University Dorms

First of all congratulations to everyone that has received an offer for UVM Kosice already! Go you! :)
I've had a few comments and messages asking for information about the university dormitories and what you need to bring with you because there isn't much info out there.

The rooms are meant for 2 people so they are a good size. Off the top of my head I would say about 12 x 14ft (approx. 3 x 4.3m). All the rooms have the following as standard:

2 single beds and 2 sets of bedding

2 desks

2 chairs

2 shelves (a lot of the rooms have more)

2 desk lamps

1 mirror

1 sink

1 refrigerator (some have a freezer compartment)

Large wardrobe/storage

Sometimes the previous occupant will have left some things behind as well, so there’s a bit of luck involved.

Here are a couple of views of my room when I first arrived. I have now decorated etc so it looks a bit nicer but this is what you can expect when you first arrive. Some of the rooms are decorated by previous students but mine wasn't so this is the 'dorms colour scheme'.

 

You can push the beds together to make a double, stack one on top of the other (which is what I have done so I have more space) or keep them separate and use one as a sofa. The bedding isn’t always the best quality and I ended up buying my own. 

Each corridor of 11 rooms has 4 toilet cubicles, 3 showers and a small kitchen area. The ‘kitchen’ is cupboard-sized and usually just has a microwave and a hot plate so a lot of people have mini ovens, kettles etc. in their own rooms. 

Pretty much everything you need for your room can be bought out here for cheaper than it would be at home so you really don’t need to bring much with you. All I brought with me when I first arrived was a suitcase full of clothes and it has been fine.  

If you’re a tea drinker and particular about what brand you drink I would bring some teabags with you. The only black tea blend that I have seen is Lipton Yellow Label which is nice enough but it’s quite expensive for not many teabags. Marks and Spencer also sell English Breakfast and a few other blends that are nice and work out fairly cheap (I only recently discovered this!).

Also if you like writing on nice quality paper then bring a few pads with you. All the lined paper I have found out here has been quite flimsy. 

I would bring a little first aid kit too with paracetamol and cold remedy in case of the dreaded fresher's flu. Even graduates aren't immune, apparently, since I came down with it fairly quickly in the first week of lectures! Paracetamol etc. can be bought out here over the counter but trying to ask for something in Slovak while you're not feeling your best isn't pleasant so I'd bring a small stash with you.

Other than that you can bring as much or as little as you want because as I said, most things can be bought out here.

I hope that helps, if I think of anything else important I will add it to this post. Now I am off to enjoy a few days at home while we have the long weekend off for Easter :)

Bye for now!

Lucy

Spring semester

I'm now over half way through my second semester at vet school and I can't believe how fast it has gone! It still feels like I just got back after Christmas. The work load has been similar to last semester but I think I might be getting better at coping with it because it hasn't seemed as intense as last semester.

We still have a lot of credit tests. Last week I had three which was pretty hectic, but they all went fine in the end. We have started some new modules about bees, fish, hygiene and nutrition as well as carrying on with some we started last semester like histology, physiology and anatomy. In anatomy we're now on to the organs which I am enjoying a lot more than muscles. It's really interesting and also a little bit easier which helps! The new modules are quite interesting, I'm getting quite into learning about bees, haha. The Bees lecturer is very enthusiastic which is kind of infectious. Plus I do like honey!

Kosice is lovely at the moment. It has been about 15C every day and very sunny. It isn't usually so warm at this time of year, the winter has been unusually mild. I'm definitely not complaining though!

I have received a few messages from people applying to start here at Kosice in September which are always welcome! If you comment me with your email address/other contact info I'm always happy to answer any questions you have about the course and the city. I remember when I was applying this time last year and how difficult it can be to find information. One resource that I found very helpful was the Kosice thread on the student room forum. It's very long now but you can use the search bar to search for keywords. I actually read the whole thing from start to finish, but that can be very time consuming!

I look forward to hearing from any new applicants :)

Next update will probably be around the Easter break because I should get a bit of free
time.

Bye for now!

Lucy

First semester complete!

