The third week of the
program started in Hanover. We toured the cattle, sheep, goat, and
swine portions of the vet school there, then got to spend the evening at
a barbecue with some of the vet students. It
was great to be able to talk to them and realize that they face the same
challenges in class and have the same concerns about the future of the
profession as we do. Also in Hanover we went to the agricultural center
of the vet school where students live for
two weeks to learn about farming, similar to the one in Leipzig, but
much larger. There we saw an automatic milking machine that was able to
sense when each quarter of the udder was empty, cleaned each teat before
milking, and was available for the cows whenever
they wanted it. The man that gave our tour was pushing for people to
stop keeping house pets, such as dogs and cats, because they utilize
food that could be given to starving people. While I understand his
point, he wasn't exactly talking to the most receptive
audience. The last stop we had in Hannover was at the Niedersaechsisches
Landgestuet Celle where they train warmblood stallions for riding and
stud purposes. They have students that live there to learn to ride and
train the horses properly. We were able to
see a few riders while there and went to their 90 acre riding area where
they had cross-country jumps set up. It made me want to hop onto the
next horse I saw and start jumping them all. I wish we could have stayed
there a bit longer, but we had to get onto
a bus to make it to the Norderney ferry on time.
In Norderney we got to visit with a husband and wife that are the
veterinarians for the East Frisian islands. They had very interesting
stories about working on the islands, about having to hop on a plane to
get to emergency patients on other islands and carrying
all of their equipment on their backs while riding a bicycle because a
few of the islands do not have cars on them. It was clear that they live
very unique lives, but of course the job is not without tragedy. One
major downside to living on an island that is
a slave to nature and the tides is that in the case of an emergency that
needs higher technology unavailable on the island, such as a colic
surgery, it is difficult to make it to a mainland veterinary hospital in
time, after the ferry ride and the 3-4 hour
drive. Despite those difficulties, it was clear that these veterinarians
wouldn't change a thing. During our time on Norderney we got to
experience these particular weather issues, on the first day with almost
constant cold rain that we rode bikes in, walked
on the mudflats in, and rode horses in, and then on the second day when we
did a 5 mile bird watching hike in the sunshine with blasting wind. In
spite of the poor weather, it was fun and an experience I'm glad to have
had.
After Norderney, we needed a
break, so a few of us decided to go to Zurich and just relax. We took a
night train, which was an adventure on its own. First the train was 45
minutes late, so we did not board the
train until almost midnight, only to find out that our car, which was
supposed to be full of reclining seats, was instead a sleeping car with
six beds to a room. After about ten minutes of confusion and a brief
consultation with the conductor, we found out that
those were in fact our beds and we settled in for the night. We were
nervous about the sleeping car because on the first weekend of the trip,
one of the girls in our group had her phone and wallet stolen from a
locked car while she was sleeping, so we were
a bit on edge when we found out that we were not the only ones in the
room. We ended up with a man in our room that was headed to Freiburg,
talked to him for a minute, then went to sleep. Around 4:00 in the
morning, I was woken up by a police officer (and at
my vantage point, all I could see was her gun in her holster, which woke
me up completely). The officer wanted to know where we had come from,
and I quickly (despite Lexie shouting "Zurich" over and over in her
sleep) told her Norderney, which she then confirmed
that we had not come through Amsterdam at all. I can only assume she was
looking for illegal substances, and found out later that that
particular train car had originated in Amsterdam, so it made since. An
hour and a half later, I was woken up again by the
conductor telling me that the Freiburg stop was in 30 minutes, so I had
to wake up the other man in our room. It was a bit awkward and I think I
scared him a bit, but he left without issue and we made it to Zurich
without any major problems.
Zurich was beautiful and all we really did was wander around, pick up
some snacks for the next week, and walk along the river until we got to
Lake Zurich. It was such a nice break from the crazy pace of the
previous three weeks, despite how expensive it was
there ($8 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks - I will no longer complain
about their prices in the US).
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Back in the states and finally posting: Week 2
I got tired of writing my blogs on an iPad that wouldn't format my blogs correctly, so I just saved them all for when I returned (then life caught up with me and I forgot). So here we go:
The second week of our trip started in Leipzig, where we spent most of our time at the Leipzig veterinary school. I thoroughly enjoyed touring this school because I am seriously considering returning to Germany to study veterinary medicine and Leipzig is likely where I would study, if everything works out. We got to visit the university's collection of historical veterinary tools, which was very fascinating and we learned that the students are required to spend two weeks working on the farmland owned by the university to get a feel of how agriculture works, which is especially important for those students that have never worked on or near a farm. The Leipzig vet school is currently Germany's most updated vet school and we were able to tour most of it to appreciate the campus. We got to go into the large animal clinic and go over some of the equine cases they had in the clinic (in between getting chased for a few seconds by a cow that escaped her stall - that was exciting) and our group was able to answer most of the questions about the cases; the professor was pretty impressed by our clinical knowledge as vet students that have only finished the first and second years. Also at the Leipzig vet school we got to join in on a surgical anatomy class where the students were learning the surgical approach for a hemilaminectomy, which we learned in neuro-anatomy ( in theory, not on an actual cadaver) so we were able to offer some help, which was fun. As a German speaker I also liked being able to hear the students interact in the dissection the same way we did in anatomy, such as deciding where exactly to cut and giving each other a (jokingly) hard time for cutting a bit wrong or not knowing what to do. We were taken on a tour of Leipzig that was very interesting. Leipzig is a city in eastern Germany, so during the Cold War, they were under Russian control. It was a good experience to walk through the streets and see the old buildings interspersed with modern ones as they continue to rebuild the city. There were also buildings used by Goethe and Bach that we passed and statues of each in the city.
