1/8th of a vet!

Woooooo I'm free! I am officially done one semester of vet school. I can't believe how fast it went... I know everyone probably says that about school, but seriously it flew. We finished exams 2 days ago with a 60 station anatomy bellringer which was tiring but not too bad :) other than exams, the only other things that happened in the last week were:
- jacket and Christmas photoshoots! We took a million pics of our new merch and also got some awesome ones of our anatomy skeleton and profs - group 9 clearly has the most Christmas spirit ;)
- secret Santa and group dinner - I love my group :) we did a secret Santa exchange (I got wine, so clearly people know my priorities) and dinner at kelseys last week to celebrate the end of our first semester. It's only been 2 days of break but it's already weird not seeing these people every day!
- I've been walking little Ambrosia from beagle program and it's doing nothing to help my beagle obsession.. Especially cause they're up for adoption! But it was a good exam study break to be able to walk her and she loved sniffing everything she possibly could. Typical hound :)

Anyway, I'm home for Christmas break now and am already taking advantage of all the food that I don't have to buy for myself. My best friend is coming down from Halifax this week, so after I work a few shifts (before my work closes for the break) I'll finally be able to enjoy some best friend time. We're gonna go to Toronto for the weekend to shop and gossip of course.
I won't be posting until I'm back at school, so merry Christmas to everyone and I'll talk to you all when I'm caught up on my sleep and 50 pounds heavier from Christmas food :)

Making daisy all festive on snapchat :) 

Anatomy lab love :) featuring reindeer cow

We got a pic with the Dean of OVC, no biggie! 

Is it Christmas yet?

Hey, popping in quickly to post an update while I remember :)
Recap of the last week or so:
- Histo test: trickiest of the 3 we've had so far (don't get me started on this course..) but i don't have to rewrite it so I've survived my first OVC "you must get a 60" test - oh how standards have changed from undergrad!
- I went home for the weekend to drop Daisy off and see my friends and family for a very short time. The girls and I saw Mockingjay on Friday night (sooo good!), I hung out with Matt on Saturday (and got a chicken and waffle sandwich at Montana's... I'm 500 pounds at heart), and then I had to study in between all that because we had a physiology test on Monday.
- I got to meet my friend Paul's new guide dog puppy in training named Ninja... I could wrote 10 pages about how adorable he is, but I'll refrain and just put a picture in below. But seriously. The cutest ever.

- we finally got our jackets!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so now that's all I'm going to wear and show off on main campus ;) no shame!

That's about it! This week we've been studying for an anatomy quiz we had today, then another midterm next Monday and then an anatomy bellringer next Friday and we're free for 3ish weeks! I could use some sleep, food, and socialization :) there's a few things happening in the last week of classes that I'll probably blog about next time, but for now here's some pictures of stuff that happened last week:

Ninja <3

YESSSS

Seriously.....

This is what we do with our free time

:) :) :)

Road trip home with Daisy!

An eventful week!

Hey guys! Soo my life has gone from one extreme to another - the past week or so has been crazy busy! Let's get right into it:

• Blood smear: A few weeks ago I mentioned that we were practicing blood smears in Histo - recently we got to stain them and look at the cells under the microscope. Baby steps! Mine was pretty good, and marks the first and only time Histology has seemed clinically relevant (insert unimpressed face here).
• Having a life: A few of the girls and I went out last Friday night, it made us feel old (seeing undergrad students at the bar that seriously looked 14 years old..) but it was nice to be doing something other than school :) We ended the night with poutine which made it even better!
• Horse care week: I just finished with our assigned horse care week. The horse people probably found it boring to walk and groom horses every morning, but as someone with zero horse experience but who has always loved horses, it was fun :) other than the 7:30/8:30 am start times in -22 degree weather, of course. The teaching horses are such sweethearts and it just strengthened my neeeeeed for a horse! Like right now would be great...I'll keep it in my room. That's allowed, right??
• Physical exams: Finally feeling like a vet! We finally got to use our stethoscopes and do physical exams on horses and cows (small animal is next week). I learned that you can (sometimes) make a cow pee on demand...of course mine didn't cooperate, but I saw it happen! We also all had a lightbulb moment with one of the cows that had a left displaced abomasum - translation: one of the 4 chambers of the stomach in cows is usually on the right side, but if it becomes filled with gas it can actually move to the left side. We've been told repeatedly in lab and lecture that it sounds like a basketball hitting the pavement due to the air, but when we all got to hear it we got suuuper excited. So cool! :)
• Hunger games movie night: Last Wednesday our social committee organized a hunger games movie and pizza night in anticipation of the 3rd movie that came out on Friday. Since there are 12 districts in the hunger games and OVC has 12 practice groups, there was also a costume contest. Group 9 has the worst district (grain farmers??) so we wore plaid and then decided to mix it with the OTHER district 9 (aka the alien movie). Our creativity made us win the group prize so now we have a restaurant gift card to use :)

