To Allison From Alanna

Hey Allison! I read your last post and I just wanted to say that I can completely relate to your problem number 3. I had such a problem riding a bike the first week I was here. The first bike I got was a bit rickety so that didn't help my situation. I too was embarassed about not being able to ride a bike. I fell almost everytime I got on it and trust me...people saw it. I have battle wounds to prove it. There were times during the week that I would go and practice alone so I could get the hang of it. It's nice to know that someone else had the same feelings towards the bike as I did. I'm glad you are enjoying the bike rides now too. I've discovered that once you get the hang of it you really start to enjoy it. :)

Denmark: Pictures From Alanna and Jess

We have finally uploaded some of our many pictures. Sorry about the delay! You will find pictures of surrounding areas and scenery of Viborg, the Kollegium, Foulum, the Danish Cattle Research Centre and the Swine Research Lab on photobucket. Enjoy the pictures...there will be more to come!

Wageningen Day 24-29 Allison

This week Sam and I ate lunch with Dr. Grossman. In our discussions, we talked about the independence that is expected of students here as has been brought up by several of us on this blog. He had also noticed that students we expected to handle many things on their own, where we would get detailed instruction in the U.S. I find that it is an important element of learning that we may be lacking in the U.S. We also discussed working in teams, which seems to be very common here. At first for our class, it was difficult for Sam and I to work together. We each had our own idea of how things should be, and putting that together in one project became difficult. It took some discussion before we found a way to compromise and divide up the work. It is really helpful to learn how to work in a team, and I think this could be a great improvement in the classroom activities at U of I. We are not forced to work in teams often back home, and even assignments where you are asked to work together, I have found that each member does it on his or her own, and then the pair compares answers. Competition, we have noticed, is not as heated here. I think it is a good thing that less focus is put on the individual here. These are just a few new ideas that we have been discussing lately that I wanted to mention.

The new question is: Identify 3 problems that you have had since leaving home. For each, describe in detail how you went about solving those problems or coming to a personal accommodation about the problem (for example, how did you use communication, creativity, persistence, dialog, negotiation, etc to resolve the problem?). Also, how has solving each problem impacted you since that time?

Problem 1: Traveling
We have had a hard time getting from point A to point B without some confusion nearly every time we have traveled. The first day, we got on the wrong train to get to Wageningen, we spent a whole morning trying to find our meeting point with Rene, and we spent one afternoon on the exact opposite side of town looking for a building. To solve this problem, our map did come in handy, but it turned out to lead us astray in one instance. We have found now that the best solution is to always ask someone. At first we were hesitant because we didn't want to look lost, but since we were actually lost, what did it matter. Luckily, people are always happy to help here. On the train here, people were willing to watch for our stop and two gentlemen even offered to walk us to the next platform. Also, we have used determination to find what we need. It isn't helpful to get frustrated or anxious about being lost. In the end, it is best to just keep looking. It may have taken us a long time to find that meeting place, but we did find it. I now am more familiar with what to do and what type of person to ask when this problem arises, and I am glad that we struggled a bit in the beginning because now I feel that we have more resources and knowledge to use in the future.

Problem 2: Meeting people
I have found it very difficult to meet students our own age here. Part of it is because we live with graduate students, and part of it is because we were not taking classes and did not know where to find other bachelors students. I am not trying to say that the people in our hallway or labs haven't been wonderful, because they have been good friends to us and I believe we have both made good contacts here, but it is just nice to be able to socialize with students at your same level. To solve this problem, I have had to get very creative, and I have learned that you find friends in the most unusual places. I was able to sit in on a lab course just a while back, and as I was observing, I slowly began to mingle in with the students and just started asking questions about how courses were run and such, and by the end of the class I had an invitation for dinner. It was really just a matter of opening up a conversation, and people here seem very curious as to why we are here, so doing this isn't hard. We have now been trying to put ourselves in situations where it is easy to start a conversation and have met several new people doing so. Solving this problem has opened up a new gateway into learning about Dutch culture. Before, we were able to observe, but now we are more involved in what is going on here, and I feel that I can understand better now how our cultures differ.

