About halfway through

Not the semester - we passed the halfway mark there awhile ago. No, I mean in tests. Between quizzes, midterms and exams, we write 20 of the buggers this semester. This week when we write our third Parasitology test, we'll have written 10 so far. Which means that we have another 10 crammed into the next six weeks. This is both not as bad and worse than it sounds. Seven of those are in the last two weeks during finals (four during the first week, three during the second). The other three are between now and then, so a little more manageable. Our Parasitology professor put it best - studying in vet school is triage. You deal with whatever is on the horizon next. When that's done, you move on to the next thing.

I wrote my make-up/post-poned anatomy midterm yesterday. Some of those specimens aren't holding up very well. There was a rotting horse gastrointestinal tract we had to identify parts of. (Note: This actually was the best specimen possible that they had to use for that particular part of the body.) And a rotting horse gastrointestinal tract smells more or less exactly what you think it smells like. I will swear up and down that vet students have some of the strongest stomachs (or worst senses of smell) you find anywhere. A word of advice to future vet students: Learn the gastrointestinal tract really well so that you don't have to spend a lot of time poking it in anatomy lab.

We're also creative writers. We don't mean to be, we just forget things. I have a friend (an online friend, but a friend nonetheless) who when faced with an anatomy specimen he couldn't identify, wrote down "os penis of the stegosaurus". I wasn't that creative, but I tend to make up names based on what I see. Sometimes I'm sort of right. Another note to future vet students: Take up etymology as a hobby (that's etymology, not entomology, though the latter might help you with parasitology). Knowing some Greek and Latin root words is hugely helpful, both in taking the GRE to get into vet school, and in learning anatomy and pathology. "Omohyoideus" makes a lot more sense when you know that "omo" means "shoulder" and "hyoid" refers to the hyoid bone of the skull.

The midterm was pretty good overall. I took it with another girl who missed it and it was pretty relaxed. And the professor gave us each a couple Hershey's kisses. Can't complain about that!