Don't blame Dr. Hahn, she didn't design it.

Still learning neuroanatomy this week, although we had a couple of breeding and genetics lectures stuck in there for obscurity sake. I actually love Dr. Hahn's class because although she has an obsession with how amazing Dr. de Lahunta is (which I'm sure he's a neurology genius), she actually makes her classes interesting! Our structure of lectures is to always start off with a case study or a video clip first, asks us what is wrong with the patient, and then wants to hear the answer to the neurology behind it by the end of the lecture. I have learnt so much and have resparked my fascination with the brain. Although now I am forced to memorize all the locations of the cranial nerves inside of the brain as well as different pathways each tract runs through. Did I also mention that I have to know the areas of a bunch of nuclei as well?

Ah well, there was definitely some fun stuff this week though in terms of learning neuroanatomy. We got to dissect a sheep brain (in pairs) and fortunately Jenn and I were able to get 2 brains! *zombie time!* We cut one sagittally and the other one transversally so we could see all the different structures.

I'll be posting some of the better pictures I took soon on this blog in case any vet students or interested subjects want to learn about the structures of the brain. I'm going to attempt to label them first (on MS Paint! pray for me...) and then post them. If I end up posting them unlabelled please assume I failed at it or that I got too impatient.

In other non-brainy news though, Kyle and I are going on a day trip to St. Andrew's on Saturday. It's going to be amazing I'm sure..especially to see the expensive golf course (hopefully they'll let us inside of the clubhouse at least) where the British Open was played. Wonder if the grass is still green? Then maybe check out the castle and church while we're there. From the looks of some of the pictures of the church ruins, it looks like it's going to be breathtaking when we see it in person!

And now...off to dinner and probably play God of War with Kyle for a couple of hours. I'm hooked! It's my first PS3 game where I wasn't just punching and kicking someone (SF4) although there is a lot of violence involved. I'm definitely still a newbie when it comes to video games as I do not have the thumb dexterity that Kyle acquired over his 23 years of gaming.

Neuroanatomy most important subject!

Every prof says their subject is the most important, and neuroanatomy is no different. Dr. Caroline Hahn is our "main" professor I would say but agreeing with Jenn (my amazing and also smartest girl in our class - friend) that we're a bit wary on a prof that praises a dude who wrote a textbook..to the point of calling him God. I'm no religious person by any means but yea, a little out there for me. Other than that though, she seems like she will be an amazing professor. She sat in on our other neuro classes so she'll know exactly what we already know and go from there. And she is also a giant...6' something I'm sure of it!

I finally uploaded my pictures from the poultry farm on to my facebook if anyone is interested and I realized that I had no pictures of chickens! Not even dead ones which were common due to the cold. Did you know that organic chickens kill each other (i.e. cannabilism) more often than other chickens because their beaks are not clipped? Not sure if I already mentioned that in my last post so I'll try not to repeat. Once they taste blood...they go crazy! It reminds me of a group of piranhas that first nibble at its feast and then go into a frenzy devouring it to the bone! If you're wondering what I'm talking about, youtube a video of pet piranhas eating live mouse prey, it's a little morbid but there is absolutely nothing left of the mouse...even the bones are gone!
Here's some pictures from the farm - it was so beautiful there although I don't think the farmers appreciated it as much as I did since it meant more work for him with the animals.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It was a great Christmas break I have to tell you. I got to spend time with my family as well as my friends. Watched some movies, sat on the couch...I even knitted! That's right, I'm domestic like that. Unfortunately it was short-lived and the downside was that I was only able to see some friends once if at all! Next time, I definitely need to plan a little bit better.
Now that I'm back in Edinburgh, I did a week of poultry EMS just outside of Penicuik and it wasn't really poultry at all for most of the day. Since it was so cold (coldest it has been in over 50 years in Scotland) the chickens aren't really roaming outside of their barns. We're mainly standing by a conveyer belt for 2 to 3 hours sorting eggs from "clean" to "dirty" to "can't even be sold". The clean ones don't get washed at all and are considered "organic" and the "dirty" are the ones that have obvious poop or blood on them and they get washed and resold as "not organic" since we washed them. I don't think I can ever really eat organic eggs...now that I've been there, touching them, and seeing the amount of poop, it's hard to imagine not washing that shell before you crack it open to eat it. During the other 4/5 hours of the day are spent helping with the cattle, sheep or drinking tea. I drank so much tea! It was quite delicious and much needed especially since we're wearing wellies with NO insulation and no matter how many pairs of socks you put on, your feet will always become numb.
On our last day, we actually got to do some vet-ish stuff. One of their ewes was dying (and most likely going to eventually) because it was a shy eater and wouldn't eat = weak = can't eat because too weak. We injected it with calcium and glucose intradermally but to no avail. Alas, goodbye sheep! You will be off to a better place!

In other news, I finally did laundry! (yay!!) and now have clothes to wear...how exciting is that?! Just kidding! Today is Kyle's first ice hockey game with the University of Edinburgh's ice hockey team (The Eagles), so I'll be going to cheer him on later tonight.
And classes start again tomorrow = lots of lectures this week with one practical on calves. Kyle and I are trying to start swimming in the mornings (early mornings ahh!) to get some physical exercise in. I haven't been able to go swimming since i came here because they only have 2 swim times for the day and it's either super early in the morning, or right around dinner time when everybody's going to be there. And swimming is one of the best cardio exercises for me since I have weak joints which makes running difficult.

Alright, it's almost 1 in the afternoon, I guess it's time for me to get out of my pjs. Talk to you all soon.