Following Andrew's lead...

Before:


After:

Home stretch...

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Only one week left of class and then 2 weeks for 6 exams. I'm looking forward to a nice long Christmas break, and getting a chance to go back home for a while. There is only so much of the island I can take at a time LOL

I've recently had several people approach me regarding my pictures, which is very cool! Several people have wanted copies of photo's I had taken of them/their horses during horse shows this summer. I've also approved the use of my photos in the MQHA journal for some of the youth group members. Another approached me for a donation of one of my photos for an auction put on by a non-profit organization. And a classmate asked me to take photos of her and her horse and was very willing to pay me! I'm enjoying the recognition, though I'm not sure if I want to go into selling my pictures. I get more enjoyment out of just taking them, getting good shots, and having people appreciate them.

However I have had the idea of making a little portfolio for myself of the shots I like the most. :) From what I read, it can be tricky to get your photos printed with the same appearance as on your computer screen. I'll have to experiment with a few places to see how they turn out.

Better get back to studying!

Long weekend ahead!

I am amazed it is the long weekend in November already! It seems like just a few weeks ago I started school. Now we only have 3 weeks of classes left! :) Which is both scary and exciting.

My parents are coming for a visit this weekend, and I hope to be a good host with a pot roast dinner and tour of the school. Hopefully the weather will cooperate a bit for their travels!

More photo updates:

My beagles rough housing...



Cody and I having a moment :P


Cody getting bored...


And trying for a self portrait type... for some reason it looked kind of cool cropped.

The end of October...

This month has flew by with the assistance of midterms. Its hard to believe I only have 5 weeks of classes left before finals!

Here are a few pictures I took recently... the first is from an older building on campus



Here is my beagle buddy for the semester, Ruben. He's quite smart and already knows lots of tricks :)


And of course Cody couldn't be left out!


I recieved my physiology midterm back and got a very solid 74% (considering the class average was 67... tends to be the hardest course this semester). Still waiting on Histology and Structure & Function... but I think I did quite well in those so I am not too worried.

This week involves a couple Halloween parties, the UPEI Halloween pub Wednesday night, and then the AVC Halloween party Nov 2nd. I think I will be wearing a costume I had packed away... I'm not too creative in coming up with new ideas! For the rest of the month I have a few quizzes and assignments/projects, but nothing too strenuous. I'm going to try and be on top of notes so I dont get overwhelmed for finals. For the long weekend Mom and Dad are coming to visit! I have already purchased a pot roast to show them I can cook a good meal ;) Yum.

Thats all the news for now!

On a roll...

I got two more midterms back today (one that I wrote this morning!)... I am still perplexed as to why I am making these good grades. Anatomy was another 90% and behaviour was 83% (mostly b/c i was so unmotivated to study last night!). I came into vet school fully prepared to fight tooth and nail for a modest 75%... not sure whats going on! I know my study habits havent changed THAT much in the past year. Maybe UPEI undergrad courses are really tough compared to other universities?? Not that I am complaining, but I almost feel like I could have done better and am not sure why the current effort I am putting into things is getting me high marks. LOL

During a study break this weekend I took a drive downtown and captured a few shots of the autumn scenery.

Some of Cody's friends...

Good day!

Today was my histology midterm which went quite well! I nailed the long answer questions and most of the lab slides. The only tricky part were the multiple choice (just 10 of them).

And I got my Immunology midterm back! I was more than pleased ( and surprised!) with a 90%!!! :)

Plus I got to sign up for the CAT action day for next saturday. This is a non-profit program that traps, neuters, vaccinates and releases feral cats on PEI. These cats are caught from "cat colonies" often in abandoned barns or areas with a concentrated food source. These are wild cats and would probably never be suitable for pets. The idea is to neuter the cats and release them back to their territory where they will live out the rest of their lives. Therefore they will defend their territory against other cats so the population remains stable without growing exponentially. A great idea and great experience for the vet students who help out with the anaesthesia, vaccination, blood collection, and surgeries.

Now I am off to study physiology all weekend...

Half way done!

I've finished half of my midterms with histology, physiology and animal behaviour left. I am most concerned about physiology based on the 2nd years' stories from last year... our prof doesnt give back his midterms so we dont have any old copies to go by. The other two midterms I think I'll be ok for.

Haven't received any midterms back yet... we're supposed to get immunology on friday! I'm a bit anxious to see where I stand with everything...

