I'm Still Alive!

I haven't blogged in a while, but I AM still alive and going to school! The days seems to all bleed into one lately, I think the general overcast that has blanketed Glasgow is to blame. The sun never moves until it's all of the sudden night, and I'm studying so I don't even realise it until I'm tired and realise its time for bed! Not too much exciting has been happening here. Last weekend we had a Halloween party at my friends place that is, conveniently, right up the street. I was Zombie Alice in Wonderland, which actually turned out better than I thought it would since I kind of threw it together. It was weird being blonde for the night, and we all had a good time!
Dissection lab this week was really fun. We have some new TAs who are really helpful when we harass them about where things are and how they will look on an exam, a crucial question since a lot of the time the cadavers are ambiguously labeled, especially nerves and random recesses in the thorax, but I digress. I got to practise my surgeon skills, since I'm apparently really good at dissection? But I'm not complaining, its really fun! We cracked into the chest cavity to look at everything that we had been studying in situ. Then we had free range to bust into the abdominal cavity, which we did obviously, and had a wee poke around there, and I got blood all over my lab coat sleeves. At least we have new protocols which basically turn us into human condoms (hair nets, gloves, aprons, lab coats, and booties, we look hot), but it means that I stayed relatively clean while searching for kidneys! On wed we did and ECG lab that was pretty fast, but really cool and I actually learned a lot from it, so I'm glad that we got to do that, plus our professor is really helpful. Though I did have to help him lift the fake dog onto the table to have his 'ECG' taken, but he didn't tell me that I was supposed to pretend that it was real so I was just kind of holding it awkwardly, but still very informative! He asks a lot of questions, which is nice because I can answer them (in my head or outloud) and see if I'm close to being right or way off the mark, so it's a nice way to read into what kind of things he's going to look for on the exam.
We started digestion today, which is my favorite system, so thats exciting! Though we're still just in the mouth, less interesting, and we are learning more muscles, even less interesting. But its with a professor who we all like so he makes it fun and fairly straightforward, which is nice. Other than that just trying to keep afloat of studying, we have a few kind of busy weekends coming up and before we know it it'll be time for exams! Yikes!

Fun Filled Weekend!

Well I can't say that being a vet student is all work! After a productive week I continued to be productive all day sat, physiology is starting to come together in my brain (hopefully), so I was a good student all day! So much productivity. Sat night went to dinner at the good Mediterranean place in Merchant City and then went to see Looper, which was really good! Very cool and surprising, I quite liked it! Sunday a group of us went bungee jumping! It was so cool! When we got there the employees were all in fancy dress, which was really fun. It turned out that Sun was the last day of the season and there were blue skies and it was a brilliant day! So the Grimm Reaper lead us all up the lift to the top of the crane (we bungeed off a crane over the river Clyde) and we walked over to near the jump off point. We weren't sure who was going to go first, so when they found out which bungee was attached (the bungees are different depending on weight) they said 'Who's green?" Oh, just me? Ya, so I got to (had to) go first!! Everything was pretty cool until the point when I hopped over to the edge and they told me that on the count of 1,2,3,bungee! I would have to dive, head first, down. That was when it hit me that  was going to have to make the conscious decision to throw myself off of this thing, they weren't going to push me and I wasn't attached to someone who was going to do it for me like in skydiving. So for a second I thought 'I've made a huge mistake!' But when they counted down somehow I found the nerve, or general stupidity, to let gravity do its thing and dove off. It was so much fun! It was great that we were able to do it together and was certainly a bonding experience! Afterwards we all headed to Brew Dog for pizza and beer and then later to the 78 for dinner since some people had never been and it's right around the corner. So all in all a great weekend!

Work work work

Things have been pretty quiet here, just really trying to keep up with lectures so studying for exams will be a bit less stressful, if that;s even possible! My days mostly consist of class, gym, home, study, sleep, not too interesting! It's starting to feel like fall here, which means its getting colder, rainier, and there is a legitimate risk of slipping and breaking something on the leaves that fall here but are never swept up so they become a blanket of decomposed death traps all over the city. Glasgow, keeping you on your toes! Yesterday our friend came over and we had take out and watched Cry Baby, a good end to the week and a nice way to just kick back a relax for a bit, and still after getting some work done! Halloween is coming up, so we're all brainstorming ideas of what to be, and since a friend of ours is having something and there's a proper vet party we need 2 costumes, so we're all trying to think of what to be! I think tonight I'm seeing Looper, or maybe the new James Bond, though not having seen any before this one I may be a bit lost, all I know is that he's apparently switched from Martinis to Heineken, so yay product placement! And tomorrow I'm going bungee jumping! So that should be fun!

My decorated window of my room, getting into the Halloween spirit!

Welcome Back Ceilidh!

Well it's that time of year again! The Welcome Back Ceilidh! Which is my very favorite thing to do! Its basically Scottish line dancing, so much fun! And this year it was even more fun, since I know more people, we just bounce around like a bunch of idiots, having a grand time! I could ceilidh all day, but having one only twice a year makes it that much better since we don't get to do it very often, though that means that we Americans also never really get very good at it, but it's just a mosh pit of arms and legs and feet. Like they say, its not a true ceilidh if you don't leave with a few bruises, I'm sure I have more than a few!

Plugging away!

Its been a long weekend thus far here, mostly working on Anatomy which I have been more or less ignoring this semester. Though not particularly hard it can be a bit tricky with all of the comparative bits, you have to keep clear whos nose looks like what, which animals you euthanize via electric bolt one way (small and large ruminants) and who is by electric stunning (pigs), and then these horses, which is a who other thing entirely, horses are the worst. Anywho, nothing much doing here, tonight we're having pizza and beer and a movie night, much needed after staring at various noses all day!

 

my new awesome lamp i got at the st. enoch international fair :)

cupcakes i made (vegan) for my friends memorial service, they went pretty fast

Somewhere from some far off place I hear you laughing-and I smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCQTr8ZYdhg

Labyrinth

We're heading to Sloans tonight for their free movie night tonight! (well not exactly free, since you usually buy dinner and drinks to enjoy whilst watching the movie) So tonight will be a night of mac'n'cheese, and staring at David Bowie for 2 hours, eventful evening!

Be Jealous

Bikram Yoga

Today my flatmates and I went to do Bikram yoga, they had done it before, but this was the first time I had gone. I thought that I wasn't going to like it, I've tried to get into yoga before, but I just never really got into it. It was really fun, hot and sweaty, but fun! Who know you could sweat so much basically standing around! We have 20 consecutive days since its just the pre-opening classes we're taking, though from the sound of the other instructors who are coming this is the best way to start! Can't wait to do it Wed morning! Between that and learning how to rock climb I'm learning so many new skills! AND we FINALLY got the biomolec timetable, than GOD!