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. =)