Picture taking has become non-existant this week. Running has been lagging behind as well. Now it seems I can barely put in a 20 minute run... Its hard when you want your sleep, have to study, or the weather outside isn't cooperating. I'd like to get back into it, but it will be more difficult as the weather gets colder (and darker!)

Cody the Model

Another picture from today... it is hard to distract a cat and take shots at the same time! In order to get his blue eyes to stand out the flash cannot be used (he'll look like the devil with red or yellow eyes), so I have to use one of 3 windows :) He got excited about a bird at one point but was moving too fast for my lens to keep up. this was my fav from today though...

I know the shelf behind him looks crooked, but I am too lazy (and should be studying) to fix it right now. LOL

I had a lovely weekend of studying, tutorials and lab dissections. It didn't nearly feel like 3 days off!

I did celebrate thanksgiving dinner with a good friend of mine, who was my roomate for a couple fo years. We attempted to replicate a famous pot roast dinner from the past. It was better than I remember! We stuffed ourselves full of pot roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, squash, carrots, brocolli, sweet potatoes, and pie! It was a good time and I'm gald I had someone to share the holiday with for a few hours. We both went back to studying later on... :)

I had a mini photo shoot with Cody today as a break from the monotony of reading about T cells, B cells, CD8, CD4, IgA, IgG etc...






Something to make you laugh... if you've ever wanted to see a bird dance to the backstreet boys here is the video for you! Just click on the link and be sure to watch until the end.

May I Have This Dance

Week 5 done!

Its hard to beleive it is almost October! I've been kept busy without much free time.

On club day I joined way too many clubs, but I couldn't NOT join them! I ended up getting the Crictical Care Club, Equine Club, American Association of Feline Practitioners club, and the Theriogenology Club. These clubs have regular meetings, talks, and rounds in the hospitals. Critical care club lets you sign up for evening shifts at the intensive care unit for small animals. I had my first shift this week and there wasn't a whole lot going on (luckily for the animals, unluckily for me), but it really is luck of the draw!

We've also signed up for volunteering with the teaching beagles, horses and cows. We have one day a week where we walk the beagles, and groom the horse/cow assigned to us. It is a nice break to actually get to be around LIVE animals...

... since we spend way too much time with our anatomy cadavers (aka dead dogs). the Formalin must get to our heads becuase most of us name them (ours is Roufus). Our class has a tendency to freak out and spend too much time in anatomy lab, and tutorials... even thought we've only had two quizzes so far. I kicked butt on teh anatomy one :) And think I did very well on the animal behaviour one.

Midterm month is the other name for October. We have 8 midterms to go through... most worth 40-50% of our final grades! Kind of intimidating, but I'm not overwhelmed -quite- yet LOL.

Tomorrow is Open House for the vet college. this is when all of the vet students put on displays and showcase the vet college and hospital to the public. It is a big production and should be lots of fun... then tomorrow night we celebrate 3 of our classmate's birthdays with a big party :) Looking forward to that... last time to have fun before midterms!

I've had a bit of time to play with my camera (and new lens!). I got some lovely sunset shots one night...



And a couple weekends ago I went with a friend of mine to watch the Maritime Quarter Horse Association show in Sussex, NB. It was raining on saturday and we left a bit early on Sun, but I got a few pictures :)

Orientation week

This week flew by fast! We started right into classes and labs on monday. A lot of people in my class seem overwhelmed already... I haven't started to hyperventilate yet though. :) The second year class has kept us busy out of school for orientation activities. Sunday was a day at the beach, monday we had class pictures with our blue coats, tuesday was capture the flag (which ended abruptly after 5 minutes when our leader went for a dive into the pavement and ahd to go get stitches). Wednesday was the buddy-mentor potlock. Our class had to bring the main course. It was amazing how much food there was and how many people showed up! The buddy-mentor idea is to partner students up with someone in each class as well as a faculty member and a staff member.

Thursday was the long awaited pubcrawl event. We were sorted into teams of parasites. Our team was Giardia (aka Beaver Fever)...and we were decorated with face paintings. Throughout the night our teams competed against each other in various games and tasks (mostly involving beer... bleh).



Just because our team was special, being Giardia, we got to wear diapers!



The trek between the first and second bar was lead by our very own Dr. Foley playing the bagpipes. Its great to see our profs supporting pubcrawling with an 8:30 am class the next day!!



Friday morning surprisingly most people showed up for our 8:30 class in immunology. That shows some dedication.

Saturday night was the final hurrah for orientation with a Maritime party at a pub downtown with a band playing maritime music. It was much more relaxed than thursday night, but just as enjoyable.

