It is once again that time of the semester. That time where students become even more frazzled and frantic than usual, where standing up feels like exercise because we've been hunched over books for so long, where sleep becomes a distant memory, and absolutely anything and everything in the kitchen suddenly looks delicious and totally edible.
Midterms. At this point I'm really just hoping to pass. To survive. Strive for C's, aim higher later ;). That's how I feel about my grasp of the material right now. 5 exams in 7 days. Envious? Bacteriology, anatomy (lecture and lab), immunology (shoot me now PLEASE), physiology, and pharmacology (I swear they saved the absolute worst for last. seriously.). You probably won't hear from me much until after exams end, mostly because I have nothing much to say and absolutely every second is precious.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Chocolate Fusion
This is the name of a smoothie at one of the local...restaurants? I'm actually not sure what to call it. The whole place is called Options, but within Options, there are a bunch of different "huts" with various food places in them where you can walk up to the counter and order (mexican, sushi, american, smoothies, etc).
Anyhow, chocolate fusion is delicious. I'm honestly not sure what's in it other than chocolate, because one time it was like a chocolate milkshake, another it had peanut butter in it, and tonight it included bananas. Perhaps it is up to the discretion of the smoothie maker? Who knows, either way, it is absolutely delicious! My usual default is banana because I absolutely LOVE their banana smoothies, but when I'm in the mood for something more dessert-y, the chocolate is awesome. I watched them make the banana one time, and the guy included 4 whole bananas! 4! Can you believe it? That sure is a lot of bananas for one 16-18oz drink, but I'm convinced that that is the secret to it being so incredibly yummy.
I'm pretty sure I've shared this picture before, but this is Options.
Anyhow, chocolate fusion is delicious. I'm honestly not sure what's in it other than chocolate, because one time it was like a chocolate milkshake, another it had peanut butter in it, and tonight it included bananas. Perhaps it is up to the discretion of the smoothie maker? Who knows, either way, it is absolutely delicious! My usual default is banana because I absolutely LOVE their banana smoothies, but when I'm in the mood for something more dessert-y, the chocolate is awesome. I watched them make the banana one time, and the guy included 4 whole bananas! 4! Can you believe it? That sure is a lot of bananas for one 16-18oz drink, but I'm convinced that that is the secret to it being so incredibly yummy.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Never Again
Never again will I declare or even think that I might go to bed early, because every single time I do, I end up being up much past my bedtime! Gah! Not exactly how I wanted to start my week off either. Grr. But really, every time I consider an earlier bedtime during the day or evening, I end up staying up late accomplishing something or other. Tonight it was learning about pancreatitis, both acute and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Exciting. Okay, it sort of was, since I've seen a fair number of pancreatitis cases in all of my shadowing and working at hospitals. One of these days I'll even understand the whole deal-presentation, pathophysiology, treatment!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Cake in the Microwave
Fastest way to bake a cake? In the microwave of course! Yes, I did just suggest you bake your cake in the microwave, not a toaster oven, not a real oven. Have I lost my mind? Maybe, but it actually does work!
A friend sent me a recipe for making chocolate cake in a mug over the summer. I never did get around to trying it (or bookmarking the recipe-oops!), but the idea has sat in the back of my mind since then, just waiting for an opportune moment to pop out. That moment came last night, when vet school roomie and I found ourselves with an entire can of vanilla frosting (open) and no cake with which to eat it. Now, of course you can eat the frosting plain and it's quite delicious, but what better excuse to add cake to that frosting??
So I did a bit of Google searching and found myself a recipe for yellow cake in the microwave. We would have of course preferred chocolate (being the addicted chocolate lovers we are), but alas neither of us has thought to buy cocoa powder since making that spur of the moment chocolate cake several weeks ago. So we found ourselves scheming to make a cake in the microwave.
How does one do this exactly? Well, the recipe is pretty much the exact same as any cake, except instead of sticking it in the oven to bake, you put it in the microwave on half power for 10 minutes. Now this scared me a bit, because last time I stuck something in the microwave for 10 minutes (albeit full power), I nearly caused a fire. But sure enough, half power was nearly enough to cook the cake. After those 10 minutes, the recipe recommends microwaving for 30 seconds at a time on full power for up to 20 minutes. Ours only need an extra 1.5 minutes.
The top and sides didn't brown at all (because that's what the oven does) so it looked a little strange, but other than that, it really was a cake. We slapped some frosting and sprinkles on for color, and gave our creation a tasting (after it cooled of course). It was interesting. It has sponge cake consistency and seemed a little dry, but all in all, not bad for a cake made in the microwave! I'm pretty impressed that it even cooked, let alone tasted decent haha. For anyone curious, you can find the recipe here.
A friend sent me a recipe for making chocolate cake in a mug over the summer. I never did get around to trying it (or bookmarking the recipe-oops!), but the idea has sat in the back of my mind since then, just waiting for an opportune moment to pop out. That moment came last night, when vet school roomie and I found ourselves with an entire can of vanilla frosting (open) and no cake with which to eat it. Now, of course you can eat the frosting plain and it's quite delicious, but what better excuse to add cake to that frosting??
So I did a bit of Google searching and found myself a recipe for yellow cake in the microwave. We would have of course preferred chocolate (being the addicted chocolate lovers we are), but alas neither of us has thought to buy cocoa powder since making that spur of the moment chocolate cake several weeks ago. So we found ourselves scheming to make a cake in the microwave.
How does one do this exactly? Well, the recipe is pretty much the exact same as any cake, except instead of sticking it in the oven to bake, you put it in the microwave on half power for 10 minutes. Now this scared me a bit, because last time I stuck something in the microwave for 10 minutes (albeit full power), I nearly caused a fire. But sure enough, half power was nearly enough to cook the cake. After those 10 minutes, the recipe recommends microwaving for 30 seconds at a time on full power for up to 20 minutes. Ours only need an extra 1.5 minutes.
The top and sides didn't brown at all (because that's what the oven does) so it looked a little strange, but other than that, it really was a cake. We slapped some frosting and sprinkles on for color, and gave our creation a tasting (after it cooled of course). It was interesting. It has sponge cake consistency and seemed a little dry, but all in all, not bad for a cake made in the microwave! I'm pretty impressed that it even cooked, let alone tasted decent haha. For anyone curious, you can find the recipe here.
