Great relaxing weekend, now new lectures this week and then OSLO!!!

Well, the weekend has come and gone and seems like it did not last very long at all. Was a nice relaxing weekend but rainy and cold. Saturday I woke up and it was raining and continued throughout the day. The sun is actually beginning to stay out a bit longer (4.30ish), which is nice. I can't wait for when the sun is out until 10pm. I feel so much more awake when the sun is out longer. Had Kristen over for a nice gourmet chinese meal. I found a Chinese cookbook for 5 pounds at Blackwells (book store). I made Beef and Broccoli stir fry for the main and then made Sticky Rice with Mangos for dessert. Both of which turned out excellent! I actually had left-overs for tonight's dinner. Gotta love cooking large meals (left-overs for the remainder of the week!). Went to ASDA (Wal-Mart) and picked out a new set of bedding, which is very nice and was on sale (gotta love sales). I also picked out a new robe to lounge around in.

Started new material this week. Cardiopulmonary stuff started today and it was very interesting. I remember learning this material in Animal Physiology in my undergrad, so it has helped a bit (at least what I could remember). Usually, it was learnt for the exam and then leaked out of my head somehow to make room for the newer material. Well, I am currently working on Neurology and am almost finished putting together my study material for the exam at Easter. I am trying to get ahead this time and will also start on the paper that is due in March. Just want to have everything done so I don't have to worry about it. Well, I must get back to studying. Hope everyone is doing well!

Oh, and good news too. Brownie has been doing much better according to my mum. Nose is improving and tears are beginning to flow back in the nasolacrimal duct (woohoo!). Seems like he had a bit of an infection going on, so thanks for starting him on Simplicef Brian! Not sure if you will read this, but if not, someone tell him I said thank you!

Weekend approaches!

After a week of neuroanatomy and neuroscience, I am ready for a break! I feel I have SOOOOO much to learn yet and still need to come up with a good way of remembering all of this neurology stuff. Loan check cleared today, woohoo! I bought some new shoes that I was in desperate need of and also some new loose leaf tea that is delicious. Not much new has happened since the last post except for classes. Nothing too exciting. I did, however, find this great little chinese supermarket that has EVERYTHING that I need to start cooking my chinese dinners. I was shocked at how much they had in such a tiny store! The lady that works there always seems to be a bit disgruntled though. I also got some new casual gloves today, which I needed. I only had skiing gloves, which are a bit bulky for casually wearing around town. Only one more week until Oslo, Norway!!! It will be snowing the entire time we are there according to the weather forecast. I am in no way upset about that because that means there will be fresh powder to ski on! Temperature will only drop down to about zero degrees F. Not too cold either... :)
I hope everyone has had a great week and Tina, I contacted the horse ranch you told me about and they said they would be more than happy to have me there for two weeks. So now I will be able to complete 2 weeks back home. Now I need to find a small mammal place and work there for 1 week. I am going to try and get in touch with a rabbit rescue or something of that nature. If anyone knows of any small mammal practices or rescue centers, let me know. I need to work at a place for 1 week as a requirement for the program. Well, talk to you all in the next post!

Last bag received!!!! FINALLY!!

So, I was at the grocery store today and I received a phone call from the courier saying that he would be at the flat between 6 and 9. I cooked Sukiyaki and Tempura vegetables from scratch (yes, I know, very impressive that I can cook). Trust me, it was good too. My bag finally came and I finally finished unpacking my things. This is going to be a short post because I am tired, but I basically wanted to put some pictures up from yesterday when I was in South Queensferry. So, here you go, enjoy them:

One bag down, one to go!!!

So this weekend was perhaps one of the best weekends I've had since I've been here. First, I found a small tea shop that sells all kind of loose teas that are delicious. This tea shop also makes fresh scones and aerves them with double Devon cream and strawberry preserves. Kristen and I went for brunch on Saturday and it was very busy but worth the 15 min wait for a table. I purchased a caddy of popcorn tea (green tea and toasted rice). It is called popcorn tea because apparently during the toasting process of the rice, some of the rice grains pop and end up looking like small pieces of popcorn. It is such a good tea. I may buy some other types this week. I also found a steeping pot which makes me very happy because I can now make my tea that I like so much.

