Spelling bee--finally, my chance to shine!

Yep, it was a tough contest today. It was between the first years, the second years, and the third years. The words flew through the air with all the speed and agility of parrots (i.e. not all that speedy or agile), but gaffes were few and far  between.  There was one notable exception--"g-h-a-r-i-f-e"? I suspect she might just not have wanted to spell giraffe. 

The third years, whose brains have been subject to three years of vet school and thus are understandably a bit shaky when it comes to something as pedestrian as spelling, fell out first. The first years were definitely in the lead. We still had three out of four from our group, whereas the other two classes had only one student hanging on. There was a tricky moment with 'metzenbaum', which I can spell but not identify (some sort of scissor?). A few more times back and forth (dachshund would have stumped me, but fortunately it went to someone else) and then the last second year mistook a letter. I can't actually remember what the word was, but something like pterygoid or metacarpophalangeal. 

Er. 

Um. 

This is awkward.

But anyway,  I spelled it! And then 'erythropoiesis' was the challenge word, which went fine. Hurrah. 

So now that I've proved I can be my own spell checker, I can go back to studying for exams where everything is multiple choice. 

Repro and biochem, here I come!

Parrots and Ferrets

Monday was random animals day! Also known as physical exam of exotics...they presented us with tortoises (tortoise restraint: hold the shell). 
Snakes: one student got hold of the python and wouldn't let it go...or maybe vice versa.
Rabbits: if it grinds its teeth that means it likes you? 
Ferrets: What a charming carnivore. I'm glad I don't have one. 
Parrots: cra!-cra!-cra!-cra! for FORTY minutes. My new least favorite animal in the world. 

Then we have Wednesday, formaldehyde day. Our pony cadaver has dwindled to a single leg dangling from the ceiling, though it took a lot of work to get there. Dissection is the art of finding the really delicate bundle of nerves before you cut it...and then cutting it and moving on. 

time out

Possibly I spent too much time last night studying in compensation for not studying earlier, and got five hours of sleep. So that may explain the feeling sucky all afternoon today. I can force myself through lecture, but the thought of spending hours floundering about as the untrained surgery tech (getting progressively colder in the well-chilled surgery ward) was too much. I went home and slept on and off. When I couldn't sleep anymore, I got up. I've had some lamb thawed out for a couple of days, so I put it in a stew pot with the usual compliment of vegetables, then sauteed the leftovers. There was probably a half pound of lamb there...after I finished off most of it, it occurred to me that my blood iron is probably low again. I tend to crave tomatoes, meat, and liver (in that order) as I become more anemic. I'm not feeling a particular craving for liver, true; but then, I just ate a lot of red meat.  

So it's been a non-starter of a day. I tried to go in to school early, and ended up spacing out for most of the "extra time" I had gained.

But there's sunlight, and I'm doing a lot of watering of plants. I put five little strawberry plants in pots and they're putting out leaves on super-fuzzy stalks. I can't say the same for the ones I ripped out of the garden a few weeks ago. Most exciting are the thin cylinders of leaf coming from my Hawaiian stick. It will be a plumeria, some day, or so the label said. It's always nice when the things I plant manage to stay alive. It's not that I dramatically murder green leafy organisms, they just...pine for water and light.