Hallo and Bonjour!!

I can’t believe that I’ve already spent a full four weeks here in Germany. In fact, tomorrow it will be exactly a month since I left Texas! Even though I came into this program feeling really uneasy and nervous, it has far exceeded my expectations and blown me away with everything I have learned so far. This past week began with the long weekend, which has been my favorite weekend of the trip thus far. I got to meet up with one of my friends from school in Paris and I completely fell in love with the city. Paris is one of the only European cities that I have visited before this summer, but I loved it so much from my previous experience that I jumped at the opportunity to go back. It was so shockingly beautiful to see every last building’s stunning architecture and I found myself unable to describe the feeling that came along with just walking the streets of such a historical city. I felt like every corner and street that we turned down in Paris was more beautiful than the last! Probably my favorite part of this weekend though was the incredible food and drink that we enjoyed. Given the choice, I would eat pastry, cheese, and bread every day of my life, all things which you can find on every corner in Paris. On Monday afternoon, I found my way to my train, only to find out that it was delayed for 2 hours. My initial travel itinerary had me switch trains just once, but due to the delay of the first leg of my travel, I ended up having to switch trains 3 times. I felt so proud of myself for navigating this and adapting on the fly. I really believe that if it were a few weeks ago that this happened to me, I would not have handled the situation nearly as well as I did. Being here has given me a newfound confidence and independence to face the unknown, even in a situation like navigating hours of travel on my own.

My favorite experience from the program this week was the opportunity to observe surgeries on Wednesday within the cardio wing. As someone who wants to go into nursing, I have never pursued any opportunities like this before, so I was nervous about what my reaction would be in this setting. Once I got into the room where they were prepping the patient, I started to feel a bit lightheaded and woozy while watching the doctors work. I stepped out for a few minutes and by the time I came back, they had taken the patient into the surgery and were about to begin the procedure. Unsure of how I would react once they began the surgery, I tried to be really cautious with where I was standing so I could easily slip out if need be. However, I actually felt completely fine once the actual surgery began and I found myself fascinated watching the surgeons perform bypass surgery on the patient where they grafted a blood vessel from the leg to attach to the heart. I have never seen a real beating heart before and it was such a surreal experience that I will never forget.

This week I also really enjoyed the excursion to Bingen on Friday. I really enjoy learning about Hildegard and how powerful and influential she was as a woman and leader in general during a time when women were not often listened to. The boat that took us down the Rhine was another one of my favorite things from the week! Being from a suburb of Dallas, I still find it hard to believe that people get to live in such a beautiful place as this that is surrounded by such history. It’s definitely going to be hard to go back to Texas after visiting and seeing places that are so rich in beauty and history.