Whew... life gets busy, and I get lazy and decide to go to the beach or watch a movie instead of blog. My apologies.
Lots of exciting things have been going on though. Unfortunately, there still aren't many pictures, but I've stolen a few from friends and attempted to take a couple as well, so I'll post those at the end as usual.
Lets see... where to start...
I believe I've had 3 exams since I last wrote, and a 4th is on Tuesday in Nutrition.
Microanatomy was first, not too exciting, so we'll move on.
Gross Anatomy... ugh. It was difficult, but I got through it and now we can move on. OH! Funny story though. One question on our exam was to take the femoral pulse on a live dog (pulse on the hind leg). We were allowed into the room one at a time and were to take the open instructor and dog duo. There were around 6 or 7 instructors with dogs in the class, most of which were nice calm relaxed dogs. Was I lucky enough to enter the room when one of these nice, calm, relaxed dogs were available?? No. I was paired with my least favorite instructor, and a rambunctious young dog, although he was sweet, it did not make the exam any easier. We were also the last group of students to have taken this portion of the test, so by this time this dog may have had up to 50 other students examine him in the last hour. Needless to say, he was impatient. He got so impatient in fact that as I was trying to take his pulse and I restrained him from running away from me he decided that he had had enough and nicely put his mouth around my wrist and applied just enough pressure to get his point across. My dog bit me during an exam. Just my luck...
THEN, we had physiology, which I rocked, even though the test was poorly worded. But I like physiology so I enjoyed that exam. (Did I really just say I enjoyed an exam... I think Zoe is right, I have become more nerdy!)
So we're at the end of Wednesday, beginning of Thursday of last week. Here are just a few other things I remember from last week, not sure when they occurred.
- Intro to vet med class: discussed bovine behavior, watched Temple Grandin's video on bovine housing/restraint/herding/chutes, etc. The instructor introducing us to her video did a poor job explaining Grandin's background and how she is able to understand animals so well, but that is forgivable. I'm just happy that my class is being introduced to welfare and behavior.
- Allison needed a buddy to go into town. She has never driven a manual car before, and decided to buy a little SUV with out power steering, and is a manual transmission. Needless to say, its always an adventure going into town with Allison. She does pretty well sometimes, but as everyone remembers, when you get stressed and aren't perfect at a skill, your proficiency drops under pressure. Anyway, so she was doing great, didn't stall once from campus all the way into town, then a car stops in front of us in the middle of downtown, right in front of government buildings and a TON of locals on the street. And Allison stalls, forgetting that she was still in 2nd gear. And then its a rough start going again, then we park... but illegally for some reason, which we still don't know. So we move the car, can't find a spot, so come back in the opposite direction on the same road after turning around... THEN, the "parking enforcement" office comes back and flags us down while on foot... Allison and I don't realize until we've passed her. She isn't so happy with us by now. We got pulled over by a parking cop on foot. Crazy, right? The worst part is, she pulled us over to yell at Allison for not knowing how to drive a manual, asked for her US license, then called someone to ask what "Class C" meant, and if it meant she shouldn't be allowed to drive a manual. Poor Allison, I don't think I'd have the guts to try driving again after that experience. Wow that was a long explanation.
- Another cop story. Our beloved microanatomy teacher who is a sweet retirement aged Slovik dude with a crazy thick accent and lots of stories was making a metaphor about some cell in blood... WBC's maybe? Nah, I can't remember. Anyway, the analogy was that they're like police officers... they don't look like they ever do anything, but they're watching. Hahahha... and this was made very clear to us several times that cops don't do much except watch and monitor. Maybe you had to be there...
Oh, and every lectures starts off with somebody he knew dying. Seriously. Its sad, because we all laugh, as we can't believe he can tie something in from EVERY lecture with a story about someone he knew dying, its sad really, but its crazy. He knows a lot of people who died. A lot. And they're always really sad storied. I hope you can see the humor in this scenario the way we do. Now I just sound like a horrible person...
Lets see, what else.
ACUPUNCTURE! This weekend we had an optional lecture series with wet labs to practice acupuncture. We talked all about the science behind acupuncture, chinese traditional medicine theories on acupuncture, the different "meridians" or lines of areas on the animal's body where you can place needles, what acupuncture can help with, etc, lots of stuff. The best part by far was actually getting to place the needles in a dog! We broke up into groups of 3, picked a clinic dog that could use a little help, worked with an instructor to identify the points on the meridian that would be beneficial to that dog, then actually get to place them ourselves. I placed two, both in the same area. (The first one wasn't in correctly and fell out, so I got to do it again. Much more successful the 2nd attempt) It was awesome. JoJo, our dog who is the sweetest little fat dog ever, really seemed to enjoy it. She was all nervous and anxious at the beginning, and after placing the pins she was all subdued and relaxed, it was crazy. So yes, I want to do acupuncture on dogs for sure. Its pretty awesome, to say the least. (Any volunteers?? I need practice! haha, just joking... sort of...)
I nearly forgot. Friday afternoon I went and played beach volleyball as a fill-in player for my friend's rec. team. It was a blast. We totally creamed the other team, but they seemed to have fun anyway. I'm not sure there is anything more relaxing on a Friday afternoon than a couple of beers on the beach and playing volleyball until the sun sets. Ahhhh. Oh, and beers are 2 for $5 EC on Fridays. Awesome, right? That's about $1 US per ice cold beer right on the beach. Ahhhh...
Hows the Oregon weather treating everyone??? Still nice 'n toasty here! :) Acutally, today is pretty warm. With humidity its about 95 degrees today. No matter, I'll be inside all day studying. Woot!
Okay, I believe that is it for now. Here are the pictures I have to share today... not much, sorry.
This is Timothy Beach Resort (where my Madre and Padre will be staying in April) Normally, the buildings are blue. My camera decided to take an artistic spin on the landscape and turn the buildings pink. The grass where the pictures was taken from is a parking lot for "the strip" (bars, restaurants, beach, volleyball courts) The ocean is directly to my right, only a few hundred feet away actually.
Another benefit to living on an island that used to be British controlled... more British food! Mmm... dairy milk....
Brian's birthday dinner out. The ocean is directly behind the photographer (thanks Jaya!) And yes, those are whole lobsters on people's plates. (not mine!)
Brian, Birthday Cake Cookies, and some sort of alcohol. He was happy.
One last update... as any good foreign exchange student learned, you must celebrate Guy Fawkes Day!
"Remember, remember the 5th of November
Gun powder treason and plot
I see no reason why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot."
So I watched V for Vendetta. No bonfires, sadly. Would you like to see a picture from my British 5th of November experience in Lewes? I suppose you don't have a choice now, do you? Enjoy!
Notice the size of the bonfire compared to the size of the people circling it. Crazy, right? And this was just one of MANY bonfires around the city of Lewes that night. Those Brits sure know how to burn things....
