It's been 4 weeks already?!?!

June 11^th 2011

Yeah, today we didn’t need to be at the school until 10:30 so we got to sleep in a little. We also rode bikes to school versus taking the bus because by the time we were heading home that night the busses wouldn’t be running. Miki and Anne rode the bikes and I got to experience sitting on the back of a bike for 35 minutes. Needless to say it’s very Dutch and my butt hurt a lot when we arrived! We started the day with a tour of the equine animal clinic. The lady who gave the tour was very animated and made the two hours go by very quickly. Then it was time for a quick lunch and then we were off to our tour of the small animal clinic (companion animals in the Netherlands). In the small animal clinic we got to go change into scrubs and go into the surgery suite! It was fun seeing everyone dressed up in green with our blue hats J After the tours ended Anne picked Miki and I up and we headed to one of her friends house nearby for dinner before the soccer games. The soccer games were a form of intermurals. All the students playing were vet students and the games were the finals for the season. The team that Anne played on was the “blood factor 13” and all of the players were a different factor number! For the first game both Catherine and Diana played. However, the blood factors lost. The second game Diana played and she scored the only goal for the game! The students were so excited when she scored! After the games were over there was a party right near the soccer fields. It was a lot of fun, but the Dutch music was very interesting. There was a lot of techno and they played a lot of songs that the crowd would sing along with- it was a lot of fun! Anne’s twin sister joined us for the soccer game and the party. Her name was also Laura, which I found hilarious since my sisters name is Anne! When we headed home that evening Anne and Laura rode the bikes and Miki and I got to sit on the back. We rode home through the city center of Utrecht which was really pretty at night. Just past the center of the city there was a massive windmill! Again, when we had arrived my butt hurt after sitting on a bike for 30 minutes.

Friday morning we said goodbye to Anne in the morning and took all our stuff to the school for the day. Today was the first day I felt semi okay! We started the day with a lecture on public health in veterinary medicine. The guy who gave the lecture was very entertaining and I felt I learned a lot about veterinary medicine in Europe/ the world. Afterwards was lunch then another lecture on animals in science and society. This lecture was a bunch of short lectures and overviews of the different areas in the research departments of the university. After the lectures they showed us a few of the rats, hamsters, and mice that they use for teaching in the university. Their mice were definitely more behaved than some of the mice I’ve worked with before! Then it was time to head off to Berlin. We grabbed our bags and headed to the train station. When we got there we said our goodbyes to Dr. Wasser and gave him a gift as a thank you for the past 4 weeks. The train was packed when we got on- luckily we had reservations! One guy refused to move until he could see the reservation card and even then was slow to move from the seat. It all worked out in the end. We arrived to Berlin and made our way to the hotel. At the hotel we said goodbye to everyone who was leaving early in the morning to head back to the US. It was very surreal that the class was finished, we had been traveling all over Europe, and all the things that we got to experience. I think Dr. Wasser put it the best when he said right now we don’t realize all we did, but once we get a chance to think about it all and reflect we will realize how much we got to see and accomplish!