Hannover and Berlin- Week 2

This week was a bit hecktic because we went to both Hannover and Berlin. I am very pleased that I only have a small wheely suitcase and a backpack to put all my stuff in. I really need to get a big purse though to be able to keep my suveniors our of my backpack.

In Hannover, The overall trip was large animal influnced. I was not all that put off though by it. Yes, I am mainly interested into small animals and exotics but I can still apreciate the work and skill these facilities put in to better the care for the animals and help clients as well. It was very interesting to see a hoof trimming on a cow.

The best part of hannover for me was the zoo. The most intereting thing aboutte zoo was that they are trying to have more interaction between the animals and visitors. Some of the ways they did that was raising certain animals (like the pink pelican) to be use to humans so that visitors can pet them and having boat tours so that visitors can see the animals in a different way and possible more up close. I just hope that the zoo takes care to not take this idea too far. It would not be good to tame a large predator or dangerous animal and an accident happens. However, see all the different animals is always fun for me. ^-^ Especially meerkat babies.

In Berlin, I will admit I was nervous at first because I was getting Brussels vibes (a not soo fun experience). But, Mira kept encouraging   use that Berlin is good and to to just wait until after  the bike tour. I enjoyed that bike tour a lot. It felt soo good to be on a bike again. It was a good way to see a lot of berlin in a shorter amount of time. I will admit my butt hurt after the tour. It was cool to see so much historical sites, including the site of the book buring before WW2.

The tour of the Berlin University Horse clinic/ research facility was interesting, but as stated before not that much into large animals. I do love all the cute little foals running around in the pastures. We got to observe the vets doing ultrasound on mares to see if they are in estrus was cool because I was able to use the repro phys we learned last semester.

We went to the concentration camp that was nearish Berlin. It was a sombering experiance. It was somthing to walk around where they walked so many years ago. It hurt me a lot as a medical person that they had used the disquise of doctors to trick the prisoners into their death. It hur and disturbed me a lot. It brought me into thinking how people are distrusing medicne now. I was afraid to even put up the picture of the measuring stick  execution device so people won't take it out of context and use it as fuel for medicne is not to be trusted even if this was done in a concentration camp during WW2.

The German Parlimant building was very intersting and very interactive. It was really sunny though so it was hard to see a lot of the building the audio guide was trying to tell me.

So week 2 is done, half way through the study abroad program. Wow how time is flying.

Week 2: Five Cities in Seven Days

This trip has been filled with so many adventures already, and it is only the end of the second week! In the past seven days, I have traveled to Brussels, Lille, Hannover, Berlin, Prague, and back to Berlin. It had been exhausting but I have experienced and learned so much that it far, far outweighs any lack of sleep.

Our weekend trip to Brussels was fraught with difficulties in the beginning, but once we got to the correct area of the city we had a great time. We visited the Grand-Place, which is a square containing the town hall and the Maison du Roi. The Maison du Roi is actually a museum depicting the history of Brussels. We visited the Belgium Beer Museum, went to the Neuhaus chocolate store, and the Cathederal St. Michel et Ste Gudule. Our wanderings around the city also took us to the Palais Royal de Bruxelles, which was beautiful and had parks and a great view of the city nearby. I took French for 5 years so it was really exciting for me to finally put that knowledge to good use! I got to order all my meals in French. We ended the day back in the Grand Place, and had a delicious quiche dinner while listening the the outdoor jazz festival that was going on a few feet away. 

The next morning, we took a train to Lille, France. I absolutely loved this town. The weather was perfect for our visit. We had brunch in their town square and got to enjoy a parade of marching bands! There was everything from a bugle corps to a drum line. We spent a very relaxing day just wandering around the city. They had a town "flea market" type area in what used to be where their stock exchange took place. It was here that we discovered that this was the birthplace of Louis Pasteur. For a group of veterinary students, this was very exciting news! Everyone we met in this town defied the stereotype that the French tend to have. People were more than willing to go out of their way to help us out. We ran across someone in the park with his dog, so, naturally we asked to pet it. This led to him showing us all over town. It was neat because a couple of us spoke some
French and he only spoke a little English, and we had to figure out how to communicate. It was so
much fun and he introduced us to a bakery with the best eclairs and showed us to the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the museum and taking a nap in the park nearby before returning to Brussels. 

