Home for the holidays!

So, to be mean, the university decided to throw two weeks of lectures at us right before Christmas vacation. How rude! These past couple of weeks have been difficult, all anyone wants to do right now is go home for break and forget about school for a bit. Especially after the last exam! Myself along with quite a bit of other students did not do as well as we had thought. The average on this exam was low. Oh well, just gotta get back up and do better on the next exam. You see, these exams are all called MODULES, which factor into one final exam grade. As long as all of these exams add to give a passing grade, you are fine. The next exam is worth 40% of the total grade, so it will bring up the grade quite a bit if you do well. Hopefully it won't be as difficult as the last exam. This exam will be composed of more interesting things such as the urinary system, cardiopulmonary system, endocrinology (which is very interesting to me) and neuroanatomy (hopefully won't be too difficult).

I am working on Endocrinology right now and making notes for the exam in April. I know, a bit early, but I figured that I might as well get a head start and know the information sooner rather than later.

So there is a small closet in my room that houses the water tank and whenever someone uses the water, it sounds like I have a running waterfall in my room (think of it as a built-in ambiance waterfall sound effect). Well, apparently there was a leak and repairmen had to come out and fix the tank. However, in order to get to it, they had to cut the wall open. So now the waterfall noise is amplified 5 times what it was! Rather than a small gurgling stream, it now sounds like the Niagra Falls are in my room! nice for ambiance noise, but distracting when you are trying to study! Well, looking forward to coming home for Christmas. Apparently I will be missing the British Airways strike by a few days. Good thing for that! If I would have scheduled my ticket for during the strike time, I would not have been able to come home for Christmas! Thank god for that! Well, I should be on my way and continue studying. Hope everyone is doing well and I can't wait to see you all! Look out Egg Nog, Sushi, Yardhouse and Corned Beef, here I come!!! (In case your wondering, those things do not exist here. Well, I stand corrected, sushi and corned beef do exist here but the sushi is horrible here and the corned beef only comes in a can, no fresh stuff).

A day at the exotic animal shelter...

So, after two weeks off from classes, we started Endocrinology yesterday and will be going over a lot of other areas of the animal body in the coming months. Exams are over and now we have a lot of new material and a lot of animal handling practicals. Yesterday we had a clinical skills practical in which we learned about performing a physical exam on a dog. We had "Copper" as our patient and he was a border collie that was a tad bit nervous. Ok, physical exam stuff was very easy, I pretty much knew everything Dr. Hudson was talking about but at least I got to play with a dog! Today we had classes and then at 2.30 we had to go to the exotic shelter. We were split up into two separate groups (one group with small mammals and one group with reptiles). We had reptiles first and was glad at that because apparently there is a higher chance of being bitten by the snakes after handling the small mammals. So, we got to play with reptiles for about an hour. A corn snake was the first reptile we got to play with. It was a really nice snake that had a cool copper color to the scales. One person in our group was absolutely petrified of snakes and she had the look like she had seen a ghost when it first came out. In the end, she touched it for a second, but ran back to her seat and had to take deep breaths. I felt bad, she had a serious phobia of reptiles (herpetophobia to be exact). The next reptile to come out was a tortoise, then a large fat-tailed gecko and finally a bearded dragon (which was really cool). We then rotated to the small mammals and got to play with a rabbit, hamster, chinchilla (I had never seen one before and it was really cool looking), a rat and a guinea pig. We had to demonstrate basic restraint of each. Was very simple and we will be tested on restraint techniques in April. Have an early day tomorrow and get out around 1pm. Will be going to a Christmas party around 7pm and then off to a movie with Kristen before she heads back home for Christmas on Thursday. I am looking forward to coming home soon and the nicer weather as well! Hope everyone is doing well and can't wait to see you all!

Finished with exams!!!

So, I finished the last exam yesterday. Yesterday was the short-answer portion of the exam and was somewhat easy to me. I sat down and looked at the questions and knew the answer to each question fairly well. There were a couple that stumped me like explaining what bacterial LPS was, I put down a little information on it and then some other info as filler to make my answer sound better. All in all, I was happy with the essays and short answers but the multiple choice portion was a little more difficult. Should find out grades before I come home in a couple of weeks. Lectures start Monday again. I went to the Christmas market today to take some pictures so everyone can see them, I have not uploaded them to my computer yet from the camera, I will get to that eventually. Also went walking around city centre today in search of some Christmas shops to do some Christmas shopping. I also made three loaves of banana bread today that turned out amazing! Made one loaf for the landlord, one for Kristen and her flatmates and then one for me! I am meeting Kristen tomorrow afternoon and we are going to a pub called "Sheep Heid Pub" that is supposedly Edinburgh's oldest pub. Mary Queen of Scots apparently stopped at this pub quite often and Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott apparently went to this pub as well and wrote a lot of literature there. Anyway, should be fun. Also going to the Christmas market again this weekend and will get some mulled wine and fresh German bratwurst. Well, am going to stop writing and make some phone calls and eat this yummy apple sitting in front of me...

First two days of exams OVER! One more day left!

So, yesterday was the 60 multiple choice question computer-based exam. I'm not sure how I did, I don't think I did horrible, but I don't think I did great. There was a lot of histological questions and we had only one lecture on histology and a lot of the images used no one had ever seen in any of the lectures. Was quite frustrating on that part. The parasitology questions were somewhat easy and there was also a lot of immunology questions which weren't too bad. Today was the essay portion of the exam and was two hours long. We had 7 questions to choose from and only had to write up 4 of our choice. I felt very comfortable with the questions I chose and with the answers I had written. I was the second person done with a half-hour to spare. Tomorrow is the short answer portion and hopefully won't be too difficult. I am going to watch a couple of movies right now and relax and then do some revision later tonight. I am so tired of revising! I'm hoping I retain all of this wonderful information because I am going to use it every day in practice, right? I mean, come on, don't you guys talk to clients about the delayed/immediate pathways of neutrophil migration every day? Well, hope everyone is having a great week and I look forward to coming home and seeing everyone soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I hope everyone is having a great Turkey Day! I just got in from my Thanksgiving dinner and am so full! There were two huge turkeys, lots of stuffing, and way too much food for 20 people. I met up with Kristen at 5.30 down at Princes Street Gardens for the lighting ceremony of all the Christmas lights but the lights were already partially turned on. Apparently they weren't doing a big ceremony this year like last year. There is a huge German market there with fresh German meats and drinks. We are going back next week so should be a lot of fun. There is an outdoor ice skating arena and a lot of rides for kids. Just as we were leaving, they had the lighting of the Christmas tree where they light the tree and have a fireworks display. Was pretty awesome! Well, off I go to study Virology. I have until Tuesday to cram everything. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Still Alive! Studying For Exams Now...

Well, it has been a long time since I last posted. I have been really busy preparing for next week's exams. We have an entire week of revision where I will basically be sitting in my room studying from morning 'til night. Ah yes, the grand life of a vet student, studying AM to PM... For some reason, I am finding that I do not stress over examinations like I used to in undergrad. I think because I was trying so hard to achieve the proper grades to get into veterinary school, and now that I am, there is less stress because I am finally here. It has been very cold and rainy over the past few weeks. I did not leave the house once today. Was very rainy and I needed to study. I still have so much to go over. I have finished Immunology, Inflammation and almost done with Parasitology. After that, all I need to do is study Bacteriology, Virology and some practical pictures for the spot exam. Then, once I finish all of that, I start all over again and go over Immunology.....you get the idea. Kristen will be taking me to a play on Saturday, the Peter Pan play to be exact. Should be fun. I'm going to need a break after all of this studying. I also have a Thanksgiving dinner planned for Thursday with a bunch of other Americans. I can't wait to eat some turkey!!! Actually, let me rephrase: I can't wait to eat some turkey skin!!! I am supposed to make candied sweet potatoes, but I may just bring a bottle of wine and be simple. Not sure if I can put together enough sweet potatoes for 20 people. A couple bottles of wine may work better. Not long before I come back home! I am getting very excited to see everyone and will be back for 3 weeks. I plan on eating a lot of sushi when I am back!! I have been deprived for almost 6 months now :(

Well, need to wake up slightly earlier tomorrow and get an early start on studying. Hopefully tomorrow won't be such rubbish weather! I do feel a sore throat coming on...hopefully it's nothing. I hope everyone is doing well and I can't wait to see everyone again!

By the way, thank you to everyone at AHS for the birthday card, I don't think I ever said thank you. I was definitely not expecting a card to be sent. Thank you for the Thanksgiving card Tanya! I will be sure to eat a lot of turkey on Thursday for sure!

