Boston!

Last Tuesday, I made the long trip across the Atlantic to travel to Boston! Somehow, this Bostonian has never managed to walk the entire Freedom Trail, a “2.5 mile path that leads to 16 of America’s most significant historical landmarks.” So Wednesday morning, I got up bright and early (around 10 AM) to reacquaint myself with one of America’s greatest cities.

I convinced my youngest brother Joe to accompany me. My other brother, Richard, who rumor has it is going to be living in Battell, had to lifeguard. On the way to Oak Grove, the T stop closest to my house, Joe and I ran into none other than my friend Ben, who readers of this blog will remember visited me in Berlin. I invited him to come along, but wearing formal attire in 90 degree heat, Ben looked like he was ready to step into a cold shower instead. So Joe and I continued on our way and got on an orange line train heading south. There are two big differences I noticed between local trains in Boston and Germany. First, German trains are a lot smoother and second, I have never heard the conductor yell “the platform is not a playground” over the loudspeakers in Germany. Anyway, we arrived at Park Street in good time and after picking up a map at a visitors’ center, we started off on the red brick road.

The Freedom Trail begins in Boston Common. Joe (who I convinced to be my tour guide) told me some cool facts about America’s oldest public park from the brochure we picked up. Then, we walked up the hill to the State House and cooled down inside the air-conditioned Park Street Church. Next on the route was Granary Burying Ground, the first of three burying grounds we would encounter. The old dates inscribed on these tombstones rivaled even those of cemeteries I had visited in Europe. Afterward, we saw King’s Chapel and the Old City Hall. I really liked how the former had been preserved in the midst of modern day skyscrapers and the latter had a cool sidewalk mosaic marking the former location of Boston Latin, America’s first public school. Just down the street from there was the Old Corner Bookstore, a literary center in the mid-1800s, and the Old South Meeting House, which served as a public forum prior to the start of the Revolution. Then, Joe and I walked by the Old State House, outside of which the Boston Massacre took place. Ever since elementary school, I always remember finding it odd that the event was called a “massacre.” The deaths of five people are indeed a tragedy, but calling it a massacre was surely more for the sake of propaganda than historical accuracy. After Faneuil Hall, one of Boston’s best known landmarks, Joe and I took a moment to visit the Holocaust Memorial, not an official stop on the Freedom Trail, but an important reminder nonetheless of what happens when freedom and responsibility are taken out of the picture. One responsible man (along with two oft forgotten companions) took it upon himself to warn colonists that the “British [were] coming”. His name was Paul Revere and his house and the Old North Church were next on the route. I still remember visiting the Paul Revere House back in fourth grade. The best part was eating lunch as a class in the North End afterward. Copp’s Hill Burying Ground is the final stop of the Freedom Trail before one crosses the Charlestown Bridge and then if one is feeling really ambitious, one can walk all the way over to the USS Constitution and then up to the Bunker Hill Monument. I was feeling really ambitious and Joe seemed content with going along for the ride. Needless to say, we both were pretty worn out by the time we finally stumbled into Community College station to head home.

As the train rattled back to Oak Grove, I wondered, “was it really worth it to walk the Freedom Trail?” Maybe if I had done it alone, no. But when I looked over at Joe, calmly reading a book beside me, I knew I had made the right decision. Because at a certain point, all the old buildings and monuments lose their appeal and you remember that it isn’t the sights you see or the food you eat that make an experience memorable. It’s the people you’re with. Sure, it’s great exploring a new place on your own, better than not seeing it at all. If you asked me though to describe any of my favorite experiences from when I was abroad, if you go back and pick out your favorite post from my collection of unending prose, you’ll find this to be true. Characters bring a story to life.

I have a very simple strategy for dealing with “reverse culture shock” and you may have noticed it in the first sentence of this post when I wrote “travel to Boston” instead of “return to Boston”. In my mind, I’m still on an adventure! Danke für Lesen und bis nächstes Blog! J                

Stuttgart and Mainz

Last weekend, I took a trip with my pals Marius and Manuel to Stuttgart! Marius’s friend Thomas hosted us for Saturday night. When we arrived, I was blown away by the apartment that Thomas has. For a student’s place, it was quite luxurious and there was even a great view of the city from his windows. Because of Stuttgart’s “bowl” conformation, we could see the other sides of the “bowl” encircling from where we were and the city center down on the bottom. I was lucky enough to be able to experience some of Stuttgart’s nightlife before we all went to sleep, so I am grateful to the numerous Stuttgart natives that showed me a good time.    

On Sunday, Marius led us all on a grand tour of his hometown. We parked for free near the university and then trekked over to Schlossplatz (castle square), which is in the center of town. On the way, we passed by a bar called Palast der Republik (Palace of the Republic), whose owners had some wisdom for choosing to operate out of essentially a tiny shack. On a nice summer evening, most of the patrons will crowd the square surrounding the bar, while the owners save big on rent. When we arrived in Schlossplatz, named for the Old Castle and New Castle that are adjacent to the square, Marius recounted how he was here in 2007 with 300,000 other soccer fans celebrating VFB Stuttgart’s first place finish in the Bundesliga. Next, we walked by the Stiftskirche (Collegiate Church) and the Rathaus (city hall). Even though the former looks quite old and the latter quite new, both were constructed around the same time since the church was destroyed in WWII and the city hall is simply an example of modern architecture gone horribly wrong. At least there are plenty of other nice city halls in Germany.

Next, at the Marktplatz (market square), Marius pointed out his favorite toy store. He told us how as a child he’d go there all the time and it was amusing to picture a younger version of our tour guide running around looking at all the toys. After lunch (I had some tasty white sausages served with a pretzel), Thomas bid us adieu and Marius, Manuel, and I climbed (as in took the elevator) up to the top of the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) tower where we were rewarded for our strenuous climb with a nice (and free!) view of the city. Most of the Hauptbahnhof will actually be torn down over the next several years because of the Stuttgart 21 project that many of you have probably heard about. For those of you who haven’t, it’s a construction project that will establish several new high speed railway lines under a brand new train station. Many of the locals, however, have been organizing huge protests over the past couple of months, since the project will likely separate the Schlossgarten (Castle Garden, the city’s green space) for ten years and may cost billions more than planned. Remind anyone of the Big Dig? Danke Marius und Manuel für eine tolle Zeit!        

“Mainz, I thought you left Mainz Jonathan?” “Yes, I did leave Mainz Jonathan, but I had to return today to close my German bank account.” I was a little annoyed when the Sparkasse Heidelberg people told me I would have to go all the way to the Mainz branch to accomplish this task, but the day-off from work made it worthwhile. (Danke Anna-Laura!)  As it turned out, I was in and out of the bank in Mainz in about 15 minutes, so with some extra time, I decided to take one last trip to the university where I learned so much about German culture, plants, and life in general. What I really wanted to do was revisit the botanical garden that I knew would look much more impressive now that it was summer. Once I arrived, I knew I had made the right decision to stay in Mainz for an extra hour before returning to Heidelberg. With all the flowers blooming, more green everywhere, and plenty of people walking around, the place really felt alive. I made sure to visit my American friend Sequoiadendron giganteum, which some brilliant botanist way back when must have known I would need for inspiration to get through studying for my botany final back in February. I was also reminded of how friendly the people of Mainz are. First, the nice girl who handed me a campus magazine upon entering the campus smiled at me as I was leaving and said, “Oh, du hast eins schon” (oh, you have one already). Then, the ******* ticket machines at the Hauptbahnhof refused to accept anything but exact change and I didn’t have exact change. Luckily, a nice lady gave me the last 50 cents I needed for free. I thanked her before running off to make my train.    

For the first time in a long time, I will be traveling next week to a country that lies outside of Europe! Tune in next week for the final post of “Jonathan brach durch!” Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!

  

Strasbourg and Mannheim

Last Saturday, some other RISE students and I checked out what has come to be known as the legislative capital of Europe- Strasbourg! Ahmad, Charlie, Cheng, Josh, and I were able to get there for only about 15 Euros each by splitting a Baden-Württemberg-Ticket, which is good for groups of up to five throughout the German state, then paying 3,90 essentially to cross the border into France. A lot has been said about the “futuristic” trams that run in and around Strasbourg with comfortable seating, expansive windows, and a sleek design. I, however, was just extremely annoyed to be packed in with about a hundred other people on the 2-3 car long vehicles. Would it have been that difficult to keep the fancy design AND make them long enough to accommodate a regular load of passengers? Once we arrived of course, the fresh air and wide open park in front of the central train station were all the more welcoming. It felt good to be in France.

