat with my
host dad for a while which was nice since he was leaving in the morning to go
meet host mom in Frankfurt for her work. This was really weird because I had to
say goodbye to him. It doesn’t feel like it should be time to go home yet, but
it is.
My last day in Bonn was pretty busy, per usual. We had two lectures,
very little time for lunch, and a site visit. We did however squeeze in some
time to go to Rednib and buy some shirts, which we had been meaning to do for
weeks. Our site visit was to the Anesthetics Museum started by Prof. Stoeckel
who actually lives in Bonn. His daughter was there to help supplement the tour
given by, you guessed it, Dr. Wasser! This man is like a bottomless pit of
knowledge. It’s unreal. We were able to see a lot of old machines and
apparatuses used for anesthesia, all the way back to the 1800s. This man had an
incredible collection, which even included an iron lung. I had always wondered
what they looked like in person, and lo and behold, I got to see one and look
inside. They are kind of eerie looking, more so in person than in pictures.
Even though I think a lot of us were tired, this museum visit was still a very
cool experience because most people will never get to see half the things that
were in that museum. And I think for people in the medical profession, it’s
important to understand how we got to where we are today, but in order to do
that, you have to acknowledge the past and understand it. I’m glad Dr. Wasser
took us there. Getting home was interesting. The bus we needed to take didn’t
seem to be running which was frustrating. It missed two cycles before a bus
finally showed up, and of course this was after some of us had bailed and
walked to another bus stop. It didn’t end up making a difference, but oh well.
We tried. I then had to come home and pack to leave for Berlin in the morning.
I was pleasantly surprised with how well everything fit into my bags. I was
worried I wasn’t going to have room for everything because I bought so much
stuff, whoops. Even though my host parents were gone already, I was able to
have dinner with my host sisters Rike and Viky. This was fun because I don’t
think I had gotten to spend time with them without their parents being there,
and they weren’t different, but they were more relaxed. I was really glad I got
to hang out with them for a little bit before I went to bed because they’re
pretty fun, and I will miss them!
This morning, we woke up early, and Rike drove me to the train station
with all my luggage because she’s an angel. For the past few hours I’ve been on
this train, trying to catch up on blog posts, reminiscing on all the cool
things I’ve had the opportunity to do in the past few weeks. I am so incredibly
blessed to have had this opportunity, and I can’t believe it’s coming to an
end. I am going to cherish these last few days in Berlin with everyone, that’s
for sure. The next time I blog I’ll be heading back to America, and I can’t
quite wrap my head around that…
Until
then….
