25/10/2011
If you have a minute why don't we go talk about it somewhere only we know
First round of exams: over. Passed all of them and got A's on 3/4! Just goes to show you that I do better in classes when I like the material.
I finally got to go to Shipwreck beach last weekend. I haven't been to the beach in WAY too long. It was awesome to go relax for a day. This weekend was our midsemester break, which really just means that we get an extra study day. But since we got that extra day, I was able to go to the beach for a day and not feel like I should be studying instead. It was great. Minus the sand fleas. But at least I can say it was a new experience.
It's "cooling down" on the island. I haven't paid attention to the actual temperature since I've been here but here's a Kittitian weather report: If you walk outside and start sweating immediately, its normal. If you walk outside and are hot but not sweating, it's chilly. That's about where we are now, and it's AMAZING. It's so nice to be able to sit outside for more than 5 minutes without having sweat drip off of your face.
I found an apartment! I'm going to be living in Golfview apartments in Frigate Bay. I went to check them out and they seem pretty nice. Anyone who I've met that lives there seems to like it and they feel safe there, so I guess I'm just going to go for it! Basically it allows pets and has a generator, so it fits my qualifications. Also, it has a pool and it's a 5 minute walk to the Marriott beach, the karaoke bar, and the pizza place :) It's reasonably priced for what you find on the island, but it was a huge smack in the face to have to pay $650 USD per month...per person...and that is a decent price. Yeah.
Nevis (our neighboring island) decided to burn like $1.5 million worth of illegal drugs, including cocaine, so for a good week or so, it smelled like pot everywhere on St. Kitts. Literally, a bonfire full of pot. It was coming in through my air conditioner at night so I would wake up really hungry in the morning. :) It's pretty much gone now, but everything in my room still reeks of it, so I'll have to figure out how NOT to smell like drugs anymore. I didn't really think this would be something I'd have to worry about at any point in my life...
Also something I didn't think I'd have to get used to: finding bugs in bags/boxes of pasta. It's only happened to me once, but pretty much everyone I know has opened a bag or box of pasta to have a few weevils (or so I'm told that's what they are) crawl out. The parasite lover in me says, "Hey! Protein!" The rest of me says, "SHIT!"
Today, we are having Dr. Fitzgerald from Animal Planet's "Emergency Vets" come and talk to us! I'm very excited even though I don't think I've ever seen the show (maybe once). It's the closest thing we will probably get to a celebrity on the island...and he's a celebrity in the world of vet medicine too. I'm getting really interested in emergency medicine too...I might just end up doing that for the rest of my life. Who knows? Also maybe something with infectious diseases with the CDC after vet school. I heard that if you work for the government for 5 years after vet school, they pay your student loans. It would totally be worth it.
I get to do my first VIDA clinic this Saturday! Every week, the club sends out an email and the first 8 people to respond get to go to a clinic and I'm always too late (and by "too late" I mean I reply to the email about 30 minutes after it's sent) but this week I got in! So this Saturday, I get to go around the island and provide free vet care for people who are in financial need. I probably also get to do some other stuff, like blood draws, heartworm tests, vaccines, or things like that. Since it's free, the vet who runs it lets students get practice on things. It's our payment for volunteering our time. By the way, I notice the oxymoron of "payment for volunteering".
Another cool thing I got to do is a vaccine wet lab! I got to mix and administer a vaccine for some of the kennel dogs! I was surprised at the number of people who have already given vaccines (considering they have never been technicians), but it was my first time doing one so it was really exciting :) There's not much else to say about it, but it's probably not as exciting if you aren't a vet student.
I'm going to try to go on a hike on the island, probably either on the volcano or up to the bat cave. I wanted to go this weekend, but it just didn't happen. More on that if I actually end up going.
Almost class time! See ya!
I finally got to go to Shipwreck beach last weekend. I haven't been to the beach in WAY too long. It was awesome to go relax for a day. This weekend was our midsemester break, which really just means that we get an extra study day. But since we got that extra day, I was able to go to the beach for a day and not feel like I should be studying instead. It was great. Minus the sand fleas. But at least I can say it was a new experience.
It's "cooling down" on the island. I haven't paid attention to the actual temperature since I've been here but here's a Kittitian weather report: If you walk outside and start sweating immediately, its normal. If you walk outside and are hot but not sweating, it's chilly. That's about where we are now, and it's AMAZING. It's so nice to be able to sit outside for more than 5 minutes without having sweat drip off of your face.
I found an apartment! I'm going to be living in Golfview apartments in Frigate Bay. I went to check them out and they seem pretty nice. Anyone who I've met that lives there seems to like it and they feel safe there, so I guess I'm just going to go for it! Basically it allows pets and has a generator, so it fits my qualifications. Also, it has a pool and it's a 5 minute walk to the Marriott beach, the karaoke bar, and the pizza place :) It's reasonably priced for what you find on the island, but it was a huge smack in the face to have to pay $650 USD per month...per person...and that is a decent price. Yeah.