After snapping a quick group photo in front of the futuristic-looking train station, we headed straight for the city’s historic city center- a UNESCO site (so it has to be good!). Beautiful old European architecture, including some pretty white-timber framed buildings filled the island that made up the old town. Charlie, Josh, and I got lunch at a restaurant on the riverside while Ahmad and Cheng did some wandering. I had one of the best and definitely the most expensive cheeseburger in my life. Still not sure if it was worth it, but hey, the French know food and I’m sure it will be a while before I make it back to France. Reunited with Ahmad and Cheng after lunch, we visited the Cathedral of Our Lady of Strasbourg. It’s said to be one of the best Gothic cathedrals in the world and for a while, it was even the tallest building in the world (from 1647-1874). Next, we walked north to check out some grandiose government buildings. The stuff near Place de la République was all pretty nice, but the best and furthest away were definitely the European Parliament buildings way up near the NE-edge of our map. We saw the colossal Palace of Europe and abstractly-designed Hemicycle (the blue sheep I mentioned in a previous blog post were also here). Afterward, we made our way south, hoping to check out the botanical garden, but we were greeted instead by a pointy fence. A wrong turn did lead us to stumble upon Rue Beethoven (Beethoven street). As a mediocre violinist, I found that pretty cool, but was shocked to learn that SOMEONE in the group did not know who Beethoven was! Kids these days . . .

               

So, we kept walking south and eventually made it to the highly-anticipated Citadelle. Only the Citadelle was really just an ugly fort by the river that no one bothered to tear down, so that was kind of disappointing. The park surrounding the eyesore was pretty nice though. I especially liked seeing basketball courts and what was essentially an outdoor gym. There was an elliptical trainer and even several pull-up bars! I have this weird obsession with searching for structures that I can do a couple of pull-ups on after completing a run, so I was happy to see that the French share this eccentricity of mine. At this point, we only had about two hours left to spend in Strasbourg. This time was well spent stocking up on some French goodies at a grocery store we found on the way back to the train station. To our chagrin, the “futuristic” ticket machines at the train station only accepted credit cards, so we had to run to the ticket office before it closed to buy our train tickets back to Deutschland. I kind of see the value in encouraging a complete switch from cash to credit (less chance of armed robbery, etc.). At the same time, however, a currency system that relies entirely on computers doesn’t seem that reliable to me. But enough negativity, all in all it was a great trip. Strasbourg has even been a sister city with Boston since 1960! The Esplanade is an amazing park back home, but did you know the name comes from the French word for an open field in front of a citadelle? Now you know!

I should end here, but I want to spend at least a little time talking about Mannheim, a city just up the river from Heidelberg. The same group of students went, just subtract Charlie and Josh and replace them with my pals Ilyas and Lorenzo. The tour of the city started with a visit to the Wasserturm (watertower), which was constructed back in the 1880s and today is a symbol of the city. We then walked over to Paradeplatz (Parade square) which had a nice monument in the center, followed by the Schloss, a former castle now used by the University of Mannheim. Next up was the Jesuitkirche (Jesuit Church) which had a very ornate interior. Then, we walked over to Schillerplatz (Schiller square) where I translated the words on a memorial for the Trümmerfrauen (“rubble women”) who cleaned up the rubble stone by stone after WWII and helped to rebuild the city. At the end, we took a nice stroll along the Neckar and explored Luisenpark a bit before heading back to Heidelberg.

I know, this short summary really doesn’t do justice to Mannheim. I have a feeling I’ll be back in Mannheim quite soon, however, stay tuned! Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!

Czeching out Prague

It was Friday night. I was standing outside of Prague main railway station with my friend Ahmad thinking that our trip was over before it had even started. Why wasn’t the number that Peter gave me working? I took a deep breath, exhaled, and suddenly remembered a piece of advice that Dylan gave me back in Venice. “We have to dial two zeros before our numbers for our phones to work.” I tried again and breathed a sigh of relief as I heard Peter’s voice on the other end. “Hey, you made it,” Peter said in a surprised voice. It was the first of many jokes that my friend Tomas’s father would make throughout an unforgettable weekend in the Czech Republic.

Saturday was dedicated to exploring the Czech region of Bohemia. The Melrosian family that Ahmad and I were staying with took us first to Žlleby castle. The medieval castle was filled with suits of armor, art, and other cool stuff, but unfortunately for all of you, pictures were forbidden during the tour. It’s worth checking out, however, if you ever make it out to Zleby! After lunch, we drove to the town of Kutná Hora, home of the stunning, UNESCO-certified St. Barbara’s Church. While the interior of the church was indeed amazing, it’s the walk along Baborská street leading up to the church that I enjoyed the most. Besides the breathtaking view, Peter pointed out all these traces of sea life that one could see in the sandstone wall along the street. A long time ago, Bohemia was actually underwater and although the Czech Republic is now a landlocked country, Peter was still proud of the fact that his homeland has a navy! The other part of the walk that I enjoyed was a certain little someone constantly stopping to lie down in the street to snap silly self-portraits of himself with the family’s iPad (aka Bob).      

Bob got a chance to rest at our next stop- the family’s cottage, where Peter spent his summers growing up. Here, Ahmad and I got a chance to help the family out with some good old fashioned yard work and I mean it when I say old-fashioned! No power tools, just a scythe (the thing the grim reaper carries) and a few sickles (think Communist flag without the hammer). In under an hour, we had the whole front lawn mowed and then had some time to play a modified version of cricket involving a frisbee and bouncy ball. As dusk began to set in, we piled back into the car and headed back to the family’s apartment in Pardubice. I could tell everyone was pretty tired, but Peter insisted on giving Ahmad and I a quick tour of his hometown. He showed us the main sights of the city and we had a good informal chat about life. Someone made an amusing slip of tongue that led us all to agree that there not only needs to be more discourse between peoples of the world, but intercourse as well. In addition, I found it fascinating that Peter’s one big wish for the US is that more Americans learn a second language. It is only through learning another language that you realize that the other guys you think are so strange and perhaps dangerous are more similar to yourself than you think. I had never really thought of learning German before as a way of building world harmony, but now I have extra motivation to both maintain my German when return to the US and perhaps start learning a new language.

On Sunday, Peter gave us all a grand tour of Prague. Even though Ahmad and I were only able to spend about five hours exploring the city, for much of the time in the rain, we both agreed that it was one of the best European cities we had visited and resolved to come back in the future. In order to see everything as efficiently as possible, we began on the west side of the city up on Prague Castle and worked our way east toward the main railway station. The castle complex was really something else. The Czech Republic’s president has Royal Gardens, St. Vitus Cathedral, and spectacular views surrounding his official residence. The lucky bloke doesn’t even have to mow the lawn- a robot lawn mower takes care of that. Next, before crossing the famous Charles Bridge, we visited the Infant Jesus of Prague in the Church of Our Lady Victorious. The wax-coated wooden statue has an interesting history worth looking into if you have time. Afterward, we spent the remainder of our time walking around the Staré Město (old town) and Nové Město (new town). We stopped in another nice church called Our Lady of the Snows before rushing over to see the astronomical clock in the Old Town Square strike 4 PM. An automated procession of apostles and Death emptying his hourglass occurs once an hour, often above a large crowd of tourists. As our own time winded down, we walked along the grand Wenceslas Square (more of a boulevard than square) to pay our respects at a memorial for victims of communism and to take a group picture in front of the National Museum. It was sad to say good-bye to the family back at the train station so soon, but I will see my neighbors again in August once we are all back in Melrose. Děkuji Peter, Maria, Tomas and the rest of the family for a wonderful time! Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!        

  

RISE conference

I’m doing a summer internship in Heidelberg right now. Simultaneously, there are about 300 other American, British, and Canadian students doing similar internships all across Germany. What connects us all is a program called RISE (Research In Science and Engineering) that is the brainchild of DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), an independent organization that receives 411 million Euros of funding from the German government every year to support international exchange of students and scholars. It’s a good example of the things government has money for when it operates on a balanced budget.

Politics aside though, this past weekend, DAAD organized this big 3-day conference right here in Heidelberg to give all of us student interns a chance to meet each other, learn about each other’s projects, and get recruited by German companies/post-graduate programs. It took me a whopping 20 minutes to get to the youth hostel on my bike where we all stayed for the duration of the meeting. After checking in and getting a bag full of goodies from DAAD (German dictionary anyone?), we were treated to lunch at the hostel, which for a hostel, was actually a quite good meal. Then, the organizers bussed us all to the Alte Aula (old assembly hall) for the opening ceremony. I was a little bummed out, since I was missing a talk by a Nobel laureate happening back on campus, but when I saw the ornately decorated room that looked much too fancy for a bunch of twenty-somethings in T-shirts and shorts, I convinced myself that there will be more Nobel talks in the future. The ceremony itself was all right. It basically went back and forth between short welcome addresses and music from a Brazilian music trio with a saxophonist that is a DAAD alumni. The highlight for me was the keynote address from Dr. Robert Rosenberg from Transylvania University. He gave us some interesting ideas to think about, including “if you’re having fun at your internship and not becoming frustrated, impatient, or losing sleep, then what you’re doing probably isn’t real research.” At the conclusion of the ceremony, we were again ushered out of the auditorium and sent on our way to the Kulturbrauerei, a brewery five minutes by foot from my fraternity and one of the few places in town that can accommodate a party of 200. The banquet was the last item on the schedule for the day, so we were all free to do whatever afterward. Ilyas, Ahmad, and Andrey (intern in Aachen) made our way  back following the Neckar, taking silly pictures along the way. With another student, we played the boardgame Carcassonne back at the hostel. None of us had ever played it before and the instructions were in German. So while we got the main idea of the game, I don’t think we did the scoring correctly. Once Ahmad became the first to surpass 25 points we decided to call it a night.

