You should know that we're all exhausted. Today was a big day. No one has cried yet, except for John and Brent when I nailed them with water balloons. But we're all pretty sad that its the last full day.
We started out with breakfast at the usual dinning hall, and then shuffled very quickly (and slightly late) in the rain to the College of Veterinary Medicine. This was by far my favorite part of the week; I was totally in my element. We started with a discussion with Doug Tindall, who works admissions at the CVM, and a second year vet student. We heard all about admittance, pre-admittance, what classes are like, specializing, and what it takes to be a vet student. Then we looked at some bones (including an elephant vertebrae, and a chunk of elephant skin). Then, for the piece de resistance, we got an up-close and personal tour of the 24hr. veterinary hospital (which is less than 50 yards from the school). Everyone kind of went berserk when there were a couple of dogs in the waiting room; we're a little pet-starved i guess. Mr. Tindall took us back past all the initial exam rooms to the restricted areas of the hospital. We saw the ICU, a hydro therapy water treadmill (with a basset hound being exercised on it), and where the admitted small animals are kept. Then we went downstairs where we looked at the large/food animal sections of the hospital. We saw the chute where the cattle and other food animals are driven into the hospital (the chute actually runs in a loop through the hospital, so the animals can be stopped at various places to be worked on depending on what it needs). We also saw a surgery table for small cattle. Then we went to the equine section of the hospital (obviously the best part. duh). We saw the stall areas, surgery rooms, anesthesia areas (which are large padded rooms), the unloading station, and the lameness-check sand arena. We also saw one of the few equine lameness eval. treadmills in the nation, donated to the school by the walmart people.
After the CVM, we were supposed to go to see the nuclear reactor, but our tour was cancelled for some reason. Sabotage is the general assumption.
Instead we went to lunch at the dinning hall, and from there went to the Life Sciences building for a wrap-up discussion with Dr. Freyermuth about ethics. It got kind of heated. I'm disappointed in John (who can't keep the video camera out of our faces, even when SLEEPING) for not getting us on video when we were yelling at each other across the room and being noisy. We have heard several times a day that we are too quiet...
Then we went to South Farm Research Center where we were "introduced" to atmospheric science by Dr. Neil Fox. He got stung by a wasp.
We looked at a lot of instruments that measure/predict/analyse the weather; everything from Doppler to rainfall meters. Then Haley uh... attacked Kyle (who's been tagging along all week and taking our pictures, which I'm sure will be interesting to watch in a slide show tomorrow) with a kite.... After that I really had to reconsider what the highlight of my day was.
From South Farm, we went to Bradford Farm where Tim Reinbott took us on a tractor-wagon tour of the farm. He explained to us the issues on genetically altering crops such as corn. Then we talked about alternate fuel (uh, sugar cane???). Then we saw some native plants, many of which were wild flowers (very pretty). Then we um were taken to septic city. At first I was kind of confused; this was just a farm studying new methods and genetic alterations of crops, right? Wrong. The Bradford research center is pretty dedicated to raising awareness about the affects not just farming but also that our lifestyles have on the environment. So septic city was a project to research and showcase different septic options and explain to others how they benefit/harm the environment. We also saw a pond that is home to several hundred fish in cages; its a relatively new project which is supposed to apply to small farmers as an easy way to add to their income.
After Bradford we came back for a really quick dinner, and then we threw together our things and headed over to the Ag. building for project presentations, which actually went well. At least no one was physically harmed. Mentally, though... :)
After we presented our counsellors took us downtown (after I sneak attacked and soaked John and Brent. Actually they both saw it coming and I got just as wet. But revenge was so sweet). We were treated to Coldstones for ice cream (smoothies for some), and then we shuffled over to the Quad, where we sat around on the columns, making small talk and checking out the view.
The day ended with a tour of Greek town, which John new all the dirty little secrets about, at 10:00 p.m.
Its now 12:28 a.m. and I'm really looking forward to sleeping in, but its not going to make any difference if I don't get off this computer!
Signing off for the final time,
Allison
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