Waverly Station Freeze

So, I spoke with a few people that did the freeze at Waverly station (I was too tired and went home, did not feel like walking 45 minutes to the station in the cold right after class). Apparently there were ~400 people frozen in place!!! It's already on YouTube. For those of you who can't view it on YouTube, just type in "Waverly Station Freeze" or "Big Freeze Edinburgh Waverly Station". There is a video that films the entire 5 minutes of the freeze. Pretty good! Some people were obviously not very good because their eyes kept wandering around when the camera came by, but there were a lot of them that were completely still!

Remember Remember, the Fifth of November...

So tonight is Guy Fawkes Night. If you don't know what that is then read below:

Guy Fawkes Night is an annual celebration on the evening of 5 November. It marks the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy the Houses of Parliament, in London, United Kingdom.

In the United Kingdom, celebrations take place in towns and villages across the country in the form of both private and civic events. They involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires on which traditionally "guys" are burnt, although this practice is not always observed in modern times.[citation needed] These "guys" are traditionally effigies of Guy Fawkes, the most famous of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators. Although the night is celebrated in York (Fawkes' hometown) some there do not burn his effigy, most notably those from his old school. In the past, before the fifth, children traditionally used the "guys" to request a "penny for the guy" in order to raise funds with which to buy fireworks. However, this practice has diminished greatly, perhaps because it has been seen as begging, and also because children are not allowed to buy fireworks. In addition there are concerns that children might misuse the money.

So right now, there are some fireworks going off and all of the grocery stores were selling them. Next year I am going to buy some fireworks and shoot them off because I haven't had my own fireworks in a long time. However, the last time I did light my own fireworks, a large mortar shell exploded about 3 feet from where I was standing. I turned around and started running at the last minute. The mortar was supposed to shoot out, but instead, it slithered its way out of the pipe that was over my shoulder and landed right in front of me. So there you have it, Guy Fawkes Night. The movie V For Vendetta was about this event but with a comic book twist. Apparently there are going to be 170+ students going to the train station tomorrow and are going to do a 5 minute freeze where everyone basically stops moving at whatever position they are in and holds that for 5 minutes starting at 6.30pm. I'm tempted to go (not participate) and just take a video of it. I think it would be hilarious to see that many people freeze. A large group of people in Grand Central station did this a while back. Here is the YouTube video of it:

Halloween (the great Edinburgh pumpkin search)...

So, Thursday was the veterinary school Halloween party. Myself and three other guys in class decided to go as Men In Black since it was the cheapest thing to buy a costume for. We all had suits already and just needed black glasses. So we set out after class in search of black sunglasses and found a shop that had loads of costumes. There was a top gun costume that was just great (Maverick all the way!) but then I saw the price of the costume and was about $90, which is crazy! I found the sunglasses, however, when I made my way towards the register to pay for them I stumbled across a chinese straw hat. The first thing that came to my mind was a Chinese rice paddy worker. I thought to myself that it would be quite the unique costume and that I would probably be the only one in the UK dressed as a rice paddy worker. I thought it would be fun. So I put the glasses back, picked up the chinese hat along with a chinaman mustache. This was going to be a legendary costume! After I made my purchase at the costume store, I then needed to head to a chinese market where I could buy a chinese rice bowl and some chopsticks. Barb (asian girl from class) volunteered to take me to this chinese supermarket. I found the perfect bowl and chopsticks for my costume. Once I had everything for the Chinese rice paddy worker costume, I made my way home and got ready for the party. I quickly cooked some sticky rice to put in my bowl. I wore an old torn T shirt and tan shorts along with my leather sandals. I walked to Eddie's flat in the rain in sandals (was not very comfortable). Apparently my costume was quite the hit at the party as I caused many heads to turn when I walked in. The first thing that happened when I walked through the doors was get a picture with two asian couples from the program. They walked up to me and wanted a photo with me so bad because I was a Chinaman. I was laughing, was very funny. I then preceded to mingle and have a good time looking at everyone else's costumes. Here are a few photos from the party (granted, there are more, but I need to get them from everyone).

So, the weekend approached and Kristen and I had planned a pumpkin-carving night over a glass of wine with her flat mates. So, when I got to Kristen's, we set out in search of our pumpkins. We were planning on going across the street where there had been many pumpkins on display near the street. Apparently everyone goes last-minute pumpkin shopping because there was ONE pumpkin left (but was damaged and was being sold for 1 pound). We left it there and said we would get it on the way back if we could not find any. So, we then checked 6 or 7 more places...yep, you guessed it, completely sold out of pumpkins. So, we decided to go back and get our 1 pound pumpkin and guess what? Someone had taken it!! Can you believe that? The nerve! We went to Pizza Hut and ordered a pizza and watched some movies back at the flat. We then dressed up in our costumes so that we could all see what we were going to wear to the party that we were going to go to but decided not to. So here are some pictures of me as the Chinese rice paddy worker. Hope everyone is doing well and can't wait to see you all VERY soon!

A Great Birthday and Great Weekend!

So all of last week the lectures consisted of Parasitology and inflammation. The lectures were interesting the Parasitology lectures made me very itchy reading about ticks/louse/fleas... I have yet to work on my essay that is due in a few weeks, but will probably finish it tomorrow just so that I can have it completed. I have been working on organizing the material to study for Exam 2 in December and it is approaching closer and closer. This exam may be a little more difficult than the last. We shall see though... This past weekend was GREAT! Had an awesome birthday with friends from class. On Thursday (day of my birthday) Emily from class had about 20 people over for a dinner party, which consisted of homemade Italian food. It was very yummy! Stuffed peppers with Mozzarella cheese and some other ingredients. VERY good indeed! Did not make any random trips this weekend but will next weekend. Went out for a couple of hours yesterday with friends to celebrate my birthday as well as Chad's. I tried a Vodka Martini for the first time (thought I would be like James Bond while I am here) and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Don't think I would make it something I get whenever I go out though. I think once is enough for that. I will stick with my Scottish Ales. Today was a day of wanderlust through Edinburgh. Kristen and I decided to go out and wander around the city. Went to St. James shopping center and found a new clothing store that is AWESOME! I will be going back tomorrow because there are MANY shirts that are going on clearance this weekend and I am determined to be there to grab the good shirts. I picked out two new shirts (with the help of Kristen) and they are now in my top 5 favorite shirt list. After that, we looked at some Christmas things and had lunch and coffee. We then walked around the city and found this really pretty lake that was full of swans, ducks and seagulls. There were probably around 20 swans and dozens of ducks and seagulls. There was one swan that was not in the water but was very friendly (or just hungry) and kept walking at me trying to get into my clothes bag thinking that there was food in it. I thought it was quite amusing. There was a bridge that went across the water that was very slippery too. My shoes kept slipping on the wet wood of the bridge as I was walking across it. On the way back home we found some really neat shops that sell gourmet Italian food and one that sold organic stuff. The organic shop even had giant bags of oatmeal on the floor with big scoops in them. It was really neat. I picked out some sliced parma ham (my favorite new meat) and some fresh butter from France. Weather today wasn't bad, a bit rubbish but in spurts. Rainy this morning then cleared up this afternoon, but then began to sprinkle a bit on the way home. All in all, a great weekend so far. Oh, and there was also the brightest rainbow I have ever seen, watch the video below. Oh, and also, the tree outside my room window has changed into the classic Autumn colors. It smells so good out right now. Smells of wet leaves, you know, that distinct smell of Autumn! I love it! Hope everyone is doing well and can't wait to see you all at Christmas time!

Has It Really Been 1 Week Since My Last Post?

Wow, I hadn't realized that it was 1 week ago since my last post. Tanya reminded me to update the post via a Skype message. So, since my last post, here is what has happened:

On Saturday, I took Kristen for a random trip to Stirling. We got to the train station and decided it would be fun to pick a random place to travel to. We are going to try and do this every weekend (when I am not busy of course). It definitely was fun. We went to Stirling Castle, which was closed because it was already 3.30pm when we got there. Most castles close at 3 or 4pm. We then went to an Italian restaurant and then took the train back home. Immunology lectures were this entire week and we just now started the lecture series on Parasitology. Right now, the professor has been talking about all the different types of ticks and giving us the genus and family name of each tick. Luckily, we don't have to learn all of the genus/family tick names. That would be an absolute nightmare! Ever since the last exam, I have found it difficult to sit down and study. My brain was so tired since the last exam that it just needed a break for a bit. I am now back in the study mode and am working on putting practice questions together for the next exam already. I have done all the research for my essay paper that is due in a few weeks. Hopefully I will finish that this weekend. Today was quite laid back. I decided not to go to the first lecture (I find it pointless anyway). The first lecture was on pigs and the biosecurity measures taken at the pig farms, all of which are in our notes and the presentation is available online. The lady lectures off of exactly what is on the powerpoint presentation. I went to the next two lectures and the last lecture was cancelled because the professor was going to the hospital I think. I just finished watching an episode of Dexter, a tv show that has me absolutely addicted to it.