Friday morning was interesting, since we got the chance to be courted by different companies and graduate programs from across Germany. Although at this point, there is a better chance of me dying my hair pink than doing a graduate program in Germany, it was still really interesting to learn about the vast array of opportunities that are available to American college graduates in Germany. Most don’t even require any knowledge of German. For me, the most compelling presentation was done by the Max Planck Institute for Biological Sciences in Tübingen. Their PhD programs are fully-funded so all you have to worry about is your research project. The one argument I really didn’t buy, however, was that a PhD from Germany is of the same value as a PhD from the US. At the moment, I think you should get your degree from the country you plan on working in. I am sure I would do just fine with a PhD from Tübingen, but that would likely mean a long term commitment to my pal Deutschland, which I just can’t do at this point in my life. I’ll never forget the Egyptian graduate student I met in Mainz that was really confused as to why  I, an American, was studying in Germany. He told me he’d do anything to study in the US, but the University of Mainz was the best offer he could get, so that’s why he’s there.

After another satisfying lunch at the hostel, I embarked with the rest of the interns on our free guided tour of Heidelberg. You’re probably wondering what Jonathan is doing on a guided tour of Heidelberg when he’s been living in the Altstadt (Old Town) for the past 8 weeks. The answer is that although I knew all the sights, I really didn’t know the stories behind any of the sights or their significance. For that reason, I had a great time just absorbing all that the tour guide had to tell us and realizing how lucky I am to be able to spend three months here.

My apologizes, it looks like this is going to be one of my longer posts. But I can’t stop now, there was another Sommerfest! (Summer Festival). On Friday night, Ahmad, Lorenzo, Shivalik, and I were able to go to the hospital-sponsored Carribean night at Schwimmbad Club (Swimming pool club) where there had been public viewings of the soccer games in previous weeks. I thought the first Sommerfest was amazing, but the scale of this one was just mindboggling. Around 5000 tickets were given out to hospital employees and the security was so tight they didn’t even let some woman’s husband in (although employees’ children were admitted for free). There really wasn’t room for anyone extra though in the plaza with an artificial sandy beach on one side and a sea of tables on the other. A great German cover band was hired that played a mix of American and German pop/rock hits and of course, there was an open bar and buffet line. I don’t even want to know what it all cost, but if all the employees are now refreshed and ready to work another year until next year’s Sommerfest (apparently there is a pretty good party right before Christmas too), then I’d dare to say that it was a good use of the hospital’s money. After all, doctors and nurses are people too.  

Needless to say, I needed a cup of coffee on Saturday morning to stay awake for the student presentations on Saturday morning. We split into groups based on subject and got a chance to learn about what some of our fellow interns across Germany are working on. I am happy to report that there is some pretty cool stuff going on in biology. For example, one student is driving around his region in a van painted like a tiger measuring species density for different crops. Another is studying the human immune response following a stroke. My favorite presentation was definitely from this Brit, however, who opened by explaining that the only reason he has a job is because no one does research on neuron cells in the gut. It’s “dark, damp, dreary”. In one word, very “unsexy” he told us. (The thick British accent was key in keeping us all engaged, but the work itself seemed pretty cool too.)

We took a group picture outside after the presentations were over, but you won’t find me in the picture. I was behind a mass of other students, as they pretty much just had us stand in this blob, snapped a quick shot, then told us that lunch was waiting back inside. I can’t complain about lunch though. It was pretty much a finger food buffet, the kind of stuff that will put some pounds on you if you eat it every day, but it was delicious! It was sad saying good-bye to the other RISE students after lunch, but the good thing is that it’s easier than ever before to stay in touch with people through FB, e-mail, etc. I’m sure I’ll run into many of them again in the most random circumstances as life goes on, but hopefully not in prison. Prison is never a good place to be in :)

Okay, no real good way to transition after that last comment. I’ll just end with a short reflection. One thing I think I did really well over the three days of the conference was “living in the moment”. I think for a lot of students my age, it’s tough to balance both enjoying what you have right now and making preparations for what lies ahead in the future. About a year ago, I got wicked excited when I found out about RISE for the first time while surfing online. I dreamed of shaping my own study abroad experience, taking the best of what Midd had to offer and then finding an excuse to stay in this awesome place for the next five months. Now, I’m living the dream! I’m in Heidelberg and I actually pinch myself once in a while to confirm that I’m not dreaming. At the same time, however, I have to plan for the future. There are evenings in which I will hide from the world and read posts on Student Doctor Network or get a head start on learning material for my classes in the fall. It’s this constant back and forth between work and play, being alone and being with others, planning and living. Will I ever strike a perfect balance? Probably not, but that’s okay! It’s definitely a bit corny, but it’s sort of like the “pursuit of happiness” idea in the Declaration of Independence. As long as I’m striving to balance everything that’s going on in my life, that in itself is a sort of balance and something that I think everyone is capable of. Some people can combine their work and play into one passion and continue that passion well after their official retirement without ever burning out. That’s wonderful for them, but I don’t think that’s for me. There’s something about the good vibes I get just being around family/friends after a long day at work or being at work after a long night with friends/family. It’s this vicious, wonderful cycle called life. In one word, it’s anything but “unsexy.” It’s awesome.     

On a less philosophical note, I am leaving the country this weekend to visit a family that lives two houses away from me in Melrose. Only I won’t be going to Melrose. How is that possible? Find out next week! Danke für Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!   

Roadtrip to Rotterdam

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to return to the Netherlands, this time with my American friend Shivalik and German friend Niclas. The goal of the trip was to go beyond Amsterdam to see the rest of the country. While Amsterdam is definitely an awesome city, Shivalik pointed out that conversations with people who travel to the Netherlands tend to go something like this:” Where did you go? The Netherlands. Where were you in the Netherlands? Amsterdam.” At the end of the weekend, I can confirm that we achieved this goal. Two days were still not enough to truly experience the land of tulips and cheese, but it was a great time nonetheless.

We arrived in Rotterdam via Niclas’s car late Friday night (the Autobahn is fast, but not that fast), so other than exploring Witte de Withstraat, which seemed to be an area where lots of students hang out and walking across the Erasmus bridge to take in the city’s amazing skyline, we had to wait until Saturday to properly explore the city. After a nice canned breakfast catered by REWE, we made a trek over to info center at the Centraal Station to pick up a map of the city. From there, we followed part of the “Architecture Walking Tour” back to the City Hall, where our car was parked, Laurenskerk, a medieval church that was the only late Gothic building to survive the Rotterdam Blitz, and my personal favorite, the Cube Houses (see pictures on FB). I felt mixed emotions walking around all the stunning modern architecture. I think the natives of Rotterdam really did a marvelous job rebuilding their city after WII, but it was only possible because the old city was completely leveled by the German Air Force. One can really see the worst and best sides of humanity by looking at pictures of the city in 1940 and then today.

We checked out Rotterdam’s Chinatown to try to find something good for lunch, but all of the restaurants were really expensive. Luckily, we were able to convince good ol’ Aldi to provide lunch for us at a reasonable price before continuing our journey up north to the Hague. Back in the car, I was a bit bummed that Niclas wanted to skip both this picturesque town called Delft and the central part of the Hague to head straight for the beach in Scheveningen, but he was the driver, so I didn’t want to give him a hard time. When we arrived at the beach, however, I had a change of heart. I realized that I hadn’t gone for a swim in nine months! It was the most amazing feeling in the world to run into the North Sea for the first time and dive in head first. I think Niclas and I lasted a good 5-10 minutes before the adrenaline disappeared and the cold set in. In any case, we chilled at the beach (it actually did start to get cold with the wind) afterward until it started to get dark and then found a reasonably priced Thai restaurant on Keizerstraat for dinner. Unfortunately, it rained a bit Saturday night, but I got Shivalik and Niclas to play a couple rounds of 20 Questions with me before we called it a night.

Sunday was spent making our way back to Heidelberg. Since neither Niclas nor Shivalik had ever been to Cologne before, we stopped there for about two hours on the way back to see the city’s iconic cathedral. I couldn’t help but be reminded of my first time in the city with my Midd pal Dylan back in December. What was cool for me was also getting to see the inside of the cathedral this time around, as well as making the journey to the top of one of its towering steeples. I doubt I’ll make it to Cologne a third time before heading back to the US in five weeks, but some more adventures for the conclusion of my time abroad are definitely in the works! Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!           

