A Trip to the Sea

Sadly, our time in Berlin came to an end and the next stop on our program was Büsum. This town is located in the northernmost portion of Germany and is on the North Sea. I didn't really know what to expect from Büsum because everything I heard about it was that it was a vacation spot for....the older generations. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and had a great time over the past few days.

We started off by visiting a seal center that takes in abandoned seal cubs and nurses them back to health before being released back into the wild. Unfortunately, all of the seal pups that the center had when we visited were still in quarantine and we were unable to see them. Even though we couldn't see any seal pups, it was really neat to see how the center worked and learn about the work they do. They do have a small amount of permanent resident seals because they are unable to be returned to the wild.

The coolest part of the Büsum visit was getting to help out with some necropsies at the Aquatic Wildlife Center, which is a part of the Hannover veterinary school. We were able to perform necropsies on a seal and harbor porpoise! I have never worked very closely with marine mammals, so this was very exciting for me. We were pretty lucky in that the animals we were working on had died from some interesting causes. The porpoise actually chocked on a fish (didn't know that could happen) and basically suffocated to death. The seal had an intestinal volvulus and was found to be recently pregnant.  I liked that I was able to make comparisons between the marine animals and the animals that I had previously dissected. The necropsies took several hours to perform but it felt like no time at all! This is definitely the best hands-on experience I have had so far on this program and am looking forward to learning more about marine animals in Dr. Pine's course in the fall.

We also got to go to a really nice restaurant for a fancy dinner that is owned by one of the seal hunters in the Büsum area. I know, I know....I did just say "seal hunter," but don't worry, he is a really cool dude! This man owns a restaurant (and cooks delicious food by the way) and works as a seal hunter to go out and rescue abandoned seal pups and take them to the local seal center. The name "seal hunter" comes from historical context, and he is actually one of the people responsible for keeping many seals alive. He can euthanize an animal, if necessary, if it is too sick or wounded after being abandoned and wouldn't survive the recovery process. He had some really great stories and we were able to find out more about all of the seal hunters and their cool jobs. Everything he does as a seal hunter is voluntary and actually takes time away from his real job and earning money. I have a lot of respect for everything he has to do to keep the seals well.

Büsum also has some of the largest mud flats in the world after the North Sea draws out during low tide. The program arranged for us to have a mud flat hike and it was like being a kid again! We walked through the mud flats barefoot with a biologist showing us all of the different species living in the mud. The mud got pretty loose in some areas and I sank in to my knees! It was a lot of fun stomping through the mud and getting stuck.

Büsum was great and we were able to meet a lot of awesome people while we were there. Looking around town it was definitely a vacation spot for the older folks, but I had a really awesome time. I don't know if I would go back simply because I think we experienced most of what the town has to offer but I'm glad I got to visit!

Arbeit Macht Frei

Berlin & Prague 

A terrible shot of me at the Brandenburg gate

As our train drew close to Berlin on a cool, dreary day one week ago, Mira warned us that it was an "ugly" city, but we would soon understand why. My first impression through the window was indeed unappealing - an urban setting with gray buildings and graffiti, almost post-apocalyptic. I was a bit unenthusiastic about doing a 3-hour bike tour after waking up at 6 am and traveling all afternoon. However, I started having fun as soon as I swung onto the orange Dutch-style bike labeled "Coco Chanel". It was a very welcome change of pace from all the walking we do, and this allowed us to see many fascinating points of interest around the city such as Bebelplatz, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, the site where Hitler's bunker used to be, and of course the wall. The site of the book burning and the wall affected me the most. Reading is my second-favorite pastime, after horseback riding of course, so it is appalling to me that people would deliberately destroy literature. Putting a wall around people is also despicable, and it blows my mind that my own life began just one year after it came down. The tour was great - it showed how Berlin is a place where it's impossible to forget the history. It is eerie and unsettling but also...hopeful. 

