20 January 2013

And the snow must go on...

Most areas in the south of England are not all that used to getting snow during the winter. Generally, there's about one 'big' snowfall of under 3 inches during the winter and the rest of the time it's just cold and rainy.

This year, however, must be the beginning of the apocalypse, because not only has it been snowing on and off for 3 days where I live, there's been quite a lot of accumulation. Now, I'm a New England girl. I'm used to snow and ice. I've woken up an hour earlier than usual so I can dig myself out of the giant snow wall that the plows have built overnight while plowing the roads. I can deal with snowy winters. In south England? They freak out over a snowfall of 1 inch. Rightly so; they don't have the kind of equipment on hand to clear the amount of snow that New England gets. 

And right now, the UK is FLIPPING out over the snow. They've even got twitter hashtags to commemorate the occasion (#UKsnow, #Europeansnow). Granted, I don't blame them.

Anyway, hopefully the snow will stop falling overnight. Unfortunately, even if I wanted to go into school tomorrow I can't, as they've cancelled lectures and have told all non-essential personnel to not come in. Sigh. So much for getting a day of research in before vacation. 

16 January 2013

Getting closer!

So Friday is the last day of Pre-Rotational Taught Tracking (basically refreshers based on what we're tracking in). Last week was more of the basics that everyone needs to know (research project related stuff as well as lectures on how to approach clinical cases), and this week and next are geared towards what you're tracking in. Since I've only got Equine tracking, I've only got one week's worth of lectures to attend.

What will I do with my spare time? Oh, I'm only going to Tenerife for 5 days. For my FIRST EVER warm weather vacation.

Seriously. I've never been on a warm weather trip in the winter time, and I've never traveled to a beach resort for vacation. I lived a sheltered life as a child, where we did more museum trips and went to colder places during the summer (Nova Scotia can be surprisingly cold in late summer).

So yeah. I'm a bit excited about my little trip to a Tenerife resort with my friend A.

After that, cold hard reality of research project 2 closely followed by my first rotation: Anesthesia. Apparently it's a good one to get out of the way early, or so I've been told. It's only 2 weeks of my life, so it couldn't be too bad, right?

...right?

02 January 2013

Happy New Year 2013!

Wow. Is it really 2013 already?

Am I really starting clinical rotations next month?

Is that a light I see at the end of the tunnel?

Anyway, I hope your New Year's celebrations were as awesome as mine.

My NYE 2013 celebration consisted of spinach and artichoke dip (self-made), chicken parmigiana and fried eggplant (also self-made), red wine, most of a bottle of champagne, and a Harry Potter movie marathon. I only got through the first 5 before the fireworks at midnight, so I finished the rest yesterday. I feel very much recharged and ready to get this year going.

As for my resolution; last year, I resolved to get healthy. I can safely say that I accomplished that goal; I'm 14 lb. lighter than I was at this time last year and I have more energy (even with the sun being mostly absent at this time of year). I think I'll just keep this resolution going for another year and see what it brings.

I should probably also resolve to survive clinical rotations.