Sommerfest and more!

I have a new favorite German word- Sommerfest (summer festival). Last Friday evening, Ahmad, Shivalik, and I went to an amazing Sommerfest  thrown by the director of the surgery clinic. Before I get into the succulent details, however, I must begin with a somewhat-related aside. As we all were walking to the festival after work, we passed by the Heidelberg Zoo (which we still have to visit). We did manage to see one exhibit though that was accessible from the sidewalk- grizzly bears! Behind a four-foot high glass railing that dropped down into a moat, we were able to see three bears all within twenty meters of where we were standing. What was scary was how easy it would have been for say a stupid teenager to jump into the exhibit after being dared to do so by his friends, but I’m sure there were cameras or some sort of safety measures being taken to prevent this sort of mischief from happening. Anyway, after about ten minutes we decided that we had better get a move on before all the food disappeared at the party.

As it turned out, there was WAY more than enough food and drinks for everyone at the Sommerfest. In attendance were probably around one hundred members of the hospital staff and their families. We were greeted by a buffet of different grilled meats, salads, pastas, desserts, ice cream sundaes, and to top it all off, an open bar! After we got some food and sat down, we watched the DJ do his thing and a few nurses and doctors participating in mini-dance lessons on stage. In addition, there was a rugby field adjacent to the event, so once we were done, the idea of kicking a soccer ball around seemed attractive. Shivalik went back to his place to grab a ball and then we hit the field. Of course, a 4v4 small-sided soccer game soon developed as others wanted to play and as a result, we actually ended up missing most of the first half of the Germany vs. Greece game. Interestingly enough, we could keep track of the goals that Germany scored by listening to the cheers off in the distance. At some point, we had to give back the cones that we “borrowed” from the workers running the children’s activities and that was when we trekked over to Schwimmbad Club (Swimming pool club, still haven’t found the swimming pool) where there was an open-air viewing. So we caught the last three goals anyway that Germany scored in their 4-2 victory. Can’t wait for the next game on Thurs against the winner of the England-Italy match.        

Yesterday (Sat), I met up with a new RISE student named Jay that just arrived here after finishing up his semester in London. He is working at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics hidden up in the hills above Heidelberg. No, it’s not like the location is secret; it’s just a bit removed from the main part of the city probably to ease the mind of the public. Jay wanted to check out Philosopher’s Way, so I met him and Ilyas near Theodor Heuss Bridge and we were on our way. We took a slightly different path than when Shivalik and I explored the area a few weeks ago, so some of the stuff, like the ruins of a basilica above the amphitheater, was new for me as well. During the walk, we had the chance to acquaint ourselves with each other and watch crazy mountain bikers either zoom down the steep trails or peddle up at a painfully slow pace. Don’t worry, no casualties this time around.

After getting Flammkuchen (Tarte Flambee, a French pizza popular in Baden-Württemberg) at a bakery called Riegler, Ilyas headed back to his place while Jay and I made our way over to the Schloss (castle), the #1 tourist destination in Heidelberg which he had somehow not yet seen! On the way, I showed him the Corps Rhenania as well and he was impressed by the grandeur of the mansion. At the castle, we took lots of photos and checked out both the pharmacy museum and what is apparently the largest wooden wine barrel in the world. As we then made our way toward the Scheffel Terrace, we suddenly encountered blue sheep! There are photos on facebook, I speak the truth! Okay, I should be more specific and say they were models of sheep that were part of some sort of European unity project. I looked on their website (blaue-schafe.de) and saw that they have already visited several cities like Straßburg and Berlin and have several more to go. You can even help defray their travel costs by buying one for a mere price of 120 euros! Man, I have to stop doing free advertising on my blog. Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!  

Freiburg!

Last Saturday, three other RISE students and I woke up bright and early to go to Freiburg. Okay, “bright and early” means around noon here, but we still managed to explore Freiburg im Breisgau for about five hours before heading back to Heidelberg. The following is based on a true story J.

At 16:56, Shivalik, Kristen, Ilyas and I arrived at Freiburg Hauptbahnhof (main train station). As I mentioned earlier, we had a late start. We were all really hungry, so we decided to eat at the first restaurant we saw- a Thai Schnellrestaurant (“fast restaurant”). Like what usually happens when you eat at the first restaurant you see, the food we got wasn’t all that great, but the waitress was nice enough to take a group photo of us. After . . . the meal (it wasn’t really dinner, since we just had breakfast a few hours before, but it wasn’t really lunch either, since it was 5 PM) we headed into the Altstadt (old city). The Altstadt had some really nice old-looking buildings that were reconstructed after WWII. It reminded us a lot of Heidelberg, except for the Bächle, which were these tiny streams that ran along most of the streets in the city. Check Wikipedia for more info/pictures. Since it was going to be dark in a few hours, we decided to climb up the Schloßberg (castle mountain) first to see the Schloß. I figured out where we needed to go on the map and we were on our way.       

There is another big difference between Heidelberg and Freiburg. The former has a castle and the latter doesn’t. Our hike wasn’t a complete waste of time, however, since from the top of the hill we got a nice panorama view of the city on one side and on the other side, we could see France and Switzerland. After hanging out at the top for a while, we decided to head down so we could see the rest of the city! We walked down in a single file, myself upfront and Ilyas taking up the rear. Suddenly, I heard one of my companions yell at the top of their lungs. I spun around and was horrified to see a bear gnawing on Ilyas’s shoulder. We all just stood there petrified as the bear dragged Ilyas into the woods, probably to feed him to several tiny cubs waiting in a cave somewhere.   

Next up on the tour was the university. The Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg is one of the oldest and most renowned schools in Germany. To the dismay of the locals, the university was recently downgraded from its status as an “Elite Uni”, but none of us really thought much of it. We just walked through the campus, admiring the beautiful buildings. As we approached a statue sitting in front of one of the buildings, one of us noticed that it was holding a disposable coffee cup in its right hand. We all appreciated the sense of humor of the local students! We began to walk away when Kristen told us to wait up a second so she could take a picture. Right after the flash went off, the statue stood up and came to life! “Freiburg ist doch eine Elite Uni! Jetzt musst du bezahlen!” (“Freiburg is still an elite university! Now you have to pay!) The statue opened the coffee cup and tossed a sparkly liquid on Kristen that turned her into a statue! Shivalik and I turned around and ran for our lives.    

After getting . . . another meal at a döner place (it was around 8, yes you could probably call that dinner), we were all ready to head out. I think our hike in the beginning tired us all out, but the Altstadt  of Freiburg isn’t really all that big anyway. I feel like we got a good feel for the city even in the short time we were there. I think the biggest motivator for us taking this day trip in the first place was the Schönes Wochenende (good weekend) ticket. For just 33 euros in total, you and three Freunde (friends) can travel all over Baden-Württemburg for one day. You’re welcome Deutsche Bahn for the free advertising. That being said, of course one can only take local trains to get around the Bundesland (state). What that meant for us was that we had to wait about an hour in Offenburg for our connection. As we did in Karlsruhe on our way to Freiburg, we decided to walk around Offenburg a little bit since we were there anyway. After going a ways down the main road and not seeing too much, we decided to turn back. Around this time on Saturday evening, Russian soccer fans all over the world were mourning their embarrassing loss to Greece that night. That is to say, most were mourning. So as we were walking back to the train station, all of a sudden, we noticed a large group of Russian soccer fans walking toward us! As Shivalik and I passed through the group, suddenly one of the larger Russians picked me up and put me over his shoulder like I was a sack of flour. “Sacrifice, sacrifice” he began muttering under his breath and the rest of the group began muttering the same words over and over again as well. Shivalik tried to help me by punching and kicking the large man that was holding me, but the large man just ignored him. “I’ll get Niclas, Jon, Niclas will know what to do,” Shivalik yelled to me as I was carried off into the distance. Then, Shivalik turned around began running back toward the station. That was the last time I ever saw him.      

I hope that Shivalik made it back to Heidelberg safely. If he did, it would have likely been at exactly 12:53 AM, after which he rode his bike home, emailed his parents, and then went to sleep. Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!

Fußball and Toilet Paper

As most of you are likely aware of, the UEFA soccer tournament is now underway in Europe. I had the pleasure of watching two of the matches over the past three days. Of course, EVERYONE in Germany tuned in to watch their beloved Nationalmannschaft  take on Portugal last Saturday night. Shivalik thought it would be cool to watch our host country’s opening game at the Schwimmbad Club, which is just down the road from the hospital. The club organized this giant outdoor public viewing venue complete with a jumbotron, standing room for hundreds of fans, and indeed beer stands dotted around the perimeter to complete the scene. After making to the front of a long line to get in, we squeezed our way through the jolly spectators to get to a spot where we could see the screen. Beer, soccer, and even free admission! What could be better than that?

