The journey is almost over

After a long and confusing train ride, we had made it to Berlin! Of course we got straight to business and started out on our bike tour. For this tour we split the group and got helmets, which were good ideas considering we had some accidents at Norderney! I really liked our tour guide because he made it easy to navigate the city and had some great information. Even with the busy city streets, there was always a place for the bikes which is something Houston could benefit from. One of my favorite stops on the tour was what remained of the Berlin wall. Its crazy to see it in person and think of all the history those walls saw. Learning about the lives that were lost trying to get over the wall really brought into prospective how bad things were. The next day was filled with more harsh reality when we visited the sachsenhausen camp. To realize how small the town was and how they claimed to not know what was going is mindboggling. They said the Nazis would march prisoners across the town and talked about the smell and ash that came from the camp chimneys. The prisoners were obviously in terrible deteriorating condition and almost everyone turned a blind eye. Its hard to believe that they didn't know what was happening when ash and the smell of burning flesh filled the air of the city. It would be interesting to talk to a resident of the city that lived through that time. It always gets me when becoming more aware of all the terrors that took place in concentration camps. The most impactful part of the museum is seeing all the personal items people had before everything was taken from them. It makes you realize that they were just regular people and that it could happen to anyone. That is why I think it is important to preserve the good and bad parts of history. We must truly understand how it took place so we never repeat anything like it again. Since the Nazis tried to destroy the evidence most of the buildings were gone but the outline of them still remained. The most impactful building was what was left of the gas chambers. You could still see the outline of the rooms and a diagram that explained each one. I could not even imagine walking through those uncertain halls. It was for sure an eye opening day. Later that day we got to walk around and see the city of Berlin! After that almost everyone went out for drinks with Henning! The first place we went to had good music and interesting drinks but we did have an incident happen. As we were sitting there a man walked through our table and grabbed Karen's purse! She noticed and yelled for the guys which ran after the man and luckily he gave it up right away. That definitely was a reminder that we were in the city and had to be more careful. I am so glad Henning was there to guide and look out for all of us!

On day 3 we fought off the rain and headed to the alchemy museum! I was fascinated to see the origin of chemistry and the different believes. The objects all looked like they were plucked from a sci-fi movie. I wish we could have taken pictures because the craft of some of the objects were unbelievable. Even though some of the past beliefs were far fetched is still is amazing how much they discovered for that time period and the equipment available. I found all the Chinese artifacts super interesting! Obviously I couldn't read anything on them but they looked so sophisticated and complex. We also sat and watched a chain reaction video that went on for 30 minutes. It was different because everything was chemistry based and had a lot of different reactions.
The Otto Bock Science Museum we visited had a very interesting history. The way our tour guide spoke about the past company Nazis influence was in a different attitude than we were use to hearing. He seemed to be in his 20's and called the history boring and spoke of it very casually. When it comes to the war I'm use to very apologetic German attitudes. I think with this generation of Germans they know they had no influence with the war and its in the past. Seeing all science and mechanics that goes into a prosthetic limbs was so cool! It just shows another field of medicine that can affect the everyday lives of people.

The tour of the hospital with the med student was one of the most interactive medical tours we've been on! I liked that the tour guide was someone our age going through medical school. The classes and exercises they have there are so unique. One of the classes I would have loved to take was the exercise where an actor pretends to be a patient in order to get ready for real life situations. Paisley and I acted out shocking a patient with the defibrillator machine, which was so fun and realistic. After we were done with all the tours, a small group of us braved the cold rain went to the pergamon museum. There we saw the gates of Babylon, the bust of Nefertiti, and so many other timeless artifacts.

I cant believe its time to leave Europe and all my new friends.. During free time we organized to get pictures, cards and a bottle of wine for Dr. Wasser, professor Waltz and Henning. It was just a small gesture to show them how grateful we all are for teaching us. For the goodbye dinner we went to a Moroccan restaurant for an amazing food experience. I have never been to a place where they wash your hands with rose infused water! The food was served in this huge intricate bowls and was to die for! We all just pasted plates around and had a great time. It finally hit when we all where taking pictures outside. I am so happy I got to go on this great journey with all these amazing people! As sad as it is, I am ready to take all  my gained knowledge back to the states!