1 Week In...

Hallo, Guten Tag!

This first week in Germany has been a lot of fun and full of new experiences. Today I'm writing from a high-speed train headed to Paris for the weekend.  Andrea and I arrived the day before the official trip began and spent the day in Mainz to help adjust to the time difference before we began. In Mainz we took a boat tour along the Rhine and then walked around downtown for a little while.

Castle along the Rhine, near Mainz, Germany

The next day we headed back to Frankfort and met up with the rest of the group before taking off to Bonn where we would spend the rest of the week. The first day was really layed back and mostly just an introduction to the program and getting settled in to our hotel. We did enjoy a very nice dinner of all you can eat Schnitzel at a local brauhaus.

Old Town Hall, Bonn, Germany

Monday began with a visit to a local animal shelter in Bonn.  The facilities were very nice and all of the animals had access to the outdoors and some room to roam around. The cat rooms were very cool with plenty of things to climb and interact with one another as long as they had passed quarantine and got along with other cats. They also had a lot of small mammals at this animal shelter, there were so many rabbits that it made me miss when I used to raise and breed rabbits myself. Afterwards we went to Museum König and got a behind the scenes tour. I have seen specimen collections behind the scenes before but it was at a smaller natural history museum on the campus of my undergrad (Michigan State University) so it was neat to see a larger collection. Besides the preserved specimens we were able to see the living amphibians and reptiles that were kept at the museum and even given the opportunity to hold a turtle, ball python and bearded dragon. My favorite animals to see were the baby chameleons. They were so tiny and just absolutely adorable. Afterwards we were able to go into the museum and see some of the exhibits they had on display for the public even though it was actually closed that day while they were building some new exhibits.

Inside Museum König, Bonn, Germany

The next day we visited Gut Frankenforst and the Center for Integrated Dairy Research and listened to a couple lectures from some PHD students about some of their research performed at the center. I am interested in large animal medicine and in particular really like working with Dairy cattle so this was something I really enjoyed.  I have seen a few university/research dairy farms in the United States so it was nice to be able to compare them. We also took a tour of the Haus der Geschichte, a Contemporary German History Museum. I enjoyed getting to learn more about Post-WWII German History and how the separation into East and West Germany after the war and the eventual reunion has shaped the culture of the regions.

German Countryside

Another exciting place that we visited this week was Beethoven's house. It was really cool to get to see the house where Beethoven was born as well as copies of letters he wrote and the beginnings of some of his works. Also there were some instruments as well as a couple pianos that had belonged to him. Throughout the museum we were also able to hear some excerpts from some of his work. Thursday was probably my favorite day of the trip thus far. I was able to spend the day at an Equine Hospital. I enjoyed getting to see an actual clinic in Germany and how everything is done there compared to the United States. I was also able to scrub in on two surgeries and assist the Veterinarian. I am very thankful for this experience and enjoyed the entire day immensely.

Köln Cathedral

On Friday we took a train from Bonn to Köln were we visited the Cathedral as well as the Zoo. As soon as we stepped out from the train station the Cathedral was right there looming over us. The building is absolutely breathtaking. I didn't climb all the way to the top as the other students did but it was still a sight to behold nonetheless. The Zoo was also a lot of fun especially since we were able to go behind the scenes and see the Elephant Exhibit in a way that not very many people are able too. While seeing the elephans inside the enclosure there was a demonstration of the training and some of the tricks that the elephants know. We also were able to feed one of them a piece of apple and pet their  trunks.

Overall, I am really enjoying this entire experience and looing forward to our next adventures. Until then, Tschüss.

~Rebecca