Ich bin ein Berliner

 

Oh man, its been awhile since I put up a post which means this one is bound to be long. I'm starting two weeks ago with my host family's trip to Arhus. . . 

So about 2 weekends ago I took a trip back to Arhus with my host family. We stayed with some of their family friends Gertrude and Hans. Gertrude has 3 children (2 girls, 1 boy) and Hans has one boy. We arrived late Friday night after a car ride that the Danes consider unbearably and excruciatingly long and that I considered a little joy ride. It was about 4 hours, but considering you can drive all the way across Denmark in 6 hours and that I regularly drive 24 straight hours to Minnesota in a minivan with six people you can understand our different perspectives. Once we arrived late that night we were treated to an excellent dinner and great company. Everyone I've met in Denmark has just been wonderful! The next day we woke up and I went for a run with my host parents. Peter and Pia may be the same age as my parents, but they sure seem sprightly when they're sprinting the last 100 yards way in front of me. We spent the day wandering around Arhus with our own personal guide, Han's 13 year old son Anton! He knew so much about the midevil history of of the city and the viking settlement that was orginally there. It was very neat. Then we had lunch with what I guess I would call my host cousin. She is 19 years old is going to the acting school in Arhus. She lives in this crazy house with 9 other roommates. They share everything, including all their food and the 2 bathrooms. Thats right, 2 bathrooms. For 10 people. It sounds pretty rough to me, but apparently they say it works fine. They also have some great decorations. There were some of pictures of Carl Marx, The 10 Indian Commandments with a picture of an Indian smoking a peace pipe and lots of ridiculous Pocahontas-y rules, and my favorite, a painting right on the wall of a girl with her hand down the towel around her waist and the words "All you need is love" above her. Talk about liberal, right! After lunch, we saw Gertrude's son Oscar play drums in his band at his school fair. It was a pretty standard school fair complete with games (like the ones where you throw sponges at teachers and where you throw a rod over a curtain and fish for prizes), bakesales, and fundraisers! It was a real throwback to my Hilcrest days. That night we had some delicious dinner with the family and went to a middle Eastern market that was huge!! The next day we went back to ARoS, the modern art museum. Luckily the I love you exhbit was gone so I didn't have to suffer through that awkwardness again. We took the ferry home and I enjoyed the Danish countryside scenery. Whew, and that was keeping it brief!

My Stitches!

The next week was pretty rough with classes, but at least pretty interesting. I had 2 tests on Friday, one in Art history and the other in Danish. Unfortunately I keep feeling like school is getting in the way of my social time! Not that this is unique to Denmark, there are plenty of times I would rather being doing something other than studying. But here its especially noticeable since I've been prioritizing my "cultural education" over things like Art History and its starting to catch up with me. That week in hospital we had a lot of fun. We got to cast each others arms and practice suturing on our fake wounds made of tape and foam. But that was no match for the fun we've had for the last week on our study tour in Berlin and Poland.

Casted arm. I wanted to freak my mom out with the picture, but she saw a different one on facebook so it didn't work out.

On the ferry to Germany. Hannah, me, Sam, and Vicki!

On Sunday morning at 7:45 am we left by bus to Poznan, Poland. It was a rough start because I had a late night the day before. True to my usual self, I procrastinated the one page paper I had to do until late. I spent the night before with my host family. We went to some of their friends for dinner, which was AMAZING! It was a full 3 courses, and there was some really great wine too. I even was brave enough to try Irish coffee, but I'll admit my main motivation was to have some of the Danish whipped cream that went along with it. :) It was a long night of conversation and laughter, that I wouldn't have missed for all the extra sleep! The next day I had to get up super early to catch the metro to the bus we were taking. We had 2 leaders for our trip, our course assistant Astrid and a DIS intern named Brynn. They were so wonderful. We spent roughly 8 hours on a bus and 2 on a ferry, so that meant I spent roughly 10 hours reading Pillars of the Earth and eating. Shout out to Abby for lending me that book!

When we got to Poznan, we quickly dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed out to dinner. We did take time to admire our 4 star hotel though. It was complete with 2 saunas, a hot tub, a towel heating rack, free slippers I took from the spa, and the second most comfortable bed in the world. Needless to say, I was quite impressed. We walked to our restaurant and had a great dinner. I just love it when DIS pays. It means I get to go to classy restaurants and have 3 courses, which I definitely wouldn't do otherwise. That night we decide to get to bed early because we had to be at breakfast at 6:00. 

