Arthur's Seat Run

So yesterday, I decided that it was so nice out that I would take a run out to Arthur's Seat. There is an old building that I have always seen from a distance but have never actually walked out to go see. I decided that yesterday was the day to do just that. I ran from the flat to Arthur's Seat and through the valley between Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags. The old building was interesting to see and it overlooked a small lake. This small lake had hundreds of birds swimming in the water with about 80% of them being swans. It was really neat to see! I ran down to this lake and around it and took several pictures of the swans that were being fed by some man who had a bag of bread crumbs. I would also like to note that he was feeding these swans directly in front of a sign that specifically said "Do not feed the birds." I guess he didn't "see" the sign...

I have started studying for the Veterinary Public Health examination that is coming up in 4 weeks' time and the material is not too difficult to understand. Basically, it's determining whether or not to locally reject meat or totally reject meat based on the the pathology that the meat has. We have practical sessions each week where we have hands on learning with real examples from abattoirs. On Friday, I pulled my very first rabbit maxillary incisor. I also gave an intraosseous injection to the rabbit, flushed the nasolacrimal duct (which is quite difficult in a rabbit as their duct is TINY!) and performed a spay. I also forgot to mention to you that these procedures were performed on deceased rabbits. Was great experience though. We have our avian practical tomorrow where we learn about air sac intubation, ET intubation, blood sampling techniques, surgical procedures, etc. So that should be a lot of fun.

Well, that was the update since my last post. Nothing exciting has happened since then. I did go to a birthday party this weekend that was a lot of fun and I also went to the farmer's market last weekend and had a fresh pulled pork sandwich that was delicious! I will try and post the photos from yesterday's run soon. Hope all is well! Talk to you all soon!

Ben Nevis!

So a couple weekends back I decided to attempt climbing Ben Nevis (tallest mountain in Britain) with a buddy of mine. The elevation is around 4400ft. The day that we decided to go the forecast was predicted to be 60-70mph winds with whiteout conditions in the early morning and clearing up in the late morning. We left Edinburgh around 5am and headed up to Fort William (where Ben Nevis is located). Once there, we prepped ourselves for the climb. I basically wore my ski clothes and had also brought my goggles as I wasn't sure if it was going to be snowing or not, and with the wind the way it was predicted I decided to bring my goggles. We began the ascent with no problems (my knees were doing great this time around). At around 400 meters up we ran into the typical Scottish rain, which was no good if the temperature was going to drop at the top. Not a good combination of being wet and then walking into freezing temperatures. The rain stopped at about 600 meters up and it started turning into ice/snow/slush coming down. The trail was maintained quite well and we walked by several groups of people. As we increased in altitude, breathing became more and more difficult and the trail began to collect snow. Further on, we encountered snow covered trail and ice as well. At about 900 meters up, the trail was all snow and the wind really began to kick in. I would say at this point the wind was about 45-50mph. We kept on pushing and eventually the trail disappeared and we decided to head up and make our own trail and follow the compass. As we did, the conditions progressively deteriorated and the white out conditions began. I would say that we were about 1100 meters up and the wind was about 60-65mph now. I was getting blown over and losing my balance constantly. The wind hurt my face as it was blowing snow so hard that it felt like a sand blaster was abrading my face. We finally reached a cairn that was about 4 feet tall. For those of you who don't know what a cairn is, it is a pile of rocks used to mark a trail. We knew we were in the right spot for the trail at that point. However, the wind was persistent and the visibility seemed to be getting worse so we made the decision to turn around.

We were unable to pick up our tracks from the original route so we had to head west and intersect our trail somehow. The entire descent we were battered with strong winds and had to maneuver around icy rocks and loose snow. There was enough snow, however, that we were able to slide down on our rear ends. The snow slopes were quite long as well. I would say that on average, we would slide down about 50 yards at a time! Which definitely makes descending easier and much more fun! We reached a point where we had to walk alongside a waterfall (or on top of it at some points where it was partially frozen). At one point, I was sliding down alongside the waterfall and when I went to push my hand up, it sunk down through the snow right into the small frigid stream below. We finally made it down to the main trail and I was so happy to have reached firm ground that wasn't icy or rocky! After an hour of descending via the main trail we arrived at the car park and were soaking wet! We changed and went into the pub that was near the car park. After we enjoyed a nice pint of lager we headed back to Edinburgh. That is our story and here are the photos of the climb.

Ben Nevis, Scotland - February 2012

Hemsedal, Norway Photos

Ok, so here are the photos from Hemsedal, Norway. Enjoy!!

Hemsedal, Norway 2012

Back from Norway!

