Monday was a rough one because of class all day, then for us procrastinators, we spent the evening writing the paper for neurophysiology. It was a bit of a bummer having to spend one of my last nights holed up in my room writing instead of enjoying my host families company for the last time. Maybe I should not procrastinate. I was able to, however, take a trip to the Birkenstock outlet to get some goodies for my family. I also joined my host family and Brenae's host family for a short dinner in the garden. My paper may not have been the best work I have ever written, but I am glad I was able to spend part of the day checking off some final things in Bonn.
Tuesday was a wonderful day. I celebrated my birthday with another full day of class. The AIB and my host mom provided birthday cakes for me and the class to share. Having a summer birthday, it was quite special to spend the day surrounded by classmates. We ate at Tacos for lunch, and after class we sat at an outdoor cafe, sipped on some wine, and laughed about memories from the trip. My host family treated me to dinner at a Chinese buffet, and let me tell you, Chinese buffets are just as gross in Germany as they are in the United States. Nonetheless, I was grateful they took me out to dinner and made it special. After dinner, it was a night full of packing before we headed out early the next day to Berlin.
Our Berlin excursion started early Wednesday morning with a five hour train ride. We were advised to spend the trip working on our final neurophysiology test, but I was exhausted from only two hours of sleep, so I napped. Once we arrived, we dropped our luggage off at the hotel and ate some lunch. Lunch was a bit of a struggle because we chose to eat at a cafe that decided to spend 45 minutes making paninis. After lunch, we toured the Museum of Medical History at the Charite Hospital. This may have been my favorite tour because of all the specimens we saw and our wonderful, interactive tour guide Tiny Tim. Following the museum was a walking tour of the city which showed us all the important features and history behind Berlin.
My Berlin day on Thursday was maybe my favorite and the coolest experience I had on the trip. My group had the pleasure of following Silke Meyer, a local beekeeper, artist, and environmentalist, around. First, we started in the back of a graveyard where her bee colonies reside. We got to wear those fancy little beekeeper hats to protect our faces and got to watch her bees in action. Silke is also big on herbs, so we got to walk around her garden area and pick stinging nestles straight off the bush and eat them. She also made us a smoothie, which I didn't like too much, and she brought some hummus-like spread to use with our stinging nestles. After visiting her hives, we ventured over to Prinzessinnengarten where we saw more hives, ate honey straight off the honeycomb, and enjoyed the most delicious, fresh salad for lunch. Prinzessinnengarten is a garden where the whole community can plant and grow organic food. This organic food is then used in the daily dish that is served. The whole day felt so relaxed and it was just a good day to get closer with a smaller group of people on the trip. Thank you, Silke!
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| The (B)ee Group |
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| Sweet Silke |
Friday was our last day all together, and it was a pretty somber day. The weather was overcast and a little rainy, which set the mood for our tour of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Seeing a camp in person was quite a crazy and humbling experience. You hear about these places in books and movies but actually getting to stand where the prisoners stood and worked and were enslaved was sobering and surreal. While standing there, it was truly hard to believe that these events actually took place in a place like Sachsenhausen. Afterwards, we toured the House of Music, which everyone thought was going to be a boring way to end the trip, but it turned out to be one of the most fun tours we had. Our tour guide was wonderful and could play nearly every instrument in that museum. She spent nearly thirty minutes playing the theatre organ for us because we were all in awe of it. To end the day and wrap up our trip, we had a farewell dinner at Merhaba. It was a joyful night celebrating all that the summer brought us, and we had lots of fun dancing with the surprise belly dancer.
Saturday, we all departed to our next destinations, and I was off to meet my family in Stockholm, Sweden. I traveled through Scandinavia from Stockholm to Copenhagen to Oslo to Bergen before returning back to the states a few days ago. This summer was the most memorable summer I may ever have, and it is safe to say my love for Europe grew stronger with every place I went. I will forever be thankful for Professor Wasser and Professor Waltz for the knowledge they bestowed upon us and for what this summer taught me about medicine and myself. Auf Wiedersehen Europa. Vielen Dank für den schönsten Sommer!
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