Visitors!

Mom and my brother Nat have come to visit me in Slovakia for 4 days!

We had Friday off Uni (Rectors Day) so taking advantage of the long weekend and spending it with family.

Sian's parents are also visiting so we met them at the airport, came back to town and gave them the guided tour. We showed them round Uni, even though most of it was closed, then came back to Dorms.

Family Falconry Selfie

Anatomy; Muscles of the Limbs

Anatomy; Bones of the Face

Got an A in Anatomy again this week; bones of the face.

Very happy with that and now (in theory) we know all the bones of 5 species! :)

We move from bones on to muscles next week - muscles of the thoracic limb!

Bargain Books

We don't really use any textbooks here, this semester anyway, as the professors and lecturers write course specific textbooks for us that they sell for about €3.

It works really well when they're going through lectures so you can follow what they're talking about and if there's a bit of a language barrier with what they're trying to say, you can read the book which usually explains it pretty well.

I was in the library and spotted this book in the glass cabinet for €1.33...

It's a Slovak book but the English title is Atlas of Anatomy of Small Laboratory Animals 2.

It doesn't really matter that it's in Slovak because all the figures are labelled in Latin which is the language we learn all our anatomy in anyway!

Nom idea why they were so cheap and there was an Atlas 1 book to go with if but they'd sold it and I got the last copy of book 2!

Milk Hygiene; Dairy Visit

This afternoon, straight after our Physiology exam, we went on a field trip to the University Dairy farm.

It's a 45min drive outside of Kosice and although the bus was something out of the 1950's the view was really nice.

They have 410 dairy cows in lactation so a decent sized farm.

They made us put on lab coats, wellies and hair nets (not typical dairy farmer attire) and showed us around the farm, the parlour and the milk room.

I was impressed with the parlour but the milk room could have done with several improvements... It wasn't the cleanest and the floor was broken etc but that's why we were there, to 'inspect' the hygiene of the place.

Afterwards they took us to see the young calves...

Very cute!

Apparently we'll be back again to see the other animals with different modules and might have to come back to stay over for calving which would be really good!

Matriculation Ceremony

We had our Matriculation Ceremony this afternoon which is the formal process of entering the university and becoming Vet Students.

UVMP Kosice post-BSc Class of 2014

Beautiful morning in Košice...

Feels like: -3oC

Wind: 52km/h

Anatomy of the Skull

I GOT AN A!

Over the moon.

(That is all)

Week 6: Midterm Credit Tests

We're halfway through Winter semester which means we have Midterm Credit Exams.
We had Microbiology on Monday, Anatomy of the skull tomorrow (Thursday) and Physiology on Friday.

I got 100% in my Microbiology exam and was genuinely shocked!
Don't think I've ever got 100% on an exam, especially when I'd only revised it the night before and the morning of... Short term memory for the win.

I predict Anatomy will not go so well 'cos its one of, if not, the hardest bone in the body.

To make the week even busier, we also have Matriculation Ceremony on Thursday and a field trip with Milk Hygiene on Friday!

There's been a bit of fuss about exams this week as Group 2 (my group) have 3 exams but Group 1 have none or 1 because we have half days for Matriculation and the field trip - theirs have been delayed a few weeks so not very fair that so have ours all together but at least they'll be over and done with.

Clarence the Kestrel

Sian and I have been looking after Clarence the Kestrel on our own for a few weeks now.

We have to go down every morning before lectures to weigh and perch him out.

He is weight so we can monitor any changes but also to know how much he will need feeding that day. You can normally tell if they're getting overweight as they'll be less keen to work for their food so we try to keep him at a good weight so he is keen to work.

I'm really enjoying getting involved with Falconry and we're planning on going to an International Meet in a few weeks, hunting with Harris Hawks, Peregrines and Eagles!!

Vaccination time for Gizmo

We got up early and went to the vets at 8:40 this morning.

Gizmo had a full health check and then his first vaccinations; the vet said he was perfect and really well behaved!

4 of us went, all with our charity foster cats, and the others were wriggly but Giz sat on my shoulder throughout just watching the world around him...

This week has flown by...

This week seems to have flown by!

I spent most of the weekend revising Anatomy and went to Self Study on Tues and Weds so I was more confident on Thursday after I freaked out last week and felt like I worked really hard for 5 days.

I volunteered to go first and get my oral exam over with this week and although I was still a bit nervous I didn't freak out and stayed calm!

She handed me a Lumbar vertebrae so I started explaining this is Lumbar vertebrae of a horse and this is the caput as the processus spinosus point caudally... she looked at me confused and I pointed towards my head... cranially! I knew what I meant but got my words mixed up.

Anyway, carried on and explained all the points of it and didn't miss any out. She asked me how many Thoracic vertebrae are in each animal (18 in horses, 13 in ruminants, 14 in pigs and 13 in carnivores - which was fine) then lumbar which threw me but I eventually got there after an awkward silence; 6 in all, 7 in carnivores.

