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!
Thursday, February 16, 2012
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!
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