Not a goodbye. It's a see you later, Germany (and friends)

My stomach hurts.  Not because of something I ate or because I've caught some kind of illness.  It's because I'm sitting here typing this blog in Frankfurt, Germany (The city I flew into 6 weeks ago) waiting to get on my flight back to the United States.  It's because the past month and a half have surpassed my expectations with flying colors. And because I'm scared that some of the best weeks of my life are now behind me.  Although I've never met anyone that enjoys having a knot in their stomach, I wouldn't have it any other way.  See, it signifies that the time I spent here was life changing and just what I wanted it to be and more.  I would be much more disappointed if I was sitting here writing this with a happy stomach.  Its hard to express in words how thankful I am to have been blessed to experience this trip. There aren't many people my age that can say they visited 7 countries in 6 weeks. Knowing this I was humbled into making sure that I saw every second as an opportunity to absorb as much culture and knowledge wherever I went.  So I have plenty of thanks to give including God, my parents, Dr. Wasser, Professor Waltz, Henning, and every single one of the 24 other A&M students who made this trip unforgettable.  Anyways I'll cover more about my overall thoughts in a later blog once I'm home for a bit, but felt the need to let that out real quick. I still have to write about our near perfect finish to the program in Berlin.

Our last week was finally upon us, this time without a home in Bonn to come home to.  We were on the train to Berlin early Tuesday morning.  Although our first train being delayed caused us to miss our connecting train by a couple minutes, Henning saved us and found a quick alternative that only put us behind about 25 minutes.  When we arrived it was a quick turn around after we dropped our bags off at the hotel in East Berlin.  All 8 guys were put in one big penthouse room which was awesome and not what we were expecting at all.  About 15 minutes later all of us were back on bikes for a tour of all the big historical places in Berlin.  Surprisingly there was only 1 minor wreck that happened within the first 5 minutes of us starting.  These stats are immeasurably better than the ~7 that occurred in Norderney that had much less traffic than Berlin did.  We saw the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial of the Murdered European Jews, and even stood where above Hitler's bunker where he is thought to have committed suicide.  This spot was even more interesting to see because without the tour guide I would have never known where to go to find it.  It's a random patch of grass in front of some modern looking apartment buildings and next to a road.  I even got to stand with one foot in what used to be East Berlin and with the other foot in what used to be West Berlin. What astonished me however is how open the Germans are about their history during WWII.  They embrace it with a certain outlook that is unmatched by other countries embrace their dark times.  Now I know the holocaust is one of the worst things to happen in the world at the blame of human hands, but they could have easily gone the opposite with the attitude thing.  They want everyone to understand what happened as well as possible so that we know not to make the same mistake in the future.  Even though we all sometimes (including me) fall into the trap of "oh well that could never happen today and of course not to us".  It's SO important to realize that these people that committed such terrible acts were human too and were convinced in their minds that what they were doing was actually for the good of their people.  It's a scary and dark realization but vital to continually remind ourselves of this truth.  This thought allows us to take a step back as people and reexamine the present state of the society we live in.  This realization made me excited to learn more but also nervous for the next day when we were going to visit the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

On Wednesday when we got up to head to the concentration camp I had a weird feeling of uncertainty  about what emotions I was about to experience that day.  When we entered you could immediately tell that something terribly dreadful had happened at this place.  Even if you had no idea about what it was, the presence was there.  The phrase "Arbet Macht Frei" was written across the front gate which translated to "Work Will Make You Free".  Just a small but powerful remnant of the type of manipulation that was going on back then.  Now whether the prisoners actually believed it or not I don't know, but I have a feeling it didn't take them long to realize this was just a front. Our guide took us to the hospital rooms where terrible non-medical experiments were done on prisoners and also to the crematorium.  The crematorium immediately gave me the creeps because you could almost feel the horrible things that had happened and couldn't help but imagine the numbers of human lives lost down there.

Thursday we visited the alchemy fair, which despite what you'd think was not a fair at all but really a museum for pieces relating to alchemy.  We got to see a private collection that even Dr. Wasser hadn't seen yet.  There was a piece called "The Heroes Journey II" that was so cool and ironic because this is the journey that Dr. Wasser has been explaining to us for the past few weeks and one that we embarked on ourself.  It was a big glass container of urine that was lit up by lamps on either side, interesting piece to say the least.  After a lunch break we headed to the Otto Bock Institute where innovative prosthetics have been produced for years.  The building we toured was extremely modern and interactive giving us the chance to see what it's like to walk with a prosthetic.  I had no idea the problems we face today with prosthetics and the incredible engineering that is put into creating a new leg for people.  That night it was time to go to the Blink 182 concert everyone had been so excited for.  It seemed like fate as Blink-182 had a concert booked in Berlin on the Thursday before the program ended while we happened to be there.  Despite the rainy weather on the way to and from the concert it was one of the best nights of the entire trip.  It was awesome to see the legendary drummer Travis Barker alongside Henning (our legendary drummer) when I had just talked about Travis Barker with Henning during the second week of the trip.

The last day finally came and it was as bittersweet as it gets.  We got to sleep in a bit (much needed after the late night concert) and then had a final History of Medicine lecture finishing up the doctors trial.  After this we went to the actual History of Medicine museum which was a lot about how pathology developed through time.  This tour guide was one of the better ones we had, in my opinion at least, and really set the scene for the circumstances doctors were in at times in history to explain why they did procedures certain ways.  The last tour we had of the program was one of the Charité Medical School by one of the students there.  During this we learned about the differences in how one attains a medical degree in Germany than in the United States.  It was quite interesting and actually got me thinking about how things could be done differently in the United States.  Later that night the final dinner was upon us.  We went to this Moroccan restaurant that was delicious and a perfect way to go out.  We revealed the picture frames and letters we made for our three program leaders and things got emotional quickly.  Henning also brought us all CD's of his bands newest album with every members signature on it.  Needless to day I'll definitely be taking the time to dig up a CD player so I can listen.

For me it didn't hit me until the next morning when everyone was actually gone that it was over. I guess I just naturally felt I would just see them the next day as had been the last 6 weeks.  But the realization that it would never write be the same again (even with us all back in College Station) really sunk in on Saturday.  Joseph, Hailey, and I were headed to Dublin, Ireland for the last weekend before we flew out of Frankfurt so our adventure wasn't completely over yet.  I'll talk more about how I'm feeling looking back in my next conclusion blog, I think I need some more time to process everything and maybe a little time back in the U.S. to really understand what I'll be missing. See you soon Texas and see you later Germany.

Tchüss,
Nick