lovelovelove

Even though I was enjoying Berlin, the following day outside the city was refreshing. We took a bus to the small town of Bad Saarow to tour the University of Berlin Pferdezentrum ("horse center"). They specialize in reproduction, so we got to see ultrasounds on pregnant mares and watch Warmblood foals playing in the picturesque rolling hills - my own personal heaven. We also saw some of the Uni students training some ponies outside and sat in on the behavior class in the indoor arena. After the tour, we took a hike through the woods to the town on the lake, Scharmützelsee. The fresh air, sunshine, and eating lunch by the water with sailboats drifting by felt like home to me. (I'm from Michigan, remember?) When we returned, we visited the East Side Gallery - the paintings on the Berlin wall. It's a shame there's so much graffiti, because some of them are pretty amazing.

My time Sachsenhausen, one of the earliest concentration camps located outside of Berlin, is hard to describe. The words Arbeit Macht Frei, "Work makes you free", are a part of the iron gates as you walk through the entrance. The word "free" on a prison gate is so paradoxical, and that lingered in my mind as we walked through the open spaces where buildings used to be, the remaining barracks, the "prison within a prison", the track of uneven surfaces where prisoners walked 18 miles a day to test boots... The hideous Soviet monument in the center was something I did not expect, but it didn't entirely surprise me that the camp was spun into propaganda about the exploitation of Soviets during the Nazi regime (without giving proper recognition to the other groups of people who suffered there until the 1990s). My mood shifted from curious but aloof to more and more disturbed the longer we stayed in the camp. Only the foundations of "Station Z" remained, but it still left an impression. Thousands of people were shot point-blank in these small, double-walled rooms or killed in the gas chamber, then carried by prisoners to the crematorium. Knowing that this actually happened is disturbing in itself, but standing in the same space is another thing entirely. When I walked through the hospitals where medical experimentation took place, I started feeling sick to my stomach. I left with a new appreciation for what happened there.

That same afternoon, we visited Bundestag, the German Parliament building, and climbed to the glass dome at the top. It was an interesting structure to see, and the views from the roof of the big park and the city were quite nice.

The Charles Bridge

How to take a scenic selfie: we don't know

On our free weekend, the entire group went to Prague. As we entered the Czech Republic, the landscape became hilly and the vibrant colors of Prague were a sharp contrast to the drab Soviet buildings of Berlin. We found our way around easily enough, and headed to Old Town Square for some lunch and sight-seeing. As soon as we arrived, there was a parade of international costumed/singing/dancing/instrument playing people streaming by and other musical performances on a stage going on, with a raucous crowd gathered around. It was fun to just sit and watch! Half of the group, including myself, decided to go on one of the group pub crawls that evening, which was a cool way to meet people from all over the world. The following day, we simply wandered around the city, crossed the bridge and walked up the hill to the castle, where the views of the city were excellent. The cathedral was beautiful - the stained glass was exquisite and golden light filtering in made the alter seem to glow. Although Paris had more things to do, I enjoyed the cheery people, impromptu festivals and street performances, and general "feel" of Prague even more.

The anatomy collection

We returned to Berlin on Monday and visited part of the veterinary school campus (the anatomy building) and the Jewish Museum. The vet who gave us the tour was great to chat with about their school, and their laboratory and specimen collection was pretty impressive. The rows of glass cases with malformed fetuses, plastinated circulatory systems, and skeletons was an awesome tool these students have access to. Something interesting she commented about veterinary medicine is that the Germans are paid less, work more, and are generally less respected than what she observed in the States and the UK. I was fairly surprised, because I think we have all these problems at home, not to mention the ridiculous amount of student debt we face.
We also visited the Jewish Museum of Berlin, and the tour focused on the building's architecture instead of the exhibits. It was pretty interesting, and I definitely would not have understood some of the aspects without the information that the guide provided. It is meant to be a place of remembering all of the lost Jewish people of Germany, in addition to their entire history within the country. The shape of the building, lighting, "voids" (large empty rooms), and the maze of uneven flooring are all supposed to evoke feelings rather than mean something definitive. It was modern and weird, but I did find it interesting.