After 5 days in Norway I am back hard at work for semester 2. Norway was absolutely amazing and was better the second time! There were 8 of us that caught a flight over to Oslo Torp and then took a bus to the main city center of Oslo that was about 2 hours away. Once in the city center, we found our hostel that we booked and went to sleep. In the morning we walked around the city center in search of a car rental agency. We managed to find a place to rent 2 cars for 3 days. After the cars were settled we decided to explore a bit of Oslo before we began our journey to Hemsedal (the ski resort). We went to the city hall of Oslo, the boat docks, this park called Frogner Park that had dozens of statues of naked people and babies and then through some random neighborhoods that were very pretty. We even walked passed the Greek Embassy that looked like a regular home. I guess that's all that they could afford for their embassy! After we saw a bit of Oslo we began our road trip to Hemsedal. After about 2 hours of going in circles around the city center of Oslo, we finally made it out to the main freeway. The GPS system kept telling us to take the wrong exit and at one point we entered this extremely long tunnel and lost satellite connection so we were lost in the tunnel for about 20 minutes. After a rough 6 hour journey to Hemsedal, we had finally made it to the ski resort around 11pm. The directions to find our loft were horrible as we spent another 1.5 hours trying to find our place. We had to go through a security gate and then drive up the winding roads of the mountain pass. The loft was very nice and it was ski on ski off. The first day was ok for snow but there hadn't been any new snow for a while. The runs were nice but groomed and a bit on the icy side unfortunately. We made the best of it though and were able to get quite a bit of runs in. Over night, a snow storm moved in and dumped a lot of new snow for us on the second day and it snowed the entire day so that there was fresh powder EVERYWHERE! It was so wonderful to have a lot of new snow to ski in. We were on the slopes for a good portion of the morning and at noon we went in for lunch to the ski lodge. Afterwards, we were out on the slopes until 3.30pm and then went back to the ski lodge where there was a live Norwegian band singing nothing but American songs such as Sweet Home Alabama! After the lodge we went back to the loft and packed our things so that we would be ready to head out in the morning. Around 2am we all decided to head to bed. I got into bed and suddenly there was this pounding noise on the neighbor's door. It went away after a couple of minutes and about 10 minutes later the pounding was on our bedroom window and scared me half to death! Jon and I jumped up and went to the front door to see what the commotion was all about and it was this twenty something year old Norwegian guy. He claimed that he had no key to his place and all of his friends were back in town still. He had apparently been sleeping on the back patio of their loft for 30 min in the freezing cold. We let him in and Jon and I sat at the kitchen table with him and phoned the front lobby back in town to have someone come up to let him into his place. After about 15 minutes of talking to this drunk Norwegian guy that had horrible English, the guy from the lobby arrived and took him off of our hands. We finally went to sleep around 2.40am. The next morning we packed our things and headed out of Hemsedal for our 6pm flight.

I am now back in Edinburgh and ready for the week to end. Have had a busy week of practicals and long days and I am for sure ready for the weekend to arrive. I will eventually get the Norway photos up for everyone to see (probably by tomorrow). Hope everyone is doing well. Miss you all! Will post again soon! Oh! I also passed the farm animal integrated clinical exam and found out a couple of days ago. Woohoo! Now we have to take the equine and exotics exam after Easter break. Can't wait for final year to get here so that I can finish and finally start working!

Back from Christmas and the beginning of Semester 2!

So I have not posted anything since before Christmas and I have definitely been slacking on my posting. Christmas break was great and seeing family and friends was nice. I got to work a total of 2 days as my break was quite hectic with family medical emergencies and such. I am glad I was there for everything though as I would for sure be stressing out if I had been in Scotland with everything happening while I was away. I managed to get work started on my research paper that Dr. Prevatt and I will be working on. I had to obtain all of the radiographs on 20 different patients and then copy them to Dr. P's computer. With that successfully completed, I plan on beginning evaluation of the radiographs next week and completing the research component of the paper in about a month's time. The paper is not due until my final year so I have plenty of time to finish it.

This week, we had a good practical with horses. We went over the neurological exam of the horse and got to practice walking the horse while pulling on their tails and performing other tests. The practicals that they incorporate into our program are very helpful and it helps get your mind out of the books and gets you to think in a more practical sense. Today we had a 9-5 day with 2 practicals and several lectures. They were quite helpful, but I am tired! I am so used to the 11am to 2pm class schedule and now we start at 9am and have a 2-3 hour gap before the next lecture. Oh well, gives me some extra time to work on notes.

I am heading to Oslo, Norway tomorrow at 6pm Scottish time with 7 other people from the course. We are going to go skiing in Hemsedal Friday and Saturday and are hanging out in Oslo the first couple of days. It should be a lot of fun! Unfortunately there is only 26 inches of snow as the base at the ski resort and no new fresh powder :(

It is supposed to snow tomorrow and Friday so maybe there will be some fresh powder to ski on. I really hope so! I still have to pack everything in a carry-on-bag because a checked bag on Ryanair is really expensive. Maybe I will wear all of my ski clothes through security. That would save room, right? Should be a lot of fun once we are in Oslo! Last time I went, we arrived at night and were unable to explore Oslo itself.

