Exammmms

So I had my first official vet school exams today. Suffice it to say, they were pretty horrendous.

First off, we had a "spot" exam. This is essentially where tables are set up throughout the room, and each person sits at a table, which might have a picture, specimen, or some other sort of question on it. We had 5 minutes for each of 11 stations, and each station had somewhere between like 8 and 10 questions on it.

First off. That is NOT enough time. That didn't even include a few seconds to switch tables and get our bearings and read the questions (and I am a FAST reader). Bad system, and led to hastily scribbled answers and widespread panic amongst the masses.

Anyway, so the first table I got, I was really really confident. I answered everything, and even after looking over stuff afterwards I think I got it all. Score: Me, 1; Vet School, 0.

Next table. Complete blank. I put something down for everything, and I think I at least got a bit of it right, but still, just ick. So maybe like... a quarter of a point. Me, 1; Vet School, 1.

The next table I knew a fair bit on, and the table after that was so-so.

So on and on that went for 11 tables. There was one station I got near the end that was a "sit and relax" station and I used that to look through and see how I was faring. All in all I think I did ok. I'm not going to say I did well, but I think I made it through (crosses fingers!). Fortunately again this isn't worth a whole lot of our grade.

So then was the oral exam later in the day. This part was only worth approximately 2.5% of our entire grade, so I wasn't really too fussed about this. Everyone seemed to get the same examiner we had in our "practice" exam back in August, so I had Dr. Kempson again (What a woman!). I was still extremely nervous, despite the fact that this was such a small part of the grade. Probably just cause it's a pressured situation.

I heart Sue Kempson. Not only because she is just amazing, but because she is fair. I know she's probably a harder examiner than some of the others, but when she does the oral with me I actually learn from her. So while I'm pretty sure I completely bombed the oral (I got stuff right, but it was sort of like pulling teeth), the stuff she asked me is stuff that I will probably remember for next time. The problem was mainly that she asked a lot of stuff on the nerves, which I just can't do, and when I'm flustered I say stupid things like "that's the trachea!" when we are nowhere near the trachea, and I know it's the oesophagus. But again, her questions were fair, coherent, and were things that were I not in pressure mode, I would have known.

Oh well. Totally not worth moaning about, cause in the grand scheme of the year it's not going to bring me down. Who knows, maybe I scraped by anyway? I did after all correct myself on a bunch of occasions and did manage to get a number of questions right off the bat. Who knows. Sue Kempson will do what Sue Kempson will do.

Plus this time we had a "shadower" who was another professor who followed us around writing down what our questions were. They were basically there to make sure that when it came down to grading, students were given fair grades based on the difficulty of questions asked and how it compared to what other students were asked, etc.

Also I heard that one examiner (who shall remain nameless), asked CLINICAL stuff. We are not supposed to know anything clinical, so I feel horrible for the people that had her. She was asking stuff like "what is the clinical significance of the oesophagus entering here" (to which apparently the answer was that it's prone to an oesophageal hernia), and then asking what the dog would present with if it had such a problem. WTF?! Totally unfair to those people, and I have to wonder why they let her examine students. But then again, that's what the shadower is there for, although you'd think one of them would have piped up and said, "um, they are not meant to know that yet." Lame.

Anyway, now all that's left is the crazy written exam on Friday. I'm taking the night off tonight, because I hit the wall, so to speak. Yesterday night before the exam I was freaking out and sick to my stomach and I couldn't concentrate, so I just put my book down and attempted to sleep. The stuff I was studying turned out not to be on the spot or oral anyway, so it fortunately didn't matter. I woke up about 4 times during the night because of the noise the wind was making, and then again at 5:30am when my flatmate got up for work and I heard her moving about. Normally I wear earplugs cause I'm a light sleeper, but I was so terrified of sleeping through my alarm that I didn't last night. Then I woke up 60, 40, 15, and 5 minutes before my 4 separate alarms went off at 8:30. Ick.

