Two weeks to go!

It's harder than you think to keep up a blog, especially when there are approximately three hundred and fifty-four things going through your mind at any one minute. Here is a sampling of that approximation:

* Two more weeks of school! Nevermind that finals take up two weeks after that. There are only ten days left of going to classes. I can't believe the semester has gone by this fast. Doesn't bode well for the next thing on my list...

* Christmas break! Almost three whole weeks of no classes, no studying, no worrying about school-related things. Three whole weeks where I am within reasonable driving distance to the people and places that I love, eating awesome food, sleeping in and catching up with everyone and everything. Christmas is one of my top three favorite holidays (Thanksgiving and Fourth of July are the other two) and I literally cannot wait to be driving through neighborhoods looking at the lights, helping decorate the tree and listening to annoying Christmas music on the radio.

Anyway, I'm off to study some more. Can't forget about finals :(

Joys of the long weekend.

Remebrance Day (the Canadian version of Veteran's Day) was this weekend, giving us a third day to our weekend. Danny and I met up in Portland, Maine and had a great time. Granted, I spent most of Friday and Sunday driving but the day and a half total of seeing Danny made it worth it. I don't think I realize how much I miss him until I'm with him. He really is a great guy. We visited the local (huge!) mall as well as a historic-esque region called Old Port. There was a good amount of stuff to do but I didn't want to rush around and cram stuff into the day, so we just moseyed (moseied?) along. I bought a really pretty scarf in one of the stores. The best part (besides seeing Danny) was getting a burrito from my beloved Chipotle. The down side was that I spent a total of two and a half hours crossing the border this weekend. Ugh.

In other news, I'm making an effort to lose some weight, so I went to the gym for the first time in forever today. I went during lunch time because it's the only good time for me to go; don't want to wake up early, can't stay late because I have to let Ella out. So that's the plan.

First Snow!

So this is what I woke up to this morning:

Granted, it isn't a ton of snow by any means, but the fact that there was visible white stuff on the ground was fun to wake up to. Although I kind of had an idea there might be snow on the ground since I heard it coming down all throughout last night. I think it's mostly an icy/sleet component, anyway, and most of it has melted but it's been flurrying all through the morning. A "happy November" from nature, I guess.

The inclement weather has given me reason to stay inside where its warm and I can wear my PJs all day. This is also good because it's forced me to start going through my physiology notes, which I've admittedly been putting off over the course of the week. Ever since midterms finished and I did well on them, I don't have as much motivation to be diligent with my notes. Which doesn't seem like a big deal right after midterms, until you look at the schedule and realize there are only four weeks of class left! How the heck did that even happen!? And then I remember that I haven't booked tickets to go home for break yet and I need to start thinking about Christmas presents and cards and then I feel a little overwhelmed. But feeling overwhelmed is good for motivation, I find, so it's not too bad.

Anyway, back to the books!

So much to do!

Even with midterms behind me I still feel like I have a bunch to do. I'm caught up on about half of my notes from lectures during midterms - need to add a little to histology and immunology and all of physiology but done with productions. Also need to do the immuno assignment. I'll feel better when I'm all caught up. Grades have been coming back and I've been doing well, which makes me really happy. Anatomy came back a lot better than expected, too, which was so nice. I worked really hard to cram all of those muscles into my head! The downside is, finals are in like, five weeks! Eek.

I'm going to resume going to pathology rounds, since I missed a couple for various reasons the past few times. I think clin path is today at lunch so I'm going to plan to go to that instead of waiting until the first class at 1:30pm. There was an equine fieldtrip today which probably would have been fun to go to, but I'm glad I'm taking the time to get caught up with notes and such.

Also, Ella update. The vet I took her to thought her hookworm never got entirely cleared up - apparently it's more difficult to get rid of than other parasites. So he gave her a round of Flagyl and an Interceptor tablet to take on top of her regular Heartgard. She seems to be feeling perkier the past couple of days so we'll see.

This is a really discombobulated post. Sorry :\

Lungworm

So Ella has been kind of sick the past couple of days and seems a little worse today. After poking around on the internet I think she may have lungworm; the symptoms are similar to those she had when she had hookworm a couple of months ago (coughing, diarrhea or vomitting, lethargy). Apparently it's perpetuated by slugs and snails - 'lo and behold, I discovered that the slugs are popping up like daisies around here out front, so it's entirely possible she picked it up from nosing around outside and maybe eating dirt or grass. I feel like I need to make a structure and function flow chart and bring it to the vet, haha. The good news is that it's treatable and preventable, so let's hope it is lungworm and not something else.

Anyway, I'm debating whether or not I should bring her to the school clinic or to an actual vet clinic in town. I've heard good things for both, but I think I'd prefer to sit down and talk with the vet and take her home right after as opposed to leaving her there over the course of the day and getting updates. Just my preference. So I'm going to give the loca hospital a call tomorrow morning on the way in and hope they can get me a spot in the afternoon after class.

:)

The last of our midterms was Friday. Probably one of the tougher ones but I think I did alright. We also got a couple of midterm grades back and I've done well so far! So I've been pleasantly surprised on that aspect - although two of the three hardest - anatomy and histology - have yet to come back. So here's to hoping they fit the bill of pleasant surprises, too!

I have a good amount to do this weekend, actually. I did about half of the dishes last night, the other half left to do, sweeping/vacuuming the house, running a mop over the floors, cleaning the kitchen, table and bathroom more thoroughly, laundry, paying rent, visiting a dog show in town, watching football and reading! I'm really hopeful that my football game is on TV this week because they're playing a game in Toronto against the Bills! So they'd better be on, darnit. That would be the ultimate bonus to the weekend.

A couple of other good things include winning the pathology club's "Mystery Slide of the Month" contest; I correctly guessed the drawn out scientific name which equates to bladder polyp. So I won a $10 giftcard to Tim Horton's, which I will use to gorge myself on ham and cheese tea biscuits. The other good thing is that Danny and I decided to meet up on our long weekends on Memorial/Remembrance Day. So I'm planning our trip to Portland, ME. So excited to see him!

I swear I'm still alive...

I remember reading other vet student blogs and thinking, "But how hard is it really to post every couple of days?" And I was good at it for a while. And then midterms came along and I suddenly realized why vet students don't update every few days. Even days when I might've had the time to toss up a blog post, I didn't even feel like typing. The good news is that there are only two midterms left and I cannot wait for Friday!

Nothing much notable has occured since the last time I posted. I did go to my mentor's house with my other student mentor buddies - he invited us all for a fondue night! One of the two second year buddies was sick, but all of the others, including the fourth year, made it. The fourth year didn't get to come to our buddy potluck at the beginning of the year so it was nice to meet her. Turns out she's hunting for internships back where I came from, so it was nice to talk to someone who knew the area. The fondue was great, too, and my mentor has a gigantic Newfoundland who was the chillest thing ever. He could have been a big black furry rug. Definitely a good time.

I also skyped with my parents and sister last weekend, which was nice. I got to see the two new parakeets my mom picked up from the humane society and catch up on everything they've been up to. I really miss home, and they really miss me and it's sad, but only two more months til Christmas, so I'll see them soon! Danny and I are meeting up on Veteran's Day weekend (Remembrance Day up here) and I'm really looking forward to seeing him again. We were just going to wait until I came back for the holidays but when I realized I had that long weekend, I wanted to figure something out. So we're each driving half way. Yay.

Anyway, I have two last midterms to study for today. Fortunately we essentially have the day off because of no field trip this morning and only one class this afternoon. Some people are talking about skipping but I'm scheduled to play with the blood donor cats for enrichment this afternoon so I'm just going to go :)

I miss home.

Miscellaneous

The avian necropsy/bandaging wet lab yesterday was awesome. I was expecting to go in and crowd around an exam table while one professor did the necropsy and explained bits of bird anatomy on the way. I expected to then watch a bandaging demonstration and be along my way.

In reality, there was just about one to one bird-person ratio. There were smaller, songbird-types, a variety of ducks, a raven, a crow, a couple seagulls, and a handful of raptor species including two bald eagles! I paired myself up with a sharp-shinned hawk. When people think of raptors (or when I think of raptors...), larger birds are typically pictured. The hawk I had was female, juvenile and probably a foot in length. We knew she was juvenile because they're browner across the back versus the blue-brown color of the adults. Just a delicate little thing. So we all got to necropsy our own birds (except for those who paired up with the gigantor eagles), sex them, estimate age and do a thorough physical exam. A lot of the birds had been shot (mine probably had, as well) as cause of death.

We then were shown how to perform a variety of tasks like wing bangage (a figure eight design), a body bandage (to hold the splinted wing to the body), placement of an intraosseous catheter, finding common veins for blood draw, and SQ or IM injections. The demonstrator was the zoo/exotics vet who hosted a lunchtime lecture on zoo/exotics med that I went to, so I thought it was neat to see her in action.

