First year of Vet School down.....

2^nd semester of first year flew by and I felt like I was constantly busy with classes and studying especially near the end.  My 2 electives had final projects that I was working on the last few weeks of the semester and then I had 4 written final exams and 2 oral final exams.  Revision week was spent mostly studying for biochem which was my first big final and the class I struggled the most in, so answering the questions and trying to understand the concepts was top priority before that Saturday final.  My first oral final was for my practical based learning class in which we were tested on one of the cases from the year and a new one we got the day of the exam.  That oral seemed to go quite well as that class was all cases and having worked in a veterinary clinic I felt it was at least a bit easier to retain and process that information.  The biochem final went alright and I drew out as many of the cycles as I could make pertain to the essay questions at hand.  I had to hit the books hard then as I had digestion and anatomy finals back to back Wednesday & Thursday of the following week.  Digestion was a bit of a doozy as they did not ask any of the prior essay questions really, so fingers crossed that my answers were good enough to get a passing grade.  The anatomy oral was not as horrible as I was expecting and I almost pulled a full all-nighter to study for it and then almost overslept. I was able to answer pretty much all of the questions I was asked and although there were a few stressful moments I recovered and made it through. As I was not called back for the 3^rd oral I know I at least passed that exam!!!  My last final was practical animal husbandry which thankfully was not too bad at all and I was glad to have it last as anything more mentally taxing and I probably would have fallen over. 

My last final was on a Saturday, so that night I hit up the pub to celebrate being done with my first year of vet school! Still have to wait on grades, but I am hoping I passed.  Now onto summer in Ireland….  

“Oh, he occasionally takes an alcoholiday.” ~Oscar Wilde

Spring break was the first 2 weeks of March and my dad came to visit for the first week.  It was nice to have a little break in the semester and even better to have a visitor from back home.  My dad’s trip was delayed a day due to airplane malfunctions, but he made it in safely and then we rented a car and got him checked into a cute bed & breakfast for the week.  We decided to head into city centre to give him a little taste of Dublin, check out St. Stephen’s Green, and a bit of Grafton St.  Then we toured the Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity College and as we were exiting good ole Dublin weather decided to present us with some hail which lasted for all of 5 minutes and then the sun came back out. We ended the first day with dinner at my favorite pub.

Monday was a tour of coastal towns in the rental car while I feared for my life in the passenger seat as my dad tried his best not to hit curbs, cars, and everything else with the left side of the car. We started of in Dun Laoghaire with a walk along the pier and then headed into Dalkey where we walked around for a bit then grabbed lunch at a pub.  A long drive took us out to Glendalough Co Wicklow where there are walking trails, lakes, and monastic remains.  The scenery is beautiful and old ruins were just up my alley to photograph. 

On Tuesday, we decided to make our own tour of city centre and dad wanted to see a selection of different sites and churches, so we weaved our way around the city in a non-orderly fashion.  It was ordered chaos really. We, of course, had to hit up The Brazen Head (the oldest pub in Ireland) for a afternoon drink before heading to Guinness Storehouse to take a tour.  Guinness was good craic & got a pint in their bar overlooking Dublin which was kind of cool. 

Wednesday we headed out to Kildare to the Irish National Stud to tour their grounds.  They have an impressive set up for their horses and their stud horses are kept in the penthouse really.  Saw some mares with their foals (who doesn’t like seeing baby animals) and also climbed around a bizarre Japanese garden where dad almost broke his back.  My dad wanted to hear some trad music so into Dublin temple bar area for a lively night is what the doctor ordered. We started out at Oliver St John Gogarty for all of the popular Irish music and the guys were really great – took requests (so made a few of my fav).  We ate our dinner & had a few drinks there before heading off for some faster paced trad music at The Temple Bar. The pub was packed, but the music was class so it was well worth the squeeze. 

On Thursday, dad wanted to visit the Archaeology Museum so away we went to city centre.  Most of the museum was pretty damn boring except for the bog people really (but don’t tell my dad that). ;) We did a bit of gift shopping and then headed to O’Neill’s Pub for lunch as dad thought Justine would appreciate if we had lunch there. We schlepped around the city some more and then dinner was back at the best pub in the world. 

Friday was my dad’s last day in Dublin, so I made him go with me to the Jameson Distillery for a tour.  Our guide was a bit of a goober, but it was a good time and we got some jameson, so all around a successful tour.  Then we hit up Porterhouse in temple bar for lunch which is a nice little spot.  Dad did a stout sampler as he likes their handcrafted beers.  We had a very laidback day and then had a quiet dinner at an Italian joint near my flat – Casa Pasta. 

It was so nice to be able to show someone in my family where I live!  I love spending time with my dad and I really enjoyed his visit filled with drinking, laughs, getting lost a little, hugs, and ridiculous questions.  

Second Semester in Full Swing…

I have a very full load of classes this semester – 7 in total! Another anatomy dissection lab in which we are now focusing on the abdomen & pelvis, another biochemistry class (L), digestion, PBL sessions, animal ethics, veterinary careers, and animal husbandry – which is the best class as we spend every Tuesday on the farm learning handling of large animals. So far most of my classes require a fair amount of work, but they are all pretty interesting except for biochem – just not a fan and it doesn’t help that the lecturer for the class puts me to sleep. I have had one midterm already in biochem and have no clue how I did – ugh! And I have another midterm on the 29^th of February in digestion, so I am studying for that ongoing. Then the first 2 weeks of March I have what I would consider spring break, so 2 whole weeks off of school!!! And my dad is coming out for the first week, so I am looking forward to showing him around my town and then exploring Dublin and other parts of Ireland with him. =)

A Day at the Races…

Decided it would be fun to head to Leopardstown Race Track for the Hennessy Gold Cup to watch the horse races. It had been awhile since I had been to the races, my friend Erin is huge into horses and knows a bit about the jockeys over here, and then we dragged my roommate Courtney along. We dressed to the nines as that is the tradition for the races here and this race especially was a big one. I brought along my nice SLR Canon digital, so I could capture some close ups of the horses and we made a day out of it. No betting this time out, but I did choose a horse in each race to win and got lucky a few times – I chose my horses based on their names and often do quite well with that strategy. Overall, it was a great day out and I can’t wait to do it again.