Getting to Germany

I was very impressed on how easy it was to get to Germany, however it took me a few days to get past the jet lag. Both planes had minimal wait times while going through customs. So far everything has been really interesting and it has been pretty easy to get used to Bonn and finding your way around the town. The guided tour through the House of German History Museum was very interesting and the tour guide raised a lot of interesting questions that made you think hard about a lot of the policies in place today. I was unaware of sterilization policies, concerning mental and physical handicaps, in the U.S. and the influence that they had on Nazi policy. It was interesting to have a night out in Germany and to be able to compare it to similar situations in the US. While the cultures are different, there are more similarities than I had thought before I came.

The second day of the program was long, but was full of interesting tours and the city of Cologne was amazing. I like how convenient the public transportation system is here; the use of a car is completely eliminated. Between the subways and buses and the train system, you could travel anywhere in the city or surrounding cities quickly. The number of specimens at the anatomical collection at the Cologne Medical School was impressive and the different cuts were really cool. The Cologne cathedral was massive and ymade me feel like an ant when I was inside. I am looking forward to the next couple of days.