Church in Poznan. Its a Jesuit church, so I felt an immediate connection to it. Gotta love those Jesies.

Lech Brewery tour. There's our free beers.

Dinner in Poland. Mom, you should learn how to make this for me!

This too, mom!

The second thing we did in Poland was take an adventure on the tram to our first academic visit. The rickety tram was pretty jolty, and I'll admit I was slightly nervous I would get whiplash on the way. Luckily we were heading straight to the hospital if I did. We had split up into 2 groups. Our group went to the OBGYN ward on the first day. The first person we met was the head doctor who was very very upset that we didn't have white coats. Because we didn't have them we weren't going to be able to go into patient rooms because it wouldn't be sanitary enough. What we didn't know is that white coats work as a magical disinfectant. No, it was fine and the guy softened up a lot after we started talking. He was really knowledgeable and super nice after the initial coldness. He gave us a lecture with about birth. There were pictures. Pictures I never wanted to see. It made me never want to have kids because that looked anything but pleasant. After our academic visit we went to Lech brewery. I just love beer, the taste, the smell, so I was so thrilled. We even got a free beer! How wonderful. Those last 3 sentences were sarcastic, for those of you who don't know my huge distaste for beer. But the brewery was pretty cool, especially the bottling. We got a free glass too. After that, one of my friends Sam and I went for a run through Poznan. It was refreshing to do something active after pretty much straight eating. Later that night we went to dinner at a fancy restaurant on DIS. We were introduced to the European concept that tap water is impossible to serve and that sparkling water costs money. But don't worry, instead of water we got a beer to drink. After dinner we headed to the bowling alley for a round or two of bowling. My first game I bowled a 103 (yeah, look out Sullivans!) But the next game (and several drinks from the bar later) I bowled a 20 after 6 rounds. We were still feeling good by the time we got back to the hotel, so we 4 of us decided to explore Poznan's night life. We walked all over without seeing anyone, but we finally ran into some Poles in a bar. We each got a drink by playing charades with the bartender who spoke limited English. Since it was a Monday night, no one was out and about, so we just walked back. At this point it was really late so I decided to go to bed since we had another 6:00 breakfast. 

Bowling in Poznan

Tuesday was a short day in Poland. We went to another hospital. There was a dilemma because there weren't enough white coats for both groups. Luckily Brynn spotted a vending machine where you could buy sanitary coats in pokéballs. Unfortunately I accidentally deleted those pictures off my camera. But we were able to see an esophageal catheter inserted into a patient in the first part of the day. The second half we spent following around this Polish doctor as she did rounds. It was kind of cool to see, but everyone was speaking Polish and the doctor was translating very very quietly. After she finished her rounds though we got to have a Q&A session. It was super interesting. The Polish system was pretty complicated. By far the weirdest part though was that as a specialist she made less than a GP. She told us that she makes roughly $800 a month. For being a pediatric gastroenterologist that’s nothing. I thought that was pretty bizarre. After we finished at the Pediatric clinic we hopped on the bus and headed towards Berlin!

Our coats came out of that Pokeball.

Yma, the most beautiful show on earth. Staring Vick, me, Benjamin, and Hannah!

Let me just say that I loved Berlin. It was an incredible city with a welcoming atmosphere and fascinating history. It was impossible to be in Germany, particularly in Berlin without thinking about the holocaust and the cold war. The cities history has played a huge role in what it is today. Berlin is the third gayest city in the world as our bike tour guide told us. This was just one example of many he cited as he was making the point that Berlin had become a city based on the values of understanding and tolerance. The dark history has not been forgotten, but the city has definitely learned from its past and embraced itself as a symbol of unity and peace. I found it fascinating. Our time there was limited, but we crammed a lot in. The very first we went to dinner and rushed through an entire pig leg so we could make it to our show on time. We went to see a show called Yma. It was a musical/acrobat/trampoline/circ-de-soleil/Vegas-show-girl-dance-preformance/Chippendales/Lady-Gaga show all with a German speaking transvestite host who was very happy about life. It was crazy, bizarre, and just plain weird, but it was very entertaining and I had a lot of fun. Unfortunately no pictures were aloud, but heres the link if you want to see what I’m talking about. There are really no words to describe it although I’m not sure that’s because it was too beautiful as the tag line claims.

http://www.show-palace.eu/en/shows/yma/

Ha.

