I can’t say that I’m unprepared for the trip as far as knowledge goes. I can’t think of anything that I wish I had known, because everything about living here just seemed natural. Well, actually, now that I’m thinking about it, I wish someone had told me that the banks close at 4pm and are not open on weekends, because that is so horridly inconvenient seeing as I usually get home after 5pm. What is this place!? I figure Denmark does not want me to pay my rent… I’ve heard that on Thursday, the bank is open until 5, maybe I can fit that in. also, this isn’t someone anyone would’ve told me, but I wish I had looked into European flights a little bit more before I left. So I can have two 20kg pieces of luggage to fly from the US to Europe. However, within Europe, I can only fly with one 20kg bag. What the hell am I supposed to do with my other 20kg? I’m thinking I’ll send a bag home or something. But with my luck, I bet the post office is only open until 3pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays… or something.
And I just thought of something. I wish someone told me that it’s ok to take 40kg of luggage to Europe, but within Europe you can only travel with 20kg. What is this crap?! What am I supposed to do with my other 20kg, other than paying $300 to ship it back home? RIDICULOUS!
I haven’t been very homesick at all. The first week or so I really missed being with my friends, but that passed. I guess I’m not the type that’s so attached to my family, because I don’t mind being away from them at all. Maybe I’ve just grown accustomed to being away from the summer, as I’ve done it in the past. The other day I was chatting with Kasey, and I actually started to feel homesick. We were talking about Taco Bell. Oh how I love Taco Bell. I really miss that. And hanging out in Champaign. And watching normal TV. But all that aside, I feel like this is home, at least for the time being; maybe that’s why I don’t miss anything so much.
Oh man, my all time favorite point of this week was helping Niels operate on the calves. We’re ending the protocol on the catheterized cows for now and now starting a new project that will follow the stomach development in calves, or something like that. For the experiment, 10 calves are being fitted with rumen cannulas when they are four days old. On Wednesday we had four calves to operate. I was planning on being in the operation room just hovering around and looking over shoulders. Much to my surprise, as I show up, one of the first things I hear is ‘Dagmara what size gloves do you wear?’ and then Niels says, ‘You’ll be helping me today!’ Wowwowwow, that was so cool! My job was to stick the calves with antibiotic when they were put up onto the table, and then help Niels as he performed the surgery. There I was, standing over this little cow with Niels as he cut a perfect little circle into the rumen and stitched it up to the skin. I held some clamps and some sutures, stuck my finger into the rumen; it’s so small compared to the big cows! Then we woke up the calves and waited for them to come to. The next day they were good as new, happy and ready to eat. It was a great experience; I’m really grateful to have gotten the opportunity. I’ll put up some pictures when I upload them!
This week, I have discovered the most ridiculous thing in my life. Purely by accident. I was flipping through all 6 TV channels that we have, when I stumbled across this Danish/Japanese show. It features like, 6 or so Danish people that are on this Japanese game show. It is so absurd it’s barely plausible. The episode I saw, the contestants were dressed up like random things, one was a banana, an eggplant, a mushroom, a cockroach, etc, like, full body costumes. And then they were put in pairs. One person had to use their head to hit this red button to keep a conveyer type track moving, and the other person was on a mini tricycle, trying to ride up this path. And I THINK the point was for the person hitting the button to knock the person off of the track. At the end of the track there was a bit vat of whipped cream that they would fall into. I swear to Jesus that I’m not even making this up.
