Ich liebe Bonn

Week 4 is now complete. This means only 2 more weeks left studying abroad. I don't think I want to leave. This truly has been the experience of a lifetime. 

Day 23 (June 18): This day started with our last German lesson. We learned how to talk about “mein familie” or my family. I am kind of sad that we won’t be learning more, but I am glad that we were able to get to learn enough to get around. Maybe I will do Rosetta Stone lessons when I get home and further my German. After this Dr. Wasser gave us a lecture on different health care systems of the world, focusing on the US, Germany, and Britain. I found this lecture to be very informative and interesting. From the get go we were told about the free health care offered here in Germany, but I always wondered what that entailed. It was nice to get a break down of each system and learn how they are similar and how they differ. It is crazy to me that in a developed nation like the US that if you are poor and do not have a job with health care you basically have the same health care system as a developing nation such as  Cambodia which is essentially no health care policy at all and pay out of pocket. For lunch, in between the lecture, we found a nice restaurant and I had a naan pizza type of thing. It was pretty good but strange to see how they used naan.

Lunch.

 After lecture, we went and got gelato from solo qui and it was delicious. Then we headed to the Klais organ house. Here we got a tour around their organ workshop. We got to see the mechanics of how an organ (the instrument) works and got to see what wood they use and all that goes into making the instrument. The coolest part was seeing just how massive they can be and how intricately they can be designed. They make their own pipes in the workshop from blocks of tin and lead and that was also very cool to see. Lastly, we asked him how much the most expensive organ they had made cost and he said around 3 million euros. That is insane. After the tour, we went home and spent some time with Carmen and Wolfram. 

Day 24 (June 19): On this day, we woke up super early and took a tram to the bus station. From there we took a bus to the Universitätsklinikum of Bonn. The Universitätsklinikum is a teaching hospital and has medical students and residents who train and learn there. For the day, we got the awesome opportunity to shadow surgeons in the hospital. The first thing we did was get split into groups and I was assigned to general surgery. Then we got to change into some scrubs and I felt super official. The first surgery I saw was one to fix a radial fracture. The anesthesiologist I was shadowing did not speak English, only German and Spanish so to communicate with him I had to dig up all the Spanish I learned in middle school which wasn’t a lot. It was okay though because I asked the nurse in the room all my questions and she was able to explain what was going on. They put a plate on her radial head and it was crazy because I could see the crack (fracture) going down the middle of the head of the radius. After that surgery, I saw surgery on a hand that had been run over by a bus. For this one, I couldn’t really understand what they were doing, but it seemed like they were isolating nerves up the arm to see where the damage extended. Lastly, as I was about to leave Maddie told me she was staying to watch cardio surgery and I had never seen that before, so I stayed to shadow the cardio surgeon. We saw an aortic valve replacement and it was such an incredible thing to see. The surgeon who was performing the replacement was very nice and very interested in explaining what he was doing/ teaching us about the surgery which was awesome. I was able to ask all my questions, get answers and actually understand what he was doing. He also genuinely seemed interested in us, so we were able to have a good conversation with him. We only meant to stay until around 1 pm, but we ended up leaving around 6pm because it was such a cool experience. I am very grateful to the Universitätsklinikum for letting us come in and see that and also to the last doctor who I learned a lot from.

Squad- felt really official.

Day 25 (June 20): In the morning, we had a few lectures from Professor Waltz on the neural networks and auditory signaling pathways. After that we had a lecture from Dr. Wasser on the History of Anesthesiology. This was a super cool lecture to hear since my mom did her residency in Anesthesiology. Then we went to the Anesthesiology museum and got to see how anesthesia has changed over the years. The man who created the museum, Dr. Stoeckel, was a very interesting person and it was cool to see all the different items he collected over the years and it was also cool to meet him. One thing in his museum that was very interesting to see was the iron lung machine used for polio patients. Also, he had an exhibit that was an actual old surgery room and it was very neat to see how it was set up and how he preserved it. 

Very cool preserved surgery room.

