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

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!