Start of Second Week of Lectures After a Relaxing Weekend

So, the first week of lectures has gone by in a flash. So many interesting lectures and so much learned. We started going over the clinical examination of the horse, which was interesting. Was basically 2 straight hours of staring at a powerpoint presentation with lots of images of mucous membranes, emaciated horses, horses with edema, horses with exaggerated heave lines, etc. Was a great tutorial, I loved it! The weekend has gone by so quickly with most of it spent writing notes down and going over last weeks lectures and putting them down into note form. I've gotten very organized this semester, so hopefully it will make it much easier to reference back to certain areas of the notes. On Saturday, I stayed at the flat and worked on notes. However, on Sunday, I managed to get myself out of the flat and walk down to Princes Street Gardens (Camera in hand) to take to pictures on such a beautiful sunny day. I managed to get lots of photos of bees, flowers, mushrooms, buildings, etc. I walked into HMV for a bit to see what new DVDs were out and then walked home. This week's lectures have been quite interesting so far. We have gone over more Pharmacology, surgery, etc. Today we went over suture material, which was interesting. I know most of them already, but now it's time to learn their absorption time, tensile strength, advantages/disadvantages, etc. I've been lucky enough to work at AHS for 6 years where I have learned quite a bit from all the very smart doctors there! I've learned so much from all of the doctors there and it has helped TREMENDOUSLY with my understanding of everything!

So, the remainder of this week's lectures are light, with me getting out early every day. Wednesday we have off so that we can meet with our Director of Studies. I am still awaiting the loan cheque to clear so that I can go buy groceries and note taking supplies. I'm almost out of paper, so need that loan money soon! The weather is getting quite rubbish here with temperatures dropping to about 38 degrees now. Burrrrrr! Time to bust out the heavy duty ski jacket!!! Unfortunately, I am without a raincoat, and desperately need one as the rain shall soon start to fall here in Edinburgh. Well, I should get back to being studious. Hope everyone is doing well and I will be posting new photos soon, so stay on the lookout! Cheers!

First Week of Classes Almost Over!

This week has been quite busy with lectures and such. Monday, we had all of our introductory lectures and began a couple of Pharmacology lectures. The Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics lectures were very interesting and got me very excited for the next lectures. We started Pathology as well and I really enjoy those lectures. The Radiologist came in and gave a few lectures on interpreting radiographs and showed many images of radiographs, which were interesting. Almost all of the lectures were quite a breeze for me since most of it I have picked up on my own from working at the clinic. There was also an introduction to small animal surgery, piece of cake! Instruments used, anaesthesia, etc. We are currently working on post mortem lectures, which are very interesting and we get to do our first PM tomorrow! Woohoo! Am very excited and can't wait! There was a two hour tutorial on the clinical examination of the horse today and I found that very helpful. I was rocking out the answers to all of the questions the lecturer had, I patted myself on the back after class... Right now I am working on writing out notes from all of the lectures, printing the lectures and putting them in an organized binder. I am MUCH more organized than last semester, so this will help tremendously when studying. The weather hasn't been the greatest today and has been raining the entire day, boo! Have been loading up on hot tea at night to keep myself warm. May go out tomorrow night for Paddy's (guy in class) birthday. Not sure yet, I don't like spending money that I don't have to. Well, I should get back to studying. Hope all is well in the desert! Send some warm weather my way please!

Run to Arthur's Seat

So, no jet lag from the trip, which is a GREAT thing! I woke up around 8.30am today and went to TESCO to buy some breakfast foods. After eating, I went for a run to Arthur's Seat. It felt so good to run, I haven't run for over 5 months and haven't been doing much working out since my shoulder injury. While at Arthur's Seat, I picked a bunch of blackberries from the many bushes around the area. I walked away with a good half pound of blackberries, which will go great with my yoghurt in the morning. After suffering many pokes from the sharp spines on the bushes while gathering blackberries, I headed back. It started to rain on me, so it was great timing that I headed back home. Since I hadn't run in a long time, the run back home was quite rough on the knees. I arrived at home and was so tired! There is a barbeque today, so not sure if I will go or not. I would need to pick up food, which I am trying to be conservative about until my loan comes through. I am living and eating very cheaply right now, so need to be careful with what I spend my money on. Classes start Monday and I'm quite excited. We are doing a lot of lectures on surgery, pharmacology, anesthesia, etc. Should be loads of fun. I can't wait! Anyway, hope all is well back on the homefront and I will talk soon!

