and now it's nutrition that's getting to me. the vitamin deficiencies and overdoses specifically.

i especially love when an overdose of one ACTS like a deficiency of another. bleh.

hopefully i will get it all down in my head well enough for the test in a week.

i wish i had more spare time to just wander around the island. i would love to see the colonial outpost again and maybe hit the batik factory again. right now i have been kind of limited to the school and basseterre. i think i will take saturday morning off next weekend and go to the beach. i am not a real "tanning" type of person, but i think i should try to take as much advantage as i can. and maybe i will try to take in a movie on friday night. i hear "UP!" is good... or maybe "Dragged to Hell". itll depend on how i do on my tests, lol.

took a mock exam in anatomy this afternoon. it went well, i just have to make sure to read the questions carefully and be sure to give as much detail as i can when asked. other than that i did well. nothing was a surprize, that's good. and i knew the answers, which is better.

i just need to take it easy, stay calm, and trust i know the answer.

physiology needs a little bit more work. the adrenergic receptors ad the muscarinic receptors are for some reason eluding my attempts to memorize them. i need to make flip cards for them.

one down, another 11 to go. and a paper.

but i got an A on this one, so my confidence is a bit better now. tonight i am taking a break. back to studying tomorrow night.

guh.. i hate stoopid people

so, did you really need to snipe the washer AND dryer? really? i mean if youre short on cash, ask. i can front a load of laundry.

to "start the washer before looking in it", thus making my clothes extra wet and drippy, was a stupid cover-up (apologizing because you get caught is not the same as being sorry). THEN not offering to cover me for a dryer run is kinda childish but in the long run it would have been forgiven. but on top of THAT you then moved my now warm but still wet clothes from one dryer to the empty dryer next to it. that, dear student, is kind of asshole-ish and not easily shifted from my mind. im just saying.

i keep forgetting that the median age of the student body is 23 and that most of them have never lived outside their parents immediate influence. but still, common courtesy would seem to dictate that you leave other peoples (ie if its not YOURS it is someone elses) stuff alone. the totally ironic thing is that we just had a lecture on professionalism and courtesy YESTERDAY. am i the only one listening to this shit?

i feel a bit better about nutrition and microanatomy. i took some practice exams and did fairly well, so i think i have a grasp of those subjects now.

physiology is starting to get kinda gnarly. i SHOULD know the adrenergic receptors, especially the alphas since i worked with them for three years, but alas my brain did not retain them. so i will have to try to rebuild a working knowledge of them, and the cholenergics as well. i know i will build on it as i go so i really want to get it down quickly.

anatomy is fairly straightforward. just memorize everything... all of it... for dogs and horses... oh yeah and cows...

real doctors treat more than one species.

well, the coat now smells of formalin and phenol, but it is my first official doctor coat. all i need now is a leather gladstone bag and the transformation will be complete.

anyone know any good study techniques for physiology?

as this second weeks end and i am just finishing up my chores, i thought id write a few notes here to give a sort of progress report. i am caught up if not ahead on my reading for classes. i really need to make sure i stay on top of that since it could quickly spiral out of control. i fond spending a few hours each night does the trick for me, but YMMV.

shopping continues to be a logistics nightmare. our trip scheduled for 2pm ended up starting at about 3. we didnt get home until well after 5. but i found a store i like now, it even carries my haircolor!

i helped do the semester breakdown, clean, and rebuild of the school aviary this morning. we have a flock of lovebirds, a flock of cockatiels, three budgies, and a pair of amazons. none of these birds are actually used as in class demonstrations (we use chickens for that). the aviary apparently started off as a pair of each type of birds and breeding took care of the rest. (the amazons get adopted pretty quickly, though all these birds are technically available for adoptions). it was a fun experience, though a bit different for me. i have never really owned a bird as a pet so avian medicine is an elusive creature to me.

the only thing i am having trouble with, lifestyle adjusting-wise, are the ants. these little bastards are everywhere! though they succumb quickly to spray, i would rather not have DEET all over everything i own. but , eh, it's not a huge issue. not compared to the 5 inch long centipedes that actually hunt you down! or the scorpions... neither of which i have seen in vivo. yeesh.

i am getting to grips with the classes and am reaching a sort of understanding as to which teachers want what out of us as students. all except my microanatomy class. he has SO MUCH info to give us he kind of tends to go off on tangents, then refocuses and says "thats a detail you dont need to worry about." huh. well, which detail of the last 20 minutes speech was the one i don't need to worry about? i am gonna hit the studdy session tomorrow and see where i am and where i should be for the class from the TA. hopefully that will help settle my mind a bit. other than that things are going swimmingly.