Least favorite, let’s see… Maybe I’ll get back to last week, Monday to be exact, where just about everything went wrong. In retrospect, it’s pretty funny. Birgit always tells me, ‘Let’s hope this will not be another Monday like before…’ or ‘it should be ok, today is not Monday.’ Amen to that! Any ways, I was on my way to work last Monday, riding down a busy road, minding my own business, when the next thing I know, my damn shoe falls off. Of course I’m going down a hill, so I slam on the brakes of my bike but it takes me to just about the bottom to coast to a stop. I swerve off to the side and run/hop all the way up the hill, and then dodge cars to get to the middle of the road because, duh, my shoe had to land there, and then run back to my bike. It sucked, but I was just cracking up the whole time as I was imagining how retarded I must look to the people driving by. Then I actually got to work, and it was time to start up the Cobas machine. I ran a test, but something was wrong, the machine was giving us weird results. So Birgit and I looked at it, and just ran it again. Wrong again! We figured there wasn’t enough plasma in the tubes to be tested, so we scolded Adam for using all the plasma and got new samples. After thawing and spinning those, we ran the tests again. Wrong still. So now we’re so confused, and Birgit looks at the machine again and says, ‘oh, you put the tubes in the wrong slots, that’s why the machine isn’t reading them.’ Oh Dagmara... It was my fault all along! But that’s nothing new. So I put them all in right, we ran the tests again and found there actually wasn’t enough plasma for two of the samples, so Birgit got new ones, and we ran it again. Then I come to find that we thawed the wrong samples. SO I RAN. THE .TESTS. AGAIN. I was seriously done around 5pm. To do one test. Oh lord and Jesus in heaven, that was the worst day ever. Thankfully, it’s over, and it hasn’t happened again. Little Cobas machine and I have become good pals, and even better, today I ran my very last test. Celebration!
Also, while on my bike yesterday (Monday), I noticed that mother nature was having a ‘case of the Mondays’ as well, because there were so many little animals dead on the road. Like, 5 frogs, about a million snails and slugs, and a little hedgehog. You know, I’ve seen three hedgehogs here in Denmark, and they’re all been road kill. I didn’t even know they had those guys around here!
I don’t really have much to expand on… but I did see from last year some of the girls made lists of things they wanted to do when they got home. I am liking this idea quite a lot. Here goes. When I get back to the states I’m gonna:
-Drive my car. Somewhere far. Like really far. Maybe to a far grocery store where I can buy a lot of really heavy things and I can put them all into my trunk and DRIVE them back home.
-Go to Taco Bell and get a volcano burrito.
-Stop being so healthy.
-Take my dog on the longest walk ever.
-Use a hair drier… I think I fried the one I brought, actually. Haha…
-Text like crazy again. I miss it so much, I feel so disconnected with the world!
-Buy a magazine in English.
-Etc, etc, etc
23 June 2009
Why do I get so excited when I open new packages of test tubes?
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.
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.
14 June 2009
But... Maybe we do that later. Now is time for coffee break.
For some reason, I feel like I’ve been really busy this past week. During the week, I seriously do absolutely nothing in my free time. Though I don’t have so much free time to begin with. I usually get home from Foulum close to 7pm, and by then I’m too tired to do much of anything. Then I go to bed around 10pm. I feel so old going to sleep so early! On the weekends, if it’s nice, I’ll walk around Viborg, or ride my bike around the country side. It’s really so pretty around here. There are so many things that I really do want to do, but I really don’t seem myself doing them on my own, like visiting other towns in Denmark. I really want to see Copenhagen, go there for the weekend, but going alone would just suck. As for things closer to where I live, I hear there’s this gorgeous lake about 10 km or so away from Viborg. Once the weather starts getting nicer, I’m hopefully going to venture out over in that direction.
Since I’ve been here, my whole morning life has been flipped on its head. Usually, I wake up whenever I feel ready to wake up, whether it’s 8am or 11am. Not any more! Now I’m up at 6am or 5am if we’re sampling on that day. I drag myself out of bed so I can hop on my bike and ride my ass to Foulum. It takes about an hour at my groggy pace. Whatever happened to just lying around in the morning? Either way, when I get to Foulum I’m the dead walking. There’s something wonderful that happens during the work day, twice a day actually. It’s called a coffee break. And boy do I love it. In the past, I was never the type who needed coffee to function. Sure, I’d love hitting up the Starbucks and getting myself a way too expensive frap, but I never really needed it to get going. I remember my first week here, back when I really wasn’t doing anything but floating around. It would get around 9:30am and people would usher me to the break room, where we all sat around and drank coffee. It was plain old black coffee and I thought it was just awful. One day, I was working with Adam, one of the people in my group, and we forgot about our afternoon coffee break. Long story short, Birgit was very concerned, and now she reminds me every day. Now when I get in at about 8, I’m barely functional until I get my coffee break, and you know, that plain black coffee is starting to taste pretty delicious. I think I need a bigger mug.
