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!