I have also decided to leave Brownie back in AZ rather than transporting him to the UK. I think that it is a wise decision. On top of costing nearly $1400 to get him here, it would be very hard on him health-wise. He is already 12yrs and in four years, he would be 16yrs making the flight back to AZ difficult (more difficult than at the age of 12yrs). So, as much as I would like to have him here, I would feel less stressed if he just stayed back home. At least I know he is being taken care of back home and I don't have to worry about rushing home to feed him, etc.

Tomorrow is Friday, woohoo! I am meeting with a bunch of people from class to discuss the ski trip to Austria. There are a bunch of people that want to go, so should be a great time. Saturday, Kristen and I are heading to Cramond and are having a picnic on the beach, so should be fun. Apparently there is a causeway that you can walk along to an island but need to leave the island before 2pm. If you don't you'll be stuck on the island for about 8 hours when the tide comes in. Will take pictures and post them this weekend. Hope everyone is doing well!

Nice Day Out, Too Bad I Am Sick...

Well, apparently I have developed a cold that I got from one of the 20 people that have been coughing in class. I was paranoid when I first heard people coughing one day and knew that I was going to get sick. I could just picture little germ particles floating through the air! My immune system is going to have to learn what antigens are here now, the ones from back home are not here so it does not recognize the new ones. Ugghhh! I have been coughing for the last few days now and have been getting a headache because of coughing so hard. It was a beautiful day out today and I went to class and came home to plop myself on my bed for a nap. Examination results are finally in as well! I looked at my grade and saw that I had scored a 74.4
Now, you may be thinking that that is a C, but their system is not like the United States' system. Anything 70 and above is considered a distinction. So I got a distinction and the average for the class was a 64. Now I have the new material to begin studying, Immunology, Parasitology, Milk Production, etc. I think this next exam will be the most difficult because there is so much material to cover. I started fencing on Monday evening. I attended the intermediate session since I had missed the beginner sessions. I was in the classroom at the gym and the coach came in and started to run us in laps around the gym. He then preceded to incorporate fencing foot moves with the running, which, basically meant that I was watching him do it first and then, in my best attempt, try to replicate what he had just done. I did quite well and after the footwork we got to pick up swords and stab each other. Woohoo! I learned what a parry was and a couple different types. Learning all of the parries is going to be difficult. Fencing in general seems like it is a tough sport because you are always thinking. You have to think VERY fast in order to block your opponents strikes or how you are going to break your opponents parry and strike him. I missed today's session because I was sick and did not feel up to it. Next one is on Sunday at 11am. Should be fun! Well, off I go to do some Immunology review! Hope everyone is doing well!

This Weekend Was Great!

So, was a great weekend. After a week long of immunology lectures, I was ready for a break! I have yet to study the lecture notes, but eventually will make myself. The weather was beautiful this weekend and it rained only today for a span of about 15 minutes. I had a craving for Panda Express chow mein, so I researched the recipe online and found one that had pretty good reviews. I walked to the store to get the ingredients and it began to rain on me (lasted for about 2 minutes total). That's Scotland for you though, it's sunny one minute and the next it rains! I purchased my ingredients and on the way back home from the store I saw this big tan cat in the distance. The cat jumped over the wall and down into the ditch. I took a picture of it because it was a gorgeous looking cat and was huge too! The tail was enormous as well! Very long and fluffy. I am unsure as to what type of breed it was. So, it was down in the ditch because some people had scared it. I called it (even though I couldn't see where it was) and all of a sudden the cat jumped up on the wall right in front of my face (about 6 inches from my face to be exact) and scared the bejesus out of me! Apparently my grilled chicken breast that I had in my had was of particular interest to this cat... It was honestly the friendliest cat I have ever met. Was throwing it's body into me, purring, rolling around. I pet it for about 10 minutes after I took some good videos. Hopefully someone that reads this post can identify the breed, I would like to know. I'm not the greatest with cat breeds. On the way home, the wind started picking up and it got so windy at one point that my right foot was blown into my left leg as I was taking a step and I almost tripped! Yeah, very windy indeed! Visiting with that cat earlier made me realize how much I miss having a pet around. I miss Brownie and being able to just pet him or play with him whenever I want to. Will be back soon though, can't wait! Hope everyone is doing well. Going to go watch Dexter (TV show) and go to bed slightly early.

Oral Examination = Success!

So, my oral examination was today at 10:30am. I showed up at 9am because I did not know what time to be there exactly and I could not access the timetable online for some reason. I knew that the bulletin board at the university had the times. I did absolutely no studying yesterday and this morning. I felt that I knew most of everything that we would be tested on. So, the way that the oral examination was set up was that there would be 5 professors in the dissection room. 5 students were scheduled at a time and were required to speak with the professor for 10 minutes about a certain aspect of the body. I waited in the library until it was my time. There were several other people in there frantically studying and they kept wondering what the exam was going to be like and speculating how the questions would be asked. As they were doing this, they were getting more and more stressed out. I attempted to study some last minute pictures of internal anatomy but couldn't bring myself to really study them for the umpteenth time! So I sat and read some news articles on my iPhone to kill time.

10.30am rolled around and I made my way towards the dissection lab. The professor I was assigned to was Dr. Neil Hudson and I was VERY happy that it was him. I met him in San Francisco at the reception for the university a while back. I walked over to him and he had a full canine skeleton in front of him with various forelimb/hindlimb bones. It looked like it was going to be pretty straight forward. So, he began by describing that this will be the format of many of the examinations and that the exams are not designed to make you nervous, etc. I wasn't a bit nervous and was actually excited (yeah, I know, weird) to take the oral examination. It's fun finding out how much you actually know. I was asked many questions about the various regions of the canine skeleton, directional terms, difference between feline/canine skeleton, etc. Oh, and of course, I was asked my favorite question. Describe the stifle joint and also, describe what happens when a dog tears the cranial cruciate ligament. Very easy! I'm pretty sure I did very well on that examination. The only mistake I made was that I said the bottom of the hindpaw was the palmar aspect, but I quickly corrected myself and changed it to plantar. Dr. Hudson just laughed and said it is common to get them mixed up and that he knew what I meant. Now, to wait for the grades to roll in. I am going to relax BIG TIME this weekend. New classes start Monday, I haven't actually looked at the new schedule yet. Well, off I go to relax some more. I have a feeling I won't get too many chance to relax anymore. Hope everyone is doing well!

Exam #1 (part 2): Over!

So, today was the written exam that was held at the main university (not the one I have been attending classes at). I had no idea where this place was, thankfully I had my handy dandy iPhone for that matter. I turned on my GPS and weaved my way through random streets until I found the main building. It was really funny when the elevator doors opened to where all the students were because almost every single person in the room was frantically sifting through page after page of notes in a last ditch effort to get some cramming in. I showed up in clothes and brought my pen and pencil and that was it. I find it pointless to cram at the last minute (literally). I was done studying days ago! Well, I have been revising to make sure it stays in my head. We were split into 2 groups and when we entered the room the desks were covered with packets (was really quite scary at first!). I sat down and filled out my attendance form. I began the test and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My favorite question was on the exam and it was a question that wanted you to explain the anatomy of the stifle joint and sacroiliac joint. Ok, very easy. That was an essay question and thankfully, for that matter! Another essay question was to explain the different epithelium of the body and give examples of where each can be found. That was somewhat easy, I illustrated a lot of examples to make it that much better :)

The toughest question on the exam was "What is a G-protein linked receptor.....", I don't really remember the rest of the question. I should have just put down "a receptor that is linked to a G-protein", that would have been easy! Regardless, it was cell biology and I had refused to revise the cell biology material that was available on top of everything else we had to know. It was pointless because I knew there would be only one question. SOOOO, there was a big blank spot below that question! I had no problems passing that question up. Besides, I knew most of the questions on the written and felt that the exam from yesterday wasn't horrible either. Tomorrow, hopefully, will not be difficult and all three will average out just fine. Tomorrow is when I have to talk about a certain part of the body for 10 minutes with one of the professors. Maybe it will be about the stifle joint? That would be great! Better yet, the contents of the abdominal cavity/thoracic cavity, which would be super easy as well. As long as I don't get a question about the origin and insertion of the various muscles, I will be happy. Well, I am finding it very difficult to study right now. My brain is fried from all of this studying and on top of that, I haven't been able to go out at all this last week. I have been cooped up in my bedroom for the last 8 days studying with the occasional outing for food. I guess I should attempt to revise over anatomy pictures and look at the origin and insertion of muscles. Wish me luck!