My first semester of vet school is over! I had my last exam yesterday and now I have 6 days of nothingness before lectures start again next week. :)

I passed all my exams thankfully, but some of them were quite difficult. Certain exams were definitely harder to pass than the ones I took for my zoology degree. I could always be fairly confident about passing my zoology exams, but here I have a feeling there’s always a chance I could fail! Most of the exams are oral here which means we get the marks back almost straight away. My final marks for this semester are:
Anatomy – C
Genetics – C
Milk Hygiene – A
Latin – A
Slovak – A

There are a few different dates for each of the final exams so you’re able to choose when you take them; you can either cram them all in before Christmas or spread them out over the whole exam period. I took 3 before Christmas (Latin, Milk Hygiene and Slovak) and I left Anatomy and Genetics until the end of the exam period. I definitely needed the extra revision time for Anatomy and Genetics; they were by far the hardest exams! It meant I got a good long time at home for Christmas which was really nice and I managed to work a few days at my job at the zoo to earn some extra tuition fee money!

I also got to get better acquainted with this little man:

He’s still a bit wary of me; I think he might prefer my mum, who looks after him while I’m at uni. He will follow Ruby over to me if he thinks there are treats but he doesn’t climb all over me to get them like she does! I’m pretty impressed with the amount of hay he eats. I’ve never had a proper hay monster rabbit. Ruby eats a lot of hay but she eats it because it’s food rather than because she enjoys it. Willow seems to really love it and I’ve tried him with a few different types as a treat. For any other rabbits out there, he especially recommends Burns Green Oat and Excel Herbage Camomile ;) 

These last few months have gone so quickly, I’m now 1/8^th of the way through the course! I’m looking forward to starting lectures for next semester now (although a bit of a break is very welcome). We got our new timetable yesterday and it looks very busy. A few new subjects we are starting this semester are Animal Hygiene and Welfare, Nutrition and dietetics, and Diseases of Fish and Bees. We are also starting to study organs in Anatomy, which sounds really interesting!

Bye for now!

Lucy

First semester of vet school

It’s been too long, I’m sorry! My excuse is that having now started vet school, I have next to no free time. 

I arrived in Kosice in the first week of September. The first week I was there I mostly spent kitting my room out, going to a few fresher’s events and exploring the town. I managed to turn my dorms room from this:

Into this:

It has changed a bit since then. I have stacked the two single beds on top of one another so I now have a high single bed and there is so much more space in my room! You’re allowed to do basically whatever you want to your room. I was slightly disheartened when I saw my room to start with but now I’ve made it feel like home. 

After that first week of relaxation we got stuck straight in with lectures. Most of what we have covered this semester has been revision from my previous degree (physiology, microbiology etc) but we also started on anatomy which I have never studied before. There are credit tests every week in anatomy which means I have had at least one credit test every week (the most in one week so far has been 4!) so it’s pretty intense. We have already covered the whole skeletal and muscular system, then next week we will start on joints, then next semester it is on to organs. I’m surprised by how much I’ve learnt already. A couple of days ago I unearthed this picture of a sheep skull that I drew about 7 years ago and I found that I could identify all the little foramen and lumps and bumps that I drew :)

I haven’t made much progress in learning the language, unfortunately! Even our Slovak teacher said we would probably never learn it. It’s very different to English, and the locals speak very quickly. I can recognise lots of words written down (which is helpful when shopping) but any attempts at conversation usually fail. It doesn’t help that when I attempt to speak Slovak, I’m usually asked to “Speak English, slowly”. My English is obviously easier for Slovak people to understand than my attempts at their own language :( I’ll keep trying with it, but to be honest studying Slovak is taking a back seat to all the other subjects. 

On a sad note, my little man Pipkin died just a couple of weeks before I left for Slovakia :( He seemed to be improving after quite a difficult year but I took him for a dental after the vet noticed some spurs and this time he didn’t survive the anaesthetic. He was such a special rabbit and I still miss him a lot. <3 nbsp="" p="">

We have since adopted another little bun to pair with Ruby. His name is Willow and he’s a nethie like Pipkin but red eyed white colour. I have only met him a couple of times so far but he is very sweet and more of a cuddle bun than any of the rabbits I’ve owned before. He is getting on very well with Ruby :) I can’t wait to get to know him properly when I go home for Christmas.  

I’ll try to make a few more posts over the next couple of days about what else I’ve been up to since I got here (no promises though!). I only have one credit test next week which is a bit of a relief! If not I will update sometime over Christmas :)

Bye for now!

