The Taming of the Shrubbery & Recent Events

Hey all!

Sorry it's been so long, these last few weeks have been super busy! I finally managed to move all of my stuff into my new flat, with the help of Pookish's new car, and got all my furniture. Now I finally feel like I have everything I need to live here.

Anik and I had a grand adventure last Monday. Since we had a day off, we decided to go to Home Base (kind of like the British version of Home Depot), and get some stuff with which to tackle the front porch, which was covered in this massive viney plant and dandelions. So we got some planters, some bulbs to plant, some soil, and some gardening gear, and realized, after we had purchased all of this stuff, that we had, in fact, bought more than we could carry. As we were fretting about how to get it home, the cashier goes, "Just take the cart!" Anik and I looked at each other, shrugged, and said "Ok." So we dragged the shopping cart back to our flat, full of plants (and managed to spill some on the way), and then brought it back. Definitely got some weird looks on that adventure, but it was well worth it.

*

Taken about 5 hours after the Taming of the Shrubbery began
*
The window box that will eventually go on my back window, if we ever receive the keys
*

The rest of the day was spent taming the shrubs. I sadly didn't have the foresight to take a 'before' picture, but suffice it to say that it looks infinitely better. We even had a neighbour walk by and say "It's so nice to see someone is finally doing something about that porch!"

*

My room, in it's nearly complete state. Since this pic, I have added dark blinds to the window, and painted a few of those wall stickers to have blue flowers instead of gray, and I have one more sticker to put up.
*
Another view
*

This past weekend I was in Linlithgow with my friend Stu for an afternoon, and took a walk around Linlithgow Loch. It was very pretty, and there were swans everywhere. They weren't afraid of people at all, and came right up to the edge of the Loch to try and bribe food out of people. It was very cool, even though a bit chilly. We didn't go in the Palace, cause we were limited on time, but sometime I'd like to, it looked interesting. I'm trying to put up pics of swans and the palace, but for whatever reason my internet is being stupid, so I'll have to upload them later.

Other than that and flat stuff, we've been studying for a small exam this Friday, and writing a "Consultant's Report" on one of our EMS placements, also for Friday. A CR is basically an analysis of a farm, citing all the things they did right and wrong, and what could be improved upon. I'm a bit worried about mine, because the farm I went to for EMS (the Good Shepherd Farm) was more a hobby farm than anything else, and not only did they do nearly everything right, but it was so small that a lot of the things you'd normally write about in a consutants report don't really apply, whereas Anik is going crazy with her CR cause the farm she is analyzing apparently had a lot of issues. So I'm just going to do the best I can given what I have to work with, and hopefully they'll take into account the differences in farms when they grade them.

The exam on Friday is on Epidemiology, which is basically statistics and assessing diagnostic tests and so forth. It is not really my forte, and is not really anything I'm interested in at all, so studying for it is rather painful, but since I took biostatistics in a previous life, which is basically the same thing, I'm hoping it will help me through it.

This Sunday we leave for lambing down in Yorkshire. I'll be there for 2 weeks, while Anik and Pookish will be there for 3. It should be fun. I'm excited to see baby lambs being born, and excited to see a bit of England.

Anyway, I've got to go to a practical just now (Clinical Examination of the Ox), which should be fun and smelly. I am still not a fan of cows, but I'm trying at least to not be terrified of them. I'm not sure why I am, cause the first time we worked with I was fine, I just more and more discover that I do not like cows. They are too big, and I don't like the idea of dealing with an animal that could severely injure me by kicking me or headbutting me. I much prefer dogs that you can squash to the table when they get uppity (only when necessary of course).

New Flat!

Hey all, this will be a quick post, cause I've got to run to the Clinical Exam of the Horse! We have no internet currently, and wont until sometime in end of April/early May, so I haven't been updating, but after we get internet I'll also have some good pictures to show you from lambing in York!

For now, here are some pics of my new flat!

*
Hallway as you come in (much cleaner now, with a bookcase at the end.
*
First room on the left as you walk in: the living room. The door is on the left of that couch.
The baby rats! Door to kitchen is on the left of that chair, door back out to hallway is on the right.
*
The kitchen! This is right off the living room area, at about the place where the last pic was taken.
*
Our fantastic bathroom, toilet is on the left!
*
My room, view 1!
*
My room, view 2, with shower and wardrobe!
*

Anyway, I'll post more later, especially cause I've changed a bit since these pics were taken, and eventually I'll be getting a desk, but for now, there you are!

