Day 72

My parents came to Germany! Ever since I told them that I was going to Bonn to study abroad, they knew that they were undoubtedly going to come visit. My parents both have close relatives that lived in Germany and heard a fair amount of Deutsch growing up, so this country has been on their bucket list of places to see for a while. They, along with my grandmother, landed early Thursday morning. Once they got the rental vehicle, they drove up from Frankfurt and slowly made their way to Bonn. They stopped at Cochem and did a quick town visit before taking their chariot to my house on the Rhein. My host parents were extremely excited to meet my actual parents, so my host mom had spent the entire evening before preparing desserts and breads for their arrival. Math class was cancelled by some miracle, so I managed to make it home earlier than I expected and got to help Gitti put the final touches on dinner. The time it took for my family to arrive crawled along. I ran to the door when I got the “We’re here!” text and my mother hugged me so hard that I thought I would suffocate. After spending five minutes trying to park the camper van, my dad and grandmother followed the both of us inside. It was very weird to see both of my worlds collide when my actual parents and host parents started conversing. Gitti had made a favorite of her and mine, sauerkraut suppe, and she was excited for my parents to try an authentic German dish. My family had no problems eating the delicious soup and accompanying vegetables, which they washed down with Karl’s favorite kind of beer. After catching up on the past months, we all decided to go to bed because we knew we had a long weekend ahead of us.

The next day our class had the chance to get a guided tour of the Horst-Stoeckel-Museum für die Geschichte der Anästhesiologie. We were even lucky enough to have Horst Stoeckel, the founder of the museum, there and he answered many of the questions we had. Once the museum tour was over, Camella, Lois, Deanna, and I joined my family and began the drive to Berlin. Since we left so late, we ended up staying the night in a McDonald’s parking lot somewhere in between here and there since we’re classy. The next morning, we made it to the RV park in Potsdam. After freshening up, we took the shuttle to the train station which would ultimately take us into Berlin. There was a little bit of confusion on our part while trying to navigate the Potsdam Hauptbahnhof, but we eventually made it to the capital. Camella had family friends that we planned to have lunch with near Bikini Cathedral. Katrin and Jonas and their two children, Karl and Ida, were all so sweet and a lot of fun. We enjoyed hanging out with them, and decided to spend the following day with them in Potsdam instead of Berlin. After lunch was finished, we parted ways and got on a bus that was headed towards the Reichstag. Once we got there, all of us rushed off the bus and my mom went into tourist mode. She took pictures of everything we saw, which is good because I like remembering things and my phone was very dead. From the Reichstag we walked to the Brandenburg Gate, where a protest against guns in America was taking place. The Germans we saw were very passionate about gun rights in America, despite being from not America. 

When we finished admiring the massive gate, we decided to go to the Holocaust Memorial, per Dr. Wasser's recommendation. I had no idea that the memorial was so large, and we each took turns trying to interpret what the artist might have been trying to portray. We then went into the museum that was located underneath the monuments. It was an emotionally draining experience, and made me appreciate how lucky I am. The things that the Holocaust victims had to endure are unimaginable, and it's important to remember them and not let them just become a page in our history textbook. Once we finished walking through the museum, we decided to go towards Checkpoint Charlie. It was really neat to see the former border and where the wall used to lie. We hung out around there for a little while before deciding to go to the Ritter Sport store. On our way there we saw some weird modern art, creepy graffiti, and impressive street performers. Ritter Sport Schokowelt was amazing. They had every kind of chocolate and combination imaginable. My parents stocked up on some to bring back to my siblings, and I bought a couple of squares for myself. Once we all satisfied our sweet tooths, we got on the train and headed back to Potsdam. 

Checkpoint Charlie

Holocaust Memorial