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

Pipkin Knits - my new shop!

I have started a Folksy shop to try to use up and sell off some of the massive stash of yarn I have accumulated over the last few years! I will mostly be making toy animals, but I might also have the odd accessory/ pet toy for sale. I'm just going to see how it goes!

The shop is named after my bunny Pipkin, because I was a bit stuck with what to call it. So, without further ado, the link:

Pipkin Knits

I only have two things up for sale at the moment, but I have a few other half completed bits that will hopefully be added soon.

Bye for now!

NYC Days 3 & 4!

This post has taken quite a bit longer than I'd hoped, sorry!

On our third day in New York we spent the morning in Central Park just having a wander. We only walked about a third of the way into the park in the end. I didn't really realise how big it is but it's about 800 acres which is bigger than the zoo I work at (600 acres) and that feels massive!
 
The park was very peaceful although still quite busy. It was just a nice change of pace from the rest of our time in New York.  It was really weird being surrounded by green but seeing the skyscrapers either side.

I had seen some black squirrels on my first trip to Central Park in the early evening of the first day, but I didn't see any on my second visit. I did however see a cardinal which I know are not particularly rare but I had never seen one before and it's quite a surprise to see a flash of red go by when we don't have any birds of that colour at home in the UK.

We left Central Park at about lunch time and headed back towards the hotel to the pizza place right next door. My sister said it was the best pizza she'd ever had. I probably wouldn't go that far but it was really good and not too expensive either. The restaurant is called Angelo's Pizza and is very convenient for people staying at the Salisbury Hotel next door (just in case anyone is thinking of staying there!).

The afternoon was pretty relaxed, we just had another look at Fifth Avenue and went to sit in the Apple store for a bit (free wi fi! :) ).

In the evening we went to see Matilda the musical. Times Square was sooo busy that evening. We encountered a hold up in front of a store called Oakleys where they were holding some online music awards and Andrew WK was sitting in the window playing drums with one of the Ramones. We had to hurry past to get to the theatre on time but I'll come back to this later in the post!

The musical was so good! I had been wanting to see it on the West End since it won lots of awards last year, including the Olivier award for best actor in a musical won by Bertie Carvel for playing Miss Trunchbull. He was also in the Broadway production and I could see why he won the award, Miss Trunchbull was hilarious!

I wasn't sure I would like the songs much since I hadn't heard any of them before but they were really good and very clever. I'm going to try to get to see the West End production later in the year because I'd like to see it again. It's the sort of thing you will pick new things up in each show, I think.

On day three we didn't do much. We went to Macy's in the morning on the request of my mum (neither me or my sister really like shopping!) but she didn't like it in there that much, surprisingly. We had visited a Macy's in Florida and apparently she preferred that one! It probably didn't help that the store was being renovated while we were there but it was quite a disappointing trip compared to the rest of the week.

We walked back to the hotel through Times Square and when we walked past the Oakley store Andrew WK was there drumming AGAIN with someone different this time. Apparently he was attempting a 24 hour drum session record, which he did complete later that day!

After packing during the afternoon, me and my mum returned to the Rockefeller Centre in the evening so that we could visit the observation deck in the dark. It was pretty impressive to see the whole city lit up. I did try to take some photos but they didn't come out great.

The next day we were up at 4.30 to get to the airport for our flight home. I think the time we went for was long enough for one trip, but there were plenty of things we could have done if we had more time there. We'll have to save those up for our next visit!

So that's the last post on my New York trip. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I got home but time seems to have been running away from me for the past few months! In two months I'll be off to Slovakia and I bet that time will be gone before I realise.

Bye for now!

Lucy

NYC Day 2!

Day 2 we went to the Rockefeller centre and visited the Top of the Rock observation deck on the 70th floor. I don't think I've ever been that high up in a building before but the view was amazing. We could see the whole of Central Park and also the Empire State building and the new World Trade Centre One tower which is nearly finished. It was pretty quiet up there when we went but it was getting busier as we left. We seemed to have a knack for avoiding the crowds all week actually!

After that we walked down 5th Avenue to the Grand Central Terminal which was huge and far too beautiful inside for a train station. We stopped there for lunch where I had the biggest burger ever! It was pretty amazing.

We walked back up 5^th Avenue to get back to the hotel and had a look in some of the shops. They were mostly expensive designer places so we didn’t buy anything except some NYC souvenirs from one of the (many!) gift shops.

In the evening we went to see our first Broadway show, Annie. It was very good and our seats were great despite being pretty cheap! Jane Lynch played Miss Hannigan and I thought she was really good, although I'm not a fan of Glee. It was great being able to see Times Square all lit up when we came out of the theatre, and it was still packed!

I'll post about day 3 and 4 together, hopefully tomorrow.

Bye for now!

Lucy

Luton to Kosice

Just a quick post to say that the Luton to Kosice flights I have been hoping for were announced today! This should make travelling between university and home a lot easier for UK students in Kosice.

The flights are run by Wizz Air who I haven't flown with before but their limit for checked baggage seems better than other airlines (32kg per bag) and they also have a discount scheme which I think would definitely be worth it for students flying to and from Kosice regularly.

The flights will be starting from the 17th September which is the day after term begins so it won't be any good for the first journey out but hopefully it will make travelling home for holidays much easier. Flights will only be twice a week (Tue and Sat) until the end of October when they are upped to four times a week (Sun, Mon, Wed, Fri).
 
Information about the flights can be found here (the site is in Slovak so will need translating if you can't read it) and they can be booked on the Wizz Air website.