Fun facts

Just a quick post with some things we learned in classes this week:

• Fainting goats do exist.   Myotonic goats have a Cl- channel mutation in cell membranes thus they can't maintain membrane potentials affecting the communication system.  This causes spontaneous muscle contraction.  When startled or excited, these goats "faint" or fall to the ground because of these muscle contractions.  For those interested:

                               Check out this video:   http://youtu.be/we9_CdNPuJg

Fainting goats were originally sent to pasture with a farmer's sheep flock.  When predators came around the flock, the sheep would run off and the goat would be startled and "faint" and the predator would eat the goat instead.  Hence the term, "Scape Goat."

• Brachiocephalicus is not a dinosaur.  It is, in fact, a muscle that extends from the head/neck area to the humerus.   

Brachiocephalicus

                                                

Dinosaur (in case you weren't sure)

• Casting sheep is hard, but oh so much fun.  Essentially the goal is to run into a flock of sheep and grab one by the head with your left hand by the hip with your right hand and lift and push and the same time so the sheep ends up sitting on it's bum.  Once in this position, they will let you do anything.  It was awesome.  Imagine forty vet students running around a barn chasing sheep, falling over, and running into each other.  Pure crazy awesomeness.  

The goal.

• Scottish flu bugs are a different breed.  Seriously.  More than half the kids in my classes are sick, which makes listening to the professor very difficult due to the level of coughing.  I'm lucky enough to have not gotten sick, but I'm sure it will happen eventually because all of my roommates are sick too.  Here's to popping Vitamin C like candy. . .

Week one: complete!

Just a quick post about my first week in veterinary school.  I am currently taking five courses: anatomy, physiology, animal husbandry, bimolecular science and professional skills.  So far things seem to be going well.  Biomolecular has been a review (no complaining here) and animal husbandry seems interesting.  The professional skills course is kind of mixed in with our other courses.  We had our first anatomy lab and learned how to use the different surgical tools in addition to making incisions, blunt dissection and skinning. It was awesome.  We also had our first lecture in anatomy learning about the scapula and the different tubercles/fossas present.

Next week we will start to learn the muscle insertions.  We haven't had physiology yet, that starts on Monday.

I also took some pics of my walk to school:

The canal 

The wooded path going from the canal to the housing development

Our neighbourhood

The house (porsche not included)

The vet school hangout:

Conveniently located right by the canal

The hill in the background is where Cochno farm is

My roommate and I decided to take a different path home on Friday.  Look what we found!

Highland cows!

One month

It's so hard to believe that I have been living in Scotland for one month already!  Time sure has been flying fast and I have definitely fallen in love with this country.  Last week was freshers week (basically a Scottish excuse to get drunk) but it was fun nonetheless.  We had daily welcome lectures at the vet school and on Saturday night my roommates and I hosted a party for some of the other first years.  We had a BBQ and margaritas (I also made some pretty damn good guacamole) and about 25 people came over to hang out.  I have to say that it turned out really well and we knew a lot more people on our first day of class this past Monday.

Monday marked the first day of vet school.  It was pretty uneventful.  We started with an intro on study habits (probably more for the UK students) and then went into Biomolecular lectures on proteins.  It was pretty much review (no complaint here).  We then had some lectures on Animal Husbandry starting with basic info on livestock and grazing protocols and then a lecture on sheep.  The lecturer on sheep was super nice but would start out talking loud and then end up muttering so quietly that even though we were in the third row we could here him.  But suddenly he would yell again making us all jump.  Interesting information nonetheless as I don't know much about sheep.

Today we went to Cochno Farm for a lesson on cattle restraint.  We learned a lot about this with Dr. Ax at UofA, but we also learned how to cast cows.

Cochno Estate

How to cast a cow

Lastly, tonight we went to a Mountaineering club meeting and we will be hiking in the highlands in a couple of weeks.  The club meets each week at the Grosvenor Cafe (see earlier post) and has free wine :)  I also found out my long time friend Stacey will be coming to visit in October.  Can't wait!

Glasgow: The pub experience

As you all know, I am living in Glasgow, a city full of culture, history and of course pubs.  Thus I will review different pubs that we go to and our experiences there.

Okay, let's start with my only negative experience:

The Wise Monkey (Great Western Road)

Long story short: I ordered fish and chips.  It took an hour to get everyone else's meal.  They told me mine would be a bit longer because the first batch didn't end up right. Twenty minutes later, they come back and tell me they ran out fish.  Ordered veggie pasta.  Thirty minutes later, still no pasta.  We left and everyone else's meal was free.  The waiter was super nice and offered me his own cash to go buy a meal elsewhere.

Now on to the good:

Oran Mor (Great Western and Byres Road)

Awesome renovated church that houses two bars, two restaurants, a stage for plays and rooms for dancing/events.

Decent deals on drinks and very laid back atmosphere at the whiskey bar.

Pub downstairs

Upstairs for events

The outside.  Amazing, right?

The Grosvenor Cafe (Ashton Lane) -- formerly The Loft

Now, I know I just said it was a cafe, but this place is pretty damn amazing. It has beautiful high vaulted ceilings with wide open floor plan.  It is situated right above a movie theatre.  They have live music and an overall great environment with good snack foods. 

Outside

It's not rain, it's liquid sunshine!

Today was an awesome day.  My roommates and I went on a bus tour to Culzean Castle (pronounced Koo-lain) and Ayr.  We took a one hour bus ride through the country side and then walked in the park around the castle until our tour.  We explored the cliffs and even climbed down to the beach.  The water wasn't as cold as I expected it to be.  We also walked along the swan pond through the trees.  It was so tropical, it looked like a jungle.

They had a deer park!

Culzean Castle!

The Atlantic Ocean

Yummy cappucino

We also visited the castle and had an our long tour before heading back to school.  The bus ride was nice, but one kid in the back was very loud and almost seemed to have a conversation with himself and gave his opinion on everything from politics, to Irn-Bru to Ke$ha.  UGH.

Afterward we headed to Ketchup, and had some fantastic 2 for 1 burgers!  And milkshakes.  Awesome day.

Football and pubs

This past week has been great getting to know my roommates and exploring Glasgow.  We've been down to Byres Road a few times and walked around.  We even went into a Belgian pub and ordered strawberry beer!  Yum.

My friends from Tucson arrived this week and I have been helping them around Glasgow so they can get to know the city while looking for a flat to let.  We went downtown today and had a fantastic time.  We didn't realise that today was the Czech/Scotland game and the entire downtown was packed with people in kilts and jerseys with funny loch ness monster hats.  There was even a group of three guys playing the bagpipes and drums.  They played songs like "The Hokey Pokey" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" and danced to it.  So fun.

Blackthorn at the Lock, the vets school pub

Afterwards we met up with my roommate and caught the last couple minutes of the game at the local pub, Loch 27.  We each had a pint and some appetisers and had a great time people watching.  The Scots really take their football seriously.  While walking to the pub, we could hear people yelling from pretty far down the road.

Joining the festivities and having a pint at the pub during the game.  Tied 2-2.

Pub complete with lava lamp :)

All in all a good day.