1 semester - DONE!

My first semester of vet school is officially DONE! It was incredibly challenging, but overall very fun, and I learned a ton!

The final exam was quite challenging, but I think I did ok. I knew all the short answer questions really well, and the essays I think I knew enough to get by. The multiple choice was probably not that great, but that's never been my strong suit. Anyway, I refuse to speculate about how well or not well I did, because it's subjective, and there are always resits in August, much as I would hate to have to do that.

So the night before the exam, I took a break from studying to have an early Christmas dinner with my flatmates (and Hannah, who used to live with us, but moved to a flat closer to the school of divinity). It was actually really nice, because I hadn't spent any real time with them, because we never seem to be home at the same time, and when I am I'm usually crammed in my room studying. While they were cooking (because they knew I was studying and so graciously let me off the hook for cooking and most of the clean up duties), Lusanda got her new keyboard. I thought my keyboard was nice, but her keyboard is AMAZING. Not only does it have the entire set of keys, but it is weighted exactly like an actual piano, and it sounds like an actual piano. She got it for not too much more than mine cost too, but oh well. Too late now. And mine is good, it's just not THAT good, lol! Besides when I'm older I plan on having a real piano, so this is just a temporary thing.

Anyway, so we set up the keyboard, and were playing around with it while waiting for the food to finish cooking. We taught Hannah and Lusanda's boyfriend Dan to play a little bit (they were actually quite quick at it, I was impressed), and then played and sang christmas carols.

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Dan and the new glorious keyboard.
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So then the food was ready, and we all sat down to eat. It was quite good, and this is apparently what the typical British Christmas meal is. It's very similar to our Thanksgiving meal, only minus the cranberry sauce, and for some reason they traditionally have brussel sprouts?! (although thankfully we opted for peas and carrots instead!). There was turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, yorkshire pudding (which is in fact NOT anything like a pudding), sausages, peas & carrots, and orange squash (juice) for a drink.

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Delicious dinner!

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For desert we had Torron (not sure how to spell that), which is a Spanish Christmastime dessert similar to Peanut brittle, and Miriam made a champagne lemon sorbet drink, which was really good, but I couldn't have a whole lot because I had to study. We also had little mini mince pies, and Christmas pudding.

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Miriam, Lusanda, Hannah, and Me all together!
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So then after the test we went back to Summerhall, where Professor Alastair MacDonald had mulled wine, minced pies, and some other sort of christmas bread. It was delicious, and much needed after the stress of exams.

Then I went back to my flat and packed and tidied up a bit, and then relaxed for awhile. At around 7, Anik, Pookish and I went to Jessica's flat to have tea and exchange presents. Jessica gave me a really cute hedgehog stuffed animal (apparently Britain's only spiney mammal, who knew?). I have yet to give him a name, but I shall let you know as soon as I come up with one. Anik got me geode windchimes from the German market. They are very pretty, and I hung them up as soon as I got home. Pookish got me a really pretty spun glass piano. I, as expected, broke it on the way home, but I managed to at least for the moment situate it so you can't tell, and I'm going to get some glue and fix it when I get back. Clearly delicate things don't do well in my hands. I'll post some pictures up after I get back. I managed to leave my camera in Jessica's flat, boo.

Anyway, So today I got up at 6am and stuffed the last few things in my suitcases, lugged them down the 4 flights of stairs, and dragged them down the road to hail a cab. At 6:30 I finally found one and got to the airport around 7ish. Also, funny story, when I got in the cab, the guy was like "where're you headed, Hen?" (also, I'll never get used to being called "hen" on a normal basis), and I guess I thought he was being conversational, because I assumed that he'd get that I was going to the airport with 2 gigantic suitcases, so I replied "Uh, America." His response? "Ah, well I cannae take ya there, Lass." Haha. I kind of wanted to be like "REAALLYY? I had NO idea!" But I figured I'd let it go and just pretend to be the dumb blonde I come across as at 6:30 in the morning, so I simply said, "Ah, haha. Yeah the airport, please."

So anyway, my flight was originally supposed to take off at 9:05. It is currently 9:02, and the plane hasn't even arrived in Edinburgh from Newark yet. The supposed time it's going to leave is 1:50pm at the moment. Lame.

Now normally I would be extremely bummed about waiting for 5 hours in an airport, and I am, truth to be told, not extremely happy about it. But I'm okay with it. Why? you ask. I cut the gigantic line at check-in, I am sprawled on a comfy couch, drinking a free latte (and about to get a free cappuccino, or maybe a mocha) and eating free pastries, enjoying the sunrise from the picture window of the Business class lounge, and potentially pouring myself a glass of classy Scottish wine when it comes to lunchtime. For whatever reason the only seats left on the flight were business class, so here I am.

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The Buisnessclass lounge. AMAZING.
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Latte/capuccino machines, pastries, shortbread, wine, and fully stocked mini-fridges. Can life get better? I submit that it cannot!
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I don't know if I'll ever be able to fly economy again. This is amazing. They have free wine and a fully stocked mini bar, computer stations, couches, flat screen tvs all over the place for the different little cubby hole areas, and it's quiet and bright, and warm and cozy, and the floors are carpeted and I there are no children running around screaming, and it smells good.

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My cushy little area.
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I can't wait to actually get on the plane, and enjoy a (for once) comfortable and cushy plane ride. Brilliant. I really wish I could travel like this all the time. I hope I'm loaded when I'm older, because this is fantastic. The only thing I can possibly complain about is that I have to pay for the wireless. For as much as this business-class ticket cost, they should give us free wi-fi passes or something. But then again, 24 hours was only £5.95 (as opposed to £3.95 for one hour, so not too bad).

Anyway, I'm going to take a nap I think, and then get some more food! Maybe I'll update later if the mood strikes me.