The next day was basically a big culture day. We went to the Jewish museum in the morning. The top floors were about the entire history of Judaism in Germany and the basement focused on the holocaust. The basement was so powerful because of the architecture. The man who designed it  made 3 hallways to represent the 3 outcomes for Jews in the holocaust. The first was the “axis of holocaust” which had a bunch of letters and belongings from people who had died in the holocaust. The hallway ended at one of the 4 “voids” which were spaces that weren’t really part of the building. This  void was an empty, unheated concrete room lit only from a small strip of light. It was erie. The other hall was the “axis of exile”, which had stories of people who fled Germany during the war. The last hall was called the “axis of continuity”. It led from the entrance all the way up a staircase in one of the voids to the top floors. Off to the side was the memory void, which was a huge dim, unheated space filled with iron faces. You could walk on the sea of faces, which made an eerie noise that echoed throughout the whole room. The whole design was really wonderful. Unfortunately, the downstairs really overpowered the top floors. By the time I was done downstairs, I really wasn’t interested in anything upstairs. But I did find something to laugh at. There was a case of yamikas with all sorts of things on them including the entire cast of friends, and my favorite, the “Obamica”. After the museum we went to lunch (on DIS!) at this authentic German restaurant where they refused to give us tap water again. We then left to meet at the TV tower for our bike tour. The guide this time was SO much better than the one in Arhus, and the bikes were incredibly comfortable. Also, they were all named after famous people so you knew which one was which. I had Amelia Earheart. We got to see pretty much all the famous monuments, we saw the place where the Nazi book burnings took place, Hitler’s bunker where he lived the last 6 weeks of his life and then committed suicide, the wall, the Reichstag, the holocaust memorial and lots of other sites. It was a really great way to see the city and get ideas for what to do with our free time the next day.

Berliner Weisses up in the TV tower. Sam, me, Cassidy, and Taylor.

Reichstag on the bike tour. Vicki, Taylor, me, and Sam.

Checkpoint Charlie.

After the bike tour we went up in the TV tower and everyone had a free drink from DIS. A lot of us had these things called Berliner Weisse, which is beer mixed with raspberry syrup. Apparently when the French came to Berlin they were like me and didn’t like the beer so they did what any person would do and added sugar. Most people really liked it, but it was still to beer-y for me. I was proud of myself though because I finished it and I tried 3 beers the whole time I was in Germany! After the TV tower we went back to the hotel. The idea was that we would find a bar nearby and go see what it was like. Well, for future reference, do not use google maps to find bars. We went to one called Vegabond where 3 German men age 78 told us it was closed and turned us away. Then we walked to another German bar and sat down. There were 8 of us, and 3 of us didn’t want to order drinks there. The bartender was pissed that we weren’t ordering and made the 3 of us leave. We had to stand outside while our friends downed their drinks. Thanks a lot lady. And your lip liner looked awful. We ended up running into some of the girls from our program and we all decided to go to this club called Matrix. We were happy to discover that it was all BOGO and there was great music and plenty of dancing. We spent the rest of the night there and found our way back to the hotel via bus, which is always an interesting experience.

Me on the red carpet in front of the building where Berlin's symphony is housed.

Brynn and Ethan inside the Holocaust Memorial.

The next day was the academic day. We first went to the museum for medical history. It had a bunch of specimens collected by Virchow. It was a super cool museum, but unfortunately it was kind of ruined by our tour. The lady just took us around and told us things that were written on the wall. We spent the most time looking at the most boring things, like Virchow’s desk, so we only had 15 minutes for the cool stuff. After that we went to the Center for Anatomy.  There was mix up and they weren’t expecting us, but that turned out to be a good thing because instead of seeing a lecture we saw a cadaver. It was amazing to see and touch a real corpse.  It was so special to look at a heart that used to be beating and to learn about anatomy. It seems very generous to me that people donate their bodies to be used this way. We also got to hold real bones like the femur. It was a very cool experience. After wards, we had free time for 6 hours. My friend Taylor and I walked to the Topology of Terror museum, which talked about how the Gestapo and SS were organized. It was right along the Berlin wall at the site where the headquarters used to be. After that, we took the train to the East Side Gallery, where the wall is painted with murals. We walked the whole way along the wall. By the time we got to the end our feet were killing us from walking all day so we went back to the hotel to drop our stuff off, take a short nap, and get ready for dinner at the Unsicht Bar.

