Seeing through the lens

Brandenburger Tor

Boys having fun

East Side Gallery near Warschauer Strasse

At Oranienburgerstasse

Artists at work

This is where I stayed 6-7 years ago! Woop, found it accidentally!

First Week at Freie Universität Berlin Pferd Klinik

It was more or less a shock to realize how busy I will be the next 6 weeks. My normal workday is from 8.00-16.30, but then as a student I'm supposed to do either morning or evening shift every day additionally, and every other weekend or then 6 days a week. The morning shift is easier (6.30-8.00 but wake up at 5.00!) than the evening shift (which means you are free somewhere between 20.00 and 24.00, depending on emergencies and the patients..) but the evening shift is really good for learning. So lets see how my days are like :)

This is the stable for colic horses. They are rebuilding the actual internal medicine stable, so this is just temporary.

This week I got to know the systems, getting used to the language and how everything works. Everything is new for me since we haven't had any clinic at school so far. So I'm getting familiar with changing infusions, giving medicine, assisting at surgeries, basic stuff..

We've had some really interesting patients. Colic surgeries, arthroscopic surgeries, some really severely sick patients. There was this beautiful show horse which came from a 20h transport without a brake, and was totally in shock, bleeding from both nostrils, which we unfortunately had to put down. At the pathology institute (we were allowed to go there and see it for ourselves!! nice) they concluded that the horse had a constipation in the esophagus, which led to shock, which led to thrombosis and massive bleeding from the lungs and the liver. This animal died due to that long transport. Awful :(

And then there was this horse with a 20cm high club foot (i think it is called that, "bockhov") which had an invasive operation fixing the metacarpus, proximal phalangeal and sesamoid bones..and cutting the hoof with a circle saw. REALLY fascinating!

I've been following the internal medicine team, so we have mostly colic patients. But I can choose to follow any of the teams, and if there is an interesting surgery or something else going on, I'm allowed to go there. So there is always something going on!

I'm not actually sure what was done to this horse, but the support system is quite cool.  It can be set up to 300kg, letting the horse lean on it, but still the horse is able to lie down.

The people I work with are very kind and helping. And the horses are sweet. The work just makes me think of Rasmus, which makes me a little bit sad, but I need to get trough it. It's because of him I ended up studying veterinary medicine in the first place. So I'm looking forward to next week!

Paddocks for the clinic's own horses.

One of the treatment rooms.

Exploring east

Me having a Weissbier in Tiergarten at nice cafeteria.

Feels like home with the trams. This is near Rosenthaler Platz. We ended up at this supercool winebar in this area where you have to pay 2€ for the first glass, and then there are 5-6 red wines and 5-6 white wines which you can choose between. And then you just refill and refill and when you leave the bar you pay as you feel like. 

Friday I visited a beer festival near Alexandersplatz. It was amazingly fun, and you saw all  the stereotype Germans. For some reason i kept running into people from London, and ended up speaking English even though I'd planned to practice my German. The party was sweaty, sweaty, sweaty. And great!

Me and a londoner James Bond.

Saturday I went walking in East, which is in my opinion the more interesting  area of Berlin. I love it when it's not so tidy and clean.

This is a really cool cafeteria at Mauritz Platz in Kreuzberg, in a plant garden. They serve yummy yummy garden pizza!

At OranienstraBe in Kreuzberg. I think the interior of this bar was really cool, and you could sit outside as well. It got crowded later on and seemed quite popular. I never found out the name of the bar.

Morten, who has been keeping me great company during my first week,  enjoys some Weissbier in Tiergarten.

Lederhosen!

Making Friends with Berlin

It's ages since I was in Berlin; I think it was in 2005 or 2004 with my high school German class. So actually it's like coming to a whole new city, my memory is so bad so I really don't remember a thing. Except a taxi driver who threw me out of his car because I sounded Russian. Never mind. I'm already starting to like it!

Yesterday I did some walking around the neighborhood (for 7h!). I just tried to get a catch up of the German language, and to use it where ever I could while I created a picture of Charlottenburg. It's kind of hard to get in touch with people in a city where you know no one, but luckily my internship at the equine clinic starts on Monday. That's something to look forward to, but at the same time I'm a bit nervous because this is my first time doing clinics, and that in a language which I don't feel so comfy with. But I'll learn!

Outside Gym in Charlottenburg. Wonderful!

I live in this fancy pancy place in West Berlin, at Theodor Heuss Platz, and feel really lucky to be able to once in a lifetime have this kind of a place on my own. It's amazing! Though, it lasts only for 7 weeks and then I'll be heading to Mexico and share a tiny room with 6 or 7 people, so I have to enjoy this luxury while I can.

Library, at "home". Good thing for  a book lover!

Morten, who is a great guy that I've been playing poker (!!!) with in Copenhagen, is also here in Berlin this August. We had a Weissbier (he had 3) at Alexandersplatz and planned his birthday which is tomorrow. So it will be my first time out celebrating in Berlin! Wippei!

And of course, missing my sweetest Peppi, I paid a visit to the  Zoo to look at some bigger dogs and cats!

Följa John

Lilla Missekatt