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

Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof

"Life is not a pony-house", one of the German expressions we learned this first week in Bonn. I'm currently on the high-speed train to Paris, sipping coffee and eating pastry. So far, all of our travels have been going smoothly and Europe has been everything I've hoped for. Rebecca and I flew into Frankfurt last Satruday, took a train to Mainz, and stayed in a hotel on the Rhine. The first day we were struggling to stay awake on a river boat cruise, but I adjusted after the first night. 

The hilly vineyards in the Rhine river valley

We met the group the following morning with an AIB student worker, Maren, who was happy to tell us about Germany and her own experiences in the US ("Do you have trees in Germany?" I'm slightly embarrassed how stupid that particular American was). The Texas students have all been great and we seem to get along very well - but I was never worried about that in the first place since we are all in vet school. 

First night in Bonn. With gelato of course.

Since I knew virtually nothing about Bonn before arriving, I actually found the town to be pretty interesting. It is known as Beethoven's birthplace and as the former capital of West Germany. After the first day of exploring the city a bit and finding the hotel, Bonn was very easy to navigate. I honestly never felt lost or unsafe the entire time that we were there, and it's the kind of small city that I could almost picture myself living in. Some of the interesting things we did in the area included visiting a very nice animal shelter, touring the exotic animal zoo at Museum Konig, visiting the Center of Integrated Dairy Research in Frankenfrost, drinking the local Bönnsch beer at pubs, visiting Beethovenhaus and the German contemporary history museum, and working in an equine clinic outside of town for a day. My internship was at Kottenforst where it was a surgery day - I got to watch 5 laproscopic surgeries on warmbloods! The veterinarian actually knew one
of my teachers at UT from when he was in the States, so he was pretty friendly and explained what was going on in English to me. Another intern from Egypt (a vet with his PhD in reproduction) was there to learn more about these surgeries, and he spoke English so we were able to talk extensively about what we were interested in. Three of the other girls got to work at the enormous and beautiful rival clinic some-20 minutes away.

  

The horse clinics outside of Bonn

The final day was spent in Cologne, and it was my favorite so far. As soon as we entered the central train station, the cathedral towered into view through the glass ceiling above us. I knew it was tall, but I was still stunned by its size. We had a city tour and learned about the history of Cologne, went inside the cathedral, then climbed up one of the 500-foot spires. It was a tight stone spiral staircase, with a landing about halfway to see the enormous 24-ton bell. I was doing fine until the last set of stairs, which were an open wire spiral up to the top. I got a little nervous while looking out at the roof, but I clung to the railing and made myself keep going. The climb up was definitely worth it. From the top we had a beautiful view of the river, bridges, downtown area, and the church itself. The stairs down were even worse to navigate. It was a narrower stone spiral where I immediately got dizzy, and it felt even longer than the climb up. But I made it, bought a stupid amount of postcards and a rosary for my super-Catholic grandmother at the giftshop, then was happy to eat a giant bratwurst and drink Kölsch at a brewery. Afterwards, we went to the Cologne zoo and got to go tour their amazing elephant house! The keepers showed us how they train them to stand for various medical procedures and how they manage their captivity. It was probably the best elephant facility I've ever seen, and I got to feed and pet a beautiful female named Maha Kumari ("Blossom" in Thai I believe...) After they were let out of their stalls to roam and eat in the indoor exhibit, another one came over, reached through the gate and brushed my hand and camera with her trunk. It's pretty amazing how gentle they can be.

Cologne Cathedral

So after a night of the vet students being fuddy-duddies at the AIB welcome party, we're on the first free weekend to travel as we please. Rebecca and I are heading to Paris and the others will be in Brussels. The Germans are a precise, prompt, and friendly lot so I am interested to see how the French compare (I don't speak a lick of French so I'm bound to insult someone). I've been dying to visit Paris since I was in high school (10 years ago now, good God...) and now I'm somewhere in the Belgian countryside, only two hours away! But I am actually glad that I'm doing this trip as a graduate student, because I feel mature enough to navigate my way through a foreign country without panicking or making foolish decisions. I'm not so sure about the rowdy undergraduates in the other programs! Anyway, it's been interesting to see the differences between American and European dairies (for example, the individual feeding system and smaller herd sizes), clinics, zoos, and even animal husbandry (the dogs are so well behaved!). Life may not be a pony-house, but I'm lucky to be able to do what I love with the animals while learning about European culture.

Until next time, au revoir, 

~Andrea

Week 1: Bonn

We've hit the ground running here in Germany! The first week so far has been amazing and filled with a lot of new experiences. We started off our first evening in Germany with Bönsch and all you can eat schnitzel night at a brauhaus and got settled into our hotel.

The first excursion we went on was to the animal shelter. It was neat to see the similarities and differences between the U.S. shelters in Germany. This one had a lot of outdoor and interactive space for the animals. The cats had a big room entirely to themselves to climb and play. The whole second floor was full of rabbits and other small pocket pets, and they had lots of room to hop around and move. Each of us got to watch two procedures done by the shelter vet, and we also got to play with some pretty cute puppies. Later we went to the exotic animal museum and got to see what seemed like a million snakes preserved in jars, as well as live turtles, bearded dragons, and pythons.

The next day we took the bus to a place called Gut Frankenforst and the Center of Integrated Dairy Research. Two graduate students presented their projects on emissions from dairy cows and gene expression and fertility rates. We then toured the facilities and got to see all the Holstein cows, including a red Holstein, and some sheep. In the afternoon we learned some veterinary terms in German with Dr. Wasser, and went to the Hause der Geschichte (Museum of post WWII history). Dr. Wasser was our tour guide and taught us a lot of history while we viewed all of the artifacts. What impacted me the most was the section about the beginning of the Berlin Wall. They had pictures of people crying at the wall and it showed the huge discrepancies between East and West Germany.

On Wednesday we listened to a lecture from an animal homeopath. I disagreed with a lot of what she had to say, but it was good to hear the information because clients will ask about that information in the future. We then went to Beethovens birth house, which I loved. It was amazing to listen to excerpts of music from such an influential composer while standing in a place where he stood. The  museum had pieces he had written, his viola, violin, and the keyboard from the organ he played. We then went on a tour of the city led by a precious older British lady named Jane. She gave us the history of the gorgeous buildings we'd been walking by every day.

Thursday was my favorite day of the week so far. I interned at an equine clinic for the day and it was an amazing experience. Not only were the grounds and barns beautiful and the horses gorgeous, the vets were really good teachers and let us help with a lot of procedures. The day started off with surgeries, including castrating a cryptorchid horse, removing sarcoids, and removing the urachis and umbilical vessels from a three day old foal who also had enteritis. I also helped take radiographs and put a cast on a pony who broke some of his tarsal bones. The clinic served us lunch, then later in the day a horse came in with respiratory problems. The vet had the horse exercise and listened to its lungs and then measured blood gas levels.

I'm looking forward to the trip to Cologne and Brussels this weekend!