Whew I think those are the highlights! Tomorrow we have our histo midterm so I've been just studying lately. I'm going home on Friday to drop Daisy off :( but it will be for the best, because our 4 December exams start next Monday. I actually cant believe it's almost Christmas break! I'm getting excited to catch up with everyone back home, and of course eat, eat, and eat some more. I'll be posting some time next week, once exams calm down for a few days. Bye for now!

We had a good snowfall this past week and Daisy loooved it!

We can't take pics of the teaching animals, so here's my lovely coveralls and boots

My blood smear! That's a neutrophil in the middle :)

Night out :)

Thanks to Rachel for this genius idea

My not-so-exciting life

Hey! I haven't done an update this week because honestly not much has happened lately. November is pretty quiet, we've been having a lot of lectures and labs and not much else. Next week should be a bit better, I have my horse care week so I'll have some live animal time :) and I'll also be starting the beagle walking program soon! We also have the chance to feel more like vets next week because we have a lab on physical exams, and we've been asked to bring our stethoscopes which is the first time we'll actually get to use them... Baby steps!
In anatomy lately we've been studying the head and neck, which is super cool because we walk into lab and there's animal heads everywhere... Which is not creepy if you're a vet student!
Other than that I'm just getting ready for the tests that are coming up, a histo one next Monday and then 4 more in the first 2 weeks of December - before our oh so lovely 3.5 weeks off! :)
I'm going home the last weekend of November and I'm going to leave daisy there :( I want to be able to live in the library if necessary and it's not fair to her if she's stuck in my apartment all day. So she'll get an extra 2 weeks with my family before I come home for Christmas. I'll miss our naps together! Which is actually what we're about to do right now, so I'm gonna end this here - hopefully I'll have a more exciting update next week! :)
Here are some pics of daisy (what else) to make this post more adorable:

Non-study weekends are good for the brain

Hey guys! My weekend was busy so I forgot to post yesterday, but here I am :)
Weekly school recap: last week was more stressful than exciting, we had a phys midterm (not my favourite class but I think it went fine) and our anatomy group oral exam (which we just got our mark back for, and we did awesome - woo group 9!). Because of those tests plus the one the week before in histo, I decided to have a work-free weekend, which was kind of a given because Friday was Halloween!
I went to the OVC frat party (I didn't join the frat but of course I'll go for the parties!) as a mermaid, and it was a much-needed night out for all of us! The next morning wasn't so fun (oops) but Matt came to visit me and cured me with a Junior Chicken from McDonald's (true love!). On Saturday we saw Gone Girl which was the best movie I've seen in a loooong time, and I'm definitely going to read the book over Christmas break :) then on Sunday we stocked my kitchen with groceries (my fridge looks beautiful now), watched the Eagles game (I had to become a fan for a day), and went out for sushi with our friend Paul who lives in Guelph too. 
I didn't touch any school work and I think that's necessary every so often, you can't just study 24/7! I think that's all for now, there isn't anything else exciting happening soon that I can think of, but I'll keep up with my weekly posts :) bye!

Killer Cupcakes - I've been wanting to try these since I moved here so Matt and I went on Saturday and they were soo good - how can cupcakes filled with cheesecake be anything but amazing??

Mermaid!

holy crap it's almost november!

hey! i'm taking a study break to post an update before I forget. Yup, another weekend of studying - we have our first physiology test tomorrow and although it's not worth too much, there's sooo much information included! I also hate neurology and that's the majority of the test, so needless to say I'll be glad when tomorrow morning is over.

Recap of the past week:

- we finally ordered our class merch!!!!!!!!! aka those black DVM jackets with our beautiful owl crest that I've dreamed about for years :) of course I also had to get a hoodie and a baseball hat too...oops :)

- I had my second PHC shift: it was an early morning so there weren't many appointments but I got to see the 4th year students prep a dog for a spay, and it reassured me that I don't have to know everything by the time I get to that point - it's a great teaching hospital :)

- another merch post: I got this amazing hoodie (my bank account is not happy, but I am!)