Monday morning found us taking the train to Hannover, Germany where we visited the zoo and took a self guided tour of the city. The zoo tour was my favorite of the zoo tours we have had so far. Our guide told us lots of good information about the animals and then gave us time at the end to look at what we wanted on our own. The Hannover city tour was pretty fun, we followed a painted red line around the city and stopped at specific points to read more about the history. My favorite stop was the town hall. It was gorgeous, and the view from the top of the tower was fantastic. 

On Tuesday we went to Hannover's vet school to look at their cattle clinic. It was interesting because, due a lot in part to government funding, they are willing and able to do a lot more for cattle than we typically do in the U.S. They put a lot of time and effort into making them better, they will even pick clients cows up for free and take them to the clinic! This system makes owners mor inclined to get healthcare for their cows and gives students cases to learn from. In the afternoon we went to a stallion testing center. They primarily test Hannovarians, along with Oldenburgs and other Warmbloods. They evaluate at the stallion's sperm as well as put the horse through a 70 day riding test. The horses as well as the facilities were top of the line.

On Wednesday we traveled to Berlin and did a bike tour of the city. I loved it! Even though several of us almost got run over due to not understanding how traffic works here, it was a great way to see more of the city in a short amount of time. We were able to see so many important landmarks such as Checkpoint Charlie and Bebelplatz (one of the sites of the Nazi book burnings). It was awesome to see the things I've learned about in history classes over the years come to life.

The next day we visited a horse clinic in Bad Saarow. This clinic is a reproduction clinic as well as a training facility. We got to observe rectal ultrasounds on mares to see what stage of their heat cycle they were in. We were also given a tour of their training facilities and got to see all the mares with their foals out in the pasture. After our tour we went on a little hike through the woods to eat at a restaurant on the lake. I tried the German dish of white asparagus, it was so good! 

On Friday we went to the concentration camp Sachsenhausen. It was an overwhelming experience. Our tour guide took us to each building and described what happened in each one. We went inside the barracks, prison, kitchens, hospital, and station zed (gas chamber and crematorium). This camp had around 20,000 people pass through its gates, including Joseph Stalin's son. They did a lot of medical testing there, including hepatitis and gangrene. They also had prisoners test out shoes for the army by having them walk miles and miles each day over different surfaces. The feeling I had in the camp is one that I have trouble putting into words, other than it is astounding that people could do that to one another. The SS came up with ways to make killing less psychologically damaging to themselves, which led to them calling people in for "medical exams" and shooting them from a secret room so they wouldn't have to look at the prisoner. What was also shocking is that a neighborhood is a few feet away from the camp, so outsiders had to at least have some knowledge of what was going on. Later in the afternoon we went on a tour of the Bundestag, or German Parliament Building. 

Saturday morning bright and early we headed off to Prague! This city definitely exceeded my expectations. Our host was incredibly helpful and armed us with maps and pointed us In the right direction. The weekend consisted mostly just wandering around and drinking in all of the sites. The city was full of bright cheerful colors. We got to see the Charles Bridge, the Prague castle, and cathedral. I finished up the weekend listening to Dvořák, Vivaldi, and Mozart in a concert hall right next to the Vltava River. 

Shenanigans & Schadenfreude

For context, "Schadenfreude" is the German phrase meaning "harm-joy" (laughing at others' pain), and I am using the word "shenanigans" very loosely because this group doesn't get up to much real trouble; it's 10:30 pm in Berlin and everyone is already in bed.

In about six hours, I'll be dragging myself out of bed to catch the train to Prague for the weekend, but I thought I would at least start a post for this week while I'm still conscious. I actually started writing last night and fell asleep after two sentences. That's how exhausted I am! However, this past week has been pretty fantastic.

Cliché picture time!

