So this summer I have naturally been waking up around 9:30am every morning. To many of my college friends, this would be considered getting up early but to many others I have had the pleasure of "sleeping in" most of the summer. On Thursday, however, I will basically be starting a 8-5 job (plus all the extra hours that will go into studying). My first day of Orientation is on Thursday from 8am until 5:15pm. The second day of Orientation (Friday) is from 7:30am until 3:20pm and then return for dinner from 5:30pm until 7:30. We then have our White Coat Ceremony on Saturday from 2pm until 5pm. Finally, the last day of Orientation is Monday from 7:30am until 5pm. Then classes (from 8:05am until 4:30pm most days, I think) start that Wednesday! I'm pretty excited to start classes. As for Orientation, I am both excited and dreading it. Orientation is SO long and a lot of it is just person after person talking to us about topic after topic of this giant load of information. Sure, that's what classes will be like but at least that information will be more interesting. Based on our Orientation schedule, I wish some of the stuff they have scheduled for us was optional since I don't feel like it's all things that I necessarily need to know right now. Nevertheless, I am super excited to meet ALL of my classmates and do all the cheesy ice-breaker games that I'm sure we'll play. Also, I'm really looking forward to meeting all the faculty.
Anyway, time to get ready for a movie at the $1.50 theater tonight with some of my awesome classmates! :)
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
One Week!
I will hopefully update soon with more than just a couple sentences (maybe talk about my Orientation schedule or something) but for now I just wanted to say:
One week from today I'll be sitting at Orientation - starting vet school!
One week from today I'll be sitting at Orientation - starting vet school!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
3 weeks and counting(down)!
My first day of orientation is August 5th. Three weeks from tomorrow I officially start vet school. I'm so excited!!!!
I came back up to NC, finally, about a week ago. Since I've gotten back I've mainly been trying to finish unpacking (which is difficult since I've reached the point now where nothing is really in my way anymore - so I've lost a lot of motivation to continue unpacking the more minor stuff) and meet people! So far I've met some of my classmates and they all seem pretty cool. I've also met some Class of 2013 people who seem really nice too.
The day after I got back up I went and got my car registration and now I think I've completed everything I need to do right away for getting residency next year. I'm going to try to make an appointment with or send an email to the lawyer that handles residency questions and just make sure there's nothing else I need to get done before classes start.
Hmmmm...what else? Oh, today I applied for a job. I need to get a job to help with getting residency and if I could get one before classes start then I could put in some more hours/make a little extra money before I get busy with classes and can't work more than a few hours a week. If this job doesn't work out, then I might look into some other jobs but I also might just wait until orientation and try to get one of the jobs that are offered through the school. The job I applied to today is at a veterinary clinic but I don't necessarily care if I get a veterinary related job (since I can always volunteer for a variety of veterinary related activities to get more experience in the field). I could also tutor math or something as well. My main criteria for a job is that it needs to be something that I can just do on weekends, probably - maybe one night during the week. I'm not particularly looking forward to working while in school but I think I can handle it, as long as I'm not working too many hours.
As for the area: I love it up here! It might be just as hot as Florida right now, but it's far less humid so the weather is slightly nicer. Also, up here it does stay "cooler" a little bit in the morning and it cools down a little at night - whereas in Florida I feel like it doesn't matter the time of day. Plus, there are hills and "winding roads" so driving can be a little less "boring". The hills are going to be an issue when I try to start running again (which I am going to do right after this post) since my endurance is pretty low right now. They make walking River more interesting, though, so I bet they'll have the same effect on running. My favorite thing about being up here so far? The fact that I saw a deer at 2:45 in the afternoon. Sure, I saw deer a few times in Gainesville but only in the dead of night. Never in the daylight. I probably won't appreciate the deer population here as much after the first time I almost hit a deer late at night, though. I didn't think about that before today.
I think River is adjusting pretty well. She doesn't seem particularly anxious or anything. She loved the hike I took her on at Umstead Park. I'll have to do one of those again soon - maybe a longer one this time. Oh, I took River on a "play date" with one of my classmate's girlfriend's dogs (and his dog a little too) and that was really good for her. She was actually pretty good. It went pretty well.
