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Friday, September 28, 2012

Grades

I received my midterm grade today and was pleased with it so now I can move on towards the final!  What fun things I have to look forward to!  Week 5 of school is over, I cannot believe how the time is flying.  Only three more weeks of class until clinics!  Today we switched to a different professor for our immunology class.  Unfortunately, he speaks extremely fast and with an accent so that we can only pick up part of what he says.  There were times where he would say a sentence and I couldn't tell even one word of what he said.  I would look at my classmates next to me and they were having the same problem I was, talk about a real fun time!  Oh well, at least the week is over.  I hope to get all my studying done tonight so I can take tomorrow and Sunday off and go to Tremont.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Just a Couple More Pics


Here are a couple pics I forgot to throw in from the Sunday School Camp out.  These are of the whole group, although six of the girls and one of the guys did leave before the picture was taken. 


Today was back to regular lecture and back to my normal studying, not the insane before the exam studying.  We covered 84 slides in 50 minutes in toxicology.  That class is ridiculous, we blow through the slides like crazy.  Oh well, only three weeks and three days and I will be done for the quarter and on to clinics 'til Christmas!

Monday, September 24, 2012

Midterm Exam and Sunday School Campout

This past Friday and today was my midterm exam for our first quarter of school.  I had general pathology and immunology lecture on Friday (104 questions) and then immunology lab, toxicology, pharmacology, and genetics today (96 questions).  I think altogether I did alright.  I was more worried about the part today but I felt that it was better than I was expecting overall although there were a few genetics questions that I had no idea on.  But, I will find out how I really did soon!

In the midst of studying like crazy for the midterm exam, I went to the Sunday School campout where the U of I young group takes the Sunday School kids camping.  I have a few photos I figured I would share.  I really enjoyed myself as I think most of the people there did (or I hope they did anyways.)
Here's the photos:


 One of the activities was to split up into groups and see who could make the tallest, free-standing newspaper tower.  However, just as we were beginning, it started to rain which made the activity more challenging. These pictures are of my group working hard (except for me who is too busy taking photos)

 This was a game in which a part of it involved "rock, paper, scissors." I am not going to describe the whole game here.  However, the girl in the red opposing me is a second cousin of mine who lives in Athens, Alabama but happened to be in Champaign this past weekend so came to the campout.  She is actually a U of I alum.

 We also played capture the flag except it was more like "Capture Waldo" or something like that.  This is Drew and Ryan dressed as Waldo:
 Ever baked cookies over the fire? Most of them didn't turn out very good but there were some that were actually edible!
 Thank you for smiling Mackenzie!

 Kaleb getting serious about bakign cookies over the fire:
 Time for breakfast!
 Bacon and eggs!
You maybe noticed that in numerous pictures, there are doughnuts being heated over the fire.  They are quite delicious! The campout was a nice break from studying!

Now, it is back to the regular routine of class during the day, studying at night.  This weekend I hope to be in Tremont for the baptisms of a couple of my second cousins as well as to visit my grandparents.  Now that the midterm is over, I can travel around a little bit like that again!

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Welcome Student Picnic (and other events of the past week)

Hello!  I have just a bit to write about but will make it as long-winded as possible.  This past Wednesday was the Illini Grove cookout where the church and students get together in place of church and have a picnic together.  Well, that meant that Stephen (the VP of the young group) and myself were going to be in charge of grilling hamburgers.  Since I had class at 5 (and the picnic started at 530) I was going to help Stephen grill for awhile and then he would finish while I went to class.  However, upon lighting the grill at the house that he lives (for those of you who know about the Salt Shaker/Shaker/Shake, that's where he lives) and sticking a burger on (we opened the boxes and they were all frozen solid, which I didn't realize), the whole interior of the grill proceeded to go up in flames and send nasty dark smoke billowing from it.  Now, the grill is right on the wooden front porch of the house and is practically connected to the house.  So, I was a tad bit worried about the house since the grill didn't want to settle down even after Stephen shut the propane off.  Finally, it settled down (it was burning on a bunch of grease that was all over the grill apparently).  However, we had now lost almost an hour in time.  So, we came to our apartment, I skipped my class, and Stephen grilled, while I thawed the burgers in the microwave since they grilled better thawed.  Needless to say, we showed up at 610 for the 530 picnic with the main course, oops!  The people at the picnic didn't seem to mind too much though luckily. 