I did all of my laundry yesterday, stuffed myself with junk food and did less than optimal amount of studying. I have a handful of flashcards to finish up and then I need to study for the lecture portion of the anatomy midterm. My football team plays a divisional game today, which my parents and sister got tickets to! I'm so jealous. I really hope they broadcast it on TV so I can look for them in the endzone.

Midterms.

It's finally that time: midterms are upon us at AVC. Our first one (structure and function) is already done, but I don't exactly count that as a midterm because there was no way to study for it. It was pretty much on-par for what I expected, and while I think I took a less conventional approach to the problem, I feel good about my performance.

Anatomy looms on the other side of the weekend. Of the seven midterms we have, anatomy is probably only second to physiology for midterms I'm most anxious about. I don't care what they say - anatomy is largely about memorization: names of muscles, landmarks on bones, origin/insertion/action/innervation of those muscles. Fortunately I've always been half-way decent about memorizing things, so it's just a matter of cramming everything into my brain in time for the test. I'm admittedly behind because I didn't do anything last weekend (and I wouldn't change it, since I got to spend the time with Danny) but I don't feel too overwhelmed just yet.

This weekend holds a lot of anatomy, a bit of immunology, an avian necropsy/bandaging lab, some house cleaning and more anatomy. Off I go.

"Thanksgiving" Weekend Recap

This past weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving weekend up here in the Great White North. It was a great weekend.

Friday - After classes let out, I went with my neighbors to the annual Standardbred yearling sale. It's called a colt sale around here, but the yearlings were divided pretty evenly colt and filly, so I'm assuming it's just a slang thing. There were about a hundred horses being auctioned off and we arrived to see the last thirty or so. We walked around the holding barns - which were in great condition, it was a nice auction - and peeked in at the sale horses, watched some of the auction proceedings and ate hot dogs and fries. The horses were all in good condition, if a little rank, and it was nice to go to an auction where meat buyers and horse traders weren't in the equation.

Saturday - Danny arrived (!!!) about 2am. After not seeing him for about six weeks I was so incredibly happy to get to hug him. I've actually found the distance to be surprisingly easy compared to what I expected, but it doesn't make being apart any happier. We slept in and exchanged surprises: he brought four enormous Cinnabuns for breakfast and I gave him the picture of us from my coating ceremony. Then, we headed to the PEI national park to hike on another trail (first trail experience outlined in a previous post, if you want to dig) and saw a bunch of chipmunks, squirrels and one snake. That night we went out to dinner with the neighbors and then went to see the movie Moneyball with Brat Pitt. It was pretty good.

Sunday - Ran a bunch of errands, made it home in time to leave for Thanksgiving dinner at my neighbor's parents' house about an hour away. They live at a gorgeous house that sits on a little cliff edge just on the beach. Unfortunately the storms of the past week had washed up a crapload of seaweed, but upon exploring the beach we found a lot of neat things, most notably a tuna head and a bunch of bones! The femur and scapula appeared to belong to a cow or a pony but the two broken ones and a piece of a jaw (complete with teeth!) were unidentified. We're going to give them to the anatomy professors at school and see if they have any ideas.

Monday - More errands, lunch in town, steaks on the grill and a bonfire at the house made up the day. It was really cold out last night (after an absolutely beautiful weekend) but the fire was nice. Danny packed and we switched the stuff around in the trucks so that he could drive mine back home and I could take his truck, which is far better off for winter travel than my own. Went to bed early and he was off while it was still dark this morning.

Overall a good weekend. I didn't touch my notes - literally - so I need to do a good amount tonight and each night this week. My first midterm is tomorrow, but it isn't really something you can study for so I'm not going to sweat it. Midterms begin in earnest next Monday (starting with anatomy, eek) and last for about two weeks. I've lasted forty-three days up here so far; sixty-six days until I'm home on Christmas break and get to see Danny again.

Where's an ark when you need one?

I won't lie: I love the rain. My parent's house has a big skylight in the living room and I remember spending time as a kid reading on the couch in there just so that I could listen to the rain on it. My house up here in Canada has a skylight in the bathroom, which is right next to my bedroom, so as I was sleeping last night and as I sit here right now I can listen to the rain coming down. Bliss I tell you. Fortunately I didn't have to roll out of bed early this morning (every other Wednesday morning off from field trips, remember?) or I might have been less enthusiastic about the current weather. Times like this are also when I regret being stingy and buying the general parking pass a couple minutes walk away from class instead of the closer parking. I think I'll pack an extra pair of socks today.

Also, the coziness of being inside and listening to the rain is not good for productivity. I finished my histology notes from last night and am moving on to adding shellfish (mussels in particular. Mmm.) to my production notes. After that I'm not quite sure what I'll do next, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

Football.

I wrote out a post talking about how much of a difference one hour can really make in one's life - Eastern to Atlantic time zones, yadda yadda yadda. And then I realized: it was basically me just griping about how MNF (Monday Night Football) comes on an hour later here and I only get to watch for 30mins before I need to go to bed or else be groggy the next day. So I deleted that, even though it's an extremely valid point!, because who wants to read that? Probably no one.

Which segues (seg-ways?) me into another valid but potentially boring point: no one up here that I'm acquainted with cares about football. Sure, they play NFL games on TV (not my team's, but hey, better than nothing) but from those I've talked with up here, no one cares about football. And as a die-hard fan of my team as well as the sport in general, it's frustrating not to be able to talk about it with people. I wouldn't care if they were Dallas fans for heaven's sake - just give me someone to talk to!

Superstar

Made it to another weekend. Midterms start October 12th and span about two weeks worth of time. It's nice that they're spread out but it also means that we're in drawn out stress period for two weeks - boo. My plan is to study extra hard this weekend and all next week in preparation of almost no studying next weekend because Danny will be here! We'll probably be at my neighbor's parents' house for Canadian Thanksgiving, which will be fun. But really, I don't care if I have to eat McDonald's for Thanksgiving as long as he's up here with me :)

Anyway, you're probably wondering what the heck is up with my subject line. Well, I went to my first lab aniaml club meeting on Thursday after class. It was a ferret wet lab, and since I worked with ferrets a ton during undergrad I felt right at home. We went over physical exams, special concerns with intact females, ultrasound and blood collection. So after we discussed everything, the campus vet said we could try a blood draw. He told the first years to pair up with some older students so I found a second and third year. We were going for the lateral saphenous - the vein on the outside of the back leg, which is approximately the width of a pin in a ferret. So the second year was looking for the vein and finally said he couldn't see it. (Meanwhile, I'd seen it while he was looking, hehe) so he passed the syringe to me. I hit that sucker on the first shot, no digging or anything. Ha! So the lab animal vet was impressed and said I was a "superstar first year" - totally made my week.

Discombobulated.

I've been feeling a little out of sorts the past couple of days. Part of the problem is that I'm going to bed later than I should, at least for the amount of sleep my body/brain requires. The other part of the problem is that I'm not studying enough, or at least I feel that way. The sleep thing is correctable - just talk to Danny earlier in the evening so I can go to bed earlier - but it ties in with the second problem.

On most days (except Friday) I get home around 5pm. I usually take some time to decompress from classes, either by poking around on some of my favorite websites or chatting with my neighbors. By that time it's 5:30ish. I then get some stuff out to study, but by 6pm I'm thinking about dinner because I try to eat dinner earlier rather than later. I'm good about making a fast dinner, but I usually don't retain all that much information while eating anyway, if I bother to try. So that puts me at 6:30pm. I study some more, anywhere from an hour to two hours (maybe), then take a shower, call Danny and go to bed. So on my more productive nights I'm only getting in maybe two hours of studying. Which doesn't feel like enough.

To be honest, I don't feel behind in the material (except anatomy) and in that case, I don't need to panic. But I know that over Thanksgiving break I'm going to want to spend time with Danny and not study, which means I need to be studying my butt off this week and next in preparation. And to be honest, I just feel like I should work harder! So my new plan of attack is to cut down my decompression time to maybe 15mins when I get home, study straight until 7:00pm, make dinner/eat as a little break, study another 30mins-1hr and then shower. Depending on the day, I should be able to get at least 2hrs if not more in every night instead of maxing out at 2hrs. Let's see if this makes me feel any better.

Weekend

Friday after class I studied physiology. I meant to study all night but then one of my neighbors texted me and asked me over to watch a movie so I did that instead. We watched Bridesmaids which wasn't all that bad. So we didn't finish the movie until around 11pm and then I came home and talked to Danny until at least midnight my time. I meant to go to bed right after that but watched a little TV on my iPad and turned it off around 12:45am! Yikes. So instead of going to the vet school's open house today, I slept in until 10am. Not going to lie, it was wonderful to catch up on sleep.

