Week 3

Monday's tour of Berlin was awesome! I thought the tour guide was by far the
best that we have had this entire trip. He was very knowledgeable, funny, and had
some very interesting stories to keep our attention. I am not a huge fan of cities
just because I tend to prefer the country life, but I was definitely a fan of Berlin.
It's past is very interesting to me, as I love learning about World War II and the
components involved in it. I really respect that the city embraces its past and has
taken certain measures to prevent problems with Neo-Nazis and still allow the
appropriate commemoration of those who were lost during the conflict. The
New Holocaust Memorial was very touching. I must say that I was disappointed
to see high school aged children running and playing through the memorial. I
found it very disrespectful; they were old enough to know better. Anyhow, I
learned a lot on this tour, and I would definitely recommend it to next year's
group.

Tuesday morning was our tour of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife
Research with Steven Seet, who lectured about some of the projects with which
the institute is involved, such as an effort to improve the reproduction of
endangered rhinoceros species. I have a M.S. degree in reproductive physiology,
so I found that discussion particularly interesting. We also discussed the backlash
that zoos received after the giraffe in the Copenhagen Zoo was necropsied and
fed to lions. I must admit that I do have difficulty with killing a young giraffe just
because there is not enough room at the zoo. I do not fully understand the zoo
situation in Europe, but I believe that the giraffe could have been relocated to
another zoo in the U.S. that would have been happy to have him. With that said, I
am glad that Marius was able to serve many educational purposes, and I do not
think that sacrificing an animal for the advancement of science is barbaric. The
final part of our tour of the Leibniz Institute involved learning about and seeing a
demonstration of an amazing CT scanner. A gorilla skull was scanned, and the
machine was able to portray the entire skull in a 3-D image that could be rotated
and moved up and down perfectly on the computer screen. It was amazing! I was
surprised to hear that the institute is planning to get a new and even better CT
scanner! Tuesday afternoon was spent at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp,
which was pretty surreal. I have learned about the Holocaust and concentration
camps since I was a child, but it has never been more real to me than when I was
walking through the place where so many undeserving people lost their lives. The
design of the camp was interesting, but sick at the same time. I do not
understand how someone could design a place that was to contain so many
horrors. Then again, I do not understand how so many people were convinced
that the "Final Solution" was a good idea. Thank goodness places like
Sachsenhausen still exist as proof and as a reminder to today's people never to
let that kind of thing happen again. Nils did a great job showing us around the
camp. This is was a tour that I will never forget, and I am really glad that we took
the time to visit this important historical site. To finish a busy Tuesday, we went
to the Reichstagskuppel. From high atop the huge government building, we could
see almost all of Berlin. We walked to the top of the dome and admired the view
for a while before heading down and finding a place to eat supper and relax after
a great but exhausting day.

Wednesday was marine animal day! We visited Friedrichskoog Seal Center and
had a guided tour that was very educational. I know very little about marine life,
but I absolutely LOVE to learn about it. Our tour guide was very easy to
understand, and she taught us a lot about the differences between Grey and
Harbor Seals. She explained the lives of the resident seals, the rehabilitation
process of seals brought in by Seal Hunters, and the important and necessary role
of the Seal Hunters. After the tour, it was feeding time for the resident seals!
The trainers had the seals perform for the public to get their suppers. It was so
cool! I took probably hundreds of pictures and maybe 20 videos. I cannot wait
to show my family what I got to see! Wednesday afternoon was spent at
Multimar Wattforum, where we learned about birds, crustaceans, fish, whales... I
might be leaving something out - it was a lot of great information! The tour guide
was extremely knowledgeable, and I loved how the museum guided the visitors in
to the habitat of the particular animals it was explaining. For example, the cool,
dark downstairs entrance to the whale exhibit was to signify the cold depths of
the ocean in which they live. The museum was very educational, and the exhibits
were all fantastic. After the guided tour of the museum, we took a bus to Busum,
where we arrived at Hotel Siegfried. Stormie, Brenna, and I were put in the same
room, which appeared to be an attic that had been converted to a suite. We liked
it, except that the ceilings were too low in one of the bedrooms and in be
bathroom. I can't count how many times I hit my head on the ceiling in the
bathroom. Poor Brenna had to sleep in the tiny room with the low ceiling on the
first night. However, after a door opening inexplicably, a light turning off
randomly in the middle of the night, and a terrible nightmare of mine on the first
night, Brenna decided to move to the middle of the king sized bed where Stormie
and I had slept for the remainder of our time there.

