Baby Its Cold Oustside...

Well, we've just arrived in Amsterdam tonight, and so much has happened since I've last blogged, so let's catch everyone up to speed..

The free weekend in Prague was fantastic. The hostel was amazing, and everywhere you turned in the city, there was a magnificent building or bridge to see. We saw the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, and the Astrological Clock, among many other things.

The lectures that we had afterwards have also been very interesting. Wasser gave us a lecture on Virchow, who is considered a big hitter in the area of pathology, and is the man known for the saying that "Cells come from cells." Wasser also gave us a lecture on the Nuremberg trials (more specifically the doctor's trials), which was VERY interesting, to say the least. It is appalling how many terrible people got off with punishments far too small for the crimes they committed against humanity. The main problem that the pursecutors had with convicting the doctors was proving that what had happened was actually considered a crime by law. Many, if not all of the doctors admitted to doing all of their horrifying experiments, but showed little or no remorse, or understanding of just how terrible their actions had been.

I have also gotten to see parts of two very different surgeries in the last week. While in Hannover, our group was temporarily slpit up into two groups for a day: the pre-vet students and the pre-med students. I went with the vet students (because I am currently in neither category), and while touring the cattle center of the vet school, we got to see a surgery on a cow's abdomen. The people performing the surgery had their entire arm in the side of the cow (no exaggeration), in order to get to a portion of the animal's stomach and to allow the gas that had built up there to be released. It was very interesting, although I am still very sure that I am not interested in becoming a vet, especially a veterinary surgeon.

The other surgery I got to see was of a cornary bypass surgery in Gottingen. It was definitely the coolest thing I have ever seen. It is hard to explain how amazing it is to actually SEE a person's heart beating inside their body. It can even be considered life-changing, in my opinion.

I've also gotten to go sled and go ice-skating at the Hannover Zoo, along with getting to see a hippo and a rhino up close enough to touch. Some of the other students even got to pet and feed the rhino, named Sonny. That was a lot of fun.

I have learned more than I can express in one sitting on this trip already, and I really cannot wait to see what the last half of the trip has to offer.