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!
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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 ;)
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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 :)

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Stu's sporran! Made of seal fur, I think Stu said, though not a baby one, an old dead one :-P
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My little clutch bag, and some table confetti.
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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
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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!

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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!).
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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!

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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.
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Gigantic living room to the left as you walk in. TV, stereo, and furniture is all included!
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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!
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I think we decided this was Anik's bedroom. Bed included.
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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.

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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.
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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.

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As we got there the choir was finishing up, as was the light show, which they project onto the City Chambers building. Very pretty.
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The Chili Pipers emerge in all of their awesomeness!
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"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!
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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")

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

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

Saga of the Stomach Bug

So this week has been surprisingly unfun. Not only was it the hardest, busiest week of classes we've had so far, but I missed ALL of it because of the stomach bug that's apparently been making its way around our class and around uni. Ick. I tried to make it to a practical on Wednesday, but ended up having to leave and sit in the "first aid chair" outside for the rest of the period.

Note to self: smell of formalin + upset stomach = bad news

Today I have been feeling better overall, in the sense that I have been to the doctor, and made it all the way there and back without dying. I had to sleep for about 2 hours after I got back to recupperate, but I made it. Mostly it's just the stairs at the end, they're horrible when you're ill! Anyway, so the doctor told me basically to keep resting and drinking fluids, and if I was still ill on Monday I should come see him again. Which of course means I would have to miss another day of class, but at least then I'd be probably given something to aid in my recovery. They're not big on drugs here.

Anyway on the way home I stopped at Sainsbury's and got some essentials, like PowerAde to keep me hydrated, grapes, oatmeal, and bananas, which all seem like fairly innocuous foods that I can keep down. The PowerAde immediately helped. I drank one and my headache went away, and I'm feeling much less nauseous. Woot.

I've heard from others in our class that this week was unfun in terms of classes too, but that doesn't mean I'm any less responsible for learning it all, which means once I get better it's going to be lots of catchup. I've so far been unable to concentrate on anything long enough to study, and end up just staring at the page for an hour before giving up. I'm thinking if I just hold off till I'm well it'll be much more productive, and for now I'll attempt to enjoy my enforced laziness. My Wii is all set up, but even that I haven't been able to stick with for very long without getting bored. Blah.

Maybe it's cause I'm sick, but I've also been feeling really homesick lately. Probably because whenever I was sick I'd always sit on the couch in the family room watching tv and my parents would keep me company and help me feel better and cook me delicious wholesome food that was sure to make me feel better. I miss being a kid, and thinking it was the greatest thing ever to miss a week of school, especially because it was so easy to make up the work. I love it here, but I constantly feel like there is no possible way I can ever learn the amount of material I'm expected to know, and I'm not used to "squeaking by," I'm used to excelling without really trying all that hard, and it's kind of a harsh reality that I can't do that anymore. Also, I love my friends here, but I miss the familiarity of home and the friends I went to college with, who know me better than I know myself, and I feel like I'm losing them because I never get to talk to them with the time difference. And most of all, I miss my mom. I know it's childish, but the only thing I really really need right now is a hug from my mom, and I'll never ever get that again, and it really really sucks...

Baby Coos!

Back again!

So this week has had exciting things so far. We have started the semester off with a barrage of classes, looking only to get more hectic as time goes on.

I returned to the 'Burgh on Saturday morning, and managed to lug my heavy suitcases up the multitude of steps, collapsed on my bed in my room and slept until around 5pm that evening, then got up for dinner, and just hung out until 11 when I promptly went to bed. Oddly enough, that seemed the right thing to do, because I experienced very little jet lag, and I couldn't even sleep past 10am the next morning. I went to brunch with Jeni at Cafe Grande, and then enjoyed the rest of the day just hanging out.

I also met my new flatmate, Emily, who is also from America (Utah!). It's a bit weird having a new flatmate, but she's quite nice, and it'll be nice to have another American around.

Anyhoo, so Monday classes began again with 3 classes on neuroanatomy, and another 2 on Tuesday. It was mostly basics, but still a useful review.

On Monday evening my section of the class had a practical about dairy calf husbandry, so we trekked out to Langhill farm to visit the newborn calves. They are ADORABLE. I wish I could be a baby calf vet and avoid the large cows altogether, but alas. The big ones were even beginning to grow on me, but perhaps that's because I was feeling benevolent towards them for producing such cute little animals. We were unfortunately not allowed to bring our cameras due to the risk of bringing home cryptosporidiosis spores (which is a nasty parasite that will leave you with severe diarrhea if you contract it). I imagine that at some point in my career I will come down with this, but hey as long as I can put it off I will.

But to make up for my lack of camera, I have collected, from various places around the internet (meaning these photos are NOT mine), some pictures of the cute furries that somewhat approximate what we saw at Langhill. Enjoy:

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Mother and newborn
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A bebe learning to stand.
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A holstein calf sleeping after the trauma of birth
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Baby cows are very inquisitive
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Anyway, so those are some pictures of cuties. We mostly saw Holstein-Fresians, which are the usual dairy cow breed, but there was one Belgian Blue cross that was really cute too. What we did was learn about how to treat them when they're born, such as how to treat their naval and how much colostrum to give them (colostrum is the "first milk" the mother produces, which has extra nourishment; antibodies, because calves are born with no immunity of their own; and also stimulates the calf's first bowel movement). Then we learned how to hold them, halter them, restrain them for things like ear tagging, vaccinations, castration, and de-budding (removing the horn buds). It was very fun, and we enjoyed watching the calves frolicking around with each other in the pens, learning to use their legs and wobbling around. But it was also veeery cold, so I was all too happy to get back and enjoy a nice hot shower.

On Wednesday we had a few classes on pain, and another two looking at the "special sense organs," which include the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. We learned about how animals hear and see and everything. These classes were probably the most interesting so far, at least in my opinion. Wednesday afternoon we had off, so I went to my friend Kyle's to watch some old school Dr. Who, then went out to a pub for some bangers and mash (made of venison! yummy yummy!) and a Guinness.

Today we had classes on male genitalia all day, which put our class's maturity level to the test. The first teacher we had was a woman, so it seemed that our class would make it through with a minimum of giggling, but our teacher for the last class, which was on how to test a stallion (male horse) for breeding quality, was a guy, who kept cracking jokes the whole time about the various mechanisms used to get the stallion to "go," and he had us all in hysterics. For the sake of my younger readers, and for everyone else, I'll not put in what he said or joked about, but suffice it to say it was pretty hilarious.

Lastly we had a practical on spermatozoa, so we were looking at the things under a microscope all evening. It wasn't all that interesting, because all of us know what the little buggers look like by now, as that's covered in biology in most highschools. But we did learn how to assess their motility, and how to calculate a sperm count and things like that, which are important for determining breeding soundness in livestock animals (or dog breeders, for example).

So the last activity of the day was the unveiling of last semester's grades (insert scary music here). I wont tell you what I got, because it's none of anyone's business, but suffice it to say that I don't have to resit it, and I'm in good standing to pass at the end of the year. Yay!

Now, I am off to study, and start the semester off right!