Before I finish this post, I wanted to post something. Tina has been asking me, for the longest time, if there is a place where she can purchase The University of Edinburgh sweaters, etc. Well here it is. This is the link to the university's website for purchasing clothing, etc. :

http://www.giftshop.ed.ac.uk/site/department.cfm?id=21D52893-B0D0-D0C9-3C2C58466ED2386E

There is a catalog for the veterinary school but I have to order it through the students that run the vet school store. I will find out more information on this next week. I should get back to studying though. Hope all is well back home and I miss everybody! Will post again soon! Probably when I return from Norway!

Exam over...and now for a well deserved Christmas break!

I have not posted in quite some time as I have been studying nonstop for the past couple of months in preparation for the exam. Our examination was on cattle, sheep, fish, avian and some other topics. The exam was on Wednesday, the 14th at 9.30am. There were three essay questions and we had to answer two of the three. I answered the question on foot rot management in sheep and the other essay question that was on cattle reproduction. I felt that I knew the information well and answered the questions as best as I could. There were also 40 multiple choice questions that started off easy and then got increasingly harder as they started asking about fish, birds and pigs. Once it was over there was a huge weight lifted from my shoulders (and my brain). I ended up going to the pub with a group from class and then down to the Christmas market. I also ended up seeing 'The Thing' movie by myself to relax a bit. I can't tell you how good it feels to not have to go home and study constantly. I am now back in Arizona for Christmas for a month and it has been so nice to see everyone in the time that I have been back so far. The weather is SO much nicer than Scotland right now as the sun has been out and it has been about 65-70 degrees during the day. I will be doing some Christmas shopping tomorrow as I only need a few more presents and then I am finished. I am looking forward to a great Christmas with the family, although I wish Kristen and I were together for Christmas. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and don't drink too much egg nog!

Grey Mare's Tail Nature Reserve

This past Saturday myself and a group of others from class decided to take a drive down to Grey Mare's Tail, which is between Selkirk and Moffat. It was about 1 hour 45 minutes to drive to Grey Mare's Tail car park. We left around 9am and on the entire drive, the weather was looking quite grim. I was thinking that we would be hiking in the rain the entire time, which would be unfortunate since I wanted to take as many photos as I could. About 30 minutes of driving in the rain and all of a sudden the clouds parted and the sun was shining! The rain vanished about 10 minutes from the car park, which was PERFECT timing! Wouldn't you agree? One of my classmates brought their dog to take on the hike and as soon as we got out of the car, the dog bolted off into the Scottish hills to chase after the dozens of sheep that were on the hillsides. At one point, the dog herded a flock of sheep into a stream and one of the ewes was up to its neck in the water! I felt so bad! Once we paid for the parking, we began our ascent up the main trail towards the waterfall. The waterfall is one of the five tallest waterfalls in the UK and it was absolutely stunning! I didn't realize that it would be so big after looking at photos on the internet. We walked all along the trail and there were a couple of spots that led you off of the trail down to the waterfall drop off point. I went down to get some photos, but I couldn't gather the courage to get much closer than about 5-6 feet from the edge of the cliff where the water was falling from. I took a few videos of the ledge. After some photos, we all continued on the trail up towards Loch Skeen (which feeds the waterfall). Once over the top of the falls and around the bend, Loch Skeen came into view and the valley in which it resides was absolutely breathtaking!

We decided to take a break and eat lunch. So we sat down for a good half hour and ate lunch. We then continued on and the trail turned into mud all of a sudden! So, we had to find our own path through the boggy hills. I, again, experienced hiking with wet feet as the hiking boots I have are WELL ventilated, which allows water to just come right on in. I managed to keep dry feet for a while, however, it was ultimately inevitable that I would step in a bog and my boot would fill right up with water. COLD WATER!!! One person decided to head back to the car park before we ascended Lochcraig Head, which put us at 2,628 feet elevation once we were at the top. We managed to find a descent path along a stone wall, but it was still quite steep. Once at the top, the view was amazing. I took lots of photos and videos as well. We took a 15 minute breather to take in the amazing views and then continued down the path to head back to the car park. The path continued on down to a smaller mountain (Mid Craig). Once we got back down to the level of Loch Skeen, we then had to jump across the stream. I jumped and BARELY made it! I think my heel touched the water, but I wasn't soaked, which was the goal! We all managed to get back to the car park safely and my knees did a much better job than they did on the highlands hike a couple of months ago. We headed back home and stopped by a pub to grab a bite to eat. I slept until 10am the next day... All in all, it was an amazing hike and if any of you are ever here, I will take you hiking to this gorgeous place that is hidden in the Scottish hills. Enjoy the pictures!

Also, before I go, the famous Sir Walter Scott wrote a poem about Grey Mare's Tail waterfall. This is how it goes:
Where deep deep down, and far within
Toils with the rocks the roaring linn;
Then issuing forth one foamy wave,
And wheeling round the giant's grave
White as the snowy charger's tail
Drives down the pass of Moffatdale.

Grey Mare's Tail 2011