FINALLY!

So I got my letter in the mail today...

And...

I GOT IN! I am so happy and excited and a lot of other feelings I can't even describe. 

But, I must put all this on hold so I can go study for the four tests I have next week, just in time to go to a celebratory dinner with friends tonight.

As soon as I have time, I will tell ya'll about finding out and everything, but I just wanted to let ya'll know as soon as possible since everybody was so supportive! 

Swine Unite Part II

Got some more pictures for ya'll!

We finished up at the Swine Unit the week before spring break, and the supervisor finally got the pictures that we took back to us. We worked on processing the newborn pig litters that week. That means (bear with me) notching the ear for identification, giving them iron shots, and docking their tails. Not very pleasant stuff mind you, but still very interesting and I enjoyed doing it. 

Here a picture of a sow about to give birth. They start getting up and laying down over and over, and make as much loud noise as they can. Too bad lab ended before we could watch it all happen.

You can see the ear notching in this piglet. There are certain zones around the ear dedicated to certain numbers. 1, 3, 9, 27, and 81. Right ear is for pig litter number, and left ear is for individual pig number.

So a pig #8 from litter #23 would have two notches at the 3 and two at the 1 on it's left ear, and two notches at the 9, one at the 3, and two at the 1 on it's right ear

You get the point.

Remember my picture from last time? Those were around three weeks old. Here's what the look like as newborns. More like three pounds. And now I can hold two instead of just one. Double the cuteness.

I believe my friend scared her pig a little too much, because looks like she got peed on. Lovely.

Auburn Vet School Interview

Thanks for all the support I recieved from you guys! It was greatly needed and helped me a lot.

My interview went really well, and I was very happy with it. While I don't know how it compared to everyone else's, I just know that I did my best and that I have no regrets with how it went. I didn't really get too nervous, especially when I think about all the other applicants in the waiting room with me. Talk about nervous.. some people's faces were so white I thought they might pass out before it even started. But it helped that the interviewers were very nice and kept the interview fairly casual.

So let me try to write out all the questions that I remember they asked me.
- Tell us about your childhood, and growing up
- How are you doing in your classes- they went through each of my current classes
- What do you think your future career as a veterinarian will be
- Describe the day in the life of a veterinarian
- What would you do if you saw one of your fellow classmates cheating on a test
- What would you do if a client came in for a second opinion and you saw that the veterinarian had seriously messed up an operation on this animal, and you find out that this is not the first of his mistakes
- How do you feel about the animals you would practice on in vet school, knowing full well that you will be killing them at the end of the surgery.
- How do you feel about using animals for research and teaching
- Given the fact that we have many qualified applicants, what makes you so unique and special that we should pick you over the others
- After 4 years of vet school on top of your 4 years undergrad, how do you plan to pay for your education
- What are some of the ways veterinarians keep our food supply safe
- Are you going to be able to handle drawing blood, inserting catheters, surgery etc. etc.
- Is there anything else you would like to mention or explain about yourself before you leave
- Do you have any questions for us about anything.

There we probably several more, but those are the only ones that I can remember. The interview ended up lasting about 35 minutes, which was quite a bit longer than other people's that averaged around 20-25 minutes. Maybe I talked too much? If you want to know more, just ask me.

They will be sending out letters sometime this week so I should know one way or the other hopefully no later than next Monday. But I will keep you all posted.

.

That was no subject heading on purpose, simply to exemplify my chill, non-nervous emotional state. Yeah...

Spent the past weekend preparing for my interview tomorrow. I feel like the last four years of my life have culminated to this point in my college career.   THE INTERVIEW. 

Okay maybe that was a bit dramatic.

But, it's at 3:00 tomorrow, so wish me luck and lots of prayers! Seriously!

Piggies

If you haven't heard me talking about it yet (and you probably haven't, since I don't talk to most of you on a regular basis), my class has finished covering Diary Cows, and we are now well into the topic of Swine, a.k.a. pigs. 

This meant that we left behind E.V. Smith Dairy Farm and are now spending our labs at the Swine Unit. 

Pros? This is much closer to campus, in fact it is pretty much on campus, and I finally get to work with pigs, something I have never done before.

