#rossvet

Finals week this week was both tough and WONDERFUL!  My family got here on Monday after my first final was over and it has been awesome having them.  I spent that evening studying at their hotel and getting them settled in and having dinner with them.  The next day I joined them at the pool after my final and honestly didn’t do much studying since my final that was the next day was for the “easy class” of the semester.  After that final the next day I actually stayed on campus most of the day to study for my last final which is notoriously a hard one and just went to hang with the fam for dinner and to watch Survivor finale with them.  After that last final was over I ran a ton of errands and just had a pool day with them for the rest of the day!

My finals themselves were just OK.  It was not very motivating to study knowing I only needed like a 26% on one final, a 43% on another, etc. to pass because I have been getting some A’s this semester.  However I still did try to cram that info in my brain to keep my grades high and pull up my GPA from last semester (which was fine but not as good as I want it).  The first final, Anatomy, was hard but nothing unexpected.  I expected a high C or B on it and got a middle range B ending with a B in the class.  I am mad at myself for that B because I got two As throughout the semester on midterms and if it wasn’t for my embarrassingly pathetic first midterm which I got a 70% on I could have finished with a B+ at least in the class to bring my GPA up even more.  But oh well, lesson learned on that one!  The second final was Physio 2 and it was REALLY hard.  This section was taught by 3 different teachers and the other two teachers’ info was very straight forward and I felt great about those questions (which were on repro and thyroid - repro is my jam so that’s always easy for me) and then our normal teacher had a new section of info and then lots of cumulative questions.  I felt good about cumulative stuff as well but all the new info - especially literally almost ever T/F question I felt like I had to read it 10 times just to understand what he was saying.  Not sure if that was just exhaustion or the actual questions but it was HARD.  I honestly thought I might have failed that final but I ended up with a middle range B again and a B in the class which I was fine with since my midterm grades were ALL OVER the damn place (a 77.5, a 95, and an 80).  The “easy class” was Immuno and our teacher even told us the final would be extra easy because he wouldnt be there to answer questions and didn’t want any trouble.  Granted I studied very little, I studied in the same way I did for the midterms which I did well on and just based on the info he asked for in his questions I don’t think ANY amount of studying would have helped me.  I found that exam to be HARD and since I got a B+ on it I feel like they must have given some questions back.  I ended up with a B+ in the class which I was happy with.  Finally, Parasitology.  The exam was at 7 am so of course I was so paranoid about sleeping through it I had my mom plan to call my island phone if she didnt hear from me by a certain time, I had like 7 alarms set on all different devices, and I had a friend ready to call my other friend to bang on my door if need be.  In the end I was so anxious about oversleeping that I could hardly sleep and got up when my first alarm went off.  I thought the exam was easy!  This final for this class is *the one* that you hear about “everyone failing” and its soooo hard they have to give like 20 questions back, blah blah blah.  I found it to be very easy, but unlike almost all my classmates Parasit just seemed easy and enjoyable for me all semester.  I got a B+ on the final which was a bit of a bummer as I need an A to keep my A in the class so I finished with a B+.  

All in all - I passed, so I’m happy.  I also brought up my GPA, which I am also happy with.

After all the exams, we went to Reggae beach ALL DAY yesterday - my fam and myself and my best friend down here.  It was a TON of fun we all got aloe massages and ended the day with their famous lobsterfest!  You get a buffet of sides (they had salad, rice and beans, steamed veggies, friend plantains which I LOVE, mashed breadfruit which tasted like garlic mashed potatoes, and my all time favorite pumpkin fritters!  These things are SO GOOD they taste like tiny little pumpkin pancakes/funnel cakes that you’re not sure if they’re sweet or savory but they are AMAZING.  Then for your protein you get to pick three options - lobster plus either fish (mahi mahi), shrimp, chicken, or ribs from the grill.  I chose all the seafood options and everyone else got chicken and shrimp with theirs.  It was amazing and I am so happy that our Reggae day lived up the the expectations that I set for my family because its my favorite beach here.  I had never done lobsterfest before and it blew us all away.  No one had a single complaint all day, it was perfect

Is it just me or has this semester seemed twice as long as first semester?  More specifically I am pretty certain the second half of this semester has been twice as long as first semester all on its own!  I know that’s just thanks to the fact that we had one or fewer exams per week for the first half and then suddenly after mid-semester break every class is like OH CRAP WE GOTTA FIT ALL THIS STUFF IN BEFORE FINALS!

Which brings me to today - I just finished with an immunology exam which means that I am done with 4/5 exams that were crammed in over a three week period.  Four exams and two weeks down just leaving my next Anatomy midterm (which I was super worried about and then I magically by the grace of God got an A on the previous one) which is next Friday.  Its been like... literally a month since I have had the please to experience the feeling of MORE than 4 whole days between exams so having a whole week to devote to studying for this one has left me feeling like a) I am doing NOTHING but cleaning my house and playing with my dog tonight and b) my body NEEDS to be submerged in a pool or ocean this weekend or I will FREAK out.

It is kind of true what “they” say about second semester.  It is a killer.  It is and has run me ragged.  But lucky for me I am somehow quite good at and enjoy the subjects at least.  So far I have gotten much better grades this semester than I did last semester but the SCHEDULE.  Our classes run 8 am - 3, 4, or 5 pm nearly every day.  Then the TA sessions that follow most days and several hours of TA sessions on weekends just leave you feeling like there ARE NO BREAKS.  Well because there aren’t.  But now that I am done today’s exam there is just ONE MORE ANATOMY EXAM... which coincidentally means that there are only two more anatomy labs for the semester (which has been my LEAST favorite part of vet school so far) and then basically two whole weeks of NOTHING but prepping myself for finals, going to class like a normal, sane human being, my elective animal production class final exam (which I literally only need to get a 50% on to complete the class AND its all info I’ve learned before...), and then bing, bang, boom four finals in four days and its all suddenly over for three weeks until next semester begins!