Semester 3, Week 11--Thanksgiving in Our Sights!

I find it very hard to believe that it has been about a month since I last updated this thing, but I guess it makes sense with how busy this semester has kept me.

Where to start catching up on updates?  Halloween?  I guess that's as good a start as any.  As usual, Halloween isn't a very big to-do on this rock... but we students make it as "normal" as we can.  The Geeks Anonymous group had a Halloween-themed gaming night, complete with us all wearing costumes and bringing decorations and snacks and listening to "Halloween-ey" music and videos in the background.  VIDA (a group that does free spay/neuter clinics and provides veterinary care to those unable to afford it) hosted a haunted house, which was more funny than scary for me, but it definitely helped to keep the feel of the season.  Even the prep school kids come through the classrooms for trick-or-treating (which drove me out the opposite door to go get coffee and enjoy at 10-15 minute break of my own).

The last P.A.W.S. adoption day was last weekend... and it was my last one as an officer as well.  In a sense, it was kind of sad, but such a relief at the same time.  I have time to do other things rather than having 10 emails a week to sort through and do updates to the website.  Kristi's fiance took over, so I have the utmost confidence that he'll do a good job with it.  I still plan on volunteering, but at least I don't have to devote 3+ hours a week to keep up with the changes.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a very good semester for us--only 19 adoptions in total (compared to the 35ish we saw last term).  The group's made some decent progress since I first started working with them, and I know they'll continue to do more and more for the community as time goes on.

Last week, we had Fabien Cousteau come down to lecture about ocean conservation.  It's been a wonderful semester for me with the guest lecturers--Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald at first and then Fabien.  Listening to his lectures almost made me miss being in marine biology!  I was so jealous of the research projects he's participated in... but then I remembered why I'm here in the first place.  ;)  He's a wonderful speaker, so if you ever get a chance to listen to him, I highly recommend you do.  He also does a lot of work with schools and is trying to promote his conservation group:  PlantAFish.org.  Check it out--it's a great idea.

Other than that, there really isn't much to tell--I go to school, go home, let the dog out, shower, and then go back to school (sometimes) to study with Jen and Jobeth.  It's an uneventful life!  At least I'm passing all my classes still, too.  :)

So, I guess I leave you with my thoughts as to what I'm thankful for this season.  I'm glad to still be allowed to continue in the program down here despite all the setbacks in the last year and a half.  I'm thankful for the support of all my friends and family, both island and back on the mainland.  Without you guys always being there for me, I couldn't have done this.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Semester 3, Week 7.5--BIRTHDAY and the WIVC

So, my predictions were right--I did, in fact, get a B on the virology exam.  :)  I'm just waiting on the pathology grade (the exam was Monday, so we should be getting it soon) and then it's the home stretch of studying until final exams.

The school is too kind to me for my birthday--it seems to always fall during the weekend of Midsemester Break, so we get Monday off.  :)  This left the weekend for a lot of events--I had dinner at PJ's (which will sadly be closing soon) with my closest friends down here--Steven, Nicholine, Kristi, Trent (and his wife who's visiting this week, Jamie), Katy (and her husband, Joel) and Robert.  It was nice--I definitely prefer more laid-back events.  Nicholine and Steven brought me a pineapple upside-down cake... and Robert tried to trick me with the trick candles I got him with on his birthday.  I know the difference, though.  ;)

On my actual birthday, I opted to spend the morning at the Marriott--they have the best breakfast buffet I've had in aaaaaaaaaages.  The West Indies Veterinary Conference (WIVC) was over the course of this week--and they brought down Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald to lecture on rabbits, ferrets, and venomous/toxic bites.  Yes, that is the same Dr. Fitzgerald as the one from "Emergency Vets" from Animal Planet.  He's a bit scatterbrained with his lectures, but he's clearly very intelligent and absolutely hilarious.  (I tried to record a lecture of his, but my microphone on my laptop is absolutely horrible.)  I just may consider an internship with Alameda East--it's not in Texas like I originally thought... it's in Colorado.  Despite all the car troubles, Kristi (my friend in the picture here) was more than kind to get the both of us to the Marriott over the weekend for his talks.

Oh yeah... as for the car situation... well, we planned on going back to the Marriott for sushi and to play bingo (which we quickly found out that it was cancelled because of the conference).  I made it up the hill to pick up Kristi and tried to coast down it in neutral (like usual), but towards the bottom of the hill, I found out that the car wasn't shifting right.  It got stuck in reverse and despite being able to move the shifter, the car thought it was in reverse... so I couldn't even get it to start.  Amber (my upstairs neighbor) had been working with a new mechanic who really seemed to know his stuff, so I let him fix it.  I had it back within a day and it's running soooooooooo smoothly again.  :)

Other than that, the birthday was very low-key and I spent it with many of my closest friends down here.

On Monday, Steven came to my room at 6:00 in the morning (after I had stayed up to 3:00am studying for the Pathology I midterm) to tell me to check on my cat.  She had gotten into the cabinet above the microwave and into his stash of powdered milk.  We don't quite know how much she ate, but there were three piles of vomit throughout the kitchen interspersed between the piles of the powdered milk packets she shredded.  In a panicked moment, I had Steven and Nicholine bring her up to the clinic (I know it's not toxic, but I was worried about her ingesting plastic/wrapping of the packets and dehydration).  Fluids, Cerenia, and famotidine later, she was discharged at noon after the midterm exam.  By the end of the evening, she was back to her normal ravenous self, luckily!

I spent a lot of money, but at least everything's okay now.  :)  So, until this weekend!

Semester 3, Week 6--Midterm Hell Week

Wow... yeah, sorry about that (again... I'm really bad at updating this sometimes...).  Midterm Hell Week is just about over finally.  I'd been doing nothing but studying in preparation... although my confidence level doesn't necessarily reflect the grades that I got so far.

We had our Bacteriology midterm on Friday (I got a C... pretty solid, and we have a lab grade that should help to pull that up too)... Pharmacology I on Monday (I got a B... WOO!)... and Virology today (we haven't gotten grades back, but if I get anything less than a B, I'd honestly be surprised... my tutor is AWESOME!).

So, sadly... there is nothing interesting to report as a result.  :(  OH!  I made it onto the "kill count board" by rescuing a millipede... yeah, life's been boring...

I'll let you know how the birthday weekend goes, though.  :P

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!