Final Days

Aug 5 – 7

Thursday morning we meet in the lobby for breakfast then headed out to Dresden (another 2hr train ride). We had a city tour where we saw the rebuilt Protestant cathedral, which was a major debate as to whether or not to rebuild the domed cathedral. It was bombed in WWII by the British and was debated whether to leave the rubble pile as a reminder to the destruction of Dresden in the war. It was rebuilt and apparently ~40% of the structure was rebuilt with original stones. Later that afternoon we visited the Deutches Hygeine museum in Dresden. This museum was not about the hygiene that I imagined. I thought we’d see the history about personal hygiene with the emergence of toothpaste, soap, etc. This was not the case; it was a museum about human biology and understanding the human anatomy/ biology. After the Hygeine museum we departed for Berlin.

Our last day in Berlin (and Germany) and the end of our stay in Europe was a wonderful one. We had yet another tour, at the Charite museum. We had a lecture by Dr. Wasser and toured through more history of German medicine and strange medical specimens. We also had a tour through the Charite health center lead by a German medical student. We got to do ear examinations, practice IVs on artificial limbs, and practice our suturing on artificial wounds. I will definitely remember this tour forever, we learned a lot about basic medical care but it was a nice introduction. Later that night we had our farewell dinner at the Kasbah. The dinner was great and it was a wonderful way to top off the trip of a lifetime. Despite the LONG journey home, I had a wonderful time in Germany. It was one of the most interesting and life changing experiences of my life and I will remember it forever.