Horsies and Sheepses

So this is actually from last Wednesday, when we had our horse and sheep practical revision, but I just got the high res pics from Anik, so here they are! I was very glad we had this revision, as I missed the horse session the first time around back in August, and it was nice to practice on the sheepies.

Our group was first with the sheepsies, and we had lots of fun remembering how to do various things such as:

• remembering general husbandry practices

Free range lamb - it was born early, so it gets to roam around with the ewes!

• flip them over and general handling and restraint

Anik remembers how to handle angry sheep.. "Baahhh Rammm Eeeweee!"

• check their age by their teeth (baby teeth are called "milk teeth"; the first pair of adult teeth coming in at 1 year 3 months, then another pair come in every 6 months after that. There are 4 pairs in all, so if it's got all 4 pairs of adult teeth you know it's over 2 years 9 months.

After looking at his teeth. The old man was not happy.

• guestimating their weight (always a fun task since I'm not used to kgs) (most adult ewes are between 70-80 kgs, rams are 100-120kgs)
  
• checking to see if they're male or female (harder than it may seem, specially when you factor in castrations and whatnot, but which will earn you an instant fail if you get it wrong, eek!)
  
• assessing body condition and overall health

Bahh Bahh Black Sheep! So cute!
***

Next we switched with the other group, and got to play with horsies. We learned how to:

• go into the stable and haltering the horse

At first the horses seemed curious, but the one we used 'Flint' (not this guy) quickly got tired of being led in and out of the stable by 8 separate people.

• walk the horse up and down to assess gait and lameness issues

Anik coaxes 'Flint' out of the stable

• trot the horse (or trying to)

A video of me trying to get the old man horse to trot. He was not pleased and wouldn't trot for me. Grr.

• We also learned about all the different types of brushes used on horses (which led me to believe that horse people are somewhat anal retentive and OCD about their horses, as you have like 9 different types of brushes that can only be used in certain ways, and while some are intuitive, some are not at all)
• We learned how to lift up the front and back feet, which is useful for checking for rocks or bad shoeing, etc.
  
• we also learned how to put a stable bandage a leg, the purpose of which is to add stability to the legs of a horse if it has hurt one of it's legs (contrary to what you'd think, you bandage the other legs because if one leg hurts, the horse will be shifting weight onto the other legs, and as horses are not particularly well-designed animals, they can injure other legs unless you give them stable bandages.
• Finally we learned how to put on and take off a horse blanket

All in all, it was very fun, and for once I wasn't too unhappy about coming home smelling like animals. Sheep and horses don't smell nearly as bad as cows or pigs. My only problem was that I once again had to suffer a cold shower because the plumbing in my flat stinks.

But that's okay, because I'm moving in 3 days! I may not be living there full time for awhile yet, but I will be there to study, shower, and possibly sleep. Ok that's pretty much everything I would need to do, so basically I'm going to try and get in there as quickly as possible, as the fire alarm that some silly young'un set off at 5am this morning. I can't wait to not live in a dorm!

Tomorrow I'm going shopping with Anik for new flat stuff, and then the rest of the weekend is devoted to studying and more studying (and getting extremely psyched and a little bit packed to move!)

Anyway, so long story short. Animals are fun, I can't wait to move, and my life is going pretty well right now! :)

A jam-packed weekend

It is time for the mystery date to be revealed! :) But he reads this, so I have to be nice, heehee (just joking, Stu!)

So we'll start with Friday night, which was very fun. It was Stu's birthday, so I took him out to dinner at Suruchi, a really delicious Indian restaurant that I'd been to once with Pookish, Anik and Jessica. I had I think the same thing as last time (Almond Lamb Curry), and it was just as delicious. I also ordered what I thought was a small amount of Nan bread for us to share, and they brought out this HUGE basket full of Nan. But we just took it away in a doggie bag for later.