Friday, February 24, 2012
2 Busy Nights
I am finally done volunteering at the small animal clinic for a while. When I signed up for these shifts, I figured it would just be 6 or 7 easy hours of study time. Wrong! Very busy. So instead of getting anything done, I ran around like a crazy person for 20 hours this week. That's basically a part time job!
The only pair of scrubs I had left by the time yesterday rolled around was a black pair. :( I don't like wearing all black, makes me feel very gloomy. However, what did I do last night? I force fed 400mls of activated charcoal to a pair of dogs. Black, sticky, messy charcoal, to unwilling participants. I still have it around my nail beds, even after washing my hands a million times and showering! So black turned out to be the perfect choice for last night! The dogs were on proactive treatment for possibly being poisoned, because a kitty housemate turned up dead as did a neighbor dog across the street and another neighbor dog is missing.
Our botulism friend is slowly getting better. He has more muscle tone now, it's really incredible to feel! Although he still has a long road to recovery, this has been a really cool case to follow. I'll have to pop in sometime next week to see how he's doing.
Yesterday we had our second lab in the simulation teaching lab. We had one last semester too. The SIM lab is a mock hospital with many mannequins for teaching. Unfortunately they're all teaching with the exception of one stuffed dog with a lung speaker, but it's fun all the same. Basically we listen to heart and lung sounds (normal and abnormal) and discuss what we hear. It's a neat tool that we have access to.
I'm really hoping to catch up on sleep and studying this weekend, I desperately need lots of both! I ended up ducking out of class early today because I was too exhausted to learn anything. I figured it was probably just better for me to go home and take a nap than sit in class like a zombie and let facts bounce off me without comprehending or learning anything. I can't wait for midterms to be over with!!!
The only pair of scrubs I had left by the time yesterday rolled around was a black pair. :( I don't like wearing all black, makes me feel very gloomy. However, what did I do last night? I force fed 400mls of activated charcoal to a pair of dogs. Black, sticky, messy charcoal, to unwilling participants. I still have it around my nail beds, even after washing my hands a million times and showering! So black turned out to be the perfect choice for last night! The dogs were on proactive treatment for possibly being poisoned, because a kitty housemate turned up dead as did a neighbor dog across the street and another neighbor dog is missing.
Our botulism friend is slowly getting better. He has more muscle tone now, it's really incredible to feel! Although he still has a long road to recovery, this has been a really cool case to follow. I'll have to pop in sometime next week to see how he's doing.
Yesterday we had our second lab in the simulation teaching lab. We had one last semester too. The SIM lab is a mock hospital with many mannequins for teaching. Unfortunately they're all teaching with the exception of one stuffed dog with a lung speaker, but it's fun all the same. Basically we listen to heart and lung sounds (normal and abnormal) and discuss what we hear. It's a neat tool that we have access to.
I'm really hoping to catch up on sleep and studying this weekend, I desperately need lots of both! I ended up ducking out of class early today because I was too exhausted to learn anything. I figured it was probably just better for me to go home and take a nap than sit in class like a zombie and let facts bounce off me without comprehending or learning anything. I can't wait for midterms to be over with!!!
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Busy Night at the SAC
Last night I covered an on call shift from 5p-12a with my vet school roommate. Because I pretty brought every study item I own, we were of course busy pretty much the entire night. We even had one emergency. 16 patients in the hospital was the main culprit for keeping us running around the whole time, which was fine. It certainly made the shift go pretty quickly! Our emergency was a dog with a seizure and brain tumor history who was brought in while the owner was out of town. It unfortunately seemed as though his tumor had progressed further because anti-seizure medications were only stopping the seizures temporarily. My heart goes out to the owner who had to make a tough and hasty decision last night after having been away for awhile.
The botulism case is slowly improving. He is not as flaccid as before (some muscle tone when you go to move him) and can sort of pick his head up for eating (which he loves!). The majority of our other patients were orthopedic patients recovering from surgery (which is usually a multi-week process here because of extremely low owner compliance rates) or boarding patients. Never the less, when you have 16 of them, the time gets eaten up pretty quickly!
Thankfully we didn't get any calls over night, but I only managed to get about 5.5 hours of sleep again. I am exhausted! And on top of being worn out, I am already very nervous and stressed about all of my upcoming midterm exams. I just feel like I am so behind and that there is just not nearly enough time to get everything I need to do done. I don't like this feeling at all. I'm on call again tomorrow night and am really hoping that it will be a bit calmer (doubtful) so that I can get more studying done.
The botulism case is slowly improving. He is not as flaccid as before (some muscle tone when you go to move him) and can sort of pick his head up for eating (which he loves!). The majority of our other patients were orthopedic patients recovering from surgery (which is usually a multi-week process here because of extremely low owner compliance rates) or boarding patients. Never the less, when you have 16 of them, the time gets eaten up pretty quickly!
Thankfully we didn't get any calls over night, but I only managed to get about 5.5 hours of sleep again. I am exhausted! And on top of being worn out, I am already very nervous and stressed about all of my upcoming midterm exams. I just feel like I am so behind and that there is just not nearly enough time to get everything I need to do done. I don't like this feeling at all. I'm on call again tomorrow night and am really hoping that it will be a bit calmer (doubtful) so that I can get more studying done.
Monday, February 20, 2012
The Owl
What do you do at the end of the day to unwind? Veterinary students on a Caribbean island get to take advantage of the lovely weather and go outside to hang out. Beach time, bar time, house parties-it is all done outdoors in the temperate weather. And of course, there is usually alcohol involved (except that I don't drink, but whatever).
One of the local bar/restaurants is called The Owl, and on Monday nights they have hermit crab races. Yes, you read that correctly, hermit crabs! They have a whole bunch of hermit crabs that are put in the center of a sandy circle, bet on to be fastest, slowest, or any of the other categories they run. The crabs are then released and people cheer and yell until the crabs cross out of the circle. You can also play pool upstairs near the bar, but that's not nearly as popular when there are crabs to be watched! My roommate and I went and joined many of our classmates there for drinks and some fun in the sand. Despite the huge crowd that turned out, it was still very relaxing as we sat just near the water and could see for miles all the lights in the Grenadian homes. I treated myself to a delicious fruit smoothie :).