Problem 3: Biking
This has been a problem for me alone. I must admit that I had not been on a bicycle since I was six years old until two weeks before we left. I had never learned to ride a bike, and never thought it would ever be an issue. When I found out that this would be my main form of transportation, I panicked. I had two days of learning before I came, but I was still quite uncomfortable with riding. When we arrived, I thought that maybe I would be able to walk everywhere, and I nearly gave up on the idea that I would use a bike even if it was available, but I soon found out how spread out the campus was. Once we rented bikes, I was embarassed that I was bad at it, and I avoided riding as much as I could. To solve my problem, it was pure persistence. I really needed to forget my fear in order to get any better. I began to take the bike out by myself and ride in the country for an hour at a time. After just a few days of pushing myself to do it, I really started enjoying it. Now I can ride all over town. I have few problems left, sometimes I have trouble starting, but really, I feel pretty good about it. It was all just a matter of forcing myself to do it and ignoring everyone elses reactions.

The class is going well, and we begin observations tomorrow. I posted pictures last week of Wageningen and the physiology work I had been doing. I am sure there will be many more pictures to come after spending the next few days in the zoo.

some thoughts from afar

Hi team!

Alanna's blog really got me thinking of how very fortunate the four of you are. Honestly, I doubt you would be given so much responsibility and independence at your age working in many places in the US. I sense that this independence (call it lack of direction) is uncomfortable at times because that is a type of growing pain :-) You are all learning to deal with a lot of issues - research, organizational, personal, financial and finding ways to solve the problems. That is so valuable! And very importantly I sense that you are getting through the issues with a good attitude and not being shy to ask for help/answers. Way to go!

Dean Bohn

Viborg Thoughts About Work: Alanna

This week has been extra exciting. I am finally seeing results in my project and learning how they contribute to liver function and metabolism. There is a lot going on inside my head at this point in the game. I’m not in over my head at work but there are times where I feel I am just not qualified enough to do what I do. The best way to learn though is truly by asking someone who knows what they are doing. I kind of felt really stupid at work today asking questions every second, but I realized that’s the only way to learn. My coworkers understand that I am young and I am trying to get a grasp on things so they don’t mind explaining things to me. There have only been a few problematic encounters over the week. The first problem I encountered was the language barrier. When typing up data on Excel I am expected to do it in the lab. The lab computers, however, are in Danish and every time I have to enter in data the files need to be transferred to my computer in my office which is set in English. My laptop is also experiencing some problems. I don’t know if it is my browser or settings but often times links don’t work or they automatically switch into Danish. It’s a bit frustrating and I’ve been trying to deal with it. The second problem I have encountered is the cost of living. Things at the store just seem so expensive and I can’t get over that fact. I’m tempted to buy things but when I calculate the prices I stop myself from buying them. I think that has half way ruined my experience here. I want to enjoy some of the finer items here but I’m trying to conserve money for traveling and exploring. The third problem I’ve encountered is thinking outside the box. I’ve always been taught very systematically with direct results. Things aren’t that simple here. You always have to have a plan for when your experiment fails or your parameters don’t match up. Even though I have been frustrated at many times I have to stop and think. The environment here has help alot with my problems. My coworkers have been so friendly and understanding and it has made things much easier for me to cope with failures and problems here. Regardless of these problems, I have so far had a very enjoyable stay in Denmark. Weather has gotten better, I have meet more people, and my experiment has finally started and is going well.

