The morning that we left for Berlin, my host mom woke me up after receiving a call to indicate that I was running late. It was a very stressful morning as I had to figure out where to meet the bus and ran the entire way there. Once in Berlin, I got to take a shower and get ready for the day. Our hotel "apartment" was a lot of fun and we ended up moving all four beds into one room and making a giant bed. We had one afternoon in Berlin to do whatever we wanted and we chose to go to "Gardens of the World." They had a hedge maze, which is something I've always wanted to experience. We had tea in the Asian garden and unfortunately did not have time to do anything else that day.
The day after we got back from Berlin was the Big Event. It was a really cool experience to do Big Event in a foreign country especially since I had been concerned about missing the opportunity completely. My group helped to build a concrete statue of a spider for a community of senior residents and Alzheimer's patients. It took a lot of work and we unfortunately did not finish, but we really enjoyed ourselves. My favorite part was the quaint (and filling) lunch that they served us in return for our volunteering. The people there were so incredibly sweet.
The Bonn Marathon was this morning. I had only run twice this semester with a maximum of 4.5 miles, so I did not feel very prepared to run the half marathon. Fortunately the day was nice and the atmosphere was inviting, so I managed to meet my goal of finishing in under 2 hours, 10 minutes. I went through a variety of emotions during the run, but I definitely felt overwhelmed when I was finished.
Program
We spent the last week in Berlin. The first day of the excursion, we took a bike tour around the city. I really enjoyed the chance to get on a bike after such a long time and it was a great way to get an overview of Berlin. We then had a Group dinner at a German restaurant. The following day, we listened to Dr. Wasser lecture on Virchow. We were then given a tour of the Charite Museum given by a man who went by "Little Tom." The most interesting part of the museum was the display of pathological specimens. We then got a chance to meet with current medical school students and do some interactive skill training activities such as geriatric simulations. That evening, we had a satisfying Moroccan dinner at Kasbah. This was followed by a meeting with our professors to collaborate our Otto Bock presentations along with another meeting to practice our presentations the next night. On Wednesday, we had a somber visit to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. To keep with the theme, we saw the Jewish museum on Thursday. Our tour guide was pleasantly eccentric and made the visit very exciting and thought-provoking. That evening we were supposed to check in to our hotel, but they had already filled the rooms we booked, so we ended up eating a random Asian restaurant buffet and then checking in to another nice hotel. After another night of presentation practice, we went to Otto Bock the next morning. We presented our projects, were provided lunch, and then took a tour of the facilities. The bus ride back to Bonn was long but fun.
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