After the brunch, I had it on the agenda that I would purchase some new shirts (since my baggage still hadn't arrived). So I went to H&M and there was an awesome sale where shirts were £5 and sweaters were £10. I got a few shirts and a sweater and am going to make British Airways reimburse me for them since it is their fault I was in need of clothes. Later on in the day, I received a call on my phone that was an unknown number and I immediately thought it was the courier with my bags. Well, I had been right and it was the courier calling to make sure I would be home. So I confirmed the address and when he arrived, there was only one bag! However, the bag that he arrived with was the bag that held all of my clothes, so there weren't many complaints from me in that aspect... The second bag continues to be traced but it will probably turn up in the next couple of days. At least I have all of my clothes now. I put all of my shirts in my closet last night and wow, do I have a lot of shirts. I never realized how many I had. Well, I did also come back with 5 new shirts, but still, I now have an entire closet that is full.

Yesterday I went to South Queensferry with Kristen and walked around the small town for a couple of hours and took some great pictures of the Forth Bridge. I will post some pictures when I am home. I am currently in the library typing this on my iPhone. We ate at this small restaurant that had the best nachos I have ever had in my life! They were more like gourmet nachos. I also had a mocha that was very good. The restaurant was right on the water and was beautiful. Afterwards, we waited at the trainstation and went home. Currently, I am in the library working on neuroanatomy. I have to purchase the neuro book today and start Reading that. I think neuro is going to be the hardest but most interesting. Well, I better get back to studying, hope everyone had a great weekend!

Going to Oslo, Norway!!!

Well, the original plan was to fly to Austria and go skiing, however, because of my student status and limited funds I am being much more cautious with my loan money. Austria was going to cost about $200 and was going to be more expensive for everything else overall. So, 6 of us got together today after class and decided upon Oslo, Norway. It is only about $90 to fly in and then for everything else (car rental, accommodation, equipment rentals, etc.) it will be about $50 per person for each. We are going to be skiing at Hafjell for 2 days and will be leaving on the 28th January. It looks like it is going to be a lot of fun and there is a good amount of snow at Hafjell. There is a lot to do at Hafjell, including Bobsledding, dogsledding, snowmobiling, etc. You can even choose to steer the dog sleds! How amazing would that be? I think I may attempt that... Well, I am heading down to deposit my loan check today and will most likely go buy a few shirts and pairs of jeans because I am still not with my luggage. It still says that they are tracing my bags on the website tracking service. Hopefully I will hear something positive by this weekend or the beginning of next week. I am hoping that they will reimburse me for my new purchases since it is their fault. Well, I better get going, hope everyone is having a great end of the week! Enjoy the weekend!!!

Still awaiting luggage to arrive...

Well, it has been 5 days without my luggage and I am growing more and more frustrated with British Airways. I called today and apparently my luggage claim was not even in the computer. So the guy on the phone sent out a dispatch for my luggage tag numbers and hopefully I will be getting the luggage by next week. After 1 week, I can then fill out an expense form so that I am reimbursed for any lost luggage. Oh well, things happen for a reason... It has been snowing all day and this morning it was a mix of rain and snow, very cruddy to walk 30 min to class in... Hopefully the snow will have subsided by the time I start walking to dinner tonight. Am going to a farewell party for Max (who was in the program but decided that this is not what he wants to do). Will be having Italian food tonight, so should be good. Will be contacting the horse ranch that you told me about Tina. My buddy Brian is going to see if he can come out to AZ and spend a week at the horse ranch as well, I think it will be a great experience. Well, off I must go so that I can get some more emails sent out and work on finding a job at a lambing farm. Hope everyone is doing well!

Home at last and new course material...

