Hola from Holland- Week 4

This week is a bit shorter because we come back from our weekend on Tuesday instead of Monday. Either way, this was a week that was funner and more intriguing than what I thought it

would be. I was hoping my host would be nice and very helpful. She ended up being just that. My host Baukje Andela, was really  great. She made sure that I was comfortable and taught be a lot about Holland.

We had some interesting lectures while visiting the faculty. I enjoyed comparing how the curriculum  of Holland and Europe is very different compared to the US. In Europe they have 6 years of straight study of veterinary medicine while we get 4 years of vet med education after 4 years of undergraduate studies. Even if US vet students don't get started earlier studying vet medicine, we are a bit more well-rounded because we are forced to study other subjects like political science and technical writing. We also get more time to figure out if we really want to do veterinary medicine. European vet students are just coming out of high school and don't have time to explore other subjects. However, education is covered in Europe. So even with the competitive nature of veterinary medicine, they have one less guilt of being more into debt. I cannot wait until universal education is accepted in the states. We had lots of discussions with the other hosts about all the differences. Both curriculum are good and bad in their own ways. Maybe in the future the two can be combined to make a nearly perfect curriculum.

My favorite lecture was the lecture about the Lab animal research section of the facility. The professor talked about a lot of small mammal handling in which I had learned in my lab animal club wet labs. It was very exciting to hear some of the similarities and differences. I really enjoy all of the tools and cages they had out to show what they did in their research. I kind of wish that I could of showed my rat handling skills but I do understand them wanting to prevent issues like the rats possibly biting someone, even if they were pretty friendly.

We had tours of two of the facility’s hospitals, the Horse and companion animal hospitals. The horse one was rather interesting but the companion one caught my interest a bit more. I really like the aesthetic of the waiting room. They even had some poles that could be used to tie dogs to. We got to look into the exam rooms and the main treatment area that is also used for vet students and veterinarians to talk about the student’s cases. There was even a area on the first floor (second floor for the US) that had computers and a study area for the vet students in the companion hospital. That would be great to have whenever someone needs to research something. We got to see a few other rooms but the one that impressed me the most was the intensive care unit. It had clean cages that were off the ground. There was vets in the room to watch the patients and there were even cameras so that the owners can see their pets while they are in the IC unit. I understood though when they explained that they would cover the camera and leave notes when they were drawing blood or doing other procedures so that the clients would not freak out. I really liked the exotic ward. It was separated from the dog and cat areas and even had its own waiting room. I was kind of said we did not get to see much of the exotic ward but I was glad we got to see a bit of it at least.

One thing that I did not realize would make this week so great was hanging out with our hosts every evening. We did not hang with all the host every night because some of them had papers or rotations to do. Yet, the ones who did have time took us out to have fun in Utrecht.

After saying goodbye to our hosts, on the last day of our study abroad program we stayed in Amsterdam. We had a walking tour with this great tour guide. She knew a lot about Amsterdam and told us about some of the secret stuff that not many people get to know about. I loved it the best that we got to try some Holland cheese. That was delicious. She also told us about the symbol of the 3 Xs that does not represent the red light district. That symbol was meant to help sailors to know that they have been to or are in Amsterdam. That was really interesting to find out. I made sure to buy a shirt for my fiance.

Now is the end of the trip. I really enjoyed myself through this whole trip. I learned so much. However, I am really glad to go to Italy to visit my godfather soon. I am starting to miss the US. I can't wait to go back home.

Wadding in the Wadden (Northern) Sea- Week 3

This week was a lot more exciting for me than the past 2 weeks. We did a bit more traveling this week (which was very tiring) but it was for sure more fun. I am still amazed at how many beautiful and massive building there are. Most of built hundreds of yeas ago. Thank goodness we have been given tours so I don't get soo lost in these eminence cities. Later in the week we go to Busum and that was a big contrast to Berlin. Yet, it was still cute and I liked it a lot. It was funny that Busum is basically a  smaller Florida with having more elderly people, but much colder.

