Friday, January 11, 2013
Going For A Walk
Well, I have just one week left in the US before it's time to tackle year two part two! Woah. Can I just say though that I am *so* looking forward to the days when I take Lucy for a walk and it involves nothing more than grabbing the leash and slipping on a pair of sandals?!? I mean, being home is wonderful. I love taking her for walks in my neighborhood - we have many routes to choose from. However, I look forward to the day when going for a walk does not include ten minutes of boots, gloves, coats, hats, scarves, earmuffs, and clever layering of clothing!
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Happy New Year!
Oops - this post is a few days late! Happy New Year everyone! Can you believe that it's 2013?! Part of me says oh my goodness it's already 2013?! And the other part of me says ugh it's only 2013?! After all, I still have 2.5 more years of school left haha.
I'm sorry I've been so quiet lately. I've been plenty busy since I've been home. Lucy is doing well - she's getting a large amount of my time (she needs it). Remember last year how I whined and complained about how much I hate behavioral medicine? Well, fate or karma or whatever has decided to have a little fun, and my puppy is full of behavioral issues. Yay. She's a great dog with some fear-aggression/anxiety issues. The boarded behaviorist that I spoke to yesterday joked that since vet school curriculums generally don't include much about behavior, Lucy was going to be my crash course to set me up well for later. She's a super sweet dog though. She's currently sleeping next to my feet on my bed probably wishing I'd go to sleep soon and thinking that regardless of what time I go to sleep, she's going to wake me up at 8am haha.
We had family in for the Christmas holiday and then took it easy for New Years. A couple of friends and I went to a black tie party for NYE which was super fun! It was really nice to get all dressed up and fancy for one evening. We also went to visit family at the end of last week up in NY. It was soooooo cold!! There was also way too much snow on the ground (too much being anything more than 0" basically haha).
These last several days are all about squeezing in as much as I possibly can and taking care of all the little phone calls and orders I need to place/receive before heading back to school. Stay tuned for another episode of the "I hate packing!!!!!!!!!!!!!" series!
I'm sorry I've been so quiet lately. I've been plenty busy since I've been home. Lucy is doing well - she's getting a large amount of my time (she needs it). Remember last year how I whined and complained about how much I hate behavioral medicine? Well, fate or karma or whatever has decided to have a little fun, and my puppy is full of behavioral issues. Yay. She's a great dog with some fear-aggression/anxiety issues. The boarded behaviorist that I spoke to yesterday joked that since vet school curriculums generally don't include much about behavior, Lucy was going to be my crash course to set me up well for later. She's a super sweet dog though. She's currently sleeping next to my feet on my bed probably wishing I'd go to sleep soon and thinking that regardless of what time I go to sleep, she's going to wake me up at 8am haha.
We had family in for the Christmas holiday and then took it easy for New Years. A couple of friends and I went to a black tie party for NYE which was super fun! It was really nice to get all dressed up and fancy for one evening. We also went to visit family at the end of last week up in NY. It was soooooo cold!! There was also way too much snow on the ground (too much being anything more than 0" basically haha).
These last several days are all about squeezing in as much as I possibly can and taking care of all the little phone calls and orders I need to place/receive before heading back to school. Stay tuned for another episode of the "I hate packing!!!!!!!!!!!!!" series!
Friday, December 28, 2012
Meet Lucy!
Welcome Lucy!
Lucy is my new dog! I adopted her a week ago from a local rescue organization to be my new friend, walking buddy, and Grenadian protector. She is 4 years old, is being called a collie/Australian Shepard mix and is generally a sweet and loving girl! She is perfect when it comes to interacting with other dogs, walking, eating politely, sleeping and hanging out, and is an all around great dog. She does have some anxiety and fear of men we are currently working on, but love and patience will help us to over come these issues. She unfortunately would LOVE to eat Penny, so they aren't being housed in the same room. Maybe some day we will be able to work on this, I miss having Penny in my room but her safety comes first!!
