Organer, Cykler, Blindhed OG Pierogies, Pierogies, Pierogies

mint chocolate in my hand (just thought it was a cool picture =])

Bodies, Bikes, Blindness AND Pierogies, Pierogies, Pierogies

(and babies!)

ferry view going into port in Germany

view up from in the Sony Center Complex

This past week my core class, Human Health and Disease, took a trip to Berlin, Germany and Poznan, Poland.  We did a ton of things- combining academic and cultural visits.  We began with a longg bus ride to Berlin, wa-hoo.  Crash, not-your-comfiest seats, and one 10 hour bus ride later, we made it to the bohemian city.  After meandering around with our lovely tour leaders for about two hours, we found the restaurant in the Sony Center…which is the most futuristic group of buildings I’ve seen, probably ever.  Food was “typical” German- salty, sour-krout-y, and meat & potatoey…not my favorite cultural meal of the week, but not bad.  Then, the 1.5 hour walk back to the hotel…which may have been torturous in the København weather, but Berlin was a beautiful 40°F.  Anything above 0°C equates to much outdoor activity here in Scandinavia.  Anyways, the day to follow, Monday, was possibly my favorite day since coming abroad. 

YUP, I'm holding a human brain!!!

TV Tower, Berlin

Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin Wall

Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe

We woke up early to a delicious breakfast…waffles with dollops of thick chocolate sauce on top J  From breakfast, we went to the Center for Anatomy at the Institute for Cellular and Neurobiology…this was SO COOL.  Legitimately, we examined cadavers for two hours.  There were bins of various organs on some tables- various brain slices, hearts and lungs, livers and kidneys, hands and shoulders- it was incredible.  And then there were the actual bodies…human bodies that had been donated to science that were examined by anatomy students.  The students at the institute had to separate the organs from one another and then put the organs back in their original places.  I had the chance to remove hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, intestines, etc. from cadavers…it was AMAZING.  After this incredible hands on experience, we were free to go grab lunch on our own.  Yumm.  Three other girls and myself found a great Italian restaurant where we had super thin crust pizza and a scoop of gelato- mm mm good.  Then our group met below the TV Tower and went on a three hour long bike tour around East Berlin.  It was another beautiful day in Berlin and we got to see Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, Hitler’s Bunker, Brandenburg Gate, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and the Reichstag.  It was great.  The best story of a man crossing the East/West line at Checkpoint Charlie?- a man dressed in a cow suit in the back of a truck, hidden among other live cows.  Yup, that happened.  After this awesome bike tour, five other people and I decided we should go to Nocti Vagus for dinner, and it was a ridiculous experience!!  This is a restaurant in which all of the waiters and waitresses are blind, and you eat in COMPLETE darkness.  When you enter the restaurant, you are still above ground, and here you order your food. Then, a hostess leads you downstairs, into a chamber room that connects to the main dining room.  Here, the lights are shut and the next door is open.  The group of us were led to our table in a congo-line fashion.  You could not see a darn thing!  Rachel, Evan and I ordered the “mystery menu” which meant we had NO IDEA what we would be served until the food hit our lips!  Some of us ended up sticking our fingers in the butter container multiple times, nearly spilling drinks, and eating with our fingers when unsure of the amount of food left on our plates.  It was such an amazing dinner experience J  This concluded my “maybe best day abroad” yet.  Oh yeah, and finding out that 2 of the guys in my core class are roommates with 2 guys who went to my middle school and live in my town! Small world? I think so!

On top of the Reichtag

inside glass dome of Riechtag

The next day we went to the Max-Delbruck Centrum for Molecular Medicine where we saw (yet another) MRI machine...this one was definitely a bit cooler than the other 50 we’ve seen because this is much stronger, but at this point I definitely feel like I could present on the basics of an MRI machine in my sleep…at least they are really drilling this stuff into our heads!  The afternoon was another ridiculously awesome one though!  We went to a Family Planning Center in Berlin, one that caters to a lot of lower-income individuals/immigrants.  It was incredible- I loved every second of this presentation.  First of all, Germany, like Denmark, does Sex Ed. Ridiculously different than the USA….they start in 2^nd grade!!!  Obviously, with different language and basics of anatomy and whatnot, but still, so early!  They have 3 gynecologists, 4 sex education specialists (2 F, 2 M), 3 psychologists, 3 nurses, 1 midwife, and 1 lawyer on staff, and their facility is beautiful.  They offer sex ed starting in 2^nd grade, and schools send their children here during the day.  They also offer reproductive healthcare services regarding pregnancies, contraception, pregnancy monitoring for women without healthcare insurance, counseling and gynecological care for victims of female mutilation and abortions, reconstruction of the hymen, and induced abortions in the first trimester.  They place such a high value on giving their patients all of the information available to them, and helping each woman make the most informative decision she can.  There has been so much lately, in classes and on this study tour, that has sparked a big interest in maternal and child healthcare for me, I am beginning to wonder if this is something I should be pursuing…hmm I don’t know, I guess we’ll see!  After this visit, we went to a really nice dinner with another DIS group, and then wandered around this bustling city for the rest of the night.

best picture of Rachel and I...inside Riechtag (note the man!)

