Snow/Sleet = NO FUN...

This past weekend was the nicest it has been in a while. Nothing but blue skies with the occasional cloud and about 45 degrees outside, which wasn't bad if you were in the sun. This past weekend was not too exciting, mostly stayed indoors and studied for exams that are coming up in 5 weeks. I finished Endocrinology and Urinary systems a couple of days ago and have now moved onto Neurology... Still have a lot to go over yet. It seems like so much is being thrown at us all at once. We are doing Reproduction right now and have been going through a lot of histology this past week. I know exams aren't going to be easy on this section, but I am actually more interested in this stuff than I was with Immunology/Parasitology/Virology. The nervous system is absolutely amazing and I am doing a report on Hydrocephalus, which is very interesting to research. I am having a lot of fun reading about it. Now I have to pick another clinical disease and I think I will be doing Hypothyroidism. I cycled to school this morning in the snow (what was I thinking!). Probably the most miserable I have ever been going to school. It was snowing and I had to cycle up hill against the wind with snow blowing in my face. If it is doing that tomorrow, I may end up wearing my ski goggles! My hands were absolutely frozen today on the way to lecture.

The lectures today were all in different buildings. The first two lectures were at a building far away from the usual building. The third lecture was in a building slightly down the road from the first building and the fourth lecture was in the usual building. Talk about musical classrooms! While in the first building, we noticed at how much the wind had picked up and it almost looked like a blizzard outside! The wind was so strong! We went outside after lecture and noticed that the snow had turned into sleet, which is so much worse. About two hours later, you wouldn't have ever known if it had snowed outside since it all melted fairly fast with the rain. There was a group of us that was going to head to The Meadows (giant park my school) and have a snowball fight, but then the snow turned into sleet/rain and we cancelled. Would have been a lot of fun though.

Several reproduction lectures tomorrow and two metabolism lectures. Hopefully weather won't be absolutely horrible tomorrow morning. I will be uploading more pictures soon, so keep checking back for new pictures. Hope everyone is doing well!

Revising for horse/sheep handling exams

Today we had a revision session held at the Easter Bush sheep herd and horse sheds. We started out at the sheep herd and basically did an hour revision session for handling the sheep. Had to refresh my memory on how to age the sheep based on which teeth were erupted (milking teeth vs. adult), which was fairly easy to do. We did not have to flip the sheep over, as this is less likely to be on the exam (woohoo!). It is easy to do, but can be a pain if the sheep are not cooperating...hence the reason they will not ask us to do this on an exam. We finished with the sheep and changed into our horse gear (boiler suites and regular boots). Apparently the water pipes froze and burst overnight due to the large amount of frost that accumulated overnight. We made our way to the horse sheds and did a quick hour revision on horse handling. We had Connie, which was very nice and was about 16 hands tall. We basically went over picking up the front/back legs, walking/jogging around and tying up to a metal ring with a slipknot. There was a girl in our class that was having the hardest time WALKING the horse around. She was pulling on the lead too hard and was also nervous and I think the horse knew she was nervous and also didn't like the fact that she was pulling on the lead. She kept stopping every two feet too and just looked absolutely confused (confused to what I do not know, walking a horse is fairly simple...). It was quite ridiculous to watch. I'm not a big horse person and have never had much experience, but walking and jogging a horse is really easy. Oh well, I guess some people are just more nervous with large animals than others. Went home afterwards and have been studying ever since. I am working on Endocrinology right now and reading up on the Thyroid gland. Getting to Hypo/Hyperthyroidism in a bit. Hope everyone is doing well! Talk to you all later!

Oh, and by the way, REVISION is a British English term that means "preparation for exams". There was a debate as to whether the word was used correctly or not since revise means to change. Ugh! More British lingo to store in my brain...

LONG week and great Valentine's Day weekend...