Tomorrow it's time to review the digestive system, and the metabolic system, and brush up on whatever else I think I need to. I feel oddly confident. I know I suck at nerves, and muscles, but those are hard to learn in a book. I had them memorised in the book (even looking back at pictures after the oral I knew them all), but the actual thing looks NOTHING like the book. Everything else though, I dunno, I feel alright. I'm still stressed out, and I'm likely going to be freaking out tomorrow night again, but for now, I'm taking a night to just chill, and maybe make some flashcards if I'm motivated enough.

Oh also, in my procrastination last week, I reorganized my room. I think it's a much better arrangement now, and it seems like I have way more space. Here's a pic:

Now my keyboard has it's own well-deserved spot! I also got a bedskirt, so that ugly blue bed base is covered by a nice white sheet now. Yay!
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In addition, I got a pedal for my keyboard, and some headphones, and a cover for it is soon to arrive in the mail (my room is surprisingly dusty!).

Anyhoo, laters!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So another week has come and gone. This week was full of studying, but I finally feel like I'm getting somewhere. I'm almost done with my preliminary revisions of my notes, then I'm on to making sure I know it all, or at least 50% of it.

Today was pretty good. I went to the Elephant House to study for awhile. I like studying there, not only because it's got great food, but also it's got a great view of the castle. Plus Harry Potter was started there. Awesome.

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View of Edinburgh Castle from the Elephant House
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Then I met Anik and we walked around and got a lot of Christmas shopping done on the Royal Mile. The touristy shops never get old, and I seem to discover something new every time! Like Anik and I went up to the top of the Royal Mile, and headed down, systematically, and the first store we went in was awesome! It was the Edinburgh Old Town Weaving Company, and they've got a museum AND a working mill in the basement.

Then we found a timeline of kilt styles from ancient times until now. And of course, being the mature 23 year old that I am, I did what any self respecting woman does when confronted with a maniken in a Scottish kilt....

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He was a real Scotsman, in the sense that he was wearing nothing underneath. But there was also NOTHING under there, like a Ken doll. Probably for the better... that would have been a wee bit weird.
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Picture of the tartan-weaving process. It was coooool!
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The museum/shop in the basement.
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Later that night, after visiting the ratty babies at Anik's, we went back up to Princes St. to the Christmas Market. We met up with Jessica and a bunch of other people, and had fun eating delicious food, drinking mulled wine and meade, and enjoying the Christmassy spirit!

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The Scottish portion of the market, the "Highland Village Market." The other part was the German Christmas Market.
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Jessica wanted to ride the carousel, but I was freezing, so I took pictures instead.
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I was having way too much fun with my camera settings :)
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Now I'm back in my warm and cozy bed, looking forward to a fun day tomorrow, with just a wee bit of studying. Not sure what I'm doing yet otherwise, but I'm sure it'll be great fun! Once again, I love this city! :)

Thanksgiving abroad

This weekend I had two (count them, TWO) Thanksgivings. First on Friday night, a 4th year by the name of Jeni invited us for dinner at her flat. Now, a note about Jeni = nicest person ever! I met her as she was talking to Jessica outside Summerhall one day, and within minutes I was invited to Thanksgiving dinner. So, at first I was a wee bit nervous, because the only person I would really know there would be Jessica, but everyone was unbelievably nice and friendly, and plus, there were CHILDREN!

I walked in the door, and was greeted by Jeni's adorable son, Hosea (15 months old), who promptly handed me a bib as a welcome gift. I met Jeni's husband, Matt, and I'm not sure who he reminds me of, but he definitely reminds me of someone. But it might just be that he's one of those people that you feel like you know as soon as you meet him. Anyway, he was so nice, and we all chatted while Jeni & Matt finished up the last minute details. I took over baby-amusement duty, which was amazing. It's been so long since I've interacted with a toddler, and it made me really happy.