One of the local bar/restaurants is called The Owl, and on Monday nights they have hermit crab races. Yes, you read that correctly, hermit crabs! They have a whole bunch of hermit crabs that are put in the center of a sandy circle, bet on to be fastest, slowest, or any of the other categories they run. The crabs are then released and people cheer and yell until the crabs cross out of the circle. You can also play pool upstairs near the bar, but that's not nearly as popular when there are crabs to be watched! My roommate and I went and joined many of our classmates there for drinks and some fun in the sand. Despite the huge crowd that turned out, it was still very relaxing as we sat just near the water and could see for miles all the lights in the Grenadian homes. I treated myself to a delicious fruit smoothie :).
Botulism, Anatomy, and More Sleep
I volunteered at our small animal clinic yesterday afternoon. Although we didn't see any emergencies, we certainly had a full house! Several of our patients were just hanging out after having limb fractures repaired (unfortunately we see a lot of hit by car animals here), but two had a very surprising differential diagnosis-botulism toxicity.
Both dogs turned out to be housemates who had initially presented for care after the owner noticed all her dogs were flat out and foaming at the mouth. Sadly, one died at home before the other two made it in for treatment. One of the dogs was doing so well yesterday that he was discharged to go home, the other is stable but still in fairly critical condition. So how does one suspect botulism toxicity in a dog? Well, mainly be reviewing the symptoms. The hallmark symptom for botulism is flaccid paralysis (aka "floppy" paralysis). This dog is completely flaccid, apart from being able to open its eyes and lick with its tongue (which are good signs!). As far as I know, treatment is basically just supportive care and time. Apparently in humans they have antitoxin, but I haven't heard of any for animals. Which makes sense, this isn't very common in people and has to be even rarer in animals (except for maybe horses eating from big round bales of hay, but that's another story!).
Our anatomy exam was tough! Fortunately everyone seemed to feel the same way and murmurings from the professor indicated that the class average was extremely low. The questions were very nit-picky and I felt a little bit mislead on what the areas of focus where. Oh well. Exam #7 is now complete. Next up? Midterms! Let the stress and major studying begin tomorrow!
Sleep? I got 5 hours of sleep last night because I stayed up extra to study. Turns out that was a waste of time! Oh well. I took a 4 hour nap today to compensate haha.
Both dogs turned out to be housemates who had initially presented for care after the owner noticed all her dogs were flat out and foaming at the mouth. Sadly, one died at home before the other two made it in for treatment. One of the dogs was doing so well yesterday that he was discharged to go home, the other is stable but still in fairly critical condition. So how does one suspect botulism toxicity in a dog? Well, mainly be reviewing the symptoms. The hallmark symptom for botulism is flaccid paralysis (aka "floppy" paralysis). This dog is completely flaccid, apart from being able to open its eyes and lick with its tongue (which are good signs!). As far as I know, treatment is basically just supportive care and time. Apparently in humans they have antitoxin, but I haven't heard of any for animals. Which makes sense, this isn't very common in people and has to be even rarer in animals (except for maybe horses eating from big round bales of hay, but that's another story!).
Our anatomy exam was tough! Fortunately everyone seemed to feel the same way and murmurings from the professor indicated that the class average was extremely low. The questions were very nit-picky and I felt a little bit mislead on what the areas of focus where. Oh well. Exam #7 is now complete. Next up? Midterms! Let the stress and major studying begin tomorrow!
Sleep? I got 5 hours of sleep last night because I stayed up extra to study. Turns out that was a waste of time! Oh well. I took a 4 hour nap today to compensate haha.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Study, Study
It's just one of those days. One where I pretty much don't leave my room or my desk. I did however manage to get 12 hours of sleep last night. I feel 1000x better today than I have recently. I know I've said it before, but vet school is exhausting. Despite sitting on my bum all day every day, vet school has this way of sucking every last ounce of energy out of you and then begging for more. Chronic sleep deprivation is pretty much expected. It was a little bit easier last semester when lab started an hour later most days because having to get up early is just killing me this semester! It's not so much that I hate getting up so early (I mean don't get me wrong, I definitely do), but more the fact that it is extremely hard to get to bed at a reasonable hour at the end of the night. There is always so much to be done, not enough time, the fact that I tend to lose track of time after about 10:30p, and my night owl tendencies.
Anyhow, twas a day of studying, procrastinating, and lazing around. Vet roomie and I treated ourselves to amazing smoothies this evening as a study break-they were delicious! I got chocolate fusion (chocolate and peanut butter), roommate got PawPaw and peanut. I have no idea what a PawPaw is. Not even after tasting her smoothie. I assumed it was some sort of fruit, but it certainly didn't taste fruity so who knows. Good for her for being brave and trying something new! My favorite is banana (just plain banana), but they were out of bananas (not surprising since it was later on a Saturday evening and they use all fresh/local fruit). In short, Grenada, in addition to having beautiful weather and beaches, is home to the best smoothies I've ever had. No matter where you get them, they are simply wonderful. If you ever come here for vacation or school, you must try lots of them!
Anyhow, twas a day of studying, procrastinating, and lazing around. Vet roomie and I treated ourselves to amazing smoothies this evening as a study break-they were delicious! I got chocolate fusion (chocolate and peanut butter), roommate got PawPaw and peanut. I have no idea what a PawPaw is. Not even after tasting her smoothie. I assumed it was some sort of fruit, but it certainly didn't taste fruity so who knows. Good for her for being brave and trying something new! My favorite is banana (just plain banana), but they were out of bananas (not surprising since it was later on a Saturday evening and they use all fresh/local fruit). In short, Grenada, in addition to having beautiful weather and beaches, is home to the best smoothies I've ever had. No matter where you get them, they are simply wonderful. If you ever come here for vacation or school, you must try lots of them!