Anyway, so after dinner we took the train to Polmont to drop stuff off at meet his parents, then hurried to the train station to catch the Dunblane train to Falkirk. As we got to the platform, a train was already there and we sprinted up the stairs and across to the opposite platform to just barely make the train, and as the doors closed, we realized we'd gotten the wrong one. Oops! Fortunately it was still going to Falkirk, it was just that it was going to the wrong station. So we got a taxi from one station to the other (much to the amusement of the taxi driver), and eventually ended up at Argyl's Pub (not sure if I spelled that properly, but whatever). A bunch of Stu's friends were there, different from the bunch from last weekend, and they were also very nice, and hilarious as well.

I also got to experience my first "Lock-in," which is basically when, if you know the right people (a.k.a. the owner of the pub), the bartenders let you stay in after hours, so no one else can get in, but you get to keep buying drinks even after last call. The bar officially closed about 1 I think, but we were there till half 2. I can't keep up with Scottish drinkers, so I mostly drank water :)

On Saturday, the reception was at this really nice hotel near the Edinburgh airport, set back a ways from the main road, so you felt like you were out in the countryside. The bride, Louise, looked absolutely gorgeous; her dress was something like out of Cinderella, all chiffon and she had a tiara on. I didn't take a pic of her because I thought that'd be a little odd since I don't know her, but she was very nice in the 10 seconds I met her for. Her new husband Lee also seemed very nice, though I only met him as we were leaving. When they had their first dance together they were so adorable together.

Anyway, so now I've kept you all in suspense, meet Stu (and you already know me, of course):

Gotta love the kilt ;)
*

Sadly I forgot to take that silly scarf-ish thing off before the picture, so you can't fully appreciate my dress, but I'm sure I'll wear it again sometime. Also, I have to mention that there was another girl wearing the EXACT same outfit. Same dress, same shoes. She didn't have a shawl as far as I could tell, but it was very ironic. She was very nice though, I bumped into her in the bathroom and we laughed about what great taste we have :)

I also took some artsy pictures because, well, I didn't want to take random pictures of the party itself, because I didn't know anyone, but I decided I needed more to show of the evening than just the one photo :)

*

Stu's sporran! Made of seal fur, I think Stu said, though not a baby one, an old dead one :-P
*
My little clutch bag, and some table confetti.
*
Closeup of my fantastic shoes because, well, I'm a girl and despite the fact that high heels were clearly designed to torture women, I still love a good high heeled shoe :-P
*

Annywho, so the reception was very nice, they picked a great band, and they played good music all night long, and there was a buffet with yummy food. I haven't had a good excuse to dress up in awhile, so it was all-in-all a great evening, despite being exhausted from Friday night. We did get up to dance for the last dance, which I think is traditional. Everyone stands in a circle around the bride and groom while they dance. It was a bit cramped cause the dance floor was tiny, but still fun.

On a sidenote, for some reason I'm much less nervous about meeting new people. I'm not quite sure why, but I'm hoping this means I am getting over being so incredibly shy. It also helps that everyone here is extremely nice and welcoming. The only thing I still get nervous about is understanding accents. I'm pretty sure I'm partly deaf or something, because if there's any background noise at all I have a really hard time hearing people talking in general, and combine that with the Scottish accents (which are nonetheless fantastic) makes me feel like a parrot, squawking "WHAT??!" all the time. I'm trying to say "sorry?" or "pardon me?" instead of "what?" because I feel it's less obnoxious, but it's hard to break that habit. I'm getting better at the accents on the whole, especially now that I'm interacting with 'real' Scottish people (as in, not professors who are consciously talking slowly because of all the international students), but I feel like I look like an idiot from time to time because it takes me a few seconds to puzzle out what people are saying to me, haha.

Anyway, I need to get back to studying! Bye all!

It's been awhile!

It has been a crazy, hectic, roller-coaster ride of a few weeks, but I am back. This will be shortish because I really have to get to studying.

First of all, the weather is beginning to warm up. And by that I mean that it is just very cold, instead of extremely cold. But the crocuses just popped up this last week, so I consider that a good sign as to the coming of spring! I love walking by and seeing thousands of croci all over the place. And when they bloom the smell is just fantastic! I love springtime!

