Week 2 of Semester 2, Round 2--Leatherbacks!

So, trying to integrate into this class is rather… interesting.  A lot of them seem to look down on us repeaters, but there are some really nice ones (like those in my anatomy group and my parasitology lab partner) that are very welcoming. 

Lots of club general meetings this week.  I gave the presentation for the AAFP, and was rather disappointed with the way I spoke (I thought I was too fast), but Steven and Lexi said it was fine.  We have a LOT of events planned, but it’s sad that we’re all stepping down this semester.  I also announced that I’d be stepping down from my position in P.A.W.S. a semester early.  (If I decide to stay here next semester, I don’t want to be AS involved anymore, so that I don’t have to worry about failing another class as much.)  In a sense, it was kind of sad…

Friday and Saturday were kind of a mess due to my sleeping pattern.  Friday was The Unknown’s first volleyball game of the season (the preseason one), but the team we were scheduled to play against never showed up.  Another random team wanted the practice, so we just played back and forth for a bit—don’t know who won, but it was fun. 

Then I had to run home, get some food, pack up my bag, and head off to North Friars Beach for my leatherback patrol.  Dr. Stewart had a little hatchling from the night before that was too weak to get to the ocean, so she gave it to Jeremy and myself to release if he wanted to go.  They’re so tiny—it’s  just amazing how big they get… from ounces and just a few inches to hundreds of pounds and almost 5 feet long.  He didn’t seem to want to go to the ocean on the first attempt, so on our second sweep of the patrol, we figured we’d give it a shot after a quick nap.  However, we woke up to a light drizzle, which quickly turned into a steady rain, and then into a monsoon… and we were stuck on the far end of the beach.  Had to quickly break out the windbreakers, curl up over our backpacks to keep our stuff dry, and just hope it passed sooner rather than later.  After about 20 minutes, it did, and we made a run for my car.  Another half hour later, the rain hadn’t let up and Dr. Stewart called it quits for our nightly patrol around 1:00am.  (Woo-hoo!  More sleep time!)  Apparently, we have a photographer and author coming down next week to work on a children’s book about our project… kinda like the one when I went to the marine biology summer camp in Maine when I was 13.

Saturday morning was Beachfest put on by the scuba club.  Steven, Lexi, and I played on another volleyball team (The Cremasters) in the tournament and lost pretty miserably on our first game, but it was a good one.  I think I’m getting better at this game.  ;P

Saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4 with some of the firsties, but I had a HORRIBLE headache (probably dehydration despite downing gallons of water over the weekend), so I wasn’t able to fully enjoy the 3D of it.  But, from what I recall, it wasn’t as good as 1, 2, or 3 were.

Sunday was a recovery/cleaning day.  While making breakfast, I saved Gibbs from launching off of the cabinets at a piece of dust hanging from the ceiling.  In the process, however, I caught my toe on the edge of the fridge.  I was joking that if I had gotten an adamantium skeleton years ago, this wouldn’t have happened.  (Good ol’ X-Men joke)  Despite the injury, I cleaned out the interior of the car with the hopes of getting it in the shop again tomorrow.  (Hooray for Ross-mobiles!)

I guess that’s about it for the week.  See you all at the end of the next one.

Week 1 of Semester 2, Round 2--Disappointment and Elation

Well, what a break and first week that has been.  I’m sorry I disappeared again from the blogging, but I had a huge blow to the ego at the start of the break.  Originally, I had failed out of the university from failing 2 classes—Anatomy II and immunology.  I spent most of the break trying to change flights, enjoy time with my friends, and making sure it was a legitimate grade.  Long story short, there were some variations in the manner of grade calculation, and I ultimately ended up with a passing grade in Anatomy II.  This allowed me to repeat second semester.  I’m still not sure what to do after this point, but I DO know for sure that it’s better to leave the school passing the semester, so I opted to stay at Ross at least for another three months.  Let’s just say it was the biggest emotional rollercoaster I’ve been on since arriving here a little over a year ago (wow… a year… dear god…).

So, I re-start as a “greenie,” and it’s interesting being in another class yet again… feeling even more like an outsider with this class than I did with the black class.  We’ll see—they might just be very reserved.  At least I have Amy (who had repeated her first term) and Emily in this class.  “My” firsties seemed pretty excited to still have me around… but I’m pretty upset that Natasha didn’t win her appeal on basis of a personal issue with an instructor.

As was the case with last semester, I still joined some clubs, but I’m not getting AS involved as I had been in the past.

• ·         AAFP (my last term as vice-president)
• ·         P.A.W.S. (webdesigner)
• ·         Scuba Club (member)

I figured I can STILL attend any interesting lectures from other clubs… much better for me.  Plus, I’m still in charge of the volunteer schedule for the campus tortoises and am staying on the leatherback monitoring network, having seen two nesting females now.  It was pretty damn amazing—they’re HUGE.  Definitely made hiking 50 hours up and down a beach worth it.