So, after 40+ hours of travel to get back to Edinburgh, I am finally settled into my new flat. I got in at 9pm on Saturday. Now, what any normal person would do after 40+ hours of travel would be to go straight to bed. However, I am not your average person, I immediately went into the garage and hauled all of my things that had been stored in there for the past month and brought them up to my room. I began unpacking everything and getting my room organized. I felt that I had WAY too much energy to even attempt to go to bed, so I took 3 Melatonin tablets and went to bed about 20 min later. On Sunday morning, I woke up around 9am with the alarm and could barely move I was so tired. I think the no sleep and the Melatonin tablets caught up with me by Sunday morning. I could barely open my eyes. I finally woke up at 1pm but could have easily slept longer, however, I felt that I needed to take what was left of Sunday and do some shopping for groceries. Class started yesterday and we began the nervous system. Now I have to learn the 12 facial nerves for the exam, woohoo! By the way, does anyone know a good acronym to remember the 12 nerves? I'm sure I can come up with one on my own, but was just wondering...

Today, we had three classes and then were finished at noon. I went to the St. James shopping center and purchased myself a new beanie since the weather is so gosh darn cold here. Unfortunately, this new beanie, gives me MAJOR beanie hair... I also purchased a small set of portable speakers for my iPhone so that I can listen to music. It plays VERY well and I can now plug my ambient music in and listen to that while I study. Currently, I am listening to a thunderstorm in a tropical forest (how relaxing...). The nice thing about these speakers is that they are portable. You plug it in and it charges (also charges the iPhone) and then you can unplug it and take it into the kitchen while you cook (which is what I did). Well, I am still awaiting the return of my luggage and hopefully it will be in the next few days. I called British Airways and they have an automated message before you talk to anyone that says something like, "Due to the high volume of cancelled flights, there are a large amount of passengers without their baggage. We are working hard to reunited our passengers with their baggage hopefully within the next few days. Please do not call and ask for a tracking number to track the baggage, as this cannot be done....blah, blah, blah!" So, there was more, but it becomes redundant after a while. I am really hoping that the luggage comes this week, otherwise I will be quite upset. I signed over the loan checks this afternoon, so I am officially a wealthy student again! Yay! Kristen has exams this week up until Wednesday, so I have still not seen her because she really wants to focus on studying. Well, I better return to my wonderful Neuroanatomy lecture notes. Hope everyone is doing well!

Finally, en route to Edinburgh!

Well, after hanging out in Birmingham, England for three hours, I am finally on my way to the final destination. I found a massive Asian supermarket while here. There was a massive shopping mall and this outdoor rug/food Market where the people working were yelling out to customers the entire time. It kind of sounded as if I was in an auction listening to the bidders place their bets. I went to this Irish pub an hour before the train was supposed to leave and got a pint of beer and this massive plate of roast beef, potatoes and veggies for about £4. Anyway, I better be on my way, need some sleep. Talk to you all later!

-Dan

Correction: Taking a BUS to Edinburgh, NOT the train (oops!)

So, I went downstairs a bit ago to see where I need to be for the "train" and realized that I had purchased a ticket for a coach. Hence the reason it takes 12 hours. Well, I look at it this way, I get to see the England countryside covered with snow. I think this will actually be fun. There is a two hour stop in Birmingham, so I think I may walk around a bit to see what there is to do. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Ciao (for now)!

I feel like Tom Hanks in the movie "The Terminal"

Well, this trip back to Edinburgh has been a bumpy one, that's for sure. First, my flight that was originally scheduled for 9pm departure from Phoenix was delayed until 2am. This also meant that my connecting flight from London to Edinburgh was cancelled. I called British airways and they rescheduled the flight for 8am London time. This meant that I would have to wait 13 hours for my flight. Well, no problem, I slept on the plane the entire way here, which made it feel like the flight was only about two hours long (I need to do that from now on). I had also taken a few Melatonin (which are GREAT!). The flight to London was extremely bumpy and at one point I thought the oxygen masks were going to fall down! Good thing I don't have a fear of flying because I would have been sweating bullets!!! Well, the plane landed and we had to sit on the ground for about 30 min. I went through immigration and settled myself in upstairs waiting for my flight that was going to be at 8am. About an hour later from sitting down, I received an email on my phone saying that my flight was cancelled yet again! So I called British Airways and just told them that I would take a train to Edinburgh. They are going to refund my plane ticket from London to Edinburgh. Now I have to wait 7 hours until the baggage claim area is open and 9 hours for my train (which will take 12 hours). Well, better make myself comfortable, it's going to be a long night... Will let you all know when I am finally in Edinburgh.