week 2

Hannover was an amazing city. I didn't see much of the buildings, but the forest all around and the Tiho and the vet students there made me like it all the same. I already miss my host student, Fredi, and last night seemed strange as I went to bed in a single hotel room with a private bath - no cats running around like crazy, no people watching TV in a nearby room, no homey comforts reminded me once again I am 5000 miles from home. Staying with a host student has been my favorite part of the trip so far. I am pretty sure that Fredi is simply the German version of myself, and that if the roles had been reversed I don't think things would have been much different. We had so many conversations about all kinds of topics ranging from animal welfare to our annoying classmates to the Turkish immigrant issue in Germany. It was my best 3 nights and they seemed to go the fastest.


Now we are in Switzerland which looks like the life size version of an idyllic, picturesque farm from a fairy tale of old. There are deep trenching valleys, rolling hills with little brown and white cows grazing and cottages dotted here and there with flowers and ivy. Even though industrialization is very present here, it is well dispersed and disguised. Instead of scarring the landscape, the freeways flow with it and trees protect the quiet farms beyond.


Novartis was amazing. It made me feel a lot better using one of their products on all of my dogs, because after meeting their scientists, pharmacists and chemists, I realize how much careful, creative and caring work goes in to making something for veterinary use. I still get the impression (just like the one I got from Bayer) that the best thing to do is first go in to practice, then move in to industry so you can develop that technical feel for product need and usage a non-clinician scientist might not understand. Certainly industry veterinary work is very appealing to me, as is public health, but I want to be a clinician first to develop those unique skills and experience that aspect of my field first before I lose everything I learned in 4th year. I guess I kind of feel like if you start off in industry, you can change to being a clinician later because those technical skills will be lost without practice and development early on.


Tonight Cynthia and I travel by overnight train to Prague, which ought to be quite an adventure. I hope it is as beautiful as they say.