I’ve definitely found some new views on a few things while I’ve been here in Denmark. In response to eating, for the most part, it’s a bit of a hassle. I really hate cooking for myself. I know it’s a good thing that I’m learning to do it all on my own, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it. Dragging myself out to the grocery store is never a fun experience. Some days, I don’t even know what I’m buying, but I buy it anyways because the packaging looks nice. I’m a sucker for advertising, I think. With travel, oh man, all I want is my car. This also ties back to the whole grocery shopping order. Whenever I’m hiking out to the shop and schlepping along these heavy bags, all I can think of is how nice it would be to throw everything into my SUV and drive home. Or drive myself to work when it’s pouring outside. Or drive myself anywhere for that matter! For some reason, I have no trust in buses or trains, so I’m skeptical… My daily schedule has really become something that is very organized and punctual. Every day I can’t help but to laugh at myself, because I do the same thing just about every day at the exact same time when I’m at home. This is one of the reasons I’m so glad to stay at Foulum for however long the need me, even if it’s past 6pm; because I’ve got nothing better to do at home. Never thought I would like staying long hours at work! In terms of communication, it’s pretty difficult at first. It’s draining, for both parties, to have to constantly explain yourself or try to find a translation for a word. It’s getting a lot easier though, as I get to know the people I work with. I can usually fill in the blanks for them if they can’t think of a word to explain something. I know I’m never going to be able to understand Danish, but at least I can understand the people.
I think the questions are just fine. They keep me on track, where as without them, I would probably ramble on about random things.
Since I’ve been here, my whole morning life has been flipped on its head. Usually, I wake up whenever I feel ready to wake up, whether it’s 8am or 11am. Not any more! Now I’m up at 6am or 5am if we’re sampling on that day. I drag myself out of bed so I can hop on my bike and ride my ass to Foulum. It takes about an hour at my groggy pace. Whatever happened to just lying around in the morning? Either way, when I get to Foulum I’m the dead walking. There’s something wonderful that happens during the work day, twice a day actually. It’s called a coffee break. And boy do I love it. In the past, I was never the type who needed coffee to function. Sure, I’d love hitting up the Starbucks and getting myself a way too expensive frap, but I never really needed it to get going. I remember my first week here, back when I really wasn’t doing anything but floating around. It would get around 9:30am and people would usher me to the break room, where we all sat around and drank coffee. It was plain old black coffee and I thought it was just awful. One day, I was working with Adam, one of the people in my group, and we forgot about our afternoon coffee break. Long story short, Birgit was very concerned, and now she reminds me every day. Now when I get in at about 8, I’m barely functional until I get my coffee break, and you know, that plain black coffee is starting to taste pretty delicious. I think I need a bigger mug.
I’ve definitely found some new views on a few things while I’ve been here in Denmark. In response to eating, for the most part, it’s a bit of a hassle. I really hate cooking for myself. I know it’s a good thing that I’m learning to do it all on my own, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it. Dragging myself out to the grocery store is never a fun experience. Some days, I don’t even know what I’m buying, but I buy it anyways because the packaging looks nice. I’m a sucker for advertising, I think. With travel, oh man, all I want is my car. This also ties back to the whole grocery shopping order. Whenever I’m hiking out to the shop and schlepping along these heavy bags, all I can think of is how nice it would be to throw everything into my SUV and drive home. Or drive myself to work when it’s pouring outside. Or drive myself anywhere for that matter! For some reason, I have no trust in buses or trains, so I’m skeptical… My daily schedule has really become something that is very organized and punctual. Every day I can’t help but to laugh at myself, because I do the same thing just about every day at the exact same time when I’m at home. This is one of the reasons I’m so glad to stay at Foulum for however long the need me, even if it’s past 6pm; because I’ve got nothing better to do at home. Never thought I would like staying long hours at work! In terms of communication, it’s pretty difficult at first. It’s draining, for both parties, to have to constantly explain yourself or try to find a translation for a word. It’s getting a lot easier though, as I get to know the people I work with. I can usually fill in the blanks for them if they can’t think of a word to explain something. I know I’m never going to be able to understand Danish, but at least I can understand the people.
