Dublin - Ireland Day 1

After a very difficult exam Friday, a friend and I flew to Dublin, Ireland Friday night for a weekend away.

We arrived in Dublin around 10pm, checked into our hostel and then decided to go out for a walk.  We walked about the Temple Bar area.  It is essentially a few blocks of wall to wall bars and pubs.  When we walked through it around 10:30 there were people everywhere and the streets were packed. Clearly the place to be on a Friday night.

View from my hostel bed

The next day we got up quite early and started touring around Dublin.  Our first stop was the Samuel Beckett Bridge.  It was designed to look like a harp, the national symbol of Ireland.

Our next stop was Trinity College.  We walked around the outside of the campus for a while.  We then decided to pay to enter the Book of Kells exhibit and look at the Old College Library.  The Book of Kells is from the 9th century and is an intricately decorated copy of the four Gospels of Jesus.  Random fact: It took 185 calf skins to make the Book of Kells.  The detail that went into making the book was incredible.  And the library was stunning.  It may have been my favourite stop of the whole trip.

Trinity College 

Trinity College Courtyard

The Old Library

The Old Library

The Old Library

The weather on Saturday was very rainy.  So after Trinity College we decided to grab some food and head back to the hostel to try and dry up a bit.  Once we finished we headed back out with the plans of going to look at two different churches.  That's when things got interesting.  As we were walking from our hostel toward the turn off that headed in the direction of the church, we noticed a ton of police followed by a huge number of people.  It turns out we managed to end up in the middle of a protest!  Throughout history, Irish citizens haven't had to pay for water, but now they do.  So this was a protest against the water charge ahead of their upcoming election next week.  My friend and I watched for a bit with the assumption that the line of people would come to an end fairly quickly.  But boy were we wrong!  After a while we gave up and ended up having to cut through the protesters to get where we wanted to go.  Good thing we didn't try and wait them out because they estimate there were 20 000 people marching!

Following the police ahead of the protestors

Here they come!

St Patrick's Cathedral

After our church exploration we headed to Dublin castle to look around.

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle Gardens

After looking around the outside of the castle we headed towards the main shopping street.  That's when we ran into the protest again.  But this time, it was the final meeting place where they were listening to speeches so we ended up having to walk the long way around them because there was no way through.  We then strolled through St Stephen's green, stumbled across the famous Doors of Dublin and finished our touring with an impromptu stop at the Irish Natural History Museum.  

All the doors along the street had unique plaster work and
were painted many different colours

After our long day of walking we were very tired.  According to my friend's phone we walked almost 18km over the course of the day.  So for dinner we found a nice pub that seemed to be pretty popular with the locals and a little less touristy.  We both did the proper Irish thing and had a pint of Guinness with our irish meals, Lamb Stew and Shepherd's Pie.  It was a nice finish to a very full day.

I will post about our Sunday Ireland adventures in another post!

The Halfway(ish) Ball

Well, I am four and a half weeks into the new semester.  We have already completed our muscles and bones unit, our gastrointestinal system unit, our urinary unit, half of soft tissue surgery, hematology and we start ophthalmology tomorrow.

We have also had a couple practicals including bandaging and wrapping a horse leg.  It involves multiple layers of four different types of bandaging material.  I got complimented that my bandage looked like it would stay on and that you could actually see the shape of the horse leg through the bandage, meaning I applied pressure evenly throughout.  Considering my serious lack of equine experience compared to a lot of my classmates I was petty pleased!

We had a small animal practical which involved skills you might need in an emergency.  We did things like CPR on a dummy dog and cat, put an IV catheter in a fake vein, put an endotracheal tube in a dummy dog, and put in a urinary catheter in a male dog, using a hole punched in a hot dog as a model.

A few weekends ago was the Halfway Ball.  For the people in the four year program like myself, our halfway point of vet school will be the end of this semester.  But since most of our class is in the five year program, the Christmas break was their official halfway point.  The night was about getting all dressed up and celebrating surviving vet school so far.  The night was comprised of a nice three course dinner (complimented by half a bottle of wine per person, they certainly love their drink here!) and a traditional ceilidh.  A ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) is a type of group Scottish dancing led by a live band.  Before each dance they give you a super brief instruction on the dance and then send you on your way!  It was an all around fantastic night.

Two weekends ago a friend and I went for a hike in the Pentlands.  The Pentland Hills are 10 hills just outside Edinburgh.  The vet campus is actually nestled into the hills.  My friend and I chose to hike the hill closest to the city so we could have a view of the city and the Firth of Forth.  The view from the hill was spectacular, albeit very very windy!  On the way down we came across a herd of Highland cattle.  So, being the vet student and animal lover that I am and my friend who is also a huge animal fan, we probably spent more time with the cows than on the hills.