Lucy is my new dog! I adopted her a week ago from a local rescue organization to be my new friend, walking buddy, and Grenadian protector. She is 4 years old, is being called a collie/Australian Shepard mix and is generally a sweet and loving girl! She is perfect when it comes to interacting with other dogs, walking, eating politely, sleeping and hanging out, and is an all around great dog. She does have some anxiety and fear of men we are currently working on, but love and patience will help us to over come these issues. She unfortunately would LOVE to eat Penny, so they aren't being housed in the same room. Maybe some day we will be able to work on this, I miss having Penny in my room but her safety comes first!!
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Listening
Being back in the US over the last week has reminded me of a few things I don't miss about this country. Compared to Grenada (and I am well aware that I'm not comparing apples to apples here), there is so much sadness and tragedy. It is common place to turn on the news and spend the show learning about murders, stabbings, and violence, transportation accidents are frequent, and emergency vehicles are present in abundance. I know this is all just part of our society, but it still makes me sad. I passed a couple of serious accidents today - it breaks my heart to know that their families are probably hurting tonight. When I pass a fire truck or ambulance, it saddens me to know that someone is on the other end of those vehicles and in distress. Am I grateful that we have those services? Absolutely! We certainly do not have them so accessible in Grenada meaning that urgent care and services are delayed when they are needed most.
I found myself cornered today in a public restroom. An innocent comment by a woman about how dark the facilities were turned into hearing about the tragedies and difficulties in her life currently. A family member was just diagnosed with a large tumor after suffering through painful episodes over most of the last year and a half and is currently kind of in limbo as her doctors figure out the next plan of action and her husband has had 2 bouts of cancer (different types) in the last several years. I don't think she intentionally began blabbing to a stranger, but I imagine that having someone to sympathetically listen to her troubles just kept her going and going. I didn't mind. I know it helped her. She has a lot of emotion built up in her life, and as humans, we have a social need to share our burdens and joys. As she was explaining her life away, I smiled thinking that as a future veterinarian, this will certainly not be the last time someone borrows my ears and smile to help themselves to feel better. We might officially only have degrees in veterinary medicine, but your veterinarian plays multiple roles, one of which is that of a psychologist. It's something you accept by choosing this field, but perhaps if as members of society we decided to adopt a little more patience and caring for those around us (in the car, at the store, waiting at a checkout counter, entering/exiting a building, etc.) we might find ourselves feeling a little less burdened.
Just a thought, but try to remember your smile, your patience, and your manners as we proceed through a very hectic time of year. Hold the door for someone, let someone merge into your lane in traffic, offer a helping hand to someone who needs it (heck, even if it's just to help pick the cans of soup someone knocked over!). You just might find yourself feeling better about your life and who you are. I try very hard to think of people as individuals and not just as a generic mass - everyone deserves proper treatment, but it only works if we participate ourselves!
I found myself cornered today in a public restroom. An innocent comment by a woman about how dark the facilities were turned into hearing about the tragedies and difficulties in her life currently. A family member was just diagnosed with a large tumor after suffering through painful episodes over most of the last year and a half and is currently kind of in limbo as her doctors figure out the next plan of action and her husband has had 2 bouts of cancer (different types) in the last several years. I don't think she intentionally began blabbing to a stranger, but I imagine that having someone to sympathetically listen to her troubles just kept her going and going. I didn't mind. I know it helped her. She has a lot of emotion built up in her life, and as humans, we have a social need to share our burdens and joys. As she was explaining her life away, I smiled thinking that as a future veterinarian, this will certainly not be the last time someone borrows my ears and smile to help themselves to feel better. We might officially only have degrees in veterinary medicine, but your veterinarian plays multiple roles, one of which is that of a psychologist. It's something you accept by choosing this field, but perhaps if as members of society we decided to adopt a little more patience and caring for those around us (in the car, at the store, waiting at a checkout counter, entering/exiting a building, etc.) we might find ourselves feeling a little less burdened.
Just a thought, but try to remember your smile, your patience, and your manners as we proceed through a very hectic time of year. Hold the door for someone, let someone merge into your lane in traffic, offer a helping hand to someone who needs it (heck, even if it's just to help pick the cans of soup someone knocked over!). You just might find yourself feeling better about your life and who you are. I try very hard to think of people as individuals and not just as a generic mass - everyone deserves proper treatment, but it only works if we participate ourselves!
