Passed First Year

I PASSED!

I've finally passed all my exams for my first year at vet school. It's been hard work but I've had a great time, met some amazing people and I'm already looking forward to next year.

One down, three to go...

It's the final countdown

Veterinary Genetics Exam

I had my resit of Veterinary Genetics today and never been so nervous for an exam in my life!

I was in with a panel of four examiners because it was my Rectors go (last chance) but I studied hard for a week and passed!

I was in there for an hour and 15mins expecting them to grill me and while they did, they also helped me through it and rephrased questions I didn't understand as it's an oral exam.

Just two more exams to go until I can go home for summer!

Chocolate Pekin Bantam chicks

The Chocolate Pekin Bantam chicks are about 8 weeks old now and growing quickly!

Here's one of the pullets 

The award for the scruffiest chick goes to...

They're off heat now living in the utility room and I'm going to keep them in for about another month. 

Last year I put some Pekin chicks out at about this age and they really didn't thrive so hopefully another few weeks inside will do them a world of good - also means they'll get used to people as we're in and out of there all the time.

Tokyo Ueno Zoo

We visited the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo today and I was pleasantly surprised.

Asian zoos don't have the best reputation so I wasn't sure how much space the animals would have, especially in the capital of Japan but it was pretty good.

They had Giant Panda, Gorillas, Asian Elephants and Polar Bears.

The exhibit the female elephants were in wasn't massive but the bull was in a much bigger area so I guess they rotate and it seemed to have lots of things to keep them amused. The keepers were in with the elephants, sweeping them down with a broom doing health checks, weighing them all individually on a weighbridge and hosing them all down as it was 34oC.

GRIDS Akihabara Capsule Hostel Tokyo

We arrived in Tokyo three days ago and after two nights in a great AirBnB the other side of town, we are now staying in the GRIDS Akihabara Capsule Hotel.

We're in a 30 bed room with loads of these self contained capsules, lockers and shared bathroom.

It's actually really nice, surprisingly private considering you share a room with 30 people and the bathroom is the nicest we've had since arriving in Japan.

There is a laundry room and shared common room upstairs, bar and cafe downstairs and the staff have been great.

Only thing that could make it better would be another pillow but to be fair I haven't asked for one, was too tired and fell straight to sleep!

Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery

Tonight we went to the Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery on Bentota beach in Sri Lanka. We arrived at 6:30pm as advised by Lonely Planet and we're not disappointed! We were the only people looking around the hatchery and had a great tour of the whole sanctuary.

Fishermen collect eggs laid by the females on beaches and take them to the hatchery to receive 2,000 rupees (£10). They're collected as otherwise iguana, monitor lizards and mongoose dig up and eat the eggs.

The eggs are buried in nests in the hatchery, covered by fencing and netted over the top to keep predators and birds out.

The turtles hatch overnight as it's cooler and are looked over for deformities, blindness and sexed according to tail length; males go into one nursery pool and females are kept separate.

Males are kept for 3 days while they absorb the yolk sac and fed some fish food pellets before being released into the ocean at night. A much lower percentage of females hatch so they are kept for a few years to grow until they are bigger and stronger to give them a fighting chance at survival.

The hatchery had quite a few large females ready for release as well as some residents - two blind and four with deformities, from one missing fin to all four fins missing. These are all hand fed tuna and seaweed.

After being shown all around the hatchery we collected 15 three-day-old Green Turtle hatchlings and headed down to the beach.

There were two Sea Eagles hanging around so we waited for them to leave and then released the babies into the Indian Ocean.