Cue in the shark music...

Oh jaysus…..Where has the time gone?! Feels like just yesterday classes started and this past week was the last one for the semester. Now we have a week of solid studying and then a week of solid exams – oh joy! But after that I get to fly back to sunny LA for a few weeks to visit my family for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays and I am beyond stoked. Can’t wait to feel the hot SoCal sun beating down on my face, the sand between my toes, hear the sound of the ocean, take in my nephew’s laughter, and best of all just hug my family!

The weather has turned colder here and there is a bite in the air, so winter is finally here. Rain is not happy with the cold and prefers to spend her time completely under a blanket. Poor girl is getting old and thin, so I am looking to find the right sweater to cover her short coat for daily wear (Roc will get one too). My dogs were definitely not made for the cold and neither was I. I, on the other hand, am trying to wear sweaters, scarves, gloves, and whatever else I can layer on for warmth. I am such a wuss when it comes to the cold, but I have gotten better since moving here.

Life has been super busy here the past month with studying for classes as there is always something to study for and it never really seems to end. I just have to get through exams and then I will get a few weeks break to rest and recover before 2^nd semester which looks to be brutal. So far, even though it is a ton of work, I am actually enjoying vet school and am so happy to be here. Sometimes the studying can be a bit much, but I know it will all be worth it in the end!

As a treat this month I decided to go on a hunt ride at a local stable with my friend Paula. It was a bit of a trek out there since neither of us has a car – I had to take 2 buses then we walked 30 minutes up a very steep hill to the barn. We headed out at half one, 30 riders strong into the forest and mountains. My first steed was a very large dapple grey thoroughbred/draft cross named Rico. We literally took off at a canter which I was not totally ready for as I have not been on a horse in a few years, but I managed. And we took 3 small jumps right off the bat! I was not told that my horse needed to be near the front of the pack, so positioned myself near the back as it had been awhile. I found out quite quickly he had other plans. So we fought for a while and finally came to a compromise both of us could live with.

We spent 2 ½ hours walking, trotting, cantering, and even galloping through woods and over mountains. The terrain was sketchy at times, but the horses fared well. There were a few jumps along the way and I took most of them. About ¾ of the way through I switched steeds to try out a pony since the girl who was assigned to the pony needed a larger horse. My 2^nd steed was a black pony named Millie. She was super cute and a fun change of pace from the huge horse I had been on! I think she was happy to have a lighter load to carry as well. The scenery on the ride was amazing and there really is no way to describe its beauty in a way to do it justice, so I won’t even try. Just wish it were easier to take photos while on horseback. I was sore for almost a week afterwards and the first few days afterwards were the most brutal as I could hardly walk! But it was well worth it and I can’t wait to get back out and on a horse again!

Cheers!

Fancy Dress and such...

Halloween originated in Ireland – bet you didn’t know that! On the night of October 31^st the Celts celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. They would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. That festival over the years evolved into what we now know as Halloween. Just a little history – there is a lot more where that came from, but I will not delve into detail. Halloween is a bank holiday in Ireland and hugely celebrated, so we had a nice long weekend as campus was closed today!

In Ireland, costumes are called “fancy dress” and not only do they make an appearance at Halloween, but at many other occasions throughout the year as well. From what I am told the Irish love to dress up in silly clothes! I spent a few nights out this weekend, 2 of which were in fancy dress. And, of course, it was a bit slutty as I think that is the point to the holiday for any adult female – I was a sexy boxer (the kind with the gloves). When I was a kid I remember Halloween being all about trying to see how full I could get my pillowcase with candy and now it is just about finding a skimpy costume. I kind of wish I could go back to candy collecting as it was so much more rewarding. =)

Anyhow, this week is free of exams, so I am hoping to catch up in some of my classes where I have not had a midterm yet. I had an exam last week and the next few weeks I have exams at least 1 a week, so lots of studying to keep up on. The end of the semester is fast approaching and finals will be here before I know it. It is a scary thought as a large percent of my grade in each class depends on the final! But I am excited to finish my first semester of vet school and I will just study my non-existent ass off so I can do well on exams.

Well time for bed as I have class in the A.M. – signing off for now….

Hibernation here I come....

