Blog 6.1: Berlin

This blog will be different than the other blogs I have previously completed, in that I will be focusing only on the parts that I thought were the most important about Berlin.

I honestly believe Berlin could possibly be my favorite city that the program visited. It has an extremely unique past, which has led to an even more inimitable present. With Berlin being split in half for over 30 years, the city could be comparable to identical twins being separated at birth and having two polar opposite upbringings, The Soviet Union in the East and Western influence in the West. Upon reunification, Berlin had to work to merge the polar opposite cultures they had been immersed in for decades. These differences can still be seen today with the changes of scenery and architecture in the East and West along with the East only having used trams while the West used the subways system. The entire city seemed to revolve around the younger generations and the city had more of an upbeat vibe. There were platz’s everywhere that had every type of food you could think of with live music and shows to help you enjoy your lunch or snacks. Also, Berlin is a museum paradise with as many different types of museums as you could possibly want! I think the highlights of the excursion are definitely the trip to Sachsenhausen, the guided city tour with Sion and also the tour of the KFH kidney center in Leipzig. I’ve grown up hearing and reading about concentration camps and the horrors that are associated with these camps. But, you do not fully understand the horrid conditions that these people lived in. You don’t get to see where 300 people had to sleep in an area not meant to hold more than 80 people. You don’t get to see the rooms where hundreds, possibly thousands, of human beings were experimented on and tortured. You don’t get to see the remains of the buildings where tens of thousands of humans walked through, tricked, murdered and burnt in a furnace to not have to “waste space” with mass graves. You don’t get to hear and read stories of captives going into the neutral zone and being shot without warning because the guards were being scared for their lives if you happen to escape. And you don’t get to walk through the gates that every person sent to Sachsenhausen had to walk through and read the Arbeit macht frei sign on that gate. This was an experience that will never be forgotten.

Blog 5.2: Rome

We left Thursday afternoon for our long weekend in Rome! We took a train to cologne where we then met our connection to the Frankfurt airport. Our flight got in to fiumicino airport which is outside of Rome at around 1130 and we then proceeded to find transportation for an hour until we decided to just use the taxi. When I finally got checked in and into my room, it was already about 1:45 am on Friday morning. We woke up on Friday at 8am to head out on our days' excursion to see as many basilicas as possible! One of sams friends was our tour guide and planned a great day for us! We saw St. Peter's basilica in the Vatican, St. John the laterns basilica, St. Paul's outside the wall and one other basilica. Of all the basilicas we saw, St. Peter's in the Vatican was by far the most massive and St. Paul's outside the wall was the most beautiful. After our long day, our tour guide had made us reservations at a very nice Italian restaurant. There was a possibility for a 4 course meal but I could only make it through 3 of the courses!

We were on our own for Saturday while a large chunk of our group went to Florence for the day. We started off by doing the cupola at the Vatican and climbing over 500 stairs to get an amazing and breathtaking view over all of Rome! After coming down, we went to the Vatican museum where we spent the next 4 hours of our lives looking at some of the greatest art from the roman time period. We went through over 18 different exhibits and ended up in Michael Angelo's greatest artwork, the Sistine chapel. It's amazing to think after seeing how massive the chapel is that one man labored for a few decades trying to perfect the artwork. Not only would this be tiring of showing up to the same place for decades each day, but he also painted the ceiling showing the history of man starting from exile from the garden of Eden. This must have been brutal painting this because of the awkward body positioning he must have been in.

On Sunday, the rest of our group joined back up while rock, who had already done the colosseum, pantheon and trevi fountain, decided to go to Naples for the day. We started off our day by going to the colosseum and basking in the history of gladiator wars and ancient entertainment. We then went and looked around at the Roman forum, which was where most of the trading and such took place in roman times. We then finished off the day with the trevi fountain and pantheon. We went back to our hostel and got dressed up and went and ate dinner and then decided to go back to the trevi fountain to take some great pictures at night and also throw some coins in the fountain for good luck.