Cons? This is a shower-in, shower-out biosecure facility.

No really, the only entrance into the unit is THROUGH a shower. And it is not just rinsing off either. You gotta wash your hair and everything. You leave your clothes behind in the locker rooms and step through the other side where they have scrubs waiting for you. 

Oh yeah... and underwear (major granny panty-esque) and sports bras. I have gotten used to it now, but it was definitely awkward at first. I haven't had underwear up to my belly button since kindergarten. At least back then it had disney characters on it or something. Now they are just plain white to add to locker room laughter. Lets just say we all know each other a LOT better now.

While getting into the facility may be a pain, we have a lot of fun, and it is always worth it. So far we have vaccinated sows, used ultrasound to detect pregnancies, weighed them, measured back-fat thicknesses, and learned how to sort them around. We also got to check on the little piglets, which are the cutest things ever. This picture is courtesy of one of my friends who lysol-ed her phone to get it inside the building. Sigh... kids today. But at least I got a picture!

This is from the second week that we went, and they had gotten so much bigger. In three weeks, the grow from about 2 pounds to 30 pounds, so you can imagine. But still fairly cute nonetheless. Me? Not so much.

March 2, 1987

And so ends my birthday week. So sad.

I was able to drag it on for a while, but now its over.

A recap?

Lets see... I went to Atlanta last weekend to spend my birthday with my parents and little sister. That meant a trip to my favorite cafe in Roswell for lunch, chicken enchiladas for the dinner of my choice, and stranger than anything else, Snow. That was the last thing I expected for my March birthday. I enjoyed it while it lasted, with the exception of driving back to Auburn in it's aftermath. It was pretty much a white out the whole way back. EXCEPT when I got into the Opelika area, where it started melting. Figures. 

And I got my presents of course. One of them being a recipe box. I had been asking for mom to fix me up a cute one for a while now (seeing as how she stole my other one), and it ended up being my birthday present. I am looking for some good recipes to fix, so if you would like to share your favorite with me- shoot me an email. I also got my first electric toothbrush, I may be the last one in the family to get one, but it was worth the wait! And I am smelling good again in my David Yurman perfume. Thanks!

 Monday, after I begrudgingly accepted that school was NOT going to get canceled (which would have been the most amazing birthday present EVER!), my friends and I went to Laredo's Mexican restaurant for dinner. This will mark my third birthday spent at this place. The food is cheap, and they treat you to a sombrero birthday hat.

Taylor's birthday is on the 1st, so we usually do joint birthday parties. He is not as enthusiastic about his hat as I am mine.

Then my grandparents came down this Saturday to spend the day with me. Amsterdam's for turkey wraps and sweet potato chips, and Cock of the Walk for feeling stuffed.. Maybe next time we should not make it our goal to see how many tubs of coleslaw, pans of cornbread, and bottles of tarter sauce we can get out of them.
They took me shopping and got me a few shirts and a much needed pair of jean capris (my current ones have a rip in them) from Ann Taylor Loft. I love my outfits and wore one to a meeting I had tonight, thanks!

I introduced Grampy to the fields and he threw the ball around with Daisy. It was warm outside and felt amazing. Makes me sad I didn't think of bringing my camera. In fact, I forgot about it all weekend.

I went back to Ann Taylor's after work today to pick up one last thing Granny got for me and to pick up a Jacket that mom said she would get for me. We had a few $25 off coupons that couldn't be used until today, hence the wait. And there my birthday ended. Until next year-

when I will turn 23... with is only 7 years 'til I am in my 30's... which is only 10 years 'til I am 40. I am almost over the Hill and getting old!

On another note, for those of you who don't know, I have my vet school interview on March 17th at 3:00. I hadn't really talked about it yet, just because I guess I have some delusion that the lesser deal I make of it, the less important it becomes. As you can probably imagine, that doesn't really work. 

I have spent the past week preparing on and off for it, and will continue to do so through Spring Break. I am planning on spending the first half of the week in Auburn preparing for it nonstop, and then going Atlanta for the rest of the week and relaxing. 

I also had my mock interview with the career development services this morning.