Friday, February 17, 2012
It's a Small World
An encounter with an SGU student today left me realizing that perhaps some people do not understand the meaning of the phrase "it's a small world." This is an appropriate phrase to use when you find out that your friend's best friend knows one of your classmates, who is from the UK (while the friend's friend is from the US). It is not an appropriate phrase when you run into someone who lives down the hall from you at a restaurant that is frequented by students on an island with a population of 100,000. It's not even something bat an eye at. So there you have it folks, use that phrase appropriately please!
Physiology exam was fine, made some stupid mistakes (although at the end of the day as long as I actually know the material, I don't care as much). I also had my first radiology lab today (end of week 5...). Much to my dismay, this semester's focus is on large animal radiographs. This is partly because I'm just not a fan of large animals, and partly because I'd really rather learn this stuff AFTER I've learned the anatomy, not during or even before hand. Seems to me that it would make more sense to have radiology 1 this semester covering dogs and cats and radiology 2 next semester covering large animals, after all, this is how our anatomy sequences go. But what do I know. We'll see what happens with this class...
Physiology exam was fine, made some stupid mistakes (although at the end of the day as long as I actually know the material, I don't care as much). I also had my first radiology lab today (end of week 5...). Much to my dismay, this semester's focus is on large animal radiographs. This is partly because I'm just not a fan of large animals, and partly because I'd really rather learn this stuff AFTER I've learned the anatomy, not during or even before hand. Seems to me that it would make more sense to have radiology 1 this semester covering dogs and cats and radiology 2 next semester covering large animals, after all, this is how our anatomy sequences go. But what do I know. We'll see what happens with this class...
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Just Keep Swimming...
I keep telling myself that all I have to do is make it through Monday. Then I will be finished with the first half of my semester exams and I can focus on midterms and starting "fresh" after midterms. These last 2 weeks have just felt like a losing battle. It's all I can do just to stay on top of exam material each day, let alone try and keep up with class material every day as well. That started off strongly but has pretty much crashed and burned, which is then just making each exam a little bit harder since I haven't been able to stay on to of everything as we've gone along.
Just a physiology exam (yikes) and an anatomy exam are between me and many hours of sleep on Monday night. I'd love to just go to bed at like 8p and sleep until it was time for class the next day haha. I doubt it will happen. Inevitably it will be 12a and I'll be wondering where the heck the time went!
Just a physiology exam (yikes) and an anatomy exam are between me and many hours of sleep on Monday night. I'd love to just go to bed at like 8p and sleep until it was time for class the next day haha. I doubt it will happen. Inevitably it will be 12a and I'll be wondering where the heck the time went!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
AHH
So the internet is continuing to be unpredictable, so I apologize for missed posts. In addition to the internet thwarting my efforts, I also feel like I am 60 days behind in vet school! Ugh! The work is never ending and the tests are killing me! I barely have enough time to really study for them well let alone stay on top of other classes and it is just killer. If anyone happens to have a pause button for life lying around, I would greatly appreciate being able to use it for the next 3.5 years!
Friday is my neurophysiology II exam, but tomorrow I have a mock oral exam with the professor at lunch. Yikes. This professor also happens to have the reputation for destroying students and eating them for lunch. Did I mention YIKES? We shall see how this goes...but it should regardless help me be very well prepared for Friday's exam. At least that's my hope!
Friday is my neurophysiology II exam, but tomorrow I have a mock oral exam with the professor at lunch. Yikes. This professor also happens to have the reputation for destroying students and eating them for lunch. Did I mention YIKES? We shall see how this goes...but it should regardless help me be very well prepared for Friday's exam. At least that's my hope!
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sea Urchin Dissection
One of the benefits of being a veterinary student living on a Caribbean island is this: if you find something on the beach to dissect, you just bring it to lab the next day and play with it there. That's exactly what I did.
I had actually planned to just take it apart on my kitchen table, but decided that perhaps my med school roommate wouldn't appreciate that. It's really quite pretty and neat looking. If it didn't stink of dead things, I'd totally keep it. I really wanted to cut it open though, and couldn't think of a good way to make it not stink (the bleach idea didn't seem like it would get rid of the whole smell).
I ended up having one of my friends cut it open. I was nervous about either not being patient enough or it being too fragile. Patience could have been an issue, but it took a lot of careful scalpel work to crack that sucker open! I also know my friend was very excited to get to cut it open haha. The inside was pretty cool looking (definitely worth the bringing it home and cutting it open!). The real question is now what do I do with it??
I had actually planned to just take it apart on my kitchen table, but decided that perhaps my med school roommate wouldn't appreciate that. It's really quite pretty and neat looking. If it didn't stink of dead things, I'd totally keep it. I really wanted to cut it open though, and couldn't think of a good way to make it not stink (the bleach idea didn't seem like it would get rid of the whole smell).
I ended up having one of my friends cut it open. I was nervous about either not being patient enough or it being too fragile. Patience could have been an issue, but it took a lot of careful scalpel work to crack that sucker open! I also know my friend was very excited to get to cut it open haha. The inside was pretty cool looking (definitely worth the bringing it home and cutting it open!). The real question is now what do I do with it??
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Quick Dinner Post
Well, as always, I'm on a deadline to get to sleep, so this is just a quick post about the fabulous dinner my vet school roomie and I made.
It was delicious! We had baked honey-garlic chicken, rosemary and garlic potatoes, and sugar snapped peas. I did the potatoes and peas and made my roommate come up with a meat recipe. She did an excellent job finding something that we could make with ingredients in our kitchen (extremely limited) and things that we could cook with our limited appliances.
The honey-garlic chicken recipe is here. We halved the recipe for the two of us, and instead of grilling she baked it in the toaster oven for 45-50 minutes basting it frequently with extra sauce. The potatoes I made were just regular Idaho potatoes cut into small chunks and boiled for about 20-30 minutes (basically until soft). Then I put them in a bowl and threw in a few tablespoons of lite olive oil, 1-2 teaspoons of rosemary, a pinch of pepper, and 1-2 teaspoons of garlic salt. I didn't really follow a recipe. I did it based on taste. Mixing thoroughly and tasting allowed easy judgement as to whether more spices needed adding. The recipe for the peas came from here and I just used the top recipe. I was very surprised that they only needed to be cooked for 3 minutes, but sure enough, they were done!