- dairy and beef farm tour: 1 word - CALVES! oh my lord they were the cutest things ever. we also got to see the dairy cows being milked which is a surprisingly fast process, but I was basically just there to stare at the babies nonstop. we couldn't take pictures but here are some examples:

fuzzy beef calves



dairy calves



This weekend was basically just studying and walking Daisy since I feel bad for being gone all week, I woke up this morning and she had snuck up to the top of the bed and was snoring away while resting her head on MY pillow...cutest thing ever. Matt may not be in Guelph with me but I have someone else to replace his snoring ;)

This week I have this phys test, another PHC shift, an anatomy viva voce (oral exam) and then finally HALLOWEEN! I think we're all ready to party, and I'm excited because I'm going to be a mermaid and I'm all set to do some awesome makeup. Then Matt is coming down on Saturday and I'm sooo ready to have a non-studying weekend :):)

I guess I'll stop procrastinating now and get back to phys. Bye for now :)



Little update

hey guys :) just thought i'd post an update while I have time, because this week is gonna be a crazy one!

Daisy has been settling into my place very well, she is in love with my bed and hasn't slept in her own bed until she did today for about an hour. Spoiled brat! Since I really haven't been working out since I've been here, having my dog with me has been a good way to force my butt to go for multiple walks a day :) it also makes me even more obsessed with her than I was before because we spend all of our time together....like I watch her sleep because she's the cutest (crazy dog lady, I know!)

Our 3 day week seemed way longer after having 4 days off, I think everyone was dead by Friday. I had my orientation for the dog enrichment program (volunteer dog walker for the beagles/hounds that are on campus for teaching purposes). I can't wait to get started because that just means even more beagles in my daily life :) Then on Saturday I had my first shift at the Primary Healthcare Center. It felt great to get back in the clinic environment (spoken like a true vet student). There were back to back appointments so I got to observe 4 of them from behind a 2 way mirror. They have microphones set up so that you can hear the whole appointment, since it is a teaching hospital. It was really cool and made me really feel like a vet student, especially since we got to wear our lab coats (yes I'm easily pleased!)

Other than that, we have another Histo test tomorrow so I spent some (definitely not all) of the weekend studying. This week I have another PHC shift, and we have 2 field trips to dairy/swine/poultry/beef farms. Since most of my vet experience is with small animals, I'm looking forward to seeing some new things :) We aren't allowed to take pictures but I'll definitely do an update next weekend. That's it for now!

Settling in just fine :)

My morning....so exciting!



4 days off :)

helloooo everyone!

I just had 4 days off of school so I'm currently sitting in bed and dreading my 6:30 am alarm that's waiting for me in the morning :(

This weekend was (Canadian) thanksgiving so I went home to celebrate. Matt came down on Friday night and we had wine and pizza, because we figured we'd be eating all weekend anyway so why not? Saturday we had Matt's family's dinner and then Sunday was mine (hello double turkey, double pumpkin pie and double fat-Faith!).

Thanksgiving props

Yesterday I went our for dinner with my girlfriends and then we saw Annabelle, which was pretty good and reaffirmed my hatred for both dolls annnd children. Why are kids always so creepy in horror movies?!

Today I headed back to Guelph with DAISY!! It was time for her to join me here. It's going to take some adjusting because she's only moved one time in her 9 years of life but she's doing pretty good so far and is taking advantage of my comfy bed.

Taking over the bed already

Just thought I'd add in an update here even though it isn't school related, I'm going to go relax for the rest of the night - the rest of October is busyyyyyy school-wise so I'm taking advantage of the calmness while I can.

Bye for now! :)

- Faith & Daisy

How could I forget the Beagles??

In my exhaustion last night I forgot to mention the highlight of my week at school - BEAGLES!! As many of you know, I'm a Beagle owner, and they are the most lovable pains in the ass ever :) The teaching dogs at OVC are mostly beagles (they only get used for non-invasive things, don't worry!). We got to practice restraint techniques on them this week, and the room was basically a bunch of wagging tails. Happiest dogs ever :) One of them was named Ambrosia and I almost couldn't contain my excitement for that adorable little face and ears! Ahhh. Clearly I miss my beagle, who is hopefully coming back to guelph with me after Thanksgiving break :) Here are some pictures of her to end this little rant of mine!