Thursday was our visit to the Aquatic Wildlife Center in Busum. Professor
Siebert began with a presentation about the aquatic wildlife in the North Sea. As
I said before, I know very little about marine animals and aquatic wildlife, so the
lecture was very interesting to me. The dissection of the harbor seal and
porpoise was even more interesting! I stayed on the harbor seal case for the
majority of the dissection time. The seal was around one year old and had died
by a Seal Hunter's gunshot wound to the head. The hunter had found the young
female seal struggling to breathe with blood tricking from her nostrils. She also
had diarrhea and was very lethargic. He put an end to her misery and brought
her to the Aquatic Wildlife Center to determine the etiologic agent behind her
respiratory disease. During the necropsy, we discovered that she had
pyogranulomatous lesions in her lungs that were probably due to a bacterial
infection of some sort. The porpoise had been found dead, and the other team
worked to find out the cause of death. A fish was found lodged in the porpoise's
oropharynx, which had caused suffocation. Further evidence of suffocation was
discovered in the bronchi of the lungs, which were filled with foamy fluid. These
necropsy cases were SO awesome!! I really enjoyed learning about marine
animals and the necropsies were especially cool because we were actually trying
to determine the causes of death of the animals instead of simply dissecting them
to learn their anatomy. I thought it was a fantastic learning experience. The fun
continued Thursday night at a restaurant called Kolles Alter Muschelsaal with a
buffet prepared specially for us by the owner, Karl-Heinz Kolle, who is also a Seal
Hunter. The food was amazing, and the atmosphere was incredibly unique.
Seashells covered the walls completely, depicting scenes of ships at sea and
flowers, among other ornate designs. A mermaid figure head stood at the center
of the room, which had originally stood outside to bring customers in to the
restaurant. It was now fully restored and preserved within this room as an
historical relic. After the meal, the Seal Hunter presented a short powerpoint to
explain his duties as a Seal Hunter and to answer questions. Of course, we had
many questions about this very unique job title, but I have to say that my favorite
part of the question and answer was when Johanna asked if he was bothered by
having to end the lives of the seals when they are ill or injured. Mr. Kolle
responded that he was especially bothered the first time he had to end a seal's
suffering because they "look at you with their cute little eyes..." but the job is
necessary. I have great respect for Mr. Kolle and the other Seal Hunters as well
as those who work so hard to maintain the seal and marine animal population in
Busum..

Friday was our much-awaited Mudflat and beach day!! We started our tour of
the Mudflat by searching for and learning about many of the sea creatures that
can be found in the North Sea shore. We learned about mussels, oysters, jellyfish,
snails, kelp, birds, and even worms! We walked all the way to the tidal creek,
where we found some tiny shrimp that are very common in that area. Our tour
guide explained that the tide comes in very quickly, so we had to start walking
toward the shore. During this return trip, our guide took us through the really
muddy areas where you can actually find quicksand! I sank in to the mud up to
my mid-shin once, but it wasn't too scary. When we made it back to shore, we
were able to sit out on the grass in the sun. It was awesome. This was definitely
a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will always remember. During our free
time, Brenna and I even returned to the beach to relax in the sun.

Stormie, Brenna, and I traveled to Frankfurt on Saturday for our final free
weekend. We stayed at Hotel Amadeus, which was a really nice hotel in a town
on the outskirts of the big city. The first night, we walked to a restaurant that is
known for food that is very specific to Frankfurt. I cannot remember the name
of the restaurant or the name of the food that I ate, but it was delicious. We
were very thankful that a fellow customer offered to explain the menu to us in
English so that we knew what we were ordering! On Sunday, we went on a tour
of Heidelberg Castle. The tour guide was a very nice man who was very
knowledgeable about the history of Heidelberg and Frankfurt. The town was
beautiful, and the ruins of the castle were very interesting. After the tour, we ate
at Restaurant Mediterran, which was fantastic. Frankfurt definitely had great food,
and we really enjoyed our relaxing weekend before heading to Bonn for tje final
week of the program.