Rome was an amazing architectural accomplishment of its time with a bunch of the world’s history being defined by the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. However, Rome was a rather dirty city with just way too many tourists everywhere you go. This leads to a large group of people called gypsies trying to steal your wallets and phones at every popular location and especially on the subways. This is why I think it’s a good idea to see Rome, but once every thirty years is probably good enough for me!

auf Wiedersehen!

I entered the last week of the program excited for Berlin, yet also a little depressed that the program was coming to an end so quickly. We had a direct flight into Berlin, which was nice. However it was a little hectic trying to get to the hotel from the airport. But it all worked out in the end, we dropped off our stuff and headed out for the bike tour! I was a little nervous going into the tour, because I had an image in my head of weaving in and out of tourists on sidewalks. However, it was much more relaxed than that. Sion was wonderful and really made everything very interesting! I thought the statue he showed us of the mother holding her dying son was extremely powerful. After the tour, some of us went and had an authentic German dinner (which we were all craving after a weekend full of Italian food). 

Tuesday, we started off in the Reichstag. I was a little intimidated by the security measures we had to go through, but it was worth it! I really liked the architecture of the buildings, the juxtaposition of old and modern styles. Then we went to Sachsenhausen, a former concentration camp. That was a really strange experience, to stand on that ground and imagine what all those people went through. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but I'm glad that I saw the camp. 

Wednesday, we went to the Charite learning center. We met with two current medical students, and they explained the program they participate in, where older students assist younger ones in learning important medical procedures. It sounds like a great program to me, and I believe it's really important to have hands on experience. The simulators they had were very interesting. We were able to experience hand tremors and what it feels like to be old, which i think would really help you sympathize with your patients. Then we auscultated a dummy and performed an intubation. As a 'House' fan, I have seen countless intubations before, so it was exciting to actually be able to perform one, even if it was just on a dummy. We then went to the Charite museum. It was pretty small, but the enthusiasm of our tour guide more than made up for that!

Thursday, we went to Leipzig, which might have been my least favorite place we visited as part of the program. The kidney center was interesting since our device design project for the previous semester had been to design an artificial kidney. Next we went to the pharmacy museum. I enjoyed getting to interject with some of the older tools. After that we took a city tour. I had no idea that Bach was buried inLeipzig, so it was a bit of a surprise to walk into a church and see his burial place. 

Friday, we took a trip to the Ottobock center, which was incredibly cool. Even from the outside, the place was impressive, and once you entered, it was full of interactive exhibits. As a biomedical engineer, prosthetics are really intriguing to me, and it was amazing to see the technology that they are developing. We ended our final day in Germany with a delicious Moroccan meal! I can't believe that the five and a half weeks are already over. I have had such an amazing experience. I've seen things I will never forget, learned things about myself, and met some wonderful people! I am so grateful that I took the plunge and came on this study abroad program, and it is an experience that I will highly recommend to anyone who will listen!

Amsterdam!

We arrived in Amsterdam late on Friday night and went and checked into our hostel. Since it was so late, we called it a night to be ready for a full day of adventure tomorrow. On Saturday we ate a pancake house for breakfast. This pancake house was supposed to be one of the best pancake houses in Amsterdam and it was definitely good! They had all different types of pancakes from banana to nutella flavored! After eating breakfast, we went on a bus tour around Amsterdam. Let me tell you bus tours are the way to go. They show you so much of the city in a two-hour span. On the tour they showed us some of the major historical sites in Amsterdam. One of these was Anne Franks house where Anne and her family hid out from the Nazi’s during War World II.  It drove us by the museum part of the city where there was the Van Gogh Museum, Rijkmuseum, and the Diamond Museum. After the bus tour, we walked around the city for a little bit. The city was crazy since it was gay pride weekend. People were wearing the most unbelievable outfits; guys were dressed up as girls and vise versa. In one of their canals they had boats after boats of people dancing and just going insane. This was one of the most interesting things that I had ever seen. Also there was trash everywhere since there was the parade. It was disgusting the stuff that people had thrown all over the city.

The next day we woke up early and went to Anne Franks house. This was an emotional experience to see where the family had to hide during War World II. When we actually went into the attic, it felt so cold and lonely. I could not have imagined having to stay quiet all day long without even having any sunlight. The attic was really well hidden by the bookcase; I would have never known it was there. Being in the house made the entire story of her actually real and not just a book that I had once read. 