Nevis (our neighboring island) decided to burn like $1.5 million worth of illegal drugs, including cocaine, so for a good week or so, it smelled like pot everywhere on St. Kitts. Literally, a bonfire full of pot. It was coming in through my air conditioner at night so I would wake up really hungry in the morning. :) It's pretty much gone now, but everything in my room still reeks of it, so I'll have to figure out how NOT to smell like drugs anymore. I didn't really think this would be something I'd have to worry about at any point in my life...
Also something I didn't think I'd have to get used to: finding bugs in bags/boxes of pasta. It's only happened to me once, but pretty much everyone I know has opened a bag or box of pasta to have a few weevils (or so I'm told that's what they are) crawl out. The parasite lover in me says, "Hey! Protein!" The rest of me says, "SHIT!"
Today, we are having Dr. Fitzgerald from Animal Planet's "Emergency Vets" come and talk to us! I'm very excited even though I don't think I've ever seen the show (maybe once). It's the closest thing we will probably get to a celebrity on the island...and he's a celebrity in the world of vet medicine too. I'm getting really interested in emergency medicine too...I might just end up doing that for the rest of my life. Who knows? Also maybe something with infectious diseases with the CDC after vet school. I heard that if you work for the government for 5 years after vet school, they pay your student loans. It would totally be worth it.
I get to do my first VIDA clinic this Saturday! Every week, the club sends out an email and the first 8 people to respond get to go to a clinic and I'm always too late (and by "too late" I mean I reply to the email about 30 minutes after it's sent) but this week I got in! So this Saturday, I get to go around the island and provide free vet care for people who are in financial need. I probably also get to do some other stuff, like blood draws, heartworm tests, vaccines, or things like that. Since it's free, the vet who runs it lets students get practice on things. It's our payment for volunteering our time. By the way, I notice the oxymoron of "payment for volunteering".
Another cool thing I got to do is a vaccine wet lab! I got to mix and administer a vaccine for some of the kennel dogs! I was surprised at the number of people who have already given vaccines (considering they have never been technicians), but it was my first time doing one so it was really exciting :) There's not much else to say about it, but it's probably not as exciting if you aren't a vet student.
I'm going to try to go on a hike on the island, probably either on the volcano or up to the bat cave. I wanted to go this weekend, but it just didn't happen. More on that if I actually end up going.
Almost class time! See ya!
03/10/2011
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
I LOVE VET SCHOOL.
I don't know if I've ever actually enjoyed learning this much. First of all, I'm learning about stuff I care about. I like all of the medical stuff that I'm learning and it makes it much easier to study when you like what you are learning.
Second, it's really cool to see how things actually affect your life. For example, in physio, we are learning about muscles (among other things) and I learned how one of my medication works in relation to the smooth muscles in the blood vessels of my brain. Another example, I learned in nutrition that sodium is one of the few things that we can actually tell we are running low on. So if your body is low on sodium, you actually crave salt (you don't crave potassium or calcium or anything else like that even if you are deficient). So I got to thinking, maybe I have naturally low sodium levels which is why I crave salt a lot. Granted, this might not be true, but it's a connection to my real life.
Third, pretty much all of my classes are constantly intertwining. Last night when I was thinking about the aforementioned medication (physio) I was also thinking about how maybe the smooth muscle is taking in too much calcium causing my blood vessels to contract too often (giving me way too many headaches). Let's relate this back to nutrition, shall we? I'm taking in all of this calcium, and how do the calcium ions make it through the ion pumps? With sodium ions. So for some reason, I'm thinking that my calcium concentrations are way off and the constant deficiency in salt is just trying to keep up with the calcium concentrations that my cells want to take in.
DID YOUR BRAIN JUST MELT?? I apologize. But thanks for hanging in there.
Also, microanatomy is in there too. It's all about cells, which, as we know, is the basis of all living things. Why I'm still learning about it after about 7 years of biology classes, I'm not sure. And I've studied cells in all 7 years. Whatever. At least my professor talks about her mastectomy in class. Wait, that's not a great selling point.
If you can't tell, school is taking over my life. Literally, everything that runs through my brain during the day relates back to what I'm learning. For example, when I have to pee, I don't think, "Crap, I've gotta pee." I think, "Man, my transitional epithelium is really squamous right now" (microanatomy) or "the smooth muscles in my bladder have definitely stretched out to their maximum tension and can't adapt to a longer length and they are going to contract any minute." Meanwhile, I'm peeing my pants.
Let's run through my weekend real quick, shall we? I'm really proud of how productive I was.
Saturday:
Woke up at 7:00 am
Horsemanship class (learn the basics of how to work with and be around a horse safely)
Visited dogs in the kennel
Showered
Studied anatomy
Lunch
Grocery shopping
Practiced small animal palpation
Break time - played facebook games. My new addiction.
Studied anatomy
Studied physiology
Studied more anatomy
Bed
Sunday:
Woke up at 10:00 am
Obedience training with kennel dogs (with the Canine Medicine Club)
Practiced large animal palpation with horses
Studied anatomy in the lab
Showered
Dinner break
Studied physiology for about 4 hours
Relaxing before bed
Bed
I definitely got a ton of stuff accomplished this weekend. I felt really confident about everything. I have two exams this week and I almost feel like I could take them right now and get a decent grade (pass for sure, maybe an A in one of them).
