I haven't forgotten about my blog!
So vet school is keeping me busy...who would've thought? I have my first official vet school exam tomorrow morning at 10 am so I've been studying like a madwoman. I don't think I've ever studied this much in my entire life. Although it's a lot easier to study when you don't have to worry about a job. Nice how that works out. I thought it would be weird not working for the first time since 9th grade, but honestly I love it. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I actually understand the material I'm learning and I'm confident about it (most of it anyway. Physiology is a different story...). So I'm only a little nervous about the exam tomorrow. Mainly because the professor is new to me, so I don't know how her exams are going to go. But I'm going to kick ass on the actual material. Studying is a lot more bearable and even a little fun when you understand it.
Honestly, class and studying takes up the VAST majority of my time, which sounds like an obvious statement. But really, I go to class from about 8-3 every day, then I literally study from about 4:30-11:30. It's crazy. Sometimes I take a lunch or dinner break though! And in those breaks, I've been going to club meetings. I'm determined to be super involved in things in vet school and it starts right now:
SAVMA - Student chapter of the American Veterinary Medicine Association. It's required to join any school clubs, but it also has tons of benefits. For example, scholarships that you can use to go on trips for other clubs.
CMC - Canine Medicine Club. We do a lot with the kennel dogs on campus. Today, we did obedience training with them. Hot, sweaty, but really fun. And I got to get rid of these super nasty chicken nuggets that I bought. Luckily most dogs will eat anything.
ABC - Animal Behavior Club. They do some things that are kind of similar to CMC, but they also have behavioral research going on and we get to clicker train the donkeys. They also have speakers coming in to talk to us about equine behavior, marine mammal behavior, dealing with aggression/anxiety in pets, and other cool stuff. Also DIY cat toys and agility courses :)
VIDA - I don't remember what this stands for, but we provide veterinary services for families in financial need on St. Kitts. There is also a section of VIDA that goes to other countries and does spay/neuter clinics. They recently went to Guatemala and next they are going to Costa Rica. I definitely want to that, but it's been said that you'll get more out of it once you get further into your anatomy classes, so I'm thinking maybe 3rd or 4th semester. But on the island, they do heartworm tests, vaccines, toenail trims, medications, exams, blood tests, and anything else that can be done fairly easy with portable resources.
They also do a lot with PAWS (People for Animal Welfare on St. Kitts).
Adventure Club! We go on adventures/hikes around the island! I'm super excited about this one, although I had to miss the first hike. I can't wait for the next one.
SVECCS - Student Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care...something. Emergency club. This is another one I'm really pumped about because they do a lot of wet labs (I think these are just opportunities for hands on learning, possibly on live animals instead of models) and they are doing stuff like IV catheter placement, urinary catheter placement, and ultrasounds. Some of the students also go on trips (the last one was to South Africa) to do wildlife emergency medicine. They work with this world renowned vet and they dart rhinos and dehorn them (so they are less likely to get poached for their horns), administering medication to animals...lots of cool stuff. This might be with a different club though. The meeting was a while ago. I can't remember everything. I have too much information stuffed in my brain as it is.
I'm also joining an intramural beach volleyball team. It's a beer league and they play every friday. It's going to be awesome to have at least one night every week that I HAVE to relax because I made a commitment to be there :) I believe our first game will be this Friday. We need a team name too. Any suggestions?
I recently discovered this notecard application online that has been way helpful. I've spent hours studying on it and it really helps you memorize the material. You have to type in your answer, so you aren't just "looking" at it to memorize it, so it tests your actual memory. It also keeps track of the ones you've gotten wrong and it will bring those ones up more often. So if you have any friends that are still in school, RECOMMEND DOWNLOADING GENIUS TO THEM. You will be improving their quality of life.
The island is still gorgeous. We had our fun with Tropical Storm Maria, but ever since then, it's pretty much sunshine all day every day. Except for maybe a random hour every day when we get a sporadic downpour of rain (sun stays out, by the way) and then it's EXTREMELY humid afterwards, it's pretty perfect, climate-wise. We do have the occasional weird days where it rains constantly, but that is just the universe saying "You've had enough vitamin D. Stay inside and take a nap." You can't really check any weather websites for the weather, because it can be raining in one spot and then 2 miles down the road it's not. You can see the mountains right across from campus and it always looks like it's raining on top of the mountain, but it only rains a little bit on campus. Nice.
In sad news, I haven't been to the beach in two weekends! Man, my life sucks.
I saw "Contagion" this weekend! I really liked it. If you aren't into science or medicine it all, only go if it's free for you, but if you are interested in science at all, I highly recommend it. If nothing else, it's exciting.
I guess I should actually get some sleep before my exam. I just wanted to update my poor neglected blog. Things to see, people to do....woops... :)
09/09/2011
Let's go away for a while, you and I, to a far and distant land
So it's been a while since I've written... as you can probably guess, I'm WAY busy with classes now. Although, by now, I'm kind of getting an idea of what classes I need to freak out about and what classes I can relax with...but only a little bit. This is the beginning of the rest of my life, after all.
