Rain, rain and more rain - and Daisy!

Greetings from the depressing city of Guelph where it rains 24/7 and sunshine does not exist! Can you tell I love rain???

When it's not raining here, it looks like this :)

Moving on - hi everyone! I thought I'd take a few mins during this annoying week to update you all on my life. The week after I got back from Thanksgiving was a great 3 day week; I finally did the real cow palpation lab and it was much more poop filled than I expected. At 8:30 in the morning. YUM. Hahah but now I can say I've done it, even though I plan on being a small animal vet which thankfully only requires a gloved finger, not an entire arm!
Also that week one of my friends from class invited me to a gala in Toronto for OVC's Pet Trust. Pet Trust is a group within OVC that raises money to build new research and diagnostic facilities to better help people's pets. It was amazing to see the generous donations the guests gave (while we sat there like the poor students we are), and to see the power that pets have to bring so many people together. There was a delicious meal, wine (!!), some famous Canadian faces (Ben Mulroney and Meagan Markle from Suits), and overall it was great to dress up and see what OVC does behind the scenes. They ended up raising half a million dollars!

Such a pretty set up :)

On the "green carpet" - of course I was mid sentence

The following weekend was spent studying for our first POD (principles of disease) test; the class that every second year dreads. I survived the first test and actually felt like I had learned a lot. Having awesome professors makes all the difference!
This past weekend Matt visited (and brought Daisy!) and we had the ultimate lazy night filled with takeout from the Mandarin, wine (do you see a theme here?), and lots of pointless YouTube videos. Sometimes you just need to do zero homework/studying to stay sane :) This month classes have been really boring and we've had a bunch of group assignments (barf). I'd much rather study for an exam than work on an assignment.

My girl and my adorable new canvas 

This weekend is Halloween and I'm being Cleopatra so I'm pretty pumped to do some awesome makeup! We have a test every monday in November so this will be my last weekend to have some fun for awhile :)
I think that's it for now! Thanks for reading :)
- oh one more thing, I've checked my blog stats lately and have seen some readers from Europe and India! So cool! If you're reading this and you're from another country (or even if you're from Canada), comment below on how you came across my blog :)

A little overdue update

How has it been 3 weeks since my last post?? That basically describes how second year is going - sooo quickly!

Recap:

- IMATS/Toronto: my friends and I had a great girls weekend and took advantage of the amazing makeup sales at the show - I won't need to buy anything for a looong time now.

Best friends since elementary school :)

While everyone else in TO was at the Jays game, we were here :)

- Cow palp: the lineup at the palpation lab was so long that I only got to try out the simulation model, but it had a real uterus in it so it was pretty close to the real thing. I didn't expect the ovaries of a 1500 pound animal to be so small! Tomorrow is the next lab so I'll be able to actually put my arm up there - the things that vet students get excited about :)

- Classes in general have been much better this year, I've really taken a liking to hematology because I find it amazing how we can look at a blood sample and uncover so much of what is going on inside the animal's body. We've gotten the chance to perfect our blood smearing techniques and also got to practice tissue sampling last week. Yay for learning clinical things!

- Shadowing opportunities: this year we have a mandatory week of shadowing a 4th year student on rotation. Mine isn't til December but I'll be doing it in small animal surgery and I'm so excited! it'll be a great chance to see what I'll be doing in 2 years (that is also a terrifying thought). The surgery club that I am a part of has also set up shifts for the small animal emergency team, where we're "on call" for a shift and if there is an emergency surgery we will get called in to observe.

- Asepsis lab: we had our first surgery lab last week and after practicing a full surgical scrub, I have never had cleaner hands (perfect for a germaphobe!). We learned scrubbing, opening surgical packs, gloving and gowning - sounds simple enough, but it is quite a process when you have to keep all the rules of sterility in mind.

Feeling like vets!

- Tests: we've already gotten 2 (very small) ones out of the way, so I'm finally getting back into the studying routine. Coffee coffee coffee!

This past weekend was (Canadian) thanksgiving so I got to go home and spend time with my family, Matt's family, and my friends. It was a nice few days of relaxation before getting back into school mode. Daisy is unfortunately still in London, she is doing much much better after her kidney infection has gone away but she is still showing some signs of her ongoing kidney inflammation (nephritis) - peeing in her bed occasionally is the one that I'm most concerned about, especially because she sleeps in my bed when she's here in Guelph with me. We have her on the vet prescription kidney diet now and once things are under control hopefully she'll come down. I miss her a lot and I don't like to have my parents take care of her every day but it's what's best for her health and my stress levels right now. (Thanks mom and dad, if you're reading this!)

Looking pretty good for everything she's been through! <3

Snuggles 

Today is Tuesday and we got the day off, so I'm looking forward to a 3 day week! I'm supposed to be spending today catching up on homework though, so I'm gonna end this here. Thanks for reading :)