My old friend, Archaeopteryx

The final morning in Berlin was spent at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife Research, where we got to learn about their different research projects they are conducting all over the world and learn how to use a blow dart at a target. I of course failed spectacularly. After some free time (shopping), we went to the Natural History Museum. I am a nerd and love Natural History Museums, so I thought it was pretty neat even though our tour guide was quite strange and clearly used to talking to children. Some of the cool things they had were the original Archaeopteryx fossil (I wrote a paper about Archaeopteryx and the evolution of flight in undergrad), and the preserved quagga and thylacine specimens, which are some animals that went extinct in the 19th and 20th centuries due to over-hunting or habitat destruction.

I can't believe another week is over! Time needs to slow down; even though I'm exhausted I am having a blast experiencing all the new things. The times between postings is not really indicative of where I am, but rather where I can access internet that keeps a connection for more than 5 minutes. We have already traveled to Büsum and Copenhagen, which I will write about soon!

Skål, 

~Andrea

Another Week Down!

The past couple of weeks have been so much fun and Germany is absolutely amazing. We have spent time in both Hanover and Berlin and they were both amazing cities. 

Our first stop in Hanover was to have a tour of the Hanover Zoo. After visiting several zoos throughout the program its pretty obvious that the Germans have a very different mindset when designing their zoos. They try to get the guest in as much contact with the animals as possible. For instance, guests can go into the sea gull enclosure and one of the birds has become so acclimated to people over the years that she'll walk up to guests and let them touch her. Also, all of the peacocks in the zoo are free roaming and can go into any exhibit or path that they wish. 

The barriers to some of the other enclosures are still very minimal compared to zoos in the  States. Our guide openly admitted that the gazelles could easily jump over the barrier into the guest area but they haven't so far and the zoo isn't too worried about it. The mindset seems to be that if a guest does something stupid they deserve the consequences whereas in the U.S. we try to do everything we can to make sure the idiots don't have the opportunity to do something stupid. 

Our guide did say that this does cause some problems for their animals because guests will often try to feed the animals whatever they brought to the zoo. Since the barriers are so minimal it's pretty easy for something to be tossed into the enclosure for the animal to eat. The worst consequence of this happened several years ago when one of the zoo's hippos ate a tennis ball someone threw into the enclosure. Unfortunately the zoo didn't know about it or catch it in time and the hippo ended up being euthanized because the impaction caused by the tennis ball destroyed the intestines. I would think that this would be enough of a reason to make more significant barriers between the animals and guests but our guide says that out if the millions of visitors only small fraction try to give things to the animals. For the zoo it seems that it's better for the people that behave to get a more intimate experience since there usually aren't too many problems. 

The other strange thing was that the zoo allowed the guests to bring their dogs into the zoo. This isn't all that surprising since Germans can take their dogs just about anywhere but it's still a little shocking. He dogs are required to be on leash the entire time, which is good because I could see some problems occurring if a dog found one of the free ranging peacocks. 

Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with the veterinarians at the zoo, which was a little disappointing, but I'm still glad we were able to visit. Each time I visit a zoo here it is obvious that the U.S. and the Germans handle their zoos a little differently and I can't decide which I like more. It seems like the German zoos give the guest a better experience but I don't know if that is necessarily good for the animals. 

Hanover is also the first city that we have visited that actually has a veterinary school. We spent some time at their cattle clinic, which handles mostly dairy cattle.  The school really wants there to be cases for the students to learn from and they do some pretty cool things to accomplish this. First, the school has drivers and trucks that will go up to 200km to pick up cattle that need treatment from the farm...at no charge to the client. This makes it incredibly easy for a farmer to send their sick cattle to the vet rather than put it off until they have time. The school also sponsors all lab work costs that are done at the school so that clients are t discouraged from pursuing further diagnostics and if the clinicians convince the owner to keep the cow at the clinic longer because it's an interesting case they won't charge for their services.  It's really important for the school to have cases so that the students can learn and these are definitely ways to help keep the case load up. The clinic has seen some hardship due to some financial trouble in Germany and the case load has gone from about 1500 cases a year to about 1200. 