A lot has happened since I last wrote. I think I'll start with the island tour.
Our driver, Sackville, took us on a tour of the island. Tours are his specialty, so he was awesome at it. We got to stop at Brimstone Hill, which was an English fortress that they used in wars against the French, who landed on St. Kitts not long after the British, as well as other people. It was pretty awesome. I don't have my camera with me right now, so I can't put pictures up right now, but soon, friends...soon. We also saw some less famous places but that are popular with natives and anyone else who knows the island. Like, the bottle tree. I guess some guys go there to play some game (I remember thinking it wasn't a very cool game but I don't remember what it was. Something like checkers.) and they drink a lot while they are there and then they hang the bottles on a tree. That's it. But it's cool looking. We also saw petroglyphs of a fertility symbol on a rock. We drove through all the different villages on the island and they are all pretty similar, while still being distinctly different from each other, if that makes sense. We got to go to Carib Batik, where they make batik things (if you don't know what that is, look it up. It's really cool) and all around Carib Batik was the rainforest and pretty gardens (pictures to come later).
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we were warned about this place called "Irish town" which, by the way, has no symbols, names, or shops resembling anything remotely irish. When the speakers were describing it during orientation, our group wasn't quite sure where it was, so we asked our driver to show us where we shouldn't go. However, he decided to mess with us and say "This is the way that you shouldn't turn...but let's do it anyway." Haha so we went to Irish town and honestly, it wasn't too bad. It was pretty much my life: being irish in a place that resembles Detroit.
I don't remember a lot of orientation week after that. But then I actually had to start vet school...
Gross Anatomy I
Microanatomy
Intro to Vet Medicine
Animal Nutrition
Physiology I
The first day was TERRIFYING. I was reconsidering my career choice for a second. But the second day was much better and it just gets a little more comfortable every day I have class. I've never had a physiology class before and our professor speaks SO SLOWLY. So I daydream a lot in that class and then I realize that I just missed about 5 pages of notes. Luckily he puts his notes online, so I can at least have those. He only writes on the top third of the page so it's a huge waste of paper, but I'll make it up to the environment when I'm a vet. I wish I could post a little snippet of a lecture. I swear, my professor says about 10 words a minute. He speaks like every word he says is the meaning of life.
Something that I thought was really cool is that all of my professors have different accents. My physio professor sounds like he's from the island, so whatever that accent is...we'll call it Kittitian (which is a real thing on the island). My microanatomy professor is Spanish, although she sounds like my French teacher from high school, which is weird. My intro to vet med professor (the one I've met so far (we have about 5)) is Irish. My nutrition professor is from England and my anatomy professor is American (not exciting, but again, different from the rest of the professors). I really like the diversity among the staff and students here.
The semester olympics are this week and honestly, I've been too freaked out about studying to actually go and watch (1st semester represent!) but I decided I'm taking today off from studying and I am going to try to go to the football games tonight. There is also a mustache party tonight that I want to go to. Mustache ideas, anyone? Tomorrow, there is Mr. RUSVM which is apparently really popular but I totally forgot about it, so I still need to buy a ticket. We are also supposed to get hit with tropical storm Maria starting tonight so we'll see what happens.
I'm really trying to get super involved while I'm at Ross. I'm trying to go out and do more things, either a school thing or just with friends. Yesterday during lunch, there was a "club fair" where most of the clubs/organizations on campus had booths set up and stuff. I signed up to get information about all but 2 clubs. It may sound like a lot, but I think they have meetings like, once a month and a lot of them are during lunch so it will work out. Besides, I think it will look really good on a resume and they do have a lot of good clubs. One of them goes to different places doing spays/neuters or exams (they are going to Guatemala next, then Costa Rica after that, I think). There is an emergency vet club that gets to learn how to place catheters and they take shifts at the emergency clinic too. Another one I'm really excited about is ZEW (Zoo Exotics and Wildlife) and they take shifts at different zoos and do other things. They don't sound as exciting when I describe them but they are really cool.
Two other non-animal related ones are the adventure club that goes on hikes all around the island (this one is the one I'm looking forward to the most) and SCUBA club, which obviously gets you certified and you go on dives.
Another cool thing! We went on a catamaran trip on Saturday! It was awesome. I really miss sailing, especially the itty bitty boats, but I'll take a catamaran too :) I went snorkeling for the first time and although I didn't see anything super exciting (some people saw a sea turtle, others saw a sting ray, one person saw a water snake), I did see a cuttlefish. Honestly, the bright colored tropical fish swimming around was enough for me to consider it a successful first snorkeling trip. I think I should definitely invest in some snorkeling gear, because that's something I would do over and over. It was super cool. I wish I had an underwater camera.
Note to self: write about large animal palpation, white coat ceremony.
It's almost time for my first microanatomy lab so I have to get going, but one more quick note: I have recently become obsessed with the tv show "Chuck". If you haven't seen it, watch it so we can talk about it. I've literally been watching it almost nonstop since Sunday. It's invading my dreams. Love it.
Ok micro lab time. Talk to you cool cats later!
