Finally posting: Week 3

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).