Exam #1 (part 1): Over!

Ok, so I've been slacking on the posts, but hey, I've been very studious for the past 6 days in preparation for my first big exam. Today was the first part of our examination. It was anatomy in the dissected specimens. I was a little nervous before entering the room but still confident with the amount of knowledge my sponge-like brain had absorbed over the past 6 days and of course the last 5 weeks as well. When we got into the room, there were two sections with 15 tables each. We chose whatever table we wanted to start at, so I chose the skull (seemed easy enough to start with). Of course when you start with something easy, it makes you feel that much more confident going into the next question. I had to label the structures on the skull and I did that with no problem. The next station, was of the canine mouth and I had to identify which tooth was the carnassial and why it is a problematic tooth when extracting (easy!). The next was a question about the stifle joint (my specialty!), and I was asked to label all of the ligaments and structures around the joint. This was also a tricky question because you had to figure out which side was lateral and medial just by looking at a cranial/caudal drawing of the stifle joint. So you had to know that the fibula was on the lateral portion because of the lateral malleolus. After that question there was a wet specimen of the thorax and abdomen with structures to be identified. Then there was a picture of a histological slide of tissue and we had to identify what type of cells and epithelium were labeled. There were some questions on facial muscles and salivary glands. The questions that were the most difficult of the practical were the embryology questions. There was a picture of an embryo with the structures and early kidney structures that we had to label. I remembered the names for the most part, but identifying them was another story. I probably scored half of the marks on that question and the next embryology question was about the early heart, which was somewhat easy until you got to the part where it asked "What do the aortic arches function to do in the fish?". In the fish? Honestly? God forbid if non of us pass this exam because we did not know what the aortic arches did in the fish! Almost everyone I know had trouble on the embryology questions.

What was really amusing during the exam was the alarm that sounded to notify us that we needed to move on to the next station. We had 5 minutes at each station and at the end of those 5 minutes, this alarm sounded and it sounded like a military alarm or something that warned us of an atomic bomb or something. Quite amusing. There were a couple of stations set up that when you arrived at them, you had a free 5 minutes to rethink over some questions (which I felt to be quite helpful). So, now I am home and preparing to study for the next part of the examination, the short question/essay portion. Should be fun! I hope there is a question on torn cranial cruciate ligaments! Hope everyone is doing well and I will post tomorrow regarding part 2 of the exam.

Anatomy Revision: Almost Done, Now, On To Deal With Embryology...

Well, I have been studying nonstop this entire week and still have 5 more days off before exams begin. I finished studying the GI tract and urogenital system last night, which was very easy. The university opened up the dissection lab today and will tomorrow as well so students can practice anatomy prior to the examination. I went for a few hours today and it helped quite a bit. I studied everything last night from the book and was able to locate everything in lab today. A lot of people were complaining that there were no labels on any of the specimens. I just told them that they should be able to identify things by now without labels and reference to the book. However, there are students who just now started studying this week. That's crazy! I have been studying for the past 5 weeks doing anatomy, etc. Wednesday is the official anatomy exam that takes place in the dissection room, Thursday is the written exam and Friday is the oral examination where a professor asks you questions regarding a certain part of the specimen in the dissection lab. I am hoping I do well, this embryology and cell biology stuff is stressing me out. I never thought we would have to go over cell biology again, at least not for a while. Oh well, I guess some things just continue to come back and haunt us every now and then.

I am also very excited. After the exams are over, I will be joining a fencing club. On the 28th, there is an evening meeting at some gym. Weapon kits and uniforms are provided and I will be learning the basics on fencing. I am very excited! I'm sure I will have some good stories to go along with this new activity of mine. Hope everyone is doing well! Back to the anatomy book I go! Cheers!

Canine Practical and Now Examination Time...

So yesterday the class had the last practical. The practical was live anatomy of the dog for a couple of hours. It was an animal shelter that was right across the street from the beach with amazing views of the ocean. We were assigned this black labrador puppy that was absolutely cute! Unfortunately, it was a Labrador PUPPY! So a moving target is what we were dealing with and constantly dodging licks to the face. I must say though, after about 5 min I was bored, 5 years of working with dogs gave me PLENTY of experience. However, I'm sure there were people that did not have as much practical experience as I have. I did a basic overview of the bones and lymph nodes, etc. Did some restraint to try and control the puppy and she was not enjoying the fact that I was making her stay still. We finished the live anatomy and went back home after that. Now I have an entire week off to enjoy (errr, most likely won't enjoy...)....and study hard. We have exams in 2 weeks and they are spaced over 3 days. One day is for the anatomy exam where we must identify structures in the dissected specimen. The second day is for the written exam portion where we have to answer 10 or so questions. The third day is the written essay portion. Hopefully it won't be too difficult, I still have quite a bit to review and haven't even touched embryology yet. I'm saving embryology for last. Well, better be off to study, hope everyone is doing well!

Horse Practical

So today was our horse practical. We had our Embryology lecture this morning and after, we headed to the Easter Bush Equine Center to learn how to handle horses. I tell ya, I sure like horses more than the cattle. The horses behave themselves much more than the cattle did. The horse that we had today was very good for everything we did, however, the giant clump of hay hanging in the corner was a GREAT distraction. We had to learn how to put a halter on, walk and trot the horse around outside (mine wouldn't budge a whole lot so I gave it a light whip with the end of the rope and almost went for a ride!), learned to lift the front and hind legs and how to apply a leg bandage. Was very basic and easy stuff. I will be tested on it in April, so no need to worry about anything for now. We finished an hour early so we went to the student room and played air hockey for a while, until the bus arrived. I have Embryology this entire week and then I have all next week off so I can study for my exams. Am looking forward to exams... Well, on to studying I go. Need to do some revision on the bones, muscles, nerves, etc. Hope everyone is doing well!

Cattle Restraint

So today was our cattle practical. Was nice today, no classes and only a practical at 2pm. We arrived at Langhill Farm a tad late because the bus was stuck in traffic. Once we arrived, we walked to the teaching shed and met Wilson and the other instructor there. The first bit was a talk about putting a halter on. This was quite easy. We had to put on a pre-made halter and then make a halter out of a piece of rope and put it on. Next, we then had to learn how to restrain the head. You basically reach your arm over the cow's nose and grab the lower jaw (similar to a head lock, would call it a nose lock?...). This was actually fun, there were a couple of times where the cow thrashed about and I was tugged around a bit. As long as you stay with the movement of the head, you maintain complete control. They were in crush cages, so that definitely made it much easier since they were unable to backup and move around. After the head restraint, we then had to learn how to put a mouth gag in. This was by far the most difficult portion of the practical. You basically have a metal mouth gag and have to reach in the mouth and slide it over the top and lower molars. It took about 3-4 times before I could actually get it secure. The hard part was that you also had to restrain the head at the same time with no help.

Once that was over, we then had to learn how to raise the hindlimb and suspend it using a pulley system. After that, we learned how to put a restraint rope over the entire length of the cow. This type of restraint is used predominantly when there are no proper facilities to restrain the cows and they are out in the open. Once these ropes are in place, you basically pull on them really hard from behind and someone in the front pulls the halter rope to the side. This forces the cow to lay down. Those were very easy to put on. Like I said, the only challenging part was the mouth gag. Well, I should get going so that I can study some. Hope everyone is doing well!

A Day With Babe, or Shall I Say Babes?

Well, today was our groups turn to take the bus to Oatridge. It is north of Edinburgh city. About 45 minutes by bus to be precise. We had our two lectures this morning and had about a two hour break. I studied at the main library for about 1.5 hours and headed back to the school. We got on the bus to Oatridge and 45 min later arrived. We had to sit through a lecture for 40 min regarding pigs. Once that was over, we all got on our waterproofs and split into two groups. One group to vaccinate piglets and one to weigh pigs. I was in the group to weigh pigs. This was quite interesting now. I was placed in charge of the scale and the rest of the group had to use a pig board and chase each individual pig into the scale. The scale was a cage and if the pig was over 90kg, I got to spray the back with red paint. A lot of the pigs would not budge into the scale, so I did a lot of slapping pig butts/backs and pushing with my knee. So, once we were finished with weighing the pigs, I was given the lovely job of going down the very narrow walkway where all of the pigs had collected and chasing them back to where they came from. I thank god that I was wearing steel toe capped wellies because I was stepped on about 6 or 7 times. The pigs, they squeal, A LOT! It was jolly good fun though.