View of the city

Made it to the top!

You can see Arthur's Seat in the background 

My new favourite cow picture.  So glad I took my new camera with me!

Lastly, unfortunately last week my cat who was 19 years old passed away.  When my parents phoned to say our cat was sick, it never occurred to me it would be Tache.  I just assumed it was our other cat Kitty who has been looking his age for quite some time now.  Just this Christmas, Tache was ripping ribbons off the presents, stealing food off plates and showing the dogs who was in charge.  But I guess her old age finally caught up with her.  When I decided to go to Scotland for university I knew that there was a chance that I would miss important family and life events at home.  Now I am not saying I regret my decision one bit to come here, I just wish I could have been at home to properly say goodbye.  So in tribute to Tache, here are a few pictures of the cat that ruled the house.

Best Friends

Telling Mars who was in charge from an early age

Getting some extra greens!

Reminding Jenny, she decides when Jenny can go in and out of the house

On my way back to Edinburgh

Well I am back in London Heathrow Airport for another layover.  It is hard to believe it but my Christmas break is already over.  But I will be back in Canada for my Easter break to do some clinical placements.

Although the break felt too short I had a great time spent with family, friends and pets.  It started with a trip to Nathan Phillips Square to go skating.  Only problem was is was 12 degrees.  So the ice had a layer of water about an inch thick on top.  So when we finished skating I actually dumped a good cup or two of water out of my skates.  Even though my feet ended up pretty much as wet as if I had gone swimming, it was still so much fun.  In my mind you can never go wrong with skating!

A little more comfortable than the rental skates in Glasgow last year

Christmasy CN Tower

Christmas was spread out over both Christmas Day and Boxing Day with some family and friends only able to make it to one day or the other.  This meant double the excitement for the dogs resulting in some very tired puppies.

Our attempted staged dog Christmas picture

Opening presents is tough work!

I was incredibly fortunate to get a new camera for Christmas.  So of course that meant I wanted to try it out.  The pets were my somewhat obliging models.  The results of my pictures were mixed.  Some of them I was very pleased with, like these three.

Others...  had poorer results.

He always looks half asleep in his pictures!

I think he might just not be naturally photogenic

I spent most of the break wishing for snow and towards the end of my break I finally got a little bit of snow.  Friday there was a mini blizzard that didn't last very long but it was very pretty.  After having incredibly warm weather it finally felt like winter in Canada.  And I got to go skating in more traditional skating weather.

Jenny was loving the snow

Skating at Mississauga Celebration Square

School starts up again on Tuesday (Monday is a public holiday in Scotland).  This semester I have just one course, Integrated Clinical Course: Cat and Dog (I also have Professional and Clinical Skills which goes on year round, but it doesn't have a formal exam and there is only a practical once a week or every other week).  By the end of May I will have finished all the lectures I will get on Cat and Dog medicine.  That's an exciting but also terrifying thought.  I'm starting to get to the point in my studies where I should theoretically be able to start diagnosing some cases when I go on placement.  This whole becoming a vet thing is starting to get more and more real.

On my way home!

I am currently in Heathrow airport trying to kill some time since I have a 4 hour layover.  I have been up since 3:45am and have another 12 hours of travel left but it will be worth it to be home!

I finished up my exams yesterday.  I had 5 exams in 5 days which was quite gruelling.  The first exam Monday was a Surgery OSCE exam (Objective Structured Clinical Exam).  It was a practical exam.  For this exam we had to know how to scrub for surgery, put gloves on aseptically (sterilely) two different ways, three different suture patterns and a hand tie.

My three different suture patterns.  Banana skin is good for suturing practice!

My hand tie done with rope

My exams Tuesday and Wednesday were for my clinical foundations course (Anesthesia, Pharmacology, Oncology, Diagnostic Imaging, Surgery and Evidence Based Veterinary Medicine).  Tuesday was 40 multiple choice and Wednesday was 8 written questions.

Thursday and Friday were my pathology exams.  Thursday was 50 multiple choice and Friday was 10 "spot questions".  The spot questions you are shown a picture and then have to describe what you see and answer some questions about how the pathology developed.

I am cautiously optimistic the exams went well but I will have to wait until the end of January to know for sure!

My 600+ pages material examined in five exams

Last night a couple friends and I went out for drinks at a place called the Candy Bar.  They had awesome cocktails we will definitely go back when it is a little less busy.  We then went to the Christmas market and got some fish and chips and split an order of churros with nutella and sugar for dessert.  It was a wonderful end to a very stressful week.

Finally I have a few other Christmas pictures from when I actually left the house during my revision week.

The Dome - always have incredible decorations

The Street of Light

The Christmas Tree in Jenner's

T-minus 12 hours until I am reunited with my family, friends and pets.  Can't wait!