Friday, December 14, 2012
A Little Update...
Done with final exams! Done with term 3! Done with Grenada!
Finals were obnoxiously tough. Grr!! Our professors were not very kind to us this go-around! Oh well, I can be satisfied with how it all turned out I suppose. It seemed to take forever to get through the 4 of them too! Not appreciative of that! Monday night was spent relaxing and poking around at packing. Tuesday we went for a final swim and then I had to pack like crazy to move into my new apartment! One thing they failed to mention to us when they were letting us store things in the closet, was that the apartment complex is currently left open and unlocked all day as they are still finishing construction. Great. I really hope I still have clothes when I get back in the spring or else we are going to have some serious problems!!! Nothing valuable was left there, but we did store a ton of things.
All day Wednesday was spent in airports and on planes! I had an 8 hour layover in Miami, but managed to pass the time chatting with classmates so it was pretty fast and great. My first American meal wad Burger King (convenient fast food basically haha). It was delicious! I didn't get home until after midnight, but all of the animals were pretty thrilled to see me! I'm pretty sure Penny could have laid on my lap happily for hours, but I did eventually call it quits to sleep. It's pretty cold here! We've been puttering around doing some shopping and baking. I'm off to bed but I'll update soon!
Finals were obnoxiously tough. Grr!! Our professors were not very kind to us this go-around! Oh well, I can be satisfied with how it all turned out I suppose. It seemed to take forever to get through the 4 of them too! Not appreciative of that! Monday night was spent relaxing and poking around at packing. Tuesday we went for a final swim and then I had to pack like crazy to move into my new apartment! One thing they failed to mention to us when they were letting us store things in the closet, was that the apartment complex is currently left open and unlocked all day as they are still finishing construction. Great. I really hope I still have clothes when I get back in the spring or else we are going to have some serious problems!!! Nothing valuable was left there, but we did store a ton of things.
All day Wednesday was spent in airports and on planes! I had an 8 hour layover in Miami, but managed to pass the time chatting with classmates so it was pretty fast and great. My first American meal wad Burger King (convenient fast food basically haha). It was delicious! I didn't get home until after midnight, but all of the animals were pretty thrilled to see me! I'm pretty sure Penny could have laid on my lap happily for hours, but I did eventually call it quits to sleep. It's pretty cold here! We've been puttering around doing some shopping and baking. I'm off to bed but I'll update soon!
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Final Exams
Ahhhhh final exams time :(. We finished classes today officially, so a couple of last minute cramming days for us as we get ready to meet 200 pages of pathology on Monday. Kill me now please? Ugh!! I feel like I know nothing and even worse, I feel like I don't even know where to begin or how to study. My usual methods cannot apply here. Bah.
The line up is pathology, parasitology (which now there is serious pressure to get an A because the professor nominated me for the Bayar Parasitology Award), pharmacology (to the geniuses who thought this would be better as a cumulative final, I hate you!!! hundreds upon hundreds of drugs, mechanisms of actions, pharmacokinetics, side effects, contraindications, etc. to know? gee thanks!), and lastly clinical pathology.
One of my classmates is counting down like crazy, and apparently we are at 13 days left on this island (crazy!!!). I just want to be home! So much exam pressure and stress to overcome first though. ugh!
I still haven't solved the picture problem. Unfortunately it looks like that's going to be looked at more closely while I'm home over winter break. I'm probably going to have to outsource pictures to a public album site since apparently Google has a 1GB storage limit that I have reached in the last year and a half. What a bummer! They offer you more space for money, but I am a poor student and am definitely unwilling to pay! Oh well.
The line up is pathology, parasitology (which now there is serious pressure to get an A because the professor nominated me for the Bayar Parasitology Award), pharmacology (to the geniuses who thought this would be better as a cumulative final, I hate you!!! hundreds upon hundreds of drugs, mechanisms of actions, pharmacokinetics, side effects, contraindications, etc. to know? gee thanks!), and lastly clinical pathology.
One of my classmates is counting down like crazy, and apparently we are at 13 days left on this island (crazy!!!). I just want to be home! So much exam pressure and stress to overcome first though. ugh!