The first half was pretty uneventful. Shivalik and I ran into some girls he knew through his roommate, but we lost them in the crowd soon after they said hallo to us. In the second half, however, as anyone who watched the game surely remembers, German striker Mario Gomez scored the one and only goal of the game off a header. The place went wild. Fans young and old were jumping up and down, screaming, shooting off fireworks. It was quite the scene to take in coming from a country where soccer is more synonymous with minivans than a national pastime. As one might imagine, that was only the beginning of the celebrations that night across Germany. Riding home after the game along the Neckar (sober and with a helmet so my folks back home don’t worry), I was surrounded by the sounds of car horns and people singing in the street. Needless to say, I am looking forward to the games against the Netherlands and Denmark this upcoming Wednesday and Sunday respectively.

Now, on to my story about toilet paper! What could toilet paper possibly have to do with watching a soccer game Jonathan? Other than the fact that both experiences happened last week- gar nichts! One day in the bathroom that I share with two other guys in my fraternity, I saw a new note on the wall. Lieber Klogänger! Wenn du das Klopapier das auf der Toilette liegt benutzt, solltest du auch mal dran sein welches zu kaufen! Das nur als kleine Gedankenstütze! Vielleicht denkst du ja beim nächsten Einkauf an diesen Zettel! PS: Nimm gleich das vierlagige! All right, I know I’ve been neglecting to translate throughout this post, here is a rough translation. Dear toilet goer! Since you use the toilet paper that lies here, you should also be responsible for purchasing some once in a while! Just to remind you! Perhaps think back to this note the next time you go shopping! PS- Just get the 4-layered kind! So the next day (Tues) in Aldi (cleanly wiped so my folks back home don’t worry), I bought a pack of the 4-layer toilet paper that I was fairly sure Justus, my roommate who lives down the hall, requested. I stashed it away in the bathroom cabinet once I got back and put a big checkmark through my roommate’s message on the wall. End of story, so I thought. On Saturday, I noticed that someone had scribbled a new note underneath the original. Also bitte?! 3-lagig und recycling? (Really?! 3-layer and recycled?) I looked underneath the note and noticed a pack of 3-layered, recycled toilet paper. Where did that come from I wondered? I knew that I had bought the right kind already, so I didn’t think much of it until I saw the third and final note later on Sunday night as I was getting ready to go to sleep. Mind you, all of these notes had been anonymous up to this point and I still had no idea where the other toilet paper came from. Klogänger die aufgrund übermäßigen Analverkehr eine wurde Rosette haben, seien doch angehalten sich dem Popo mit Waffetapfern zu reinigen Now this note scared the s*** out of me (excuse the pun) because there is a lot of slang in it that I still don’t fully understand. It is something like Because of the excessive anal traffic of one with an asshole, this s**** toilet paper can still be used to clean yourself. At the time though, I had only understood the very first part of the message. Excessive Analverkehr? Is my roommate accusing me of using the bathroom too often? Has he even seen the good toilet paper that I already put in the cabinet? After running back and forth between the toilet and my room several times to try to translate the message, I figured I had better just talk to one of my roommates and see what the heck was going on. I knocked on Justus’s door and timidly asked him what the new message meant. He looked at me kind of quizzically and then I showed him the new note in the bathroom. He burst out laughing. It turns out that Justus only wrote the first two notes and Florian, my roommate who lives upstairs by himself, was the one who bought the lower quality toilet paper and wrote the third angry note. I showed Justus the good toilet paper that I bought and he appreciated it, since he is the one normally supplying all of the toilet paper. He gave me the general idea of what all the slang in the note meant and that is what I tried to convey up above. Even after eight months of living here, it is interesting that I am still experiencing mildly traumatic misunderstandings from time to time with the natives. I guess the moral of the story is that you can never have too much toilet paper!     

Well hopefully you found that last story worth your time. It may have been one of those things where you had to have been there. Go Germany! Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!

     

The 100.000 € videogame

(Note: 100.000 in German is 100,000 in English) After two weeks of doing nothing but studying the anatomy of the human abdominal cavity, I was quite relieved to get a new assignment from my German medical student. She told me that it was time to begin learning about specific laparoscopic procedures that are relevant to her project. First up was the good ol’ cholecystectomy or as the Germans call it Cholezystektomie. Using a website called webop.de, I managed to get a pretty good understanding of the different steps involved in surgically removing the gallbladder. What really cemented the process in my head, however, was being able to perform a cholecystectomy all on my own last Thursday! No, it wasn’t on a real person, but it felt pretty close on a simulator called the LAP Mentor. All you need to know about the LAP Mentor is that is essentially a 100.000 € videogame in which the different levels are different training modules and laparoscopic procedures, such as the cholecystectomy. Needless to say, it is definitely the coolest thing I have done during my internship so far! The module has actual graspers that you use as the controls. When you grab an organ on the screen, it feels exactly like you are grabbing an organ down below. I was able to confirm this feeling when during a workshop last Thursday, I got to try my hand at doing a cholecystectomy on a real pig liver inside of a sealed container. The other participants and I all took turns cauterizing the tissue attaching the gall bladder to the liver, putting clamps on the cystic duct and cystic artery, etc. And this was all with the same equipment that real surgeons use! At one point, the gall bladder burst open and all the lovely pig bile leaked out of it, but collectively we managed to finish the cholecystectomy, albeit a bit messily. Of course, now I have come to terms with the importance of the tedious task of learning the intricacies of human anatomy. Once you get inside the human body, nothing looks nice and neat as an anatomy atlas would have you believe. Therefore, when you’re cutting an artery, you better make sure you’re cutting the right one! Finally, the next time you experience severe pain in the right upper quadrant, give me a call. I am 100% unofficially certified to remove your gallbladder!           

I’ll end with a short anecdote that my friends from the South will appreciate, I think. It sort of depends on whether or not you consider Kansas a part of the South, but bear with me. On Wednesday night, my new German friend Niclas invited Shivalik and I to celebrate with him, since he had successfully completed an exam earlier in the day. We started off at his place and then migrated to Hauptstraße (Main Street), where Niclas’s classmate Cornelius lives. Shivalik and I introduced ourselves, and when Cornelius heard that we were both from the States, his face lit up. He immediately began explaining to us how he had studied abroad in Kansas when he was in high school. The best part was that everything came out in an almost flawless Southern accent! Cornelius told us this great story about how one night shortly after he arrived in this small town in Kansas, he and his new American friends went up to a roof on Main street. “We started throwin’ light bulbs onto the street,” he said, “’’cause, s*** man, there’s nothin’ to do in Kansas, so the kids throw light bulbs onto the street!” After a short time, the town’s sheriff arrived. Of course, he had this really thick Southern accent, so poor Cornelius had absolutely no idea what he was saying to him. After being forced to transition into life in Germany, I was definitely able empathize with him, but at the same time, everyone, including Cornelius, was laughing so hard that the experience is clearly one that Cornelius remembers fondly.

What else? I saw another operation today! This one was to correct a hiatus hernia. Gotta get up early tomorrow to observe an actual cholecystectomy. Maybe they’ll ask me to help out haha. Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!

A first night and a last night

Thanks for tuning into my 30^th post! (Cue applause, I know, what a momentous moment). I will write about a first night and a last night from last week. May 19 was my new friend Shivalik’s first night in Heidelberg. After traveling the whole day from Berlin (as I had done just a week earlier), he was ready to watch the Champions League final between Bayern München and Chelsea. Once he had brought his stuff to his room, Shivalik gave me a call in the afternoon and we met up at Bismarckplatz (Bismarck square) in the center of town. Accompanying him was Anas, a German student who is subletting his room to Shivalik for the summer. Since it was Shivalik’s first time in Heidelberg, we did the mandatory hike up to the Schloss (castle) and explored a bit more of the city before it was time to head over to a bar called Belinni’s to watch the game. Normally, I wouldn’t go into the details of how we got there, but here it’s worth mentioning. Shivalik and Anas came to Bismarckplatz on bikes; I walked. Shivalik and Anas had to pick up some paint on the way to the bar, so they recommended that I take a bus and meet them at the surgical clinic, where my internship is. While I was on the bus, it suddenly started raining cats and dogs and I worried that something might happen to my two friends on their bikes. Once I arrived, I saw that Shivalik and Anas weren’t there yet, so I went inside to use the bathroom (Traveler’s tip: Hospitals are a great place to use the bathroom for free). When I came out, I was shocked to see a giant puddle of white paint on the ground with Anas standing right in the middle of it. They had made it all the way to the clinic, only to drop a can of paint after they arrived. Anas said that there wasn’t really anything we could do and recommended that Shivalik and I simply go to the bar while he found someone in the hospital to clean the paint.