It was delicious! We had baked honey-garlic chicken, rosemary and garlic potatoes, and sugar snapped peas. I did the potatoes and peas and made my roommate come up with a meat recipe. She did an excellent job finding something that we could make with ingredients in our kitchen (extremely limited) and things that we could cook with our limited appliances.
The honey-garlic chicken recipe is here. We halved the recipe for the two of us, and instead of grilling she baked it in the toaster oven for 45-50 minutes basting it frequently with extra sauce. The potatoes I made were just regular Idaho potatoes cut into small chunks and boiled for about 20-30 minutes (basically until soft). Then I put them in a bowl and threw in a few tablespoons of lite olive oil, 1-2 teaspoons of rosemary, a pinch of pepper, and 1-2 teaspoons of garlic salt. I didn't really follow a recipe. I did it based on taste. Mixing thoroughly and tasting allowed easy judgement as to whether more spices needed adding. The recipe for the peas came from here and I just used the top recipe. I was very surprised that they only needed to be cooked for 3 minutes, but sure enough, they were done!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Drugs, Drugs, and More Drugs
It's a long weekend of pharmacology! But rather than bore you with the mundane details of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, I will instead describe my trip to the campus beach today, which is far more exciting AND has pictures. : D
Vet roomie who has no tests this week really wanted to get some tanning time in this weekend, but since she didn't feel like dealing with the bus system, we opted to go hang out on campus for a bit instead. I happen to be pretty terrible at the whole lying out in the sun and not getting bored thing, so I played explorer the whole time. This ended with me getting loads of sand in my swimsuit because in addition to being composed of the normal sandy substrate, ours also contains glue. I swear.
I found several pretty shells and some sea glass. I managed to find some conch shells (roomie is quite enthralled with them currently, like I was last semester. Now that I have 2 at home, it's kind of what ever haha) both big and small too. The water is still pretty muddied from the increased turbulence (curse the wind!), but I stumbled across a few sea eggs which I simply just had to pluck out of the water and play with. What's a sea egg? Well you might remember me mentioning them before:
They're typically purple, generally large, and not nearly as prickly as they appear. In other words, if you're brave, you can pick them up and play with them! I've also seen one white one (the whole thing was white not just the spines) and then today I found a green one. The spines generally don't feel sharp, and as long as you're got it out of the water, it's pretty much helpless (sorry urchins!). They "wiggle" in your hand(s) and feel funny in general. The purple one made a big show of dumping as much slime on us as possible (you can see it dripping from my roomie's hand!), but the green one was pretty quiet.
Upon finding these guys (found the green one first and immediately wanted pictures!), we dragged them kicking and screaming back to shore (okay just kidding, they were very compliant hostages) for a photo shoot. Yes, I really like taking pictures haha, and since I can't bring my camera in the water, I'm bring them to the camera. We dipped them in the pater periodically for a bit of reoxygenation until we had a million pictures of and with our new friends. When we were finished playing with them, we took them back to a nice grassy area under water and let them go.
We also played with some tiny snails on rocks. Plucked them off and let them crawl all over our hands. They tickled! They also have very "cute" faces and eyes. When we were done with them, we held our hands next to bumps on the rocks and they climbed right back onto the rock and began enduring the pounding waves once again. Very cool.
Next up for me was taking some nice, artsy photos with shells and coral. I think they turned out nicely, don't you?
Lastly, this is something I've wanted to do for awhile. Catch a crab. The kind people eat, not hermit crabs. This is definitely easier said than done considering that they have nice claws and happen to be quite fast. Any time I run across one, it either instantly scurries back down a hole, or becomes annoyingly invisible underwater. I am also not looking to get pinched in the process, which really presents a unique challenge.
Today I stumbled upon a crab racing along the grass line on shore. I immediately took up pursuit assuming he was going to head for the grass immediately and I'd lose him. Wrong! He actually headed for the waves! His strategy appeared to be to wait out my fascination while riding the waves until I gave up. Unfortunately for him, I am very persistent. I spent a good 10 minutes chasing this crab in and out of the water, losing and regaining site of him over and over and over again! I initially thought perhaps I could grab him from behind, but those menacing claws told me otherwise! After a moment of pondering, I came up with an excellent solution-get him to attack a piece of grass! Sounded simple enough, right? Wrong! This guy really wasn't interested in confrontation, thought he had the upper hand by being in the water and didn't need to defend himself, or was smarter than I was giving him credit. Or perhaps all three! Anyhow, it took a very long time to get him to finally pinch down on that grass, and when he finally did, I squealed with joy and took of running down the stretch of sand to show my roommate. Poor crab. He squeezed his eyes shut and hung on for dear life, probably assuming his days were over. At least on that account he was wrong! We of course proceeded to have another photo shoot while he patiently held on for dear life, and then let him go. He was VERY grateful and shocked. I could tell by the way he went skittering off over the rocks.
Vet roomie who has no tests this week really wanted to get some tanning time in this weekend, but since she didn't feel like dealing with the bus system, we opted to go hang out on campus for a bit instead. I happen to be pretty terrible at the whole lying out in the sun and not getting bored thing, so I played explorer the whole time. This ended with me getting loads of sand in my swimsuit because in addition to being composed of the normal sandy substrate, ours also contains glue. I swear.
I found several pretty shells and some sea glass. I managed to find some conch shells (roomie is quite enthralled with them currently, like I was last semester. Now that I have 2 at home, it's kind of what ever haha) both big and small too. The water is still pretty muddied from the increased turbulence (curse the wind!), but I stumbled across a few sea eggs which I simply just had to pluck out of the water and play with. What's a sea egg? Well you might remember me mentioning them before:
Upon finding these guys (found the green one first and immediately wanted pictures!), we dragged them kicking and screaming back to shore (okay just kidding, they were very compliant hostages) for a photo shoot. Yes, I really like taking pictures haha, and since I can't bring my camera in the water, I'm bring them to the camera. We dipped them in the pater periodically for a bit of reoxygenation until we had a million pictures of and with our new friends. When we were finished playing with them, we took them back to a nice grassy area under water and let them go.