Anyway, so dinner was absolutely delicious, with everything I'm accustomed to having at Thanksgiving. It was a bit odd, not doing it at home, and having it be a much less formal affair than what I'm used to at home with the fine china and everything, but at the same time it was nice to have it be a come as you are kind of thing.

So then moving on, on Saturday we had planned our own Thanksgiving with Jessica, Pookish, Anik, Jessica A., Kyle, Lydia, and Lindzie. Everyone made or brought something, and some people wore PJs :)

I chose to bring champagne, and I also made homemade Cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. It was actually extremely delicious, and I think I'm going to have to save this recipe, because it was fantastic. For anyone else interested, here's how I did it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 (12 ounce) bag fresh cranberries
• 165 g (or 3/4 c.) packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large orange, juiced and zested
• 135 ml (or 9 Tbsp) port wine

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large saucepan, combine the cranberries, brown sugar, orange zest and juice, and port wine.
   
2. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
   
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the cranberries have popped and the sauce has thickened, about 15 minutes.
   
4. Cool, and refrigerate overnight before serving.

I didn't cool it overnight, but rather I just stuck it in the fridge till we were ready to eat, and I think it was kind of nice to have it a bit warm instead of cold. But perhaps that was just me. I also found that putting a big chunk of the orange rind in the saucepan helped get more of the orange flavour into it. I really like the port wine added to it as well.

We also had mashed sweet potatoes (Lindzie), Cuban cornbread stuffing (Anik), Meat stuffing (Anik), Green-bean casserole (Lindzie?), and dinner rolls (Kyle). For dessert we had pumpkin pie (Jessica), Mince pies (Lydia), and wine.

Oh, and of course, I can't forget about the Turkey. Jessica spent ALL day cooking this turkey. Literally she had to get up at 6am to start defrosting this thing, so major Kudos to her for doing that all by herself.

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Kyle carves the turkey
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The rest of the food
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My masterpiece of a dinner plate
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Me & Jessica, the hostess with the mostest
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Anik in her PJs Digesting while Lindzie looks on.
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So now the Christmas season can officially start. And, of course, now that Thanksgiving is over I am officially going to be studying nonstop until exams. Ok, well not nonstop, but I will be studying a lot. It's amazing how when I'm going over my notes I realize how much I still have to learn. It's a very daunting task. Somehow I'll get through it though.

Also, on a side note, I can hear someone playing the bagpipes from my open window (because it's GORGEOUS out today), and it makes me incredibly happy. Every day I'm here I realize how much I love it here, despite the fact that I am in an extremely demanding program, I'm so happy to be here. :)

November Birthdays, and Lighting of the Christmas Lights!

So this week has been full of many things.

First off, last Sunday was my birthday. To celebrate, on Saturday night we went to Koi, a Japanese restaurant in town, and had Teppenyaki. This is basically the same as a Hibachi table back home. Then afterward we went to the Brass Monkey (also known as the Metallic Simeon) for drinks.

Highlights of my birthday:

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Me trying (and failing) to catch an egg in my hat. Pookish actually did catch the egg in his hat, and won us sake.
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All of us together!
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Anik's meal had a face. Funny how ironic it is that they do this with the vegetarian meal...
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This week has been pretty good. I've been studying a lot, and that pretty much takes up most of the time I'm not actually in class.

Highlight of the week up till now:

I bought my very own keyboard! It is sooo nice to actually play again! Now all I need is a pedal and a pair of headphones that will fit in the jack....
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Earlier tonight a bunch of us (Pookish, Alan, Avril, Carol, Barbara, Kyle, Me and a few others) went out to see the lighting of the Christmas lights up on Princes Street, and then out to dinner for Carol's birthday at Ciao Roma.

