Exams

Exams start TOMORROW!! which is crazy, its amazing how fast the time has gone by when I look at the subject matter it seems like the lecture was years ago! But soon I'll be done and on my way home for Christmas! On a side note ITS SNOWING!! so exciting to live in a place where it snows! now i just hope we dont get snowed in for exams tomorrow!

Thanksgiving Glasgow Style

Much like many of our favorite TV shows I have taken a brief hiatus during the Thanksgiving holiday, even though it doesn't exist here. One Glaswegian asked when we got our present if we didn't get them during Thanksgiving (confusing it with some sort of Christmas replacement). On the actual day of Thanksgiving I didn't do much, though it was a very productive day of studying since we had our last lab where we could dissect dog legs the next day, so I wanted to ensure that I knew as much as I could to test myself. Friday we had our last dissection and pretty much our last classes, though there are a few next week and our last ope lab, but we aren't actually dissecting anything. Last lab was very productive and I actually did learn a lot (also I had anal glands expressed on to my lab coat, but that's beside the point) it was a good lab. Friday night I had some of my friends over and we baled a pumpkin and apple pie for today's American Thanksgiving party. Today (Sat) I had a bit of a lie in, as I'm on the brink of getting sick I decided that it would be better than being sleep deprived and staring at my biochem book. After a bit of studying it was time to go to our belated Thanksgiving party, which was really fun. It was nice to get to know some of the American students who I have briefly met but not talked to much. And (relating to Grampy) 2 of my classmates are the grandchildren of Mr. Martinelli! I told them that my G-pa went to school with their grandpa and we now have plans to go ice skating over the break (they live in Danville) so it just goes to show that this is a very small world! Now I am going to try to study more glycolysis (yay) even after a few glasses of terrible wine! Crazy to think that I only have 2 more weeks here left! I hope can make the most of it! (even though I'll be right back just as quickly).

The poptart display at Americandy, go America!

 A statue in St. Georges Square, the police have stopped taking the cone off

Texels!

Cow licking my hand!

 baby cow!

super cute baby cow!

the ref cooks threw us a thanksgiving party!

Dick Day

Well I got some queries about what Dick Day is, and so I'm taking a study break to explain. Every year we have Dick Day, a day where Glasgow and the vet school in Edinburgh play sports against each other. As Edinburgh is the Royal Dicks, this is called Dick Day. We didn't actually go to the sports event because we had lab in the morning, but as the train ride is cheap and quick we spent the afternoon in Edinburgh, going to the writers museum, looking at the castle, and doing a bit of shopping and ending up meeting the players on their pub crawl. It was a good last hurrah before starting the long haul towards exams!

Down to the Wire

Well obviously it has been a while since my last post, but not much has happened in the way of interesting things to blog. Exams are just around the corner so along with a new round of 'freshers-flu' (you can't hear the lecturers half of the time because of the chorus of coughing going on here) there is a general air of stress and fear, and these exmas are only worth 15%! I do not look forward to professionals in May. Notable things since last I posted: I went to Edinburgh for the day with some friends for Dick Day and we met up with the rest of our fellow Glasgwegians for a pub crawl. The other week we went to Cochno and played with baby cows for a few hours and saw where they are going be keeping our chickens when pullets arrive in a few weeks, so that will be exciting. Other than that we are all pretty much living like monks until the 9th of Dec, when we will probably more than make up for weeks of shutting ourselves away in true Glasgow fashion!

Flatmate Dinner

Greeting from sunny Scotland! And it actually is sunny, which is surprising, but according to the weather rain is on the horizon, alas. At least I had a chance to get some vitamin D. As my friend says, people with seasonal affective disorder should avoid this part of the world, but I love it! Anywho, not much going on here as of late, halloween was fun, but now its Novemnber and exams are in a month! We had a flatmate dinner tonight and my flatmate from Kazakstan made borsch which was quite tasty! And (by popular demand) I took a flatmate picture, and even though we all look like hot messes, enjoy!

Halloween Week!

Sorry again for the delay of posting, this week has been flying by, soon it'll be Christmas! For the most part I've just been in class, we started histology this week, and initially I was a little apprehensive, but it actually looks really interesting, so I'm excited to dive in! We also learned to suture this week, and though I've done it before back in LB, it was good to learn the names of the stitches and how to do them properly (so I pass my exams!) We found this great bar down on Buchanon St called Sloans that has free movies every Tues night, so a bunch of us went and saw Phycho and they have a great deal of Mac and Cheese for 2 for 10q, so it was a nice easy night out with some QM people. This week also is Halloween! Well technically Mon, but the vet school Halloween party was Fri night at the Walkabout, where our welcome back party was. Its crazy that that was only a month ago, but it feels like forever ago! Time is flying by, its crazy. So this week was taken up by making my costume, I was a zombie sheep (see FB for pictures) and I think it turned out quite well. Now after a weekend of fun, its time to buckle down and study! Exams are coming up! Hopw all is well stateside!