Paris was absolutely breathtaking, for the most part. It is a big city, and I went in very open-minded about the French people. Just after we arrived, Rebecca and I were in the main train station buying metro passes for the weekend. The man behind us grabbed my backpack, spoke in rapid French, and shoved both of us to the side so he could get his ticket. As we were forced to walk to the back of the line, I was shocked speechless that someone could be so rude! Unfortunately, my first impression of Parisians was not favorable, but I did not let that incident ruin my time there. The fist day, we went to the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and walked for miles along the river and city center to just look at all the lovely architecture. Everywhere I turned, I saw something interesting. Our hotel was tiny and located on a rather dank, smelly street with strange American [prom] dress shops, but the hotel itself was clean, pleasant, and had helpful staff.

The exquisite Notre Dame

The following day, we hit the ground running and visited three (yes, three...) museums. We tried our luck at the Louvre first, entered via the subway stop on the underground level, and only waited in line for about 20 minutes! The size of the museum was amazing - I had no idea it was that gigantic. I enjoyed the sculpture section the most, and after several hours looking through just two of the three vast wings, we decided to move on. The building itself is a work of art, and it is definitely a must-see of Paris. Next, we walked to the Musée d'Orsay, and I enjoyed this one a bit more than the Louvre because it was less overwhelming in size, displayed the Monet water lily paintings, and had an open rooftop with a beautiful view of the city. We also visited the Rodin sculpture garden (containing the famous "The Thinker"), Luxembourg Gardens, and Notre Dame.  I left Paris wishing I had more time, but also glad to be returning to the much more welcoming German people.

Monday was a long day full of neverending travel. We took an absurdly early train back to Cologne, then met with the group and we were off to Hannover! I was strangely excited for this part of the trip because I've always wanted to see the Hanoverian horses. Once we checked in at the hotel, which was pleasant and clean but also more old-fashioned and utilitarian, we immediately left for the Hannover zoo.

Sassy pelican tries to eat Chris' camera

Our tour guide at the zoo was a cheery fellow wearing a goofy safari outfit and feathered hat. He explained that this zoo's ideology was to keep multiple species together in more open areas to more closely resemble the wild, though I don't think this is an entirely new or different concept than what I've seen in American zoos. It was a very pleasant tour, with a boat ride through some of the exhibits and a friendly pelican that we were allowed to pet (so soft!). The elephant exhibit was not as big or modern as the Cologne zoo and definitely didn't have protective barriers for the keepers, but it had an interesting Asian theme. It's amusing that European zoos keep North American species such as raccoons, and I'm still blown away that dogs are allowed everywhere. Overall, I really enjoyed the visit. We went back to town and devoured pizza (Mira's favorite thing ever) at Vapiano, an Italian chain restaurant, then basically went directly to bed.

The following day, we visited the Hannover vet school's cattle clinic. The university buildings were a series of large brick barns, somewhat reminiscent of my undergraduate school. The cattle clinic alone spanned several big buildings, and we got to see their surgery set-up, which included a small section of auditorium seating for the students to watch, treatment areas, and stalls. The vet who guided us was great, answering all our questions about the school and information about the clinic. Veterinary schools in Germany are 5 years plus another half year of just examinations, and Hannover has 250 students in each class! They also aren't "doctors" when they get out - I would be called "Frau Kulhawik" instead of "Dr. Kulhawik". The students are admitted around 18 years of age based on grades and a questionnaire about their interests, and the government pays for their education. Very interesting indeed. While we were there, we got to watch claw-trimming and treatment of a minor abscess on a Holstein on their very old-fashioned tilt-table. The vet told us it's very cheap to keep a cow in the clinic (about 9€ per day and free treatments) because the university wants farmers to have an incentive to bring them in for students to practice on. That's an amazingly simple concept I wish existed in the US.

Can I live here?

After the cow clinic, we took another train out to a small town called Celle to visit the stallion testing center. It was an enormous, beautiful facility out in the middle of nowhere, with cross country courses and dressage arenas surrounding the brick barns. We got to tour the facilities and watch a stallion collection with a recent vet-graduate who was working on her Master's in reproduction research. The center ships out up to 70+ samples of semen throughout Europe each day, so they don't do much live cover or AI at the facility. Pretty much anything with horses makes me happy, so I really enjoyed this tour.

