Beez in Berlin

Our time in Germany has flown by, and is officially coming to the end. This is the last week of the program, and I have so many mixed feelings. Although I am ready to go home, see my family, and eat some Tex-Mex, I don't want to leave Europe just quite yet. Our last two days in Bonn were spent exploring the city, reminiscing on the time we spent here. We went back to all of our favorite restaurants, hit up the stores we had been meaning to go to, and reluctantly packed up our belongings.  We couldn't leave without one last visit to the HARIBO store.

We then loaded up our excessive amounts of luggage and made our way down to Berlin. Our first day in Berlin, we participated in a "My Berlin Day," and it was one of my favorite things we did on the trip. We were split up into groups and each given a "spirit guide" to spend the day with and learn from. My group had the amazing opportunity of following Silke, a beekeeper from Berlin. We started off by going into one of her areas where she keeps her bees, which happened to be in the middle of a graveyard. At first it was very nerve racking and unsettling, your standing here and bees are just flying all around you, brushing past your hair and arms. She taught us about the important aspects of bee keeping and what as a bee keeper, you must know to be successful. We learned so much from Silke, in such a short period of time. She then showed us the hives, opening them up and taking out different sections of the honeycomb. We all got to hold parts of the hive, which was insane bees were still on and in the piece we were holding!! We got to try the different "stages of the honey", eating pollen, the wax produced by bees, the honey still in the comb, and then the final product. It was interesting because you could really taste the difference between the stages of the honey, but also how they related to each other.

We then went to a beautiful urban park where we had lunch and hung out. After we got to go to another bee hive, where here we ate honey RIGHT OUT OF THE HONEYCOMB!!! Now when I tell you that this was the best honey I have ever tasted and that no honey will every be as good, know that I am not lying and you can ask anyone in my group (cassidy, brian, alexa, arianna, jen, megyn, and stone), and they will confirm. Spending the day in Berlin with Silke was both and eye opening and delicious experience. T

he next day we got to go to a medical museum, which was cool because they had some very unique pathologies preserved and on display. We then went to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp outside of berlin. It was interesting, because a group of us had just seen Auschwitz the weekend before, so we were really able to see the striking differences and similarities between the two.  Learning about World War II and the Holocaust, in Germany is such a unique and eye opening experience that I truly feel everyone should experience at some point in their life. You get so many different perspectives learning it in Germany, which really broadens your understanding of how the horrors that took place were able to occur.

Leaving Saturday was so hard!! This past six weeks have been absolutely amazing. I have learned so much and have truly grown as a person. I feel like now I have a much more expanded world view, and a much deeper appreciation for countries that are not my own. I can not me more grateful for Dr. Wasser, Alexa, and Henning. Without them our trip would have been totally different, they gave us so many amazing and unique opportunities.