Bugs, bugs, and more bugs....

So today we went to Novartis in Basel, Switzerland....First of all, let me just say how awesome it is to just causally say "Hey, I'm in SWITZERLAND!!!" We arrived here last night and the Ramada I am in staying in is so fancy, my view of the mountains and city from my 14th floor room is to die for! On top of that, the weather is nice and once again, I'M IN SWITZERLAND!!
A few first impressions: Switzerland is like its own little independent nation that does its own thing, everything especially food here is VERY expensive, the mountains are gorgeous, most people speak english (yay!!), my hotel rrom view is AMAZING, the inner part of the city is very industrial-like, there is this lovely cake/pastry thing that is only made within a ten mile radius of the Novartis research lab that is a fantastic little treat, and finally the TV here is quite interesting.
We went to Novartis which by the way is another very impressive facility. It was nice to see the corporate side in person as compared to just hearing about it in school. I really enjoyed touring the research labs and demos explaining the development process but I do believe that traveling to the main research center was my favorite part! The drive there was beautiful, especially when you come out of this huge tunnel you can actually see the Swiss Alps, snow covered and everything! They were beautiful.
Once we got to the facility, I will have to say that my favorite part was the flea research with the artificial cat where they used parafin as a replacement membrane that acts as skin to eliminate the actual cat from the model to save it from the discomfort. I was also very interested in the research they were doing in arthritic dogs and force plates. All of the different aspects of research that were presented including the really grose room with maggots and cockroaches were different from what I was expecting and it defintely interested me. I didn't really know a whole lot of what goes on into making products past the chemical formulation in labs so it was interesting to see the behind the scenes. On top of all of the research, all of the people and researchers there were so friendly and very interesting to talk to and find out their story as to how they got to where they are today starting off in the veterinary profession!