We got to the bar all right and found decently good seats close to the TV where we just had to crane our heads a little to the side to see the screen. The people sitting next to us were celebrating a birthday party. Funnily enough, Shivalik and I ended up talking quite a bit with a student from the group named Niclas. I guess it wasn’t that atypical that we chatted a bit with a stranger at a bar, but what I think what was atypical, especially in Germany, was that he invited us to his friend’s birthday party that was being held nearby in a dorm. Shivalik was interested, so I decided to go too. At the party, we were able to chat with the rest of the group over some beer and surprisingly, everyone, including the birthday boy, were all really welcoming, even though we had only just met! I’m still not sure if it was pure friendliness or the fact that everyone in the birthday group weren’t exactly sober that led to this all happening. Either way, it was definitely a good time!

Okay, on to the last night. May 23 was the last night of Eckhart (I don’t know his first name) being a Fuchs at the fraternity I am living in. Fuchs literally means fox, but in this sense it means freshman. In order to become a fully-fledged member of the Corps Rhenania, one must participate in a Mensur (duel). A Fuchs from each of two different fraternities face-off in what is called “academic fencing” surrounded by the members of their respective fraternities looking on. Each Fuchs is allowed to wear protective gear up to the neck and then only goggles to protect their eyes. Each member also has two people assisting them: one looks on from the side and jumps in to end each round after a certain number of sabre clashes and the second wipes down the sword in between rounds. During the course of the Mensur, there are thirty rounds in which the two Füchse alternate between trying to strike the other on the forehead and blocking. It was frightful, yet fascinating to watch, since at any moment a Fuchs could make an error and end up with a nasty scar on his face as a result. It is fascinating to me that the students here do this voluntarily. There are a lot of benefits if you can survive the thirty rounds while remaining steadfast in place (like Eckhart and his opponent both did, neither sustaining any injuries). You become a rightful Mitglieder of the fraternity, which gives you the right to wear a special colored ribbon from your right shoulder to your left waist and boss all the Füchse around. Also, I guess because of the importance of the duel, all the onlookers (who were also all male) dressed in suits for this event, so I managed to find a cheap suit at C&A for the next Mensur. Also, don’t worry Mom and Dad, I am not a Fuchs, but a Gast (guest) of the fraternity, so I will not have anything more to do with these duels other than watching.    

You can find out more about academic fencing looking around online if you need an excuse to procrastinate. I read that Mark Twain’s book A Tramp Abroad is based in part on his own experience watching student fencing in Heidelberg. Maybe he met some members of the Corps Rhenania back in the day. Anyway, that’s it for now. Danke furs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!

The first week

Hallo alle! It’s hard to believe that a whole week has passed now since I arrived in Heidelberg, but indeed, I got through the first week of my internship. For those of you that are curious about the specifics, I am currently participating in the German American Exchange Service’s RISE program (Research In Science and Engineering). I was fortunate enough to get placed with a medical student here who is working on a project called “Development of a Decision Support System for Minimally Invasive Surgery with a Special Focus on the Retroperitoneum”. What does that mean in simpler terms? After a week of essentially just getting familiar with the German-version of the anatomy of the abdominal space, I’m just as confused as you are, but it’s pretty much an attempt to create a computer program that would assist surgeons as they are removing a kidney, or doing something else in the retroperitoneum (basically the area between your stomach and spine). Then, minimally invasive surgery, or laparoscopic surgery, is just like regular surgery, only with much smaller incisions. The surgeon uses a television monitor to see what he/she is doing with elongated surgical instruments that go through these incisions. It’s definitely been interesting so far, but I already miss the interactions with patients that brought me so much gratification in Berlin. I’ll definitely keep an open mind during my time here, but at the moment, my first week has revealed to me that the clinical side of healthcare really appeals to me more than research.   

Even though I had to start this past Monday, the day after I arrived, Ascension Thursday is actually a holiday down here in southern Catholic Germany, so I used the opportunity to explore the city a bit! After attending Mass at the Jesuit Church, a beautiful Baroque church that was spared with the rest of Heidelberg’s Altstadt (old city) from bombing by the Allies in WWII, I decided to head straight for the Schloss (castle), which might be Heidelberg’s biggest tourist attraction. After tackling a mountain of stairs to get to it, I could definitely see why. Onlookers are rewarded by a spectacular view of the city below cut down the middle by the Neckar River. I even managed to locate the fraternity where I live, but more on that later. Once I had finished enjoying the beautiful panorama, I decided to move on up to two other vantage points further up the mountain. The first called Molkenkur I found without too much trouble, but it wasn’t all that spectacular. I had very high expectations for Königstuhl, however, which in English translates to the “King’s Throne”. What better view could there be than that? Unfortunately, I ended up going the wrong way and ended up somewhere else, but fortunately, I ended up somewhere else! It was the Heidelberg Arboretum! I looked at the map though and when I realized the sheer size of the park, I decided it was time to call it quits and make my way down the mountain. About an hour later, I collapsed on the chair in my room, exhausted yet satisfied.      

I’ll end a little bit about the Corps Rhenania, the fraternity where I live. I never saw myself living in a fraternity, but this is where my supervisor found me a room, so hey, here I am. It’s been a nice experience so far. After seven months in Germany, I have learned that it’s really no use to try to become best friends with the other students that live here, since realistically they have no interest in being my best friend. They already have their own groups of friends and furthermore, Germans tend to be much more reserved than Americans. Something that is refreshing about German culture, however, is that on the rare occasion that a German does strike up a conversation with you, it is out of a legitimate interest and not some selfish idea of how you might be useful to them in the future. My strategy then has just been to spend a couple hours hanging out with the other students here and there without trying to be overly friendly or appear desperate. And who knows, maybe I will make a German friend or two here in Heidelberg before the summer is over.        

All right, I’m off to watch the Champions’ League final between Chelsea and Bayern with another RISE scholar who is arriving today! Right, forget to mention that there will be other Americans doing similar internships in Heidelberg- should create plenty of opportunities to have fun this summer in Europe! Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!

Good Bye Berlin

Hallo! As I write this post, I am on the train on my way to Heidelberg- my last stop during my 10-month stay in Germany. After the Wintersemester with the Middlebury School Abroad in Mainz and seven weeks in Berlin, I will now spend my last twelve weeks in Germany doing a research internship with a PhD student at Heidelberg University Hospital. More on that in my next post!

When we last left Jonathan, he was on his way to the Jewish Museum in Berlin. I think I said in a previous post that the Natural History Museum in Berlin was the most technologically advanced museum I had ever visited.  I was wrong! First of all, the museum is architecturally stunning. Visitors begin on the ground floor where they visit the Garden of Exile, built in recognition of Jewish immigrants in Germany and the Holocaust Tower, a dark, towering hollow space with just a crack of daylight that breaks through the ceiling that is meant to give the visitor maybe a small glimpse of what it felt like to be trapped in a concentration camp. As one ascends to the upper levels, one can retrace the steps of the Jews in Germany, starting from the World of Ashkenaz (950-1500 AD) all the way to the present time. I’ll end with two examples of the technology I referred to earlier. The first was an automated 3D movie that gave an overview of the first Jewish settlements in Germany. 3D glasses were not required; instead images that moved back in forth in front of your eyes were projected in the space of a triangular shaped stage used for depth. Much better than the 3D that is being used now in movie theaters! Second, my friend Jim noted that the headphones located throughout the museum were top notch DJ equipment that cost 200 Euros a piece. Doesn’t seem like this museum is having financial issues!

The next day, Thursday, I went with Jim to the Medical History Museum, which is located on the campus of Charite Medical School. I really questioned whether I have what it takes to be a doctor as I walked through the halls of the museum. In the display cases, one can find virtually every organ and body part found in the human body. And they aren’t models, but the real things! The most challenging part of the museum to visit was the pathology room, where one finds the most disturbing examples of what disease and genetic disorders can do to the human body. I won’t go into too much detail, but the part that touched me the most was a section of display cases that had human fetuses with some really terrible disorders that ended their lives before they were even born. The main thing that keeps me optimistic when I think back on this experience, however, is that the vast majority of humans are born healthy. The vast majority of humans do not enter the world with terrible diseases, but instead succumb to them after a life well-lived. I still don’t know if I really have what it takes to be a doctor, but after seeing what’s out there, I’m even more motivated to do my best to become one.

On a lighter note, I went with my friend Conor on Friday to a place called Kunsthaus Tacheles. Danke Michael C. für die Empfehlung und Conor furs Mitkommen! Kunsthaus Tacheles is this abandoned building in the middle of Berlin that artists use now both to sell their works and create new ones while visitors browse around. In addition, the walls and ceilings of the building are all covered with layers of both graffiti and drawings that I’d be willing to concede are art. Conor and I agreed that this place and the people that inhabit it represent the nature of Berlin very well, but visit ASAP! The city government is currently trying to close this place down, which would really be a pity I think. Sure, I have a feeling there are a lot of illegal things surrounding the Kunsthaus, but if it was torn down, Berlin would lose an amazing example of living history in the center of the city.