Oh, and while I was there I got to see my classmate's snakes. That was really NEAT because I know next to nothing about snakes and haven't seen too many close up. He was really nice and took out almost every snake for me to see and told me a little bit about each species. It was pretty cool. Man, I can't wait to learn more about all the different animals we're going to be exposed to while in vet school. It's going to be awesome!
I came back up to NC, finally, about a week ago. Since I've gotten back I've mainly been trying to finish unpacking (which is difficult since I've reached the point now where nothing is really in my way anymore - so I've lost a lot of motivation to continue unpacking the more minor stuff) and meet people! So far I've met some of my classmates and they all seem pretty cool. I've also met some Class of 2013 people who seem really nice too.
The day after I got back up I went and got my car registration and now I think I've completed everything I need to do right away for getting residency next year. I'm going to try to make an appointment with or send an email to the lawyer that handles residency questions and just make sure there's nothing else I need to get done before classes start.
Hmmmm...what else? Oh, today I applied for a job. I need to get a job to help with getting residency and if I could get one before classes start then I could put in some more hours/make a little extra money before I get busy with classes and can't work more than a few hours a week. If this job doesn't work out, then I might look into some other jobs but I also might just wait until orientation and try to get one of the jobs that are offered through the school. The job I applied to today is at a veterinary clinic but I don't necessarily care if I get a veterinary related job (since I can always volunteer for a variety of veterinary related activities to get more experience in the field). I could also tutor math or something as well. My main criteria for a job is that it needs to be something that I can just do on weekends, probably - maybe one night during the week. I'm not particularly looking forward to working while in school but I think I can handle it, as long as I'm not working too many hours.
As for the area: I love it up here! It might be just as hot as Florida right now, but it's far less humid so the weather is slightly nicer. Also, up here it does stay "cooler" a little bit in the morning and it cools down a little at night - whereas in Florida I feel like it doesn't matter the time of day. Plus, there are hills and "winding roads" so driving can be a little less "boring". The hills are going to be an issue when I try to start running again (which I am going to do right after this post) since my endurance is pretty low right now. They make walking River more interesting, though, so I bet they'll have the same effect on running. My favorite thing about being up here so far? The fact that I saw a deer at 2:45 in the afternoon. Sure, I saw deer a few times in Gainesville but only in the dead of night. Never in the daylight. I probably won't appreciate the deer population here as much after the first time I almost hit a deer late at night, though. I didn't think about that before today.
I think River is adjusting pretty well. She doesn't seem particularly anxious or anything. She loved the hike I took her on at Umstead Park. I'll have to do one of those again soon - maybe a longer one this time. Oh, I took River on a "play date" with one of my classmate's girlfriend's dogs (and his dog a little too) and that was really good for her. She was actually pretty good. It went pretty well.
Oh, and while I was there I got to see my classmate's snakes. That was really NEAT because I know next to nothing about snakes and haven't seen too many close up. He was really nice and took out almost every snake for me to see and told me a little bit about each species. It was pretty cool. Man, I can't wait to learn more about all the different animals we're going to be exposed to while in vet school. It's going to be awesome!
Monday, July 5, 2010
(pre-)Anatomy course
So this week I actually started kind of going through this optional online anatomy course we can do. There are 8 units and so far I've quickly read through/gone over the first 4 of them. I have never taken an anatomy course before so I wasn't expecting to know much other than maybe just what I've picked up from working in vet clinics but man, I can already tell Anatomy is going to a beastly (not sure why I used that adjective - just the first thing that popped into my head, I guess) class. I've been doing pretty badly on all the pre-tests but significantly better on the post-tests (so I guess that means I'm learning something - at least short term). The one section so far, though, that I had a lot of trouble with both the pre and post-tests was the unit on bones (and joints, tendons, muscle, etc.) which was kind of discouraging since I really like Osteology. Maybe I was just having a bad day when I did those post-tests. So anyway, the point was - Anatomy is going to be hard but I think I'll like it a lot (like the lab portion of it, at least).