Lucy

4 weeks to go!

Yesterday it was exactly four weeks until I travel to Kosice. The time has gone so quickly and I feel like I still have so much to do in the next few weeks!

I have sorted out my Caxton FX card which is a prepaid currency card. It means I can load money onto it online from my UK bank accounts and then use it in ATMs and card machines in Europe without any extra fees. I'm hoping to use this for the whole course rather than opening a Slovak bank account. It was really easy to set up, and compares favourably to other prepaid currency cards I looked at, some of which charged a fee per transaction or for inactivity.

This will make me seem a bit too keen but I've already packed my suitcase! I wanted to make sure I could fit everything in a while in advance so I'd know whether I need to pay for a second suitcase. It looks like I'll just about have room for everything, and I've paid for extra hand luggage so I should manage to fit everything else I need in there. The vacuum storage bags have been a life saver. There's no way I'd have fitted everything in without them! I'm also thankful for the 32kg weight limit with Wizz Air because my suitcase weighs in at about 27kg!! I'm used to travelling light so I think it's the heaviest suitcase I've every packed.

The bus from Budapest to Kosice is all booked! I'm travelling with some other new students so we can all get lost together.

I'm also trying to get the animals sorted out before I leave and my mum takes over their care. Pipkin my netherland dwarf rabbit has chronic dental problems and he's having a bit of a flare up at the moment. His tooth roots are very elongated which causes inflammation and infection. I've switched him from zithromax (which didn't seem to be working) to baytril today so hopefully he'll see some improvement very soon. The vet mentioned that we might have to think about having some of his molars taken out but I want to leave that as a very last resort because we've managed to sort his problems out with a course of antibiotics before (also I'm scared!).

The buns have a nice new hutch and run combo because their old one was getting a bit tatty and I was worried about bits breaking off while I'm away! My next project is to do up the aviary and hopefully get electricity installed so we can have a light up there.

I have another day off tomorrow (two in a row! :D) so I'm going to make a trip to Wickes to pick up some stuff for the aviary.

Bye for now!

Lucy

Preparing for the big move

So my flight to Budapest is all booked! In just under 7 weeks I will be in Slovakia.

It might be a bit early but I have started packing already. I'm usually a very light packer but I keep worrying that I'm going to forget something important. The suitcase I'm using is quite large but super light so it won't take up too much of the weight allowance. To save space in the suitcase I'm packing all my clothes in vacuum storage bags which shrink everything down into the smallest possible space! I'm planning to buy kitchen stuff and bedding when I'm there to save space, and all I'm really taking is clothes and the bare essentials.

I've also been sorting out getting my A level certificates apostilled. This is a requirement by the university to make sure students graduated school. The apostille legalizes the document for use in countries outside the UK. It took a while for me to wrap my head around the process but I'm nearly sorted now so here's what needs doing as simply as I can write it for any other prospective students.

1. Your A level certificates first need to be copied and the copy notarised by a notary public. This cost me £60 for two documents but I think it varies by notary. You can find a notary in your area easily through Google. It might be worth ringing round a few to see if you can get it cheaper.

2. Once this is done you are able to send them off yourself to the legalisation office. You have to fill in the application form that can be found on the website, pay the fee online and then send the application form, confirmation of payment and your notarised certificates off to the address given.

3. When you arrive in Slovakia these apostilled documents need to be translated into Slovak. I've heard it's cheaper to get it done over there so that's what I'm planning to do. I haven't done this part yet so don't have any more info!

One more thing I will say for people planning on travelling with Wizz Air is check the flight prices several different times during the day over a few days and watch for a pattern before booking! I checked my chosen flight one week day morning and it was only £30 (previously when I had booked it had been £40-£50). I had to rush off to work but planned to sort the flight out when I arrived home. By that time it had gone back up to £50! I checked each morning and a few days later it had gone back down to £30 so I booked it straight away. I know it's not a huge amount of money in the scheme of things but it will add up if you're flying back and forth a lot.

That's all for now!

Lucy

Slovenia..? Scandinavia..?

