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. 

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?

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.

A very Olympia Christmas

It's been quiet on the blogging front. I won't apologize, because I've just had the best time for the past 2 weeks.

Olympia can be summed up in one word: ah-may-zing.

Where else would I have had the chance to be behind the scenes at an international horse show that was complete with FEI dressage, jumping, dancing Barcelona Police horses...I mean, I could go on forever.

I got to work with amazing vets and see things that I would never see on regular EMS placement (including a very interesting case of concussion). After this exam, it was a treat to realize that: yes, I have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about. One of the vets that worked more closely with me and the other student there told me that I'm definitely going far in life, and that made my eyes a bit misty. For someone who only worked with me for a week, that was a very wonderful compliment that I took to heart. I really do hope I go far in life. I really loved working with the sport horses and everyone was so wonderful and nice (Laura Kraut sat next to me during a class, and I told her that it was just so nice to listen to a familiar accent which led to a commiseration about the crappy weather London was showing for the event; such a nice woman!!).

Also, being behind the scenes meant that I could peek at all the cool jumps that they had for World Cup and Grand Prix events. Seriously, coolest thing to be a part of ever. 

As for Christmas, I hope everyone got great things from Santa (and family)! My parents arrived Sunday, so I've been spending the week with them. Today, we did an outing in London that involved the Tower of London and the London Eye. It was pouring rain for most of the morning, but by 3pm it was clearing and when we walked onto the car for the Eye, the sun was setting and we got some beautiful views of the city. 

 It's been great spending time with my parents and sister for the past few days, and I'll be very sad when my parents head out on Saturday. But then again, I'll be home in March...so I shouldn't be too upset.

And now, I'm going to cuddle with my dog-sitting charge Hoss, and finish my whisky night cap. Bring on the New Year.

End of Exams and a messy Christmas Ball.

Let's lay the scene:

2 very tough final exams back to back

Lots of very relieved 4th years (at least until Friday)

A beautiful venue

Unlimited wine and beer

3 course meal (that I didn't really eat much of)

Needless to say we had a good time celebrating the end of exams. I'm very glad this round of exams are over. Friday brings the "pass/fail" results, and I'm debating waiting to look at them until the official results come out next week (or maybe even until my parents get here the 23rd). 

But for now, I'm just going to sit back, relax, enjoy having a dog in the house for a little while (dog-sitting for my friend L), and basically just not worrying about studying. 

Are we there yet?

Monday was interesting. We had the second part of the written exam, and I definitely nailed one question. But the second? Well...suffice it to say that I didn't feel that enough info was given and I hope I wrote down enough to pass it.

But hey. 50% is passing. And C = DVM (or BVetMed in my case).

Sigh.

Good news though; a spot for a volunteer opened up for Olympia International Horse Show later this month, since the person who was supposed to go could no longer commit to it (she's bummed, I talked to her earlier). I emailed pretty much immediately and got the spot! So I'll be spending a week volunteering in Kensington and hanging out with some really amazing people. I'm excited! But I'll miss spending that Sunday (the 23rd) with my parents, which isn't the best, but at least it's only one day.

Also, I'll be getting a foster kitty this week!! I was originally meant to get one tonight, but there was a big miscommunication about it all and I'll be going Friday to pick one up. Can't wait. I miss having a cat curl up with me at night.

And now, back to studying.

Don't Panic.

This has been my daily mantra for the past few days leading up to 4th year exams, which start tomorrow. I'm about as prepared as I can get, although the past few days I haven't really been going too overboard with studying.

The set up is a bit different this year; we have an exam tomorrow that includes four essays: one ethics, one statistics type, and two clinical scenarios. For the clinical scenarios, we just have to write down a prioritized problem list, a differential diagnoses list, and tests we'd like to perform and why. Tomorrow afternoon they'll release more info and then Monday we finish the clinical scenarios. Then we have another week after that until the MCQs and EMQs.

And to be honest, I haven't actually had a proper panic attack about this exam. I feel almost too relaxed going into it, but I really don't know what else I can do to prepare. I've studied, I've reviewed old case studies and clinical scenarios...I feel like I've missed something except I can't be asked to care.

Oh well. I guess it's better than going into full panic mode like I've done for the past 2 years.