Saturday, February 04, 2006

Welcome to Spring Semester

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing. There’s just so much to say that I feel I can’t do it justice unless I sit down and write a super long thoughtful post. Like I have time for that.

We’re done with the first three weeks of the semester. We’ve already taken three exams – two of them were finals. It’s kind of weird to get used to classes rolling on and off the schedule, but at the same time it’s kinda nice to have (and much easier to study for) short classes.

We’re all done with Obstetrics (unless you chose to take the lab – I didn’t) and Neuropharmacology. Obstetrics was pretty, dare I say, basic. I remembered most of it from my large animal work in undergrad. Neuropharm was difficult, but extremely cool. And it’s been very nice to pick up Anesthesia where Neuropharm left off, as I actually have a grasp on most of the drugs and understand why they’re making the choices they do about using what when.

I’m supposed to be studying for reproduction biology right now. I’m sitting in the library, munching on cookies, and contemplating the wonders of X-inactivation. While I understand why it might be good to know in general, I mostly think that it’s cool how tri-colored cats are made. I had an excellent repro class in undergrad, and it’s been a relief to find that this class is primarily review (Thank you Dr Kerr!). Look through the old exams, it was reassuring to know that most of the multiple choice I could do with a combination of having taken it before and having gone to class. The short-answer/diagram questions are going to take a little more work to make sure that I have everything straight though. Fortunately, the exam isn’t until Tuesday.

I’m also taking Social and Behavioral Science for public health this semester. I’m not sure yet how I feel about having ANOTHER class on top of the vet school stuff, especially one that isn’t on our master blue schedule of doom. I’m a little worried about the 4 3-5 page papers, but really, how bad could they be? ;-)

I’ll try to be better about updating, but really, there never seems like much to say. I got to scrub in on a cleft palate surgery last semester during my surgery mini-rotation. That was really neat. I did suction because there weren’t enough students scheduled during that rotation. I’ve e-mailed the local humane society about doing an externship there… it was very very very odd to be scheduling a two week period of time to do something in 2008. Two years from next week. Weird. I’m starting to look for places that I might wanna work when I graduate, I’d really love to do an externship with them so that I know that it’s compatible with me and that I’m going to be comfortable there.

I’ve applied for Minnesota residency. I’m excited about staying in Minnesota after I graduate right now. I’m sure that I can find a good job that I’ll like. I know that the boy has a good job that he’ll be thrilled in for years to come. And someday I’ll find an apartment that lets me get cats, and then I’ll be one happy camper.