After 6 written essay exams, 3 MCQ practicals, 3 group projects/presentations, 2.5 weeks of studying and 2 LITERS OF COFFEE (probably more than that), I am done with my first semester of veterinary school. WOW. That feels really good to say; almost as good as saying I got into vet school. So that's 1 semester and 7 more to go.
I could probably go on for hours about how crappy my exam schedule was (7 exams in 4 days is a little crazy don't you think?) and how much I missed the ease of Denison exams, but I won't bore with that. I'll just say that we had to write our exams at an external exhibition hall in Dublin. It's the same hall where they have craft shows and the major horse show in the spring. So we kind of all felt like livestock being shuttled into these massive halls, given a seat number and having to show our student ID to enter the hall. It makes sense for the sheer number of students that have to sit exams at the end of the semester, but it takes 30 minutes to walk from campus to the hall and we had to be there 15 minutes before the exam started anyway... so basically an hour before the exam you had to quit studying and hope that you had it all locked in your brain. At the end of all of this, I do feel good about my exams, some better than others, but over all a good feeling. I won't find out the results until late January, so until then it's out of my hands and I've done all that I can do. With all the studying in the past couple weeks, I do really feel like I learned something this semester. And I feel like it was useful what I was learning and I'll be able to apply it in the future. Like I've said before I'm learning for my career now and not just a degree. If there is one thing I can tell you, I love anatomy.
I've had a couple days off now and fly out (fingers crossed) on Friday morning for the OH-IO. It's been snowing the past 2 days and even though there's only about 4 inches accumulated, the whole of Dublin pretty much shuts down with that much snow, including the airport. They just don't have the means to deal with snow. They plow the streets and footpaths with front end loaders for example. I'm excited to be home and see my family and just have a few weeks off to relax and visit with friends. I'll be back in Dublin for round 2 before I know it.
I guess you could say I've been busy and haven't been able to post on here as much as I'd like to. Next semester doesn't look so bright either for frequent posts. Though maybe I could do a one sentence post each day. I'll be on the farm once a week so that should produce some fun anecdotes. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Sláinte!
