The Start of Spring Semester (1 of 13)

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 After a too-short break back at home, I am once again in Košice. The travel here was frustrating, as all the trains were on strike so Rob and I drove up to Stansted. We got there really early, so I spent a few hours waiting around the airport before boarding a very busy flight to a very cold Slovakia!

 This term, Monday starts with a few lectures (online for the moment), and then into campus for practicals in diseases of poultry, horses and internal diseases of small animals. It's a pretty long day, starting at 7:15 and ending at 18:00.

Top left: the cat that lives in the horse clinic, top right: the hen we examined in poultry, bottom left: the university boar, bottom right: the pig my group examined.

 Tuesday also starts with a lecture, and then on alternating weeks, I have to rush into uni for a practical with pigs. It was really interesting - I haven't had much experience with pigs outside of rearing them at home, and I was young when we did that, so I don't remember much. Because of the African Swine Fever situation, the uni has been very strict on biosecurity, and we haven't had any pig handling practicals. All the uni pigs are really sweet, which is a relief because they're 200-300kg animals! After the practical, we finish the day with a couple more lectures. 

 Wednesday is our all-online day, which is great but also killer because it's non-stop from 8:05 to 18:10. 

 Thursday is also quite long - we start at 7:15 with food hygiene, and we've got some exciting practicals coming up in this this term, like making our own sausages! After that, we have another lab-based practical, then a huge gap before our surgery practical. That was super cool this week too, we practiced laparotomy incisions, and suturing. My chosen optional course (clinical pharmacology) got cancelled because only 2 people signed up, so I had to choose another one - I picked reproductive endocrinology which is very interesting, but it is a 4 hour lecture and practical from 16:35 until 20:00! Fortunately it's only every 3 weeks. 

Left: me in the library between lessons, top right: me and a friend at the farm when it's -8ºC, bottom right: me holding the horn I helped take off a cow!

 Friday is a decent day too, a practical in the morning, and a few trips to the farm here and there, then ending the day with a ruminants lecture. Today I went to the exotics clinic too, where I saw a rabbit, a few rats, and a bird. I only have a few more clinical hours in exotics to do, and a few more in smalls before I'm done for the year. 

 I have my thesis defence this year, so I've been working on getting that up to scratch, and we have 2 state exams this year too - contagious diseases and food hygiene. All in all, it's going to be pretty busy, but hopefully a lot more practical than previous years!

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