Around lunchtime I packed Ella into the truck and took her along to do a couple of errands. I went to the bank and got some cash (so I have change for laundry tomorrow), had some Wendy's for lunch and got gas. I haven't had junk food in a long, long time and while that's a good thing, I was really craving some, so I'm happy now. At the gas station I filled up my tank for about the same cost as last time - just under $100. I calculated that I'm getting about 18.5mi/gallon (3.78L per gallon). This is the first time I've filled up in just over three weeks, so hopefully I can keep that trend going and stay under my gas budget. (I've been really good at staying under budget for everything :)

Anyway, mussle (mussel?) bake is at our place tonight. I did a little cleaning in case people need to come in to use the bathroom but it's going to be outdoors around our firepit. I was afraid it would rain today (it was super foggy even through the afternoon!) but it looks as though it will hold off. Which is a good thing, because there is no way 20 people will fit in any one of our houses!

Four things

Aside from the time I was sick, I've yet to have a legitimately bad day up here (knock on wood!). Most days are just regular days but some days are actually actively good days, if that makes sense. There were four things that made today a good day:

1. No immunology! While the material itself might be very interesting, the way it is arranged and presented...just don't do it justice, shall I say? Today might have been a very bad day because we had two scheduled hours of immunology but it was cancelled entirely at the last minute. Therefore instead of struggling through any immunology lecture, I was able to come home and study some physiology. Yay, producivity.

2. Gross pathology rounds! After a couple weeks of having cancelled gross path rounds, the first ones were finally today. The unfortuante part was being late. My anatomy group had to stay a little later than normal to skin our dog's other rear leg because the one we're supposed to be using is black and smelly and crusty. So we were told to see if the other leg was use-able - which it is! - which required skinning it and thus more time. But I did make it to gross path rounds and saw some interesting tissue presentations. I prefer entire necropsies myself, but it was still interesting. If I can remember what the diseases were called, I could look them up. I wonder if Google deals with phonetics?

3. Dr. Pack! One of the college's radiologists, Dr. Pack has been integrated into our anatomy lectures. She's from Louisiana and nothing makes me feel better/less homesick than hearing her accent and experiencing her personality. She reminds me of my southern family members and it's just delightful. Not to mention the woman is freaking hilarious.

4. Free food! I bought a bag of chips from the vending machine in the cafeteria and on the back was a sticker entitling me to all I can eat food at the dining hall. Not that I can eat that much, but maybe I'll hike my butt over there one day at lunch and stuff myself enough to hold over until breakfast.

So yeah. Good day :)

One month down.

Today marks one month on the island for me; I siumultaneously can't believe it's only been a month and that it even has been a month since I started vet school. Even though I've been in school (and working hard!) since the end of August, it's starting to feel like fall around here: days are getting noticably shorter, nights are cold, mornings require hoodies, the crops are harvested and I get stuck behind school buses on the way to class. The island is even more ahead of the game with cheesy fall decorations than back home, but I love that stuff so it's been nice to watch the pumpkins and scarecrows start to make their appearances. And then I look at the calendar and realize September is almost gone and it's like holy crap, where does the time go!?

School is going suspiciously well. I feel like I'm keeping up with the material but also balancing studying with sleep and fun. I wish we had some kind of quiz or test so we could gauge our knowledge of the material and I could see if I'm studying enough but I guess I'll just have to keep up my studying and wait until midterms. Kind of scary, but oh well. I also think I need to modify my strategy a little so that I'm taking notes from my typed notes at the end of the day. Reading over typed notes isn't all that good for studying.

Sick

Back home (I find it hilarious that I refer to it this way), I never got sick during the semester. It was almost like my body knew that I was just too damn busy to be sick. That mean that I'd get sick nearly instantaneously on breaks, but I'd rather be sick a couple days when I was relaxing anyway than sick during school with a ton of things on my plate.

Well, my immune system has decided it doesn't like something up here and I've been coughing like crazy the past two days. I wake up this morning feeling like a sack of lead with my eyes all puffy, aching everywhere, exhausted...and still coughing. So I took my neighbor up on her offer to take notes in immunology for me and went back to sleep. I still have to go to structure and function this afternoon (maybe I can be the disease for the day and my group can make a flow chart out of me?) because they take attendance and there's always a lot of information coming at you, so I don't want to get behind. I also have to drop off my check to pay the remaining balance on my tuition. So off I go to class - hopefully I don't infect anyone else.

Pathology!

Today was my first club-related activity: clinical pathology rounds! When club day came along last week, I signed up for three clubs but will be dropping one so it ends up being the pathology club and the lab animal club that I'm a member of. I chose lab animal because that is my main interest but I added pathology because necropsy has always fascinated me. What I didn't realize is the role that histology plays within pathology. And guess what my favorite class by far is this semester? Histology! So it was kind of like the perfect storm of a club for me, haha.

I got to sleep in today because our farm animal field trips are only every other Wednesday. I did an hour or so of studying this morning (I really need to do more, I think, but that's another post), stopped by the gas station to fill up my two low tires and went to the clinical pathology rounds. The club's advisor is a clinical pathologist and professor at the school and she's the one that heads up the "rounds". She brought two papers for us: one on how to make/analyze a proper blood smear and the other with three real cases that had come through the teaching hospital. Apparently we do one hemotological (blood) and one cytological (tissue). So we got the blood work results as well as the blood smear from the first case and got to talk about regenerative anemia, which was a big part of my structure and function class later in the afternoon! It was really awesome to have it all start to come together. Not to mention that because I love histology, looking at slides was fun.

Anyway, as I said I have some studying to do. Gross pathology rounds are tomorrow afternoon, though; I hope they're as much fun/helpful as the clinical ones were today!

Another one bites the dust

It feels like yesterday was Labor Day weekend and I was clamming and studying and all that jazz. In fact, it is one week later! Suffice to say that the days are absolutely flying by. I've got the basic outlines of a routine happening here at home: wake up, let Ella out, make breakfast, pack lunch, pack backpack for the day. Head to classes, sit through classes, come home, review notes for day's lectures and next day's lectures, make dinner, shower, talk to Danny/family, go to sleep. That's just the basic scaffold of what I expect my days to become, though, once club meetings start up (pathology rounds are at 4:30pm on Thursday) and fourth year student presentations begin. While so much has happened, there is still so much left to do and see.

I started my weekend in the anatomy lab for the second time (it'd be great to get into the habit of going once during the week and once on weekends on top of scheduled lab times) and let me tell you, it made me feel great. I flew through the muscles of the thoracic limb on the cadaver limbs as well as the plastinated limbs provided by the instructors in the lab. I feel like I'm really getting it which is an awesome feeling to have.

After that I went home, gathered my laundry and took myself and my neighbor to the nearby laundromat. We had lunch at the little restaurant next door while our washers ran and then studied a little while the dryers ran. Unfortunately, either because I put it all in one dryer load or because the dryers are crappy, most of my clothes are still damp. So I hung them up in the bathroom with my fan blowing on them to dry, haha.

That's about all I have to update about. It just started to pour here so I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon indoors wrapped in a blanket studying. I have a new strategey I'd like to add to my repetoire.

In which I go clamming.

I have so much to blog about lately because so much has been going on in my life, it's ridiculous.

Sunday at the dog park was a relative bust because it wasn't actually a dog park. It was something like a large, uncultivated field with a weird paved part up the middle that went on for about a mile. Unfortunately, I carpooled there with my roommate so I felt bad turning back once I realized it was not the place for Ella. She is an old, old dog who cannot (and does not want) to walk for long stretches at a time. So we took turns carrying her to the meeting spot which was basically just the place where the grass met the edge of a beautiful body of water. Ella was polite but obviously wondering WTF we were doing there. There was no shade and it was hot. I'm oversensitive about Ella because she's old and has a heart murmur and bad hips and all that jazz and I really don't want to stress her more than I can avoid. So we turned back after only a couple of minutes but it worked out because everyone else there left too. Oh well.

Monday was an adventure. My alarm went off at 6:30am ("Why is my alarm going off?" I wondered as I groped for it in the dark) and I got dressed and forced some oatmeal down my throat. I bounded (stumbled, groggily) down the front steps and hopped (climbed awkwardly) into the front bench of my Canadian neighbor's boyfriend's truck. My American neighbor, Canadian neighbor and said boyfriend were already waiting for me. We headed off to the beach on a quest for clams!