Daemon Zebras

Well nothing particularly exciting has happened this week so far. Monday I was sick, good times, and there was a mini-hurricane outside. Tues was husbandry and we had our class on dog and cat restraining, which I can pretty much do in my sleep but I did get my dog and cat fix because we got to restrain/play with live pets! So that was fun. Wed was a lab on haemoglobin, which was short but fairly interesting, and then I spent the rest of the day at Smug with my friend studying the differences in the shoulder joints of dogs vs horses, thrilling. Tues was my friends birthday so we went out for that down on Sauchiehall St, so that was my first time there and we had a good time. I helped a team win the pub quiz with my knowledge of Harry Potter, and then we all painted each others faces, they are big into that here. My friend painted a person on the other team as a daemon zebra, which got them a fair amount of points and was pretty impressive looking too. We are dissecting a horse leg tomorrow so that should be exciting as I have never looked inside a horses leg, so it should be fun!

Foggy London Town

Its been a few days since my last post, but that's because I was down south in London! I left Friday afternoon after my anatomy lab (we dissected the anti-brachium of the dog leg we had been working on for a while, good stuff). My train left around 4 and everything was going very smoothly, apart for the fact that I was getting a bit sick, very sniffly and stuffy nose, no bueno. But as we continued on our way we became later and later! First we got to a station where a lot of people went onto the train. Ad the train was quite packed, the conductor informed us that the train was very full and that some people were going to have to get off. I had a reserved seat so it certainly wasn't going to be me. After that he informed us that we were behind a slower train, so we couldn't go as fast as we normally would, and that the till was broken so were physically weren't able to go as fast as we normally could! But, eventually, I made it to London, and after getting a little lost in the terminal, I found the taxi queue and (after a rather expensive taxi ride) I was at Stephs! She lives in the school dorms because she's doing an internship for a semester there, so it was the perfect opportunity to see and new city and an old friend! That night we went out with some of her friends to a local pub, which was a lot of fun! I met a lot of her friends and they were all really nice and seemed to enjoy living in London and were telling great stories about all of the places that they have visited since they've been there.  The next day we went out lunch and a good Pad Thai place and then went on a walking tour of Richmond, where the main campus for Stephs Uni is. We thought it was going to be a rock'n'roll tour, but it ended up being a historical tour of the area. After we figured that he wasn't going to start talking about Jagger and Townsend, it was a pretty enjoyable tour, very interesting and architecturally geared, so it ended up being unexpectedly fun! After that some of Stephs friends were in the area watching a rugby game so we met up with them and met a few rugby players who took us to a local rugby pub to hang out. One was from Wales and the other was from London, and we all had a good time exchanging stories, though the Londoner gave me crap for getting a Strongbow (cider thats popular here/delicious) but I gave him crap right back, and lets just say he was taken aback by my turn-of-phrase. Also I met a little person from London and we had a lovely conversation, sine he initially thought I was from Wales, my response pretty much killed that assumption as the CA accent does not sound like the Welsh one. After a while some of us were hungry, so we got Lebanese food and moved on to another pub and then home after a long day. The next day we took our time getting ready and went to lunch at an Italian place where Princess Diana used to have lunch! It was really good, so I can see why she went there! Afterwards we went to the Tower of London, which came highly recommended by friends here. It was really cool! We all got the audio guides so we followed that around. We got to see the CROWN JEWELS!!! It was sooooo sparkly! I wish we could have taken pictures, but a girl in front of us did and she got shut down by the beefeaters who work there, he made her delete the picture, so I didn't want to have a similar fate. But I can now say that I have seen the largest clear cut diamond in the world! The jewels were amazing, and next time they are going out is for Charles' coronation, so not for a while! We saw the tower where people were kept, and various torture devices, and an exhibit on armor, and lots of crows. Afterwards we popped in the gift shop and then had to rush back to the halls to get my stuff and then take me to the train so I wouldn't miss my train! The ride back was fairly uneventful, I made friends with an elderly couple sitting across from me on their way to Blackpool, which sounds like a cool city, so I may have to go visit someday! Then there was a group of boys who were playing music and singing along really loudly, but i had my iPod so I only listened when it was a really good song, but they weren't the best singers so I didn't listen too often! But I made it home in one piece with all my stuff, so all in all I would say successful trip to London! And now I can officially say that I've been to London and not just in the airport!
PS- other notable things I saw: the eye, London Bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abby

Busy Busy!

Well today was a busy day of errands! Nothing too terribly exciting to report, though last night I went out with a friend I met during freshers week who's in the math PhD programme! Mostly I cleaned/gymmed/did laundry/studied, all in preparation for LONDON! I leave Friday, so if anyone has any suggestions on what to do let me know! And I almost got a phone today, but they weren't in stock, so the whether to get and iPhone 4 or 4S debate rages on! Until later!