I think the questions are just fine. They keep me on track, where as without them, I would probably ramble on about random things.
07 June 2009
Maybe even a cheeseburger!
My first official week on the job… Boy, let me tell you, it was a busy one. I learned so much about what goes on in our department, it was great. They’ve been teaching me, in the lab, how some of the equipment works, and also the numerical system that they categorize their blood samples by. There are sets of numbers from 100-400, each corresponding with a different vein or artery. In the barns when we were taking samples, the first and foremost thing I learned was that if the system gets messed up, everything gets messed up. You have to keep the numbers straight in your head, which is really tough at first. I’m very fascinated by this experiment as a whole. I’m pretty much in awe of Niels. Like seriously, how did he think of doing all of this stuff? If it was me, I’d have no idea what to conduct an experiment on! This man is quite literally a genius; I feel really privileged to be able to work with him and have him teaching me.
I’m really enjoying the time I get to spend at the barns, whether we’re sampling or not. Pia is teaching me a lot about the day to day things that go on there. One of the main things I do is wash cows. It might sounds kind of ridiculous, but it’s something that has to be done. The rumen fistula is constantly oozing out stomach contents onto the cow’s side, and it has to be kept clean. The cows really seem to enjoy the attention. At least, most of them do. One cow seems to have taken a strong dislike towards me. Let me say, there is nothing more frustrating than tying up a cow that does not want to be tied up. My threats of turning number 96 into a hamburger fell upon deaf ears; she fought me until the end!
When we’re actually sampling, the day is a lot more structured. Last week we took samples and for me, it was quite an experience. Niels had mentioned when I first got in that he wanted to train me in taking blood samples, so that I could get in there and take his place. Excellent, I said! Just teach me to do it right, I said. We would be doing 8 samplings that day, one each hour. The first hour, I just watched Niels as he explained it all to me. the second hour, he wanted me to get a little more involved, so he let me draw blood from one of the catheters, as I had done once before. All was well! So far. The next hour, Niels says, ‘Here, take all four syringes’ Let me say, it may sound easy, but simultaneously drawing blood from four catheters into four 20ml syringes is not an easy task. With Niels standing by, however, I did it just fine and got the samples to where they needed to be. Fine. Cool. The next hour, Niels goes, ‘Are you ready to do it on your own?’ Excuuuuse me Niels? And before I could adamantly object, I had been set up at one of the cows and Niels was off to his office. And so for the next five hours I had two cows to take samples from, and I basically did it on my own. Marie was there to help me out after she had finished sampling from her cows, which I really appreciated. But mostly, it was up to me. It felt great to know that they trust me with a task so important to the whole experiment. Phew, talk about a leaning curve! This place is crazy. I love it!
I’m really enjoying the time I get to spend at the barns, whether we’re sampling or not. Pia is teaching me a lot about the day to day things that go on there. One of the main things I do is wash cows. It might sounds kind of ridiculous, but it’s something that has to be done. The rumen fistula is constantly oozing out stomach contents onto the cow’s side, and it has to be kept clean. The cows really seem to enjoy the attention. At least, most of them do. One cow seems to have taken a strong dislike towards me. Let me say, there is nothing more frustrating than tying up a cow that does not want to be tied up. My threats of turning number 96 into a hamburger fell upon deaf ears; she fought me until the end!
When we’re actually sampling, the day is a lot more structured. Last week we took samples and for me, it was quite an experience. Niels had mentioned when I first got in that he wanted to train me in taking blood samples, so that I could get in there and take his place. Excellent, I said! Just teach me to do it right, I said. We would be doing 8 samplings that day, one each hour. The first hour, I just watched Niels as he explained it all to me. the second hour, he wanted me to get a little more involved, so he let me draw blood from one of the catheters, as I had done once before. All was well! So far. The next hour, Niels says, ‘Here, take all four syringes’ Let me say, it may sound easy, but simultaneously drawing blood from four catheters into four 20ml syringes is not an easy task. With Niels standing by, however, I did it just fine and got the samples to where they needed to be. Fine. Cool. The next hour, Niels goes, ‘Are you ready to do it on your own?’ Excuuuuse me Niels? And before I could adamantly object, I had been set up at one of the cows and Niels was off to his office. And so for the next five hours I had two cows to take samples from, and I basically did it on my own. Marie was there to help me out after she had finished sampling from her cows, which I really appreciated. But mostly, it was up to me. It felt great to know that they trust me with a task so important to the whole experiment. Phew, talk about a leaning curve! This place is crazy. I love it!
