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.
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