Sorry, it took me a while to get to writing this blog. I’ve had a very busy couple of days. Over the weekend, a coworker of mine invited me to stay with his family and we all went on a day trip to Skagen, at the very tip of Denmark. It was a beautiful place, and now I can say that I’ve stood at the tippy tip of the country. I think that’s pretty cool. It was a great weekend; I got to know Mogen’s absolutely charming family. His daughters were so cute. They both were going on and on about something I had no idea what. They didn’t care that I can’t say anything in Danish save for ‘yes’, ‘no’, and ‘snake/tube’, soooo… Needless to say it was a hilarious situation, but it was great. Fantastisk!
Either way, this week will be busy too. I spent today finishing up a list of Phosphorous and Creatinine tests on my Cobas machine. I think I’m FINALLY getting the hang of that thing. At the start that machine and I were not good friends but now we’re pretty pally. It usually works like a charm. I don’t think I’ll have the time to get back to running my tests until Friday or something, I have a feeling my little Cobas will miss me. Birgit said she’ll make sure to say hi to it while I’m at the barns. Can’t have that thing getting mad and going berserk now can we? Nope nope! We’re sampling again on Thursday, and tomorrow we’ve got 3 calves that are going to be operated on and fixed with the rumen cannulas. I’m really excited to be able to help with that, plus those calves are damn adorable. Hooray! I’ll be able to bring back all of the things I learn with me. I’m not sure if anyone will get anything out of it, but I know I sure have. I’ve done things here I would have never gotten the chance to take part in back home, and I’m extremely grateful for that. I’ve learned a lot about the catheterized cows and taking blood samples from them. I’ve also been helping taking blood samples from the tail vein of a different set of cows. I’m getting pretty good I think. I’ll be able to do that anytime if anyone needs me to, haha!
The mentality about the animals here I find to be different than that in the US. Not that I’m too familiar with how things go on at farms in the US, since I’ve never been on a real one, save for the ones at school. But I’ve noticed here that people are much more compassionate when it comes to the welfare of the animals. Yes, these are just experimental animals, and are thus not slated to lead to long of lives, but everyone here goes out of their way to make the animals happier and more comfortable while they’re in their care. The cows lead pretty good lives I think. Everyone is always saying hi to them, talking to them, just generally taking interest in them. Back home it always seemed to me like the animals were just products and their little existence in the barns doesn’t seem to mean anything. Here it’s different. I like it.
I think the best way that I can contribute my experiences from here in Denmark back to the UIUC community is by sharing them with others. Maybe I can get involved with a club that deals with this kind of business. Maybe the pre-vet club, or the dairy club; they deal with cows. I feel like the more I relate my experiences, the more people can open their eyes to something different. Sometimes, you just don’t know that there is something else out there, if that makes any sense at all. Being aware that there are experiments and such, especially at this scale going on in other countries was eye opening to me; I think it could be to others as well.
What I’ve done here mainly makes me more motivated to get involved back home. Sure, I always say that to myself, that I’m going to get involved. But I never actually get around to it. I think I have severe motivation problems or something. Something about being here though has made me want to do more though. I feel a drive to want to know more, as where I was always content before. I’ve gotten to learn so much here and have gotten to experience so many new things; I don’t want that to end when I get back to school. That would just be a shame I think.
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