Mr. RUSVM was Saturday.  It was… interesting, to say the least.  It started off really strong—I was impressed with everything until the second topic was over, and then it was all downhill from there.  I’m sorry, but a man with fake boobs smashing beer cans is not a talent, in my opinion.  Unfortunately, he won overall… and third (the black class) won second place.  Russell, the orange class (sixth), was dancing for the “viral YouTube video” portion, stepped wrong, and ended up with an oblique fracture through his fibula and tibia.  Ouch.  The look of pure shock on the guy’s face was just horrible.  Keep him in your thoughts for a speedy recovery—he’s definitely out for a semester, as it’s hard to do field work and surgery on crutches.  I’m glad that the judges gave him the win for that round—it was great sportsmanship. 

Well, I suppose I should head off to bed again—I have to get ready for a full week of classes again.  Hope everyone was well in my absence, and I’ll see you all next week.

Last Stretch of Semester 2!

... I'm determined to NOT let it take me down!

My agenda for the following week:

• Monday - Immunology (12:00-2:00pm)
• Tuesday - Anatomy II (12:00-2:00pm)
• Wednesday - Parasitology (8:00-10:00am)
• Thursday - Physiology II (8:00-10:00am)

... let the caffeine-fueled cramming/studying sessions begin!

Week 13 of Semester 2--More Sea Turtles Work

Well, here we are at the end of the semester again... it has been quite a long one, yet it feels like a year has just simply flown by as well...

Thursday night was my first sea turtle night patrol--I was on the beach from 8:00pm-12:00am.  There have been some... issues... on the beaches near Timothy Beach (the other main turtle nesting beach), so they put all of us volunteers on Cayon-to-Keys Beach.  There were... 10 of us, I think.  We broke up into 2 teams and started at the midpoint of the beach.  One team went north, the other team went south... and then we set up camp for half an hour to 40 minutes.  Then we met back at the middle point, and set up camp for half an hour to 40 minutes.  Then the teams swapped ends of the beach.  In the 4 hours I was on patrol, we made one full pass of the beach, but didn't see anything.  It was actually pretty disappointing, but we'll have to see what happens next week.

We had our last volleyball game on Friday, and boy are the beaches getting hotter and hotter as we get closer to summertime.  We lost our final game, which made our overall score 2-wins and who knows how many losses.  It was fun though... and it sounds like Heather is planning on keeping the team together for next semester (she's talking about team t-shirts).  I'm definitely glad I stuck with it.  :)

I think I've got a cold coming on (and yes, I know how ironic it sounds to get a "cold" while living on a tropical island--but I'm in the second round of people catching it).  I even backed out of seeing Sucker Punch with my friends so that I could stay home with some tea and get some more sleep in.

Well, back to studying--parasitology lab final on Tuesday!

Week 12 of Semester 2--Exhaustion

What a long week this one has been, although it didn't start off like much.  Just the usual classes up until Friday... and Virginia's birthday dinner on Tuesday... and the VCA-sponsored oncology lecture with Dr. Boshoven on Thursday... and taking over the tortoises on campus starting that day as well.  Alright, so that was a lot mid-week, I suppose.

The Unknown won our second game of the season.   We've gotten progressively better and have started playing more like a team.  It's a blast now... but with the weather getting more hot (and the sand burning your feet while waiting to get on the court), I'm not sure if I want to play next semester or not.  I probably should, but it's getting to be that miserable time of the year down here.

Friday night was the AAFP's semester-ly trivia night, and I was asked to emcee it since I'm the vice president.  It was pretty nerve-wracking, but it worked out well... better than the prior ones I had gone to.  I taught myself how to use TurningPoint (the clicker system that we use on campus to answer quiz-like questions during lectures), so we did the trivia night based on those.  I had 6 categories, 5 questions each... 4 subjects were vet-related and 2 (and the final question) were more fun trivia... like, what was the name of the cat actor in The Godfather seen in the opening scenes?  (He was a random stray that walked on set, so he didn't have a name.)  Hopefully we can keep it going that way next semester as well!  Lexi won the "fastest" response and the team MVP award.  As usual, there was a good variety of dishes to try there (it was a pot luck dinner).

Yesterday was the last P.A.W.S. adoption day of the semester.  Our total of adopted pets for the term is 32 (16 cats, 16 dogs), so it went rather well.  :)  We also started selling bumper stickers, which seem to be a big hit.  They say "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated," "saving the life of one animal may not change the world, but it will surely change the world for that one animal," and "save a life, adopt a shelter pet."  It's been an interesting semester... so let's see where the next takes the group.  (That's a picture of my friend, Lolly... she was so happy to have a handful of kittens.)

After that, Lexi, Steven, and I took Gus and Lia to the beach to meet up with Alexis and her foster dog, Flora.  Lia's terrified of the ocean, but Gus and Flora (for the most part) seemed to love it.  At least it got Lia to burn off some energy and she slept rather well for the night once we got home.  While the rest of the group played in the ocean, I took to trying to take some more artsy-like photos... like the paw print I have on here, and then some of shadows. 

 

And today, I woke up late... (9:30am!) made some breakfast, and just spent the day cleaning and studying.  Gonna catch a movie with Heather and Katy in a little bit... although I forget which one it is.  Haha.

See ya in a week!