Playing with animals

First week of classes went pretty well. We had a lot of clinic based stuff for lectures, and we started diagnostic imaging (so cool!). I ended up missing one day to wait for my beautiful, wonderful, memory foam mattress to arrive. It was worth it. I have never slept better in my life. And it's a major improvement over my mattress in College Grove.

Stuff to look forward to this week: hematology, vomiting and regurgitation in small animals, and an animal handling exam.

Yup, that's right. Second week of classes and I already have an exam. I did know about it since last year, and I did a bit of studying over summer break, but not really. It's really 5 stations of different animal handling scenarios and we need to show that we are proficient at each. Shouldn't be too hard, hopefully.

Leaving on a jet plane

Well, the summer is officially over. My flight to Heathrow is tonight, so I'll be back and in my new house in about oh...15 or so hours? School starts on the 19th. That means I have 4 days to acclimate to UK time, arrange my room, order a mattress, and have homework-free fun.

It's been a good summer, minus the whole mess with Tropical Storm Irene and being without power for 3 and a half days. I visited my best friend S. and her husband, spent time with my grandparents, hung out with friends in Providence...couldn't have had a better time.

And now, back to reality.

10 years.

By this time last year, I was already getting settled into my room at that place my brain has blocked the name of (it was pretty bad) in London. I was tired, dirty, and probably asleep (I stupidly took a nap). Maybe I was eating dinner.

But 10 years ago, I was just getting out of school, still in shock about the events of the day. I was probably waiting for my sister to walk down with me to her car. We were all zombies, in a way, since our innocence was taken from us so swiftly that day.

I've been watching bits and pieces of the memorial that is happening at Ground Zero today. I can't watch all of it, since it's making me too emotional. Has it really been 10 years? Was I really only a teenager when all this happened? I was in Chemistry class when we heard about the first tower being hit, and by lunchtime it was all over school. Terrorist attack, the towers have fallen, etc etc. It didn't really sink in until they replayed the footage of the South Tower collapsing. All I could think was, "I have family that works near that site. Did they get out? Are they still alive?"

I keep hoping that this immense tragedy will keep this country together, that our shared grief and shock will somehow help remind us that we are all Americans and are working towards the same goal: a better future for us and our children. I think we've lost sight of that in the past few years.