Germanic Adventures Pt. III

Berlin, city of cool.

I love public transportation for many reasons. One of them is the fact that I get to people watch, and in Berlin I can do so without shame because germans like to stare. A lot. I have seem a myriad of different people in the trains and when I am looking at them I like to picture where they came from and where they are going. Sometimes I think maybe I'm in sort of Truman Show situation and everybody is there as an actor, getting paid to appear normal. Or not.

Public transportation in Berlin is especially interesting when you are using the S-bahn. Every train station is a microcosmos. Every station is filled with different people: turkish, then african, then hipsters, then rich people. The contrasts are very strong and it makes the experience that much wonderful. It's a new world to discover and a new adventure waiting around the corner. Oh GOD I WILL MISS THIS. 

It's only been 4 days but I am thinking to myself, "Four days already?! But... I just got here!"and then it makes me extremely sad that time is slipping away through my fingers and I am not enjoying this time here to the fullest because I get out of the seminars and I am so tired that all I want to do is go home and collapse. And then I get this feeling in my stomach: fear.

The streets of Berlin

As time cruelly passes by so quickly when you're having fun, I am afraid that I will forget everything. That I will forget the feelings I get whenever I am, for example, waiting in line for a burger and I simultaneously hear british english, french, spanish from Spain and german. And how we all just blend in, how our backgrounds mean nothing, and everybody wants the same thing: a juicy burger.

I'm terrified that I will forget how this all feels, and that when the time comes to go back home, I will not remember how I felt at this moment, right now: so full of hopes, dreams, expectations and all around happiness when I am here. Berlin might just be the coolest city on earth. And to think, that the first time I came here, I didn't think it was all that. But the more I get to know the city, the background, the inner workings, the history and what it has been through, the more I love it. The more I fall in love... and the less I want to go back home, because heck, this is home. And I never feel this at home when I am in Puerto Rico. I feel I never fit, or that I can't relate to my fellow countrymen.

But enough about my ramblings and feelings, and more about what happened today. It is my second day at the summer school and I arrive early because I never know when the train will be late and when the bus will not come. It seems that it takes me a solid 40 minutes to get to the building but somehow it feels like 5 minutes. Nobody is there and I get some time to cool off. It doesn't matter that this morning was 57F when I got on my way, I always seem to be sweating like a pig when I get to places. Soon, the rest of the students make their way to the room, new familiar faces and I get a renewed sense of actually liking my profession, and I care about saving lives once more.

One thing that stroke me as interesting is how much experience with patients these people get at their respective parts of the world, which makes me think about the way they teach us medicine in my part of the world. Whereas we're being educated to basically pass the licensing exam, these students are being taught about dosages, what to do in what situation and I am in complete awe. It's amazing how much I have learned in two days from my colleagues, and I feel like I will be a better doctor for it. Maybe a small part of me wishes we could all practice medicine together in the same place one day.

Trauma patient. He looked a bit pale. 

Another thing I liked about today was a simulation we did with a cardiac arrest inside an airplane. I've always thought about what to do if such situation arose and training in this in small simulations (even if it's with a mannequin that gives me the creeps), kind of calms me down because I know that deep inside I really know what to do.  Even though at most emergency situations I think I would freeze, maybe when it comes down to it I will be able to stand my ground and do something about the situation.

Exhibit 1: the creepy mannequin.

Exhibit 2: Airplane! 

Also, we were taught on how to triage. I never knew this was such an interesting thing! I learned so much. But what really made this experience memorable was learning how people do these things in Israel, or Egypt. Comparing cultures and learning how other people do things, will definitely make the medicine I practice better. I think we should all sit down together and work on how to have international standards and that way we can take the best qualities of everybody and do better medicine.

Finally, my favorite part: obstetric emergencies. We were taught how to deliver a baby. This was an amazing experience and I think I will treasure this one the most. It made me very excited about my possible career in obstetrics and gynecology. I can definitely say that this course, apart from all that I have learned in the academic aspect, has given me new strengths to finish what I started, get my stuff together and do it.

Delivering the fake alien baby.