03 June 2009
Pictures
So I took some pictures over the weekend
http://s669.photobucket.com/albums/vv56/dagmaraluk/Denmark/?albumview=grid
http://s669.photobucket.com/albums/vv56/dagmaraluk/Denmark/?albumview=grid
I fit in so well at the barns... I smell exactly like a cow.
The weekend was absolutely great. It was some kind of holiday that I can’t recall, so we also had Monday off. It seemed like Denmark, the country itself wanted everyone to go out and enjoy this three day weekend. The weather was flawless: high 70’s all three days, blue skies, shining sun; it was just perfect. Since I had just gotten my bike, I spent most of my weekend biking around Viborg and the country surrounding it. It’s really beautiful around here. I love seeing the animals and the farm land, but there are also little woods and lakes. Very scenic. I also took a walk around the south lake one of the days. I got a little sun burnt, but it was totally worth it. It’s great living so close to such a relaxing place.
Nothing I can think of has been negative so far. I suppose, the crazy weather here kind of sucks. The weekend weather was wonderful, but the rest of the week won’t be as nice. The winds are picking up, rain clouds coming back around, and of course, the temperature is dropping. I just hope it doesn’t get too windy, anything else is fine.
I’ve actually been learning a lot about the work I’m going to be doing. In fact, I got to do some of this work just yesterday. We’re doing work about protein absorption in different veins and arteries in the cow’s body. The cows are fitted with multiple catheters along with a rumen fistula. We take blood samples from the catheters, but they all have to be taken simultaneously. This is pretty tough, you have to hold four big syringes in one hand, draw back with the other hand, and then empty the blood into the proper test tube. Niels, the man running this experiment, somehow found me competent enough to trust me to do this all on my own, which was a big honor, seeing as I’ve only been here a week! It was great to finally get in there. I learned a lot about how to work the catheters and about their system of organization for the samples taken. While we’re not taking samples I help Pia, the main woman that works with the cows, with whatever she needs. Usually I spend my days washing the cows or brushing them while I’m down at the barns. I really like working with Pia, she’s a character. Working with everyone here is great; I’m growing so fond of everyone. Someone suggested to me that I could do my own project while I’m here, except I don’t even have an idea of how people think up projects in the first place. I am no genius; I’ll be the first to say. Maybe Niels will give me some ideas; that man is like a super scientist.
Nothing I can think of has been negative so far. I suppose, the crazy weather here kind of sucks. The weekend weather was wonderful, but the rest of the week won’t be as nice. The winds are picking up, rain clouds coming back around, and of course, the temperature is dropping. I just hope it doesn’t get too windy, anything else is fine.
I’ve actually been learning a lot about the work I’m going to be doing. In fact, I got to do some of this work just yesterday. We’re doing work about protein absorption in different veins and arteries in the cow’s body. The cows are fitted with multiple catheters along with a rumen fistula. We take blood samples from the catheters, but they all have to be taken simultaneously. This is pretty tough, you have to hold four big syringes in one hand, draw back with the other hand, and then empty the blood into the proper test tube. Niels, the man running this experiment, somehow found me competent enough to trust me to do this all on my own, which was a big honor, seeing as I’ve only been here a week! It was great to finally get in there. I learned a lot about how to work the catheters and about their system of organization for the samples taken. While we’re not taking samples I help Pia, the main woman that works with the cows, with whatever she needs. Usually I spend my days washing the cows or brushing them while I’m down at the barns. I really like working with Pia, she’s a character. Working with everyone here is great; I’m growing so fond of everyone. Someone suggested to me that I could do my own project while I’m here, except I don’t even have an idea of how people think up projects in the first place. I am no genius; I’ll be the first to say. Maybe Niels will give me some ideas; that man is like a super scientist.
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