"Don't do anything stupid."--Week 10 and Finals Week

Such are the inspirational words of Sarah's grandmother. I have been posting quotations on my white board during these last few weeks to motivate both myself and my roommates as we work hard in our classes. Well, this is about all I could muster this week. I apologize for missing last week's post. I just had too much going on. However, now I am on break and have time to fill you in on the last two weeks.

We finally finished our project in Botany. Here is the poster for you to admire. I already know that I got an A on it, so I am very pleased. The final went well, I think, too, so it seems that a class I was quite worried about at the beginning of the term will turn into another A! Yay! My grade should be helped a little by the four extra credit points that Heather told me our professor is giving us just for attending the Chocolate Festival! If you remember, he saw us when we were there and told us it was nice to see us. Now I'm really glad that I spent the money!

Just so you know, I got a 94 on this project. :)

I presented my dance in Aerobics. I was very nervous during it and was constantly afraid of messing up. However, my instructor gave me an A and said that my dance was fun (she also told me to lighten up; big surprise there!).

The rest of the week went by rather quickly. It felt like almost no time had passed until it was already Friday with a weekend of studying ahead of me. However, I did manage to have some fun. Friday afternoon, Heather and I went to the animal shelter. I was so excited to see the FIV cats again after such a long time away from them. But sad day! One of the cats has had a skin condition since early December. I don't know who it is, but I hope he (or she, if it's the lone female named Boger) gets better soon. Obviously, we were not allowed in. However, I met a very nice cat in the regular cat room named Butters. Apparently, he likes to gnaw on hands and paw at the them with his declawed front paws, but he didn't do anything like that to me. I guess I just have the magic touch with animals or something like that. ;) Heather and I also went to meet some of the dogs,who I have been neglecting in favor of the FIV cats for awhile. We were even put in charge of brushing one of the dogs, whose name was Lady. She was a little hairy white dog (maybe a bischon?), so I didn't really find her all that attractive. The very next day, though, I got word from Facebook that she was adopted! It seems that Heather and I did a great job on her hairdo! She must have looked so pretty to the person who adopted her. :) On Friday night, I went to see The Muppets at the Olin auditorium. Augustana puts on free movies each week for students as an alternative to parties. I met up with some friends of mine from way back during freshman year, and I think we all had a great time. My favorite part was the cameo by Jim Parsons (Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory). Sarah and Devon bought the second season of the show for us to watch, and we have already gotten through the first disk. I hope we make it last a long time; otherwise, it will be over too quickly, and I'll be sad.

I'd rather not talk about Saturday. I had so much studying to do, but I feel like I spent half the day doing other things and only halfheartedly studying for my finals. I volunteered for the Kiwanis Pancake Day by cleaning and resetting tables. I was hoping that I would get to make the pancakes with the other Circle K kids, but another group was already doing that, so we got kind of a dirty job. After that, I spent a little time at home before going for a run and studying for a bit. Heather picked me up again at 5 PM so we could go to Cans for Kids. We let another kid do all the work while we studied because he needs it for community service. I spent most of the time talking to Heather and singing along to the music that the kid was playing as he worked, so I didn't really get much done. After that, I went back home for a quick dinner and another study session before accompanying Heather to her job at the Seminary desk from 9 PM to midnight so we could study Botany. I was so tired at that point, and my brain was so study-exhausted, that I had trouble focusing and just wanted to go home and go to bed. However, I still had stuff to do when I got home. Long story short, I stayed up until at least 1 AM both Friday night and Saturday. I tried to keep a better bedtime Sunday night so that I would feel refreshed for my Monday final, and I managed to stick to it.

 On Monday, I finished my Molecular Genetics poster! It looks so good, and I am so proud of it. I presented it to the professor on Wednesday at noon. As you might imagine, I was very nervous for the poster defense. I can't really say why. I guess I was just afraid that I would majorly mess up or something like that. But I was totally wrong! I completely rocked it! My professor kept telling me how well I was doing and saying how glad she was that the first two people to present (I was the second) really knew that they were doing. She praised the hard work  I did on my poster and, best of all, told me that I will most likely get an A in the class. So, now I am done with my Senior Inquiry project and probably received a really good grade on it, too! If you want to see the poster, I can send you the file through e-mail (I didn't get a picture of it, and it would be much easier to look at if you can see the original file).

I took my Physics final on Tuesday night. For the most part, it was a lot more manageable than I thought it was going to be. There was one problem that was quite the doozy, but the rest of the test went fairly well, and I think I may manage to pull off an A- in the class (which is all I really care about). My only consolation is that I'm absolutely killing lab with over 100%. This is strange to me because I usually do really well in the lecture portion of the course and not so hot in lab (as far as chemistry goes, anyway; biology has been fantastic).

The only thing that made Tuesday--Valentine's Day--better was that Sarah's mom sent us all a little bag of chocolate candy. I was very pleased and grateful because all day, I saw kids carrying packages from their parents. You know, since it was Finals Week and everyone needed a little care package. Anyway, I felt a little left out, even though Mom just send me that wonderful package full of quarters, my lost shirt, yogurt pretzels, and onion salt. Well, I didn't have to feel left out because Sarah's mom rocks! This bag will definitely last me a long time (or not...). ;)

So cute!

I left with Dad to go back home right after my poster defense. We had a nice ride back. When I got home, I already had one of my books for next term waiting for me. It was nice because now I don't have to worry about that class, at least. Also waiting for me was a silly turtle lamp from my coworkers at the thrift store. I think they meant it half in earnest and half as a joke because they know I love animals. And on a different note, Dad has been working on the kitchen ceiling, and this is what he produced. Pretty spiffy, if you ask me. We are in the process of redoing the whole kitchen. It's kind of the only part of the house that hasn't been redone since we moved in more than 13 years ago.

I think I'm going to name him Ralph.

Great job, Dad!

 
This morning, I finalized the details of my vet internship for the spring. I will be volunteering at Aledo Veterinary Clinic in Aledo, IL. It is about 45 minutes from Augustana, but Heather is allowing me to borrow her car for the term. I will intern on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The clinic manager, with whom I spoke, told me that I will most likely be doing farm visits with the lone veterinarian at the practice (AKA her husband). He will be the first male vet that I have shadowed, which should be interesting. I am excited to actually go out and see large animal medicine in action. It will be a little dirty with the mud, but I'm really looking forward to it. I badly need the hours, too. I only hope that they like me and allow me to come all term. I have a lot on my shoulders as a representative of Augustana and the pre-veterinary program.

My time at home should be pretty low key. I am going to try to work a little bit (it's pretty slow right now, but it seems like they need me on weekends) and shadow when I'm not working. I also want some down time so I can catch my breath and recover from a pretty difficult term. It was intense coming back from London and then having to start school so suddenly. Not only that, but I wasn't exactly taking blow-off classes. I did feel a lot better after Christmas break, but I won't lie and say that these last five weeks have been a cake walk. One exciting thing that I will be doing over break is taking a free GRE practice test. The GRE is a very widely accepted standardized test at a variety of graduate schools (even those that have nothing to do with science). It is a prerequisite for getting into veterinary school, but it will also help me if I do not get in to veterinary school and apply at a graduate school in some field of animal science (I'm thinking behavior or nutrition) or genetics (since I had so much experience with it this term). I also need to do some mundane things like see the dentist and eye doctor and get a haircut. But all in good time. Right now, I'm just soaking in my first day of break with no work. I did have a fairly productive morning, but now I am just relaxing.

I still haven't found my camera cord, so I took all of these pictures with my cell phone. They aren't the best quality, but they are definitely better than nothing.