Friday, July 2, 2010
Mangoes
So after eating one of my dad's tree's delicious mangoes this afternoon I think I've come to the conclusion that mangoes might possibly be what I'll miss most about Florida (other than friends and family here). When I went to Costa Rica last summer I spent a lot of time eating the delicious fruit there. Mangoes, however, were the one fruit I tried there that I didn't like more than what I was used to back home. I LOVE Florida mangoes. I'm not used to shopping for mangoes at the grocery store since there's no reason to buy mangoes in South Florida (there's such an abundant supply from the trees). Maybe I'll be able to find some at the store that are comparable. :/
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Last week in FL
So this week is my last week in Gainesville - actually, in Florida, for that matter. Well, since my family and lots of my friends are in Florida, I'm sure I'll be coming back to visit for holidays and breaks. So I guess technically, my last week in Florida was a couple weeks ago since I already "moved" to Raleigh. Right now I'm just in Gainesville as more of an extended visit, seeing people and taking care of some move-out duties. Anyway, in less than a week I'll be up in NC, starting a new life (or at least that's what it feels like right now). It's crazy. I'm sad about leaving the people I love down here but I'm also really excited - new place and VET SCHOOL, so soon! Of course, I'm also pretty nervous. Everything will be so different.
Update on some vet school stuff: By now I have submitted any forms that were due by today and tomorrow. That includes a bunch of forms for the student services office but it also includes my books order form, my supplies order form, and my second white coat ceremony form (the one concerning my presenter). Also, finally today my financial aid/FAFSA stuff has been worked out and I can finally see what they're offering me. Honestly, it's less than I was expecting but I might be able to make it work. Otherwise, I might have to look into getting an extra small loan from elsewhere. I'll have to crunch some numbers before I decide on all that. Another thing I have left to do is take an online Myers-Briggs personality test and some other type of test (I forget right now what it's called). Both those I still have a few weeks to complete. Speaking of that, we received an email giving us more details about our orientation. The information about those personality tests was included in that email. Oh man, Orientation actually seems like it might be a little rough. Compared to classes, I'm sure it will be a breeze but still, the orientation schedule is pretty jam-packed.
Oh, and we finally got our Big Sib assignments! So I've spoken with her via email a few times now. Right when I first heard from her I was in the middle of moving and then in a rush to get some last minute stuff submitted by July 1st but now that all that is taken care of I've gotten a chance to ask her some questions just about vet school in general. So far, she's made me feel a little less nervous about the difficulty level of it and the fact that I'll probably have to work while in school. She didn't make the "job while in vet school" thing seem as scary as some people have.
...so I got distracted from this post and lost my train of thought (yes, I have trains of thought even if it doesn't seem like my thoughts ever follow any type of normal "track") so I'll just end this post for now.....
Update on some vet school stuff: By now I have submitted any forms that were due by today and tomorrow. That includes a bunch of forms for the student services office but it also includes my books order form, my supplies order form, and my second white coat ceremony form (the one concerning my presenter). Also, finally today my financial aid/FAFSA stuff has been worked out and I can finally see what they're offering me. Honestly, it's less than I was expecting but I might be able to make it work. Otherwise, I might have to look into getting an extra small loan from elsewhere. I'll have to crunch some numbers before I decide on all that. Another thing I have left to do is take an online Myers-Briggs personality test and some other type of test (I forget right now what it's called). Both those I still have a few weeks to complete. Speaking of that, we received an email giving us more details about our orientation. The information about those personality tests was included in that email. Oh man, Orientation actually seems like it might be a little rough. Compared to classes, I'm sure it will be a breeze but still, the orientation schedule is pretty jam-packed.
Oh, and we finally got our Big Sib assignments! So I've spoken with her via email a few times now. Right when I first heard from her I was in the middle of moving and then in a rush to get some last minute stuff submitted by July 1st but now that all that is taken care of I've gotten a chance to ask her some questions just about vet school in general. So far, she's made me feel a little less nervous about the difficulty level of it and the fact that I'll probably have to work while in school. She didn't make the "job while in vet school" thing seem as scary as some people have.
...so I got distracted from this post and lost my train of thought (yes, I have trains of thought even if it doesn't seem like my thoughts ever follow any type of normal "track") so I'll just end this post for now.....
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