Highlights of the night:

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The ferris wheel, pre lighting ceremony
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This was still about all I could see, but I did discover that there is an ice-skating rink down there, and there's also some nice carnival-type rides like bumper cars.
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Finally after a countdown, the lights are lit, and the ferris wheel began to turn.
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And of course, being the children that we are, my friend Kyle and I pushed through the crowd of people, braved the cold, wind, and rain for the very first ride in the ferris wheel.
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Pretty view from the top. It's actually quite scary, but still awesome
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View of the lights from the bridge.
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That is all thus far. This weekend we're having Thanksgiving dinner at Jessica's flat, and on Sunday I'm trying to see if I can get to Inverness for the day to see a concert by my new obsession, the Red Hot Chilli Pipers (yes, PIPERS, click HERE for awesome taste of their music), but it would require staying the night and missing some classes the next day. I still think it would be worth it, but I also don't want to go alone, and have to find someone to accompany me. Hmm. If not they're playing in Glasgow in January on Burns Night, so I may just try and be patient for that.

Anyway, I should get to bed, even though I just watched that music video I posted, and now am wide awake. Hmm.

Dick Day!

So the Dick Vets have this day every year, where we get together with the Weegie vets, and kick their butts in sports, called Dick Day. For background, there is a HUGE rivalry between Edinburghians (Edinbuggers) and Glaswegians (Weegies), especially in sports, but also just in life. I personally have nothing against the wee Weegies, but we totally have the better city and the better vet school :-P No I'm just joking, I didn't even get a chance to see the vet school, or much of the city. The part we were in for sports happened to be a bit sketchy, but once we got into the city itself later in the evening it really looked like a great place. I look forward to going there in the daytime sometime.

I didn't actually play in the football game, cause it was freezing, and also because I'm no good at it, and we needed to keep up our winning streak (I think this was the 13th year in a row that we've won), but I had fun watching the game and cheering our team on, despite the ref being a completely biased scumbag (hired of course, by the Weegies). He really was awful. Whenever we "fouled" the weegies (a.k.a. happened to be near one when she tripped), he would give free kicks from directly in front of our goal. Yet whenever one of the weegies clearly shoved one of our teammates down as she was about to kick a goal, he seemed to be looking elsewhere. Also he kept the game going on a good 5 minutes longer than necessary, and gave another direct free kick in the last minute and a half that could have lost the game for us. But, despite this, we still kicked their butts 3-2. Go Dicks!

We also won in boys rugby, which is pretty much the main event. Also so much fun to watch. Guys in tight shorts running into each other trying to cause concussions just never gets old. I also find it (morbidly) amusing to watch someone who's just gotten a concussion, because you can tell they've got one when it takes them 5 seconds or so to figure out which side their tryline is on again, and they're just sort of dazed for a few minutes. I know, that's kind of weird. This time we didn't have any serious injuries, though, other than I think a broken ankle for one of the Guvs (Glasgow University Veterinary Students), so that was good.

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Me on the sidelines of the rugby match, looking chilly
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Watching the rugby game. Clockwise from L: Pookish, Anik, Laura, Jo, Cara, Pam, Katie, Me
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Pookish became "that guy" with his new camera lens....
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Which resulted in creepy pictures like this one of Anik and Me being taken without our knowledge, from across the pitch.
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After the game we all headed to the "Walkabout" pub/grill, where we had some yummy food (kangaroo burgers!), and some drinks. It was supposed to be a pub crawl, but it ended up being stationary for 3-ish hours, so my friends and I decided to bail. We walked around Glasgow a bit, then headed for the train home.

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Walkabout Pub/Grill, where they served ACTUAL kangaroo burgers
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Lindzie, Me, and Jessica on the train home.
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It is also worth mentioning that we decided to bail at about 21:30. This is early. Granted, this was (again) a Wednesday night, and we had class the next day, but all the same this tells me that we are getting old. I can no longer keep up with the college freshers. This is all the more apparent because my birthday is tomorrow (23!) and I feel like that's almost 25, which is 1/4 of my life. Ahhh!