People seem to have trouble remembering where in the world I am going to study! No one I have spoken to seems to know much about Slovakia, and indeed neither did I before I started researching the vet school there! With the help of Wikipedia and Google I have started to learn about the country and city where I will be living for the majority of the next four years. From what I've found it looks like a lovely place to live, which is good because I won't get a chance to visit before I move out there. 

Slovakia is a small country, even smaller than the UK, with a population size of about 5.4 million. Kosice is the second largest city after the capital Bratislava, but still only has a population of about 240,000. The country is landlocked and bordered by Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Austria and Czech Republic (with which it used to make up Czechoslovakia. It's a part of the world I've never really visited before so I plan to use this opportunity to travel a bit more.

The landscape of Slovakia seems to be full of mountains, caves and castles. I'll leave it to the Slovakia tourism website to provide you with pictures because I obviously don't have any myself yet.

The climate looks pretty good too, with proper summers but also proper snowy winters. Maybe I can take some tips back to the UK for coping with snowy weather! I'm pretty sure the Slovaks don't drop everything at the first flake.

Regarding travel, there are currently no flights directly from the UK to Kosice. The options are flying to Bratislava and getting the train to Kosice, or flying to Budapest, Hungary and getting a taxi. The Budapest option seems to take slightly less time but it's also slightly more expensive. I have read rumours of a flight route opening up between Luton and Kosice which would be ideal, but I'm not getting my hopes up because there have been no confirmations yet.

On another note, I had my last day volunteering at the zoo today :( I will miss it but I'm going to be working more hours in the retail department of the zoo from next week and I need my days off for planning the big move to Slovakia. I will still be volunteering for Tiggywinkles as it's not such a big commitment, so I should still get my animal work fix occasionally!

Bye for now!

Lucy

It's been a long time...

...but I decided to revive my blog!

A lot has happened since I last posted (well it has been over a year!) so I don't quite know where to start.
After my RVC interview last year I was rejected at the end of March, so I applied again in October, had an interview this year in January and was rejected AGAIN in March. The RVC obviously don't want me, so I moved on to my back up plan; studying abroad.

I applied to the University of Veterinary Medicine in Košice, Slovakia, shortly after receiving my second rejection and... I have a place! So I'll be starting there this September. The main reason I'm restarting this blog is to help out anyone who is thinking of studying there. The course seems to be getting more popular but there's still not much information out there for potential applicants so hopefully I'll be able to rectify that a bit once I get started on the course.

In other news, I've been working in the retail department of a local zoo since March last year, and also volunteering on the Africa department which has been a lot of fun! Especially getting to hang out with newborns like this little guy.

The giraffes are probably my favourite. I think it's because I look a little bit like one!

That's all for now. I'll try to keep the updates regular from now on! Hopefully I'll post some pictures of the things I've been knitting over the past year in the next few days. I have vague plans to sell some of them off to raise funds for my studies but we'll see how it goes.

Bye!

Lucy

Interview, knitting, and CROCHET!

Had my RVC interview on Wednesday! At the moment I’m thinking I probably haven’t got in, but it depends on how everyone else did I think. Some of the stations were really good and others were really bad :( The RVC are interviewing until the 21^st March, so I won’t hear anything until after then. It seems so loooong to wait! 

Even though the interview wasn’t amazing it was nice looking around the campus. I have been to the Hawkshead campus on an open day but I hadn’t visited Camden campus before. There is a little anatomy museum inside which is really cool; lots of skeletons and pickled animal parts! Some of the skeletons spilled over into the cafe as well. I was sitting in there waiting for my interview next to an elephant skeleton which was pretty cool. 

If I get in I had been planning on travelling in every day since it’s not that far, but now I kind of want to live in halls again, lol. I didn’t really like living in halls at Nottingham but the RVC ones seem really nice and they are just 2 minutes from the uni building which would be nice (instead of being a 2 hour bus journey away).

Moving away from interview-speak: I have knit this!

 

Isn’t it cute? It is a bed bug from this book that I mentioned a few posts ago. I did make him a hat like the example in the book but it didn’t fit him very well :( Think it needs some larger needles.

