It's Been Awhile...

Dear Readers (however few or many, however regular or infrequent),

I know that it has been more than 6 months since my last blog post. I could give explanations that kept me from blogging like finishing finals in May; having one hell of an adventure getting home by bus, plane, train, bus and automobile (never again flying stand-by or taking a Greyhound bus); commuting to my 10 week Banfield Pet Hospital internship in Parma 5 days a week, disliking the corporate nature but loving the staff and being exhausted by the end of the day spent doing physical exams, read fecals and other lab tests and wrangling everything from chihuahuas to pit bulls to ferrets; spending time with the elephant keepers at the Cleveland zoo and making connections with the Head Veterinarian; traveling to New Jersey to work with the dairy cows and pigs at Rutgers University; or flying back to Dublin to be an orientation leader for the new graduate entry class and then being bombarded with enough microbes, parasites, drug therapies and pathology to make my head spin.... Actually that about covers it: my last 6 months in about 6 lines.

The proverbial "they" say that 3rd year is the hardest year in the veterinary medicine program here at UCD. "They" weren't kidding. Most my days, I'm at the college from 8-4 either in lab or in classroom 115. This year my class has joined up with the Irish undergraduate class to form THE UCD Vet Med Class of 2014. There is no distinction between the two groups anymore (other than where we sit in the lecture hall in the last 3 rows and off to the right) and we continue together through final year. So I'm a 3rd year now (despite this only being my 2nd year in the program) and have 2 more years to go. This year is the real "meat and potatoes" of vet school. I'm learning important microorganisms that cause infection and disease in animals as well as the parasites that adversely affect their animal hosts. I'm learning about the classes of drugs used in therapies and treatments. And I'm learning the entirely new language of pathology (though this does mean that I'm finally putting my 6 years of Latin to good use!). To put it bluntly there is a lot of STUFF to learn.

The Queens of the Court on Halloween

I'm renting a house with 3 other vet students: 2 Canadian girls and 1 girl from New Jersey. We live in a small apartment/gated community called Donnybrook Castle. It's nice to have a real house, because it makes being here feel more like home.

14 The Court

I've also been dating a tall, dark and handsome British lad who is in the year above me in vet med at UCD. I'm really enjoying spending time with him even when it's library dates between classes (yes, in case you didn't know by now, I'm a nerd). I'm going with him to London in a week to tour around and meet his mum and sister and friends. He'll also be coming back to Ohio with me in May to go to my friends' wedding and hopefully do some our clinical EMS together. If there is one indication of his slightly sappy but sweet side this is it: on my birthday, we were walking along Grafton St (main pedestrian shopping street in Dublin) after dinner, he had the saxophone troubadour play "happy birthday" for me. This does mean that I'll be home again for part of this summer.... more details to come on summer plans as they emerge. Life is an adventure afterall.

That should bring you up to date on my life here across the pond. This is now my concerted effort to post here every Friday. Even it means 2 sentences about coming to school before the sun rises and leaving after the sunsets.

Cheers and thanks for reading,

Jamie