Our last half-day in Berlin included the Jewish Museum and lunch in the Reichstag building!  The museum was really interesting- it had a ton of exhibits- ranging from explaining Judaism to Jewish traditions to Jewish contributions to the struggle during WWII and afterwards.  Lunch in Restaurant Kåfer was so cool- the view of Berlin was incredible!  And it was pretty cool to be inside this famous building that is now cut off to the public because of terrorist threats being posed earlier in the year.  After lunch we had our 5-hour bus ride to Poznan, Poland.  Once we arrived in Poznan, we had the rest of the night on our own, so a bunch of us went exploring for a restaurant... upon finding Pierogarnia, we had no idea that we had stumbled upon the best pierogies ever…evidenced by the fact that that was the only place I ate each time we had free time for meals in Poznan?  Not on purpose, but nonetheless, that totally happened. 

fruit at market in Poznan

market in Poznan

main square in Poznan

In Poznan we shadowed gastrointestinal pediatricians and gynecologists in the local hospitals.  Kinga was the GI pediatrician I shadowed.  She is a mother of two boys (6 and 2) and she says it’s difficult to be both a doctor and a mother, but in Poland it is very different, because Kinga has to work 3 jobs to make an upper-middle income.  All of her jobs are as a physician, but in different regards.  I was SHOCKED to hear this…she has to go through so much schooling to be a doctor, and then having one job isn’t enough to support her family…it’s crazy!  But it’s also the result of a post-communist government.  She was telling us that she has to pay a lot higher taxes to the government for the same healthcare as someone who is making less money, and she talked about being frustrated with this- understandably so… We saw a couple of patients, one 9 year old boy who has cholitis, and one 11 year old boy who has Krone’s disease.  It was cool to meet some patients, but difficult to interact because of the language barrier; only Kinga spoke English so she translated back and forth.  It was cool to see this hospital and compare with what we saw in Berlin, and what we see in Denmark and the USA.

main square in Poznan

more pretty main square in Poznan

My FAVORITE part of the entire trip took place on our last day in Poznan.  I got to shadow in the gynecology ward of a different hospital.  We went into the Labor and Delivery department and stayed there for 2.5 hours.  Here I got to feel a baby inside of a mother…aka do the exam of the uterus!  It was so cool to feel where the baby’s feet and head were, as the mother was being given oxytocin (hormone to induce labor) since she was 41+ weeks.  I was amazed that this 25 year old woman, giving birth to her first child, was okay with me, an inexperienced naïve 21 year old, examining her stomach- which was quite big might I add…they thought the baby was going to come out and weigh about 4.5 kg!  Okay, but this was still not my favorite part…I got to see a baby be born!! We had the chance to watch a C-section be performed on a woman having her third child (also third C-section).  Watching the surgeons cut through the skin layers (with a pretty obscured view due to all the doctors, midwives and nurses in the room) and then seeing a baby come out was AMAZING.  The placenta, for the record is a gross thing.  Besides that though, it was a beautiful experience and miracle to witness.  We also saw the baby before the father, which I thought was super weird, but apparently in Poland the fathers have to pay extra money to be in the hospital with their wife/mother of their child, and even more money if they want to be in the delivery room…so weird!  Anyway though, watching the father interact with his son for the first time was precious and I don’t think I could accurately describe how beautiful it was.  But yeah, it was incredible :)

some lovely ladies :)

And that more or less concluded our long study tour!  We went to Lech Brewery, one of the most technologically advanced breweries in all of Europe…but when you can’t stand the smell of beer, this isn’t exactly your favorite place to visit.  Afterwards we had a delicious dinner at the best restaurant in Poznan supposedly, and then began our 16 hour trek back to København.  Overall, an awesome trip and great bonding time with the other wonderful MPP peeps J

CHOCOLATE :)

Oh my, and I must just add this in.  Today, I went to the greatest event EVER- a CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL. 

two flubutta (idk how to spell it!)

Rachel Danny and I paid ~$20 (100 kroner) to get in and receive 6 poker chips, good for sampling.  Sounds like plenty of chocolate right? BUT IT WAS SO MUCH MORE. 

two flubutta (still don't know)

Every place basically had free samples in addition to poker chips…I don’t think I’ve ever had so much chocolate…and Mom and Dad, I do think I outdid the cruise chocolate bar…just sayin’ :)

FOUR flubutta (...?)

Fred være med det ~ Peace be with you :) 

yum...free samples :)