Since I've already mentioned how school is my life now, it should come as no surprise that not much else has been going on. I've been social, but not really going out. Just studying with friends. We did get some info in off campus housing for next semester, so I looked at that stuff Friday night, but that was pretty much it. My roommate and I didn't really decide on anything or apply for any places, but we'll get started on that soon.
My intramural volleyball team played their first game on Friday night and the team isn't totally put together, so we only had 4 people, but it was still really fun. We got to go to the beach and play volleyball, which are two of my favorite things. I also got gnawed on my mosquitos, which is kind of strange because mosquitos don't usually bite me. But my legs are COVERED in bites. It's really itchy, so I've been covering my legs with benadryl but then it just feels really gross and sticky so it's a no win situation. Next time, let's not get bitten by mosquitos instead. And then I woke up the next day with spider bites on my chest. I think the bugs really like all of the sweat I've been producing down here. Grooooooooss.
And that, my friends, is my life. Guess what I'm going to do now...study physiology. :) Also, I miss my mom :(
I don't know if I've ever actually enjoyed learning this much. First of all, I'm learning about stuff I care about. I like all of the medical stuff that I'm learning and it makes it much easier to study when you like what you are learning.
Second, it's really cool to see how things actually affect your life. For example, in physio, we are learning about muscles (among other things) and I learned how one of my medication works in relation to the smooth muscles in the blood vessels of my brain. Another example, I learned in nutrition that sodium is one of the few things that we can actually tell we are running low on. So if your body is low on sodium, you actually crave salt (you don't crave potassium or calcium or anything else like that even if you are deficient). So I got to thinking, maybe I have naturally low sodium levels which is why I crave salt a lot. Granted, this might not be true, but it's a connection to my real life.
Third, pretty much all of my classes are constantly intertwining. Last night when I was thinking about the aforementioned medication (physio) I was also thinking about how maybe the smooth muscle is taking in too much calcium causing my blood vessels to contract too often (giving me way too many headaches). Let's relate this back to nutrition, shall we? I'm taking in all of this calcium, and how do the calcium ions make it through the ion pumps? With sodium ions. So for some reason, I'm thinking that my calcium concentrations are way off and the constant deficiency in salt is just trying to keep up with the calcium concentrations that my cells want to take in.
DID YOUR BRAIN JUST MELT?? I apologize. But thanks for hanging in there.
Also, microanatomy is in there too. It's all about cells, which, as we know, is the basis of all living things. Why I'm still learning about it after about 7 years of biology classes, I'm not sure. And I've studied cells in all 7 years. Whatever. At least my professor talks about her mastectomy in class. Wait, that's not a great selling point.
If you can't tell, school is taking over my life. Literally, everything that runs through my brain during the day relates back to what I'm learning. For example, when I have to pee, I don't think, "Crap, I've gotta pee." I think, "Man, my transitional epithelium is really squamous right now" (microanatomy) or "the smooth muscles in my bladder have definitely stretched out to their maximum tension and can't adapt to a longer length and they are going to contract any minute." Meanwhile, I'm peeing my pants.
Let's run through my weekend real quick, shall we? I'm really proud of how productive I was.
Saturday:
Woke up at 7:00 am
Horsemanship class (learn the basics of how to work with and be around a horse safely)
Visited dogs in the kennel
Showered
Studied anatomy
Lunch
Grocery shopping
Practiced small animal palpation
Break time - played facebook games. My new addiction.
Studied anatomy
Studied physiology
Studied more anatomy
Bed
Sunday:
Woke up at 10:00 am
Obedience training with kennel dogs (with the Canine Medicine Club)
Practiced large animal palpation with horses
Studied anatomy in the lab
Showered
Dinner break
Studied physiology for about 4 hours
Relaxing before bed
Bed
I definitely got a ton of stuff accomplished this weekend. I felt really confident about everything. I have two exams this week and I almost feel like I could take them right now and get a decent grade (pass for sure, maybe an A in one of them).
Since I've already mentioned how school is my life now, it should come as no surprise that not much else has been going on. I've been social, but not really going out. Just studying with friends. We did get some info in off campus housing for next semester, so I looked at that stuff Friday night, but that was pretty much it. My roommate and I didn't really decide on anything or apply for any places, but we'll get started on that soon.
My intramural volleyball team played their first game on Friday night and the team isn't totally put together, so we only had 4 people, but it was still really fun. We got to go to the beach and play volleyball, which are two of my favorite things. I also got gnawed on my mosquitos, which is kind of strange because mosquitos don't usually bite me. But my legs are COVERED in bites. It's really itchy, so I've been covering my legs with benadryl but then it just feels really gross and sticky so it's a no win situation. Next time, let's not get bitten by mosquitos instead. And then I woke up the next day with spider bites on my chest. I think the bugs really like all of the sweat I've been producing down here. Grooooooooss.
And that, my friends, is my life. Guess what I'm going to do now...study physiology. :) Also, I miss my mom :(
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