So lets see how much of this I can get done tonight. I don't think I will have this large of a break in my updates anymore.
Not much happened on Tuesday. We just had a German Class and “Cultural Studies” class before lunch. That afternoon, we took a bus to the Alexander König Zoological Museum, where they had tons of taxidermied animals, plus over 5 million other species in storage for research.
Wednesday was the start of our insane week. I got up at 4:30 to meet the group at the train station to head to Hannover. After lunch in Hannover, we visited the nephrology wing of the Marguerite Hepton Hospital, where a specialist lectured to us and showed us around. We learned about how dialysis machines work to go along with last semesters lecture, and about the kidney failure associated with the recent EHEC outbreak in Germany. Some of the patients affected in the outbreak were taken care of in this hospital. After the hospital, we went to the Axolotl Research Lab. I wasn’t really sure what we were going to see, but axolotls are the coolest lizards ever. They can regrow limbs that have been completely cut off, and can even get back parts of their eyes, liver, and brain. So, the lab is trying to figure out how to make whatever magic is in these axolotls and apply it to human medicine. Apparently, they never undergo metamorphosis, so they are basically full grown fetal salamanders. (I’m trying to prove that this whole trip isn’t just a vacation. Is it working?)
Later that night, I walked around Hannover with two friends, while everyone else laid around in the hotel. We ended up finding a carnival, and rode a few rides, then found a nice place to sit by a lake.
There were also some pretty buildings. I think this is the courthouse.
Early Thursday morning, we left on a train for Norddeich-Mole. This is where we got on the ferry to cross over to Norderney. After getting settled in our hotel, we went to the Institute for Rehabilitation Research, which was pretty much a combination of physical therapy, school (for the patients to learn about their diseases, and a spa getaway.
That afternoon, we walked back along the beach towards the hotel. The water was freezing, and I wasn’t planning on getting in, but there was peer pressure, so I did. And now I can say I’ve been swimming in the North Sea. After swimming, we played Ultimate Frisbee on the beach.
That night a small group of us went out to watch the sun set over the water. It was amazing.
Friday morning, a smaller group of us woke up to go bird watching at 5; the island was really pretty in early morning. It’s also overrun with rabbits. They were running all around the trails we walked down, and we saw about 30 take off across a big pasture later on in the hike. They don’t have predators on the island, so they keep breeding like rabbits. Then after breakfast, we headed out on our Wattwanderung. The “Watt” is the mudflats left early in the day during low tide of the Wadden Sea, so “Wattwanderung” means mudflat hike. We put on our high top Converses, and hiked through the mud from Norderney back to the mainland before afternoon, when the water would come back to high tide and be several meters deep. It took about 3 hours, and was actually a lot more fun than expected.
Here’s our bird watching group, and a picture from our hike out to the Watt.
Back on the mainland, we rinsed off our feet, and headed for the Seal Center in Norddeich-Mole. Here, they pick up baby seals along the shoreline that are hurt or have lost their parents, and help prepare them to go out into the wild on their own.
Then we went to the Walloseum (Whale Museum). This is the skeleton of a Sperm Whale that got caught in the Wadden Sea’s low tide.
That gets me caught up to the weekend. I’ll update about the weekend in Amsterdam later. We have a long day in Köln tomorrow, and I need sleep.
We will be going on a rooftop tour of the Cathedral, so I’m pretty excited!
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