NAVLE

I'm taking the NAVLE on December 6. I'm (more than) slightly terrified.

In the depths of fourth year

It's funny how veterinary school just... eats time and funnels it somewhere. How one day you're studying for your first anatomy exam and the next you're nearing the end of your seventh rotation. How you swear you updated your blog sometime during spring (around break, you think) and are ashamed to see that it was really during fall.

Oops.

In any event -- there's a lot to write about during fourth year so my blogging goals now include regular or semi-regular updates. And adding the rest of my South Africa/Australia journal entries. Stay tuned!

So, about third year...

It's going fairly well... except for pharm. Words cannot express how much that class frustrates me. Will update again when I have some breathing space.

Two down, two to go

My second year of veterinary school ended with the worst finals week I have ever had. The only thing I can say is thank God I passed everything because I don't know if I could go through that again! Seriously, both semesters sucked and "worst academic year of my life" (which is how I've been describing it to people) is a serious understatement.

Seriously.

I was going to write more unrelated stuff but I'll leave that for tomorrow.

Spring break!

After the pharmacology exam yesterday I ran a few short errands, walked my dog, and installed Dragon Age II and spent some well-deserved time killing darkspawn and acquiring party members.

That game is awesome. Shiny awesome.

Halfway to break

Three exams down, three to go in PSBTM. Case study and public health went well, but virology... let's just say it took everything I'd studied, laughed, and threw it down a black hole while cackling about clinically irrelevant minutia and laughing maniacally. Words cannot express how much I loathe that class.

What a way to start another weekend full of studying! Blagh.

Studying and whiny dogs

My dog likes to talk to me. A lot. "I need outside." "I'm sure there are rabbits or squirrels outside for me to chase." "I want a chewie." "You just got home, therefore you should feed me." "That plate you have there has something on it for me." "Go to sleep. Seriously."

Sometimes he combines the talking with bounding around the trailer like a horse. Just in case I couldn't hear him, I guess. Oh, well. At least he's cute.

The little things

I discovered during surgery lecture that my dog has a doppelganger. Seriously; at first glance, and upon closer inspection, one of the 3-legged dogs pictured in our powerpoint is just about identical to the 4-legged hooligan that trots through my trailer. My friends agreed, and my mom thought it was Vanyel when I sent her the picture until I pointed out the missing leg.

A break in the storm

Pre-Spring Break Testing Madness doesn't start until February 28. Unfortunately, PSBTM consists of 6 exams over 2 weeks -- but it should be doable as long as I can recapture the productivity that came over me yesterday for most of the next week.

It was entirely unexpected. I got so much accomplished! It was the first truly productive night I have had all semester. In summary:

• Got some things squared away with the WCC (I'm working with them on something Really Cool)
• Finished something for Really Cool Thing and made progress on another
• Knocked out 4 diagnostic pathfinders for clin path
• Finished my virus chart and started on flashcards that will be highly color-coded
• Backed up my computer

It doesn't really seem like a lot, but it's all school stuff or related to school.

In non-school news, my pre-ordered copy of Dragon Age II will (hopefully) arrive on March 8th! This is right at the tail end of PSBTM but it should only burn a hole on my desk for about 2 days... then it's spring break! And I can play without jeopardizing a test!

I'm already getting antsy and started playing Fable: The Lost Chapters to help tide me over.

Why hello there February...

This semester is sucking the life out of me. Our classes seem largely disorganized (possibly because most everything last semester was hyper-organized) and the weather is crappy and everyone is sick and the motivation to study is seriously lacking.

Yeah.

As a side note: Why did I decide to watch Bones (online... I have no cable) as it airs and not wait until the season ended?? This whole wait-until-next-week, then oh-we're-on-hiatus-for-like-two-weeks thing is going to drive me nuts! And no, Booth! No!

So... close...

Three-point-five finals down, two more to go.

I have had roughly 9 hours of sleep in the past 2 days.

