Monday- we went to Novartis. We had a lecture on their financial cutbacks and why they are going to merge with elanco. We got a history of how they came to be in basel and how they are all over the world. Basel is on the Rhine and in Switzerland and next to Germany and France. We talked about packaging, making the pill, and analytical gas chromatography. It was amazing to see how much goes into packaging a product. We even got to see things that are not on the market yet like a pouch for drenching sheep and soft tip applicators for ear medicine.
we were free for a few hours to get lunch and we activated our Eurail passes. We met nils at 3. Well we were are the bus stop at 3, but he was nowhere to be found. None of our phones worked. We tried texting and calling. We then just started walking around the square and finally found him. He said we were not at the bus stop at 2:45, but we were.
He red church is Munster. Sir George slaying the dragon. There is a woman and a man on the right side of the church. The woman is flirting with the man. The man is flirting back and seducing her so she takes her clothes off. But he is really the devil or "evil", and he has snakes and toads coming out of his back. It shows that you can never really trust someone when you first meet them. The statue of the man on the horse is one of the first bishops of the church and he cloaked the poor. The seat of the church was called "shut your trap". In Catholic Churches you have to stand a lot, they have a small little sets to sit on to rest. If you fell asleep while sitting on the little seat the big sets will fall and make a crashing noise. So the guy next to you would say, "shut your trap". There was also a whispering door. Your whispered into one side and could hear on the other. Spy box. ..... 2 steps for getting on horse
Basel wasn't named after a Basilisk. City hall has statutes that don't like each other but they have to be together to get decisions made. Elizabethan church. All the fountains you could drink out of. They came from a natural spring under the ground and the water was really good. The executioner was not allowed to touch food and put it back in the market because he was considered unclean.
Monday night we bought chocolate for our families and wine for ourselves to sit on the steps of the Rhine and drink and talk. It was a lot of fun. It is an aide venture to find a bathroom in Europe. Your just have to walk into the restaurant like you know what you are doing.
Tuesday we went to the pharmacy museum. It was neat to see all the things people have believed have worked for healing over the years. Everything in Switzerland is expensive and we could not find magnets for souvenirs. Valerie and I decided to first class to leipzig since we already paid for it with our eurail. We bought more wine and drank 2 bottles on the train. Joy and I stayed with a girl named Joana in leipzig. She has a 2 story apartment with a roof that we could climb on and see the city. She is from the Black Forest, so she made us a traditional Black Forest soup. It was so good. We went to a festival called bergfest. It is a celebration in which the second year students celebrate being half way done with veterinary study. It is really cool because we are also half way done. The class revealed their animal and did a dance and a song. It is all so organized and there is nothing like it in the states.
Wednesday- we were supposed to take a city tour at 10. The tour guide did not show up until 11:15. St nick- protest on Monday in the church. Bach is burried in a church in leipzig. Music notes on the street. Went to anatomy class. They do it different where they look at the dog muscles and then look at a horse leg before moving on to nerves. I like it the way we did it better. They had early cool tables that had drains in them and the drains leg to a trash bucket, so you didn't have to throw it down and hope you get the bucket. It seems like it would be easier to clean too. We also went to a non human primate house of marmosets. They monitor estrus and breed the marmosets. We got to feed them out of a syringe and feed them apples. They were so cute.
Thursday- we went to an old farm that is part of the university. The students in leipzig have to do a 2 week internship there dealing with farm animals and learning the history of veterinary medicine in Germany. It is one of the oldest veterinary colleges in the world behind the ones in France. During the GDR, the school kept changing names and did not have a lot of funding so the buildings are not as nice. It was interesting to see books from as early as the 15th century. Also, I loved the WW1, and WW2 history, and veterinary school history. It is interfering in talking to the german students, as they do not find it as fascinating as we do. I guess they grew up learning about it so it must be boring to them.
We went to the zoo and got to blow dart a picture of a lion. I Hit the chest on the first try. We got a personal guide from the director at the zoo. One interesting fact I learned was that African elephants catch herpes virus easier than Asian elephants, so they only have Asian elephants at the zoo. I thought there was a lot of cool information, but it was really hot and the fact about the elephants is the only thing I remember. It was interesting to see the difference between zoos in America and zoos in Germany. The enclosures in the leipzig zoo were much larger than the ones in America. I loved seeing the baby primates.
Friday- surgery tours. Internal med tours. Pretty much the same as the US. They have a 3tesla MRI. They also have nuclear sintigraphy and portable X-ray. We had a 2 hour break and I got my first sunburn of the trip. It wasn't even hot outside. It was close to 90 yesterday and I didn't get burned. I wish I could have gone to more of the games in bergfest. Our host lived almost 40 min by walking and trams. This was the most disappointing part of leipzig.
Well I had my adventure on the train. We were on our way to prague and we had to change trains in Dresden. Valerie, gaylon and I are in 1st class. There was a sign that said Dresden. But it didn't say Dresden HBF. We all got off and the girls in 2nd class stayed on. I didn't know this and Valerie and gaylon were yelling at me to try to get back on. I looked back and they were gone. I was all alone. I looked for the others from second class...someone waved, but it wasn't at me. My phone rings, it is Jen. She just tells me to look at the board and ask if someone speaks English that can help me. I am looking at a tram that says Dresden right next to the platform I am standing on. I don't know if I should get on it or not. I don't. I look at the sign and First Lady I ask does not know English. She points to a group of younger girls for me to ask. They say platform 8. I am on 4. I have to run down stairs with my 50lb suitcase and back up the stairs. I make it with a few minutes to spare. I get on and don't know where to get off the tram. Someone tells me. I arrive on platform 14 and need to make it to 1. I get to 1 and 2, and there is 1,1a, 1b. I am pretty sure it is 1. I have to make it up the flight of stairs. I am exhausted, but still running on adrenaline. I make it 3/4 of the way and a lady comes and helps me. I see valarie's green scarf and I feel like a weight is taken off my shoulders. I make it with 15 min to spare. We walk up to a first class car and he doors close on us. WTF. It's not supposed to leave for another 10 min. An attendant comes by and says the train is not leaving for another 10 min so we are ok. We all make it on the train. Dresden and the area is beautiful. There are amazing castles on the train route and the forests are beautiful. We also saw some vineyards.
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