Ok I'm done, sorry. I haven't figured out what to do for my birthday this year. I don't know why but I'm just not really into it. I've celebrated my birthday away from home before, so it's not that. It's just like, big whoop. I'm 23. Also I was thinking of going out for Japanese food tonight with my close friends, but then I remember how much studying I haven't yet done and need to do. Meh. I dunno. Maybe by this evening I'll be more into it. We'll see.

Anyway, on to studying before perhaps having some birthday fun later.

007 and my resulting shiner

So Wednesday night was our Football's 007 Cocktail Party. We sold tickets to pretty much everyone, and it was actually really fun. Most of my friends were there, and I met some new and interesting people in the years above me, and good times were had by all. The guys pretty much all wore tuxedos (awesome), and most of the girls wore cocktail dresses. And there was one random guy in a gorilla suit, I'm not quite sure why.

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I forgot to take a picture of my hair, but it looked something like this. My dress is on the wall in the background. It was pretty :)
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Jessica and Me, looking beautious!
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Alan Poon and Me
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My vet mother Carin and Me.
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So besides the fact that the party was held at a bar/club with the least classy name I have ever heard (Vodka Revolution), it was pretty awesome. On the way home, however, I managed to get a nice shiner, a sprained (?) wrist, a bruised shoulder, and a bump the size of a baseball on my knee.

I'm not sure what happened after college, but I guess I became accident prone. Granted, the hayloft thing wasn't really my fault, and this wasn't either. Maybe I am just accident-people prone. Anyhoo, so one of my friends, who shall remain nameless, walked out of the club with me at approximately 2am, and grabbed my arm and began to run. However, she wasn't so steady on her feet, and thus she tripped, and fell, still holding onto my arm. And so down I went. My face hit the cobblestones with a resounding crack, and a cab driver had to stop so as not to run us over, laughing at us all the while. We got up (more cautiously this time), and walked back to her flat, and then I made my way back to mine.

So the next day being Thursday (I don't know why people here party on Wednesday night, but it seems a pretty terrible idea to me), I dragged myself to class, and suffered through the day, pretty convinced that my wrist was fractured at least. I don't think it is, because it feels much better now and the swelling is pretty much gone. I probably just sprained it. My face however, still has a nice abrasion on it and is a bit puffy, but it's already going away.

I think it makes for a fantastic story anyway, so totally worth the pain. :)

Other than that, we had a great couple of practical lessons, involving the oral cavity and the digestive system. We walked into the dissection room, with tables full of things like this:

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I'm not quite sure why this was necessary to our learning, but it was awesome anyway.
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And this:

Tongues and Pharynxes
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We also had a really awesome practical on ventilation, which sadly I didn't take any pictures of, but it involved hooking each other up to ventilation moniters and subjecting each other to experiments. I got to watch how my breathing changed when I was breathing from a bag full of pure oxygen for 4 minutes, and as the CO2 in your blood builds up you start breathing really fast and your tidal volume (the volume of air you inspire and expire) goes up. Then we did the same thing with just plain air, but also hooked up to a thing that absorbs CO2. So that way the CO2 in your blood isn't creating the signal to your brain to breathe faster. Thus you breathe normally until you pass out. I did not pass out, because we weren't allowed to keep the experiment up that long. That's basically what happens in altitude sickness. So that was pretty awesome, especially because we got to do it to each other, haha.

Anyhoo, not much is up for this weekend. Pretty much just hanging out and studying, since exams are beginning to look frighteningly close. (Eek!) Also we are going shopping for our rat babies. Mine is named Scabbers, and it's going to be living with Anik's rat babies, Rattikus and Ezekial Rage.

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My rat baby, Scabbers. He's so cute!
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Anyway, I'm off to begin the day. Bye!

Halloween, Football Socials and an Ikea Christmas

So this week has been fun. It was a bit difficult cause we didn't have Wednesday off, but we have today and tuesday off to make up for it. We had some fun practicals, like our live dog and cat heart practical, where we listened to the hearts of cats and dogs, and looked at some radiographs as well, and learned how to use an ECG. We also had a practical on some diagnostic testing, which realistically we don't need to ever do in practice, but it's the basis of all the "snap" tests we will use, so it's good to know how those work.

