Ive arrived in switzerland and yup...it's just as picturesque as i remembered. beautiful rolling hills, lakes, and mountains. I'm staying with my uncle for the weekend in Lausanne. I'm looking forward to a nice, restfull weekend, and hopefully doing some long-needed laundry (i had to steal socks from my boyfriend who visited me for the week in hannover).
The week in hannover was truly enjoyable. Learning about the history of TiHo was great...i mean, the university is only 2 years younger than our country's independence!) going to the clinics yesterday was probably my favorite part of the visit. I chose to go to the cattle clinics and aside from touring their facilities (filled with holstein's left and right), we got to see a hoof surgery on a pregnant cow (infected coffin joint, the works, looked pretty painful and not great for the mamma) and watch a surgery for a cow with hardware's dz. They had found 2 abcesses in her abdomen on ultrasound and was doing a rumenopexy (not sure if that's a word...) to access the reticulum and see if they could reach and cut the abcesses so it would drain out through the GI. It was pretty awesome. Unfortunately, we had to leave and didnt get to see the surgery the whole way through. we did get to see the humongo Grose gardens and the opera Carmen. that was interesting.
the week also included a visit to LAH in Cuxhaven along with the most amazing fish lunch...ever and visit to Bremen. Reid and Dr. Wasser were brave enough to order this one traditional dish Dr. Breves encouraged people to order and...well...it kinda tasted like a plate full of refried beans with some kind of shredded beef in it. My thought immediately jumped to: this would be really great with tortillas and cheese. oh wait, that's pretty much making it into nachos. haha can't take the tex-mex out of a texan, i guess.
we also had a very sobering experience to bremen-belsen. my mind is still in shock that such events actually happened. like dr wasser pointed out, germany's history really has affected the society today. even Anna, my super awesome host, was telling me that not many people are very nationalistic now because it kind of makes them sick to the stomach when they think back to how things got out of hand before. she said even visiting the "fraternities" (which actually originated from dueling clubs), which are a little more nationalistic than most people and raise the german flag and stuff, makes her uncomfortable. coming from america, where we sing the national anthem any chance we get, and scoff at any country that doesn't support our actions 100%-think freedom fries-it's weird to me to hear that something as basic to me as raising my country flag could make people feel uneasy.
anyway, i had a great time in hannover and i really hope that my hosts can come to visit me in CS next year! now to enjoy some nice home-cooked meals care of my swiss aunt!
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