July 12-14

Well like everyone else I am severely behind on this blogging thing. Well to start off Chad's keys to his house didn't work so he ended up spending the night at my host family's house which was fine since they have a pull out bed in the room I sleep in. The next day we headed to Drachenfels for one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen, but instead of taking the tram we walked like Europeans all the way to the top, it was hard, but no one complained because it was just so beautiful walking up. When we reached the top we ate lunch, but had to pack up early because of the approaching rain cloud and subsequent wind. I personally liked the hike down better simply because we pretty much ran down the entire way and picked up some snacks at the bottom. From there we headed back to the AIB building where we met Fenja for an action packed German language lesson. Afterward we had, what I thought, a very interesting German culture lesson with Ture and I thought it was particularly interesting because he has lived in both Germany and the US and had the answer to all the questions we asked him.

The next day we met Dr. Wasser at Bad Oyenhausen and toured probably the nicest hospitals I have ever visited. Then we had a discussion with a head physician about the differences between the German healthcare system and our (U.S's) own, and it never occurred to me before how different the two cultures were raised, one believing health insurance is a right and the other not so much. Next was on to speaking with a physician about the VADs and other implantable devices. I was VERY surprised he agreed to do the tour after a 6 hour surgery, I personally would tried to have another doctor fill in if I were in his shoes, but he not only gave the tour and answered all the questions, he did it with a huge smile on his face. Since we did not have enough time the bioengineering major students got to see the VADs and saw how they worked, while the others saw the MRI. I am glad I got to see the VADs since we will see an MRI machine later.

On to the next day at the Hannover medical school where we saw the nephrology clinic. That day was awesome since the doctor seemed to have no problem spending around 2-3 hours just touring us around and giving us a lecture on how the machines work and what he does. He seemed like a master professor, and engaged all the students which made the lecture, for me, just amazing. Then he took us downstairs (that hospital is humongous) and a patient who was kind enough to let us look at his dialysis machine let the doctor lecture us in there for around 30 minutes. I don't think that this day can be beat, simply because this was one of the main reasons I came to study abroad.