I think that’s about it. WAIT A SECOND! I haven’t talked about FOOD yet! The past two nights, Jim and I had cheese fondue and hotpot- two really good yet really easy dinners to make. Vielen Dank Jim! I’ll post some new pictures on FB too. Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!       

Hamburg and Lübeck

This past Sunday, at 15:27 Deutsche Bahn time, I arrived in Hamburg’s central train station on my way to revisit Joni’s family, who had so graciously hosted me in 2008 as part of GAPP(German American Partnership Program, Joni visited me for 4 weeks in the US, I visited him for 3 weeks in Germany). About an hour later, Joni’s father met me at Poppenbüttel train station and drove me back to their home, where I was also happy to see Joni’s mother again. Almost nothing had changed in the past four years. Sure, the parents and Joni’s younger siblings (who I would meet later at midnight when they arrived back from a trip to Taize) had gotten older and some little things were different around the house. But for the most part, I was in the same comfortable atmosphere that I remember from high school, only this time, we spoke auf Deutsch! It was really a special experience because although I got to know the family the last time by speaking in English, the most intricate parts of the family members’ personalities, or I think really anyone’s personalities, only comes out in their native tongue. At the same time, the family seemed almost honored in a way that I had continued to study German and all of this just made for a really good two days in Hamburg. Sleeping in, attending a talk given by the mother about life in former East Germany, playing Mario Cart- things don’t get much better than that! Vielen Dank Joni’s Familie!

On Tuesday afternoon, I took a small detour on my way back to Berlin to get coffee with a Midd friend named Chris, who is currently doing a Fullbright project in Lübeck. He gave me a tour of the quaint little city and we caught up on things since we had last seen each other in Middlebury. Last spring, Chris gave me a lot of really valuable advice before I embarked on my semester in Mainz, since he spent a year there during his undergraduate years, so part of the reason I wanted to visit was to let him know that everything had turned out well with the Wintersemester. More importantly though, he is just a great guy and I was sad to have to say goodbye to him to make my journey back to Berlin. Danke für einen wunderbaren Nachmittag Chris!

So, now I just have 4 days left in Berlin, INCLUDING TODAY! I’m off to the Jewish Museum now. Danke furs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!

PS- This is really funny! (Thanks for sharing this on FB Talel)

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Pick German as the 'from' language; Press the 'Listen'-button

The operation

Last Monday, I had my last day of work at Charite hospital, and boy, what a last day it was! Everything started out the same as usual. The nurses and I did the morning rounds at 7 AM, entering every room after the team of doctors had finished to care for the patients. At 8 AM, I distributed breakfast to the patients (I am now really good at pouring cups of coffee with any combination of milk, sugar, artificial sweeteners, grape sugar). After I collected the breakfast trays from the rooms, however, the head nurse said that I would finally get to see an operation! She told me to report to the operation station in 15 minutes and that first I could eat some breakfast. In the break room, I sought to find a balance between eating enough that I wouldn’t get hungry during the operation and not so much that I might throw up. I had never seen an operation up to that point and I had not even been told what kind of operation I would be seeing. I decided to head downstairs a little bit early, since I didn’t want to miss the first incision, but it turned out I arrived plenty early. I entered the operation room with a new set of sterile clothes, a mouth covering and a shower cap as the nurses and doctors prepped all the equipment and instruments for the operation. The patient was lying in a bed and raised his hand slightly upward to greet me. “Hallo,” I said in reply. Once everything was ready, the procedure began by sticking a line with a camera down the patient’s throat to check for any new cancerous growths. This was actually the worst part I thought, since the patient was awake and looked like he was in a lot of pain the entire time. It was interesting to see the inside of his throat on the television screen. I only wish there could have been a more comfortable way of performing that first procedure. Next, the anesthesiologist put the patient to sleep and the head surgeon made the first incision. Once I realized that I wasn’t going to faint, I looked on with great interest as the surgeon cut deeper and found the skin tumors less than an inch under the surface of the patient’s left leg and abdomen. After the first surgeon removed a tumor, the second surgeon, who I think was doing the German equivalent of a residency, began sewing the patient back up. I was surprised by how little blood there was. The surgeons used these heated knives and prongs that immediately burned the flesh and prevented most of the bleeding. I also looked on with great interest as the anesthesiologist did his work. He recorded different readings throughout the operation and checked the patient’s pupils every once in a while to make sure that they were not too big. He told me that this was one way of measuring how much pain the patient was in. After about three hours, the surgeons used a staple gun to put the finishing touches on closing up the wounds and the anesthesiologist removed the gas tube. A few minutes later, the patient suddenly woke up and his first reaction after taking a deep breath of air was to try to get up. It took four people to hold him down before he realized what was going on and lay back down calmly. After the team of doctors and nurses used a sliding pad to transfer the patient from the operating table back to his bed, I headed back up to my station. At that point, it was 2 PM, closing time. I said my final goodbyes to the nurses and secretly left a little note for them expressing my gratitude on their bulletin board as I left.

I definitely feel a little sad that the internship is over now. There are many random things that remind me of the different patients and nurses. For example, there was one friendly diabetic patient who would always say “drücken” (push) to me in a very commanding way as I was squeezing blood out of his finger. Now, I always hear his voice in my head whenever I push a door open. I also have been frequently listening to the Berlin radio station 104.6 RTL (check it out online!), since that is the station the nurses would always have on during break. Really though, my journey toward becoming a doctor is just beginning, so I think the main part of me is really looking forward to my next internship in Heidelberg that will begin on May 14 in which I will be helping a PhD student with her project on developing laparoscopic surgery technology that focuses on an anatomical area called the retroperitoneum. Should be fun!      

In other news, there was one weird night where I couldn’t stay in my apartment, since a new person was moving in and I couldn’t begin crashing in my flatmate Frederic’s room (Danke Frederic!) until the next night. So my friend Conor was nice enough to host me for a night (Danke Conor!). We went to this Mexican restautant called Alcatraz that claims to have the best fajitas in Berlin and although I have not had fajitas anywhere else in the city, I would not dispute this claim! Finally, I checked out the Berlin Wall Documentation center one day and that was pretty cool. That’s all for now! I’ll have some traveling to report on next time. Danke furs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!

Having fun

As I write this post, there are only five more days left of my internship! April is certainly flying by faster than any other month I have been Germany. You know what they say about when time flies! Here’s a summary of what I’ve been up to since Wiener Schnitzel night:

Der Zoologische Garten: The Berlin Zoo has more species of animals than any other zoo in the world! Needless to say, it’s a big place! My two flatmates, Jim and Frederic, and I spent four hours there checking out the different exhibits. My favorites were the elephants, black bears, brown bears, polar bears, penguins, sea lions, and hippopotamuses to name a few. Two more are worth mentioning. The first was the leaf cutter ants on the third floor of the aquarium (Yes, there is actually an aquarium at the zoo too! Not very big, but worth the 5 extra euros to check out). There were two display cases on opposite sides of a large room and glass tubes that went along the ceiling connecting them, simulating the long distances the ants will carry leaves back to their colonies. The next brought me back to 1996-97 when my kindergarten class at Hoover School put on a play called The Great Kapok Tree. My friend Michael and I were both ocelots. I have never actually seen a live ocelot until I got to Berlin, so that was pretty cool as well!

Philharmonie: Maybe some of my readers will remember that visiting the Philharmonie (the concert hall of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra) was the subject of my college application essay. I discovered it on my own during the 3-day visit to Berlin with my German exchange group and was very excited to be able to hear the orchestra from the lobby! Jump ahead three years later and I knew that I had to get inside the concert hall this time around. It turns out that all the concerts of the Philharmonic sell out months in advance, plus the tickets are SUPER expensive, so I was happy spending 2 euros (3 euros if you’re a student) to take the guided tour of the building that leaves from the musicians’ entrance every day at 1:30 PM. The musicians’ entrance can be reached by crossing the parking lot located on the side of the concert hall closest to Potsdamer Straße (shameless plug for the guided tour, it’s great!). Anyway, the tour begins by walking to the main lobby that I mentioned earlier. The guide remarked how compared to other concert halls, the lobby of the Philharmonie is unornate. No red carpet, no fancy decorations, instead a wide open space where friends can meet up before the concert and chat or have a drink. (I’ll tell you what I remember about the tour in case you’re not going to be in Berlin any time soon. If I bore you, by all means, skip ahead, or better yet, stop reading all together and google “cat memes” for the next hour or so.) In the lobby, there is this really cool panorama in which a photographer photo-shopped at least a few hundred clones of himself to fill the lobby, concert hall, and stage. It was quite amusing to see what he was doing all over the picture. Next, we headed up to the top level of the concert hall and as we walked in, I heard music! No, it wasn’t the orchestra, but a solo clarinetist was rehearsing on stage, so we got to hear the acoustics of the hall, which were really quite good. The guide went into all of the small details that the architect, Hans Scharoun, used to produce the best possible sound in a hall in which the orchestra is placed in the middle. He got a lot of criticism in the 60s about how it would never work. Many at the time were strong proponents of your standard “shoe box” concert hall, in which the sound bounces directly off the back wall behind the orchestra and into the audience. Scharoun though was a big fan of democracy the tour guide said, and if you look at the seating plan you’ll see that except for a small section right in front of the orchestra, all of the seats are pretty equal in terms out what you see and what you hear. Everyone ends up having a different experience depending on where they sit, but the quality of the experience remains more or less equal. Not to mention that the ascetics of the hall are amazing. We ended the tour by visiting the chamber music hall as well, where a children’s choir was rehearsing. It was pretty much a smaller version of the Philharmonie designed by a protégé of Scharoun’s keeping his democratic ideals in mind. I’ll just end by addressing one issue that might have popped up in your head as you were reading this: how democratic is the Philharmonic today with its super expensive concerts? The good news is that every Tuesday at 1 PM (another shameless plug J), the orchestra has free lunchtime concerts in the lobby that all are welcome to attend.        