Our group had some free time one evening and went on a self-led walking tour of the city. Hanover was beautiful, especially the “new” city hall. By new, I mean it was built in the early 1900s, but thats still pretty new considering how old the city is. I really enjoy spending the time to look around the old part of these German towns because there is so much history everywhere!

The next part of the program took us to Berlin, which is the city I was most excited to visit! Our first night was a bike tour around town and honestly, Berlin is a little on the ugly side. This is mainly because it was pretty much leveled during the second world war and everything that was built afterwards doesn’t stand up against the less damaged areas of Germany. Due to Berlin’s role in the war, the entire city is full of history and the tour was a nice way to see the highlights.

Another big cultural experience we had in Berlin was visiting one of the concentration camps used during the war. This was an experience that I will likely never forget. It was such a powerful place to be in knowing all that happened within the walls of the camp. A lot of the buildings had been destroyed after the war, but those that were left held exhibits showing the conditions of the camp. Looking through these exhibits and being in the place where it actually happened made me extremely uncomfortable. Its hard to describe the feeling I had knowing I was in a place that held the bodies of thousands of murdered people and knowing all of the other horrible things they had to endure. This experience left a lasting impression on me and makes me grateful for the place and conditions I live in today.

Some of the veterinary related activities we did in Berlin were visiting another equine reproduction clinic, touring the anatomy department of the Berlin vet school, and touring a wildlife research institute. My favorite was probably the wildlife institute because they gave us a really great presentation about all of the work they are doing to help promote conservation and environmental stability. The institute also has one of the world’s most expensive CT scanners and it was really amazing seeing how that worked. Its also cool to see the institute giving back to the community because they are funded with tax dollars.  They offer low cost CT scans whenever it is not being used for research and I think that its a great way to give back to the taxpayers that fund them. They also took us outside to practice shooting with a blow gun, which is typically used to tranquilize wild animals before they are examined. Let me just say that its not as easy as it looks. We weren’t particularly good at it, although toward the end a few of us managed to hit the target. 

Berlin was a lot of fun and now we are all not the train on our way to Büsum to see some of the North Sea area. It looks like we are going to get to do some pretty cool stuff with marine mammals, which I am really looking forward to. Coming on this program is one of the best decisions I have ever made and I can’t wait to see what else I get to do!

Week 2: Paris and Hannover

Hallo!

This trip has continued to be a wonderful experience.  We do so many different and interesting things each day that when I get back to the hotel each night and attempt to start another blog entry I somehow only manage a few sentences before falling a sleep. Even though I have been so tired I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. 

Eiffel Tower Selfie = Total Tourists

For the weekend Andrea and I traveled to Paris. I had mixed feelings about going there due to somethings I had been told by others that had been there before. However, I tried to keep an open mind and was really looking forward to all there was to see, knowing full well that two days was not enough. Sadly our first interaction with a local Parisian was not so nice. Andrea and I were in line to purchase our metro passes for the weekend and taking a little bit to make sure that we got the correct tickets when the man in line behind us literally grabbed our backpacks and moved us out of the way telling us if we didn't know what we were doing to get out of line and let others go. He was quite rude and it was a much different experience than I had with French when I visited Southern France a few years ago.