I am considering pulling an all-nighter tomorrow (Wednesday) night because our last final, micro, scares the living daylights out of me.

Let's just fast-forward to Friday, shall we?

Impending doom

The midwest got hit with a massive winter storm yesterday. While we weren't dumped with as much snow as other places, the excessive winds turned pretty much the entire state of Iowa into a blizzard. Excessive wind = it sounded like the roof was coming off = a very nervous, and very whiny, Vanyel-dog. Finn could have cared less. We're still under a wind advisory (up to 35mph gusts! -14*C with the wind chill!) and the bitter cold is supposed to continue into tomorrow.

Quick update 3

I maintained my focus for the micro exam, lost it a bit for the path one, and am trying to recapture it for parasit. I may have to hole myself up in the library tomorrow... ugh.

But only two days and an exam until break! Yay! Our professors were kind enough to move our 2 Friday lectures to Wednesday and Thursday so we can have an extra day of break :)

Quick update 2

Fourteen days, five or so quizzes, and three exams until break. Then it's two weeks of classes and then finals... ugh. Need to focus, need to study. Grade-wise, I'm doing fairly well but would like to see mine a smidge higher in the Big 3 -- mostly because I know I'm capable of it (and last semester was a bit on the rough side).

I just need to maintain the level of focus I had this weekend.

Now off to study micro some more.

Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching

Fall break will be here in 3 weeks. This is both exciting and terrifying -- exciting 'cause we have no classes for a week, and terrifying 'cause the semester is just about over when it seems like it just started. I'm pretty sure that the vet school exists in some kind of time-space continuum.

So it's October now...

Holy buckets, it's been a while. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Time really gets away from you when you're in vet school. The days just blur together... I find myself wondering if I'll ever regain the skill of knowing what day of the week it is and what the date is... seriously, though, I always have to look it up nowadays. Same with my class schedule; I know where I'm supposed to be and all but I don't always know what class we have at a given time.

Anyway. The first round of exams restored my faith in my ability to survive the semester. Our next test is on the 20th so we actually have some breathing space. I'm definitely liking this year more than last; whenever I choke* on preservative as I hurry past the anatomy lab, all I can think is Thank God I don't have to be in there anymore! Sure, anatomy's important and all but that smell can't be good for us.

There was more I was going to say, but it seems to have slipped my mind. Maybe I'll remember later?

*It really is suffocating once you're no longer used to it.

Busy busy

Path test Monday, micro "lab quiz" (aka lab part of test) Wednesday, parasit test Thursday, micro lecture exam the next Monday, and infectious disease final Tuesday. Somewhere in all of this, I've got work stuff to do, at least 3 meetings I signed up for without thinking, animals to take care of (2 on test days), and myself to take care of. Oh, and trying to keep up with all of our classes rather than the ones with tests looming.

I have been looking at our schedule for next semester... all I've got to do is get through the next few months and I'm there.

Well then

I feel like I've barely had time to think the past few days. I'm still trying to get settled into some sort of uber-productive routine; this isn't the easiest thing to do between my extracurricular commitments, course load, and properly taking care of myself/my animals.

So my thoughts for the day: Take a deep breath, relax, and get back to studying. Be glad I'm in vet school and still not trying to get in.

One week down

My productivity this weekend has been pretty bad. Irregardless, I'm going to eat dinner here soon (beef stew; it's been simmering all day) and be a bit more unproductive for at least another hour; I've got some Deep Roads* to explore further.

I figure I'm getting the unproductivity out of my system while I can :)

*Dragon Age: Origins is currently my anti-study aid

And they're off

Thankfully, yesterday did not make me want to bang my head against the wall (or curl up in a ball and cry/die). Monday must have been a glitch.

So I am doing my best to get ahead or at least stay on top of things. I am also trying to eat properly and get a decent amount of sleep (both problems that plagued me last year). We'll see how this goes.