Hannover

We returned to Hannover and did an impromptu walking tour of the historical part of the town, which I am really glad we did. We got to see the remains of a bombed church, Shannon climbing trees, and the lovely "new" (100 year old) town hall before going to dinner at a brewery. This restaurant was located in a cellar, which used to be just a brewery in the 1300s. I ordered a very German meal: stuffed  rinder (beef) with mashed potatoes and red cabbage, which was delicious. Shannon ordered "sauerfleisch", which she thought would be beef with vinegar, as the menu suggested. The waitress actually brought out a tasty-looking porkroast and potatoes, but Shannon sent it back since it wasn't what she ordered and got a blob of what we could only describe as meat-jellO in return. It was the most disgusting piece of food I've ever seen, but she was a good sport and actually tried to eat some of it. Watching this spectacle was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time (at Shannon's expense) but the moral of the story is: never order sauerfleisch in Germany.

The last morning in Hannover was spent at a university research farm with a herd of dairy cattle, some beef cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and ducks. The farmer had an interesting perspective about combining concepts of animal welfare with sustainable agriculture; he was a very practical man and I enjoyed listening to what he had to say. Animal welfare is becoming a big issue in Germany - they have already passed laws to ban beak trimming of birds, tail-docking on pigs, and multiple housing regulations. In the post-war era, the people needed mass production of food to provide for a broken country, but now the issue has shifted toward saving animals from suffering. At this facility, they obviously abide by the laws but also show students what they will see in a typical farm setting. The only specialty was the milker, which milks one cow at a time completely robotically, and was in the free-stall area so cows could wander up and be milked as they pleased. It's obviously not the most efficient equipment, but very interesting to see.

Since this post has already been obnoxiously long and there is so much to report, I will wait to write about Berlin and Prague until we leave Berlin in a few days.

Until then, na zdraví!

~Andrea

Off To A Great Start!

Well, the first week of the program is coming to an end and what a week it has been! 

Shannon and I met up with everyone at the Frankfurt airport on Sunday after our two-day excursion in Frankfurt. Sunday was a pretty easy day of travel on a nice train and then a short introductory meeting at AIB. Our program Mira, who is pretty awesome by the way, took us out to the local Bönsch brewery for an amazing dinner of all you can eat schnitzel! 

On Monday morning we were able to visit a local animal shelter and I was really surprised by how great it was. They kept the cats in large rooms together and also provided a covered outdoor area for the cats. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shelter in the U.S. that had an indoor/outdoor setup for cats, so it was pretty great seeing that here. The shelter also had large outdoor areas for the dogs and had a large amount of small animals, such as rabbits and guinea pigs. Talking with the veterinarian and caretakers it seems like the shelter has similar protocols for vaccinating and adopting out animals as we do in the U.S., but it is cool that they don’t euthanise animals like we do. They even had animals that had been there for several years due to biting issues, but the shelter continued to care for them. 

Tuesday started off with a visit to a dairy outside of Bonn that houses the Center for Integrated Dairy Research. Our visit started off by hearing some research presentations from some of the graduate students at the Center and then continued with a tour of the dairy facilities. The dairy set-up was interesting since it was set up primarily for research purposes instead of a commercial operation. This means that the milking process is pretty inefficient, but it is easier for the researchers to collect their samples. We also were able to see their molecular genetics laboratory and see how they go about fertilising their embryos before transfer. All in all it was a pretty neat visit and I’m glad we got to go!

The group outside the CIDR, Gut Frankenforst, Germany

Dr. Wasser then took us to a German Post World War II History Museum, which was pretty stunning. Since he knows so much about German history we got a personal tour through the entire museum, which is great because there was just so much stuff. It took us over 3 hours to go through the museum and we skipped over a lot of things as well. Dr. Wasser was amazing at showing us how it was for a typical German after the war and it was eye opening to see how hard it was for most of the German citizens. There are three museums like this throughout Germany and I highly recommend a visit and get an audio guide if you can so that you don’t miss anything!

Wednesday was mainly cultural experiences with a trip to the Beethoven House museum and a walking tour of Bonn. I really enjoyed both of these experiences, especially the Beethoven House. I love classical music and it was awesome seeing where Beethoven was born and learn more about his life. After visiting, I haven’t been able to stop listening to Beethoven and all of his amazing music! The Bonn tour was amazing as well since Bonn was first established by the Romans there is plenty of history to be had! 