You may be wondering to yourself, what does one need to go clamming? Our materials included a garden hoe, a couple five gallon buckets and our bare hands. Off through the countryside we drove, stopping at a couple different beaches to dig around. Unfortunately for us and fortunately for the clams, we couldn't find any. So we went to a couple different barns that my Canadian neighbor was associated with on the way to her parents for a barbecue. At one of the barns lived a beautiful pair of black Percherons, 18.3hh! (For those unfamiliar with horses, one hand = 4in, so these guys were well over 6ft at the shoulder). I met my first Norwegian Fjord horse at the last barn. A good day for ponies, if not clams :) We rounded out the day with lunch at Canadian neighbor's parents' house. It was a beautiful house a stone's throw from a gorgeous private beach - so jealous.

I spent the evening listening to my Maryland Terps play (and win!) their opening football game against Miami. It was a good way to end my first weekend on my own here in Canada.

Weekend Shenanigans

I woke up bright and early Saturday morning at met some fellow students at the anatomy lab around 9:30. We spent about an hour and half there and I felt reassured with my knowledge level. We also managed to take some good pictures for studying! Anyway, coupled with the studying I did on Friday evening, I had a very virtuous start to the weekend. The rest of yesterday was slightly less productive in the academic sense. I watched about an hour's worth of Youtube videos on the immune system (at least as far as we've gotten in class) which was helpful if not the most vigorous studying I've ever done. I did manage to do two-thirds of the dishes and vacuum the house though, so that counts for something, right?

The real fun began when I picked up two class mates and headed out to an orientation event at Red Shores racetrack! Unlike back home, racing here is done with Standardbreds instead of Thoroughbreds and they trot (or pace) and pull a cart behind them instead of being ridden. I've been to a couple Standardbred races before so that aspect wasn't new, but the special treatment was! The class had reserved the little clubhouse at the in-field: three stories, right in front of the finish line with a bathroom, bar, great view and its very own betting station. Unfortunately my instincts were of little help last night so I didn't make anything but it was great fun and for the first time I really felt like a part of the group. (Probably helped that I knew how to read the racing form!)

Today has been lazy so far: I read my book, which had nothing to do with vet stuff and talked to my sister and my mom on Skype. I'm leaving in an hour to take Ella to the last official orientation event this week which is the meeting at the dog park! Ella isn't exactly a social butterfly but she does like to watch dogs interact and meet people, so it should be fun. Only planning on staying an hour and then back home to do some real studying. All in all a good weekend thus far.

It's Friday!

I survived my first week of vet school. To be honest, it isn't as much of an accomplishment as it might seem outwardly; a couple classes were just an introduction with syllabus and then we were let go, we got out early today, the material is there but not quite as intense as I imagine it will become, there were no tests. It likely isn't a "typical vet school week" by any stretch of the imagination but it's one behind me!

So my first weekend is coming up. The first weekend entirely alone, without Danny or my sister or my family or friends and it's a bit daunting. I'm hoping that if I can keep myself busy it should go by without the feeling of actually being alone. Keeping busy shouldn't be hard either - I have laundry to do (and then put away), cleaning to do (vacuuming and cleaning dishes mostly), two orientation events and studying, of course! In fact, I was invited to the anatomy lab bright and early tomorrow morning to do some doggie review, so that's a start. Then it's a night at the races at 6:30pm, and the dog park tomorrow. I'll get the chores and extra studying in there, too. The one thing I'm looking forward to the most (even more than sleeping in!) is the chance to read for pleasure in the silence of my little cabin. That will be the true reward :)

Days 1 and 2: Survived!

I don't think it had quite penetrated my brain until I was sitting in my first class yesterday but I finally realized: I'm a vet student!

I'll try not to born you with the blow-by-blow of all of the classes. My subjects are physiology, anatomy, histology, animal behavior/welfare, animal production systems, immunology and "intro to veterinary medicine". All of the classes are pretty self-explanatory, although intro to vet med deals more with us as students/people/future professionals than animals. So far my favorite is histology, but I haven't been to immunology yet so that may change. I came home yesterday and reviewed everything which I will do again today after posting. Doing my best to ingrain the habit of reviewing after every class in hopes it will make it easier on myself at the midterm and finals!

In an attempt to figure out myself as a vet student, I think I've found a new way to take notes: on my iPad! I have a note-taking app that I type notes on (all organized by class and lecture with the option to record) and then doodle down any diagrams in class in a paper notebook. When I get home to review, I copy the diagram into my electronic notes. So far so good, although it's only been two days, haha. I also need to figure out how to see flash animation on my iPad...

The magic of the internet.

When people first heard that I would be coming to live in the Great White North, they asked if my boyfriend would be coming with me. While a sad decision to make, we had decided that it would be best for both of us if he stayed put. The question then became how would we keep in touch? It seemed simple enough to me: talk on the phone every night like we always have, even with only twenty miles between us. There was, of course, the matter of getting my cell phone plan to cover me in Canada, but no big deal, right?

Wrong. The people at the Verizon store I visited were absolutely clueless as to how I should go about arranging my plan. They handed me a brochure (an exact replica of the information online, which I promise I can read) and told me to call customer service. Awesome. Overwhelmed with the myriad other things I had to do before leaving the country, I set aside my cell service for another day. I figured I would pay the $70+ per month to have a single line with 900 minutes a month to talk to friends and family back home.

Yesterday, my neighbor stopped by and suggested I try Skype. (So as not to sound like a complete idiot, I'll say that I know what Skype is and vaguely how it works. I'd just never tried it before.) After a bit of fiddling around, I've got a Skype account and subscription so that I can video chat and call phones back home and in Canada without limit. For $2.99 per month. Sure, I have to call on my iPad, but I think there's a way I can call from my cell phone and use my Skype subscription instead of the plan. I feel like I've stuck gold here, people!

Anyway, that was my major accomplishment of the day yesterday. I was rather worthless otherwise, although I stopped by the orientation barbecue for an hour. I'm torn about these orientation events because I feel as though I should go, to meet people and stuff, but can't help but feel as though there's no rush to make new friends. I'll see them every day for the next couple of months and that'll probably be rather enough for me. Speaking of which, school starts tomorrow!

Orientation and Blue Coat Ceremony

As the title suggests, our orientation and coating ceremony were yesterday. Being the always-early person that I am, I was still the first one to arrive despite being on time. I chatted with the security guard, whose shift finished at 8am. Apparently they always have a guard wakling around the building to watch over the students who have 24hr access to study and what-not. People started to trickle in around 8am, and I made my way over to the welcome table to find that I was not on the list - yikes! It got sorted out, though, and I filled out my forms, ate breakfast and met a few classmates. We were then summoned to the lecture hall ("B", which I think will be our permanent classroom while in school) where we heard a few brief speeches from Important People. After that we were split into groups for ice-breakers and I was pleasantly surprised how un-cheesy it was. After that we went on a tour of campus (saw the library, got our ID pictures taken) and the teaching hospital and then met up with our guests (my parents and Danny came) for lunch.

After lunch we had a couple more icebreakers and were released around 2:45pm. Danny picked me up and we came home where I decided a little too late that I wanted a nap, haha. I got a quick power-nap in, though, and then got up to dress myself for the coating ceremony that started at 6:30pm. We met up with my parents outside and went to our table that we shared with another incoming student, their guests, a faculty mentor and a staff mentor. We had some kind of garden salad followed by chicken with vegetables. The chicken had some sort of coating on it that I heard was spinach and feta or something - so good! We had a little piece of brownie with whipped cream and fruit topping for dessert.

During dessert, the coating actually started. We went up to the stage in groups of ten with our "presenter" (mine was Danny) and they said your name, your presenter's name and relation to you. Your presenter actually put your coat on, then you left the stage and had your picture taken right afterwards. The actual ceremony wasn't too long or speech-y, which was nice. Danny and I came home, sat on the deck for a while talking and then went to bed early.

He had to be up at 5:30am to meet my parents, who are taking him home. I did cry, of course, but I'm not panicked. He'll be back again in October for Canadian Thanksgiving, which seems like a long time but really isn't, especially when classes start up and I'm flooded with information!

PEI Park, Parents and Adventure, oh my.

Danny and I were awake by 8am yesterday morning (Atlantic Canadian time, anyway) and decided to hit the Prince Edward Island National Park which is maybe a ten minute drive from my house. We had swung by the day before but noted there were toll booth-esque structures and turned around. I researched the park and learned that a day fee for one adult is $7.80. Well upon our return yesterday morning, there was no one in the booths! So after making sure there was no one to pay, we went on through and into the park.

