So I am just going to do a run-down of what has happened (or what I can remember through the stress cloud) and then I will post a bunch of photos over the next few days :)
October 3rd - Brian's birthday. We went to the Perth Royal Show. This is a huge County fair north of the river! It was AMAZING!! It was SOOOOO hot the day we went, but we survived!
That was also over the same study break when we went to the zoo which we already know was a good time!
Two weeks later was my rectal palpation lab on cattle! It was SUCH an amazing time! Feeling baby cows was so surreal! Most people wouldn't be so excited to shove their entire arm up a cows bum, but I couldn't be more thrilled! It was a smelly good time! :)
Then as always there was lectures and a bunch of info talks put on by the Vet School Special Interest Groups (SIGs). The talks are at lunch time or usually around 530pm and guest speakers come in to talk about so much cool stuff. Some of the groups include: pigs, dogs, cats, surgery, wildlife, welfare, business, cows, and horses. I am sure there is plenty more but that's all I can think of right now!
Also all of October I had to work on a huge group project. We were given a clinical case and we had to research the case, the normal physiology of the species, the pathophysiology, and diagnostics and treatment. We had to gather all this information, come up with learning objectives, meet with our teacher twice and then finally we presented our case to the class during the last week of lectures all in 10 mins. Trying to condense endotoxemia of a horse into a 10 min talk was very interesting but my group was AMAZING and we did really well.
In between all of this Brian and I still both worked and walked Nomsa Wednesday's- Fridays. In the beginning of October our roommate from Taiwan left to go on a few month journey through SOO many countries! SOOO jealous! He was such an amazing person to meet and I hope we stay in contact like we have so far! Then my Michigan friend from first year vet school decided she wanted out of the university village and that Brian and I would be OK roommates so she moved in! The fun with this was that we were subleasing our apartment in freo. We never signed any contract, just put up a small bond. We were told that the lease ended at the end of October and that we could contact the landlords if we wanted to extend our lease. We were TOTALLY planning on extending because Freo is AMAZING! but the kitchen needed to be redone, the shower had been leaking for a month without getting fixed and the very last week we were there the washing machine broke. At this point we were still hoping the landlords would answer my attempts to get ahold of them but we were giving up hope. My besti, Heidi moved her horse from Queensland over here to Perth and she boards him at this property close to school. The owner of the house spends most of his time overseas, but rents out half of his house and then boards heidi's horse and 2 others. We would have looked at it right away when we were asked to leave Melville, but the guy who owns the house was out of town. So we found the Freo solution. Then thankfully the guy came home at the end of October and we decided to take a look at his place just to have a back-up plan, in case we couldn't extend our lease in Freo. However, this house is AMAZING! AND he said he would clean out his study and make that a bedroom for kayleigh. Sooo the fun part was that the horse house guy was leaving for the states the middle of November and he was getting back after Kayleigh was leaving for the states... so this inevitably made us move the week before finals while both were in town!!! And as soon as I told the freo landlords I was moving out, because of their lack of communication and effort to help fix the BROKEN shower and washing machine, they decided I was worth the time to talk to! In the end we ended up moving into the horse house and cleaning the old place in 4 days time and then I had a final exam in physiology 3 days later... it was pretty rough, but I got through so far. I promise pictures of the house in the next post. We have no mailbox at the property but got a PO box sorted out so if you want to know my address, leave me a comment telling me to email or leave me your email and I will give you my new address! I really hope we do not have to move again for a LONG LONG TIME!! I love it here. Our new landlord is now back from the US until after New Years and his wife who is a model and lives in New York City will be joining us in two weeks time. They will go back to New York together after the new year!
The little bottle raised kitten that Heidi took home from work is mostly in my care now and he is about 10 weeks old. He is due for sterlisation and vaccinations! He is such a fun little stinker! :) Brian and Ash are still unsure about how they feel about Heidi and I having a love-child, but I think co-custody is working out well! :)
At this point finals are over. I have recieved word that I have to sit a supplementary final exam for physiology because I recieved a 46% on the final. Even though I passed the class overall, the class specifies that you have to get a minimum of a 50% on the final to pass the class despite all other grades. LAME! But to be honest, I am proud of a 46% for how rough this semester was and moving so many times! And I really appreciate having to sit a supp because I can actually maybe learn the material to my full potential! honestly sooo excited for more time! Neurophysiology is intense! All other grades don't get released until Monday December 9th! I have never ever had to wait so long for grades until I came to Australia!! THIS IS AWEFUL!! Apparently, some of my classmates got supp emails for anatomy today, but I didn't receive anything... This could be one of two things: 1. I failed SOOO bad that I am not even offered a supp and just have to retake class or 2. I passed......#2 is a long shot! :P too much stress! I hope for the best for anatomy and animal systems, but we will just have to wait patiently!
Brian and I have no work restriction limit on our visa's for the summer so we are working like CRAZY hours. We are also going to be watching and walking my classmates two greyhounds daily until Dec. 29 and then again Jan. 2-5 I believe. We will continue to walk nomsa most wednesday's through Fridays, except for two weeks around xmas and New Years. My friend Heidi is going back home to queensland for most of the summer so I get to feed and put the horses into their stalls every monday and friday night until she gets home (Perth :P) in February. I also get to ride willow when I want, as long as I communicate with all the other people covering heidi's shifts so we do not overwork him! He is only a 4 year old baby, but he is soooo handsome! <3 And A bit of a carrot slut! hahahahahahaha if I feed him part of a carrot, he will enjoy it, but almost immediately ignore me to check if brian has part of a carrot to share (usually does). AND he sometimes wont come straight to the gate for a pet when I walk the driveway if I dont have a carrot and he will take his sweet time! hahaha He makes my heart melt! <3
Lastly, the month of February is going to be amazing!! For one of my vet school first year requirements is that we need to spend 1 week inside a vet hospital to observe how clinics run. This has usually been done to outside clinics only, this year they opened it up to first years to do it in the Murdoch Small Animal Emergency Hospital - so many specialist branches ( I would probably pick surgery), or you can do your week at the Murdoch Equine Hospital. I signed up for the Equine barn for now, but I am thinking I might actually observe the emergency clinic that I work at so that I can actually see what goes into emergency medicine from a vet perspective. I am just a receptionist and I miss out on a lot of the clinical aspects of my clinic! ANYWAYS, no matter where I go, I get to be in a clinic for a week and then I am taking holiday for TWO FULL WEEKS!!!!!!! No dog walking, no pet sitting, just Brian and I and the keys to Nomsa's mom's farmhouse on the beach down in Denmark, WA! AHHHH SOOO EXCITED!!!! We are going to take the whole time just traveling slowly down the coast. I really really want Heid, Ash, and the kids to come down and meet us in Margaret River (WINE COUNTRY) for an overnighter! Do a winery tour and hit up the beach with the kiddos! and they go home while Brian and I continue our journey!! I CANT BELIEVE THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!! I AM SOOOO BEYOND FREAKING OUT!!! WA WATCH OUT!!! First stop is rockingham and PENGUIN ISLAND!!!!! :) :)
As most from facebook knows already, tales of being stung by my first jelly to GIANT spiders on our wall will be coming up soon! This post is long enough!! I promise to never ignore this blog for so long again!!! :P