Viborg Work Week 3-4: Alanna

Things at work have been going very well over the past two weeks. I’ve had the opportunity to see and learn an array of things pertaining to the dairy field. Jens is working on dairy cattle nutrition and has been researching the effects of specific fatty acids on fat turnover in the liver with a primary focus on the prevention of fatty liver in dairy cows. For the first two weeks of work I was fortunate enough to follow him around and study his work. I’ve been reading an array of journals and publications from both Jens and those of his colleagues. Things in the lab have become less hectic over the week and I have been able to formulate a routine. Every Tuesday I label blood and biopsy tubes and make sure everything is in place for Wednesday’s blood drawing. On Wednesdays I go out to the cattle research center with two of the lab techs and we bleed cows. We try to take the blood from the tail but often times the cows are too restless to bleed. In that case we take the blood from the jugular. I’ve noticed that the Jersey cows are much more restless than the Holsteins. Sometimes it's a pain to get the cows to stay still or even to get them in their proper restraints. I love Wednesdays nonetheless! Starting last week I got to participate in tail bleeding. I’ve never taken blood from a dairy cow before and it proved to be a bit challenging. With the help of the lab technicians, however, the process went smoothly. While we are drawing blood Birthe, the liver biopsy queen as I like to call her, does her thing. She first identifies the region of the liver using just her hands. On the right side of the cow she places her hand on the cow’s hip region. From there she moves her hand forward and measures the distance between the hip and the shoulder region counting three ribs in between. It’s pretty amazing that this method works every time! After finding the liver she shaves the region and injects the cow with a local anesthetic and waits 10 minutes or so for it to set in. We take blood samples while waiting for the anesthesia to set in. Once the cows are ready Birthe takes a scalpel and makes a small incision in which the liver biopsy can be taken out. The most interesting part of this is she uses a biopsy gun that is meant for a human being. It is much smaller than the ones I have seen at UIUC. Jens takes great pride in the fact that they use human instruments because new methods are being created for the benefit of both humans and animals. The one thing that has come up over and over again with this experiment is animal welfare and quality of life. While writing my research paper Jens came over to look at it. Although I mentioned consumer and producer preference I lacked to mention the over health of the animal. I knew that was a very important factor in the trial but it never occurred to me that this study was done mostly to improve the health of the cows which would later prove to be beneficial for both the producer and consumer in the long run. After we have completed both the blood samples and the liver biopsies we take the samples back to the lab and centrifuge them to pipette the plasma layer for analyzing. The plasma is later assessed for metabolites. All this biochemistry is interesting yet very challenging.

Last Friday I got to be part of a top secret experiment. I can't share the details, but I can tell you I learned alot about fat globules in dairy milk and their interactions with enzymes. I learned how fat globules are split and reacted. Also, for the first time I was introduced to Biomek. Biomek is an automatic robot that can quickly pipette, dilute and dispense with the touch of a button. I thought this was the coolest robot ever. It does everything for you, no more pipetting by hand! I met with Torben Larsen, a scientist genius who spends time figuring out parameters for his milk project through a scheme of statistics. Some of the parameters he measures include temperature, time, pH, and catalyst reactions. He described his line of work, photometrics, and its capabilities. Recently, Torben and his group came up with a way to prescreen cows for mastitis. They can predict three days before hand when a cow will get mastitis. That is three days earlier than when ordinary veterinarians can diagnosis mastitis through clinical examination. Their over all goal is to find a way to improve the health and welfare of dairy cattle through the study of their milk. Very interesting work! I am now working with Torben on a project of my own. I am comparing the advantages of pooled sampling versus individual sampling in a herd of dairy cattle. I will be looking for 14 specific parameters to asses the over all health of the cows and their enzyme activity. Today I had a lesson on spectrometry and was taught how to use the autoanalyzer for these 14 parameters. We are testing for an array of metabolites, ions, and enzymes. I look forward this week to comparing my data and getting some results.

The content that I can most likely contribute to the community is my knowledge on pooled sampling. I am in the process of writing a research paper on the effects of pooled sampling versus individual sampling in early lactating cows. Pooled sampling is a method used to cut costs that are associated with blood sampling. This method, however, have created some concerns in the scientific world. I am trying to prove the method’s accuracy and long term cost benefit by comparing analytical data drawn from several metabolites and enzyme activities in a herd of early lactating cows. Hopefully with this knowledge I can better explain why veterinarians and scientist should used the pooled blood sampling method over individual sampling. I am excited to share my results with the group when I get back because there could be some great implications on dairy cattle health and cost management. During my research and idea phase of this project I have learned several important things which I think could benefit not only U.S. farmers but the dairy industry as a whole. I have learned how to view things in a different light while being here. Thinking outside of the box is something Jens is teaching me how to do every day. It’s frustrating at times when I don’t get the results I want. Science isn’t just that simple and I’ve had to come to the realization that it takes time for real results. My patience has been tested and I think that is a good thing. I like this work and I’m ready to see what my results tell me about these cows I am studying.