Day 26 (June 21): On this day, we had our excursion to Bingen. In a previous lecture, Dr. Wasser had taught us about Hildegard von Bingen and now we went to visit the city she was from. We arrived and it was beautiful. The Rhine flowed through and there were vineyards that stretched up the hills on the other side of the river. We received a lecture from Brother Jeremius (Dr. Wasser in a monk outfit) in the Hildegard von Bingen museum and learned more about all the things she did (visions, medicine, composer). She was a force to be reckoned with and it was cool to learn about a women figure who made advancements in medicine. Dr. Wasser sang for us also and it was super cool. Then we went to the Hildegarten and saw different kinds of plants used for medicinal purposes.

Bingen.

 After that we ate lunch and gelato and then headed on the Rhine cruise down the river. It was very pretty and relaxing. A bunch of green hills with vineyards surrounded us and ruins of castles were around every corner. 

View from Rhine Cruise.

We took the boat to Braubach and hiked up to the Marksburg Castle. The Marksburg Castle is the only castle not conquered in Germany so it was very well preserved. We got to have a tour through it and it was super cool. We got to see the old kitchen, rooms, lavatory, and outside area. The view was beautiful from the top of the castle and it was very interesting to see how the castle wasn’t as lavish as I expected it to be. 

View from Marksburg Castle.

I really enjoyed the tour and getting to see all the different knight armor over time was cool. After the castle we headed back to Bonn. It was a nice evening when we arrived so we went to the bier garten and relaxed there before heading home.

Another view from castle.

Day 27 (June 22): This weekend we decided to stay in Bonn and explore. First we headed to the Birkenstock outlet in Bad Honnef with Carmen. We had heard that birkenstocks are way cheaper there since they are produced in Germany and it is an outlet store. It was super busy since it was a weekend, but it didn’t disappoint. I was able to find a pair for my sister, mom, and me and Maddie and Carmen bought some too. We were all super happy when we left there. Then we went on a hike with Wolfram and Carmen up to Drachenfels. Drachenfels is a bunch of castle ruins and on the way up there is Drachenburg or Dragon castle. It was a very pretty hike through the valley up to the top. On the way up, Wolfram told us a little bit about the area and gave us a small history lesson on what we saw. At the top we got to see a beautiful view of the Rhineland. 

View from Drachenfels.

We ate lunch at the top and then hiked down. They decide to also take us to St. Petersburg hotel area where dignitaries stay when they visit Bonn. We drove up there and got to see another very pretty view. 

 Carmen and Wolfram are the best host parents.

From there we hiked down to our village, Oberdollendorf, and walked to our house.

Hiking.

After the hike, we were tired so we relaxed a bit and then went to hang out with some friends. We met them at a wine festival in Bad Godesberg and relaxed for a bit. Then Maddie and I went and experienced Bonn’s night life. The night started at Old Jacob’s bar which had some fancy cocktails and a very cool vibe. Then we went to the Blow Up and Die Unterground after. We met some interesting people at both places and got to dance which was fun. Our tram came every hour to take us back to Oberdollendorf and we lost track of time. By the time we made it home it was after 4 am. The birds were chirping and the sun was starting to rise. I’d call that the signs of a good night. 

Day 28 (June 23): Since we stayed out pretty late the night before we didn’t wake up and get ready until 11 am. This was my first day staying in that late and it felt great. It was a very hot day, so Maddie and I decided to go to one of the many public pools Bonn has. Carmen gave us a picnic blanket and beach towels. We grabbed some fruit and headed over to Bad Honnef. There were so many other people heading there too. When we got there, we found a place in the shade and laid out. There were so many other people of all ages there enjoying the pool. While laying out, we ended up taking a nap and it was so refreshing. After our nap, we went to the pool. There was a water slide so that is naturally where we started. Then we jumped off the high diving board and just relaxed in the cool water. It felt so nice in the burning heat. After the pool, we went back and laid out, listening to music and reading our books. It was such a nice summer day. After a few hours, we headed back home and ate dinner and spent time relaxing and talking to Carmen. 

It was so nice spending a weekend in Bonn and getting to hang out with my host family. Next week we are going to Vienna and I am super excited for that excursion. Dr. Wasser has a lot of cool activities and lectures planned for us and I think it will be very interesting. Here's to week 4 being complete!