Salisbury Crags, Fringe and Practicals

I can't believe another week has passed.  Time is flying by.  But that also means I am a week closer to my first exam...

Last Friday a large group of us hiked up Salisbury Crags to watch the fireworks at Edinburgh Castle for the Military Tattoo.  We got there just at dusk and it was quite a spectacular view of the city.  At some point I would love to go and watch the sunset.

Saturday night 3 of us went to watch a Fringe show called What Does the Title Matter Anyway?  It was a comedy show which was based on Whose Line is it Anyway?  The show's host was Clive Anderson who hosted the UK Whose Line show.  Another notable name was Greg Proops who was a regular on the American Whose Line.  By the end of the night my stomach was in so much pain from laughing.

Sunday during the day we climbed the backside of Salisbury Crags.  From that side you could see the Firth of Forth which flows into the North Sea.

In terms of school, this week was filled with practicals, dissections, and some less than thrilling AHWAFS (Animal Health, Welfare and Food Safety) lectures on zoonosis and food borne diseases.

Our first practical was how to properly wash our hands and disinfect our waterproofs.  Here anytime you are working with farm animals (except horses) you wear a completely waterproof suit.  It allows you to literally hose yourself down at the end of the practical and disinfect your waterproofs for the next use.

We also had a dissection of the forelimb and hindlimb.  It was amazing how much more sense everything makes when you can dissect it.  The next day we had a pig practical.  We went and visited a local high quality farm.  Having spent a week on a pig farm this summer it was very interesting to see how different farms are run and how regulations are different from the UK to Canada.  At the practical we got to pregnancy check sows (momma pigs), inject piglets with iron (they are prone to anemia) and tail dock them (when pigs grow up they will chew each others tails so they cut them off a few days after birth to prevent the pain and infection of tail biting in the future).

Thursday we had a live anatomy session at the Edinburgh Dog and Cat home.  Basically what it ended up being was 2 hours of cuddling shelter dogs with the odd bit of trying to find anatomy landmarks on the dogs.  I think my entire class was in heaven because so many of us have left pets at home so we got to have a little pet loving.

Our very timid but sweet shelter dog

And Friday I had a milking practical.  Again I have spent a fair amount of time on a dairy farm so it was interesting to see differences.  I expected that since it was a university farm they would do absolutely everything possible to have the highest quality farm.  But it is still a working farm so like any farm they have to make decisions based on time and economics.  The practical itself was quite fun, I really enjoy working with cows so it was nice to spend some time with them again.