Thursday, 8 December 2011

As promised...

ONE HEALTH.
Using a disease of your choice, discuss how a One Health approach can improve human and animal health.

Exciting.

x

Neglect.

Dear Blog,

I am sorry to have set you up in all my hast and to have pushed you aside like yesterday's jam in order to pursue the joys of canine anatomy. I hope that this will not disrupt our future together and from now on I promise to blog once a week.

A whole term has passed. A whole three months. Three months of notebooks, lectures, prodding dead things, chatting, laughing, late nights, several burnt suppers, numerous delayed train journeys, shouting at Londoners and most importantly, going to the zoo. And I won't say it hasn't been hard, this is becoming one of the best but most difficult things I have ever done. The work-social life balance is the hardest to attain as you constantly strive for your very best, but you need to relax and have a laugh sometimes. It is often difficult to describe to other people how the mind of vet student works (or at least most of us whose mummy's didn't force us to apply for the course) as we constantly push ourselves to the absolute limits of what we are capable of physically, emotionally and of course, academically. We don't see the strain on us, we see the strain of all the little (or large!) sad furry things that we are studying to heal. Nevertheless, I shall try my up most to keep sane and happy and most importantly, keep things alive.

So I am in my last week of Term One now and it appears that I have some sort of essay to write. Alas, I do not have a title as of yet, but I am sure that I shall within the next three hours. The excitement. As a commitment to this blog, I shall write it up on here as soon as I know what it is for you all to enjoy as you ponder over the question and rub your gruff bearded chins like ancient Greek philosophers. What I am to write is a complete mystery, but I shall endeavour to make it as titillating as this.

You can't wait.

x

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

First Days

Lesson One: Camden at midnight is not a safe place to be drunk. 

This I have to say I have learnt quickly since joining the RVC. However, I was not expecting a man walking like he was straight from the set of Dawn of the Dead to be emerging from an alleyway just north of Camden Town tube station at two in the morning. Alas, you see many sights at that ungodly hour, but none have ever quite terrified me like the possibility of being confronted by an actual zombie.

But really, it's Camden. What did I expect?

Freshers Week. What can I reveal about the past week of my life, that quite frankly, is all a bit fuzzy. Here is a small run down of tips:

  • Pub Crawls are fun, especially when body shotting, drinking out of lamb feeders and boat racing. Shame the points don't get you a trip to France.
  • It's okay to have a night off and go to Pizza Express in St Christopher's Palace with your flatmates.
  • Flat parties are fantastic, just try to avoid getting fined by London Borough Councils.
  • You will never be on time for pre-drinking. Ever.
  • One person always has someone to 'sleep over' and plays really loud music until 3 in the morning. 
  • You will have a little cry.
  • Freshers Fayre's are fab for lots of crap pens and thousands of useless flyers.
  • Don't burn your hands by touching hot hobs. 
  • Glitter is awesome for future themed nights, but you will spend the rest of your life getting it out of the bathroom.
  • Be prepared for fun/hangovers.

Anyway. This is the beginning of the rest of my life. Cheesy, but true. I am embarking upon a journey that will create my career for life. Let's just hope I enjoy it or this will all be a waste of time and I shall end up as a mad old cat lady. Already I have been prodding all manner of skeletons of all sorts of poor animals (mainly greyhounds though) and have been lectured in the many magical ways of domestication, evolution and bone structure. We are on day three, a day in which I have spent most of the day sitting in the dissection room mezzanine soaking up the smell of carcass and studying bones like a demented child. I am the Queen of Fun. Having said that, I did spend last night in Camden's infamous Electric Ballroom, knocking back whiskey and dancing the Cha Cha Slide like there is no tomorrow whilst watching men strip. Who's having the most fun now, eh?

I hope you have enjoyed this infliction of myself upon you.