dream on

week 5

I’m not entirely sure how we got this far in this quickly, but here’s what happened during our very last week in Bonn. I’m hoping that this one isn’t quite as long as the rest, but you know how that usually goes for me.

Monday was supposed to be a nice, slow start. But, before I got out of bed, I received an email from Waltz asking where everyone was, as class had technically started already. Apparently, there was a schedule change none of us were informed about, and we all had to make it AIB as quickly as we could. I’m not entirely sure, but I believe this was the lecture that was very, very neuro heavy and poor Prof. Waltz did his best to explain it to us. It was some very complex material, but he somehow managed to simplify it into something that we could understand. Honestly, the bottom line of that lecture was “it’s all much more complicated than this.” But anyway, after lunch (I don’t remember where we went), we headed to the organ factory for a tour. I’m not gonna lie, this was not the excursion I was most excited for, but it proved to be much more interesting than what I expected. Our tour guide was very clearly extremely passionate about her craft and answered all of our (my) many questions about all the logistics of ordering, making, and shipping an organ. It’s some intense stuff. I really like that it’s all handmade and that if you order an organ from two different organ makers with the exact same specifications, you’ll get two instruments that sound completely different. We finished up our tour, and the rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Or at least I think because honestly I’m not really remembering it. One thing I do remember, however, is that I went to bed very, very late. This becomes important later. Moving on.

On Tuesday, we all split into two groups, one going to the university hospital and one going to AIB for lecture. I was in the hospital group, which meant getting up and being ready to go very early. Not only was I sleep deprived, but I also ran late that morning, so I ate a very small breakfast. I had also totally not made the connection that this hospital visit was the one where we were going to watch surgeries. If you can’t see where this is headed yet, this next part will definitely tip you off. Before this day, I had never been in an operating room before. The closest I had ever gotten to watching a surgery was Grey’s Anatomy and YouTube videos. So, when Dr. Wasser gave us the warning speech about how some of us will probably faint, I took him very seriously. Fast forward a bit, we’ve all changed into scrubs and are being assigned to our surgeries. I’m taken to an OR, not feeling totally myself and honestly a little shaky, and I meet the anesthesiologists I’ll be with. They’re both super nice guys, and they tell me not to worry if I start to feel light-headed, but that I should tell them. Then they jump into the explanation for what the procedure is, and BAM. I get dizzy. Very dizzy. Very quickly. Before they’ve done anything surgical. So a very embarrassed me takes the next 15 minutes to sit by herself outside of the breakroom with a glass of water. I still felt a little shakey afterward, but I was determined to go back to the OR in a timely manner. Everyone was really understanding which was nice, but I still wasn’t sure about myself, so I sat myself on a stool up against the wall for a long while. It ended up being a really long while, actually, because the surgery didn’t end up starting until probably 9:30-9:45am. Once the surgery started, I was completely fine. I was better than fine; I was fascinated. The procedure that I watched was eight hours long (I didn’t finish it) and basically, the patient had jaw cancer, so they were going to excise a tumor on her cheek. That was actually part 2 of the surgery. The first part was taking out her lymph nodes from her neck and the third part that I didn’t see was the reconstruction of her cheek by using tissue from her side. It was honestly crazy. To get to the tumor, the surgeon cut horizontally right under eye, down the side of her nose, and zigzagged through her philtrum and lip. At one point, the surgeon had the entirety of the woman’s cheek flapped back and her face was literally cut wide open. The tumor itself was probably the size of large clementine. And the surgeon was so focused. The entire time she stayed hunched over the patient, not talking, just diligently working. It was quite the sight to see, and I felt super privileged and lucky that I was assigned to that OR. Alana even joined me at one point. Unfortunately, I was not able to stay the whole time. We ended up leaving at around 2pm because it was a good stopping point in between parts 2 and 3, and we were all starving. We made it back to Bonn and decided to go to Hans im Gluck for burgers and even though the restaurant was super hot, it was such a good decision. It’s not quite like American burgers, but it was incredibly satiating. Afterward, Alana, Hailey, Kathryn, and I did a little bit of shopping because Alana wanted a new swim top. We went around the shops a little bit but were honestly really tired, so we all headed back to our host homes after a bit. The night was uneventful (again, I’m hoping because I don’t remember it) and I went to bed pretty early.