Studying has definitely been at the forefront of my life right now. I had my 2^nd MCQ on Monday of this week in Cell & Molecular Biology, so all weekend was spent hitting the books. I felt like it went pretty well and I knew the material, so fingers crossed I get a good grade. Last week, we had our dissection project presentation so my group spent the beginning of the week preparing all of the materials for that. The grading on that ended up depending on which professor you got to present to, so it was not really a very fair evaluation of your work. Some of the professors grade much harder than others, so if you got an easy professor you were golden. My group still got an A, but I just would have like a higher percentage A. And I have an MCQ a week for the next few weeks, so there is no end in sight for my hardcore studying just yet. But that is what midterms are all about especially in vet school.

Up until this week the weather has been amazing here with sun and temperatures reaching 17°C (63°F). So this past weekend on Sunday I took a trip south to Enniskerry to Powerscourt Waterfall which is Ireland’s highest waterfall at 121m located at the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains. The dogs came along for the trip and were beyond excited to get out and explore plus they made 2 new dog friends (owned by my friend Andrew who drove us there). We checked out the waterfall then walked the paths around the property with the dogs before heading home. It was cool to actually get out and see somewhere in Ireland outside of Dublin since I really haven’t been anywhere yet. I am planning on doing a lot more exploring in the future and hopefully since I have 5 years here I will get well acquainted with Ireland and maybe other parts of Europe as well. I do have to say though driving on back Irish roads is a bit scary as they are windy and there are only inches for the cars to pass each other (if that).

There has been a bit of a cold front that has moved in to Dublin and there is talk of the next few winters in Ireland being especially bad. I am worried I may be forced to hibernate. I am definitely going to have to work on my cold weather wardrobe as my clothes are beyond inadequate for the temperatures that are being dished out and what is about to come. I am freezing already and the worst is yet to come. The dogs are freezing too! Without a car, I have to walk everywhere, so I need to be able to withstand the temperatures being thrown at me or I might never make it to campus or the store. I would have to say the biggest adjustment for me in moving to Ireland is the weather and it is probably the thing I will struggle with the most because to be honest I got cold in LA in 70°F. So yeah…I probably should live in the tropics or something…but I’ll make it work somehow. =)

Blood and Guts...

I realize it has been almost 2 weeks since my last post and so much has happened in that time, but there is just no way I can cover it all. I know I need to make the effort to come on here and update more often, so that is my plan going forward. So for now you are stuck with updates about classes as an update on everything social that has gone on would take up too much space. =P

I have been getting progressively busier in my classes and studying is definitely taking up a lot of my time. I had my first MCQ exam on Monday of this week in histology and embryology which felt like it went alright, but ‘knock on wood’ who really knows. We have started up a problem based learning (PBL) class where we meet in small groups with a facilitator and are given a medical case in increments. And we have to decide based on the very little facts we are given what we think the diagnosis may be and research the potential ideas and “learning issues”. I am the only person in my group who has ever worked in a veterinary clinic, so I know the medical terminology being used and also what the results for the tests that have been run mean. So now whenever the facilitator asks the group if we know what something is she looks right at me. I can’t decide whether the rest of my group likes the fact that I am knowledgeable or hates my guts. The whole concept of the class is a bit frustrating as you would never treat/solve a case in this manner, but I guess it serves its purpose.

Today, I spent 3 hours in the lab dissecting a dog’s head for a group project. We were given a project a few weeks back and then pretty much told to figure out what our issue/topic was and how to dissect it and next week we then present everything. My group received the disease Strabismus which is a deviation of the globe of the eye. For example, a dog being cross-eyed or both eyes pointing outwards, but it can affect only one eye as well. Other groups were given broken bones, castration, and other illnesses or injuries. So when we walked into lab today each group had whatever body part that they needed to dissect on their bench and just that body part (meaning the rest of the dog was somewhere else). Very odd to see just a head on our bench and torsos or legs on other benches. And they were fresh, not preserved as they wanted us to know the difference between working on our preserved dogs and fresh specimens.

Dissecting a dog’s head is definitely a bizarre thing to do and it was not an easy task as we had a little furry dog. There are many muscles that you need to get through in order to make it down to the muscles that connect directly to the eye and there are some bones in the way as well ( I won’t get all technical on you). So it took a while. Our first eye was not very pretty and so we decided to go for the other eye to see if we could get a better display of the muscles. With the help of one of the lab techs we were able to get the eye out of the socket without even having to cut the dog’s head and we got a very nice looking eye with all 6 muscles attached and the optic nerve. I had to document the entire dissection with photos for our presentation next week, but I will spare you most of the blood and guts and only show you what the eye should look like. All I can say is thank goodness “Charlie” (as we named him) was not alive as we were not the most seasoned surgeons and he would have not looked so good coming out of that surgery.