This last week has been quite hectic with practical after practical. Since exams are getting close (about 6-7 weeks from now) they are starting to have revision sessions for handling cattle, sheep, etc. So all last week most of the days were from 9am - 5pm with a small break in between. Lectures and practicals all week long! On Thursday, something hilarious happened while on the way home from the small animal veterinary clinic out at Easter Bush. The driver for our private bus that takes us to and from Easter Bush decided to take us down a VERY small road on the way home. About a 1/4 mile down the road, two cars were headed straight for us. Normally, you just pull over to the side and let the cars go by but this bus was too large to do that. The lady in the second car decided to go in reverse and pull into the road that was about 100 yards back. The lady in the first car, however, was having second thoughts. She kept trying to go in reverse and then she would put the car in 1st and go forward. She kept looking at the bus driver as if you should reverse or move further to the side (neither of which he could do). So what does this lady do next? She decides to try and squeeze between the bus and the barricade on the side of the road. Of course she ends up slamming into the barricade and immediately begins to dial on her cell phone. Now, wouldn't she be at fault? So, there were a couple of Irish guys behind me and they were talking about getting out and moving the car for the lady because she didn't know how to reverse. Well, the one Irish guy gets the driver to let him out of the bus to go move the car for this lady. The driver gets out as well and when he gets out, he and the lady begin to have a yelling match. Meanwhile, while the lady is not looking, the Irish guy jumps in her car and throws it in reverse and steps on the gas quite hard. The lady turned around and saw that her car was being driven away and began running after it. The Irish guy pulled into the road where the second car had gone and was still waiting and got out of the car. The driver got back in started the bus engine. We started driving and passed the running lady and picked up the Irish guy and then onward we continued. The lady was still back there and the police were probably laughing at her because she didn't know how to reverse and instead decided to attempt to "squeeze" through... Was the highlight of last week for me. Oh, I also placed a mouth gag in a cow on the first attempt! Woohoo! I was unable to the first time a while back (well, was unsure that it was placed properly or not). I felt it touch the molars and I quickly shoved the gag in the mouth and got it to stay! Needless to say the cow was not very happy with me and I was pretty much wrestling its head and being moved around quite a bit.

This weekend was great! Kristen and I got together on Saturday and cooked an excellent pasta recipe. It was Penne pasta with vodka sauce. If anyone that reads on here loves to cook (MOM!), here is the recipe:

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/penne-with-vodka-sauce.html

Is a very rich recipe and very filling. We used whole wheat pasta. We exchanged our Valentine's Day gifts and I gave Kristen a Rome travel book for when we go to Italy. I got a card and some homemade cupcakes! Yummy! Oh, and also I got a little stuffed bear that is dressed up like a Bee and the front of it says "Bee Mine". Was cute and very thoughtful. Sunday, Kristen and I met up again around noon and decided to go to the Royal Botanic Gardens. There were not many flowers at this time (except the special high altitude flowers that they had). I added pictures to my Picasa account, so be sure to check the pictures there (CLICK THE LINK ON THE SIDE OF THIS BLOG). I'm going to keep posting that for a while, but there will be a link on the side where you can access all my photos. I may not announce new photos I post, so keep checking for new stuff! Anyway, today I had dissection lab from 9am - 12pm. I finished, got some groceries and am now writing a new entry in the blog. I have to work on a clinical case report on Hypothyroidism and Hydrocephalus. I finished my consultants report last night and I did it on Animal Health Services. Basically, I had to analyze the animal safety and welfare of boarding animals at AHS. Took me about 2 hours to write. Glad I am finished with that report. Anyway, I should get going to work on my report and study for exams. Hope everyone is doing well! Happy Valentine's Day late!

Six Nations Rugby Scotland vs. France

So the weekend has come and gone (like every weekend) and I had a blast! Friday I thought I was getting sick so I stayed in and studied the entire day and started taking the UK's version of EMERGEN-C, which is quite comparable. I haven't felt any worse so maybe it worked or I was just being paranoid that I was beginning to get sick. I was sitting next to a sick Irishman during lecture for the past week. Today was great, Stephen (my flatmate) had tickets to the 6 Nations Rugby game of Scotland vs. France. Kristen, myself, Stephen and Stephen's friend went at 3pm (same time as American Super Bowl). I don't know much about rugby but it was a lot of fun to watch. It's so fast paced and the clock almost never stops! I think I may enjoy it more than the NFL. It seems like the NFL games are hours long because of all the stupid penalties and flags being thrown. Oh, and in rugby, when a player is injured, the game goes on and they just play around the injured player as he is being treated on the field, which I was not expecting. Anyway, the game was a lot of fun and apparently there were approximately 65,000 people in the stadium. Here are some pictures and videos from the game. Hope everyone is doing well!