Me at the wall.

A big cathedral in Berlin.

The Unsicht Bar was a blind bar. You are taken back into this room that has no light. The servers are all blind or partially sighted. They lead you to your table and bring you your food. Then you have to try to eat it without being able to see anything. It was so much fun. I think we all were forced to forgo our utensils for our hands. It was such a challenge, I can’t tell you how many times I thought I had a potato on my fork and bit down on nothing. Also, since no one could see what you were doing it was a bit liberating. A lot of the girls took their shoes off. I think we all licked the dessert plates clean, something I’ve been dying to do ever since they started bringing us plates with chocolate drizzled on them! It was a great experience, and a really interesting walk in a blind person’s shoes. After the blind bar we all walked to an actual bar where we all had a drink. Don’t worry; in about 6 blocks we passed no less than 15 prostitutes (I stopped counting after 15). It was pretty obvious. In case the 10-inch platform heels, neon fishnets, blue eye shadow, and glittery short skirts didn’t clue you in, the fanny packs gave it away. Brynn and I ordered “My Dream” probably fruitiest, girliest drink on the planet, but it was so good. There were Mai Thai, Long Island Ice Teas and Mojitos all over our table, but My Dream was definitely the best (yes I tried them all). We had a great time hanging out and talking. By the time we made our way back to the hotel it was pretty late, but luckily we got to sleep in the next morning!

Our last day in Berlin was spent at a private hospital called Helios. It was incredibly nice, and we got a tour complete with more PET/CT scanners and MRI imaging. We also got lunch and 2 lectures. The hospital was super fancy, and obviously had a lot of money. We were kind of confused about where it came from, since 90% of their patients have public insurance and they take everybody. Two things didn’t make sense; the first was that you could choose to go to the private hospital for the same price as the public, so why would anyone go to the public. They second was where all their excess money was coming from since they were mostly getting state money. It was really interesting, but when they told us DIS had spent $1,400.00 for the tour and dinner we really understood how the hospital was making money! Unfortunately for DIS, none of us thought it was worth it!  After Helios, we all hopped on the bus and came back to Copenhagen. 

Attack of the mutant beaver. I don't know why this picture won't rotate.

We got back pretty late so I didn’t really get to see my host family, but I got to spend all day with them yesterday. It was really great to be back I had really missed them , which makes me nervous for when I have to leave in December. Peter and Pia made an excellent dinner while the girls and I watched Dirty Dancing. They learned some iconic lines like “I carried a watermelon” and “Nobody puts Baby in the corner”. After dinner we were teaching each other tongue twisters in Danish and English. I had a hard time explaining what a woodchuck was. Somehow that led to Sorine telling me all about the mutant beavers in Denmark. I really thought I was just misunderstanding her English because she was talking about beavers that were the size of Carla and had poisonous teeth and lived in the forest. It was so confusing. But then she went to the computer to show me a picture, and Pia came over and started talking about how they wear shin guards when they run in the woods to protect themselves from the mutant. So then I started believing them. Well I’m finishing up doing the dishes and Sorine leaves to go to Klara’s. Two seconds later I hear this scream, and Pia runs over to Sorine saying “Oh my god, quick come here”. She runs into the room with blood running down her leg. I’m standing there thinking; “oh shit what do I do” when Sorine starts saying the mutant beaver got her. I’m looking at her like “what the hell, those live in the forest” when she starts laughing. Then I realized her blood smelled exactly like ketchup and Pia was holding a bottle of Heinz! They made the entire thing up. Pia just randomly jumped in having no idea what she was talking about, but they got me pretty good. Looking back there were several clues that you think would have tipped me off. 1. No way Pia would be talking English if a massive mutant beaver had attacked Sorine. 2. The mutant beaver picture looked like a dog because it was a mutant dog.  3. Shin guards would do nothing for giant poison beaver teeth. 4. There was nothing about that story that was believable at all, yet remarkably they had me going. I blame the language barrier. Well that brings us up to this very moment, so consider yourself updated!