Hi there; Birdie here!
Wow, this morning seems so long ago, much less when I wrote last two weeks ago. The first part at least is because I woke up at 5:30 this morning and took an exam at 8. Then I stayed for an extra hour and a half after we were supposed to be done with class for a review session..that's kind of a whole 'nother story. The review was extremely tension-inducing because the teacher does things like not answering questions and shutting them down with "let's keep it simple" (even when it really was a simple question) while still telling us we need to know "all that detail." I'd rather not get into how he interrupts students trying to answer his question so that he can say the same thing they were about to say. And then I went to dinner with L & H--I finally tried Kaminari! It's a buffet-style sushi and hibachi place, and I've heard classmates talking about going there to celebrate finishing an exam because it's also a great price. It was really good! The only problem is that there's no key for what's in the sushi... I'm really glad we got to go though, would buy again.
Other than the systemic path exam we just took (which I think went fine; I didn't have to do that well to keep my grade anyway), we have all our grades back for once. We finally got parasitology...though now that I look back, that was only a couple of weeks ago? Time moves differently in vet school--I mean, that was 5 exams ago. Anyway, we got our grades back last Friday, but they had some errors in the calculation. I think they confused themselves with how much they changed the points. Anyway, getting that grade upset me--I did as bad as I thought I did--but when I heard my classmates talking about the miscalculations I hoped it would make it better. And it turns out it did; even if this class is on the normal LSU scale and not a 10-point scale, I still got the grade I wanted! We also finished pharm, and I made an A. Not a very high A, but A is A and I'm super happy I got one in pharm. I also did well on the first virology exam, which was nice, so I'm not quite so worried about this next one, which is one of the 3 exams in 3 days standing between me and Thanksgiving. I am so ready for that break, even if it's just 2 extra days!
We also signed up for elective next semester. I'm going to be in three this year: the online USDA foreign/emerging diseases class that's required for things like writing certificates of health (which doesn't count towards your quota, which is why I can take 3 electives), an advanced feline medicine class (even though I haven't taken the basic one--I heard the basic one is not great, and this is case based and should be interesting), and a "cultural competency" class (which I'm actually really interested in, but I wouldn't be surprised if no one else signs up and it gets dropped).
At this point, I'm mostly stressing more for other people around me than for myself. I'm doing fine, and it totally sucks to have 3 exams in 3 days but I'll manage, and I'm looking forward to some easy, fun, PBL with associated free time. Meanwhile, people who want to get into competitive programs are struggling and getting Cs, and others are dreading PBL because they don't work well with their groups. I feel really bad for these people, but there's not really anything I can do for them...
My computer's been acting up a little recently. When I restarted for an update earlier this week, it took several tries to power on. I thought it was just an anomaly until it happened once randomly when I tried to turn it on after a routine shutdown. Of course now it's turning on fine, when I was about to let my friend's boyfriend in IT look at it. I'm keeping my backups very up to date (I think my virology objectives are only on there, not my laptop) and luckily I kind of have a backup laptop in my gaming one, so I'm not worrying about it yet. But that's probably something to deal with after Thanksgiving when I have time. Oh, and my summer research project fell through. So now I have to figure out something else for the summer, too.
We had our last DIC meeting of the semester this week. I decided to stick with the officerships I have...I don't want to back off with responsibility, that doesn't look good, and I kind of like being three officers. Sure, it's a pain sometimes, but I'm kind of proud of being able to handle it. So yep, I'm historian again! I also helped my team to victory in jeopardy. The highlight was probably how quickly I was able to rattle off the Roentgen signs (Size, Shape, Margination, Number, Location, Opacity!) before another student had even finished one or two. Well, after the question where I knew the answer (side effect of iodinated contrast in lungs = pulmonary edema) but someone else shouted out a wrong answer first while I was trying to discuss it, I wasn't going to sit back and let them do it! Also on the note of things to be proud of--did I mention I submitted an article to the Vet Gazette? I don't think I did, especially since they rejected it for the September issue. But now it's being published! It's about the VLE, and it's going up this weekend!
I'll finish this entry by talking about my riding. The clinic...well, it got better. We did fine at first over the warm-ups, but on the first or second course (probably the second, that's how it usually works for me) I actually fell off. I didn't get hurt at all, but it kind of sucked because someone else's horse was refusing earlier but then I had to go and prove that I was the worst rider in the class. So that's cool. But Isabella only refused a couple more times after that. I learned to ride her forward into my hand, which was a really helpful piece of advice because it meant I didn't have to make her go faster to get over the jump when she already wanted to be quick. By the end we were doing pretty well, I think.
Last week I rode Sailor, one of my favorites. We did a lot of no-stirrups work. Like, maybe half the lesson without stirrups, including some trot poles and once or twice over a little crossrail. The saddle I was in (because the previous rider had it) had weird stirrups with a hook sort of attachment instead of a buckle, so when I had to cross them in front of the saddle they didn't quite lay flat. I wound up with bruises on my legs from them! Sailor got a little quick at the end but I think we did alright. This week my instructor forgot to put me on the list, but I wound up on Cajun. I think he's a little green in his re-training; he's a former barrel racer and they're apparently trying to put some advanced students on him now, which I guess I qualify? He was really quick, and I was warned to keep a nice full seat at the canter or he'd run off. Which of course meant he kept breaking back to trot--but Alea said I have a nice deep seat like she does, which makes me feel good about myself. Cajun jumped really big, especially on the last jump (in a line). It wasn't much of a boost for my ego as a rider since he wasn't really great at the exercises, but I hope I did well for the horse. We also did some no-stirrups no-reins trotting on a lunge line. It was a tiny, tight circle, which made balancing a lot harder! At least I didn't fall again.
Unlike last weekend (I went to the Renaissance fair; maybe I'll write about it next week), this weekend I don't have anything planned but studying and a trip to WalMart (although I should try to run tomorrow morning). Three tests to go...Let's do this. Almost there.
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