And so it starts...

Just finished my 2^nd week of veterinary school at UCD and the last few weeks have been busy! With getting prepared to start classes – buying school supplies and outfitting my flat with the necessities I have been back and forth to town a number of times. I also ended up buying a few extra pieces for my wardrobe as I really did not have much in the way of suitable clothing for Irish weather coming over here from SoCal. The one notable item I bought was something I said that I would never be caught dead in – skinny jeans. Anyone who knows me well knows I am not a skinny jeans type of a girl, I wear flares. But it rains a fair bit here in Dublin and if you wear jeans that touch the ground well then you will end up quite soggy, so I had to invest in a few pairs of skinny jeans and some tall leather boots for those rainy days. I must say the look is growing on me and it has a bit of an equestrian feel to it.

The majority of my classes have hit the ground running, so to speak. Thankfully, most of the topics we are covering I have at least studied at some point in the past, so I just need to find out what dusty, dingy crevice in my brain the information is stored in. And if I can’t find it then I will have to relearn it! Throughout the semester we will have MCQ (multiple choice question) exams, but the majority of our grade will be based off of our final at the end of the semester. And by majority I mean like 70%!!! The grading and exam structure is completely different here, so it will take some getting used to. We even have oral exams here which they call “vivas”. Talk about being put on the spot.

I am the oldest person in my class – like ancient. Yeah. So in Ireland and pretty much everywhere else outside of the states a person can go to vet school right outside of high school. So that means the rest of my class is pretty much 18 & 19 year old Irish students except for a few English students (still 18 & 19) and one other American who is 25. That effectively makes me beyond old. But I am hoping that just gives me an edge as I have been through college before and I know what I need to do in order to make it out alive. I am mature, serious, and focused.

So I knew the Irish liked to drink (heck my family is Irish!), but I had no idea how centered around drinking vet school would be. In the first 2 weeks we have already had 3 nights out – thankfully one was on a Saturday. I am not a big drinker, so I went out to try and meet some people in other classes (people more around my age perhaps). On the Saturday night, I actually wore a slinky red dress which is completely unheard of for me…but even though that threw me a bit out of my comfort zone I ended up having some good craic with my roommate and neighbors!

And last night for Arthur’s Day I tried my 1^st pint of Guinness ever courtesy of my roommate Courtney at our local pub Kieley’s. It was definitely the best beer I have ever had, but I won’t be drinking a ton of them anytime soon. I am still a whiskey girl at heart. As all Irish girls should be.