A lot has happened since I last wrote. I think I'll start with the island tour.
Our driver, Sackville, took us on a tour of the island. Tours are his specialty, so he was awesome at it. We got to stop at Brimstone Hill, which was an English fortress that they used in wars against the French, who landed on St. Kitts not long after the British, as well as other people. It was pretty awesome. I don't have my camera with me right now, so I can't put pictures up right now, but soon, friends...soon. We also saw some less famous places but that are popular with natives and anyone else who knows the island. Like, the bottle tree. I guess some guys go there to play some game (I remember thinking it wasn't a very cool game but I don't remember what it was. Something like checkers.) and they drink a lot while they are there and then they hang the bottles on a tree. That's it. But it's cool looking. We also saw petroglyphs of a fertility symbol on a rock. We drove through all the different villages on the island and they are all pretty similar, while still being distinctly different from each other, if that makes sense. We got to go to Carib Batik, where they make batik things (if you don't know what that is, look it up. It's really cool) and all around Carib Batik was the rainforest and pretty gardens (pictures to come later).
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we were warned about this place called "Irish town" which, by the way, has no symbols, names, or shops resembling anything remotely irish. When the speakers were describing it during orientation, our group wasn't quite sure where it was, so we asked our driver to show us where we shouldn't go. However, he decided to mess with us and say "This is the way that you shouldn't turn...but let's do it anyway." Haha so we went to Irish town and honestly, it wasn't too bad. It was pretty much my life: being irish in a place that resembles Detroit.
I don't remember a lot of orientation week after that. But then I actually had to start vet school...
Gross Anatomy I
Microanatomy
Intro to Vet Medicine
Animal Nutrition
Physiology I
The first day was TERRIFYING. I was reconsidering my career choice for a second. But the second day was much better and it just gets a little more comfortable every day I have class. I've never had a physiology class before and our professor speaks SO SLOWLY. So I daydream a lot in that class and then I realize that I just missed about 5 pages of notes. Luckily he puts his notes online, so I can at least have those. He only writes on the top third of the page so it's a huge waste of paper, but I'll make it up to the environment when I'm a vet. I wish I could post a little snippet of a lecture. I swear, my professor says about 10 words a minute. He speaks like every word he says is the meaning of life.
Something that I thought was really cool is that all of my professors have different accents. My physio professor sounds like he's from the island, so whatever that accent is...we'll call it Kittitian (which is a real thing on the island). My microanatomy professor is Spanish, although she sounds like my French teacher from high school, which is weird. My intro to vet med professor (the one I've met so far (we have about 5)) is Irish. My nutrition professor is from England and my anatomy professor is American (not exciting, but again, different from the rest of the professors). I really like the diversity among the staff and students here.
The semester olympics are this week and honestly, I've been too freaked out about studying to actually go and watch (1st semester represent!) but I decided I'm taking today off from studying and I am going to try to go to the football games tonight. There is also a mustache party tonight that I want to go to. Mustache ideas, anyone? Tomorrow, there is Mr. RUSVM which is apparently really popular but I totally forgot about it, so I still need to buy a ticket. We are also supposed to get hit with tropical storm Maria starting tonight so we'll see what happens.
I'm really trying to get super involved while I'm at Ross. I'm trying to go out and do more things, either a school thing or just with friends. Yesterday during lunch, there was a "club fair" where most of the clubs/organizations on campus had booths set up and stuff. I signed up to get information about all but 2 clubs. It may sound like a lot, but I think they have meetings like, once a month and a lot of them are during lunch so it will work out. Besides, I think it will look really good on a resume and they do have a lot of good clubs. One of them goes to different places doing spays/neuters or exams (they are going to Guatemala next, then Costa Rica after that, I think). There is an emergency vet club that gets to learn how to place catheters and they take shifts at the emergency clinic too. Another one I'm really excited about is ZEW (Zoo Exotics and Wildlife) and they take shifts at different zoos and do other things. They don't sound as exciting when I describe them but they are really cool.
Two other non-animal related ones are the adventure club that goes on hikes all around the island (this one is the one I'm looking forward to the most) and SCUBA club, which obviously gets you certified and you go on dives.
Another cool thing! We went on a catamaran trip on Saturday! It was awesome. I really miss sailing, especially the itty bitty boats, but I'll take a catamaran too :) I went snorkeling for the first time and although I didn't see anything super exciting (some people saw a sea turtle, others saw a sting ray, one person saw a water snake), I did see a cuttlefish. Honestly, the bright colored tropical fish swimming around was enough for me to consider it a successful first snorkeling trip. I think I should definitely invest in some snorkeling gear, because that's something I would do over and over. It was super cool. I wish I had an underwater camera.
Note to self: write about large animal palpation, white coat ceremony.
It's almost time for my first microanatomy lab so I have to get going, but one more quick note: I have recently become obsessed with the tv show "Chuck". If you haven't seen it, watch it so we can talk about it. I've literally been watching it almost nonstop since Sunday. It's invading my dreams. Love it.
Ok micro lab time. Talk to you cool cats later!
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