Then, on Thursday, we had a very teeny 8 question quiz in our toxicology class.  While going over the answers, some of my classmates got quite upset and argued incessantly with the two professors.  My classmates became quite rude in the process, making it a rather awkward situation for all of us.  This has been one thing that has surprised me in my vet school career thus far.  I was expecting a professional atmosphere with grown up students, however this is not the case.  Some of my classmates have a tendency to complain about everything and sometimes don't seem to know how to respect the professors and keep their traps shut. 

Finally, after a long day of studying yesterday I was able to go to Champaign church and see the new church.  It looks awesome!  Here's a blog of the church's remodel project if you're interested in checking it out:
http://accchampaign.blogspot.com/
It was a good day at church and there were a lot of visitors since the Welcome Student Picnic was today.  We had three visiting ministers too, one from Peoria, one from Princeville, one from Tremont.  After church it was time to get ready for the picnic and then it was time for the picnic.  I had an awesome time at the picnic.  I even got some exercise in (something I don't get a whole lot of while in vet school) playing ultimate frisbee.  To end the post, here is the picture of the students from tonight.  This is most of the students here in Champaign minus maybe 5 or so that weren't at the picnic:
Just to give you an idea of where everybody comes from:
The back row starting on the left is Andrew from Tokyo, Japan, Katie (our YG treasurer) from Tremont IL, Aly from Champaign IL, Michelle from Congerville IL, Tiera from Silverton OR, Michelle (our YG secretary) from Washington IL, Shannon from Forrest IL, Tess from Fairbury IL and then me from Rockville CT
The front row starting from the left are Kaleb from Fairbury IL, Ryan from Chicago IL, Caleb from Champaign IL, Justin from Goodfield IL, Micah from Fairbury IL, Drew from Congerville IL, Abe from Fairbury IL, and Stephen (our YG VP) from Princeville IL

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

9-11

I'm back from a one week blogger hiatus!  Life has been kind of crazy out here in Illinois.  Since last Tuesday I have studied, spent time with family and friends, and then studied some more.  The rest of last week was uneventful if I remember correctly.  Saturday, I studied in the morning and then took a day and a half break from studying for other activities.  First was the pathology club cookout which was nice.  It was held at a fellow students house and was a nice relaxing time.  Here are just a couple photos of the set up in the backyard where we were:

One of the activities we played was pin the lesion on the cow.  This cow was drawn in an hour Saturday morning by one of the path club officers, not too bad for rushing! (I told her that it was just a limousin cow, which for those of you who don't know, is an actual breed of cow).

After the cookout I headed to Eureka and went to a singing. Sunday I was in Congerville for a wedding and then got to see my grandparents from Connecticut after church which was a treat!  After visiting with them for awhile it was off to Tremont for the Beutel Chili Cookout (or whatever the official title of the event is).  I did snap just a few photos, some of which turned out a bit blurry:


The guy on the far left of this picture in the blue shirt is my grandfather on my Dad's side: 
 I am not totally sure what happened here but it's kinda blurry and it looks like part of my face was removed at some point in my life, but I figured I would stick it in here anyways.
Now, the weekend is over and I have been studying away again.  Tomorrow night is the Illini Grove picnic where the church and the students have a picnic together for the evening.  That will give me a bit of a study break and then Sunday is our Welcome Student Picnic here at the U of I so that will keep me plenty busy on Sunday.  Other then that, the only thing on my agenda is to study, study, and then probably study some more!  Anyone care to join me?

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Labor Day Weekend

I had a real nice three day Labor Day weekend.  I did some studying Saturday morning, went out to lunch with a classmate of mine and then studied some more in the afternoon.  I then headed off to Congerville for the weekend.  I met a lot of new people, and even got to see a bunch from Connecticut which was really nice.  Yesterday I stopped in to someone's place where they raise shrimp that people buy to eat . It was a very neat set up, four large pools in a temperature controlled building each filled with lots and lots of shrimp.  I then visited some relatives before heading back to Champaign to study for a couple hours with my study group.  Today's classes went fine, we had our first toxicology lecture and the professor flew through the slides.  Now that the weekend is over, it's back to studying, studying, studying.  I plan to be back in Congerville this weekend for a wedding and then heading to Tremont after church for the Beutel Chili Cookout.