We also played with some tiny snails on rocks. Plucked them off and let them crawl all over our hands. They tickled! They also have very "cute" faces and eyes. When we were done with them, we held our hands next to bumps on the rocks and they climbed right back onto the rock and began enduring the pounding waves once again. Very cool.
Today I stumbled upon a crab racing along the grass line on shore. I immediately took up pursuit assuming he was going to head for the grass immediately and I'd lose him. Wrong! He actually headed for the waves! His strategy appeared to be to wait out my fascination while riding the waves until I gave up. Unfortunately for him, I am very persistent. I spent a good 10 minutes chasing this crab in and out of the water, losing and regaining site of him over and over and over again! I initially thought perhaps I could grab him from behind, but those menacing claws told me otherwise! After a moment of pondering, I came up with an excellent solution-get him to attack a piece of grass! Sounded simple enough, right? Wrong! This guy really wasn't interested in confrontation, thought he had the upper hand by being in the water and didn't need to defend himself, or was smarter than I was giving him credit. Or perhaps all three! Anyhow, it took a very long time to get him to finally pinch down on that grass, and when he finally did, I squealed with joy and took of running down the stretch of sand to show my roommate. Poor crab. He squeezed his eyes shut and hung on for dear life, probably assuming his days were over. At least on that account he was wrong! We of course proceeded to have another photo shoot while he patiently held on for dear life, and then let him go. He was VERY grateful and shocked. I could tell by the way he went skittering off over the rocks.
"Short" Week
Since we had Tuesday off, the week felt much abbreviated (yay!). It's definitely a relief to have a week that feels like it's only 3 days over one that feels never ending like usual! Unfortunately, each passing day also means one day closer to an exam these days-a feeling I definitely do not enjoy.
This weekend will be full of pharmacology and physiology, with some bacteriology, anatomy, and immunology on the side. Oh yeah, there's also the physiology homework due Monday as well! My roommate and I might squeeze some beach time in-they don't have any exams this week though. Guess I'm in for another long but way too short weekend!
This weekend will be full of pharmacology and physiology, with some bacteriology, anatomy, and immunology on the side. Oh yeah, there's also the physiology homework due Monday as well! My roommate and I might squeeze some beach time in-they don't have any exams this week though. Guess I'm in for another long but way too short weekend!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Jinx!
Well, unfortunately I did manage to jinx myself last night, that immunology test was horrible! Perhaps my worst yet? Not sure. I'm a little frustrated too because I know I knew the material, so not being able to prove that on the exam is annoying. I guess I need to re-evaluate my study techniques for that class, re-review the material, and go from there.
I also know that I can't dwell on this exam because the next one is just days away. Pharmacology is next. I'm a bit nervous because I really don't know what to expect, other than last semester this class was a disaster for both terms which has me a bit scared! Thankfully the scope of material for this exam is pretty limited, so I've got 20 pages of details to know and understand versus the 80 I had for immunology. Not sure that will help much though. The topics are pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. I sort of wish it was covering detailed drugs instead (I'm certain I'll revoke that statement come midterms!) because I almost feel like it would be easier to go through them than the current material which feels pretty wishy-washy. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
I am counting down the days until I have a small, semi-break from exams. We have a week and a half between our last exam before midterms and the start of midterms. Although I obviously will have to keep studying like a crazy person, I at least hope I won't feel as exhausted, behind, and rushed. That's my hope at least (I can dream, right?). We shall see. Right now I just keep telling myself pharm, physio, and anatomy. That's what I have left. 3 weeks until midterms! Eek!
I also know that I can't dwell on this exam because the next one is just days away. Pharmacology is next. I'm a bit nervous because I really don't know what to expect, other than last semester this class was a disaster for both terms which has me a bit scared! Thankfully the scope of material for this exam is pretty limited, so I've got 20 pages of details to know and understand versus the 80 I had for immunology. Not sure that will help much though. The topics are pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. I sort of wish it was covering detailed drugs instead (I'm certain I'll revoke that statement come midterms!) because I almost feel like it would be easier to go through them than the current material which feels pretty wishy-washy. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
I am counting down the days until I have a small, semi-break from exams. We have a week and a half between our last exam before midterms and the start of midterms. Although I obviously will have to keep studying like a crazy person, I at least hope I won't feel as exhausted, behind, and rushed. That's my hope at least (I can dream, right?). We shall see. Right now I just keep telling myself pharm, physio, and anatomy. That's what I have left. 3 weeks until midterms! Eek!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
T-cells and B-cells and Antigens Oh My!
Yes, I have an immunology exam tomorrow. Lucky me! Although I must say (and hopefully I'm not jinxing myself) I don't think the material is terribly difficult. There seems to be a lot of repetition and building on concepts, rather than 82 pages of varied concepts. I guess it will mostly depend on how the exam questions are presented.
We had our first bacteriology lab today. Nothing too exciting on day one, just some Gram stains and streak plating. Practice for future exercises. The lab is very nice. The equipment and benches are new and well taken care of. The fact that the entire room was white gave off the feeling of sterility. It was kind of strange. I managed to only get stain dyes on one small spot on my finger (usually i walk out with purple and pink splotched hands) and it's mostly faded now. We stained cultures of Staphylococcus aureus, Eschrichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa for slides full of pretty purple cocci and pink rods.
We had our first bacteriology lab today. Nothing too exciting on day one, just some Gram stains and streak plating. Practice for future exercises. The lab is very nice. The equipment and benches are new and well taken care of. The fact that the entire room was white gave off the feeling of sterility. It was kind of strange. I managed to only get stain dyes on one small spot on my finger (usually i walk out with purple and pink splotched hands) and it's mostly faded now. We stained cultures of Staphylococcus aureus, Eschrichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa for slides full of pretty purple cocci and pink rods.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Google, Grenadian Independence Day, and More Laundry
Okay, this has to be pretty quick because it's already past my bedtime and I have soooo much immunology studying to do tomorrow.
