My first few days in Germany have been amazing. Our flight in wasn't too bad. Lindsey and I had the same flight itinerary so I had a traveling companion. It was the first time I'd ever seen airport security blow up an unattended bag. That was pretty exciting. Since we were the second group to arrive, we were picked up at the airport and taken to the AIB headquarters in Bonn to drop off our luggage and then met up the rest of the group at a nice little Italian restaurant called "Borsalino." Thankfully Steffi, our AIB program coordinator, and Dr. Wasser were patient enough with us nd helped us translate almost everything on the menu. I had my first taste of Kolsh, the regional beer, and it was so yummy and sweet and light.
Day 2: We ate a wonderful breakfast made by Olaf, our dorm manager, and then strolled along the Rhine river on a beautiful morning to arrive at the AIB headquarters for a welcome meeting. Then we were shown around the city square and ate lunch. That was my very first "Doner" experience. Oh how yummy! The doner is like a German take on a turkish gyro except it's on this amazing ciabatta-like bread instead of a pita. After lunch, we took the bus to Gut Frankenforst, a research farm for the University of Bonn. It was cool to see how the cow breeds look different here. Plus, I've never actually seen a Brown Swiss in real-life. Everything was so technologically advanced from the hay weighing/cow marking data collection set-up to the milking machines. very cool. After Dr. Holker showed us around, we headed back to the city square and spent the rest of our free evening planning out everyone's free weekends, eating dinner at a brewhouse and in my case, trying to figure out why the ATM machine kept telling me my PIN was wrong (it's because it was...)
Day 3: Our 3rd day was pretty long. We started with a visit to "Gut Ostler," an organic farm. The history of the farm was pretty impressive. I can't believe that it's been a farm since the 800s. That just baffles my mind. We got to check out the happy chickens and goats, and even came across a sheep with what we thought was a head tilt! We got a closer look and realized it wasn't neurologic, though. It had a cervical spinal malformation. We had another free lunch break in the town square and I was able to get my debit card to work (phew) and had my second doner (this time with lamb instead of chicken). Next we had a lecture about Homeopathy. I'm not sure I was 100% sold, but it was interesting to learn about it; 'Like cures like' and concentrating and diluting and transfering 'energy', not molecules. Then we visited a private practice and Dr. Pfeiffer talked about how she can use both alipathy and homeopathy to treat her patients. It was interesting to hear the use of homeopathy in a veterinary practice and I was surprised to hear that up to 80% of her clients prefer to use homeopathy. Her clinic was so adorable and everything matched from the curtans, to the scrubs she was wearing, to the bottles in the shelves. Afterwards, we joined Olaf for some time in cologne. The great Cologne Cathedral was absolutely breath-taking. As soon as we got out of the train station we were slammed with its impressive size. It's huge and just so pretty. All the limestone carvings are so intricate. Once inside, it was even more beautiful. We came during Wednesday mass so the air was filled with Latin chanting and the stain-glass windows and artwork were gorgeous. We took a peak at the 3 Kings' tomb, which is the church's relic. It was amazing. Then we picked up some yummy currywurst and some beer and sat down by the river and people watched. We had a quick tour of the old jewish neighborhood and then joined in on the fun of wine week. It was a really memorable day.
Now we're hading for Pieterburen, Netherlands on the bus!
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