Berlin: A Fitting End to a Great Program

            Coming to Berlin, I was not expecting to like it. Both my host mom and brother said that they did not like the city, especially because of its size. I ended up liking the city a lot though and never felt overwhelmed by either its size or the amount of people there (maybe that’s because I had been in Rome the weekend before though).

            Upon arriving, we went on a bike tour of the city with our guide Sion. He was a very funny and honest guy and would have made the tour worthwhile even if it wasn’t interesting. It was very interesting though, and we got so see and experience some of the major landmarks of the city such as Checkpoint Charlie, the Halocaust Memorial, and parts of the Berlin wall that were accompanied by stories of escape from East to West Germany. Having been born in 1992, I never got to personally see any live footage or know much history of anything related to the Berlin wall, so this was particularly intriguing.

            The next day started with a tour of the Reichstag, the Germany main parliament building. The main point that I got from that tour was that after both WWII and the reunification of East and West Germany, that the government made themselves as accessible to the public as possible. This includes seats within the actual parliament for the public and offices of the politicians with glass windows exposed to the outside to that people can always see what they are doing. That afternoon we went to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. This was not a camp in which hundreds of thousands were killed, but still definitely got the point across of the inhumane and sick ways of torment of the Nazi’s. Most disturbing for me was probably the way in which they killed most of the Soviet prisoners: through pretending like the soldiers were getting medical checks but then secretly shooting them while they were getting their height “measured.” Another sad part of this camp occurred after the war in a period in which the Soviet Union took over the camp and did not use it as a memorial for the victims as a war but as a means of celebration and gratitude to themselves. Overall it was a sombering experience, and I believe that everyone who visits Germany should go to a concentration camp in order to help and spread the word of the horrific events that occurred there so that they do not occur again.

            On Wednesday we went to the Charite learning center. We got to talk and interact with two of the medical students there and even got to try out some of the devices that they use for education, such as a device that causes tremors to give students the feeling most elderly experience upon being put on too many medications. We had gotten to learn about the German Medical School system and its differences from American Medical School before, but they do things even differently than the rest of Germany in Berlin. For example, after a few years of being in school, the students are able to go through training and tutorials with different computer run “dummies” and programs so that they can learn how to perform certain techniques (such as how to insert a tracheal tube) before actually doing it on a patient. I personally could definitely use more practice, as it took me around six times to insert the tube correctly. I like this approach though and think that the practical application of getting to perform the actions you will have to do in the future on real people is essential for any medical school student. Following that, we went to the Charite Museum and learned about how some medical procedures used to be performed (such as removing a bladder stone) as well as got to see some of some of Rudolf Virchow’s personal collection of preserved organs.

            We went to Leipzig the next day and started by going to the hospital. A tour was given by a nephrologist, so it and the information he gave mainly involved the dialysis section of the hospital. It was unlike any hospital that I have ever been to and was really cool to learn how they make their own saline solutions for dialysis at the facility itself. Following the hospital we went to an apothecary museum. Although it was small, I learned a lot about topics such as the history of homeopathy. For instance, homeopathy was first started by Samuel Hahnemann in the 1700’s when he realized that cinchona (used to cure malaria) actually caused malaria like symptoms in patients who did not have malaria. This created the homeopathic staple of “like cures like.” The museum was followed by a tour of Leipzig, which was a very nice city and reminded me a lot of Bonn.

            Our last full day in Germany consisted of going to the Otto-Bock Center, where the Otto-Bock company showcases and educates the public on the human body and how their devices allow people who have complications such as amputated limbs to resume almost normal functioning in their everyday lives. The building itself was designed to look like it was surrounded by muscle fibers, which was extremely awesome and as a whole was very technologically advanced. It made me extremely excited to be a part of the future of biomedical engineering.

            Berlin was a very fitting city to end our program on, as it is a city full of history and a huge part of Germany today. I think that anyone who visits Germany should go to Berlin and I would definitely come to it again in the future. I do not know why so many people that I talked to did not like the city, but can only speak for my personal experiences. 

Rome!

Chao!