The advised me to speak slower (a challenge when I get nervous) and to prepare more for more personal questions like "Tell me about yourself."- a seemingly easy question, but where do you start? 

She scored me as "well above average" (a 5) in things like: Dress/presentation, listening to the questions, energy level, knowledge of self/self-confident, creativity/flexibility, resume/experience/grades. I got "above average" (4) in communication skills/persuasion/grammar (because I needed to slow down), and in preparation/sense of direction. 

So overall, I was happy with how it went even though I didn't feel I was up to the level I was a year ago when I was interviewing on campus for several different things. The questions they asked me seemed a bit easier than what other people say they were asked. However, I think that this was what I needed to "shock" me back into interview mode. It is just a totally different way of thinking. Luckily, I don't mind doing it as much as some people do.

I was also videotaped during the whole thing and she emailed it to me so I could see how I did. I haven't watched it yet, but maybe one day I will post it. (haha, probably not).

My LOVEly past two weeks.

Hello again. 

I'm feeling a fairly long-winded blog, because I haven't written in so long.

Just bear with me.

Since my last trip to the E.V. Smith Dairy Farm, I have been back twice; once to milk the cows, and once to perform mastitis checks. Both times were equally fun, although just a little annoyed that we drove 30 minutes out there yesterday, only to leave after 20 minutes to make the 30 minute drive back to Auburn. But other than that they were very informative, and it is always nice to get some hands-on experience. You know what my favorite part of both of those days was? Getting to eat a Moe's before we left. If nobody else, I know Lindsey will appreciate that. 

What else happened? 

Oh yeah, Valentine's day happened. A.K.A. "Single Awareness Day." That is always an extra special day for me. 

Just kidding. Actually, I quite enjoy Valentine's Day. It gives me an excuse to dress up in all pink, red, and purple, and wear any heart-shaped jewelry I have. And there is always a "single's party" that night. This time, all my single friends and I (a group which gets disconcertingly smaller and smaller every year), headed to Chili's to enjoy their queso appetizer, and their Chocolate Molten Lava cake and ice-cream afterwards. They stayed out for their party they were having, but I unfortunately couldn't go. More on that later. 

This holiday is also nice because my dad and I always exchange something. I will be enjoying his gift to me for 60 minutes tomorrow at Spa Auburn. Gotta love a massage. I really think I kneaded it too. 

For him, I bought a red poster-board and then proceeded to bedazzle and feather and ribbon and glue that thing to death. It seemed like a great idea and all, only then I had this giant thing that was incapable of being rolled up, and no way to get it to Atlanta for him. I decided to try my luck with UPS, and see what they could do with it. Now mind you, I didn't take it into the store at first, because there was no way I was going to be caught dead in public with this crazy thing I had made, unless I had to. I asked the guy if they could mail a posterboard, and he said "Sure, we can just roll it up and put it in one of these tubes." Well that wouldn't work because it was just too thick from the bows I put on it, too stiff from all the glue, and too delicate because the gems would pop off. So he suggested mailing it in a big cardboard box, and just not opening it all the way. It would be almost flat, and they could just tape off the edges. So I was very happy to hear that they could mail it, but sad because that meant I had to bring it in and show it too them. Needless to say, they didn't show too much amusement on their faces when they saw it. But they had to lay it on the scale while people kept coming in and out of the store and staring at it. Good thing I am not an easily embarrassed person. And good thing I am a girl, because I think even I would have laughed if I saw a guy trying to mail it. 

Don't get me wrong, it is really cute and I was happy with it, it was just very Loud.

I also got my roommate to take some pictures of me and Daisy in our Valentine's Day garb to send to my dad also. Here are some samples. 

So why couldn't I continue the Valentine's celebration that night? I spent most of the past two weeks studying, in preparation for the largest grouping of tests I have ever had since coming to college. That would be: Molecular Genetics on Monday, Animal Breeding and Animal Growth and Development on Tuesday, and Domestic Animal Behavior and G&D Lab Midterm on Wednesday. Needless to say, I felt the need to start studying early. And in the end, despite some minor freaking out that I just wouldn't make it, they all went fairly well. Praying for some peace of mind really can help matters out a lot. Now all I got to do is get caught up on my shows. But that's the fun part.