*
Pretty yellow crocuses (croci?). There were also pretty light purply-blue ones, dark purple ones, white ones, and some purple and yellow ones (which remind me of irises--my favorite flowers!).
*

So anyway, what's been going on is mainly flat-hunting, and figuring out logistics for next year, on top of classes. Anik and I will be living together starting in 2 weeks, since we found a gorgeous flat right near to uni. Originally we were going to wait till later like everyone else, but we decided to move early in order to avoid the rush as every first year throughout the entire university will be searching for flats at roughly the same time.

Our new flat is about a 2 minute walk from uni, has 2 large bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, 2 showers, a separate bathroom with tub, and all the closet space a girl could ask for! Here are some pics!

*

Our door is the white one, but we could also use the brown one if we wanted. That little porch out front is ours too I believe.
*
Gigantic living room to the left as you walk in. TV, stereo, and furniture is all included!
*
Kitchen off the living room. It's got a washer and dishwasher, a wine rack, and all the pots and pans we could ever need!
*

I think we decided this was Anik's bedroom. Bed included.
*

I don't have a picture of the room that is to be my bedroom, but suffice it to say, it is also awesome. Each bedroom has a shower attached (I think they used to be walk-in closets). I am so excited, not only to move out of the flat I'm in now, but also to live with Anik. It's going to be awesome. I cannot wait!

Other than the flat hunt coming to an exciting and wonderful close, I've just been trying to learn the crazy amount of info we're supposed to know. I'm getting more and more overwhelmed with it, but so is everyone else, so we're all in the same boat.

I also had a fantastic Valentine's Day, which involved getting treated to brunch (a full Scottish breakfast with haggis and black pudding and baked beans, etc. Yum!), then to a pub in Falkirk at around 2 with a bunch of people whom I'd never met before, but it was fun nonetheless. Then a film was had, called Serendipity, which I had never seen before. While a very predictable and sappy chick-flick, it was also very cute, and left me smiling.

In upcoming news, on Friday I am taking my Valentine for a birthday dinner, then heading back to Falkirk to go birthday pubbing. Then on Saturday I am going to a Scottish wedding reception. I will be posting lots of pictures, as my date will be wearing full highland dress, and I will be wearing a superbly fabulous dress that will hopefully leave the bride infinitely jealous. :-P Needless to say I am excited. Also it will be fun to see how wedding receptions differ from America. We're not going to the actual wedding, as it's a more intimate wedding, but the wedding reception should be a fun party.

And now, back to studying!

Reminiscing and Planning

I really miss Colby College. I absolutely love it here, but I really miss the lifestyle and friends I had at Colby. When you were bored you could prop your door open and chat with the people that walk by, or go to the next dorm over to be with your friends, or go to pretty much any dorm on campus and there'd be a party going on. This school is just too big, and spread out all across the city, so it makes it difficult to be close to your friends. I'm discovering that more and more I am becoming a person that needs to be surrounded by my friends. I don't know how this bodes for my fantasy of living in a quiet suburb with my future family and multitude of pets, but maybe living in a city is something I could actually do.

I can't wait until this summer, when I can move into a flat with and near my friends (and nearer to school as well). That will make this experience infinitely more enjoyable. I can't wait to have a room I can make my own without having to worry about packing it all up at the end of the year, and I can't wait to get a pet! I've already begun looking for flats, mostly in the Sciennes / Newington area, and am becoming increasingly excited about it.

*

The blue is the ideal area we're looking to live. The little marker is Summerhall. I live wayyyy the heck out to the left. Much too far away, despite that it's a really great area.
*

We haven't figured out the logistics of living yet (i.e. who is living with whom, how much we want to pay, etc.), but it has been decided that, at the very least, I will be living with Anik, our ratties (Scabbers, Ratikus and Ezekial Rage), and my future (hopefully cream-coloured) kitten to be named Chai. :)

the bug abates

So I made it to class today, and made it through most of the day. It seemed to go okay, although my stomach is still grumbly, and my intestines still cramp every now and again, and I still feel slightly nauseous pretty much all the time, but it seems to be getting much better. We have one class this afternoon which I haven't decided whether I'll make it to yet cause my stomach is getting grumbly again (it always seems to get worse in the afternoon). I'm so tired that I don't think there would be any point in going, especially because I missed the first part of the lecture that happened last week, so I'm thinking I'll nap and recover a bit more, and get some studying done when my stomach calms down. Tomorrow we've got an even longer day, so it's more important that I'm healthier tomorrow.