This long weekend we decided to go to Rome. Our flight landed on Thursday evening and then we went and checked into our hostel. Friday one of Samantha’s friends, Michael, took us around to four of the main churches in Rome. It was awesome to have him help us find our way around Rome on our first day there. He is doing kind of the same thing that Olivia is doing; he helps students from the University of Dallas when they come over to study abroad. He took us around to see four of the main churches in Rome; Saint Paul Outside the Wall, Saint John Lateran, Saint Mary Major, and Saint Peters Basilica. Each of these churches had unique characteristics to them but they had the same overall architecture. Later that night we went and had our first Italian meal. In Italy there meals are more like events. They have five different courses, the antipasta, primi,secondo, contorno, and dolce. I only had it to the primi before I was beyond stuffed full of pasta. The dinner lasted for almost three hours before we had finished eating.

On Saturday we went to the Vatican and spent the day there. We first climbed up 551 steps to get to the top of the Cupola. It was one of the most amazing views up there, you could see over the entire Vatican area. After spending around an hour up there, we decided to go and visit the Vatican Museum. This was one of the biggest museums that I have ever been in before. They had over 80,000 artifacts from old carriages to De Vinci paintings. It was really interesting to see all of the different artifacts and how different every exhibit was from the other. We spent around four hours just getting through all of the different exhibits. The museum ended in the Sistine Chapel, this was by far the best part of the entire museum. I could not believe that Michael Anglo had painted all of the paintings in the chapel; they were spectacular. We found out that Michael Anglo hired workers to help him paint the chapel but after they went to lunch the first day he locked the door and painted over all of there paintings they had done because he didn’t like there work. This left him to paint the entire chapel on his own.

Sunday we had a busy day doing the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, and the Fountain Di Trevi. The Colosseum was where they would do gladiatorial contests and they would let the spectator’s come and watch. Due to an earthquake, half of the top of the Colosseum was destroyed. The Roman Forum is the ruins of the ancient buildings of the city of the Rome. The heat made this not as enjoyable as I would have hoped since it was all outdoors. Next we went to the Pantheon, which is a temple for the gods of Rome. There is a hole in the top of the ceiling that is open to the sky. We ended our day throwing coins while making wishes into the Fountain Di Trevi. This was one of the busiest places we visited, there were people everywhere. After this long day of being all touristy, we had to enjoy some Italian gelato. Everyone is right whenever they say that Italy make the best gelato, it was the best I have ever had.

I really enjoyed visiting Rome but it is a city I don’t think I would ever go back to. It was super touristy and there were people everywhere. Also it was over 90 degrees the entire time we were they’re making it extremely hot.

Vienna!

This is our third week here in Europe and we were in Vienna this week.  Vienna was a beautiful city; all of the buildings architecture was remarkable. We started the week off by getting a walking tour around the city and learning some of its history.  Our guide showed us some of the major monuments like the church. Later we went to the Catacombs. In the Catacombs many priests that had served in the church had been buried there. They believe in having the heart, organs, and body be placed in different churches. Saint Stephens’s church received the organs from the different people. Also in the Catacombs were mass burial sites where they would throw victims of the black plague in after they had passed away. The rotting smells of the corps began to be smelt from the church so they stopped with the mass graves.

On Tuesday we went on a walking tour with Dr. Schnabel that turned out to be Dr. Wasser. He showed us around the city and explained some of its medical history. I learned a lot of interesting facts about Vienna such as the university use to have a fraternity that would get intoxicated and brawl. A slice on there face would indicate that they were apart of this fraternity which most of them enjoyed. Also at the university there was a prison and they would house people who had committed crimes there. If you were sentenced to death they would let the medical students dissect your body and then they would get a Christian burial. Later that day we visited a funeral museum. This outlined the way that burials have changed over the past decades. Death is a large part of there culture so they take a lot of pride in their funerals. After the tour of the museum, he let us actually lay in one of the coffins. This was quite the experience!

Wednesday we went to look at fools tower. When we got to the tower, I thought the main focus was going to be the black plague but it covered a wide range of diseases. They had different organs and wax figures of the different effects of some of the diseases. This was by far my favorite thing to see in Vienna! It was very fascinating how most of the wax figures had stories behind them. Later that night we went to the classical concert at Saint Anna’s church. They played pieces from famous composers like Beethoven and Mozart. These four people were incredibly talented and amazing to listen to.