Skiing in Oslo = AMAZING!

Well, I am back from Norway and wow, what a fantastic trip it was. We left on Thursday around 7.30pm and it was a 2.5 hour plane journey to Oslo. Once we landed in Oslo, we got off the plane and made our way towards customs. I officially grant Oslo's airport the NICEST airport that I've ever seen! It looked so modern and perfect. There was no trash lying around and the floors were extremely clean. There was an entire section they were redoing and there was a Norwegian man spraying concrete down on the floor, which was interesting to watch. The walls were wooden in some areas and there were all of these glass windows throughout the entire airport. Was very appealing to travelers. I got through customs and we made our way down towards the car rental agency Europcar. First, we were all starving so we stopped and got Polse (sausage) on a hot dog bun with relish and dried onions. Was EXTREMELY delicious! We got our Volkswagen Van and started the long drive to Lillehammer.

The drive to Lillehammer was very long (3 hours) because of construction and the winding roads. Was a bit scary to drive at night in the snow and the roads seemed a bit icy. Eddie was a great driver and Jon was a great navigator. There was this tunnel that went through a mountain that was absolutely massive! One of the longest tunnels I have ever driven through. As we neared the town of Lillehammer, we saw about 12 moose along the side of the road (not all together, in separate locations). All I have to say is moose are massive animals! They were basically just hanging out by the side of the road, which is quite scary considering that you could come around a tight corner and run into one. That would be bad for both the moose and the people in the car...

We drove through Lillehammer where the 1994 Olympics were held and made our way through a small town called Favang. We then stayed on a road called Strandvegen and made our way to Kvitfjellvegen road. This was the road that went up to our cabin and ski resort. The name of the ski resort was Kvitfjell. We made our way up the mountain and after about 15 minutes driving up the winding road, Eddie stopped so we could check to see where we were at. We ended up using my iPhone to make sure we were headed the right direction and we were. So, when Eddie started to drive, the van would not go anywhere because the tires were slipping on the snow and he had stopped on a hill (not too smart of a move on his part). Jon and I got out of the car and stood behind the van trying to aid in moving the van. However, when Eddie released the breaks and attempted to go forward, Jon and I were just getting pushed back because were were sliding on the snow. After about 2 minutes, Jon and I managed to get a bit of traction and aid in getting the car forward. We got in and began our ascent up the mountain once again.

Another 5 minutes went by and we reached our destination, Kvitfjell Hotel. This hotel was amazing and massive. There was the hotel section and off to the left were the cabins. We had a cabin that slept 6 people. We picked up the key and found our way to our cabin. Once inside the cabin, I was shocked at how nice of a place it was. It was two levels with its own balcony, medium-sized kitchen/living room combination, second floor (with strange steps that went up to it) and a medium bathroom with a decent sized shower (that was like a sandblaster on your skin when you used it, talk about high pressure!!!). We settled in for the night and went to bed so we could be all rested for the morning ahead of us. Woke up in the morning and went to the local grocery store to get some breakfast and groceries for dinner. Very small store, but had the basics for meals. We rented our ski equipment and purchased our lift tickets. The card they gave us was very nifty in that all you had to do was place it inside the pocket and the radio-frequency inside the card would open the lift gates for you (great souvenir!). Oh, and the guy at the ski shop was from San Diego. He was born in Norway and lived in San Diego for 14 years when he was younger and is back living in Norway. There were a couple of Americans there as well and they were all saying, "it's so good to see other Americans here! We haven't seen any until we bumped into you!". That was about the extent of the conversation with them, nothing to lively, they were just amazed to see other Americans there.