Can I sleep forever?

Hey guys!

How I feel right now

Wow, what a week! We had ~35-40 hours of classes and labs in the past 5 days. It was one of those weeks where some days were just 8 hours of sitting in lecture, which are always brutal - but coffee helps! I vowed that when I got into vet school I wouldn't complain about it like I hear some people do about med/vet programs because I've wanted this for sooo long. But I will definitely admit that I'm exhausted! It's just been an adjustment going from undergrad where I made my own schedule and didn't let my days begin before 10:30 am.

We had our first test on Monday morning, bright and early at 8:30 am. It was Histology which is a bit of a pain, but I'm thankful I took it in undergrad so it's one course that isn't bombarding me with totally new information. I think it went well :)

Histo - looks pretty, but it isn't that cool

On Tuesday we had a practice viva voce which is an oral anatomy exam. Basically the prof takes each group around to their cadavers - cat, dog, sheep and pony - and points at structures and we have to identify them. This one didn't count for marks but was good practice, and our group did great (group 9 is the best group anyway ;)) It made me realize that I actually am retaining stuff I learn in lab! I've actually been loving anatomy, which I wasn't expecting.

Matt visited on Tuesday afternoon (the benefits of only living an hour from my hometown) and we did some shopping and then went to the Burger's Priest - basically we ate a heart attack on a bun and it was amazing. It was a good mid-week visit to break up the monotony of school.

UMMM yes this deserved a picture. So goooood

We also signed out some practice cows on Tuesday to work on the techniques we learned last week, and my love for cows is growing every time I see them (I would mention this after posting a burger...oops).

Today we got to practice blood smearing in Histology lab; it's always nice when we do things in class/lab that are practical/that we will likely use in the future. Mine weren't all that bad for my first time!

So right now I'm enjoying a thrilling night in, watching tv and eating snacks and not leaving my bed. Soon it'll be time for bed and I will NOT be setting an alarm! (allllleluia!) Next weekend is Thanksgiving so I'll be going home because we have 4 days off - hello food, food and more food!

Goodnight :)

Cows & Stethoscopes

Hi everyone :) first off - we have a crest! this amazing thing will soon be on jackets and hoodies and the million other pieces of merch I'm going to buy so I can show off ;)

This week I got to touch animals!! I want to say "finally" but apparently lots of vet schools across the world hardly have any contact with live animals until second year, so I won't complain about waiting 3ish weeks!

We had our first large animal handling lab yesterday, which I've been anticipating since I come from an almost entirely small animal background. I've always loooved horses, I've ridden a few times but I don't know anything technical about them. We started with basic skills like haltering, leading, picking out hooves and grooming. My group's horse was named Violet and she was new to the teaching barn so she was very curious but behaved great :) now I reeeally want a horse in the future! Then we moved to the dairy barn and got to halter and restrain cows, which is a messier and more sweat-inducing job, but cows are so damn adorable. Those eyes and ears and giant sloppy tongues make up for the fact that they like to explode with pee and poop whenever they feel the need to. It was awesome to feel a bit like a farm vet in coveralls and steel-toed boots, and I'm already looking forward to "horse care week" where we get assigned to care for a horse daily.

We also got to do a heart lab in anatomy, which ended with the prof doing a live dissection of a horse heart (or was it a cow..either way it was as big as my head). Only vet students would gasp and go "ooooooh it's beautiful" when the valves of the heart were visible.....yes we're nerds!

This week was super tiring with 4/5 days starting at 8:30, and I would have normally slept in this morning (Saturday) but we had our professional welcoming ceremony! My family came down to watch me get officially welcomed into the profession, complete with a stethoscope and an embroidered blue lab coat - I guess I'm here to stay! The speeches themselves weren't all that thrilling for the most part (especially at 10 am..) but our class' presidents gave an awesome speech about the 2018 Ivory Owls - the line that stuck with me was "we get along with every classmate we meet because we're all slightly different versions of the same person" or something like that - so true :) afterwards my family and I walked around some gorgeous nature trails which Guelph is full of.

I'm ending this week very tired but also very happy :) ..until I have to study all day tomorrow for our first test on Monday :( but that's life - and an excuse to drink more coffee!