Serbia symposium - part II

It's so hard to believe that I'm back home again. One day I stood at the bus stop swearing at the bus, who had cruelly passed my stop and left me standing in the cold rain. It wasn't until another guy arrived at the stop and waved with his hand to the next bus when I remembered, that I'm not in Belgrade anymore. In Finland buses don't stop by themselves like back in Belgrade...

Jos lukijat ootte sitä mieltä, et mun enkku on liian karmaisevaa luettavaa, niin jättäkää ihmeessä kommenttiboksiin viesti! Tai voitte jättää muutenkin noottia, mitä mieltä ootte tästä uudistuksesta :) Mulla nyt vaan sattuu olemaan väärä kielikasetti päällä, äi ääm veri söri. Sitä paitsi englanti on paljon kivempi kieli kuin suomi, hih  =) 


On a chill saturday morning a cheerful (?) rabble (=lauma, meluava joukko) of veterinary students packed into two busses and the journey to the Center of reproduction and artificial insemination began.

When we arrived, we were welcomed by this: 

Yummy, I say!

These containers contain the sperm, I think. 

And the bulls... They were... I mean, just look at them!!

They were just gigantic! I've never seen such a monster in my life! 

I knew, that bulls are not small, but I had no idea of their real size. I'm really not afraid of any animals exept spiders, but they don't count. but these creatures I'd prefer to stay out of my way... 

We were demonstrated, how the sperm is collected. Cool, I've never seen that before! 

When we had seen and eaten enough, we continued our bus drive to Svilajnac to the local agricultural and veterinary school, in whose dormitory we stayed overnight. 

Some effords to take pictures out of the driving bus.. 

Landscapes somewhere between Belgrade and Svilajnac. 

Svilajnac itself was a pretty little town. 

It was a beautiful, quiet town. 

And here we went for some lectures and the GA, general assembly. 

Sorry, have to switch to Finnish for just a moment... 

GA on IVSA:n kansainvälinen yleiskokous, joka pidetään kaksi kertaa vuodessa. Koska kukaan ei luonnollisestikaan matkustaisi maailman ääriin jonkun tylsän yleiskokouksen vuoksi, on keksitty ympärille runsaasti kivaa ohjelmaa ja voilà - symposium oli valmis. Kokouksessa puhutaan ajankohtaisista asioista, sääntömuutoksista, uusien jäsenten hyväksymisestä, jne... 

In the GAs we also saw many presentations of past group exchanges, happenings to come and applies of new IVSA chapters. 

You could see the christmas lights everywhere. It was so pretty! :) 

Well, later in the evening we went out for some fun. I think I don't have to tell more about that ;D 

The following morning came all too quick and a serious lack of caffeine didn't do any good for me :) I have to admit my complete addiction to coffee. 

This mornig I noticed for the first time the difference between Finns and the other world. In Finnland it's completely normal just to stand around in silence and not to say a word until one has woken up. This can take several cups of coffee for some individuals! ;) When I was standing around buried in self-pity because of not getting my beloved coffee, I was immediately asked, if everything is okay <3 I love Serbians :) Also in general Finns are more quiet compared to other countries, that is something I paid attention several times during the symposium... 

Dispite my self-pity and a terrible headache it was a beautiful, sunny morning. 

More landscapes out of the bus' window. 

We continued our trip to Jagodina. 

We visited the VSI - Veterinary Specialist Institute, where they implement prophylactic measurements for infectious diseases and monitor the situation of diseases in Serbia.

The lab

After that we went to the wax museum. I've never been to anything like this =) 

A famous Serbian whose name I right now have forgotten.  

A church outside the museum. 

And then: 

The zoo was memorable, if that is the right word... 

I am speechless... 

Don't know what to say... 

I've never seen animals in so small and so empty cages. What I saw was just a far cry from animal wellfare. So sad. 

But the giraffe was really cute though! <3  

And guess what was waiting for us starving travellers in the Zoo restaurant?! 