We got our gear on and made our way down to the lift. Got to the top of the mountain and wow, what a view of the mountain ranges in the distance. I took some nice photos that you all should appreciate. Was very beautiful and the snow was SO fresh!!! Nice fresh and dry powder, perfect for tree runs. We started on the easier slopes to get warmed up and then on the second run made our way down more difficult slopes. I stayed in the trees for a small amount of time, but the trees were so close that it was a very tight run through them. The slopes were VERY fast and I would have loved to have seen how fast I was going on a radar on some slopes. You would come over these massive hills that had a very steep drop to them and you would almost have to go as fast as you could down the slope in order to make it across the flat part at the bottom. We stopped and ate at the lodge for about an hour and I had very good fries and hot chocolate. We went back to the cabin at 4pm (when mountain closed) and cooked dinner. At around 6pm, the mountain re-opened the Olympic slope for night skiing. I was so excited, as this would be my first time ever night skiing. We made our way up the lift and went down the run. This run was very fast and I was a little nervous at first because it was slightly icy. We got to a point where the slope was VERY steep and VERY icy. Jon made his way down the slope and all of a sudden he turned into this white cloud of snow and the next thing I saw was his board up in the air and his head on the ground. Apparently he flipped a couple of times but was OK. I picked up so much speed on that run and had a blast. We did a second run, in which we went down the same slope. We realized that it was a black diamond we were going down at night and it was made for Olympic speed-skiing. So obviously, this slope was designed to be very steep in order to give the skiers the speed they needed. Eddie and Karen ended up walking back up to the lift to take it back down because the hill was too steep for them. They are beginners and if they would have gone down, I could guarantee you that one of them would have been seriously injured.

Now, the second time, I went down with no problem. However, Jon and Stephanie both wiped out again. I ended up going down the side of the run at one point and couldn't see very well because it was not lit. I ended up going off of a 4-5 foot drop that I was NOT expecting. I landed it just fine, but then there was a small jump that came immediately after I landed. So I hit the jump on accident, but landed it, I was very impressed with myself. We finished the night run and went back to the cabin and played Skip Bo for a bit. When we first started playing, we went to look at the directions and they were all in Norwegian! So it took a bit to remember how to play. We had fun even if we weren't playing exactly as the rules wanted us to play. We got up the next morning and were going to go to Hafjell (other mountain) but the man at the ski shop told us that if we went down the mountain that it would be very difficult to get back up because of the new snow. So we stayed at Kvitfjell and made our way to the chair lift. We made our way to the backside of the mountain (which had much better snow conditions) and there were AMAZING runs on this side. I went down a couple of runs that were extremely difficult and had lots of fresh snow on them. There were a lot of small jumps that I couldn't avoid. They were a lot of fun to go off of, but sometimes the landing made me lose my balance. I fell in this one area where the snow was extremely deep. I was unable to pry myself out with my arm because it kept sinking!! I ended up using my ski poles to get out. It wasn't until the snow was almost to the top of the ski pole did they help though! I also tried hiking up a hill because no one had gone down it yet and there was fresh snow, however, I ended up sinking in the snow up to my waist and couldn't walk up the hill anymore. So I made my way back to the main slope. At one point, I got lost and ended up on a road but then saw that there was a small cliff that dropped onto another hill that cut over to the lift. So I took that and it was a very nice run. It had been snowing the entire day and the temperature had dropped 10 degrees celsius from the previous day, so I was very cold. I also had my ski boots on a little too tight in the front and my toes kept getting too cold because of low circulation. Once I adjusted, I was much better. We finished our day with a few more runs and headed back to the cabin. We went to the main lodge to warm up in front of the fire. I went down to the bar to order myself a pint of ale and there was this Norwegian man playing the guitar singing all of these American songs and he was absolutely HORRIBLE! I think I had a couple drops of blood coming from my ears!

We relaxed a bit and then wanted to go into the sauna, but found out that it was going to be repaired for Sunday (of course, the day we were leaving the sauna would be working!). We stayed at the main lodge a bit longer and I just want to say that I officially name Norway as the country with the TALLEST men I've ever seen! The majority of men are probably edging near 7ft tall or more. I was shocked at how tall they were. Jon, who came with us, is around 6'3" and looked like a dwarf compared to the Norwegian guys. We returned our stuff later and relaxed at the cabin for a bit. Left on Sunday morning around 7.30am. We saw two more moose on the way back to the airport and I took a couple of pictures of them. They didn't turn out that great because it was still slightly dark out and I did not have a tripod. You can still make out that there are two moose walking across the ice though. So, I should probably turn this post into a book and publish it eh? Well, there you have it, my trip to Norway. I uploaded my photos to Flickr, so follow the link below so you can view them. Cheers!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fonza-world_traveler/sets/72157623330561354/