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!