Our first stop was the beach. A solid wooden staircase brought us up and over the enormous sand dunes and then down the other side where a typical beach scene was laid out. Granted, being so early, there was only one family and an older couple but we saw a couple more people coming down as we left. We strolled along the beach (mostly sand, but some small and beautiful stones mixed in) for a little ways. The water was freezing - not sure how the kids playing in the waves didn't have hypothermia! - but nice. We doubled back and hopped back in the car to drive a little bit further to a hiking trailhead. The trail started there and then branched into to separate trails: Bubbling Springs and Farmlands. We opted for Bubbling Springs, not much more than a mile long, and set off. Being in the woods, instead of in the open farmland and beachy shores, made me feel more at home and I was really happy just to walk in the quiet. It doesn't really get hot here, but the morning was literally the perfect temperature for walking through the woods, which were nice and shady in some parts and more open and sunny in others. In fact, many animals seemed to appreciate the weather because we saw one fox (prey in mouth!), a small garter snake, a small frog, a larger frog, a couple of finches and one or two female Downy (or Hairy, we weren't close enough to tell) woodpeckers! So an exciting morning activity.

We also had the chance to visit the Charlottetown Farmer's Market and the Meat Market store a bit further past the university. Since seeing the prices on food in the stores I've been trying to find alternative sources. The farmer's market was nice but I would have liked to see a bigger variety of meat (seemed like only lamb and sausage) and some fruit! The vegetables were good, with good prices on them, and I bought some really excellent green beans. The Meat Market store was better, with a huge selection of meats to choose from, as well as varieties of seasonings/marinades. I think I'll most likely go back there to buy my meat.

My parents arrived on the island yesterday evening and we invited them here for dinner. The ribeyes and green beans went to make that dinner which turned out really nicely. It was good to see my parents and catch up with them even though they were tired from travelling. We swapped our vehicles so I have my truck back, yay! Today they came by and picked us up and we went into the countryside to hunt down a tourist attraction my mom had found in her AAA book. Unfortunately, being nine years old, the AAA book was not at all recent and we went to find the site (supposedly gardens and miniature castle recreations..?) abandoned and overgrown. But that didn't stop us from trekking in and exploring! There was a life-sized castle (for sale for $119,000 if anyone's interested) and behind it a complex of some sort, built in mimic of the real-life London buildings like the White Tower, etc. Being completely deserted and overgrown, silent as a tomb, it was slighly creepy. It really was like going back in time and wandering through. My mom got creeped out too much and we left. Lunch on the way home was a superb seafood chowder. Overall an adventure of an afternoon!

Orientation is tomorrow; I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about that, too!

Day 2 on the island.

Yesterday finished uneventfully. It rained through the afternoon into the evening so I spent the time inside and did some more unpacking. The kitchen was more thoroughly furnished that I had expected so I'll be sending home the bulk of my kitchen items with my parents and Danny when they head back next weekend. There are a couple of things that will be staying with me, though, including my rice cooker and digital pressure cooker. I've loved my pressure cooker since I got it at Christmas and I can't imagine being without it up here.

Speaking of kitchens, allow me to talk briefly about the grocery stores up here. While they have a nice variety of foodstuffs, they are ridiculously expensive compared to back home. $7 for a gallon of milk, $25+ for a couple of medium sized chicken breasts and almost $6 for one pineapple! I also learned (by sneaking glances at the pricing labels) that things are sold in grams. So when I got lunch meat at the deli counter I ordered in grams, hehe. We did our shopping yesterday and I ended up paying $73 for what I hope will be enough for the week. I budgeted for $100 per week so with yesterdays purchases and some extra purchases today at another (better?) store, I ended up at $110. That includes some stuff for Danny, too, so I'm cautiously optimistic for staying within my food budget.

In addition to the grocery store, Danny and I went to the UPEI bookstore, the farmer's market across from the school, Mark's Work Wearhouse and the "Bulk Barn". At the bookstore I got my school supplies: dissection kit with scapel blades, a penlight, a digital thermometer (in Celcius, ack!) and a box of nitrile gloves. I'm going to hold off on the textbooks until I've researched a list of the ones I want but I'd like to have them before starting on Monday.

The farmer's market is across the street from the school but is only open Wednesdays and Saturdays, so Danny and I will go back tomorrow. I'm hoping produce and meat is somewhat cheaper there because it's expensive in the stores. It's nice to support local farmers too, which was significantly harder to do in urban College Park. Anyway, we left there and headed to Mark's Work Wearhouse, where I purchased my coveralls for the year. The lady there was really nice and guessed my size accurately (because they're in men's sizes I had no idea what I needed). She advised that I wash them once and bring them back for alterations which I think are free - yay!

Between Mark's and the grocery store was a place called the Bulk Barn that sells a huge variety of stuff in bulk. I'm planning to get pasta and soup mix there at the very least, which should help with my ridiculous grocery bills. No meat or produce there though, unfortunately, and the dried fruit is no less expensive. I may need to find new recipes so I can eat a little more cheaply.

Anyway, we've been busy, which is good. The island is lovely and the people very nice. I do feel conspicuously foreign here - I have to ask if they accept certain credit cards, have to fiddle over their coin money, and so on - but so far I've managed my way around without too much clumsiness. My parents should be here tomorrow or the next day and I'm looking forward to showing them my place. I'm hoping Danny and I can make it up to the beach sometime soon and hike in the national park. So much to do keeps my mind off the fact that I'll be on my own in less than a week.

Prince Edward Island!

So after a long and harrowing journey, Danny, Ella and myself have arrived and settled in my little house north of Charlottetown. We got in last night around 7:30pm, met the landlord and lady (who are super nice!) and got ourselves a pizza in town. The house is fairly rural but it's only a 20min ride into Charlottetown so I'm not complaining. We weren't long for the world after that and went to bed.

Ella was a bit restless last night (as she was in the hotel on Saturday night) and figuring she had to go out, bundled up against the cool night air and took her outside. Used to the lights and sounds and activities of an urban city, I was blown away by the utter silence I was met with! I literally felt like I was the only one in the world out there in my PJs, haha. Anyway, Ella finally settled back down and I was able to sleep in a bit.

Woke up this morning to a beautiful day. Last night the land people(?) were telling us how hot it was and it couldn't have been more than 75F, which is positively lovely weather in DC! Today is pretty breezy but probably in the low 70s and sunny. (As a side note, I'll need to get used to using Celcius instead of Farenheit, eek.) So Danny and I ate breakfast at Tim Horton's, which is a breakfast/lunch fast food type place up here. I ordered a ham and cheese tea biscuit, just because it's such a cool name. We then went to the bank where I set up a checking account, which will likely come in handy when I need to you know, pay bills and such! We're now watching The Price is Right (I can't sever all American ties just yet) and will be headed out to the grocery store in a little while. There's still so much to write about (and pictures to take) but I've about exhausted my typing skills for now. More later!

Another day of packing.

Fortunately for myself, I've been much more productive today that the past two just about combined. There's still a ton to do, unaided by the fact that my boyfriend still has a lot of stuff here that he needs to move out. I'm not really sure when that will happen, but I suppose it just will. He'll be taking some stuff (hopefully all of it) tomorrow, so that will help with the amount of stuff I perceive I need to pack, versus what I actually need to pack.

Anyway. About half the dishes are packed up, the kitchen looks like someone ransacked it, my closet is empty of my clothes, the hallway closet is emptied of jackets and such and the things that will be coming with me is a growing pile in the living room. I've been labeling the boxes as I go, which may be useful in the unpacking. May not, either, but better an extra organizing step, eh?

I've been feeling off the past few days, both physically and mentally but I think I've crested the hill to the other side (which is titled Just Do It, in my mind). Ella's picked up that something is going on and seems a bit restless too. Ah, well. Not much to do but keep packing and get up there.

Last weekend State-side.

So this past weekend was my last one at home for a good while and it was pretty nice. Turns out that my surprise (referenced a couple of posts ago) was a going away party for me with a handful of family and friends and quite a bit more than a handful of amazing food. My father is an excellent cook and made a variety of stuff - pesto pasta, swordfish chunks, rice salad, regular salad, pork loin, rib roast...there's never a shortage when he cooks. I should have taken a picture of the cake (complete with pink, from-scratch icing!) they made me but it's long gone by now.

On Sunday I managed to move the couch and chair to my parents garage with Danny's help (by which I mean Danny did everything but I drove!) and then proceeded to the county fair to browse the animals and eat some fair food. It was bittersweet because the fair always marks the end of summer in my mind and now it isn't only the end of summer, it's the end of this...period of my life, I guess you could say. Fitting but also kind of sad. The whole weekend was a little sad if I'm being honest, but that's what this change is about in some ways. So I'm not dwelling.

Today was my first day of actual packing and I didn't do much. I kind of drift around my apartment wondering where to start and it's probably a little more than pathetic. Today I managed to pack up the bathroom and ended up tossing a ton of lotion/spritz/etc that people seem to buy as default gifts for girls. I felt bad but if I haven't used it in the years since I've had it, it isn't worth lugging to Canada. In fact, I have to be a little severe with myself when it comes to what to keep and what to toss, but it isn't too bad just yet. So the bathroom is packed as well as my desk contents (pens, paper, etc) and neatly labeled in my plastic drawers. I took the desk and little end table that Danny's grandfather built himself over to my parents to store as well as a box of shoes, purses and paperwork.