Once we were finished with weighing the pigs, we then switched and got to vaccinate piglets. Now, remember, this is the first time I have ever had experience with pigs. The way that they pick piglets up is from the hind leg. You basically grab the proximal region of the hind leg (thought I'd throw some terminology in there) and swing each piglet up into your arms. There was an oral vaccination and also an intramuscular injection. The IM injection is injected about 1cm behind the ear. They do not give IM vaccinations in the hind end because this is where the cuts of meat are taken from. The last thing you want is an abscess in your store-purchased meat from an IM injection. So one of the girls in the group had the syringe gun and needle and had stabbed the girl that was holding the pig on accident! Silly vet students, when will they learn how to properly give injections? Do I have to show them everything? Hahaha!

Once we were finished with the vaccinations, we hosed ourselves off and it began to rain, A LOT! We got back on the bus to the city centre and I was so hungry I ordered chinese at this place off the main road. Now, this gets interesting. I picked out what I wanted to order on the menu, which happened to be the "Cantonese Chow Mein Special". I go inside the restaurant and ask for an order to go. So I tell the chinese lady what I want to order, "could I order the Cantonese Chow Mein Special please?". So, this is what her reply was (I kid you not!) "Cat meat? No! We have no cat meat here!". This lady seriously thought I said cat meat? Come one! I was laughing quite hard when she said that, hope she did not feel I was making fun of her. Anyway, I joined Blockbuster as well, was quite easy. Next is to go check out Costco (I wonder how different their products will be from the USA?). Well, off I go to continue studying. I must study all of the origin and insertion points for muscles and revise what I have already gone over. This is a long process! I am actually still enjoying it though. Except for the boring lecture on Farm Economics. Hope everyone is doing well! Talk to you soon!

Ice Skating, Quite Possibly The Worst Skates I Have EVER Worn...

Went Ice Skating yesterday with a big group from class. Was very random as well. I had just finished class and there were a bunch of students out in the front of the school. They asked if I wanted to go (I was just heading to the library to study, so this sounded a little more appealing). So, I decided to go and take a break from studying for once. It was about a 20 min bus ride out of the city centre. When we got there, we paid for the admission and put our skates on. These skates were the most uncomfortable skates I have every worn. There were no mens hockey skates, only the classic figure skates. My ankles hurt so much after the first hour. Two hours later, it was unbearable. My knees, ankles and heels hurt so bad. We called it quits after 2 hours. It was a lot of fun though, I even took a video on my iPhone but it ended up being way too nauseating for people to watch. Well, off I go to study. I am doing the facial muscles and nerves tonight, woohoo! Really need to work on the nerves and muscles for the Head and Vertebral Column, oh, and ligaments as well. Yikes, already approaching week #4 and I get to go to Langhill farm tomorrow to learn about Farm Economics. For some reason, I have a feeling that this is going to be a boring lecture. Bring on the Anatomy, what's with this Economical stuff? It's not like the Economy is important or anything...Actually, it is good that they are doing this because I have learned so much about how things are done here versus in the US.

I also have some advice for people looking to go to veterinary school or experience that you all can pass on to people that you know are interested. Get as much experience as you can! I cannot tell you how much it has helped me during school and how far ahead I am already. Thanks to all of Bill's nifty stifle drawings on towels in exam rooms, I have perfected my stifle drawings (but on paper, not towels). I know this is just the beginning introductory material and that it will get much more difficult later, but the experience over the last 5 years has helped tremendously! Well, I should be going now, my anatomy book awaits me!

Military Tattoo: Amazing!

Wow, I guess I have been slacking on new posts. Well, with the amount of Anatomy that I have been studying, it is quite hard to post every single day (plus, what is there to write about every day other than the fact that I am studying Anatomy?). The weekend has approached and I am very thankful for that. Gives me time to study up what we have discussed over the past week in lecture. We finished the forelimb and hindlimb lectures and have moved on to the axial skeleton. The head has got to be one of the most difficult areas to study because of all the facial nerves, etc. Needless to say, I will be studying that the most this weekend.

I finally purchased a Macbook Pro and an iPhone (best purchase I have ever made!), oh, and also a wireless printer. I also purchased my dissection kit and a few Anatomy/Physiology books. Also, currently living in a box on top of my TV is my new dog. I rented a box of canine bones for 20 pounds. So, I am not sure how many of you know, but there is an event going on right now called The Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle. Basically, Edinburgh invites certain countries every year to participate in this event. So Ashley (girl from class) had two free tickets that she acquired when she was back in Pennsylvania from this guy who goes to the event every year. Unfortunately for him (fortunately for us) he was unable to go this year and he gave the two tickets to Ashley. So Ashley and I went to the 10:30pm Tattoo last night and it was absolutely amazing. For every new group that came out, there was a new theme projected onto the main castle. So for the Samoans, the castle turned into a jungle and for the RAF, the castle turned into a sky with fighter jets in the foreground. There were these drummers called "Top Secret Drummers" that were from Switzerland. These guys that were playing were absolutely phenomenal! I also felt like I was in China, there was a group from China that performed some type of festival that they do in China every year to stimulate a good harvest year. Check the videos below. Well, I need to study straight away. I hope everyone is doing well!

I'm Getting A New Dog Tomorrow!

Well, tomorrow I will be getting a new dog! I haven't decided a name yet and don't know what type of dog it is going to be. The dog even comes with a shoebox to store it in! Yep, I'm getting a couple of shoe boxes full of dog bones to study some good 'ol anatomy. Today was the hind limb, was fairly simple since I have been staring at hind limbs in surgery for so long. Anatomy was a piece of cake for the hind limb this morning. I actually new quite a bit of musculature already as well (semimembranosus, semitendonosus, superficial gluteal, middle gluteal, biceps femorus) thanks Bill! I am taking a break from anatomy right now, need about a half hour or so and will go back to it. Don't have to be at class until 10am tomorrow! Get to sleep an extra hour and then we are finished at 1pm, just in time to run home and study some more (or hang out in the dissection lab).

Today, I went over to the Georges Square Library that is part of The University of Edinburgh. You have to have a student ID to get in. It was the nicest library I have EVER been in! There were these small glass gates that opened when you swiped the student card through. Once I was through, there was this massive lobby and then 6 floors of books above. The study areas are massive! There are tables just about everywhere and it is nice and QUIET, which is very important. I am still waiting for the bank to clear the loan check and I am getting quite frustrated with this wait time. I deposited it on Thursday and it still has not cleared. I was hoping that it would clear a little early like back home. It takes 4 days to clear a check and they count the day you deposit it as Day 0. So I deposited it on Thursday, Friday was day 1, Saturday and Sunday do not count, tomorrow will be day 4. So I am HOPING that it clears by tomorrow. I have so much I need to buy for school yet (books, printer, computer, binders, etc.).

The weather was nice today with a few minutes of rain and then the sun was out quite a bit. I was studying a little bit ago and I happened to glance up at my bedroom window. Situated at the top of the window frame was this black dot (about 15mm in size). So I walked over to it to see what it was. As I got closer, I knew that it was a snail shell. It was stuck to the frame when I went to go pull it off. I guess snails purposely stick themselves to things when it is dry out and create a thin membrane of mucous that dries up. Then, when it rains, it moistens that mucous up and they know they can start crawling again (at least that is my theory). I put it on my desk and he crawled quite the distance before I picked him up and placed him outside the window (yes, I was bored at the time and needed a break from studying). Anyway, I should be going so I can study some more. Hope everyone is well!

Neoplastic Growth (Is This Redundant?).