After lunch we slowly started our turney back towards Belgrade. 

Hah. If you take 80 hilarious veterinary students from around the world and put them together in a bus, this is what you get: 

The Chaos itself.

Well, I think that's a story long enough for today. End of day four. Stay on the channel, the story will be continued ;) 

Serbia symposium - part I

Hei kaikki! Home again, reissu oli menestys, juuri niin kuin toivoinkin :) 

Hello everyone! The trip was a success, just as I wished :) 

- Mitäs tykkäisitte, jos postaisin välillä jotain englanniksi? En todellakaan tiedä, lukeeko tätä kukaan non-finski, mut jos ei muuten, niin huvin vuoksi ;) 

What would you like if I posted here and then someting in english? I really don't know if anyone non-finnish reads my blog, but I'll do it anyway just for fun ;) 

And I really think I have forgotten to change my language-CD, I am about to speak english in the shop, drugstore, bus etc and keep forgetting, that I'm back home already... 

But ok, stop needless chatting and let's get to the point. This is, what all was about: 

Our trip began at an inhumane time - at 5 a.m. I had the luxury to be picked up right from the frontdoor by my friends T and L, so I didn't need to adventure by bus. It was a long flight, because we had to change in Munich, but no more about that. 

The compulsory peeking-out-of-the-airplanes-window -picture: 

And there it is! The first glimpse of our host city: 

May I introduce - tiddidii - Belgrade! 

 It was stunning. Different than any city I have visited before, I just can't describe it :) 

In some parts there was a strange contrast between old and modern. 

While driving from the airport to our hostel I just looked out of the window and enjoyed the fleeting landscapes.

It was way warmer in Belgrade than I expected allthough all our serbian friends strongly disagreed ;) 

It was quite late when everyone in the hostel had met each other and finally had unpackened their stuff, so there wasn't much program sceduled for the evening, whitch was completely okat with me. I was exhausted, not at least because I had been packing the day before until 1 a.m. or so :P We just went out for a couple to socialize with the others, the ca. 80 participants were in fact divided into three different hostels. 

The following day we went to the faculty for the welcoming ceremony, some speeches and the introduction of the faculty. 

We listened to some lectures too, for example ingenious indigenous sorry, never heard that word before (=kotoperäinen) dogs in Serbia, diagnosis of neurological diseases in cattle and street dogs. Did you know that there are 1500 street dogs in Belgrade? A completely unknown phenomenon back in Finland...

We also were introduced the faculty. This is the room for anatomy:

In those cabinets they had really cool stuff! Preserved in formaline one could find an example of every organ and almost every disease you can imagine! 

My idea of cool may be a little twisted, I don't know, but - - COOL!

... and my heart will go on and on... 

Oh, and on a wall I found something I'm truly jealous about: 

It was sooo difficult to learn all these little parts of the skull by staring at pictures in my book and turning a blank dogskull in my hands trying to figure out, whitch colour of the book matches to whitch part of the real skull. This makes it so nice and easy! 

Aww!! <3 

This is the dissection hall for anatomy. The tables were made of German warplanes from the world war II! I am sure these tables will last for a long time :)

The guard of the anatomy hall: 

There also was like a museum for anatomy, there were all kinds of bones and formaline-preserved stuff. Me jealous! 

Above a bear, I think, and below a monkey. 

And to the labratories: 

Here they teach milk and meat hygiene. 

Later we went to look at the small animal hospital next to the faculty. 

They also treat street dogs here, whitch I prefer as valuable work. It's important to neuter and microchip the homeless animals to prevent an explosion-like growth in the dog population... 

Phew. I think this is enough for today, more an other time. 

The first two days were stunning and exhausting. Maybe one reason was the badass virus/bacteria/whatever I had caught up just before the trip, why is it that I'm never sick the whole year, and the one time I go somewhere I immediately catch up some stubborn flu?!

Okay then, the story will be continued! Till then, Zzmok!