Berlin - Long Study Tour (part 2)

So as we all know (because all of you, my millions of readers, check up on my blog everyday right?) I was on my long study tour. Our first stop was in Poznan, Poland- and if you haven't read about me being in an OR, chickening out on the nude sauna and drinking polish vodka... you should head on over to my previous post and read up. Anyway on Wednesday night we took a train from Poznan over to Berlin. It was a Hogwarts-ey train with little compartments we rode in. The commute consisted of me laughing uncontrollably at mildly funny things and discussions of politics, so that was a fun time for all I'm sure.

We arrived in Berlin and all played checkers and went straight to bed at 9 o'clock... okay are my grandmothers gone? good ... actually we had quite a bit of polish vodka stowed away in our bags and whipped that out which lead to a photo shoot in my hotel room and some good times at a bar after.




The next day we went on a bike tour around Berlin. Our lovely tour guide William was particularly cheery even in the icy rain which we all endured the whole day. We stopped at some lovely sights including the Brandenburg gate, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Berlin wall. I would love to say it was totally awesome even in the cold rain but to be honest I was a bit miserable in those conditions but I tried to pay attention to the amazing city around me as best I could.

After we all dried off and warmed up a bit we went to the German Heart Institute Berlin. Here we got an all inclusive lecture-tour experience with videos of live heart surgeries and a peak inside the ICU.
Next we went to Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which was destroyed in WWII but the remains stand as a reminder and the new church and tower are right next to it with beautiful blue windows that glow in the night.

That night we ate traditional German food at a restaurant that was described as having food served by grandma herself... well this grandma must have had her panties in a bunch because we were basically asked to leave after dessert for being too loud ( remember we are a group of 30... gonna be a little louder than usual off the bat) and she found an empty soda bottle in the bathroom which enraged her and she accused us of putting it there....Germans are strange.

The next day we went to a family planning center were we learned about German sex education. This plays offers a safe environment for classes of kids to come to learn sexual education, and it is also a place for women to go with questions about pregnancy and even get an abortion. After that we went to Charite Comprehensive Cancer Center where we were briefed on the centers activity and then were ushered into a medical museum. The museum was really cool, with lots of old specimens, but I was a little disappointed we didn't get to learn more about the cancer center. But oh well, I did get to see a megacolon so i guess that's pretty cool.

One of the coolest places that we went to in Berlin, in my opinion, was the Markt Halle Neun - a street food market. This places was lined up and down with booths of foods ranging from traditional German to Korean to Venezuelan. I decided to get a Korean ramen burger which had korean beef with kimchi and the bun was made of fried ramen noodles squished together.... It was to die for, AMAZING. I couldn't stop just there so I also got Moroccan veggie couscous which was also delicious.
 While at the market we also did a short brewery tour of Heidenpeters brewery,which is a homegrown business in a  small basement that makes craft beers. We got to try out 3 different kinds, so 2 thumbs up for pale ales! with full stomachs we headed to a bar recommended to us which was an upside down bat, sounds exciting... not so much, in reality there were just some tables with place settings glued to the ceiling, A for effort I guess?

On our last day we all met to discuss our experiences and come together on what we gained from this trip. Afterwards we went to visit an old airport - Templhof airport.WORST part of the trip BY FAR. we were lead from one creepy room to another that all looked the same and the tour guide talked endlessly of the most boring things. I couldn't wait for it to be over and I think everyone else was on the same page as me.
 Once free of that jail of an airport we all went our separate way for some free time, I went shopping with Kelsey. We first went to what I would say was a German diner and had schnitzel,yum.Then we went to a HUGE Christmas store which we got lost in for a good hour gawking at the sparkly ornaments. After our wallets were a bit lighter we met back at the hotel to head out to the airport.

I was really sad to see this trip end, I had really grown to love all the people I spent so much time with. Half of them I'll see in class everyday and the other half hopefully I'll see elsewhere. These study tours is what sets DIS apart, they are what make DIS great because they get it, they understand that we chose to study abroad to see the world and travel not sit in just another classroom. These trips made it so easy for us to see other parts of the world without the worry of planning flights and hotels which gave us more time to concentrate on what these trips have to offer and what knowledge we would gain from them. They also bonded us as a class, or 2 classes rather. The city setting of DIS, with all its housing options, does make it a bit harder to make close friends and these trips really help to foster friendships and give you great travel buddies. I can't thank DIS enough for the experiences they have given me so far, I appreciate the study tours more than they can imagine.