So. Google has decided to wage war with my computers. Something to do with it being confused about constantly being in Grenada (wi-fi) and NYC (wired) all the time? Not really sure. Anyhow, what it really means is that it won't load ANY programs on my computer. Gmail, blogger, talk, G+, documents, calendar, voice, nothing! Makes me very grumpy and a little panicky, because I feel almost completely cut off from the rest of the world! Why couldn't it just hate facebook, or something more wasteful of my time?? Thankfully my main computer is still registered with a VPN connection to Virginia Tech, so I am able to connect through them and get all of my Google services.
Today is Grenadian Independence Day! While a very exciting holiday for the Grenadians, my favorite part is that we had no classes today. This meant not having to wake up early, not having to rush to bed last night, having more time to study during the day, and the most important part, going to the beach! Finally got to go with beautiful weather for a little bit! Despite my sunscreen, I am of course a tad burnt. Mostly just my shoulders and upper back, but apparently when I let a 2 year old apply sunscreen to my face, the results were lackluster. Too bad there isn't actually a 2 year old around to blame for the wickedly awful sunscreen job on my face! Sort of looks like I just robbed some around my eyes? Really not sure! But my face is very burnt, except for having some nice raccoon-y eyes and two lovely pale smudges above my eyebrows. Like I said, not a clue how I managed that one! The weather and the landscape were beautiful as always.
Lastly, it appears that the key to our laundry room is only broken on the weekends. It was open last night and tonight with no problems. REALLY don't know what the issue is on the weekends, however, I will absolutely be squeezing in laundry during the week nights now as long as it remains open!
So. Google has decided to wage war with my computers. Something to do with it being confused about constantly being in Grenada (wi-fi) and NYC (wired) all the time? Not really sure. Anyhow, what it really means is that it won't load ANY programs on my computer. Gmail, blogger, talk, G+, documents, calendar, voice, nothing! Makes me very grumpy and a little panicky, because I feel almost completely cut off from the rest of the world! Why couldn't it just hate facebook, or something more wasteful of my time?? Thankfully my main computer is still registered with a VPN connection to Virginia Tech, so I am able to connect through them and get all of my Google services.
Today is Grenadian Independence Day! While a very exciting holiday for the Grenadians, my favorite part is that we had no classes today. This meant not having to wake up early, not having to rush to bed last night, having more time to study during the day, and the most important part, going to the beach! Finally got to go with beautiful weather for a little bit! Despite my sunscreen, I am of course a tad burnt. Mostly just my shoulders and upper back, but apparently when I let a 2 year old apply sunscreen to my face, the results were lackluster. Too bad there isn't actually a 2 year old around to blame for the wickedly awful sunscreen job on my face! Sort of looks like I just robbed some around my eyes? Really not sure! But my face is very burnt, except for having some nice raccoon-y eyes and two lovely pale smudges above my eyebrows. Like I said, not a clue how I managed that one! The weather and the landscape were beautiful as always.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Vet Student Life
Want a brief run down of what a typical vet student weekend is like? Here you go!
-Wake up from sleeping in because that time is precious!
-Maybe eat, maybe just crack the books open
-Eat breakfast, lunch, or both at some point
-More studying
-Small sanity break, not that it does much because we signed over our sanity when we sent in the deposit!
-More studying. Stuff like anatomy, bacteria, physiology, drugs, etc.
-More studying
-Some dinner, hopefully you've had time to get food from the grocery store, have money to order food, or have time for eating in general
-More studying until quite late
-Go to bed exhausted.
Repeat.
Very exciting, huh? I believe there was a football game tonight? Wouldn't know much about that, I have a bacteriology exam tomorrow! Oh an physiology hw due as well. Fun times!
-Wake up from sleeping in because that time is precious!
-Maybe eat, maybe just crack the books open
-Eat breakfast, lunch, or both at some point
-More studying
-Small sanity break, not that it does much because we signed over our sanity when we sent in the deposit!
-More studying. Stuff like anatomy, bacteria, physiology, drugs, etc.
-More studying
-Some dinner, hopefully you've had time to get food from the grocery store, have money to order food, or have time for eating in general
-More studying until quite late
-Go to bed exhausted.
Repeat.
Very exciting, huh? I believe there was a football game tonight? Wouldn't know much about that, I have a bacteriology exam tomorrow! Oh an physiology hw due as well. Fun times!
Saturday, February 4, 2012
A Delicious Dinner and More Laundry Drama
My vet roommate and I went to Dodgy Dock for dinner tonight. One of her classmates was supposed to join us but backed out at the last minute. It's the first time I've been this semester and my roommate's first time ever going. It still remains my favorite restaurant in Grenada!
Tonight was BBQ night. You ordered a meat off the menu (steak, ribs, chicken leg/breast, shrimp, skewers, fish, etc.) and then they had a little buffet salad area and buffet entree area. After ordering, you went up and got some salad, potato salad (although it was more of a spiced mashed potato dish), and a plantain dish. All were delicious! We enjoyed the relaxing dock atmosphere with live music (they had an amazing singer and saxophonist-you know she must be good when I'm complementing her!) over drinks (a tasty chocolate milkshake for me!).
When our meats were ready (chicken for me and ribs for my roommate), we went up and got to pick sides for our dinners. Spiced rice, macaroni pie, corn on the cob, and mixed sauteed vegetables were our options. We opted to try it all of course-might as well! The rice was a bit to spiced for my taste, but the macaroni and cheese "pie" was very tasty and the corn was served in an excellent sauce. The meats were extremely tender and the BBQ sauce was the best I've ever had!
I wish I had brought my camera so that I could share pictures of the food with you, but unfortunately I forgot! It was an excellent meal. A very relaxing and delicious dinner!
---
So remember when I swore off doing laundry on Sundays after last weekend? Well yesterday and today, I tried to do laundry. Unfortunately, our laundry room door remains locked. I gave it last night just to see, but called security to have them open it for us today. When I called, I was informed that they were already working on the request, but were having trouble with the key and they hoped to have it open sometime this afternoon. Well apparently they failed, because the door is still locked. Annoying. Typical Grenada too. I'm also sort of amused. I mean, this laundry room has been around since last August, is it really just now becoming a problem? And even if that's the case, it was clearly an issue last weekend because the door was locked for 2.5 days then as well. Wouldn't you think they would replace the lock if it was an issue? Duh, of course not :-p. Oh Grenada...