She then handed me a bone and asked what it was, I said 6th cervical as it had foramen transversarium and (what I thought were) lamina ventralis which are absent in the 7th cervical; she interrupted with "it's a C".

I was relieved to have passed but a bit disappointed that I'd worked hard for 5 days and only got a C which is about 75% - I'm now thinking it could have been a wierd looking 3rd, 4th or 5th cervical - we'll never know!

English teaching went well last night and much better than a Wednesday night, we had a lie in til 8:30am this morning, getting up to go Falconry.
Was soo tired but Brigid and Lucy showed us how to do Faecal Worm Egg Counts (FWEC) and luckily after a week of treatment they were all clear!

We have Latin and Physiology practical this afternoon then going back to Falconry tonight to try and get Clarence the kestrel flying Glove to Glove!

Long week of Vet School!

This week has been quite hard and think we deserve a decent weekend!

I passed my Histology exam which we had on Monday, I got 72% which is a C and also had an anatomy credit on Wednesday...
I thought I'd revised it well and went tested ourselves the night before and I was ok but when I got in there I freaked out. She asked me to pick up a Tibia from a pile of bones which I did but when I got a quarter of the way through naming parts of it, I just went blank. She tried to help me through it by asking questions but I just couldn't think straight.
Next she handed me a small bone and asked me to name it and I had no idea what it was called! I knew all the parts of it basis phalangis mediae, corpus phalangis mediae, caput phalanges mediae, tuberositas extensorius, fovea articularis but was completely plank on the name of the bone... the Medial Phalanx! Still, I managed to get a D which is about 65% and most importantly enough to pass!

I've been doing my adults English lessons on a Wednesday but was finding it too hard with Anatomy credit test on Thursday morning so have moved them to a Thursday. It worked really well this week 'cos I went straight from Uni to Didacticus for the kids lessons at 2 and my adults lessons don't start til 5 so I had an hour to kill in the middle to managed to get some anatomy notes written up for next week.
It means I was out the house 6.45am-7.30pm but when I got home there was a packet of M&S chocolate digestives waiting in my room as a present from Sian!

The girls stayed in last night but I went out with Niall and some of the older years to Jazz Club and had a really good night. Anthony is in second year and went to Leeds Uni with George my best friend from home - small world!

Sian and I spent 3 hours down at Falconry club today working with Clarence the Kestrel.
We flew him from his perch to a glove with a creance (long cord) which he was really good and and then tried glove to glove which was less successful - think he was getting confused with why 2 people were working him and probably getting a bit full up too!

Then tonight we've been out for Niamh's birthday; we went to Passage to India for a curry and the food was decent but we waited ages!
We got there at 7 and out food came out at 8.45, there was a big group of us but still it was getting ridiculous. The food was really tasty but the curry was tiny considering it was €7!

Meet Gizmo...

Meet Gizmo, my new roommate...

He was on the streets yesterday but a local lady took him to a charity so I'm fostering him until Christmas or a home can be found for him... whichever comes first.

The clinic checked him over, wormed him and tester for FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) and FeLV (Feline Leukaemia Virus).

He's amazing well behaved considering he's come straight off the streets and has taken to the litter tray straight away.

This is him and Simba, Roxie's foster kitten, who is a few weeks older - they only met each other for the first time today!

Things that you see from a window at vet school...

PASSED ANATOMY

I've never been so relieved to have an exam over and done with - I passed with a C (just under 80%) so am pretty pleased with that!

We had a pointless Latin lesson this afternoon - the teacher tried telling us how all English words are either Masculine, Feminine or Neuter like they are in Latin and didn't understand why we said they weren't.

She also tried telling us the English translation of Skeleton was Skelet...

Got the bus straight into town from Uni to go and teach my Didacticus kids lesson.

They were so much better behaved this week compared to last and most of them participated in the lesson really well.

Now to start Anatomy all again ready for the Pelvic Limb next week...

Revising bones of the Thoracic Limb

We have Anatomy credit tests at the start of our practical every week and this week our topic is Bones of the Thoracic (fore) Limb.

There's enough detail to remember as it is and then they throw in the added complication of having to know all the names in Latin!

I drew and labeled all the bones up over the weekend and have been trying to learn them and not really got anywhere.

I managed to get some actual bones to have a look at and it made it SO much easier to learn!

Really not looking forward to the oral exam tomorrow - I'll be happy if I just pass!

Full day of Uni plus Falcons

It's been a 12 hour day on campus for me today!

We started with our Slovak lesson at 7am, a 2 hour Microbiology lecture, 2 hour Microb practical, hours gap, 2 hour Genetics lecture and then finished with Anatomy self-study at 7pm!