So, I was talking with my Histology professor after she had discussed a little bit about the different types of cells, etc. We were shown a slide of a cancerous region on a tissue sample and she began talking about different terms used. Neoplasia is a term commonly used to refer to cancerous growth. However, I just learned that I had been using this term incorrectly over the past couple of years. Neoplasia essentially means "new growth", so when someone writes in a chart as a possible diagnosis for a growth "Neoplastic growth", technically they are being redundant. It is like saying "new growth growth". So it would be better to just say "neoplasm"? Hmm, interesting learning about all of these terms. Anyway, I went to the theatre yesterday and saw "The Ugly Truth". Yeah, I know, chick flick. Oh, and what tops this whole movie experience off is that I went with about 9 girls. The movie was actually quite funny. I had sushi today at a place in the city center. Was DEFINITELY not as good as the sushi back in AZ. It will do for now though. I am really looking forward to good sushi when I come back for Christmas though. I will probably study as much anatomy as I can tonight and some Histology as well. Will be going to dinner at the college dorms tonight with some friends. They have really good food and it is free! Woohoo! Well, technically you have to live there, but I just say I am a vet student and they let me in. Will hopefully have my loan check cleared by Tuesday or Wednesday and I can buy my Macbook Pro laptop and an iPhone. I did some research last night on the different iPhone apps for vet school and there are quite a bit. We start the lecture on cattle tomorrow and will be heading out to Langhill Farm this week to discuss farm economics and learn handling of cows. As long as the cow does not decide to kick me, I will be happy. I also found a new sport that is absolute madness! It is called Hurling and it is an Irish sport. There are several Irish students in our class and they were at a place today watching the semi-finals of Hurling. It is like a cross between Lacrosse, Baseball, Soccer, and even some Golf! It is the fastest field sport in the world next to Ice Hockey. It is one of the fastest, most intense sports I have watched. Well, heading to dinner shortly, so better get going so I can study a little and eat. Hope everyone is doing well!

MANY New Words to Learn

Histology introduction started today, thanks for the book Lisa, it is definitely coming in handy. Today was just the basics, so learning about the different tissue types, epithelial cell types, etc. I think I need to start bringing head phones to the dissection room though, there was this group of students and this one girl had the most obnoxious laugh. Needless to say, it definitely was not the ideal conditions for studying anatomy unfortunately. Once they left, it was much better. It is amazing how much more you retain when you enjoy something. I ran over the forelimb muscles once or twice and had them all memorized. The cool thing is, it is not just memorized, I know them. It is quite fun analyzing why a muscle is named the way it is. If you know your Latin, then you can pretty much figure out what the different names mean. Words like Extensor Carpi Radialis and Flexor Carpi Ulnaris make sense, however, words such as Facies Serrata and Teres Tuberosity are a little more difficult to analyze. It would be nice to have my own dissected specimen so that I could study from it all of the time rather than waiting for the school to put the samples out for us to study from. Oh, and once I get my Anatomy books, that will help quite a bit as well.

Weather was absolutely rubbish today and is still raining as I type. I will be running in the morning with a friend and then will be studying the rest of the day. Will probably be studying all this weekend, and I actually don't mind it. Hope everyone is doing well!

Word of the Day: Facies Serrata

So started basic Anatomy today. Was fairly easy. We are starting with the forelimb and working our way around the appendicular skeleton first. The axial will begin next week I believe. We start Histology tomorrow, so should be quite fun. It was funny watching all of the students today. Many of them have no knowledge and no experience and are already freaking out about the exam that is in 6 weeks. I have a feeling that I will be locking myself in the dissection room until late at night for quite some time. I am slowly working my way to the muscle aspect of anatomy. There is quite a bit to know, but as time goes on and more lectures pass, I am sure I will learn it all. I wish I had my bobcat skeleton with me here so that I could study from it. I do have PLENTY of radiographs that I copied onto disks, so those are also helpful. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Enough With the Introductory Stuff Already, When Do I Start Dissecting?

Today we all got on a bus to the Easter Bush campus and had official tours of the facilities. I had an official tour a couple weeks back and I actually was able to see more on that tour than this one. The doctor that toured us around was one of the people that were in San Francisco at the reception. So it was nice to know the tour guide. We then had lunch with quite a bit of the staff and I had a great talk with one of the doctors. We then went back downstairs to finish up with a lecture on the history of the Dick Vet. Quite interesting, and funny to watch all of the other students dozing off during the presentation. After that, Rachel, Erica and I walked up the Royal Mile and then down to the Fringe tent. We bought tickets for the Janeane Garofalo show at 20:30, so that should be fun. I get out early tomorrow, so I will have the rest of the day to study! Woohoo! Need to review some Biochemistry stuff. Oh, and I will probably buy my books tomorrow. I figured that since we will be starting anatomy this week, I will probably need to have my own anatomy book. Hope everyone is enjoying the scorching heat, I am having a great time in the lovely Scottish weather of 65 degrees and sunny. I will try and send some of this beautiful weather back home!

A Visit With Becky. Official Matriculation. New Friends...

So, I spent the afternoon with Becky, Nick and their son John yesterday. They arrived at the house and I showed them around a bit. For a minute there, I thought Becky was going to drop everything and move into the house because she enjoyed it so much. It is a very nice house. We headed past the Summerhall veterinary building and then walked through the Meadows. From the Meadows, we headed up the Royal Mile towards the castle. It was the first time I had been to the castle in 2 years. I haven't gone to it since I have been here this year. It is always a pleasure to see and walk around inside of the castle and look at the views of the city. Once we were finished at the castle, we headed to Deacon Brodie's Tavern. He is the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The story was based on him. However, the story over-exaggerated a bit. Deacon Brodie was a politician during the day and a thief by night. I really didn't get how a politician and a thief were any different...

I had lamb and potatoes, which was excellent. Nick, John and I had a pint of Belhaven's Best ale. After that, we headed back to the house and we said our goodbyes. They should have gone to the Argyll Forest today, don't know if they got lost though. Today was the day that I became an official student of the University of Edinburgh. Everyone met at Summerhall and we had to go through all of the introductory stuff such as fire safety, crime prevention, etc. We then all met up in the main hall for coffee/tea and cookies. There were a HUGE number of Americans there (California mostly, Massachusettes, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Arizona (2 including me), and Texas). The ratio of guys to women is pretty low. I think there are only about 6 guys in the class for now. I met several girls that I had originally met in San Francisco at the University of Edinburgh reception. It was nice because we all recognized each other. I am meeting Rachel, Ashley and Shannon at The Crags pub tonight. Apparently there are going to be a number of students there. So I will take the advantage of going out and meeting more students. Later this week, the four of us are going to do the underground tour of the old city. Should be fun. I also signed for my loan money today, woohoo! In a few days I will be rich! I also learned of a program that is amazing. It is a program called IBR, read what exactly it is below:

Income-Based Repayment
Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is a new payment option for federal student loans. It can help borrowers keep their loan payments affordable with payment caps based on their income and family size. For most eligible borrowers, IBR loan payments will be less than 10 percent of their income - and even smaller for borrowers with low earnings. IBR will also forgive remaining debt, if any, after 25 years of qualifying payments.

What about interest? In some situations, your reduced payment under IBR may not cover the interest on your loans. If so, the government will pay that interest on your Subsidized Stafford Loans for your first three years in IBR. After three years and for other loan types, the interest will be added to the total amount you owe. While your debt may grow if your affordable payments are low enough, anything you still owe after 25 years of qualifying payments will be forgiven.


Yes, that is right, FORGIVEN. This is predominantly for Veterinarians, MD's and other medical professions where the student loans are massive. Sonia told me about it today and I was all excited about it. Well, we head out to the Easter Bush Veterinary Centre tomorrow for the official tour (even though I already had one) and then finish early (around noon). I think I will go see a comedy show tomorrow at The Fringe festival. Oh, one more thing. There is a show at The Meadows right now called "The Lady Boys of Bangkok". It is a pretty big show and lots of people go see them. So I was talking with someone yesterday and they were telling me that it is a bunch of transexual males from Thailand that do the show and that this is very normal in Thailand. Apparently there is a large transexual population in Thailand. Who would've thought? Well I hope everyone is doing well back home and enjoy the rest of your week. I will keep the posts coming. I start Anatomy this week and will be back at Langhill Farm next week. I guess I will be showing the other students how to milk the cows since I have already did that for a week.

Scotland 2009-2013

The Fringe Festival

Just got back home from the Fringe Festival. It is the world's largest art festival. There was quite the variety of people doing performances there today. The festival is held all over the city in different venues, but on the Royal Mile, there are stages and performers giving previews of their shows. They attract quite the crowd, that's for sure. I came across a sign that was posted for the City of the Dead Graveyard Tour. Apparently, this tour has the only access to the Covenanters Prison, lair of the world famous Mackenzie Poltergeist. Apparently, this ghost is responsible for hundreds of 'attacks' on the tour and is now the best documented supernatural case in history. I wonder if the ghost enjoys 'messing' with tourists? I am thinking of doing this eventually, not sure when though.

So a few years ago, I saw a special on TV about this lady from South America that had hundreds of facial piercings. Not that you can recognize the face, but I am pretty sure the same lady was at the Fringe Festival on the street. I also saw a famous actor (which I was not expecting). A few years back, I met him while on vacation in Puerta Vallarta at the resort we stayed at. There was a huge celebrity event and there were hundreds of celebrities there. Anyway, the man who I was only inches from today was Alan Cumming. You'll have to Google search some pictures, a lot of people don't know who he is. Anyway, I took the one picture of him, he had 3 other people with him and they were stopping at different places outside and doing mini photo shoots or something. I have never been handed so many pieces of paper before either! Every few steps I took, there was a person handing me a piece of paper with their show information. I picked up the Fringe Festival book that gives all of the show dates and times, so I will now have to research which shows I want to see. There are quite a bit of comedy shows and Janeane Garofalo is here as well doing shows.