I think the next biggest project is going to be the kitchen, what with all of the dishes and such, but I have all week. I can't bring myself to take down my art or disassemble anything in my bedroom just yet, so that will be left until Friday. Tomorrow I think I'll tackle my Visa paperwork and bring some more stuff to my parents. Going to be a busy week!

Panic sets in.

I sit here as a big, beautiful thunderstorm rolls in. Rain and thunderstorms are my favorite kind of weather, for some reason, and I feel quite cozy in my apartment looking out (nevermind that soon the dog will start to freak out).

To be honest with you, I'm procrastinating the start of packing up my things. My boyfriend and I are headed over to my parents this afternoon and I'm planning to bring some things over with me. I don't even know where to start, looking at it all. I know generally what needs to stay and what needs to go, but a part of my brain is arguing that I still have a week left here and what-if this and what about that are floating all around. I don't think it really hit me until yesterday (my last day of work) that I'm going to be leaving and will be gone for big chunks of time. I felt the first stabs of panic, thinking about my dad's surgery, my mom's birthday, my parents getting a dog, my boyfriend taking his engineer's test and Thanksgiving all passing by without my being there. I'm not sure if it's because this is my first time actually moving away from home (although I haven't lived with my parents for years I've been only a 30min drive away) or because it's another country...but I'm feeling a little green around the gills at the thought of it all. I know once school starts up I'll be too busy to even think about it but for now, it's looming.

Anyway, I didn't mean for this to be a pessimistic post. I'm excited about getting up there and settling in, spending that last week with my boyfriend and starting school. I know it'll be worth it. But for now, on this side of the biggest change in my life thus far, it's a wee bit intimidating.

In which I return.

I don't think I've even been on a computer (or my iPad) since I last posted here what, nine days ago?

Last weekend was busy: I had lunch with my mom's side of the family for my grandmother's birthday on Saturday, then went shopping for a couple of school things (jeans, mainly, though I ended up with a super-cute umbrella. What would I do without Target?) and then headed up to Frederick to visit friends with Danny. Sunday I went to the barn, where I had a mostly quiet trail ride on a crusty old pony called Patch. The shady woods and walking pace were a nice contrast to our normal lessons, even if I was still hot and sweaty upon our arrival back to the barn. Oh, and Patch tried to buck me off cantering up a hill. No big deal, right? I'd probably be the only person in the history of the earth to fall off that old man. Carolyn, my instructor, even told me I'd have to fill out the incident report, which I would be far too embarassed to do. Saved myself before ending face-first into the mud, though- whew! Later that evening Danny and I went out to Buca di Beppo (an Italian place), since he had to stop by work in DC to check on something and there's one not a block away. They have THE BEST salad (apple gorgonzola, which sounds strange, I admit, but is really, really excellent) and we ended up with plenty of leftovers for a delicious lunch on Monday.

Speaking of Monday, this work week has been pretty hectic. My last day is Friday - how the heck did the summer go by so fast?! - and while I'll definitely miss everyone I can't say I won't appreciate the break. Yesterday was particularly bad in all aspects so my fingers are crossed for a normal, quiet Friday. Today is my day off for the week, and well-placed it is. I don't have all too much to do and already wasted a couple of hours reading my most favorite book ever (Outlander, by Diana Gabboldan). There's really nothing quite like waking up and reading until oh hello, it's lunch time! I finally forced myself out of bed, got some Potbelly's (a sub place) and visited the Verizon store to discuss my options for when I move to Canada. They were most unhelpful, but oh well. Best go off to investigate some more.

Ella versus the Kong

My dog, Ella, is an old dog. I got her from the humane society four years ago at which point we estimated her to be five years old. Shortly thereafter we discovered that both hips were in extremely bad condition - arthritis, trauma, something had happened in her past. My vet told me we should add on five to seven years on whatever age we thought she was, making her anywhere from ten to twelve at that point. Four years ago, remember. So I expect Ella is anywhere above the age of twelve, although if I'm being honest I think that's a kind estimate. She's gone almost entirely deaf since I got her, though her health is otherwise pretty good (knock on wood!) It took her a bit longer to recover from her dental a couple of weeks ago and we discovered a grade I heart murmur just after she went down under the gas.

Anyway. Ella is not only old, she's an interesting character. She has an aloofness to her around most other people, a sort of old lady, prissy dog dignity that makes her come across as too good for a lot of things. Such as romping with my sister's adorable Boston Terrier pup Trudy, playing with toys, coming immediately when called, overt displays of enthusiasm and the like. She isn't an overly affectionate dog to anyone (myself included) but she has her ways of showing that she does in fact love some people more than others. Although the 'some people' group is very limited!

Being so dignified (or snooty), she doesn't much care for toys. But today we went to Petco and I bought her a treat-dispensing Kong, hoping it'll give her something exciting to do while I'm away at school for hours on end. And to my surprise, she actually worked on it! Not in a crazed, starved, wild dog fashion but far moreso than I expected. I may end up altering the toy to make it a little easier (she's given up now) but overall I'm kind of happy about it all. Ella is not above everything in this life! And because I can, here's a picture of Ella scoping out the toy (obviously I'm no photographer, but you get the idea).

Mmm.

If there's one good thing about my summer job (and really there are many), it's the steady supply of birthday cake. Anytime it's anyone's birthday they get a full (and delicious!) birthday cake and a big ol' bouquet of flowers. So far there have been at least three birthdays, all different cakes and ugh; I don't think I've eaten so much cake in my life!

I had to work today, but it was an early finish despite the daunting, every-line-filled schedule. I find that these sorts of days are really the best because they're busy enough to keep you from looking at the clock but smooth enough that you don't get behind and have to run around like a crazy person, make mistakes, etc. So a good day, even if it is the weekend and I would have preferred to sleep in and be lazy :)

A hodgepodge.

Another day off, although this one wasn't quite as badly needed as others since it's only Tuesday. I have quite a bit ahead of me this week with work until Saturday, a barbecue on Saturday afternoon with old friends and riding on Sunday.

I've been productive today at least: got my rabies booster shot and bought myself a lunchbox for school. The lunchbox isn't really as big as I was planning but it was too stinkin' cute not to have so I went for it. It should be big enough to carry what I need plus about half the price of the Vera Bradley one I had my eye on so it's a win-win situation. My sister came with me to buy the lunchbox, and had lunch with me first. It was nice to catch up with her since it seems like preparing to move/vet school has consumed my life and those of the people around me.

Lastly, Danny has a surprise for me and I can't figure out what it is. He says I need to "wait a few weeks" which is right when we're driving up to Canada so it must have something to do with that but darn if I can't even begin to guess. It'll be driving me nuts until then!

Edit: The lunchbox! :)

Ack.

My "before vet school" to-do list is dwindling. So much so that all I'm really left with is sending in paperwork, getting Ella squared away and then preparing for the move! I don't know that I'm really ready to look it in the face yet (i.e: start packing) but I know I'll be better off the earlier I start. So I'm going to start sorting out what will be stored at my parents house versus what will be coming with me. Then I'm going to start getting stuff over there. Apparently I also need to keep a list of things that I'm bringing up in case the border people need it.

A big part of this move is going to be Ella. I'm going to assemble a doggy travel pack and find for a place to stay the night before we cross over into Canada.

I know this post is terribly disjointed, short and likely boring. Hopefully something more productive in a couple days time!

Day off!

I have today off and man have I made good use of it! I've been running around since 8:00 this morning getting stuff done and it feels great to have knocked so much off of my list. One of the highlights of today was visiting my old work and having lunch with my coworkers. It was so nice to see everyone again and eat the amazing food cooked by the boss's wife. Pulled pork sandwiches were my favorite but it was all really delicious. My boss also gave me a couple of leads to follow regarding summer work for next summer, when I really hope to delve into lab animal stuff full-swing as a vet student.

I also found a new facial moisturizer/sunscreen. (I know that seems out of place in a vet-based blog but I hope that I can keep my posts different and interesting, not just "I'm so busy!" or "I'm so tired!" or stuff like that.) Anyway, I'm pretty big into skin care although I don't wear make-up and recognize how important sun protection is. So I tried one kind by philosophy (whose shampoo/shower gels are AMAZING) but had some minor breakouts. Today at the grocery store I bought another (cheaper) kind by Neutrogena - so far so good! I'll see how my face is tomorrow and if no breakouts, I'll have a new winner.

There's so much I could go into about today but I'm going to leave it at that. Back to work tomorrow!

Happiness is...