Viborg Weekends 3-4: Alanna

The weekends here in Viborg have been fairly productive and eventful. On May 31st I attended a monster truck show with some of the people living at the Kollegium. They thought it would be an “American” experience, even though I explained to them that I never attended a monster truck show in the U.S. They were convinced this show would be a great representation of American entertainment. I went along with it. We had a lot of fun that night biking into town and getting to know one another. The next morning Jess and I went into Viborg to do some shopping. While walking around it started to rain so we decided to check out the museum in town, stiftsmuseum. There was a nice exhibit on early Danish childhood that we passed through. The museum featured the many lifestyles of the Danes from the past. The museum included furniture, clothing, military interests, and an odd collection of birds. It seems that the lifestyles of the Danes did not differ greatly from those living in Britain or the U.S. during the same time period. We ended our museum tour with a nice cup of tea offered to all visitors. I like this idea of having tea at a museum. Tea time is one of the things that strikes me most about the Danes. It reflects their hospitality and warmth. After the visit to the museum the weather started to clear up so we decided to go for a walk through the park. There is a beautiful park located next to the north lake, which is home to hundreds of different flowers. Hopefully when the weather gets nicer Jess and I will be able to take a paddleboat out onto the lake, which is one of the many activities to choose from at this park. Sunday was a beautiful day so I decided to go for a bike ride beyond Viborg. The scenery outside Viborg is absolutely amazing. I started biking and didn’t realize how much I actually biked because the ride was so enjoyable. Although I have gotten into a few accidents, I have finally mastered the skills of bike riding. Denmark had a bank holiday on Tuesday so we did not have to go to work. I again took my bike out to the trails and just explored. The weather was awful but there were some positives. I saw a variety of slugs and snails, which I have never seen before in such quantities. The nature out here is breathtaking.

The following weekend (June 8) many people from Foulum went to Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. Recently Foulum and the University of Aarhus merged so that students from Aarhus could learn more and become part of the research being developed in Foulum. Scientists from Foulum are now being asked to travel to Aarhus once or twice a week to teach. In a celebration for this collaboration the University of Aarhus decided to put together an event called “Feel Aarhus” for those working at Foulum. The event started off with coffee, tea, and bread…of course! After this delicious snack the director of the event gave a speech along with fellow scientists from the university. It was kind of disappointing to find out that all the speeches were in Danish. After sitting there for an hour Jens told us to go and tour the campus a bit before lunch. Even thought the campus is not that old (est. 1929) it still had its own beauty. After a great lunch with the scientists from Foulum everyone split up to go on their tour. Jess and I chose to go to Moesgaard. This museum featured the body of a man who had been violently killed and thrown into a bog. This bog was like no other in that it preserved his body for hundreds of years. When farmers looking for peat dug him up they though he had recently died and called the police. It was later discovered that the body had been there for hundreds of years and that the plants in the bog had emitted preserving agents. This museum also featured a variety of weaponry that dated back to the Viking era. Although our tour was suppose to include a trip to the beach we never found it. Apparently the beach was a few miles away from the museum. Since we didn’t know where we were going we decided it would be best to stay at the museum. The night ended with a great dinner and band. The entertainment was good. There were three men from Denmark playing older southern style songs from the U.S. It reminded me of home for a short while. On Saturday we went back into town to mail some things and to look around. We meet up with another student from France and enjoyed a thorough walk through town. The weather was absolutely beautiful Saturday so we sat outside and enjoyed some ice cream. Sunday was an exciting day. Jess, Elke (a student from Germany) and I went out to Dollerup. Dollerup is home to a beautiful lake and hiking trails. We first biked out to the Hald Ruin, a fortress once used for Roman protection. Later that day we biked out to the lake in Dollerup and went for a swim. The water was perfect and the sun was beaming. It was well worth the several mile bike ride. People here are definitely not afraid to bare some skin. Their carefree attitude and relaxed lifestyle seem to influence some individuals at the lakefront.