Münster Cathedral, Bonn, Germany

Thursday was the what I had been looking forward to the most because we got to work in private veterinary practices throughout Bonn. I was by myself with a small animal practitioner who had just opened his practice in January. He is still working on building up his client base and I have no doubt that he will succeed over the next few months. It was really interesting seeing how similar veterinary medicine is here compared to the United States. In fact, if they clients hadnt been speaking German I would have thought I was back home. The vaccination protocol, physical exam, and many of the questions the clients asked were practically identical to how we practice in the States. 

The veterinary practice where I shadowed

On Friday we took a day trip to Cologne and got to see the Cologne Cathedral and take another tour of the city. The cathedral was probably my favourite part of the day and is the most impressive building I have ever seen!  I really like Cologne and wished we could have spent more time exploring the city. Next time I come to Germany I’m going to be sure to spend several more days here.

Cologne Cathedral

The afternoon consisted of a visit to the zoo and we were able to get a behind the scenes tour of the elephant exhibit. This was pretty interesting since the zoo had just finished treating an infection of cowpox in their elephant herd, so we got to see a lot of the techniques that were used to care of the animals. We even got to feed an elephant, which was awesome! 

This week has been full of activities and I am exhausted! I have really loved meeting all of the people here in Germany and experiencing some German culture. For the weekend, some of us went off to Belgium and Lille to see a few more countries while we are here. Hopefully we are rested enough to tackle the second week!

Tschüss!

Bonn(ito) Bonn - Week 1

Hallo

So for our first week in Germany we were staying in Bonn. It is a lovely city. Everyone either walks or bikes everywhere. If the destination is too far then the locals would use public transportation (trams or buses) or cars ( which are all small). It is a lovely city. Well, everyone has said that we are luck to have come at a time that has the best weather. It has been 50-60 degrees F and been mostly sunny with only one or two times it has showered. 

Sunday was just a check in day. We got to Bonn and went to check in at the Hotel Bonnox and dropped all our stuff there. We got relax for a few hours before meeting up with our tour guide, Mira. She took us to a restaurant that had a all you can eat schnitzel. I had one with onion and bacon sauce.   

We did lots of things this week. Some of my favorite things were the visit to the Konig museum,  cologne cathedral and Cologne zoo.

In the Konig Museum, we got to go to the back of the museum and see all the reptiles and amphibians they had. They had an interesting collection of frogs (lots of poison darts) and their habitats looked good. They even had axolotls! We then went to see the reptiles and got to hold a bearded dragon, ball python baby, and a turtle.

The cologne cathedral was a treat because it housed the bones of the three kings. I was super excited not only because I am catholic, but because my family celebrates three kings day on Jan 6.  The cathedral was beautiful and big. We even got a chance later to climb the 530+ steps to the top of the right spire. It took me a bit but I made it to the top. I was surprised that even if it was tiring, it wasn’t that long of a climb. It was a nice experience to have.

The cologne zoo was later in the afternoon. We got to look at some of the animals but the main attraction was going into the elephant house and seeing the facilities. They had the elephants in these large iron bared cages. The zoo has protected contact with the elephants, they cant be in direct contact. But they were still able to target train the elephants to do certain tricks and movements that will allow them to check their health and if need to give medications or do procedures. I even got to feed one of the elephants. They showed us the rest of the facilities but I was impressed. At least the elephants were only in those cages for like 2 hours a day. Usually they are running around the the large enclosure.

Well, now to wait for next week and see what we will experience.  

Nitch das gelbe vom Ei. (It's not the yellow from the egg)

Most people who have known me from the past year of vet school could tell you that I spent a good part of the year in my reserved seat on the struggle bus. Well apparently I rode that sucker all the way to Germany.  I kept telling Dr. Wasser that I hadn't recited the blog invitation when apparently it was in my main campus email for several days and I was checking vet school email looking for it. Well anyway,  I finally found it and now,  as the Germans say,  all is Gut (as in good, not intestines).

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