New friends and great places

I spent last weekend in Amsterdam which was fabulous. The city wasn't exactly what I expected but overall I had a really great time. We went to see the Ann Frank museum where her and her family were actually in hiding and I even got to go behind the book case into their hidden loft and saw the actual pictures that Anne herself posted on the walls to make their stay less depressing. One thing was was really cool was the fact that we got to see her actually diaries, the original ones, that her father donated when he set up this museum to teach others from the horrible times they had to live through. It was very sad for me to find out that Anne had passed away from Typhi just one month before liberation mainly because she gave up on life after her sister died thinking that she had no one else left when actually her father was still alive and survived it.
We also went to a little island where they have a wooden shoe factory and the famous Holland windmills and it was absolutely beautiful. They even had a demonstration on how the wooden shoes were made. We made it Hannover on Monday to meet our new hosts and have dinner with them.
Dinner was awesome!! I lucked out in getting two of the best hosts I could have asked for, Durta and Jana.... Some highlights of the week: touring all of the hospitals, especially getting to sit in on rounds in the equine clinic!! Also getting to see the University farm with its awesome milking robot!! Getting to palpate cows and learning more in those few hours about bovine reproductive anatomy than learning all last semester!! My favorite parts were getting to do the epidural, actually being able to find the cervix and ovaries, and also getting to use the ultrasound to make sure what I thought was an ovary really was and it was! Last, but certainly not least, the Stallion Station which was so exciting I could barely control myself!!! I am really going to miss my girls and all their critters, I had a great time eating chocolate, eis, and touring the city and just hanging out! I definitely want to come back soon to see them!