Getting home with just enough time to relax a tiny bit. Or write a blog post or watch some stupid TV or even read a couple pages of a book. But that time is just about up now so to bed I go. Happy Monday!

Home and all it entails...

So I'm home from Texas. We had a great time down there visiting/meeting Danny's family but boy was it hot down there. The plus side was that while it was hot, it wasn't nearly as humid, so a fair enough trade. Anyway, our flight was in relatively late (for me at least, since I like to get to bed embarrassingly early) and I had to work the next day. Not letting Danny make flight arrangements anymore!

Work is work..long busy days. I managed to snag a day off next week so I can start knocking off things on my to do list, which manages to grow every time I turn around, ugh. It isn't so bad though because it's all exciting vet school stuff but due dates (and my move/classes) are creeping closer faster than I can believe!

Anyway, since it's still early yet I'm going to watch my cooking show on TV and switch my laundry over to the dryer. Goodnight!

Vacation?!

The boyfriend and I are headed out of town this weekend to attend an informal family reunion (of his family). This will be the first time I've had off work for a while - or at least a day where we're open but I'm not in! It should be relaxing, although hotter than hell itself; Dallas, Texas will be at least 100F if not higher all of the days we're there. Ugh. At least the humidity is no where near that of the DC area.

On the vet school front, not much news. I need to get my rabies titer results from the health center but the woman who can give them to me never answers her phone and I don't want to go until I hear from her. I also need to complete more financial aid info but I did manage to get my PIN approved and correct my FAFSA (who spells their first name wrong?! That would be me). So the long and short of it is that I've gotten some stuff done but not lately, with all this work I've been doing. Plus side is that I'm saving a lot, which was another "to do"!

Eeeeee!

Just wanted to update from my NEW ipad2! I've got some excellent free apps already but need to investigate good note-taking ones for school. Whee :)

Holy guacamole.

I don't even know where to begin except to say I'm sorry for falling off of the face of the earth there for a week. I ended up having to work for someone who was sick on my two scheduled days off (Monday and Tuesday), but she couldn't switch with me on any of the other days so I got stuck working every single day this week. Which sounds normal for most people but when the days are at least ten hours long and you get fifteeen minutes to shove your lunch down your throat before going back into the melee...it's not easy. I don't really know how I made it through the week, but here I am on a Saturday morning blogging so it happened somehow!

As though being physically, mentally and emotionally tired were not enough, I came home to a broken air conditioning on Thursday night. I wrote a maintenance request before work and came home to it being marked as completed. Well guess what? It wasn't. So I called the emergency maintenance line and a guy came out (while my boyfriend and I were out at dinner at Chevy's. Best part of my week.) to install a window unit to tide me over until the big guns can come in and fix the thing on Monday. Except I think he means Tuesday because Monday is the 4th of July. Which is tied for my favorite holiday with Christmas, so yay for fireworks!

As you may have guessed, because I had zero time off this whole week, I have an unimaginably huge list of things to do this weekend. Since I got my FAFSA pin information in the mail I can fill out more financial aid info, but I also need to tidy up the apartment because frankly, it's appalling. So off I go to toss in some laundry!

Just another day.

So I went to work today (and may go to work tomorrow) despite being marked as off. Someone called in sick and I didn't have anything else to do so I didn't mind necessarily. It's amazing how much of a difference there is in working an eight hour day vs a ten hour day! I felt tired leaving but not nearly as exhausted as usual and I felt like the day moved faster instead of dragging out as it sometimes does, though it was a surprisingly light schedule for a Monday. Added bonus was I scheduled Ella's dental/microchip appointment for July 15. Another thing I'll be able to cross off that to-do list!

Anyway, I treated myself to Arby's for dinner because I was just too lazy to make myself dinner. Whoops. But I've been really good about not eating out/saving money AND eating relatively healthily (down to a weight ending in 6.5 on the scale - woo!) so I didn't feel too guilty about scarfing some junk food. A nice way to end a relatively nice day.

Crazy busy

I feel like a lot of my posts are just different ways of saying the same thing: I'm busy! I go to work (yesterday was probably the most insane I've ever seen it. I didn't leave until 7:45pm, which clocked me 11.5 hours of work), have my days off, try to get things done on my days off. Rinse and repeat.

So today, my day off, I did get a call asking me to come in but I declined as politely as possible. I just have too much to do and this week has been super hectic there and I honestly want to relax a bit. Which I think is fair, even though I felt guilty about it. Anyway, I got my FAFSA filled out and managed to spell my first name wrong. I felt like a major idiot. So I have to wait for them to process it and send it back so I can switch around two letters. Grr. But now that I've started on the financial aid stuff I feel better. It isn't even all that tedious, which is nice.

Anyway, I'm starting to get excited for school. Nervous too, but mostly excited for now. I hope all of my productivity on my days off pays off in the end!

Weekend...gone!

I feel like weekends just fly by lately. I think it's a combination of me sleeping in as much as possible (hey, I likely won't have that luxury during vet school!), switching my riding day to Sunday instead of Thursday nights, and working every other weekend. By the time I'm done with any of those things half of each of the day is gone. Fortunately, I still have time to get the necessary household chores done like laundry for the week, grocery shopping for weekday lunch stuff, dishes AND can fit in some reading and general laziness. I have the feeling August and all it entails will be here before I know it which is exciting and scary all in one.

No good subject ideas..

Yesterday was my first pay day - yay! It's going to really help my savings for vet school to work this job so I can't complain. I also can't complain in general - things are going really well for me this summer. I struggled at first at the new job (and missed the lab animals a lot!) but I'm definitely catching up and feeling more competent. I've been getting a good ratio of long, hard work days and days off (like today) so I don't feel overwhelmed or lazy on any given day. Except Tuesday. I read all day Tuesday :)

I'm going to scroll down to my vet school to do list and check some more things off, but I still have a lot that needs to be done. One of those things is compiling a list of classes/teachers for my supervisor from the lab. Apparently her neighbor's son wants to go to vet school but isn't doing so hot in classes. She knows I struggled in the same way so I'm hoping I can help him out a little. Anyway, off I go to be productive.

Sick dog

My dog, Ella, has had three instances of liquid diarrhea over the last three months. Found out today she's got hookworm. So she's got Panacur lined up and I'll get some more Heartgard for her on Monday. My guess is she picked it up from walking around the apartment complex where other infected dogs have left it. Poor pup.

On my day off: happy thoughts!

Work has been wearing me down physically and mentally. I don't like feeling as though I'm not up to speed on everything and it's frustrating when I have to go get someone else to help because I don't know where something is or how to do something. But it's only been (almost) three weeks and I've already caught back up on a lot, so that's good.

Anyway, today I'm off - yay! My brain is now programmed to get up early but I convinced it to let me go back to sleep. So I slept late then went grocery shopping, cleaned out the fridge, faxed a piece of vet school paperwork and attempted to follow up on my rabies titer results. The OH lady is on vacation though, so that may have to wait. I still have to clean some pots and pans and make a couple of phone calls but I'm feeling good about being productive :)

Vegetarianism?

The past couple of days I've been considering becoming a vegetarian. I've been a meat eater my entire life and so this decision is not one to be made lightly and not something my family or close friends really understand. I am aware of the conditions in which the majority of food animals are raised and if I'm honest with myself, I don't agree with that sort of treatment of animals. My thought then was that I should become a vegetarian, although there is not a huge amount of meat in my diet anyway.

However, I do not have a problem with raising animals just to be eaten. So where does this leave me? I think my compromise point will be to buy meat that I know was raised in conditions that fit my moral compass. After doing some research, I've found that Whole Foods carries meats that are ranked by Step (1-5+) by the Global Animal Partnership. I would have no problem purchasing these meats to eat because I know that they are certified by a third party with the animals' interests in mind.

The only problem is that the nearest Whole Foods is not exactly convenient for weekly shopping. So my tentative plan going forward is to visit Whole Foods every two weeks (or even monthly), stock up on some "happy meat" and go from there. PB&J will take the place of my turkey sandwiches for lunch and veggie burgers can be a substitute for meat so that I both limit my meat intake and don't have to spend a small fortune on this new take on meat. I will update you after my first visit and let you know how it pans out!

Summer time and the living is not easy!

I started work at the small animal hospital this week. It was where I got some of my first true veterinary experience as a high school intern, so it's nice to come back and see a lot of familiar people. But I had forgotten just how long the days are (10 hours!) and how tough it is on your body. Fortunately I have a four day weekend this weekend with Memorial Day and then another day off so I have time to catch up on all of the things that I've gotten behind on! Leaving the house at 6:45am and returning home around 9pm isn't exactly conducive to productivity. I have a pretty big to-do list for the next couple of days.

Summer to do.