The Anatomy-Histology institut was very interesting to visit. It was cool to see how vet students in Germany have their classes, at least in Freie University of Berlin. The most impressive thing is that they has windows, WINDOWS, in the anatomy lab. Ours has no windows at all. They were big and let in so much light. One could see a some green pastures and trees. I would love to have that in our anatomy lab. Of course there are issues with rights activists that would ruin that in the states. I also really like the book stands. This allowed the students to have their book up and away from the dissections. The books would still get a little dirty but not as much as they can like in my anatomy lab.  The anatomy lab also had a second story ledge that allowed one to look down into the anatomy lab. There was of course skeletons and plastic models in the lab to help students study. I am kinda in love with that lab. In another part of the Anatomy-Histology insitut, there was a study room that had glass cases full of skeletons, plastic models, plastered models and lots of other neat anatomy models to help students while they were studying. It was amazing. We have something kinda similar in a hall way but we really cant take  those out to study.

The Jewish museum tour confused me at first. We were given a tour of the architecture of the museum. Once we got started I understood why we were. The architect who was making the museum was trying to make people feel and sense more how Jewish people over the hundreds of years felt. It was intense. The one sculpture that freaked me out was the falling leaves/faces one. I cringed when I climbed over all the metal faces. I did not stayed on very long out there. We had to rush through the rest of the museum but it was still awesome all that I had seen.

In the zoo and wildlife research institute, it was cool to see the institute but it was too bad we could not take pictures (I understand though).  We got to see a grand CT scan that produced 3D and 4D images. I don't know if we have something similar but I would be happy if Texas A&M did.  I even got to practice some blow darting and after 4 tries I hit the 'cheetah' on the tarsus. I was super excited!

Except for the way the Tour guide treated us while giving the tour, The National History Museum was pretty interesting. What I loved the most was the room/wall of exotic animals. I never knew what a tanuki (raccoon dog) actually looked like and was very pleased to finally see one (even if not alive). The museum had lots of hands-on stuff as well.

On Wednesday, we headed over to Busum and stopped by two centers. The first was the seal center where they educate people about seals. The center was very well put together. They had 2 main pools that housed about 5 adult seals that are unable to be released into the wild. One of the trainers/caretakers talked to us about the facility and the seals they take care of. They work with seal hunters to rescue abandoned seal pups and raise them strong enough to release into the wild. I was amazed at all the work they do here. Their educational areas were very well made too. They were able to explain how the immune system worked in an almost accurate but fun way.


The second center we went to was the Multimar Wattfourm center. It is a educational center that teaches the public about the mud flats and waters off the northern coast of  Germany. I did not think that there would be soo much creatures living in the mud. I was excited to see them in real life in the mud flat walk in the next few days. The part I loved the best was the basement which talked about whales. I knew that whales used sonar to find food but not to paralyze them; that was amazing!

The next day we went to the Aquatic Wildlife center. We had a few lectures about the facility and the research being done there. The research on monitoring the movement of wild animals was the most interesting. Afterwards, we went to the most anticipated part of the whole study abroad trip, for me at least. We got to do dissections on two 'fresh' marine mammals, one harbor seal and harbor porpoise. The seal was more fresh so it bled a lot more compared to the porpoise. We found that the seal was pregnant when it died and had aborted its pup. The pup looked nothing like a seal pup, more like a ball of fur. The seal also had its intestines twisted onto itself. The veterinarians believed that the unborn pup was possibly dead before the mother died and that the twisted intestines most likely killed her. The porpoise had a more ironic death in my opinion. We think that the porpoise possibly died from choking on a fish. We found a fish in the bifurcation of the trachea. There was 2 more fish in the stomach and intestine. The veterinarians from the institute said it is unusual for marine mammals to choke on their meals. The end of the dissection consisted of helping the veterinarians make samples for them to sent to lab and finding parasites and preparing them to send off too. I very much enjoyed that dissection. The smell was tolerable, much better that formaldehyde.

The mud flats were one of the best things to happen this week. We first started off in an area with lots of shells from dead clams and mussels. We had to walk over these shells to get to the deeper part of the mud flats. I learned that day that my feet are sensitive and delicate. I was soo happy when we got to the more mud than sea shell part of the mud flats. The tour guide showed us many of the creatures that live in the mud like the lion worm and the pacific mussel.  He explained how many migrating birds stop here at the mud flats before going all the way to Africa. Who would of thought some mud is important for the ecosystem. It was hilarious to get knee deep stuck in the mud though.

This week was great compared to the previous week, for me at least. I am excited for next week and meeting the Netherlands vet students.