Two bedbugs together

Ooh, also I tried crochet. I think the yarn I have is a bit thick for my hook size (I only have two hooks at the moment and they’re both quite small) but it didn’t turn out as badly as I expected. At first I wanted to go running back to the knitting needles but after a while I decided it wasn’t so bad. I haven’t attempted an actual pattern yet, I think I will get some better sized hooks first. I look forward to trying some amigurumi patterns though.

This picture isn’t of my very first attempt (which I seem to have lost) but is just some single crochet practice:

 Bye for now!

Lucy

Christmas knits

It has come to my attention that I haven't posted anything knitty in a while! So here are a couple of things I have made recently.
Firstly, a hot water bottle cover, which I finished just two days ago although it was supposed to be a Christmas present. Oops!

 

It's dark blue on one side and light blue on the other but the photos have changed the colour a bit. I'm happy with the cable side but the other one went a but yucky along the edges when I changed from knit to purl :( Oh well, it's functional and that's what counts!

Next is a scarf which I knitted for meeeee. I made a few with the same pattern for Christmas and they knit up really quickly and don't use too much wool which is nice. You can see another one I made for Kerry at her blog. It's in a picture with a little bunny I knitted for her a couple of years ago. I think I have improved since then! Hehe

 

I'm currently knitting a pattern from this book, just for fun.The patterns are all soooo cute! I got the book for my birthday last year but all I've made from it so far is a few nano hamsters. I aim to make all of the patterns at some point, and an army of hamsters! Next blog post I'll hopefully have a finished item to show you.

In other news, I was rejected from Nottingham vet school. Not too surprised because they are a bit biased against graduates but I would have liked at least an interview first! RVC was my first choice anyway, so it just means I have to do super good at my interview next week and hopefully get an offer. Eek! I'm very very scared. I hope I don't mess up.

Oooh, also I had a haircut today! I've been putting it off for ages so it's quite a relief, lol. I won't look quite so scruff at interview now. :D

That's about it for now, bye!

Lucy

(Belated) Happy New Year!

The new year is going well so far! I have heard back from the Royal Vet College and I have an interview at the end of the month :D I’m pretty nervous (actually really super nervous) but I’m hoping I can at least do ok and not embarrass myself. An offer afterwards would be amazing but I don’t want to get my hopes up too much!

I had a call from St Tiggywinkles this morning to go on my first proper rescue for a goose that is caught in some fishing line. Unfortunately the goose flew off before I arrived; the people who called it in had been feeding it bread to make it stay nearby but it eventually decided it had had enough! If it returns I might go out in the morning to try again. Fingers crossed he will be caught safely and make it to the wildlife hospital. 

I have finished my job at Past Times which was sad but at least now I have time to concentrate on exam revision and interview preparation. On the closing day for the last half an hour or so everything was reduced to £1 :o so I got a few bargains including this book which has some amaaazing photos, and a few gifts for people which I won’t mention because I haven’t given them to them yet (and I probably shouldn’t have said that because now they will know they only cost £1!). 

In other news, Charlie the cat is in disgrace after the theft of a joint of beef bigger than his head that was intended for next day's dinner. It was stolen from the kitchen counter and chewed to a mushy pulp within seconds. He maintains his innocence...

The accused

Bye for now!

Lucy

Vet School Post

I received a post card this morning from Nottingham vet school. Unfortunately it was nothing too exciting like an OFFER, it was just acknowledging that they’d received my questionnaire. It did however have a giraffe on it which is perfect because I love giraffes! I look a little bit like one you see.

Anyway, now that the BMAT is over (thankfully) and all questionnaires/application forms etc have been sent off, this is the beginning of me waiting every day for the post to arrive to see if I have anything from the vet schools. The anticipation is killing me just a bit.

Work is going pretty well, I got promoted already! That means I get a little bit more money and a little bit more power, muahaha. I only get one real day off a week now because of work and college. That happens to be today, and it happens to have been ruined by one of my bunnies getting ill this morning. She isn’t eating, I think maybe the fireworks last night stressed her out. So I spent most of the morning at the vets and the bunnies are still there :( They should come home tomorrow if Ruby is eating by then.

Poor Woobles

I had been debating doing NaNoWriMo this year, but it looks like I might be too busy with work and college. I think my writing days are over, I don’t really get ideas any more. If I do end up writing anything then maybe I will post it here... But probably not. 

Happy Bonfire Night by the way!

Lucy