Wednesday was the day of the Rhine cruise. Once again, we were up bright and early to meet at the old AIB to get on the bus which was freaky nice and had so much legroom and seats that could recline very far back. We ended up at the Hildegard von Bingen museum, which was pretty interesting. I really enjoyed learning about how Hildegard took charge and did her own thing. Boy do I love me a strong woman (down with the patriarchy). She was quite the gal. After a quick scavenger hunt through the Hildegarden (ha ha ha), we went to lunch which was interesting. It consisted of large platters of various dips and cheeses and sausages, which were pretty tasty, but unfortunately was only moderately filling. We finished eating and had some free time, so naturally Carter, Kathryn, Gabe, and I played on the playground. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Next, we boarded the boat for the Rhine cruise. It wasn’t totally what I expected it to be, but ultimately we just hung out onboard a ship that strolled down a beautiful river for an hour and a half, so I am not complaining one bit. We made it to St. Goar and after a little bit of wandering, starting climbing up to the castle. The view was incredible and our tour guide really knew her stuff. There was just one part I didn’t like: our tour guide led us down underground through this very short tunnel and it was pitch black. I’m not claustrophobic, but I do have some claustrophobic tendencies depending on the situation. This was one of those situations. It wasn’t even that bad in retrospect, but not knowing where exactly we were going or how long we were going to be walking or where the end was located got to me really quick. But, thanks to support from Kathryn in front of me and Carter behind, ya girl made it. Once the tour finished, we had the opportunity to take some pics at the top of the tower. We took full advantage of the view, thoroughly burning our butts and hands on the surrounding ledges, all for a picture. Next we went to a nearby restaurant for a delicious soup as a sort of dinner/snack/thing and Gabe, Carter, Eli (Sidenote: Eli was a friend we made from the film students that accompanied on us on this excursion. He’s currently making a documentary about string theory and is graduating at the end of the summer and is debating about moving to Germany.), and I had a good time talking about various things, like fraternities, cars, and whatnot (so they had a bit of a better time than me as far as conversation goes). Next, we all boarded the bus and made it back to Bonn, where Marissa, Karen, and I immediately headed to Hbf to go to Cologne for the 1975 concert!!! Marissa and I bought these tickets back in March/April because they were so cheap and the 1975 is one of my favorite bands, so we were pretty excited about it. Unfortunately, because of how late it was when we got back to Bonn, we missed probably a third of their set, BUT I still got to hear my favorite song by them and the rest of the set was amazing, so it was totally worth it in my opinion. Live music is seriously the best. It took us quite a while to get back to Koln Hbf, but once we did we had time to grab some food, so naturally we went to McDonald’s. It’s not something I’m proud of, but fast food is a necessity after a concert. We made it back to Bonn and back to my host home in actually a pretty timely manner.  

On Thursday, it was my group’s turn to go to AIB for lecture, which started pretty late so I got to sleep in a bit. Dr. Wasser gave us a lecture on the Nazi euthanasia program, and it was probably one of the most interesting lectures. So interesting, in fact, that it ended up running almost a whole hour late from all the questions (which also meant that Dr. Wasser cancelled our second lecture). But it was so worth it. We ended up talking about the racism that seems to be inherent in medicine and how students aren’t trained to give two people of different skin colors different treatments but somehow it happens. Dr. Suva actually had a ton insight on the subject, so I’m very grateful that he took the time to be there. Afterward, we went to lunch at a Chipotle-type restaurant Eli had told us about called Burrito Rico. It was no Chipotle or Freebirds (Freebirds > Chipotle) but it will do until I get home. Next, Alana, Kathryn, Hailey, and I decided to make the trek to the Birkenstock outlet. After 40 minutes consisting of a very sweaty tram ride and a walk along the Rhine, we made it inside. I was expecting more of a selection, but we all walked out with at least one pair, so I was happy. We made it back, once again sweaty and gross but alive, and I got back to my host home in time for dinner. The original plan was to go to a Spanish restaurant for tapas, but then Maike got sick, so instead we had a barbecue aka the German word for grilling. We ate some delicious kebabs and potatoes, and then I gave my host family their thank you gift which consisted of all NASA stuff: t-shirts, pens, magnets, stickers, and astronaut food. Noura LOVED it so so so much, and it made my heart very happy. My mom sent four shirts of different sizes because we were unsure, so Noura ended up taking the extra, oversized one so that she could wear it with leggings like American girls do. I thought that was pretty great.

