Semester 3, Week 3--IT NEVER ENDS!

Whoever says that third semester isn't a busy one lies!  For a four-day week, I feel like I haven't accomplished much of anything.

Virology is the bane of my existence--I can't wait to never take a Giymah class again.  Luckily, my tutor is really good at coming up with easy ways to remember the material and tells us stories of Polyoma trying to reach the Hepadna Hospital but running into the three-legged ParvoDog along the way (all virus families) and the details on each are important features of the families themselves. 

My pathology group had our necropsy on Friday--and they had two groups in the necropsy lab at the same time.  We first watched the other group's necropsy--a hypothyroid 8-year-old dog.  Our case was a 5-month old anemic kitten.  It's amazing how much we've already learned, as we were describing and identifying post-mortem changes versus what had happened while the kitten was still alive.  Poor little thing was LOADED with worms--tapeworms, whipworms, and hookworms--and had some sort of pneumonia.  No wonder he was anemic!  At least we have an interesting case to present to the class.

P.A.W.S. had an adoption day on Saturday--sadly, it was one of the worst adoption days I'd seen yet--only 5 adopted.  :(  I hope it picks up... if we don't adopt them out, we can't save more.

Well, that's about it for the week... just gotta get back to studying, I suppose.  Blah!

Semester 3, Week 2--The Beginning of Semester Events

So, as I last mentioned, the end of week 2 brought a very busy weekend for us (thank goodness we didn't have classes on Monday--St. Kitts Independence Day, the ONLY holiday we get off).  I'm plain exhausted... I don't think I'll have much energy to study despite all the time in the world.  :P

Friday night was the Mr. RUSVM pageant.  The categories weren't too great this time--Favorite Veterinary Disease, Best Kittitian Fix-it, Talent, and the Worst Fashion Trends.  I was helping with my class's skits this time, and despite the crappy categories, I think it was one of the best ones I've gone to (for the most part).  The contestants were evenly matched (except for that poor firstie... they never know what they're getting into), and despite a few inappropriate acts (as there always are), it was enjoyable for everyone.  Russell came back to perform a song (he was the one that broke his leg at the last one).  I have a link to the video here.  Sadly, my class didn't even place, but we did well, if you ask me.  Even our "Party Rock" routine was decent (although some of us kept complaining that our timings were off). 

The next morning was Beachfest--and there isn't really much to report on that one.  My thrown-together volleyball team got wiped during the first game of the tournament... I had Lia get some beach time and she made some new friends... and I got some reading in (and it was enjoyable reading at that--none of this pathology, bacteriology, virology, or pharmacology stuff!).

Then, we had the September RUSVM Geeks Anonymous gaming session in the Union.  I got to try out this game called Munchkin, which took a bit of a learning curve, but it was fun.  It's essentially a dungeon-crawl where you open a door and then face what's behind it (via a card), whether a monster, a trap, or a helpful item.  Then, you can recruit the help of a friend to face things or backstab people with your own cards and whatnot.  It's hard to explain, but it was fun.  Aaron DOMINATED the game of Settlers of Catan, with a decent monopoly on like... 2 of the resources.  Then, who knew there were so many people down here that played Magic: The Gathering?!  We had 3 rounds of that go rather quickly.  As always, it was fun--and the next one is probably going to be a good one as it's an October one.  :)  Anyone who knows me knows how much I like Halloween and October.  :P

Well, I probably should try to work on that studying thing... so, until next time!

Semester 3, Week 1.5--I'm Baaaaaaaaaaack!

Lia and Brutus lounging in the living room.

Well, what a break (and I really really really apologize for being so lacking in the updates)… full of running around and business despite nobody being on-island.  Although, I suppose that’s exactly why I was the busy one.  At my peak of pet-sitting, I had 5 dogs (Liamuiga, Gus, Daphney, Ottley, and Brutus) and 3 cats in the house (Reese, Gibbs, and Willow) and watched 2 other cats and 2 guinea pigs at my friend’s place.  A week into it, I had a decent routine worked out though and could take care of everyone within an hour and a half, including the drive up Mattingley to get to Kristi’s place. 

Gus, Ottley, and Daphney distracted by treats.

The campus clinic was quite busy as well—with Boaz in every day (a very mushy Rottweiler that had a large tumor removed off his side and ended up with a superbug bacterial infection), two cases of foreign body ingestion, and a hit-by-car that had a fractured pelvis and femur.  I had a ton of time to read, prepare a D&D campaign (kinda), and review notes from first and second semester.

Oh, I suppose you want to know how I did this time around, huh?  Well, I passed… not great, but I passed and made it into third, keeping me amongst the “greenies.”

Immunology – C (I know I ACED that final… but didn’t do so well the rest of the term… but I PASSED!)

Physiology II – C (we had a HUGE scale at the end… nearly 25 points!)

Anatomy II – B (I jumped from just passing to a B)

Parasitology – B (went from a C+ to a B)

So, this now gives me an overall GPA of 2.33, which isn’t great, but I surely will be able to bring that up.  Unfortunately, with the grades being posted, that means I had to say goodbye to my friends that didn’t make it through, and console the friends that are repeating.  It’s rough seeing that happen to others, but at the same time, you are SO relieved it isn’t you.  With regards to the repeating, they also changed the policy, so you don’t have to repeat the entire term to get the financial aid—just enough credits to give you part-time status.  My repeater friends are lucky with that… I spent a LOT of time this term worrying about passing physiology again.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Reich as an instructor, but his exams make you second-guess everything you know. 

Third semester brings us into classes that are a LOT more interesting—bacteriology, virology (which is unfortunately with Giymah again), Pathology I, and Pharmacology I.  And, the schedule is much more laid back—when we don’t have labs, we’re usually done by 11:00am or noon.  Don’t let the thought of having “free time” fool you, though… we have a lot of material to learn and only a single midterm and a final exam.

Our new kitchen board. :P

Last week, we got hit by the tail-end of Tropical Storm Maria, which made them cancel part of the semester olympics and the Mr. RUSVM Pageant.  (You may find this surprising, but I went to support the class in soccer and kickball… but when we got knocked out of the running, I went over to support the purple class since Robert was playing.)  Mr. RUSVM got bumped to tomorrow actually (so I’ll probably post a shorter post this weekend just about that and the other multitude of events that happen), and I’m going to be in the show this time.  ;)  Let’s just say it got me back into hip-hop style dancing… and another class requested the presence of the “Corset Crew.”  The class has been practicing a lot for this, so I hope the Greenies stand a chance this time!

So, here’s to a new semester!