Had a really good day though and its nice to keep busy and actually feel like I'm learning (and remembering) stuff!

Sian and I did pop down to Falconry and Raptor club in our break before Genetics.

Meet Duckie the Peregrine Falcon:

and Frantiska, the Harris Hawk:

Life of a Vet Student

Revising bones of the Thoracic Limb...

Falconry & Raptor Rehabilitation Club

I went down to Falconry & Raptor Club with Michelle who's in charge of the club this morning and got a chance to meet the birds.

She quickly showed me how they do the Falconers knot but I think it'll take quite a bit of practice to get the hang of it!

I got to hold Duckie the Peregrine Falcon - he got his name 'cos he's always chatting and quacking away!

They also have two Kestrels, a partially blind Gyr/Gyr-Saker hybrid called Bear and two new additions they're working with are a Harris Hawk and a Goshawk.

They aren't actively looking for new people to the club this year but Michelle said I should be able to shadow people for a few weeks to learn the basics, see if I like it and then I can think about joining! :)

Early start

We were up in the middle of the night again this morning for a Slovak lecture starting at 7am!
The lesson went surprisingly well as the teacher was really nice and had perfect English - we were surprised at how many words we'd picked up in just a few weeks of being here.
Favourite word so far is Pivo ...beer.

It's gotten considerably colder over the last week and everyone's gone from wearing tshirts and shorts to trousers and hoodies!
We went down to try and find out if we can help out with the uni's horses in the stables attached to the large animal clinic but couldn't find anyone to speak to, let alone someone who speaks English.

I'm going down to tag along with the president of Falconry Club on Sunday to see what they get up to and if its something I'd like to join.
Really looking forward to going and meeting the birds so hope I like it!

I've still not managed to find out about Breeders Club which was mentioned in the prospectus who breed Pigeons, Quail and Chickens for exhibitions but that sounds like something right up my street!
I was planning on bringing my little Brinsea incubator over after Christmas and hatching some chicks in my room like we did in Aber but it doesn't seem like its needed!

Extracurricular Activities

Today, I made hoummous and it was amazing! My breath stinks of garlic, my room stinks of garlic and my hands probably stink of garlic but it was so worth it!

I devoured a mountain of it with a pile of salad + balsamic vinegar :)

I've spent the last hour doing my Latin homework for this week which wasn't difficult, it just took a long time sorting it all out.

I get bored if I have nothing to do so we joined a gym in town last week and I've been looking at 'Interest Clubs' today - the equivalent of societies in UK Uni's - to get some extracurricular hobbies and meet new people.
The Falconry and Raptor Rehabilitation Club sounds really interesting but they aren't looking for any new members this semester - I sent one of the girls a message on Facebook just asking on the off chance and they're happy for me to tag along, see what its all about and if it's something I'd like to join!
A friend has falcons and raptors and used to post lots of pictures on facebook of them out flying and hunting - the bond she had with them looks amazing and something I've always wanted to try. At the moment she has a Goshawk which needs working every day otherwise apparently they go back to their wild state!

Uni have an stable yard next the equine clinic so we're going to see if we can help out there too as I know some people do down and groom the horses, turn them out to pasture and stuff so would be good to get more confidence with loads more horses.
Apparently there's also a 'Breeders Club' who breed chickens, quail, pigeons and guinea pigs for exhibiting and a 'Beekeepers Club' but I've not spoken to or heard anyone talk about those yet.

I also had an interview last weekend with a guy who runs an English teaching school here and was looking for native speakers.
He's offered me 5 classes this week and I can choose to take them all or just take the ones I want - the classes are an 18 year old boy, 21 yo girl, adult female, adult couple and a class of 7-9 year olds.
I think the adults can already speak basic English and are just looking for conversational English which would be fine but not sure about the children. I've said I'll go along and try one lessons and I can always change my mind if the workload gets too much.
At the moment 5 hours a week doesn't sound too much and every penny (or euro) helps when you're a student!

Dorm Crawl weekend

Today was pretty much a complete write off 'cos we had a Dorm Crawl party last night, starting on 9th floor and making our way down the building visiting various rooms.

A bottle of Vodka is €3 so you can guess how eventful the night was...

We went to Club Ibiza at about 1am and I don't really remember much apart from it being rammed full of people and full of cigarette smoke as they smoke indoors here - maybe somewhere to avoid in future.

This afternoon we went into town to get Subway and to try and find a few bits and came back with nothing we went for.

I want an Academic Planner/man diary and have been one on Amazon for £5 but they want £7.50 to deliver it to Slovakia.

Roxie wants a plug for her sink and nowhere seems to sell them - same with Mosquito nets for our windows, lots of places have them on their windows but we want to buy them and they just don't exist in the shops?!

We've only been in Slovakia for 2 weeks and I'm already missing things from home - all the shops have amazing bakery sections with wierd and wonderful breads, right angled pain au chocolat but they don't do cookies, also houmous doesn't exist in Slovakia so I've bought chickpeas, garlic and lemon to make my own.

