So you may have heard of the charity song that the boys from Flight of the Conchords wrote with the help of some NZ school children. I just watched the video of them talking to the kids and then recording the song itself! So cute :) here's the link to the video on youtube, trust me you'll be delighted ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QsmuMGkIlA
It was my 20th birthday yesterday! I am so excited to be out of my teens and onto adulthood. It's my first birthday living away from home, which makes me want to ponder the last 6 weeks of my life. I'm still slightly dazed about vet school, but it's almost completely sunk in. I've met amazing people and am having such a great time. I can't tell you how much I love dissecting a preserved dog every week! It's so cool. And I have to do farm work experience. I mean, I love farms! I'm so excited! I've been secretly looking for an excuse to get me on a farm but nothing has come up until now. I am constantly so grateful for the opportunity I've been given.
So, for my birthday I got simon's cat merchandise (t'shirt, mug, jotting pad) from the family, and me and Sam went to see a movie in the gold lounge in a cinema in Wellington. You go upstairs and there's a fully licenced bar with a posh barman waiting to take our orders. "And when during the movie would you like your sundaes brought in?" hehe so fancy! We were dressed up nice and felt very classy. The movie was called Hope Springs which was just awesome. I mean, anything with Meryl Streep in it is going to be fantastic and it was! Definitely recommend it! Then we went to this bar called The Library which was so cool. Low lighting, comfy couches and books all over the show. So cool! And no I don't think you read them but still! Very cosy. So a very good day all in all! Yay for birthdays.
In other news, the flat cat Niki has a sore foot and I feel so useless! I know, I know, I'm barely through my first semester of vet school but I feel like I should know everything already and be able to help! We've learnt a lot already and this is the easy semester so one wonders (somewhat anxiously) about the amount we have to learn and how quickly we have to learn it over the next few years. But Niki just sits there with her poor front paw elegantly held off the ground before doing the 3-legged-cat thing and basically hopping around. Am taking her to a real-life vet tomorrow and I'll have to try not to be starstruck by them. Technically, as I am already in the veterinary profession (according to my lecturers) any vet grad is a colleague. But they are so big and shiny! You remember what it was like in year 9 looking at the year 13s. How impressive they were! I feel exactly the same. And in 2016 I will look back at the little first years and wonder how time has gone so fast...
So nothing too profound coming out of my brain today, but since I have a blog it's a great excuse to get some creative juices flowing. Maybe this burst of literary genius will help me with my assignment... yeah nah bro! :P
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
A change of perspective
We've got our first graded tests coming up this week and I have to say, I'm not worried. I know some of my friends are quite stressed and so I think "should I be too?" The fact is I've learned a lot about the expectations I have for my study in the last month. There are a few factors that I've had to seriously think about and it's shifted my perspective significantly.
Myth: Everyone can get A+'s
Fact: Unfortunately the vet school are only allowed to give a certain amount of A+'s, A's, etc, according to some policy from someone somewhere. What they are allowed to do however, is scale the marks to the classes results so if the highest was 80%, that would be an A+ but on the flip side a 75% might be a C because it is the lowest mark.
What it means for me: I have to be OK with getting grades I'm not used to getting. I know that sounds quite arrogant, but I really tried hard to get my grades up and for a long time that was what my life was about. To suddenly encounter a school of thought that says "you may get C's because only a few can be at the top of the class" is quite challenging for me and a lot of the class. I've resolved that I don't care about the letters anymore. If I manage to get 80% in a test, I know that's an A- anywhere else, even if I don't get that letter on my record. It means I can demonstrate knowledge of at least 80% of the information I'm being tested on. If I know that I tried to the best of my ability without detriment to my health, I am really, actually, seriously going to be happy. I started of this semester looking towards an A+ average but now I've set my sights to a much more reasonable one.
One of the most important things that people have been trying to get us to understand is that we aren't in a competition anymore. Any pressure I put on myself because I'm worried about how I am compared to others is pointless and just a waste of time and energy. From now on it's time to enjoy the learning and the people I'm with, not spend the next four years straining and stressing. That's how it was leading up to getting in and I can tell you that I do not want to feel like that again. My life is so much more fun now and it's the best thing that's happened. I've even joined a Glee club here at Massey, which is so awesome!
Life is what you make of it, and I've resolved not to make mine all about study. In fact, on the list of priorities it definitely comes below God, friends, food, sleep and joy. It's about finding a balance. I will put in the hours for exams but I will not subject my body to more stress than it needs. I want to look forward to study and to tests and exams and learning, not feel sick thinking about it. I'm here now, and I'm going to enjoy the ride :)
Myth: Everyone can get A+'s
Fact: Unfortunately the vet school are only allowed to give a certain amount of A+'s, A's, etc, according to some policy from someone somewhere. What they are allowed to do however, is scale the marks to the classes results so if the highest was 80%, that would be an A+ but on the flip side a 75% might be a C because it is the lowest mark.
What it means for me: I have to be OK with getting grades I'm not used to getting. I know that sounds quite arrogant, but I really tried hard to get my grades up and for a long time that was what my life was about. To suddenly encounter a school of thought that says "you may get C's because only a few can be at the top of the class" is quite challenging for me and a lot of the class. I've resolved that I don't care about the letters anymore. If I manage to get 80% in a test, I know that's an A- anywhere else, even if I don't get that letter on my record. It means I can demonstrate knowledge of at least 80% of the information I'm being tested on. If I know that I tried to the best of my ability without detriment to my health, I am really, actually, seriously going to be happy. I started of this semester looking towards an A+ average but now I've set my sights to a much more reasonable one.