On Friday, we had another lecture over sauna in the morning before we went to the Cologne zoo. (Our trip to the Beethoven house was cancelled, which I was actually pretty disappointed about.) We all brought our stuff for the weekend with us to lecture so we wouldn’t have to go back home and could go straight from the zoo to the airport…except Gabe. It was quite hilarious that he somehow missed the entire conversation we had (that he was definitely there for) about it, so he had to go home during lunch to get his stuff while we all went to the German restaurant we all went to on the first day of class. We got to the zoo, where our guide started showing us around rather quickly, actually. The zoo is quite large though, so I understand that we weren’t going to be able to see everything in the time allotted. Our guide told us various facts about the different animals (meerkats, flamingos, buffalo, elephants, etc) and showed us the old place where they used to keep the elephants and rhinos before finally taking us to the grand finale: feeding the elephants. Now this was an experience. We got a new guide, Dennis, who was super dope. Young, strapping gentleman that was not so confident in his English skills but you could tell just a really great guy. He showed us the room where they prepare the feed and prep for taking care of the elephants. And then finally, we all lined up to take our turn. I was in the back of the line, so I decided to film everyone while they fed the elephant. Finally, it was my run, so I grabbed a couple pieces of bread, which I proceeded to drop somehow because I missed the trunk, bend down to pick them up, and then I achieved success and got to pat her trunk. What a beast. I truly think this was another one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Also, it was only after I had finished that our original tour guide told me not to bend down in front of the elephant because they take it a sign of submission (and could decide to attack you). So that probably would’ve been helpful to know beforehand, but hey, I’m fine. We got to do it multiple times, and it really was just so cool. At one point, the baby elephant even came up to the bars to say hello and it was truly adorable, even though Dennis said we couldn’t interact with it. Once we were all satisfied, we went upstairs to a room where we got to see the desk with all the screens connected to the cameras in the exhibit. Apparently, someone has to sit there at all hours of the day to make sure that everything is okay. We then went back to wash our hands and were officially let loose for the weekend. We had some buffer time so we decided to go see the animals we had missed during the tour and then go to the aquarium/insect exhibit. The aquarium was really cool, and Kathryn and I tried to go through the insect exhibit but after a run-in with a grossly packed Madagascar cockroach exhibit, we deuced out of there really quickly and got some gelato instead. We made it to the airport and boarded our flight. Gabe and I attempted to watch Casablanca, but we were too tired to pay attention, so we ended up just hanging out instead. Also, apparently for Germans, when the fasten seat belt sign goes off, it means to get up and have a party so the whole ride was super loud and funny in retrospect. Our plane was also super cheap, so there were no pockets on the seatbacks and our seats didn’t recline. It was fun. We arrived in Mallorca and got a cab to our Airbnb, since it was in Santa Ponsa, not Palma. I actually got to use my Spanish skills, because even though I told our cab driver that I speak English and only a little Spanish, she continued to talk to me like I knew Spanish, and I was actually able to understand at least a little bit of what she was saying, enough to get an understanding. We made it to our Airbnb and pretty much passed out in various places and woke up at different times to take showers. We were kind of a mess. We finally made it to bed, probably around 2 or 3am.

On Saturday, we woke up and ended up getting to town around 10:30am, where we stopped for breakfast. We then went to a supermarket for snacks and drinks before heading to the beach…for like eight hours. It was a great time. We literally just hung out all day. It was surreal. Sitting on a beach in Spain with white sand and crystal clear blue waters with some of your best friends and a killer view is something you only hear about in books. We were living the dream. There’s honestly not much else to say about it because we literally did nothing all day. Finally, at like 8pm, we decided to get all our stuff together and get off the beach for some dinner. We picked a restaurant that seemed to have authentic food, and even though we were definitely underdressed, we still had some great food. I had a parmesan mac and cheese dish that was super delicious. I probably could’ve eaten five plates. Unfortunately, as we were eating, the sun was setting. It was almost perfectly the golden hour, and we were still at dinner. Me being me, I actually ended up leaving dinner early because I was done eating, to head down to the beach to take pictures. I really wanted them to come with me, because I love taking pictures of them but alas it didn’t happen. I walked up and down and still got some rad pictures before everyone else came down. I actually got a really great picture of them from behind. I thought I was being sneaky but Carter somehow detected me but decided to be a bro and tell the rest of them not to move. I tried taking pictures of them at that point, but it was too dark. We ended up standing on the beach jamming to music for probably another hour or hour and a half. Only once it actually got dark did we decide to head back to the Airbnb. Once again, we all just hung out, took showers, played some music, and stayed up entirely too late before turning in for the night.

On Sunday, we were supposed to get up and head to the beach at 8am, but instead ended up being ready to go at 10am. Kathryn (who had gotten food poisoning the night before) and I ended up staying at the Airbnb almost an hour later than everyone else while waiting on our host to let me know how to check out. We finally made it down to the beach and Kathryn decided to go get herself some breakfast. Today, we stayed out of the sun a little more as everyone had varying levels of sunburns. At one point, my legs were buried and Carter carved out a mermaid tail, and at another point, we had Gabe buried all the way up to his neck. We had to leave the beach early in order to get to the airport on time but our flight ended up being delayed anyway. Before heading to our gate, we decided to get some food, and Hailey and I took the plunge and went for McDonald’s for dinner. We boarded the plane, and this ride ended up being a quieter one, but we of course still had a good time.

This week was one of the less eventful ones, but honestly the weekend is what made it stellar. It’s still so weird to me that we were somehow able to pull of a relaxing beach weekend on a Spanish island in such short notice, and for it to be on the (somewhat) (relatively) cheap side. Also you’re welcome for a slightly shorter post.

JMD