My schedule...finally!

So, it took a while for our schedule to be posted, but we finally have them.  In all honesty, it's not too terrible. I'm not saying the work that results from my classes is not going to take up all of my time, but the actual schedule of classes and practicals is manageable. I am really, really glad I'm in the 5 year program and not the 4 year. 

We do what is called 'blocks'.  Basically, I am taking 3 classes this semester (over 30 credits) - The Animal Body 1, Professional & Clinical Skills and Animal Health, Welfare and Food Safety (AHWAFS).  Professional & Clinical Skills runs the full 5 years and AHWAFS runs through 4 years of our education and we only drop it in 5th year when we take on full clinicals with no lectures. The Animal Body 1 is a full year and is everything from Cell to Animal Structure & Function. It is broken up into three sections:

1. Animal Body Overview: introduction to the adult animal body plan with respect to general anatomy, physiology, and basic tissues; neural and endocrine integration of function; introduction to homeostasis
2. Animal Cell: the molecules of the cell; the management & flow of genetic information; cellular signalling; physiology of excitable cells; cell motility & division; embryology, histogenesis & organogenesis
3. Anatomical Structure & Relationships
small animal limb and topographical anatomy incorporating the skin and derivatives.

So, one block will be the first section and then when that is over, we move on to the second.  Thing is, the weekly lecture schedule changes.  It's not like undergraduate where you had the same class monday, wednesday, friday from 9-950am.  Here, you have lectures and practicals (labs - indoor and outdoor) on different days at different times.

For the most part, I have two really long days starting at 9am and ending at 5pm with an hour or two break in the middle.  These days usually consist of a 30 min bus ride out to our farms at Easter Bush for some sort of practical, like cattle husbandry.  Then, the other days I go from 9am till as early as 11am (get out of town!) or noon!  Wednesdays, university-wide, they do not teach in the afternoon.  This is reserved for societies and sports teams to get together...sweet! I do know that some of our 'free' afternoons will be filled up with random veterinary educational opportunities, which is great and I hope to take advantage of as many opportnities as possible. 

Tomorrow, I start officially!  My schedule is very first - dayish:

9-950     Intro to first year

10-1030 Intro to EEVeC.  This is our electronic veterinary curriculum online..way cool.  It has a Virtual Farm where you can watch cows being born, videos of procedures (goat and dog castrations, surgery on an open wound), techniques and videos of animal handling (how to take a single rope, make it into a halter and put it on a cow), pictures of breeds of cows and sheep, pictures and explanations of the different types of feed, etc etc.  I have spent a lot of time on the Virtual Farm.  EEVeC also houses our class schedule for the year, notices, lectures and slide shows, staff contacts, etc.  It is an incredible tool that I'm excited to learn all of what it has to offer.

1110-1300 Photographs  (not too excited about this one)

1400-1450 Course overview and intro to portfolio (we are required to keep a portfolio over our 5 years.  I'm sure a lot of students will complain about this component since it will be time consuming, but I think it will be something really worthwhile to have at the end as a visual representation of all that we  have accomplished.  Plus, this is the first year it will be completely electronic.  They seem to have spent a lot of time in choosing the software for us to use.

1500-1550 Into to AHWAFS (Animal Health Welfare & Food Safety)

1610-1700 Transition to University (been there done this.  This is for the younguns...which I will explain in another post).

Tuesday looks better:

9-950 Anatomy of  adult body plan
10-1050 Physiology of adult body plan
11-1130 Vet Library tour Optional.  (Guess what time I'll be done on Tuesday?)

Wednesday I go from 9-12 and Thursday and Friday are pretty full days. 

The following week is short on M, W, F and long on T, Th.  I can deal with this.  Heck, I'm used to working 8-12 hour days and then some.  Studying is going to take up a huge amount of my time, but I can do that in the comfort of my own flat.

Ok, well I have a BIG day tomorrow and need to get ready to get ready to go to bed.  Of all times, I came down with a cold......grrrr....and need my beauty rest.

Over-N-Out