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

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!

Job Hunting

Last week I had three job interviews! After getting nothing for ages it was quie a relief. They all went pretty well, and I've been offered a casual post office job that starts in a couple of months. It will be dull but it's better than nothing! Still waiting to hear back from the others. I might end up with two jobs! :D

I had another rescue last week. It was a collared dove this time that had jumped the nest too young and couldn't fly. He seemed healthy otherwise so Tiggy's will look after him until he's old enough to look after himself and then he should be released :) Happy ending!

I've also been knitting this guy for the past week or so. The pattern was really cute and easy to follow. I think I will probably make some more at some point! I gave him a scarf to disguise the fact that I sewed his arms on a bit low giving him a reeeally long neck, lol. 

 

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

What I have been doing instead of revision...

It's been quite a while since I last updated. Oops! But since Kirsty is the only person who reads this I think I am safe, lol.
Anyway, I haven't updated because I haven't had anything to update about. Most of my time has been taken up with revision for the last ever exams of my zoology degree. Aaah! And the rest of my time has been taken up with procrastination from revision.

Knitting is pretty good for procrastination. A lot of my revision time recently has been taken up with knitting this guy:And look! His friend the white rabbit is in the background :) The rabbit will have some clothes knitted at some point but I left all my coloured wool at home so he will have to wait. He is going to be sold to raise money for a rescue I volunteer at. I have also made a grey bunny with the same pattern but she is in bits at the moment so no pictures, lol.

The pattern I used is from here. It's the same pattern I used to make the bunny in one of my earlier knitting posts. He looked a bit different because he had button eyes. I have since bought some safety eyes and I think they look much better!

I hope that's enough of an update for now! I really should get back to learning about parasites and immunological mechanisms, although I fear it will make my head explode :(

Bye for now!

Mak the Penguin!

Hi!
I felt like knitting something the other day and Kirsty suggested a penguin. Since I had the right colour wool (well... close enough) I though I would give it a go. Sooo, I introduce, Mak the penguin:
(Pattern from here)

He is currently called Mak after the pattern but name suggestions are most welcome. As long as it's not Tiki... or Chicken...
The pattern asked for 3.25mm needles and I could only find one 3.25 double pointed needle so I went for 4mm instead which means the stuffing shows through a little bit :( I also didn't have any yellow wool for the feet and beak so I used a beige-y gold-y colour which I had got to make a meerkat for Kirsty last year. Aaaanyway, I think he is quite cute ^_^

Other than that I haven't done too much today. Mostly sorting out the animals. My mum looks after them well while I'm at uni but there are always things to do when I got back. Ruby the rabbit has had rather a fetching haircut since her mane was getting matted. Pipkin obviously isn't fulfilling his grooming duties. Here is a picture of the rabbits just cause they are cute:


Pipkin is the netherland dwarf and Ruby is the lionhead with the rather pathetic mane. It has grown much longer than that this year. I do not know why.

Aaanyway, that's it for today. I am proud I have managed to update two days in a row :D

Bye for now!

Lucy