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas

Last Friday I ventured down with a friend to the Christmas Market.  It opened the week before but it was the first chance I had to go.  As usual the market fills you with Christmas spirit (even though it was only the 27th of November... I have sort of always felt Christmas celebrations should only start at the beginning of December but the market is too hard to resist.)

The stalls are very similar to last year with the odd new one.  We each indulged in a Bailey's Hot Chocolate and a chocolate covered marshmallow.  Both turned out to be excellent choices.  I will probably have to venture back at some point as a study break.

On the Sunday, I managed to get free tickets for a friend and I to tour The Palace of Holyroodhouse.  Commonly known as Holyrood Palace, it is the Queen's official residence in Scotland.  Built in the 16th and 17th centuries it has a lot of character.

The Entrance

What remains of the 16th century Abbey at the back of the Palace

Looking toward Salisbury Crags

 Lastly,  this past Thursday it started snowing outside the city.  When I left campus at 5pm there were snowflakes the size of golf balls.  They may have actually been the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen.  And in true Scottish fashion the snow started causing mayhem.  I was fortunate enough to have left campus early in the snowstorm so my bus ride was only about 10 minutes longer than normal.  But into the evening when I was home, we started getting emails about how bad the conditions were on campus and that all buses were cancelled and essentially every bus route was delayed.  It sounded like it was terrible conditions on campus!  But to put it in perspective for my Canadian friends and family, they got two inches of snow...  Not quite a Canadian quality snow storm but all the Scots were impressed.

The beginning of the snow storm

Some snow on the Kelpies the next morning (These are mini models of Kelpies statues that
are about an hour away.  The Kelpies were commissioned to honour the horse powered
heritage of Scotland.  These mini statues have been travelling around Edinburgh.)

A bit of fun before crunch time

Saturday I went to Glasgow with some friends to see the comedian Michael McIntyre.  I hadn't heard of him until I was invited to go along to his show.  He is probably now my favourite comedian.  I don't think I have ever laughed so hard.  By the end of the show we all felt like we had done an ab workout from all the laughing.  He is able to turn everyday events into absolutely hilarious stories.

His live show in Glasgow - Happy and Glorious

Here is one of my favourite skits of his.  He describes how he thinks the kilt came about.

Michael McIntyre - The Birth of the Kilt


Last night a few friends and I went to see the last Hunger Games movie.  While not my favourite movie in the series I still really enjoyed it.  Plus it was nice to have a night out and relax since exam stress is starting to loom.

Lastly, I promised photos of my room many posts ago so here they are (finally!)

Desk with a view

Tonight I am headed back to campus at 9:30pm.  I am helping out with a telethon.  From 10pm-3am I will be calling North American applicants who have been given an interview to see if they have any questions.  I really appreciated it when I was called after being accepted to Edinburgh so I thought I would call and hopefully make someone else happy.  (Plus the offering of free food at midnight and a grocery store gift card didn't hurt!)  It should make surviving lectures from 10am-5pm tomorrow quite interesting!

Bonfire Night

November 5th is Guy Fawkes night, also know Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night.

I hadn't heard of Guy Fawkes night until coming to Edinburgh.  It is a bit of a strange holiday in my opinion.  Essentially, in 1605 Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the British Parliament but was caught guarding the gunpowder he and his fellow plotters had placed beneath the house of lords.  To celebrate the fact that King James I survived the plot on his life, he lit bonfires around London.  So now as a tradition every November 5th in the UK, people light bonfires to burn effigies of Guy Fawkes and light fireworks. So they celebrate Parliament almost being blown up, but not quite.  And boy do they take this tradition seriously!

My first encounter with Guy Fawkes Night was last year.  I had decided to stay late in the library and study.  After a while there was an overwhelming smell of smoke in the library.  However I couldn't see any smoke, the smoke detectors weren't going off and the few people around me seemed perfectly calm.  After I left the library I was able to figure out where the smell was coming from.  Outside!  The air outside smelled like a bonfire.  And there were fireworks going off everywhere.  And the number of fireworks only increased as we went into the city.  People were setting them off in the street, in their gardens and in parks.  There are also professional displays set to music.

So this year I decided I wanted to be in the city for Guy Fawkes night.  And I was not disappointed.  I was able to sit in my bedroom and watch the fireworks out my window.  Not a bad way to spend an evening!

The view from my sofa

Now the other thing is, Fireworks Night really turns into fireworks week.  Starting on Halloween there are fireworks every night and there are still fireworks going off tonight!  Although the winds gusting to over 50 miles per hour tonight does seem to be hindering their fireworks displays.


Finally a picture that goes with my last post.  The winning Dick Vet Hockey Team!