Graduation was lovely and my family and boyfriend ended up surprising me afterward and taking me to the Melting Pot, one of my favorite restaurants (who doesn't love fondue?!) This means that I have seven pieces of chicken to cook and eat by myself but it was worth it.

Anyway, I need a place to consolidate my to-do list for this summer in preparation for vet school. So today's post is going to be just that.

Have blood pulled for rabies titer - done
Pick up results
Have PPH write letter confirming I did receive my vaccines there
Request transcripts be sent - done
Mail rent deposit for housing - done
Mail AVMA membership (done), titer results, vaccine letter to school
Schedule dental, rabies vaccine and cert. of health for Ella
Sign paperwork to end lease on apartment by July 21 - done
Switch cell phone plans
Donate books/clothes to Goodwill - done; will do more
Book Danny's return flight
Pack and leave night of August 19th!

The end and the beginning.

So I survived finals and passed my classes! Not that I was expecting to bomb any, but it's still comforting. Graduation is tomorrow, work at the small animal hospital starts Monday and August couldn't seem farther away. But I know the time will fly quickly once I become busy. In fact, after this weekend I'm allowed to start focusing on vet school related things (and the list is nearly endless!) since I'm done with finals and will be all graduated.

Today will be spent grocery shopping and cleaning the apartment. I'm going to have my parents, sister and boyfriend over after graduation for dinner since I'm pretty sure all of the restaurants will be full with new graduates and their families. I'm planning for a little appetizer, lemon chicken breasts, rice, salad, green beans if they're fresh and a cute little dessert of some sort. I love to cook so hopefully this will be a nice change of pace for everyone!

Finals

All quiet on the blogging front for the next seven days as I tackle my last finals as an undergraduate. I have statistics, biochemistry, (weekend), insects, advanced crops and soils in that order. Then I have next Thursday off and I graduate on Friday. Even though it seems far off now I know finals week will fly by. So it's off to studying I go. Hopefully I can report back as a successful graduate!

Horse racing

Every year from as early as I can remember, I've watched the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont. My grandfather was a horseracing fan (taping over my baptism video with a running of the Preakness - whoops!) and my mother after him. II grew up in a family that loved the sport.

In April of 2008, my mom and I went to Arkansas on my high school spring break. It was a follow-up trip made after visiting Kentucky a year before and watching the horses run at Keeneland. Oaklawn Park was another fabled track and we were determined to see it! There was the first time I saw Eight Belles run: a magnificent mare. I clicked pictures eagerly from my place on the outside rail as they broke from the gate.

When Eight Belles broke down in the Derby that year, I was devastated. I felt a personal connection to her; I wasn't just another spectator who knew nothing about the horses and wanted the long-shot filly to pull through. As I watched her collapse on the track, I knew I had to understand this racing world better. I researched it all for a project and came away with a terrible sense of being torn. The sport I loved so dearly - running physically undeveloped horses, pounding on their fragile joints, recklessly inbreeding. The list went on. I knew that as someone who cared about animals I couldn't support these rituals. But I couldn't keep myself away from the seemingly exuberant air of the track.

Later, I went to a local track one day on one of their big race days. As we watched the horses turn the bend in one of the less important races, scorching down the stretch, I noticed one of them had something flapping around their feet. It only took me a second - and much before everyone else - to realize that it was her feet flapping around her ankles. Both fetlocks had completely blown out and still she struggled to run. It was absolutely heart-breaking. The vets rushed out, errected a screen and euthanized her immediately. It wasn't the euthanization that bothered me, of course, but the way that it all seemed so routine. I read the paper covering the event the next day and saw no mention of Little Harbor's breakdown. As though it hadn't even happened.

So when I watch the Kentucky Derby now, it's with my heart in my throat. I want those horses to have a safe trip. I want them to move on to those lush breeding barns where they can - for the first time in their lives - be horses.

Close to the finish line.

Graduation is fast approaching. Classes end Tuesday, finals end the Wednesday after that. Essentially two more weeks until I'm finished and my brain is just starting to realize it! I think it clicked when I picked up my graduation robes on Wednesday. I don't have much motivation to slog through these last couple of days of class, save the fact that I need to do well in two for vet school. I'm not really worried about them, though, because I know I'll pass.

So I've begun to consider what I'll miss about undergrad. The rainy days when my pants get soaked to my ankles walking to class? The sweltering summer days I survived when living in the air conditioning-less dorms? The huge stretch of winter break that nearly makes one want to go back to school? The crime of this corrupted, sorry city? No, none of that. I'll do my best to remember the homecoming parades I was a part of. The semester I developed an interest in teaching through being a TA. The time I got front row seats to a big rivals basketball game. The sense of absolute belonging I feel every day that I set foot on campus. Those will be the things I miss.

But most of all I'm going to miss those damn ferrets. I can't say I'm not excited to have been called up by my old boss to be offered a job paying so much better. But I can't say I won't miss them digging out all their food after I just filled the feeder, sleeping in a giant pile where only feet, tails and whiskers can be distinguished and escaping to scamper across the floor. I really will miss them most of all.

Career choice

I was reading an online forum where high schoolers with a pre-health focus go to ask questions. One of the threads was asking members what kind of doctor they want to be and why. It was amusing to read their responses (and I mean that in the least condescending way possible) because of where I once was and where I am now. There's a long and boring story about my path to veterinary medicine, but it wasn't unlike those high schoolers in the forum. I had it all planned out. I guess what strikes me, here today, is that even within my career path of choice, I've changed my mind about as many times as you can. I wanted to do equine, I wanted to do large animal, I considered zoo and wildlife. Lab animal was sort of this unexplored area that I didn't think I'd like. In fact, I bristled inwardly when people told me that I'd change my mind.

But I did. Guess where I'm pointed? That's right! Lab animal.

Lab animal vets, and vets who work in public health and research and that sort of thing, aren't your typical vets. It's almost like they have their own little sub-field away from the others because they aren't exactly practicing vets in the way that the public thinks of a vet. And while every type of veterinarian is needed in his or her own way, I feel like lab animal medicine is really the place for me. I don't want the "traditional" experience of treating patients and working with clients. I want to be on the edge of things, learning and helping people to learn through animals. I want to teach, too, when I've learned enough to pass on. And it's just so funny to sit here and reflect back on who I was and what I was thinking when I was the age of those forum-goers. And I'm sure, in four years when I'm finishing my DVM I'll reflect back and probably smile too. I just don't know what I'll be smiling at, just yet.

Productivity!

There isn't much in the world that makes me feel as good as having a productive day. I spent the day cleaning the apartment and stocking the fridge. Overall a good weekend. Next week is my last full week of classes as an undergraduate, which is both glorious and terrifying. I've told myself that I won't start worrying over vet school-related stuff until after I graduate but that date creeps closer and closer. Let's hope I can have a productive summer, too.

In which I learn about termites.

The miracle of education is that, at some point or another, something you learn in one class will pop up in another one. While I feel like my education thus far has been fairly cohesive, it wasn't until this semester that my classes started merging left right and center.

Take today, for example. In my insects class, we discussed termites as a part of our overall study of orders of insects. (Termites are 'isoptera', if you were wondering.) The next class I went to was soil science, where we discussed termites as a part of soil ecology. So for 125 minutes of my day, I learned all about termites. I was amazed at how complex their lives/role in the world really are! Just one of the many underappreciated concepts I've come across during my stint in higher education.

Which gets me to thinking. Because I realized (not today with the termites, but not all that long ago either) that I legitimately love to learn. I drink up all these strange facts and uncommon bits of knowledge like a sponge! And then relay them ruthlessly to whoever will listen, but that's not really the point. My love of learning is probably connected to my love of reading, because science and life and all that jazz is kind of like a never-ending novel (a dream come true!), where there are twists and turns in the plot and its all like one big murder mystery where you really don't know what to expect at the end. And I hope that when I get to vet school I still love to learn and piece things together on my way to the end of the book. The joy of it all - of a career in science, at least - is that the end never really comes, and you're always going to be on your toes.

The Ferret Room

Naming a blog is a lot like hard-boiling eggs or drawing: a lot harder than it seems! Most blogs out there are named after their content, which gives the reader some idea of what they might find browsing through. I created this blog initially because I want to write about my experiences in veterinary school when I start at the end of August. But I realized that over the past few years, I've considered blogging about a lot of aspects of my life: cooking, riding, school, hopes and dreams and aspirations. Being accepted into veterinary school and moving 1,000 miles from home seems like a good time to start!

So, what's in a name? Where I work, we have a colony of ferrets who live in "The Ferret Room". Over the three years of my employment, I've found that the ferret room is where I get a lot of my thinking done. And so maybe this blog can be a place to reflect on my life, "the ferret room" of cyberspace. Let's hope I can keep it up!