Louve Museum

This bad experience aside I enjoyed my time in Paris. Our first day there we visited the Eiffel Tower twice, both during the day and at night to see it all lit up. As well as visiting the Arc de Triumphe we spent the day just walking along the river and in the city center looking at all the amazing buildings and admiring the architecture. The following day was quite a bit busier, we managed to visit three different museums. Our first stop of the Louve, I was surprised at the sheer size of the museum. I had known before that it was large but even that didn't prepare me for how large it actually is. Of the three wings of the museum we only managed to see two of them before deciding that we didn't have the time if we hoped to see more places that day. However, before we left we did make sure to go see the Mona Lisa (such a small painting compared the the large floor to ceiling ones in the same gallery). Afterwards, we headed to the Musee d'Orsay and the Rodin sculpture garden (home of the famous 'The Thinker'). Overall, I enjoyed the last two museums better than the Louve just because the time period of the art is more in line with my tastes but the building of the Louve was a masterpiece in its own right. After the museums we took a walk through the Luxemburg gardens and visited Notre Dame. Overall, I really enjoyed Paris but there are still plenty of things I wish I'd had the time to see while there.
Monday we took a very early train from Paris back to Cologne where we met up with the rest of the group and then took another train to Hannover. When we arrived we checked into our hotel before heading to the Zoo for a tour. Our tour guide was a very nice man with quite the outfit; he was decked out in a safari vest and a hat with many feathers. He told us that the aim of the Zoo was to have as many different species of animals together in one exhibit as would be found together in the wild. Another thing that they try to do is to make the Zoo as interactive for both the guests and the animals as is possible as well as safe. For example, visitors are able to walk into the Pelican exhibit and interact directly with the birds, who if they didn't want to could cross the pond and go to the other side of the exhibit. I was surprised at how soft the pelican actually was. We also took a boat tour that allowed us to view the exhibits from a different perspective.

Jewish Holocaust War Memorial - Hannover

Tuesday morning we the Cattle Clinic that's a part of the Veterinary Medicine Department at the University of Hannover. We toured the entire facilty with one of the veterinarians that work there. The whole clinic was so large especially compared to what I am used to back home. I was also suprised and how little it cost owners to bring there cattle to the hospital. They would even go to the farms and pick up the cows and bring them into the clinic for free if they were within a certain distance from the clinic. I also really enjoyed getting to talk to the vet while we watch a hoof trimming on a dairy cow. It was cool to learn that the common lameness/hoof problems for dairy cattle in Germany is the same as that in the States. Afterwards we went to a Stallion Testing Center outside of Hannover. This was a really cool experience because we got to watch them collect a Stallion and then see how they would store the semen, check to make sure the quality was good and even determine how much they could dilute. The facities were very impressive and also had a lot of riding arneas where they would train also train the stallions. 

Wednesday morning we visited the Teaching and Research Farm associated with the University of Hannover. At this place they also do some stallion collection as well as a lot of reproduction research. Unlike the Stallion Testing Center they did a lot more work with mares as well. We were able to watch a few ultrasounds of some of the horses where they were doing estrus detection. Also they showed us a previous ultrasound on one of their mares that was 65 days pregnant and discussed how to sex the foal on ultrasound.  The entire area was absolutley beautiful and I didn't want to leave. We even walked through the woods afterwards to a restruant that was right on the lake for lunch. It was a gorgeous day outside and capped the end to a great time in Hannover.  

After lunch we had to head back to the hotel to pick up our bags and catch a train to Berlin. In my next blog I will talk all about our time in Berlin. Until then...

Bis Bald! 

~Rebecca

Momma only cried a little.

This post was actually from 5.14.15, but I was having trouble gaining access to post on the blog... so anyway this was the day I flew out.

I have been excitedly awaiting this trip most of the year but as my mom asks "Are you excited?" I have to answer her honestly, "I'm really just too tired to feel anything right now."  In typical "Shannon fashion", as, I think my colleagues are beginning to realize, I have bitten off more than I can chew and left many things until the last minute. Since completing my first year of vet school exactly 1 week ago, I have traveled to Dallas, moved into a new house, and traveled to New Braunfels and back to College Station. Now I am on my way to Arlington for my flight, which is delayed an hour (good thing since I am running a little late). The latter four being in the past 72 hours... I am exhausted. I think it might be a good thing that I have been so busy though because I had been anxious about travelling abroad for the first time, with people I really don't know that well. 

In orientation a couple of weeks ago our Study Abroad Office coordinator presented a diagram (below) about how people feel when they go abroad... I have experienced some pre-departure ups and downs and I am dreading the homesick stage. I confess I sometimes still get homesick even though I am 26, been living away from my parents for almost 8 years and only live about 3 hours away. 

I am waiting with Chris for our flight out and just anxious to get underway. I know my mom is nervous too but she's trying to be tough, she only cried a tiny bit when her and Dad dropped me off.

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.