Back in Edinburgh

So after a long flight back and a couple of layovers, I am back in Edinburgh. When I arrived to the city yesterday, the bus did not drop me off where it usually does. It dropped me off away from Waverly Bridge because Princes Street was closed down for the Pope to come through. There were news vans all over the place and a lot of people began to line up at 9.30am for his 1.00pm appearance. I was too tired to care, so I went home. Even though I was tired, I felt that I needed to move everything to the flat from the garage of the old flat. So I got a day pass and made 4 trips to move my things. After I moved it all, I had no idea where to start! There was so much stuff! I also wanted to email everyone but had no internet and my iphone was not working because apparently they changed my phone plan from a iphone tariff to a non-iphone tariff, so that meant I had no internet. I went to the O2 store and called and they changed it back for me, but it wasn't going to take effect until this morning. Florian, my flatmate, had the internet password and was gone all day. It wasn't until midnight that I was able to log on. I was so tired from not sleeping for over 24 hours that I slept until 12.30pm today! I guess my body needed the sleep, eh? So, did a lot of unpacking and am now getting used to the flat. I like it a lot more than the previous flat mainly because I don't have the same flatmates and also because I have MASSIVE amounts of storage and a huge room. I literally have an entire wall of cabinet storage, just great! Classes start up on Monday, so need to get everything together for that. I am getting excited to start a new year. Lots of new things to learn and I am one more year closer to being finished! Woohoo! Well, hope everyone is doing well, will talk soon!

Last Day in Canada :(

So today is my last day in Ottawa, and I am sad to be leaving. After getting to know Kristen's family, it feels like it has been too fast of a trip. Kristen is now going to be living back home permanently and will not be returning to Edinburgh. So we are now in our long-distance phase of our relationship. It will be very difficult but we will get through it. These last few weeks have been absolutely amazing and I have been taken to so many places. The trip to Niagara was by far one of the best and getting to know Kristen's Uncle Ennio and Grandma was nice. Kristen and I went to Pellar Wine Estates and took a wine tour. We got to taste grapes fresh off of the vine. We tried grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. We were also taken down to the wine cellar to taste different wines. I loved the Cabernet Franc Ice Wine. I wanted to buy a bottle of it but a 375ml bottle cost $90! Very expensive for such a small amount. We took many pictures and they are all uploaded to the photo section. I have uploaded about 400 photos for everyone to look at as well. We went to Niagara Falls and took a ride on the Maid of the Mist. We got so wet and it was so windy in the falls. The water was moving ridiculously fast! Was such a fun time and Kristen's Uncle Ennio is hilarious! My grandpa would get along with him so well.

Kristen's father and I went fishing a few days ago and spent a few hours on the water in his boat. I kept on catching small perch and stupid sunfish! Lou caught almost a dozen bass and kept 3 large ones. We had to bring the boat in early because the engine kept on cutting out. We went home and took the plug off the back of the boat and loads of water came rushing out! We opened the engine door and there must have been a leaky hose because there was so much water in the engine compartment. We had the bass for breakfast the next morning along with eggs, bacon and some other stuff. It was delicious! Kristen and I have been hanging out and making a scrapbook of all our memories. We've got a long way to go before finishing the scrapbook but it looks good so far! Kristen and I made stir-fry for the family yesterday and it turned out very good. Today we are just going to take MacKenzie to the dog park and do a little bit of shopping. I have a 1.15pm bus tomorrow to Montreal and then my flight to Paris, then Paris to Edinburgh. I will be so sad to leave but also excited to start the new school semester. I will be heading back for the Christmas break and Kristen will be coming back as well. I can't wait until Christmas break! Will be such a great time! So many places to show Kristen and so many people for her to get to know.

Well, better get going here. Remember to check the photos that I posted, there are LOTS of them! Hope everyone is doing well and will talk soon!

Canadian Fishing

So today, I experienced my first taste of Canadian fishing. Kristen's dad and I packed up fishing gear and headed down towards the dam to do some fishing. First we stopped by this boat launch and casted into the water for about a half hour. I managed to catch a sunfish and that was about the extent of what Lou and I caught. We then drove to the dam and walked down to the water. Lou caught a couple of small mouth bass and I caught nothing. After that, we basically kept the fish fed. I would cast my line in the water and within seconds, all of the little fish would nibble my worm off! I started using the artificial worm instead because I was getting so sick of losing my worms. We finally decided to go home after the storm clouds started to roll in. We got back to the house and charged the boat and are planning on going after dinner out into the water. Hopefully we will have better luck tonight. Large mouth bass perhaps? Pike? Perch? Anything?! Clouds are still over the house, so may not be able to go out on the water tonight. Only 11 days left here, boo hoo! I am having a lot of fun here and love getting to know Kristen's parents. Hopefully these last 11 days don't go by too fast. I get back to Edinburgh on the 15th and have a week off until classes start up again. Hope everyone is doing well and will talk to you all soon!