There were a bunch of signs in the mall today as part of the festival that were really funny. I photographed most of them. Well, Monday is the official 'start' date for school. I will be registering myself and getting my student ID card on that day. Most of this next week is going to be introductory stuff. There will be a tour of the veterinary centre, a day on teaching students how to use the computer system at the university, etc. I think I will also be back at Langhill Farm in a couple of weeks. It is nice that I have already spent a week at the farm because I will not be as clueless about milking as a lot of the other students will be. Hope everyone's weekend is going well!

The Fringe Festival 2009

Approaching My Last Day at Langhill Dairy Farm

Well, these past 4 days have been quite the experience. Today we vaccinated all of the 2 month old calves with Blue Tongue vaccination. It has become compulsory in Scotland to give this vaccination since it's introduction about a year ago. We had to round up all of the calves today (which is not easy) and trap them in a run. I am sure glad I had steel-capped boots on because I was stepped on a few times by the 200kg calves! Frasier, Jackie and I were in this small area vaccinating these calves and spraying them with paint to mark which ones had been done. In 2 weeks, they will give a second administration of the Blue Tongue vaccination and the paint makes it easy to identify which ones have had an injection already. Unfortunately, if it rains, the paint wears off and they will have to go by the ear tag identification. Nothing much was done today except for milking the cows at 3pm. Other than that, I worked on filling forms out for the school and did some miscellaneous work here and there. The thing I look forward to most at the end of each day has been a nice hot shower! I took a video today of the cows being herded across the road. Frasier is in the field with the "horse" (a quad) getting them to move faster. It really is amazing when the farmer calls out to the cows and they all come running because they know it is time to eat. I was out in the field with the calves today because we were looking for the 3 missing calves that needed to be vaccinated. Jackie called out to the calves while I was standing in the middle of the field and it was like a stampede! All of a sudden I turn around and there is this group of 20 calves running at me towards Jackie. Well, tomorrow is my last day and I begin my official first day at Summerhall on Monday. On Monday I will matriculate and get my student ID card, etc. Hope everyone is doing well!

A Day in the Life of Dairy Cows, and Four More to Go...

Well, today was my official start day at Langhill Farm. I woke up at 6:30am this morning (ouch, first time I have had to wake up before 9am since I arrived in Edinburgh). I caught the bus to Langhill Farm, well, actually had to stop at Bristol Roundabout and walk about 1/2 mile down the road to the farm entrance. When I arrived, I was greeted by the farm manager Lawrence, who was very nice. I met Wilson and Steven and some other guy. This other guy's Scottish accent was very thick and he mumbled a lot, so when he did introduce himself, I did not understand one word that came out his mouth.

Unfortunately, right now there is no calving going on. Langhill's breeding season does not start until September, so all I will be doing is dealing with milking the cows. The cows are milked once in the morning and once in the evening. The AM milking takes place at 6am, so I miss that one. This means there is nothing to do in the meantime. There was a girl at the farm as well getting experience. She is a native and is 16 yrs old and is getting experience for when she applies. Apparently she took an exam to apply for vet school here and she says that you really have only one chance to take it and if you score poorly, you need to think about another career. That's unfortunate! Hopefully she will do good on that test.

Since there was not a whole lot to do before the milking (at 3pm), we were driven around to all of the different fields that Langhill has, which essentially the University of Edinburgh owns. Once we were finished with the driving tours, we were taken back to the farm where Kate and I had to do dirty work. We cleaned the milking parlour, which was very dirty with cow feces. Oh well, gotta start somewhere, right? So after about an hour of scrubbing the milking equipment, Steven, Kate and I went out to the field to gather the cows and herd them into the milking parlour. This was very amusing, as we had to halt traffic in order to herd the cows to the parlour. About 10 min is the time frame it took to gather all 240 cows. I was at one end of the road halting traffic, I felt like a construction worker stopping traffic for construction equipment, except I was doing it for 240 cows! It was amazing, the cows are very good and easy to herd. There was a guy on a quad herding the cows towards the street as well.

Once all cows were herded from the main field on onto the farm, we had to get them to the milk parlour. That job was for Mr. Quad. Kate and I went out into another field, where about 10 cows were lying down. Our job was to get these cows with the main herd into the milk parlour. Kate had one that was lying down, and took quite an effort to get her to budge. Clapping loud and yelling seems to get them to move faster. Once they were in the milking parlour, they were fed and then transferred into the milking station. This is where it got VERY dirty.

So the guy with no name (hopefully I will find out tomorrow) told us to get our wet suits on. That right there let me know that this was going to get very dirty. So we changed into the wet gear and walked into the milking station. We entered this pit, about 4 feet below the cows. There were 28 stations, 14 on each side where 14 cows were milked at a time. The first load came in and the guy showed us how to attach the milking clusters, which seemed pretty easy. After watching several, I went ahead and began attaching the clusters to the utters of the cows. It was tricky at first because you have to make sure you don't let the vacuum leak, if you do, the cluster will just fall off. However, when you get all four clusters attached to the utter, it is pretty impressive how fast the milk flows through the line. These clusters automatically release when the milk yield begins to decline, which signals that the cow is finished milking. The cows are automatically being fed while the milking goes on. After the cluster releases automatically, you then have to spray the teats with an iodine solution to prevent infection.

Oh, and they are identified with these collars they wear around their necks. That way, if one has mastitis, it will let you know on the machine. The ones that have mastitis, you have to soak the cluster in a special solution for 10 minutes after the milking has been done on that particular one. So, through this whole process, I felt like Mike Rowe on "Dirty Jobs". When you are down in this pit, you are completely vulnerable to feces and urine from the cows splashing on the ground and onto you. Very nerve-racking at first. It especially becomes nerve-racking when you are attaching the cluster and you are right below the primary landing zone! I did get splashed on quite a bit, but oh well, part of the job. You definitely can't avoid it! Hopefully I won't get a full stream on top of my head, that would just be terrific now, wouldn't it? Milking took about 2 hours. The guy with no name, was EXTREMELY impressive with his memory and how he could identify almost every cow just by the markings. Each cow is branded with a number on the rear end, he knew just about every cow as the were walking in. I was impressed! Anyway, he had been to Scottsdale before and we chatted a bit about Rawhide and the jeep tours that he went on and stuff. He was quite funny at times as well.

Before I end this, I also forgot to mention a cow that I helped with today. She had been lame on her L hind leg and ended up having an infected horn on that L leg. Steven trimmed back the horn until he hit the pocket of purulent discharge to relieve the pressure. I gave a subcutaneous injection of Excenel right in the rib region. I tented the skin and went to insert the needle into the tissue. Yeah, I have done many subcutaneous injections in dogs and cats, but never cows. I had to exert so much pressure to get the needle to puncture the skin, it was amazing! Well, need to head off to bed now so I can get some sleep and prepare myself for day 2! I was unable to get some good pictures, something about a $800 camera and cow urine/feces just didn't sound good together...I took a few with my cell phone, but not much. I may have more cell phone pictures tomorrow, we'll see. Hope everyone is doing well and I miss you all!

Langhill Dairy Farm

A Successful Transition

Well, I successfully moved into the new flat yesterday. I was getting ready to walk over to the new flat with all of my luggage, which was about a block away. Daphne, the landlord, phoned Silvia and asked when she should be by to pick me up. Daphne has been so great ever since I arrived in Edinburgh and has helped with so many things. I went to the farmer's market yesterday and it was not as big as I was expecting. There were a lot of stands that were selling fresh buffalo and angus burgers. There was a small cheese stand that sold fresh cheese from a farm North of Edinburgh. I tried this wine called "Elderberry Wine" and it was extremely good, so I purchased a bottle for £5. It's still closed and I have no idea when I will open it, I'm not a huge wine enthusiast. There is a Jazz & Blues festival going on right now. I went to go see what it was all about yesterday evening and they had packed it all up. Apparently it only lasts until 7pm, and I was there around 8pm. They are having a Mardi Gras festival this afternoon and then a free jazz concert at Princes Street Gardens. I will probably go and check those out. I start my placement at the dairy farm tomorrow, should be interesting. I have a huge packet to fill out while I am there, so I will be quite busy with paperwork. Well, off to the festival! Hope everyone is doing well!