I still haven't solved the picture problem. Unfortunately it looks like that's going to be looked at more closely while I'm home over winter break. I'm probably going to have to outsource pictures to a public album site since apparently Google has a 1GB storage limit that I have reached in the last year and a half. What a bummer! They offer you more space for money, but I am a poor student and am definitely unwilling to pay! Oh well.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy American Thanksgiving! Try not to kill anyone tonight/tomorrow (or any day really) while you're out shopping!
We had our "traditional" vet school dinner tonight - super thank you to Hill's and Novartis for donating turkeys and drinks for tonight. We really appreciate the ability to have a thanksgiving dinner even though we're thousands of miles from home and away from our families. It's a bitter sweet time for everyone.
The food was amazing! I didn't have a single dish tonight that I didn't like (although I was not particularly fond of the taste combination that resulted when I set something chocolate on top of mashed potatoes!). No other place will I have my pick of dozens of different side dishes - tonight alone I had 3 different kinds of mashed potatoes! I only stopped at 3 because I didn't want to get too many stares from my friends when I showed up with a ton of potatoes haha - I'm Irish, it's in my blood? I'm pretty sure I picked up at least 4 different turkey pieces too, because everyone has a different and unique way of cooking it! I squeezed a little bit of pumpkin pie in tonight, someone made a fantastic pumpkin pie dip (yum!!), as well as my pumpkin bars. I also had a rice krispie treat, some strawberry cheesecake and a couple of buckey balls. Please don't judge me too harshly! I swear I only had about 2 bites worth of the above mentioned foods! The key is to take just a tablespoon or so of everything so you get to try lots of dishes without getting too full to try everything! I love it! I guess it ended up being very convenient that I forgot to eat lunch today (yes, I seriously forgot! I was so busy checking tasks off my list this morning and then suddenly it was almost 1:30!).
Less than 3 weeks left officially! 4 more days of class, 4 final exams, 1 presentation, and 1 more pesky pharmacology exam before it's time to pack up and go home. I really miss my family and friends right now, and most of all I miss Penny. I'm tired of getting up every morning and going to classes all day and then coming home just to study the rest of the night. It's draining, even if I do get plenty of sleep most nights. I'm worried about final exams because I want to do well and not fall short. December 12th just cannot come fast enough!
We had our "traditional" vet school dinner tonight - super thank you to Hill's and Novartis for donating turkeys and drinks for tonight. We really appreciate the ability to have a thanksgiving dinner even though we're thousands of miles from home and away from our families. It's a bitter sweet time for everyone.
The food was amazing! I didn't have a single dish tonight that I didn't like (although I was not particularly fond of the taste combination that resulted when I set something chocolate on top of mashed potatoes!). No other place will I have my pick of dozens of different side dishes - tonight alone I had 3 different kinds of mashed potatoes! I only stopped at 3 because I didn't want to get too many stares from my friends when I showed up with a ton of potatoes haha - I'm Irish, it's in my blood? I'm pretty sure I picked up at least 4 different turkey pieces too, because everyone has a different and unique way of cooking it! I squeezed a little bit of pumpkin pie in tonight, someone made a fantastic pumpkin pie dip (yum!!), as well as my pumpkin bars. I also had a rice krispie treat, some strawberry cheesecake and a couple of buckey balls. Please don't judge me too harshly! I swear I only had about 2 bites worth of the above mentioned foods! The key is to take just a tablespoon or so of everything so you get to try lots of dishes without getting too full to try everything! I love it! I guess it ended up being very convenient that I forgot to eat lunch today (yes, I seriously forgot! I was so busy checking tasks off my list this morning and then suddenly it was almost 1:30!).
Less than 3 weeks left officially! 4 more days of class, 4 final exams, 1 presentation, and 1 more pesky pharmacology exam before it's time to pack up and go home. I really miss my family and friends right now, and most of all I miss Penny. I'm tired of getting up every morning and going to classes all day and then coming home just to study the rest of the night. It's draining, even if I do get plenty of sleep most nights. I'm worried about final exams because I want to do well and not fall short. December 12th just cannot come fast enough!
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