It actually surprised my how many of my classmates are sick. I know a number of people who had this bug the week before I did, and at least 4 or 5 people who have it now as well. Everyone's walking through class asking each other "how are you feeling?" constantly. Clearly we vet students need to work on the whole hand-washing bit.

So now on to happier things. Last night was Burns Night, which is a holiday in Scotland, celebrating Robert Burns, the great writer/poet. Despite the stomach bug (although I was actually feeling more okay last night than I am even now), and because my idols the Red Hot Chili Pipers were playing, my flatmates Miriam, Emily and I went to Glasgow for the "Burns Illuminated" festival. I've been trying to be more social with my flatmates this semester, which so far is going well. We left the flat as late as we could to get to Glasgow in time for the Pipers, who according to their website were going on at 6:30, and even after missing our train, we still managed to get there while the choir was still going. I was so excited to get there before they came on, because when we missed the 5:30 train, we had to get one a half an hour later, which meant we would get to Glasgow at around 6:50. When I found out they hadn't started yet, I got extremely excited, and I'm pretty sure the people around me were wondering what I was freaking out about.

*

As we got there the choir was finishing up, as was the light show, which they project onto the City Chambers building. Very pretty.
*
The Chili Pipers emerge in all of their awesomeness!
*
"Smoke on the Water - Thunderstruck - Upside down at Eden Court" medley, which is my favorite of all of the songs they do. Their fingers really fly over the pipes!
*

They were amaaaazing. I wish they had played more songs, but then again the festival wasn't really about them. Their energy was infectious, and had the whole crowd (even ones who didn't look like they knew who the RHCPs were) boucing and dancing. The most I could do was bob in place out of fear of upsetting my stomach, but on the inside I was jumping up and down and screaming. They played most of my favorite songs from the album, namely O, Flower of Scotland, the Hills of Argyl, and their amazing version of We Will Rock You/Eye of the Tiger. They also played a Burn's tune I didn't know, but other people seemed to know the words and sang along. They really are a great band to watch, cause it's so evident how much talent and control they need to play those bagpipes at that speed while running around stage.

There were some other acts too, some Scottish pop star (Michelle McMannus, I think, she was really good!), accompanied by some attractive men with guitars (the Fortunate Sons - check them out, they're awesome!) :) They sang some K.T. Tungstall, Johnny Cash, and Ray Charles, along with some more Scottish songs, and then the Fortunate Sons played a song by themselves (a Robert Burns tune), and then the whole thing ended with choreographed fireworks (set to some popular tunes) and some audience sing-a-longs which had the whole place singing ("Ye'll take the high road and / I'll take the low road / and I'll be in Scotland afore ye; / But me and my true love / will never meet again / on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond")

*
Michelle McMannus and the Fortunate Sons
*
The Fireworks!
*
More fireworks! For such a small-scale thing they were quite good!
*

Afterward I tried to get to meet the RHCPs, but once they took off their bright red kilts (cause it was freeeezing!) I couldn't tell who they were, cause they were interspersed with the crew, and I don't know them that well, yet. But I did speak briefly to the Fortunate Sons in the process, and they seemed really nice. Because of the cold we decided not to stick around and be total groupies. I figure I'll be going to an actual concert of theirs at some point, so maybe I'll try to meet them then. :)

*
We got a nice Scottish lady to take our picture in front of the Burns Statue.
*

Anyway, so after the people cleared out it started getting even colder, so Emily, Miriam and I walked around for a bit, looking for a cafe or something, but it seems nothing except bars and kebab shops were open, neither of which would be ideal for the state my stomach is in. So we went to the train station early, got apple ciders at a little stand there right before it closed, and hopped an earlier train home. When we got back to Edinburgh I insisted upon getting a cab, cause my stomach was hurting and it would be a cheap ride, so after a cab ride that was surely quicker, warmer and better than walking, we arrived back home and I went straight to bed before 11:30!

So, despite a horrible and depressing, sick and homesick week, it ended on a really really high note. And while I'm not sure standing out in the freezing cold last night did any favours for my health, it did wonders for my soul, which makes it completely worth it in my book.