Scotland 2009-2013

Farmer's Market

So nothing major has gone on the past couple of days. I think I have done so much city wandering, that I have seen all of the interesting sites and have left myself with nothing more to see! Unless I start taking the train to different places, which is the plan. I move into my official housing accommodation that I will be in until December. I will move in tomorrow around 4pm. Before I move though, I am going to go to a farmer's market that is just below the castle. I was reading up on it and there are quite a bit of vendors that sell fresh cheese, meat, fruit, drinks, etc. So am interested in seeing what there is going to be at the market. Have also been studying some basic Biology stuff and cell structure. FUN! Just when I thought I was finished with that stuff...Hope everyone is doing well and I will post some pictures of the market tomorrow.

North Berwick by Train

I was going to head to Stirling today, but then Josef (flatmate) recommended that I go to a small town called North Berwick. He said there was not much to do there, but the scenery is great. So, I walked to the train station and purchased a round trip ticket to North Berwick. Total time to get there was about 25 minutes. The train system is so nice here, very easy to figure out what train to get onto and the time tables are very accurate. It said that the train would depart at 12:37pm, when the train officially left it was 12:37:05pm. Wow, I was impressed, 5 seconds after it was scheduled to leave! They do need to fix that though, a late departure is unacceptable...

When I arrived in North Berwick, I was presented by a small town with a view of the Firth of Forth (body of water). I immediately began walking towards "The Law", a big mountain that is about a 45 minute walk from the train station. Something about the name "The Law" reminded me of that movie "Judge Dredd" with Sylvester Stallone in the early 90's.





The hike to the summit was very nice and not too difficult. The only difficulty was that the grass was wet in some areas, which made it slippery at times. Once I reached the summit, I was greeted by this large whale jawbone. Apparently the original one was ruined so they had to replace it with a fiberglass model. Was still pretty neat looking though. Off in the distance you could see Bass Rock, home to the largest colony of Gannets in Europe. It was absolutely amazing, it looked like a white rock on top, but when I zoomed in on the rock with my lens, I could faintly make out birds flying all around the top. There must have been hundreds of thousands of Gannets on that rock. While I was up there, these flying ants kept attacking me and landing on my camera, backpack, shirt, pants, shoes, etc. Needless to say, I was up there for only 10 minutes.

I then found this walkway that weaved through the forest alongside a stream. Was very nice and quiet to enjoy a nice walk. I then found the beach and there were some pretty cool shells that I found. There were thousands of them, all over. Oh, and the tide must come VERY close to the mainland because about 100 yards from where the water was, the sand was still wet and there were tide pools everywhere! Amazing to think that the tide comes in THAT much! I walked to the top of a ridge and took some nice photos of the beach. I had just a tiny bit of trouble finding the train station from where I was, but this guy confirmed that I was indeed heading in the right direction. I guess I have a natural GPS coordinator built inside my head. Who says you need a TomTom? Heading down to Hewat's tomorrow. It is a store that carries all of the veterinary school supplies for clothing. I will need to buy steel-toed boots, lab coat, waterproof clothing (it doesn't rain here, does it? Do I really need waterproof clothing?), etc. Well, best be going now. Hope everyone is doing well back home and not enjoying that HOT and HUMID weather with the monsoons. I do miss taking pictures of lightning though. It seems like there is never lightning here, just rain. I never hear thunder either. I guess because the air is not as dry, the electricity does not build up in the air as much as it does in the desert. Anyway, talk with you all later and enjoy all of the pictures I took!

North Berwick

Edinburgh Zoo

So I woke up this morning and my hip still hurt from walking so much yesterday. So I did it, I decided to take the city bus to the zoo. It was great weather today with light misting here and there. The zoo was pretty large and there were quite a bit of animals to see. It took me about 3.5 hours to get around and see everything. I enjoyed the wolves the best, now I want one for a pet. They truly are amazing animals. I will be taking the train to Stirling tomorrow, I think. I will decide in the morning if I want to or not. I was offered a placement at the Veterinary School's dairy farm and I start on Monday. The placement lasts 1 week (5 days) and I work a regular shift 7 or 8 hours a day. I then have to write up a report on the experience and fill this packet of information out and turn it in. Hey, it's my official first assignment for veterinary school. Hopefully it will be nice weather so that I am not working in mud all day, but I guess I need to get used to it sometime...

Edinburgh Zoo 2009

City Wanderlust...

I was going to cut my hair today, but found out that my 115v input trimmers would probably fry if I plugged them into the power outlet here. I can just see it now, I would finish the right side of my head and just as I would go to start the left side, the trimmers would die. That would be a funky hairstyle! Seeing that I needed new hair trimmers, I knew that there was a Wal Mart nearby, or so I thought...

The Wal Mart here is called ASDA. I searched the location on google and took my handy city map with me to help navigate myself. I walked about 6 or 7 miles to the ASDA and along the way, found this cool graveyard. Almost all of the stones were knocked over though. I wonder if, over time, the stones become weak and just fall or do people kick the stones and try to knock them over? I see this a lot in the graveyards here. Anyway, I found the trimmers at ASDA and got stuck for an hour just wandering around the store seeing what they had for sale. It's still taking time getting used to seeing the weird groceries available here such as Haggis and black pudding. I walked back home and just as I was reaching the "10 minutes away from home" mark, I got this shooting pain in my left hip. I guess that's what 12 miles of walking non-stop will do to you! So I stopped into the nearest pub and bought a pint and relaxed for about 45 min. I met "Neil", really nice lad. Had some good conversation about what to do in the city. Once I was finished, I walked the rest of the way home, made some hot tea, and took two Advil. I am feeling MUCH better now! I added some more photos to the album, so check 'em out. Not too many though, I didn't have a camera trigger-happy finger today.

Scotland 2009-2013

Highland Games 2009

Well, just got back from the games and it was absolutely awesome! It was a huge event with thousands of people from all over the world attending. I found a great spot that was right on the field, so great for pictures. One of the competitors was from the US and was really good. I had no idea that Prince Charles was opening the Highland Games, so that was pretty neat. The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay (Prince Charles and his wife) came over to where I was standing and was talking with everyone, was pretty neat. There were a ton of piping groups that would walk through the field while the games were going on and would play the bag pipes for about 15 min. Tossing the Caber was by far the best competition. You basically pay £10 to watch a bunch of guys throw heavy objects into the air. It is definitely something you have to experience when you come here and visit. It really makes it feel like you are experiencing the medieval era. All that was missing was me wearing a kilt. Who knows, one of these days I may convince myself to purchase one and wear it. That's a little down the road though.

Highland Games 2009 Edinburgh

Absolutely Soaking Wet Today...

Well, I stayed at home today for most of the morning and wrote some emails regarding EMS work. I received an email from the Veterinary Centre's farm manager, he has an opening on the farm starting on the 3rd of August, so I will probably take that into consideration. After the email writing, I went into town and went to the local mall. As I was walking back home, I was caught in this torrential downpour of rain. I was not amused by this at all, as I was wearing my leather jacket and was carrying a newspaper. Needless to say, I ended up using the newspaper as an umbrella and within a matter of seconds I realized that the effort to utilize the newspaper as an umbrella, was sadly failing. I stopped in a random store to wait out the rain. It is actually pretty funny watching what everyone does when it rains. Everyone dives into the nearest store (never purchases anything in that particular store) and then leaves as soon as it is over. At one point, I walked past a portion of the street and this parked Mercedes was surrounded by 4 inch water. I bet that person had fun trying to get in their car without getting wet...Heading off to the Highland Games tomorrow, should be a blast. I will have lots of pictures.

Beautiful Weather Today

Well, woke up this morning thinking that it would be raining and was surprised to find that the sun was out. I walked down to Princes Street Park today and lounged out on the grass writing articles and reading a book. Was a nice relaxing day. The sun was out and the temperature was around 70 degrees. Around 4pm the clouds began to move in and it started to rain. Went in the National Museum of Scotland and saw some really interesting paintings. The nice thing about the museums over here is that they are free to see. The staircases at the museum were sort of creepy because there were all of these plaster heads lining the wall. I did manage to make it up Arthur's Seat yesterday with Josef. I didn't realize that he had been running and cycling his entire life before I agreed to go running with him. Surprisingly, I managed to keep up with him and actually was ahead of him on a lot of the uphill portions.

On another note, I was walking home from the store today and I walked past this old church that had purple doors. I stopped and read the sign in front of it and it was a light store! Imagine that, they put a light store inside of a REALLY old church! Weird if you ask me. Well, better be going now, hope everyone is doing well!