Coooooows!!

Been a little while since my last post, but it's been a little quiet here, mostly studying to exams! Even though they aren't until Dec the time is flying by way to fast! Thurs was the Ceilidh, which was so much fun! I tried to find some good video to post but they aren't very good, I shall look more! Basically it's like line dancing, but better and way more fun! And there were so many kilts! They say its not a successful Ceilidh unless you have a few bruises, and as I had bruises under both arms, a slightly twisted ankle, and knots in my calves, I would say very successful Ceilidh indeed! Fri was class until 5, anatomy dissection was pretty fun, we looked at muscles and then when we were done we removed the scapula and after dislocating the shoulder joint, good times! And I got my dissection kit and Guide to the Dissection of the Dog book (finally!) so that was all very exciting. Sat and Sun was mostly windy, rainy, and studying! Sat some of us QM people went down the street to a pub for a bit, but the next day it was back to the books! Mon I had class all day, very long day, but we're getting into more interesting stuff the days are going by quickly! Today we went up to Cochno to restrain cows! Mostly it was learning how to tie knots that you use to tie them to posts or tip them, but still quite fun! Thats about it for now, until later!

cow in a crush

my new bff regina aka Eliza Moo-little

First Ceilidh!

Just got back from my first Ceilidh! It was so much fun! Imagine line dancing but better and to Scottish music played to alive band! So much fun, and I shall teach you the dances I remember at Christmas! Now as I am hot and sweaty I am off to shower and to bed because I have class bright and early tomorrow! Night!

Shopping and Sushi!

Hello! Today I though it was going to be a relatively boring post, but it turns out I had quite a lovely day! We started out going to the main Uni for Bio Molec lab, doing electrophoresis, which was ridiculously easy as we didn't have to do anything but pipet. So we ran our gels, did a few other pipetting tests, and were out in under 2 hours, easy day! Then I ran a few errands on my way back to my flat, had lunch, and attempted to work out some computer issues on the phone with apple. Well I was on the phone with them for about an hour, sat for another hour waiting for my computer to reinstall Lion, only to have my computer act exactly the same. So moral of the story, the guy (who was in Cork by way of Scandinavia) got to chat with me for no reason as he had never heard of my computers particular problem, so now I need to go to the mac store for some person to person chats, but I digress. My friend texted me to go shopping for OUR FIRST CEIDITH!! Well actually it was something for her to wear to it, and she's been to many, but still its the welcome back Ceidith, so still a big deal (pronounces Kay-Lee). So we went to the Silverburn Shopping Centre, which is  (possibly) the largest mall in the UK (my friend wasn't sure) but it was quite nice, it reminds me of the new city centre in Vegas, very posh. Anywho we went to a few store, got some shoes and dresses and then my friends suggested sushi for dinner, so I got to try some sushi scottish style. It was really cool, I wish I had had my camera with me! In the table was a nook for the soy sauce, a pit for the ginger and another hole for the wasabi and next to you there was a rotating conveyer belt with different plates all with different sushis on them and each plates had different colors corresponding to different prices. I tried a veggie one and ordered some yakisoba and we had miso soups and split chocolate mocha. It was nice because everything was really small, not like back home where the yakisoba is huge, and I had some green tea, which tasted the same as back home! It was so windy today, walking to class we almost got blown backwards! And it poured for a bit, but then got really sunny? So all in all a good day, and now I'm off to study!

Wee Plates and Menu from Yo Sushi!

Flipping Sheep!

Well it's been over a week since my last post? Sorry about that, just getting a little busy with school and whatnot! Well last thing you heard was that I had just come back from Glencoe, so much fun! All last week was pretty much filled with classes, now we are starting to learn a little more than just introductory stuff, more about sheep, cells, RNA, all that good stuff! Friday was lab practical day, which is always the best day! We came into lab to see a disemboweled dog trunk on each table, basically the 2 forelimbs with and the ribcage area that had been decapitated and, like i said, disemboweled for easily handling. We skinned the dog, we're getting really good at it! And the looked at all the muscles that cover the chest area and the forelimbs, and then remove both limbs for future use. Most teams just put their names on the arms, but we named our dog Neil Patrick Hairless, so we put that (because he has no hair now that he was skinned!) Also we weren't sure of the gender of the dog, but as its muscles were well defined and boxy we figured it was a male. We got lucky with our dog, some of the other groups had really furry and fat dogs, so they had a lot to get through to get the skin off. Friday night was the welcome back party at Walkabout, a bar near city center. It was really fun! They played great music, heard some Bewitched which was great, and everyones costumes were really great (it was under the sea themed). The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful, just did some reading, it was rainy so I didn't really want to go anywhere, though I suppose I should get used to it because its not going to let up anytime soon! Mon was another loooooong day, 9-5 straight through and its all of our more dense subjects, so by the time we got to nutrition it was a little hard to pay attention, and we learned more about sheep! Today we learned about pig farming, very interesting and completely different from sheep farming, and from cow farming from what I know about it. Its very industrialized, and the class was taught by the dean! He seems like a really nice guy, and was very informative about pigs! After that I headed up to Cochno with my group to do some sheep flipping! (I know i called it sheep tipping, but my big vet says its sheep flipping, cow tipping). Its not as easy as it looks, some sheep are quite heavy, but I was able to flip a few sheep, and it was pretty fun! And we looked at their teeth so we could have an appreciation of the different stages of teeth growth as well as what sheep teeth look like that are missing or unhealthy. You use the teeth to age the sheep a lot of the time, so we were able to see how you can age the sheep based on how many adult/juvenile teeth they have, very interesting! After that I came home, ran some errands, skyped with Missy and Sue for a while, and now I'm off to study!