Thursday we visited Sigmund Freud’s house and got a guided tour throughout. I learned a lot of new things about Sigmund Fraud that I didn’t know. I never knew that he was addicted to tobacco. This was interesting to me since he was a doctor, I would of thought that he would of stopped smoking once he was diagnosed with jaw cancer. I know that he didn’t think he could write when he didn’t have tobacco, but knowing the effect of cancer I would have stopped. Being able to actually see where Sigmund Freud did his work was really neat although it was extremely hot in there.

We ended this week by going to the National History Museum that housed the Body Worlds Exhibit. The museum had thousands of different animals, diamonds, art, and insects. There were so many different types of animals from monkeys, elephants, buffaloes and much more. Along with the animals, there were meteors that had fallen from space. I actually got to touch a meteor! After the National History Museum, we went to the Body Worlds Exhibit. This was my favorite museum that we saw. There were actual bodies of different people in the exhibit and each of them focused on a different part of the body. Some of the bodies showed the muscles and how they work when exercising while others showed the circulatory system and different diseases associated with it. Vienna was a very fascinating place and I learned a lot of different things throughout! 

Ich wurde ein bär in Berlin

     So we made it to Berlin.  This last week flew by way too fast.  I already miss Germany.  This past Monday, we arrived in Berlin in time to eat some Vietnamese food before our bike tour with Sion.  I was surprised his first language wasn't english.  He gave us a great tour.  My favorite site had to be the Holocaust memorial.  Walking between the blocks was very disorienting especially when someone would cross your path only to disappear quickly afterwards.  There was no way of knowing where anybody was, and I could tell it would have been easy to get lost.  Also on the tour, we stood on the ground over where Hitler's bunker used to be, we visited Checkpoint Charlie, and we saw other Berlin sites such as the Brandenburg Gate, Museum Island, and the Book Burning Memorial.  At the end of the tour, Sion recommended Brauhaus Lemke for dinner.  I had a huge pork knuckle, some of the best sauerkraut I have ever tasted, and the beer sampler.  

     The next morning, we made our way to the Reichstag.  I loved learning about German history and politics.  I also loved learning about and seeing the transparency incorporated into the building to keep the people in charge.  Afterwards, we made our way to Sachsenhausen.  Sachsenhausen was extremely gloomy.  Although I had learned that it was prisoners that had to do the dirty work, the horror of it didn't hit me until then.  Sachsenhausen was depressing and actually made me angry at the terrors the victims of the Holocaust had to go through.  

     Visiting the Charite hospital on Wednesday was awesome.  We learned that the students teach the younger students, and then the students taught us.  We played with stethoscopes, do an intubation, and simulate what it physically feels like to be old.  The whole morning was fun.  I had a blast trying to run up the stairs like an old person and then having to step down two feet per step on the way down.  We then went into the Charite museum where we saw a collection of specimens with a variety of diagnosis.  Afterward, we had a lecture in an old lecture hall from Dr. Wasser.  

     On Thursday, we visited the pharmacy museum.  We learned some cool stuff like how they used to make pills back in the olden days.  Also we made some tea.  We then toured around Leipzig and saw some cool Leipzig things.  That night, I had a great time with my friends hanging out at the döner shop.  I'm going to miss döner.

     Friday was our last day in Europe, and it was a good last day.  We visited the Otto Bock museum that morning where they had a whole lot of hands on pieces.  We learned the obstacles prosthetic companies are trying to overcome and what advancements they have already made.  Being someone that had been on the fence about my future career before coming to Germany, I had decided med school after watching the surgeries in Bonn, but now I'm leaning more toward prosthetics again.  I'll just have to try and keep my options open.  That afternoon I visited the Pergamon Museum where I got to walk through the Ishtar gate of Babylon.  We then took a nap before having a delicious meal of lamb couscous.  

     Overall I liked the feel of Berlin.  I liked the feel of all Germany actually, and these past couple weeks have been some of the best in my life.