Die Charite: I am still really enjoying my internship at Charite hospital, but at the same time, my rose colored glasses have definitely come off during the last week or so. It turns out that Germany’s health care system has its problems too. I had an interesting discussion with some of the nurses the other day during Frühstück (breakfast, for the nurses who do the morning shift it’s around 10 AM since they don’t take lunch) in which we compared nursing in the US and Germany. I think the main point they drove home was even though Germany spends much less on healthcare than the US, less money puts more stress on nurses and doctors to deliver quality health care to patients. For example, a nurse that cares for patients at home often has to visit up to 20 patients in a single day! I don’t know how it is in the US, but I would be very surprised if that was also the case for American nurses. In addition, doctors at the Charite have been threatening to go on strike for quite some time now. I’m not sure about the specifics, but the idea of doctors going on strike in the US is literally unheard of as far as I know. Finally, I have even come to the conclusion that my position as a student intern only exists to help cut costs even further. My only pay is free food at breakfast and lunch that is leftover from serving the patients and there is rarely a moment when I am sitting around with nothing to do. It is clear that the nurses I work with are overwhelmed with work most days and I can only imagine what it is like without a student intern to lend a hand. Probably one of the biggest things I’ll take away from this internship when it’s over is a newfound respect for nurses. I had really no idea beforehand how much they do in an 8-hour shift that tends to actually be 9 hours. In Germany, a three-month nursing internship at the beginning of medical school is actually mandatory and I think it would be good to introduce at the very least a similar option in the US. The result is that every doctor in Germany knows firsthand what it is like to be a nurse and I am sure that does tons in terms of the potential for doctors and nurses to collaborate in providing the best possible care for patients.

Wow, this post turned out to be pretty long, my apologies. I hope it was at least somewhat interesting for you to read. Stay tuned for my next post when Jonathan finishes his internship at the Charite and begins a well-deserved two week break before starting internship #2 in Heidelberg! At least the author thinks the break will be well-deserved J. Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!     

An unofficial guide to Berlin Mitte

Hallo alle! (Hello everyone!) I’ve been pretty busy since the last time I wrote, so I’ll do my best to sum up what I’ve been up to without making this post extremely long.

Two Fridays ago, I achieved my childhood dream of seeing the Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum. Ever since I learned about the gate in middle school and found out it was in Berlin, I have really, really wanted to go see it. Since I didn’t get a chance to see it the last time I was in Berlin in 2008, I made sure that on my first day off from my internship (Good Friday) I went and saw it. It was spectacular! I posted a video you can see in the link above, but it is better to just visit it in person if you ever get the chance. The rest of the museum actually wasn’t all that amazing, but the admission cost of 6,50 Euro was worth it just for the gate. After the museum, I wandered around Berlin a bit and managed to get into the Berlin Cathedral for free by going to a Good Friday service there. It really does seem like the best way to see a church is to simply go to a service there, which worked very well for my friend Dylan and I at Notre Dame in Paris. Speaking of Paris, there was a copy of Hammurabi’s code in front of the Ishtar Gate. It felt pretty good to know that I had already seen the original in the Lourve J

Saturday was also a fun night since my friend Emily invited me and several other students from the Middlebury program in Berlin to her place for dinner (Danke Emily!). We made lasagne sandwiches that Paula Deen herself would have been proud of and a veggie lasagne that I think she also would have appreciated after her diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. Oh well, but as one of my biology professors once said “what would life be without bacon?” After dinner, some of us went clubbing until the wee hours of the morning, so that was a good time.         

On Sunday, two new people entered my life. The first is named Jim and he will be my roommate for the remainder of the month. The second is named Ben. Yeah, he’s not exactly a new person in my life as we’ve known each other since childhood, but I had a great time hosting him for a week as he travels around Europe.

I’ll employ a list here (in chronological order) to give an overview of some of the places I visited last week with Ben and/or Jim. Consider it an unofficial guide to Berlin Mitte!

Reichstag: The home of the German parliament. Haven’t found a reason yet to wait in line to go up to the roof

Brandenburg Gate: Commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II in the 1730s to represent peace. Perhaps the most iconic image of Berlin (at least on the windows of the U-Bahn)

Holocaust Memorial: The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe covers 4.7 acres with its blocks of concrete that make the visitor feel disoriented while walking through. Whether you like the memorial or not, it does immortalize the remorse Germans feel to this day concerning the atrocities committed during WWII

Potsdamer Platz/Sony Center: I made the mistake of showing Ben and Jim this place during the day. Luckily, we went back in the evening to watch Hunger Games at the Cinestar there and when we got out of the theater, both understood why this is one of my favorite spots in Berlin

Philharmonie: This crazily-shaped yellow building is the home of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra. Also the subject of my college admissions essay, as I managed to locate it during my first trip to Berlin and got to hear the orchestra from the lobby

Checkpoint Charlie: The best known crossing point between the American and Soviet sectors of Berlin during the Cold War. Today you can pay to have your picture taken with the “border guards” there.  

Gedarmenmarkt: A cool square in Berlin that is the site of the Konzerthaus and the French and German cathedrals (actually museums). Bring your camera!

St. Hedwig’s Cathedral: The seat of the Catholic archbishop of Berlin. Father Bernhard Lichtenberg, who helped Jews during the Holocaust, is buried in a crypt here. 

Schinkel Museuem: A small, free museum located in a Neo-Gothic church. Keep walking east past the museum for a nice panorama of the Berlin Cathedral and Alexanderplatz

Book Burning Memorial: Located in front of the German Opera House, this memorial is comprised of a window embedded in the ground that looks down into a library with empty shelves. Accompanying the memorial is the eerie quote from Heinrich Heine, a German poet who lived 100 years before the Holocaust: Wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen. (Where one burns books, one also burns people in the end).  

Neue Wache: A memorial for all victims of war and tyranny. Käthe Kollwitz’s sculpture Mother with her Dead Son is at the center under the oculus, which leaves it exposed to rain and snow.

Berliner Dom: The Berlin Cathedral, a famous Protestant church in Berlin. Pretty cool interior, but as I said earlier, just go to a service and you don’t have to pay for admission.

Alexanderplatz: A cool square in Berlin that is the home of the towering Fernsehturm (TV tower). About a 5 minute walk from my apartment.

Topographie des Terrors: A free museum that documents that Nazis rise to power and atrocities during WWII. Ben and I spent a few hours here last Tuesday.

Restaurant Haus Berlin: A fairly inexpensive restaurant with a pretty good Wiener Schnitzel. More importantly, quality German beer from the tap for 3 Euros.    

East Side Gallery: A 1.3 km stretch of the Berlin Wall that is also the world’s largest open-air art gallery. A bit out of the way, but must-see for visitors to Berlin.

 Kurfürstendamm: Historic shopping area in West Berlin

 Nollendorfplatz: Berlin’s most prominent gay village

Natural History Museum: Jim and I checked out this museum on Saturday. Probably the most technologically advanced museums I have ever been to. Most exhibit descriptions have a hands-on interface that lets you touch certain words and a video or picture will pop up on an imbedded screen. There is also a cool outer space exhibit that has a circular couch that allows visitors to lie down and watch a movie about the formation of the Earth projected on a moving screen up above. Throw in the world’s largest mounted dinosaur and you’ve got a museum more than deserving of its own U-Bahn stop!  

Last night, Jim also taught me how to make Wiener Schnitzel! It was quite lecker (delicious). Now I’ll have a pseudo-German (Wien= Vienna) specialty that I can make for family/friends when I get back to the US! Danke fürs Lesen und bis nächstes Mal!