AVC Blue Coat Ceremony

I've officially been inducted into the Atlantic Veterinary College class of 2011!! The blue coat supper and ceremony was really well done. The food was so good :) I got a good faculty mentor who was very nice, and should be helpful since she teaches Gross Anatomy (one of the "harder" courses) to first year.

Our class had fun earlier in the day playing various team building games in the gym. The final activity was to make something to protect an egg being dropped and come up with a skit for an advertisement. And our egg did not break! We were only able to use one paper plae, 10 straws, a balloon, and a strip of tape. Remarkably only one out of 5 eggs broke!

Here are some pictures of the blue coat ceremony:

PEI

I've been on the island for a few days now. And I still haven't gotten my apartment sorted out! I've been running around doing errands for school. But I took yesterday afternoon and went to Brackley Beach!

It was a lovely day about 20 degrees and sunny, without much of a breeze. The water temperature was 18 degrees!! I brought along my camera and manual to practise a few things. Here are a few that I captured:

Almost time to move!

I finished my last day at work today, which went rather smoothly. I am happy to be moving on to school, but a bit sad to be leaving some of my coworkers behind. But who knows, I may see them again :)

I made a quick stop at Canadian Tire to pick up a floor lamp, since my living room and bedroom don't have ceiling lighting... and I only had one lamp. Then it was off to St. Andrews for the weekend. I got to see my relatives from Ontario before they headed back home, and most exciting was to see my new baby... Rebel XTi.

It certainly has some growing to do, but it is a nice start to a hobby I know I'll enjoy for many years to come. I was pleased with everything it came with and the condition. It will take me a while of fiddling before I am comfortable with all of the features. The kit lens is, as I suspected, not so great indoors. Which is fine, since I am mostly interested in outdoor shots. I was able to get some better lighting from a window, and captured a couple half decent ones of Cody.




I have researched a bit for telephoto lenses and have decided I would need a zoom of 300mm for the type of horse and riding shots I like to take. This would be half decent for "wildlife/nature" shots, but certainly not super. Anything more than 300mm would probably cost more than my Macbook. LOL The Canon 70-300mm IS USM would be ideal, the optics are great and the reviews are positive. The lessor quality lenses from 75-300mm have poor reviews, unfortunately, since the price is more "reasonable". The Sigma brand of lenses makes them mountabe for Canon camera bodies, and the prices tend to be slightly lower. However the telephoto range I'm looking at does not seem to have any reviews online, which would make me a bit cautious. I'm going to have to dig deeper and do more reading so I understand all the mumbo-jumbo better.

Be prepared for picture bombardment over the next little while!

Last week

I am finally in my last week of work! Not that it has been horrible, but I am very excited to move to PEI and into my new apartment... and start vet school :)

I also recently splurged on a Canon Rebel XTi... it is a digital SLR camera that will get me into some trouble taking up my time :) Luckily for me it only comes with the standard kit lens so I will be limited in my scope of photo taking abilities 1st semester. I am reading up on lenses... it is all very confusing. There are so many choices and I'm not sure what I want (other than a big zoom lens) Hehe. Lots of time to figure it out though.

I went home last weekend to visit with family. My Aunt, Uncle & family were down visting from Ontario. It was nice to get to be home and see them. On Sunday we went to Kingsbrae Gardens, and I took advantage of Dad's camera being handy! Here are a few shots:












And finally my little man, Cody. He's been a bit of a pain to mom and dad over the summer. I will (and I'm sure mom and dad will) be happy to get him back with me next week. I miss his annoying meows and love bites. :)

MQHA Summer Sizzler Day 1 & 3

This past long weekend in August was the traditional 4 day Quarter Horse show in Sussex, NB. With almost 100 horses stabled for the weekend, and thousands of dollars in prize money, this was the weekend to be there! I was able to attend 2 days of the show along with my Dad's camera on loan :) I was pretty happy with the results of my photo shoots... day one was about 400 pictures and day 3 was about 600 pictures.

Friday was almost unbearably hot in the mid 30's wih no cloud cover. I was feeling the heat, but I felt worse for the horses and riders all dressed up and working their butts off. Not the most pleasant feeling I'm sure! The riding rings were very dusty, and with so many horses it could be hard to take a clear shot. Editing pictures helped some with the clouds of dust, but there were several pictures that would have been great if it weren't for the clouds of dust surrounding the subjects.










Sunday's weather was much more pleasant with temps in the low 20's with a nice breeze and partly cloudy. It was still very dusty in the rings, but I managed to take more pictures this day :)