Tonight was BBQ night. You ordered a meat off the menu (steak, ribs, chicken leg/breast, shrimp, skewers, fish, etc.) and then they had a little buffet salad area and buffet entree area. After ordering, you went up and got some salad, potato salad (although it was more of a spiced mashed potato dish), and a plantain dish. All were delicious! We enjoyed the relaxing dock atmosphere with live music (they had an amazing singer and saxophonist-you know she must be good when I'm complementing her!) over drinks (a tasty chocolate milkshake for me!).
When our meats were ready (chicken for me and ribs for my roommate), we went up and got to pick sides for our dinners. Spiced rice, macaroni pie, corn on the cob, and mixed sauteed vegetables were our options. We opted to try it all of course-might as well! The rice was a bit to spiced for my taste, but the macaroni and cheese "pie" was very tasty and the corn was served in an excellent sauce. The meats were extremely tender and the BBQ sauce was the best I've ever had!
I wish I had brought my camera so that I could share pictures of the food with you, but unfortunately I forgot! It was an excellent meal. A very relaxing and delicious dinner!
---
So remember when I swore off doing laundry on Sundays after last weekend? Well yesterday and today, I tried to do laundry. Unfortunately, our laundry room door remains locked. I gave it last night just to see, but called security to have them open it for us today. When I called, I was informed that they were already working on the request, but were having trouble with the key and they hoped to have it open sometime this afternoon. Well apparently they failed, because the door is still locked. Annoying. Typical Grenada too. I'm also sort of amused. I mean, this laundry room has been around since last August, is it really just now becoming a problem? And even if that's the case, it was clearly an issue last weekend because the door was locked for 2.5 days then as well. Wouldn't you think they would replace the lock if it was an issue? Duh, of course not :-p. Oh Grenada...
Friday, February 3, 2012
Happy Friday!
I am very excited that it's Friday again because it means I can sleep in tomorrow and not have to get up early!! Getting up early wouldn't be such a big deal if I was capable of getting myself to sleep in a timely fashion, but I swear it gets late without me even noticing!
The anatomy exam this morning didn't seem too bad. I'm thinking maybe a mid-B grade, but I'm not sure when we'll get them back. Hopefully we'll be allowed to go in to his office and review them because I'd love to know what I missed!
Having class after an exam is just torturous. I just feel spent and sleepy the whole time. At least today's line up was of classes I like, but we've got a new pharmacology professor for this unit, and I am less than enamored by her presence. For one, we really like Dr. Werners and his adorable Netherlands region accent. And the other thing she has going against her is that her voice reminds me of Dr. Hariharan in Bacteriology (although she does at least use inflection). There is just something about their voices that makes my brain automatically tune out, nothing personal against either of them! Today's pharmacology lecture made me feel like Charlie Brown listening to his teacher.
We finally got our SGUSVM fleece jackets that we ordered last term through SCAVMA. I am very excited (I just LOVE fleeces and sweatshirts!). At the very last second, I happened to remember my vet school roommate last semester, so I ordered her one too. Her classmates are going to be very jealous!
The anatomy exam this morning didn't seem too bad. I'm thinking maybe a mid-B grade, but I'm not sure when we'll get them back. Hopefully we'll be allowed to go in to his office and review them because I'd love to know what I missed!
Having class after an exam is just torturous. I just feel spent and sleepy the whole time. At least today's line up was of classes I like, but we've got a new pharmacology professor for this unit, and I am less than enamored by her presence. For one, we really like Dr. Werners and his adorable Netherlands region accent. And the other thing she has going against her is that her voice reminds me of Dr. Hariharan in Bacteriology (although she does at least use inflection). There is just something about their voices that makes my brain automatically tune out, nothing personal against either of them! Today's pharmacology lecture made me feel like Charlie Brown listening to his teacher.
We finally got our SGUSVM fleece jackets that we ordered last term through SCAVMA. I am very excited (I just LOVE fleeces and sweatshirts!). At the very last second, I happened to remember my vet school roommate last semester, so I ordered her one too. Her classmates are going to be very jealous!
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Anatomy
Exam tomorrow, eek!! I shift between moments of thinking I am doing okay with the material to moments of utter panic, feeling like I know absolutely nothing! Dr. Aire has promised over and over again that it will be easy, that it is not a difficult exam, but I don't think I believe him! I'm kind of tired of studying for this silly anatomy exam too. Enough about the horse already! The neck, thorax, abdomen, and reproduction. Blah.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Wind
This two-exams-per-week thing is already starting to wear on me, and it's only the first week of it! Knowing there's an exam every couple of days is already becoming exhausting. Some times I feel more motivated to study and get things done than others, and when I'm not interested at all and am procrastinating like crazy, I feel frustrated. I'm just very good at sitting still for long periods of time (and admittedly the computer can be a bit distracting!).
This afternoon I was having trouble focusing, so I decided that since it's a lovely day out, I'd go out to a pick-nick table to study. Well, that was a great plan...except that nowadays we have quite a tropical breeze blowing at all times. Although my papers were fairly well contained, it still got to be very annoying after only a few minutes. I gathered my things back up and stalked back inside. What good is it living in such a beautiful (warm) place if I never get to see it?!
In addition to not being able to study outside well, the wind has made the water more choppy, the air cooler, and the water murkier. I am not a fan. A light tropical breeze is nice, but some days I feel like I'm still in Blacksburg just with warmer temperatures!
This afternoon I was having trouble focusing, so I decided that since it's a lovely day out, I'd go out to a pick-nick table to study. Well, that was a great plan...except that nowadays we have quite a tropical breeze blowing at all times. Although my papers were fairly well contained, it still got to be very annoying after only a few minutes. I gathered my things back up and stalked back inside. What good is it living in such a beautiful (warm) place if I never get to see it?!
In addition to not being able to study outside well, the wind has made the water more choppy, the air cooler, and the water murkier. I am not a fan. A light tropical breeze is nice, but some days I feel like I'm still in Blacksburg just with warmer temperatures!
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