One of the most important things that people have been trying to get us to understand is that we aren't in a competition anymore. Any pressure I put on myself because I'm worried about how I am compared to others is pointless and just a waste of time and energy. From now on it's time to enjoy the learning and the people I'm with, not spend the next four years straining and stressing. That's how it was leading up to getting in and I can tell you that I do not want to feel like that again. My life is so much more fun now and it's the best thing that's happened. I've even joined a Glee club here at Massey, which is so awesome!
Life is what you make of it, and I've resolved not to make mine all about study. In fact, on the list of priorities it definitely comes below God, friends, food, sleep and joy. It's about finding a balance. I will put in the hours for exams but I will not subject my body to more stress than it needs. I want to look forward to study and to tests and exams and learning, not feel sick thinking about it. I'm here now, and I'm going to enjoy the ride :)
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Name that nerve!
My favourite part of the vet course so far is the weekly anatomy lab. At the start of semester, everybody was put into groups of five or so and we given a preserved dog cadavar that we look after and dissect (methodically cut up in order to study its internal parts - thanks google). Those of you who are a bit squeamish may not like this but I'll tell you, it is so interesting and boosts our learning of anatomy in a way that textbooks never could.
We have to respect our cadavar (a rottweiler, whom we've named Burt) and look after him so he doesn't dry out or go mouldy. We aren't allowed to take pictures due to ethical issues. So it really is all in the name of science. This initial dissection is a start to what will become my surgical skills in the future, i.e. learning how and when to use a scapel, scissors, forceps and other instruments, and be able to see how the anatomy we are learning in lectures fits together to make a whole functioning organism.
As with all things dirty and potentially infectious, we have to wash our hands vigorously after each lab and I've taken to doing it whenever I can. In the bathroom, after touching animals, before eating food. It's better safe than sorry! They gave us an introductory talk on all the zoonoses (a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals) out there and I don't wanna risk it!
We've been focussing on the forelimb of the dog thus far, first learning the bones, then the muscles, and more recently the nerves that innervate (supply an organ or other body part with nerves) those muscles to cause contraction for locomotion. I've had to learn not just the names of muscles, but where they come from (origin) and where the attach (insertion). And bones! You thought it was hard learning the name of a bone, well, you have NO idea. Someone sat down with each bone and thought "hmmm there's a little bump here, lets name it something long in latin, and there's a TINY depression here... let's give it an equally ridiculous name!" so yes. To be honest it's kinda cool, cos those bumps and depressions have a purpose (usually attachment sites of muscles) but still, there's a lot to learn!
The most interesting one so far is dissecting out the brachial plexus (brachial: meaning of the upper arm, and plexus: meaning an intricate network or weblike formation of nerves). So the brachial plexus is a network of nerves, kinda like a junction of a motorway where all the lanes come together and then exit off again to go to various places. Mostly nerves are too small to see, but when they are all bundled together you CAN see them and thus they have names depending on where they are going. I couldn't find a good picture of this on google and I don't think many people would appreciate it so... yeah! I'm really enjoying all this because it is so interesting and like I said, so much better than lectures and a textbook. If we do anything else cool with Burt the rottweiler, I'll do an update!
And you thought the humerus was funny...
We have to respect our cadavar (a rottweiler, whom we've named Burt) and look after him so he doesn't dry out or go mouldy. We aren't allowed to take pictures due to ethical issues. So it really is all in the name of science. This initial dissection is a start to what will become my surgical skills in the future, i.e. learning how and when to use a scapel, scissors, forceps and other instruments, and be able to see how the anatomy we are learning in lectures fits together to make a whole functioning organism.
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| Rottweilers are acutally adorable and friendly if trained properly! |
As with all things dirty and potentially infectious, we have to wash our hands vigorously after each lab and I've taken to doing it whenever I can. In the bathroom, after touching animals, before eating food. It's better safe than sorry! They gave us an introductory talk on all the zoonoses (a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals) out there and I don't wanna risk it!
We've been focussing on the forelimb of the dog thus far, first learning the bones, then the muscles, and more recently the nerves that innervate (supply an organ or other body part with nerves) those muscles to cause contraction for locomotion. I've had to learn not just the names of muscles, but where they come from (origin) and where the attach (insertion). And bones! You thought it was hard learning the name of a bone, well, you have NO idea. Someone sat down with each bone and thought "hmmm there's a little bump here, lets name it something long in latin, and there's a TINY depression here... let's give it an equally ridiculous name!" so yes. To be honest it's kinda cool, cos those bumps and depressions have a purpose (usually attachment sites of muscles) but still, there's a lot to learn!
The most interesting one so far is dissecting out the brachial plexus (brachial: meaning of the upper arm, and plexus: meaning an intricate network or weblike formation of nerves). So the brachial plexus is a network of nerves, kinda like a junction of a motorway where all the lanes come together and then exit off again to go to various places. Mostly nerves are too small to see, but when they are all bundled together you CAN see them and thus they have names depending on where they are going. I couldn't find a good picture of this on google and I don't think many people would appreciate it so... yeah! I'm really enjoying all this because it is so interesting and like I said, so much better than lectures and a textbook. If we do anything else cool with Burt the rottweiler, I'll do an update!
And you thought the humerus was funny...
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