Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sick and moving :(
So I started to get sick Tuesday morning. It didn't get bad until Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Luckily, by Wednesday afternoon I had already began feeling better. Unfortunately, I am still feeling pretty bad :( and this was one of the worse times to get sick since today I'm packing all day (taking a short break right now before my mom gets here with the U-Haul) and I'm driving up to NC tomorrow. I guess it's better that I got sick starting Tuesday and getting (I'm assuming) the worst of it on Wednesday than getting sick on Wednesday or today and getting the worst of it today or tomorrow. Anyway, back to packing now. Here's to hoping I don't start feeling worse again....
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Books, Supplies, and Courses
Since the week of my admittance, more and more information about the details of what I'll need and what vet school will be like has slowly but surely been trickling in. On my acceptance letter itself I was informed of when the first day of mandatory orientation is and on which day classes start. Shortly after I was given information on what I need to start working on for getting financial aid. Since then I have learned more about financial aid, my semester calendar and weekly schedule, my book and supplies list, my optional summer pre-anatomy course, and much, much more.
This past week I received my books and supplies list and now it's all becoming so real. I will be starting vet school in less than 2 months! Surprisingly, there were only two textbooks listed as "required" on the books list. There a few more "recommended" books and then a bunch of "reference" books. I have not decided which ones I will be ordering yet, nor exactly what of the many supplies I will be getting. I know I will need to get a white lab coat, coveralls, gloves, and blades. There are other things, like a dissection kit and boots, that I already have but I'll definitely be looking into it more to make sure they're sufficient enough. One of the reference books listed was one of those "5 Minute Consult" books and it's funny because I was recently having a conversation with a small animal vet in South Florida who mentioned those books. He was talking about how they're like "cheating." Hearing him talk about them was great.
Oh, and my schedule for vet school: in class and/or lab from 8:05am til 4:30 or 5:30pm everyday, about what I expected. But oh, how that schedule makes me think of high school - only even longer days. It will certainly be a change going back to having class all day. The closest I've had to a class schedule like this since high school was one semester of undergraduate where I was able to schedule all my MWF classes straight through from 8:30am til 12:35pm those days, and that doesn't even compare. Probably after only a short period of time after I start, this schedule will feel all too exhausting but as of right now, I am SO excited for it!
Anyway, I have more to say because of all this excitement but I am going to try to start working on making each one of these posts shorter (and maybe just posting more often if I can). So, next time....
This past week I received my books and supplies list and now it's all becoming so real. I will be starting vet school in less than 2 months! Surprisingly, there were only two textbooks listed as "required" on the books list. There a few more "recommended" books and then a bunch of "reference" books. I have not decided which ones I will be ordering yet, nor exactly what of the many supplies I will be getting. I know I will need to get a white lab coat, coveralls, gloves, and blades. There are other things, like a dissection kit and boots, that I already have but I'll definitely be looking into it more to make sure they're sufficient enough. One of the reference books listed was one of those "5 Minute Consult" books and it's funny because I was recently having a conversation with a small animal vet in South Florida who mentioned those books. He was talking about how they're like "cheating." Hearing him talk about them was great.
Oh, and my schedule for vet school: in class and/or lab from 8:05am til 4:30 or 5:30pm everyday, about what I expected. But oh, how that schedule makes me think of high school - only even longer days. It will certainly be a change going back to having class all day. The closest I've had to a class schedule like this since high school was one semester of undergraduate where I was able to schedule all my MWF classes straight through from 8:30am til 12:35pm those days, and that doesn't even compare. Probably after only a short period of time after I start, this schedule will feel all too exhausting but as of right now, I am SO excited for it!
Anyway, I have more to say because of all this excitement but I am going to try to start working on making each one of these posts shorter (and maybe just posting more often if I can). So, next time....
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
OOS hassles
So I don't officially move up to Raleigh for another week but the process started months ago. Moving, oh how I dread it so much. It's not that I don't want to move to North Carolina. I actually am eager to move to NC; it was one of the many reasons I wanted to go to NCState. I mean, I do worry sometimes about moving to a place where I know no one and with weather I'm not used to (but quite excited for). There will be times where I will actually have to put on real shoes, rather than flip-flops, to take my dog for a quick walk. Granted, Raleigh doesn't even compare to many other vet school locations out there on the coldness scale, but I'm from S. Florida. I've lived in Florida my entire life. While I have gone on snowboarding and other trips where the temperature has gotten pretty low, I have never lived anywhere where the temperature has ever been below freezing. Okay, maybe there was like a night or two during the 4 years that I lived in Gainesville where it MAY have dropped into the high 20s....
Anyway, back to dreading the "move" itself. As my moving date gets closer and closer, I'm starting to dread it less and less. I think that's just because I know it will be over and done with soon and I'll be getting settled in and then before I know it I'll be starting classes. Maybe it's also because I finally have almost everything worked out. I finally know how I will be moving. We decided to rent a U-Haul and do it ourselves. Movers are just too expensive and most of them cannot guarantee an immediate delivery. For an across state move like this, they can only guarantee to deliver everything within a month. They like to pick up your furniture and store it until they have more furniture and such from other people as well to move in the same direction and then move everything at once. I also finally decided on exactly what day I will be moving, unless something goes wrong. Also, once again assuming nothing goes wrong, I have all my electric, water, gas, etc. set to turn on the day I take over my new place (also the day I'll be driving up there). I already have an appointment to get my auto-insurance transferred to a NC policy and an appointment to get my cable and internet hooked up a couple days after the move. I still need to make an appointment (if I can) with the DMV up there to get my NC driver's license asap. But all in all, almost all the specifics of the move have been worked out at this point and knowing that takes off a lot of the stress of it. Now here's to just hoping nothing goes horribly wrong......
Anyway, back to dreading the "move" itself. As my moving date gets closer and closer, I'm starting to dread it less and less. I think that's just because I know it will be over and done with soon and I'll be getting settled in and then before I know it I'll be starting classes. Maybe it's also because I finally have almost everything worked out. I finally know how I will be moving. We decided to rent a U-Haul and do it ourselves. Movers are just too expensive and most of them cannot guarantee an immediate delivery. For an across state move like this, they can only guarantee to deliver everything within a month. They like to pick up your furniture and store it until they have more furniture and such from other people as well to move in the same direction and then move everything at once. I also finally decided on exactly what day I will be moving, unless something goes wrong. Also, once again assuming nothing goes wrong, I have all my electric, water, gas, etc. set to turn on the day I take over my new place (also the day I'll be driving up there). I already have an appointment to get my auto-insurance transferred to a NC policy and an appointment to get my cable and internet hooked up a couple days after the move. I still need to make an appointment (if I can) with the DMV up there to get my NC driver's license asap. But all in all, almost all the specifics of the move have been worked out at this point and knowing that takes off a lot of the stress of it. Now here's to just hoping nothing goes horribly wrong......
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Good luck!
I know VMCAS for the 2010-2011 cycle opened recently (June 3rd I think) so I just wanted to wish good luck for anyone who is applying this year. Good luck! If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them to the best of my ability and/or memory (of the application).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
