Our Final Week

Our final week in Germany is spent in Berlin. How in the world it is already the last week of the program, I have no idea. It has been a superb past five weeks and week six was no different.

Our last day in Bonn was Monday. We had our last in-class lectures, a pre-departure meeting, and a site visit. We had a little bit longer for lunch, so we used that time to go to Rednib. We had planned on checking out the store ever since Henning pointed it out to us at the very beginning of the program, but never seemed to have time before today. After a quick lecture from Dr. Wasser about the history of anesthesia, we made our way to one of only a few anesthesia museums in the world. Dr. Wasser led the tour through the exhibit. We were able to see how a lot of the equipment and techniques have evolved. We got to see an iron lung here as well, which was a bit creepy because of how confined it is. I cannot imagine spending years inside one. After the museum, we waited for our bus to take us back to Hbf. We waited but it did not seem to be running, so about half of us walked to another nearby bus stop, just in time for it to go to the original bus stop. We all ended up on the bus, so it still worked out. We just got in a few more steps for that day, right? I made it home and had my last dinner with my host family and Lily. We said our goodbyes because they would not be awake when I left the next morning, and I went to the apartment to pack. I was a bit worried about how everything was going to fit in my suitcase since I’m leaving with more than what I came with, but thankfully I also brought a duffle bag.

I woke up early Tuesday morning to finish packing and got on bus 610 for the last time. Our train was running late to get us to Cologne (typical), so we ended up missing our connection to Berlin. We were able to get on the next train about half an hour later though. We did not have reservations on this train. I lucked out and chose a seat that was not reserved, but it seemed like everyone else was playing musical chairs at every stop. After toting our luggage up and down some stairs, we dropped it off at the hotel and met up with our bike tour guides. Ryan did a fantastic job leading our group through Berlin. We went to a lot of historical places. One of my favorites was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. I think everyone feels something a little different when they walk through it. The architect of the blocks made sure every block is different. There are no two blocks of the same dimensions.  Our bike tour lasted a couple of hours and surprisingly nobody crashed or fell. Following the tour, we were released for the evening. Emily, Alana, Kathryn, Gabe, Carter, Jules and I immediately went to dinner. We ate some good Italian food at Vapiano where I left my water bottle. I was so close to not losing it the entire trip, but I knew it was bound to happen to me. Oh well. The gelato we got afterwards made it better. We all went back to the hotel to write our essays, but that somehow turned into doing gymnastics and Gabe, Kathryn, Carter, and I talking until about midnight.

Wednesday morning we went to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where Ryan led our tour. With this being the second camp I’ve gotten to visit while being in Germany, I was interested in how they would compare. When I walked through the “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate, I suddenly felt a weight on my shoulders. The layout of Sachsenhausen was in a semicircle around the main watchtower, so the prisoners would always have somebody watching them. It is so strange walking on the same grounds that so many people walked on less than 100 years ago, who were put through unbelievably hard conditions. We also went into the medical buildings where human experimentation occurred. Walking in, you could just tell that horrible things happened in these buildings, even without anyone telling you. After leaving the camp, we all went to a potato restaurant for a late lunch. Almost every item on the menu contained potatoes. This was my kind of restaurant. On the way back to the hotel, a couple of us stopped by the store and picked up some hair bleach. Carter said in like week one that he wanted to bleach his hair. We told it was probably a bad idea, especially so early in the program. I half-jokingly said I would dye it if he really wanted to though. Well, the time came. He was serious and I was going to be the one to do it. We planned on working on our papers while we waited for the color to strip from his hair, but that did not happen. Instead, we all gathered around watching as it slowly got lighter and lighter. After one box, I rinsed the color out and we about died laughing at how orange/yellow it was. So, we had to get another box. After box number two it was pretty dang blond. I think we all just stared at him for a while to try and get used to it because it was so different and so bright. I was just hoping he actually liked it because there was no turning back. Everyone else in the group was getting ready to go out with Henning, but none of us (the usual 6) had begun our papers, so we started working on them. I got the majority of my paper done and went to bed around 1:30.

Thursday we went to the Alchemy exhibit. It was an art exhibit portraying alchemy, which I thought was a very cool concept. We even saw a piece that depicted the Hero’s Journey, which oddly enough was a tank of urine. After seeing a lot of interesting pieces, we went to lunch at Vapiano again. What can I say? It was good. We all met up after lunch and went to the Otto Bock institute. Here we were taught all about how prosthetics work and how they have changed over the years. I thought it was pretty fascinating. There were a lot of interactive pieces that really helped me understand just how difficult it would be to live with one. When we finished here, we made it back to the hotel to finish our papers. After completing it all, except for the references, we got ready for the Blink 182 concert. It rained the entire way there, but it was so worth going! I only know a handful of songs by Blink, so Gabe and I ended up making random sounds and singing random words like “watermelons and cantaloupe” to the melody. Seeing Blink 182 live in Berlin was amazing and a lot of fun. On the way back to the hotel we realized how hungry we were since we did not have dinner, so Gabe, Jules, Carter and I stopped for a burger and fries. I ended up going to bed pretty late that night.

We got to sleep in on Friday morning, but when Kathryn and I woke up we quickly realized it was our last day here. I immediately got sad. We started our day with breakfast then our final lecture. We finished the lecture over the Doctors' Trials and and had another on Rudolf Virchow. We then went to the Charite medical school complex. First, at the museum of history of medicine, we were able to see an outstanding collection of anatomical specimens showing different pathologies. We also got to see a second iron lung. From here, we met with a medical student who showed us around their medical school. He showed us some of the simulations they do and let us actually participate. Alana, Kathryn and I were given the task of bring a dummy back to life. Alana did great with ventilating and Kathryn made sure we were all clear when it came time do deliver shocks. Lucky me, I got to give the compressions. At one point, he was talking to the class so I stopped to listen to him, but he quickly reminded me I had a patient to attend to so I could not stop. After the tour, we all headed back to the hotel to get ready in about 10 minutes for our farewell dinner. We ate authentic Moroccan food, which I had not eaten before. It was very good food and a great way to end our program. It was a bittersweet time, knowing this was our last thing to all do together in Europe. When we got back to the hotel, Alana, Emily, Jules, Carter and Gabe came to our room, where we stayed up watching Spirit and Shrek until a little after 3:00. We said our goodbyes and did our best to hold back our tears, knowing we were all going back to College Station. I woke up Saturday morning and said goodbye to Kathryn as she was leaving for the airport. A little later, I met Jules and Gabe for breakfast downstairs, said our final goodbyes, and we all went our separate ways. Gabe is headed for Switzerland, Jules is going to London, and I am making my way to Dublin for a couple of days with Nick and Joseph.