Then Friday was Halloween, and so I dressed up for class all day, which was fun. I was Hermione from Harry Potter, and got a few looks from people all day, but it was good fun, and I wish I could wear a robe like that to class all the time. No one else dressed up until later for our friend's party, but their costumes were pretty spectacular. Lydia was a cow, and Jessica was a unicorn.

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Jessica, Lydia and Me!
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So after the party, I went back to my flat. Jessica decided to stay at Lydia's for the night, which led to much hilarity the next morning when she had to walk back from Lydia's in her halloween costume (minus the horn and wig), because everyone honked at her, thinking it was a "walk of shame." Automatic Awesome for Jessica :-P

The next day, Saturday, was the football curry-night social with the boys team. I decided not to quit after all, because I like having the option of going to practice when I'm not exhausted, and now that the paper is done I figure it'll be less of a time issue. The football social was at King Balti, an Indian restaurant, and I got a delicious Lamb Balti Pasanda, which was something to do with almonds. Very yummy. The thing was BYOB, so the rest of the teams brought more alcohol than I have ever seen in my life. I stuck with water, and I have to say I felt bad for the rest of the people in the restaurant, cause our table had to be shushed several times, because 30-some-odd drunk kids in a restaurant makes for much loudness. But apparently that's the restaurant that all the sports teams have socials at, so the manager was used to it, and welcomed the business. He even came and said so, and was very good humoured about the whole thing.

After the social we went to Potterrow, which is sort of the student union. It's got a cafe, pub, bank, dance club, and lots of tables and cushy chairs. It's a very nice place, actually. We hung out downstairs in the pub area for awhile, then we went upstairs to the dance party. It was actually really fun. I got to dance with a guy on the boys team who knew how to swing dance, who I recognized from the ceilidh we had earlier in the year. It was quite fun! I sadly don't have pictures of the social, because I didn't have my camera with me, but I'm sure someone else took pictures that hopefully I'll be able to nick from the internet. We shall see!

Yesterday Jessica, Pookish and I went to Adele's house, out in Dumfermline, where she lives with her husband. We took the train over the Firth of Forth Rail Bridge, it was so pretty! The weather was gorgeous this weekend!

The Forth
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Adele lives in this adorable house with her husband, who is quite nice. We rented two movies and she cooked us dinner. It was fantastic. We also went exploring a bit, first to her mum's house, where her little brother demonstrated his bagpipes for us, and let us try it! It was SO hard! I couldn't even get the bag to inflate all the way, much less make any sort of note come out. Pookish got a few notes, and Jessica got a squeak or two. I was lightheaded after trying. Everyone always makes it look so easy when they play it, but it's actually really hard!

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Jessica & Me in Drumfermline (not sure how to spell that?)
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Pookish attemps the bagpipes. Jessica took a pic of me, so hopefully I'll get that pic from her soon.

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We explored a Loch near Adele's house, which was gorgeous!
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We stayed the night at Adele's, and then this morning went to IKEA, where we had breakfast and picked up a few things, like I got a spatula, a new light (since I accidentally knocked my other one over and broke it), a wok, and a bowl to replace one of mine that got broken. I also indulged in some cheap fairy lights (what they call christmas lights in the US), and strung them up as decoration in my room. I was tempted to get an IKEA Christmas tree, but since I'm not going to be here over Christmas, that'd be silly, so instead I got a string of stars and hung them over my bed.

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Fairy lights!
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That's about all that's been going on. We had today off, and tomorrow we've got off as well, so I think I'm going to try and spend the whole day studying. But I'm glad I took the last few days off because after stressing about that essay I just needed to take a break and not think about school for a bit. But tomorrow the studiousness begins again!

Ah, the life of a vet student!