Proper Glencoe Post!

This past weekend I went hiking in Glencoe! It was so much fun and beautiful (see previous post). Glenoce is a town north of Glasgow with a saltwater Loch and a few Monroes to climb up. I met up with the mountaineering club at 6pm in front of the GUU and we all hopped on a coach to take us to Glenoce. On the way we passed by Loch Loman (which is huge!) and stopped at a chip shop for dinner, The Real Food Cafe in Tyndrum, though this was a rather nice chip shop, more like a restaurant (therealfoodcafe.com), but quite good! After dinner we bused the rest of the way to where we were staying at Bellachulish Hall, which is basically the city hall of the town, there was a stage and it looked like we were pretty much staying on a gymnasium floor? It was an interesting set up, but worked quite well for all of us and we all fit so that was the important thing! After a bit socializing we went to bed to prepare for the next days hiking!
Sat we woke up bright and early to get started on hiking. Fortunately the weather was beautiful! Some people went outdoor climbing, scrambling, and the rest of us went hiking. Though the description of the hike was 'easy' (though thats how they described them all) and that all you needed was trainers, I'm very glad I have proper trousers and hiking boots, as the ascent was basically a vertical wall of wet moss and it didn't flatten out much after that, a few times I had to grab onto the plants to keep from falling off the hill! But it offered some spectacular views! After all the hiking in the cold and sleet, though only for a few minutes at a time, we reached the top of Sgorr Dhearg, height of 1024m, and I climbed all of those meters because the hill started at sea level (the Loch is attached to the sea) so it was quite a good distance up! Unfortunately when we reached the top we basically hiked into a cloud, so there wasn't much to see but the inside of a cloud and the sky, but still I felt pretty accomplished! Afterwards we started the decent down the hill. We were going to try and go for another Monroe but one of our group didn't want to go so we went down the hill instead. Though I was disappointed at first, after our hike down I was quite glad that we didn't end up hiking the second Monroe as we got rather lost in the forrest where we bushwhacked through pine trees and marshy bog where I slipped on the moss and got my foot stuck in ankle deep mud, but at least I broke in my hiking boots and landing on the moss was quite a soft landing! Right when we got to the road it started raining and we walked the rest of the way back in the rain, which was certainly better than hiking down that hill in the rain! When we got back to Bellachulish we had dinner and socialized until we all passed out, exhausted from the excisions of the day!
Sun a group of us decided that we didn't want to go traipsing around in the rain so we went tea shop hopping in Glencoe instead, which was quite pleasant! The first shop was a craft store/coffee shop where we hung out for a good portion of the day until we made our way further into town where we went to an art store and talked with a local woman before heading back to the hall to pack up and help clean. We left Bellachulish around 6pm, stopped off at the chip shop again for dinner, and returned to Glasgow around 9pm. It was nice to leave Glencoe in the daytime so we could see all the hills, it was dark when we initially come in, and it was so beautiful to see all the rivers and waterfalls that had filled up with all of the rain that had been falling all day, it really was a  beautiful area and I can't wait to go back and explore more!

Glencoe!

I went to Glencoe this weekend and I wrote a great post but then deleted it on accident and its too late to write it all out again, so here are some pictures until tomorrow when I can write out the whole story! Also I skinned a cat on Friday in anatomy lab, quite fun! Enjoy!

Our Accommodation 

Rainbow!

Sheep!

End of Town

More Sheep!

Start of the 'Walk'

Pap of Glencoe (pointy mountain)

Steep Ascent 

Glencoe 

View from Above

More Views!

Top of Sgorr Dhearg 1024m

More Sgorr Dhearg

More Sgorr Dhearg

Sgorr Dhonuill

What Does it Mean?!

Forrest We Bushwhacked Through

Poppies!!! 

Bellachulish, Where we Stayed