Orientation and a Hound of a Different Color....

So, I made it through orientation week with the singular feeling that I am in fact currently oriented. I am not going to say where, lets just say they succeeded. The four days were a series of introductions to faculty who will be teaching our courses, a couple of labs, and multiple talks on subjects varying from the mental health of vet students (what is our ground state anyway?) to premium life/health insurance. We also had the opportunity to receive numerous (brand deleted) products whose purposes were to welcome and simultaneously entice. I felt the first, but the second is yet to be seen. Not having eaten any of the product, I am left wanting for inspiration. Will have to remedy that. Seriously, some of this stuff is USDA certified for human use.....

On other fronts, school began with lectures on topics in anatomy, embryology, physiology, histology, radiographic anatomy, and surely some other things that aren't coming to mind at present. I can only remember a fraction of the courses that I am taking at any given moment. Suffice to say, its enough. I also was fortunate enough to make it down to the hospital to see some surgeries, an ultrasound appointment, and some radiographic interpretation. Yesterday morning I held an Alpaca mom, who was as soft as what my sister-in-law would refer to as kitten socks.... I think I'll need to keep handling animals as I go to stay grounded.

In non-school news, we have been adjusting to the King of the Sahel, also known as Dez, who, thank God, does not have Leishmaniasis. If you don't know what that is, look up CVBD visceral leishmaniasis and West Africa, and our concerns will become readily apparent. He is a good boy sometimes, but a bit of a chewer. We're working on all sorts of things with him. He also is bilingual, which I discovered this morning when I realized that most commands don't make sense to him. I told him to sit in Spanish and he did. Then I told him to eat his breakfast and he did. Amazing....

Anywho, I have to go back to studying, these muscles of the arm aren't going to point out their attachments on their own. To keep track with our dissections (not for the faint of heart) go to http://vanat.cvm.umn.edu/carnLabs/ and we have just finished number two. This site has nice photos so be careful if you get too queasy at such things...