We did go into Marks & Spencer in town and they have an M&S Food shop! We stocked up on all the essentials; Breakfast tea bags, Percy Pigs, chicken soup and chocolate digestives.

About 6 months ago and before I knew I was coming, I bought tickets to see Sam Smith in October for me and the brothers but now I'm here I don't know if I'll be able to get home for it.
It's on a Tuesday so would mean missing a couple lectures, flying into London and then getting the train up to Nottingham then getting back to London and flying back to Kosice - apart from the long journey it's also money I don't have to waste on flights at the moment so might have to miss out this time :/

First week at Vet School

The first week at vet school has flown by and although it wasn't what I expected, I think it was better.

I can't get over or express how nice the years above have been in looking after us, getting us settled in and sharing stories.
When we were at the airport they sorted out taxi's for us, they've shown us cclassrooms, where to go for cheap printing/photocopying and every few hours on the UVM Facebook there's offers of books, notes and revision material being given away for various modules.
So many people have invited us in for a chat, brew, to give us notes on a memory stick - someone even gave me a set of laptop speakers for free so we can watch films 'cos they had 2 pairs!

It's strange going back to the classroom environment after a year out and lectures are all 2 hours but apart from having to get up for 7am lectures twice a week I'm enjoying it!

 Our Genetics lecturer is German so quite heavily accented and speaks quietly so we had to concentrate on hearing him as well as understanding what he was trying to get across but all other lecturers have been really good.

The Anatomy lecturer has great spoken English and really knows her subject so that was interesting and that lecture flew past - it helped that we have a 2 hour Anatomy practical straight after the lecture so it's all fresh in our minds and we can apply it to real bones etc and anything we didn't understand in the lecture we can recap in the practical.

We've put in for Exemptions in 3 subjects, Anatomy, Physiology and Immunology, as we covered those quite a lot in Animal Science - it basically means that we still go to all lectures, practicals and do mid-term Credit tests but instead of having 120 topics we'll be examined on in the Final Exam, we could have those cut down to a dozen topics that we'll be examined on.

The requests are submitted to professors/heads of department along with the syllabus from our previous modules and our results and can take a few weeks to hear back but here's hoping!

Early start!

Day 3 of Vet School and this morning we were up at 6.30 for a 7.15am Anatomy lecture!

Once we'd got over the fact that we were up and in Uni during the middle of the night it was actually alright. The lecturers English was really good and she was really knowledgable so it was interesting listening to her and the 2 hour lecture went really quickly.

Straight after the lecture we had an Anatomy practical where we recapped what we'd gone through in the lecture using bones and pictures:

The Anatomy practical finished half an hour early so we had a break before Latin which was completely different to the 3 years of Latin I've done before.

I guess at school we just learnt to say "The man is in the hall", "The woman is in the kitchen" etc to learn cases where was now we're learning medical terms and how to structure words to say "Regions of the body" etc.

New arrivals

Sian and I walked to HyperTesco and I bought the Guppies a couple new additions; a plant, a Dwarf Gourami and a Catfish to keep their tank clean!

The walk was actually really nice, took about 25 minutes via a reservoir, along the train track and past a few fields so better than walking along boring streets!

I also spent a few hours this afternoon putting photos up around my room to make it a bit more homely...

Finally finished my room

So it's taken a good few days but I've finally finished painting my room and unpacked!

Decided to paint it all white + grey which looks a lot better than the orange it used to be!

I bought a "European Double" duvet which annoyingly is far too small and turns out I need a Super King size!? 

Bit annoying but I'll just put up with it for now.

I should probably introduce you to my roommates - they arrived on Friday before I'd even unpacked and bought my duvet...

Officially a Vet Student!

I've officially registered as a student of UVMP Košice!

We've had a hectic few days getting settled.

When we arrived at the airport on Tuesday there were some students on the same flight from years above and they sorted out our taxis to dorms for us. They've all been amazing help settling us in, taking us out for drinks and telling us where to buy paint, which shops to go to etc.

Me, Sian and Roxie who all went to Aberystwyth together all have rooms next to each other and we've spent the last 3 days decorating our rooms - when we arrived they were bright orange and yellow!

It's now white and grey but I need to unpack and get photos tomorrow as it looks like a building site at the moment!

I have the most amazing view from my room on the eighth floor...

...and I can't wait to see it in the Autumn and Winter.

We've been into town and to Tesco a couple times and as it was Roxie's birthday yesterday we went for a nice meal together at Napoli's which was really nice and really cheap!

Moving to Vet School!

So, today is the day we start our journey at Vet School.

We're flying from Luton to Kosice and sorting out dorms etc when we arrive...

See you on the other side!

Think I'm ready to move to Slovakia?