i even dared to try and drive a left-hand shift manual car. i did get it to actually move, but between it's not having a floor under the driver's seat and the engine needing to "warm up" in a tropical rainforest i gave it a pass. another one will come my way eventually, maybe even one with an automatic transmission! i think remembering to drive on the right hand side will be enough to conquer without having to worry that my gimpy left hand hasnt got the right muscle memory.

welcome to the rainy season. localized downpours to commence in 3, 2,1... and theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere it is.

yikes

got a shuttle run done yesterday. went ok, except it got taken over by a woman from NYC (go fig) and we ended up doing a doctor visit as well, which got kinda tedious. so notes for next time: call the morning of the trip, about a hour before you need a ride; make sure people know it is only for shopping they have to get their own rides for other errands; take a head count (whoops).

also went to the Mr. RUSVM pageant last night. that was hilarious! our semester guy did pretty well, but the fourth semester guy rocked out loud! his "talent" was to recreate the Flashdance audition scene, including the water bucket sequence in the montage. you can probably see some of it on youtube by now. i know the old ones are there.

today is anatomy TA session and more wet lab work on Boomhauer.

is it wrong that we named our dissection dog in general, or that we named him Boomhauer. he is a pit cross, or looks like one at any rate. he is black and tri-colored with some flea-ticking. and he is ours for two semesters.

i love the smell of phenol in the morning.

semester olympics start today. gonna do my best to get to them, but i really need to make sure i get my classwork done first.

also trying to get a shuttle service started for first semester people without a car to be able to get to the shops on the weekends. i will need to talk with the housing office and the shuttle drivers to work something out.

but now it's time to finish getting ready for anatomy, i have large animal palpation this morning.

first day of classes

youch... yeah im not too sure how often i will be able to post here given the sheer work load i am looking at. i can tell right away that my problem course will most likely be physiology1, and that's mainly due to the teaching technique being so different from what i am used to. but if i buckle down i should be able to come to grips with it pretty quickly.

we had the white coat ceremony today as well. so now i feel like a more official vet med student than before, even with my gladstone bag and stethescope.

but now to homework and relaxing before bed. i MAY even try to power up WoW for an hour or so.

today is a free day. i can do all my prep work for the first day of classes tomorrow. i also have to fill out the paperwork for the sale of my house. hopefully the bank accepts the short sale and i dont have to keep going through the realty palaver.

went food shopping this morning to make sure i had everything ready for tomorrow. i will need to make up some sammies to bring with me to class.

the rest of today i think will be mostly cleaning and reading. maybe i'll pop in a movie or two. take it easy and rest up. i kind of almost pity the kids who went out drinking last night. tomorrow is gonna hit them hard i think.

today was schedule-less day. our group went to the beach behind the Marriott hotel. very nice place. i sat under a canopy since my burn is still a bit fresh. listened to some audio books and zoned out. we just got back now.

tonight we are going out to eat at a place called PJ's, a more formal restaurant. then we have a bonfire on the beach where most of the students attend as the unofficial start of the semester. tomorrow i shall rest.

last day of orientation. we had a lecture on cirriculum in the morning then off to the catamaran trip! we sailed out to a cove on st. nevis island and snorkelled for an hour. i saw a "dory" fish and snorted sea water up the snorkle. i also got stung by a baby jellyfish. it was weird, it stung a bit and left small welts but they didnt linger. we then went to a beach for a bit. the actual beach was kinda rocky but there was some pretty good beachcombing to be had.

and i got sunburned. and its pretty obvious that its because i missed some spots with the sunscreen. its not bad, i put alo on it and it feels fine now.

tonight we are going to see wolverine and then im gonna come back here to do laundry before bed.

not sure what we have planned for tomorrow if anything. i do have paperwork to fill out for the house so i may do that. gotta flee now!

yesterday was a long day. pretty much non-stop from 8am to damn near midnight. lectures all morning, lunch, then into town to set up our bank accounts. i finally got to pick up my packages from the post office. they arrived on monday so that was a total of 12 days from drop off to arrival.

toured the rest of the island with our driver. he's a hoot! then we went out to dinner and then to karaoke.

...

i said it was a long day, not a difficult one. thatll be monday. i'll try to post again tonight after the catamaran trip.