May 13, 2005

life update

Very quick rundown: at Tufts vetschool, failed physiology and have a very low GPA that means I might have to repeat the year. Worst year of my life=OVER. that is a good thing. Might be going to Nicaragua over the summer on a grant, to study prevalence of TB and brucellosis of cattle around Bosawas rainforest reserve.

Recent thoughts.
I am an optimist. I am a veterinary student and a dance instructor. We think we have control over so much of our lives, but I am learning that sometimes we have to let go of that feeling of control to allow things to fall where they may. I want to save the world, and maybe the only way I can do that from here is to be someone I admire, hoping others will strive to be someone they admire too. You just gotta keep moving, keep taking those steps, and when you can't stand anymore, you gotta crawl. So that's what I'm doing.
I think i am going to go home to ky soon. maybe the day after tomorrow for some much needed R&R. I feel very weird. Exhausted but with nothing hanging over my head right now...after a whole year of deadlines and exams, it's strange to not know what to do with a free afternoon and a unplanned summer ahead of me.
Several days before the last exam I was thinking "you'll be done! You can finish making the japan photo album you started last summer, you can make costumes, you can do this that and the other"....and then when i came home after finishing my last exam, I collapsed. I couldn't do those things right now if i tried! I think I'm going to take the "choose things that take minimal energy this summer" approach to life right now in order to recharge for next year.
Sigh.
BIG SIGH.

Nicaragua bound!

Okay. I've been so busy with school, trying to establish ONE not-failing grade in the class that is the bane of my existence (Physiology, taught by one Larry Rex Engelking (click each of his monikers to see his books of which he is very proud of himself)) so that I may be able to continue in vet school without being held back. Still not sure if my efforts have made the cut yet. But in the meantime, I have found out that rather than going to India to study tuberculosis in monkeys this summer, my research grant takes me to Nicaragua where I will be taking a census of animals and people (and testing for TB and brucellosis in the cattle) along a buffer zone of the Bosawas rainforest. So remote I'll have to pack horses and take 'em with me. And so I am making this list of things more for my own use/reference.
Visa required? No.
Livestock Marking pens
PPD tests (& where to get em)
brucellosis cards (& where to get em)
syringes
how long does ppd last not refridgerated?
vacutainer tubes for bleeding
cold box
bars to eat
nose grabbers
rope
does brucellosis need serum or plasma?
if plasma, centrifuge, hand cranked.
sharps box