After Leipzig, we moved on to Berlin. Berlin in a unique city - many parts have become very modern, but other buildings and monuments remain as constant reminders of the past, from WWII to the fall of the wall. We were able to go on a bicycle tour of the city where we went from the Brandenburg gate, past the Bundestag, and along the former wall boundaries. Berlin also has a veterinary school that we toured. Since our group is so large, they split us into two groups - one went to the small animal clinic and the other went to the equine clinic - so I ended up in the equine clinic. We toured their facilities for a bit and then the students came to take us around in smaller groups. My group ended up in a hernia repair surgery, which was really interesting for me because I had never seen any kind of equine surgery. Also at the school we got to sit in on a classroom case discussion about a neurological case (which unfortunately for the rest of the group was mostly in German). It was fun to see the similarities in the classroom setting and apply my neurological knowledge to the case. Of course the other appeal for our group in Berlin was the Berlin Zoo, where the famous polar bear (Eisbaer) Knut lived until his sudden and unexpected death. At the zoo we were led around by the head veterinarian and got to feed the hippos - from a safe distance above them - by using a powerful water hose to attract them over and to get them to open their mouths so we could throw bread in.
That weekend we decided to go to Prague, which was a unique experience. There were some pitfalls along the way and it was difficult navigating the city with the entire group. Despite that we managed to have a good time. We went to the Prague Castle, walked on the Charles Bridge, explored the old town square, tried to go to the Jewish Quarter (it was closed for a holiday), and went to the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments (which was creepy, but interesting). We also decided to spend the majority of one day at the Theresienstadt concentration camp outside of Prague. It made the day a bit longer, but it was worth it for the experience. That particular camp was used for Nazi propaganda films showing opposing forces that the camps "were not that bad" and that they really were just relocation camps for the Jews. This camp was where many of the Jewish composers, playwrights, writers, and artists were sent, which helped keep up the image the propaganda films needed. The camp was mostly used as a "halfway camp" before sending the prisoners to the extermination camps in Poland; however more than 30,000 people still died there.
The second week of our trip started in Leipzig, where we spent most of our time at the Leipzig veterinary school. I thoroughly enjoyed touring this school because I am seriously considering returning to Germany to study veterinary medicine and Leipzig is likely where I would study, if everything works out. We got to visit the university's collection of historical veterinary tools, which was very fascinating and we learned that the students are required to spend two weeks working on the farmland owned by the university to get a feel of how agriculture works, which is especially important for those students that have never worked on or near a farm. The Leipzig vet school is currently Germany's most updated vet school and we were able to tour most of it to appreciate the campus. We got to go into the large animal clinic and go over some of the equine cases they had in the clinic (in between getting chased for a few seconds by a cow that escaped her stall - that was exciting) and our group was able to answer most of the questions about the cases; the professor was pretty impressed by our clinical knowledge as vet students that have only finished the first and second years. Also at the Leipzig vet school we got to join in on a surgical anatomy class where the students were learning the surgical approach for a hemilaminectomy, which we learned in neuro-anatomy ( in theory, not on an actual cadaver) so we were able to offer some help, which was fun. As a German speaker I also liked being able to hear the students interact in the dissection the same way we did in anatomy, such as deciding where exactly to cut and giving each other a (jokingly) hard time for cutting a bit wrong or not knowing what to do. We were taken on a tour of Leipzig that was very interesting. Leipzig is a city in eastern Germany, so during the Cold War, they were under Russian control. It was a good experience to walk through the streets and see the old buildings interspersed with modern ones as they continue to rebuild the city. There were also buildings used by Goethe and Bach that we passed and statues of each in the city.
After Leipzig, we moved on to Berlin. Berlin in a unique city - many parts have become very modern, but other buildings and monuments remain as constant reminders of the past, from WWII to the fall of the wall. We were able to go on a bicycle tour of the city where we went from the Brandenburg gate, past the Bundestag, and along the former wall boundaries. Berlin also has a veterinary school that we toured. Since our group is so large, they split us into two groups - one went to the small animal clinic and the other went to the equine clinic - so I ended up in the equine clinic. We toured their facilities for a bit and then the students came to take us around in smaller groups. My group ended up in a hernia repair surgery, which was really interesting for me because I had never seen any kind of equine surgery. Also at the school we got to sit in on a classroom case discussion about a neurological case (which unfortunately for the rest of the group was mostly in German). It was fun to see the similarities in the classroom setting and apply my neurological knowledge to the case. Of course the other appeal for our group in Berlin was the Berlin Zoo, where the famous polar bear (Eisbaer) Knut lived until his sudden and unexpected death. At the zoo we were led around by the head veterinarian and got to feed the hippos - from a safe distance above them - by using a powerful water hose to attract them over and to get them to open their mouths so we could throw bread in.
That weekend we decided to go to Prague, which was a unique experience. There were some pitfalls along the way and it was difficult navigating the city with the entire group. Despite that we managed to have a good time. We went to the Prague Castle, walked on the Charles Bridge, explored the old town square, tried to go to the Jewish Quarter (it was closed for a holiday), and went to the Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments (which was creepy, but interesting). We also decided to spend the majority of one day at the Theresienstadt concentration camp outside of Prague. It made the day a bit longer, but it was worth it for the experience. That particular camp was used for Nazi propaganda films showing opposing forces that the camps "were not that bad" and that they really were just relocation camps for the Jews. This camp was where many of the Jewish composers, playwrights, writers, and artists were sent, which helped keep up the image the propaganda films needed. The camp was mostly used as a "halfway camp" before sending the prisoners to the extermination camps in Poland; however more than 30,000 people still died there.
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