Blogging is hard to keep up with when you're so busy...
Monday Feb. 19th - Monday Feb. 26th
It is actually a struggle to remember what I did during the
week... I remember my weekend in Berlin perfectly well, but its almost as if
the rest of the week never happened haha.
Monday and Tuesday we had the pharmacology workshops with
Dr. Fajt. It was pretty interesting and useful learning how to use pubmed and
google scholar for research. We met several times with our enmodes lab group
during the week. I’m excited to see where my group’s idea is headed, as we made
some significant progress on Thursday. The week of the 19th-23rd
was the last full week of physiology before our first test; I’m a little
worried about preparing for the exam. Thursday night, I watched Germany’s Nest
Top Model with my host sister and her aunt and uncle. I had a fun time
listening to them mock Heidi Klum and share their opinions of the models/ state
their position on the drama going down!
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| Berlin Dom |
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| Old Royal Library |
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| Brandenburger Tor |
Ibk, Lexie, Izzie and I got on our flixbus Friday night
around 9pm. The trek to Berlin took ages. After 11 hrs on the bus we had
finally arrived, and dang was it cold! We dropped our things off at Ibk and
Lexie's host family flat they generously loaned us for the weekend. Claudia met
up with us for a walking tour of Berlin Saturday morning. Our tour guide
was great; she knew so much about the city's extensive history. The tour began
at Brandenburger Tor, an impressive large gate opening the east to the west. In
the same square were several embassies, hotel Adler, and a famous art museum.
Hotel Adler was where Michael Jackson posed for paparazzis holding
his newborn infant over the balcony!
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Anti aircraft gun operated by
16 year old during WWII |
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| Nazi Book Burning Memorial |
From there we walked to the memorial for the murdered Jews. The
memorial is not quite what one would expect upon first look. Grey stones are
aligned, forming a vast grid atop uneven cobblestone, creating the illusion of
order in disorder. The memorial encourages people to remember and pay respect
to the millions devastated by the Second World War. Our tour continued on to
the site of Hitler's underground bunker, where he committed suicide. The
location of the bunker remains unmarked on purpose, as the cite deserves no
memorial. We passed through the Mall of Berlin and walked outside of a German
Government building.
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| Memorial for the Murdered Jews |
Our tour continued on to a section of the Berlin Wall,
near a museum commemorating those who escaped or lost their lives trying. Next,
we visited Checkpoint Charlie. It was a bit of a let down; the checkpoint nowadays
is just a tourist trap, but it was neat to see the fake guards patrolling the
replica checkpoint box. We walked by a beautiful concert hall on our way to
Bebelplatz, the square notorious for the Nazi book burning. Humboldt
university, an opera house, St. Hedwigs cathedral, and the old royal library
surround the square. At the center lies a window peeking into an underground
room filled with empty book shelves as a reminder of the square's dark past. It
was so cold outside that my coolpix camera froze open (lens stuck out) and shut
off. I couldn't retract the lens for a day and a half. Our tour ended, so we
decided to grab some lunch and warm up. Afterwards we walked to museum island,
and saw the Deutsch Historisches Museum and Berlin dom. The DHM was filled with
artifacts, paintings, and displays of the history of Germany from its early
beginnings to modern day. All of us were feeling cheap, so we went to a Rewe to
pick up some random things for dinner.
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| Bebelplatz |
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| Sachsenhausen |
Sunday, Izzie, Claudia, Lexie, Ibk and I went on a tour of
Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside of Berlin. It's very haunting and
shocking to see the depravity humans are capable of. We saw the barracks and
despicable living conditions provided to the prisoners, a museum documenting
the history of the camp, the execution pit/wall called Station Z, crematorium,
and autopsy room. A typical day at Sachsenhausen began with roll call at 7
am, which usually lasted anywhere from 3 to 6 hours, work, dinner, and bed
by 10pm. Their work could be anything from testing out boots for German
soldiers (being forced to run through the camp), making bricks, or assisting
with exterminations. One day, the temperature outside was -19C. The head of the
camp, Herr Himmler, made roll call last 13 hours. Almost 200 prisoners dropped
dead, wearing nothing but a flimsy shirt and pants to keep them warm. Herr Himmler
was promoted to head of Auschwitz-Birkenau. To keep the officers in the camp
feeling detached from the prisoners, higher ranked prisoners had to work as
"physicians." These physicians would take a look at prisoners’ teeth
and give them a fake check-up. When it came time to measure a prisoners’
height, the physician would position the prisoner under a measuring stick and
signal to an officer holding a gun against the measure in another room to pull
the trigger. The physician would then remove any gold teeth they found and
prepare the body for cremation. Sachsenhausen was liberated on April 22nd,
1945 by the Soviets, who opened the place up to use as their own prisoner of war
camp.
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| East Side Gallery |
After the visit, we got on a train back to Berlin. We went up in
the Reichstag parliament building. The modern glass dome above the traditional
building is a beautiful contrast of old and new architecture. The glass dome
provided a great overlook of the city and was one of my favorite things to see
in Berlin. Next, we walked to East Side Gallery to see some graffiti, along the
longest section of the wall still standing. It was pretty cool to see the
political messages in the art along the wall. We ate dinner at a traditional German
restaurant before picking up our bags and heading to the central station. I had
a great leg of pork in dark beer sauce with a bred dumpling and sauerkraut.
Berlin's central station is incredible. The building is clean, huge, and very
modern with its giant walls of glass. We left Berlin around 12 and got back to
Bonn at 8 am Monday morning.
 |
| Reichstag |
Sunday, Izzie, Claudia, Lexie, Ibk and I went on a tour of
Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside of Berlin. It's very haunting and
shocking to see the depravity humans are capable of. We saw the barracks and
despicable living conditions provided to the prisoners, a museum documenting
the history of the camp, the execution pit/wall called Station Z, crematorium,
and autopsy room. A typical day at Sachsenhausen began with roll call at 7
am, which usually lasted anywhere from 3 to 6 hours, work, dinner, and bed
by 10pm. Their work could be anything from testing out boots for German
soldiers (being forced to run through the camp), making bricks, or assisting
with exterminations. One day, the temperature outside was -19C. The head of the
camp, Herr Himmler, made roll call last 13 hours. Almost 200 prisoners dropped
dead, wearing nothing but a flimsy shirt and pants to keep them warm. Herr Himmler
was promoted to head of Auschwitz-Birkenau. To keep the officers in the camp
feeling detached from the prisoners, higher ranked prisoners had to work as
"physicians." These physicians would take a look at prisoners’ teeth
and give them a fake check-up. When it came time to measure a prisoners’
height, the physician would position the prisoner under a measuring stick and
signal to an officer holding a gun against the measure in another room to pull
the trigger. The physician would then remove any gold teeth they found and
prepare the body for cremation. Sachsenhausen was liberated on April 22nd,
1945 by the Soviets, who opened the place up to use as their own prisoner of war
camp. 
After the visit, we got on a train back to Berlin. We went up in
the Reichstag parliament building. The modern glass dome above the traditional
building is a beautiful contrast of old and new architecture. The glass dome
provided a great overlook of the city and was one of my favorite things to see
in Berlin. Next, we walked to East Side Gallery to see some graffiti, along the
longest section of the wall still standing. It was pretty cool to see the
political messages in the art along the wall. We ate dinner at a traditional German
restaurant before picking up our bags and heading to the central station. I had
a great leg of pork in dark beer sauce with a bred dumpling and sauerkraut.
Berlin's central station is incredible. The building is clean, huge, and very
modern with its giant walls of glass. We left Berlin around 12 and got back to
Bonn at 8 am Monday morning. 
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