This semester is focused on systems in the abdomenal and pelvic regions. I have classes in abdomen and pelvis anatomy, locomotion & exercise, digestive physiology, reproduction, animal nutrition and food animal systems & applied breeding. Each of those with lab and/or practical components. (Funny, as I think about it now, I've also been doing the P90X Insanity workout program with Katrina and Gina for 5 weeks... working those abs, among other muscle groups). My favorite part about this semester by far, is getting to go to the farm every Thursday. While it may suck having to get up at 6:45am, get to the bus by 8, and have a 45 minute bus ride to and from the farm, it makes it all worth it when we actually get to interact with animals and have a practical/hands on sense of what we're learning in lectures and dissection. (Plus these 3 week old calves are just too adorable... cattle are my new favorites.)
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| Katrina and two of our Fresian dairy calf friends. |
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| Dad's coveralls working out pretty well. |
Besides classes, the semester has also had it's share of busy weekends... a welcome break from the classroom, coveralls and countless hours of studying. I went to the Masquerade Veterinary Ball, which was held at the Grand Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire (pronounced "Done Lerry"). I had a ball, literally. There was a wine reception with masked entrance, then dinner and dancing and the wine kept flowing. The best part is that now I have an excuse to get a really fancy formal dress for next year's ball.
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| Lovely ladies at the Ball. |
I don't know if I've mentioned it in any of my posts on here, but anyway I'm on the Division 1 Women's Club Volleyball team at UCD. This November, the team won the Ireland intervarsity tournament (against all the University club teams in Ireland). This win gave us the invitation to compete in the Volleyball England Student Cup two weeks ago in Norwich, England. It's been a blast being part of a sports team again; I've definitely missed the commraderie and it's nice to have a physical/social outlet outside of the vet program (even though 3 of my teammates are in the vet program but 2 are in the year above me). I didn't get to play as much as I would have liked, but the competition was pretty top notch over in England compared to Ireland and the team came in 12th anyway out of 16 teams. Not the best performance, but a solid one nonetheless and two of the teams in our initial pool made it to the semi-finals, so we were up against some of the best teams there.
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| UCD Volleyball Club D1W |
So despite this already busy semester and it being nearly half way complete, I haven't had the "AH-HA" moment. The "AH-HA" moment is that moment when things click, when the fog lifts and you can see the road ahead, when all the ducks are in a row, and you're like "AH-HA! I get it. This makes sense. I'm on the right track." Since the career project in Mrs. Hamburg's 7th grade class, I've been working my butt off, slowly but surely, towards becoming a veterinarian. I went to a good--GREAT--university, took all the prerequisites, sought out a variety of veterinary experience, went to Kenya, was rejected from my first round of vet school applications, but then went and got more experience, took more classes and ended up here IN IRELAND, IN VET SCHOOL. That should be it, right? But it's not been that easy. UCD isn't Denison and there really isn't a comparison. It's been tough finding a support system on this side of the Atlantic. I do have a couple good friends, but there's no Kappa, no Sexy 6, no family. That by far, has been the hardest part about being over here. So with that, I have doubts about being over here and have been in search of that "AH-HA" moment to tell me that the money and the distance from all those people I love is really worth it. I said that I would give it a full year over here before I made any kind of decision to stay, leave, try something new or stick it out.
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