Week 1 is Done!

Hello! I've survived the first week of vet school! Wohoo! We have a very long weekend for the first week... 4 days! We usually have tests on Friday, but we didn't have a test the first Friday... so we had Friday off... and Monday is Labor Day, so no school for 4 days! It's awesome. =)

Yesterday I went to Purple Power Play on Poyntz with Michael. It was really cute. It was a lot of families and kids... they had a lot of different vendors for food and introduced the football team. And they had one of the best fireworks show I've ever seen! Wayyyyy better than Disneyland and for longer too! The whole town is just so full of spirit and you can tell the people are really proud to live in Manhattan and represent K-State. It's really wonderful... =)

Afterwards we went to see a band called Liars of Local Interest at Kathouse Lounge in Aggieville. They were SOOOO good live! I loved them. It was mostly indie rock type music. Very good stuff. They even have a violinist in their band. She rocks! She's actually Brittnay's roommate and she's a 3rd year vet student. Brittnay is one of the girls that is in my class. =) We had a pretty good turnout yesterday so it was fun! After the band played, we headed over to Tubby's where we danced danced danced.. =) I really like the majority of my class.

Today Mike and I are taking Cory to Riley County Humane Society's Paw Print, Bath & BBQ. You pay $5 for your dog to paint, and you get to keep it! Then another $5 will buy your doggy a bath. They will also have hot dogs for $2. =) A lot of people have a gripe about hot dogs, but I love em! All proceeds go to RCHS of course... =) So it's for a great cause!

Tonight my super awesome sophomore, Allison is having a birthday dinner and outing.. so I will be at that tonight. =) Tomorrow I'm going to stay home and study... maybe I'll go to a coffee shop and study there so I can check out the coffee shops around here. Monday I have another day off.. so I'll probably go into lab again to go over bones and maybe learn the rest of the skull?

Here are some pictures of my class from accumulated outings!


At Lauren Binder's homemade pizza party!


More of our group!


Jello shots at Tubby's!

Okay.. I'm off to the dog painting extravaganza!! =)

Short Blurb

I'm breaking rule #1 of my new laptop from vet school. I promised myself that I would not use MySpace, Facebook or Blog on my school laptop. As you can see, I have modified that rule. I still will not use MySpace or Facebook.. but I've allowed blogging to be an exception as I don't really do THAT much of it anyway.... =)

Tonight, instead of studying the bones of the dog, I watched American Psycho. It was a pretty disturbing movie. I almost don't know what to make of it. I was going to go into a whole blurb but seeing as it's past midnight... I'm going to leave this a short post and come back to the matter later.

P.S. Faceman killed his first fly tonight! I was amazed. And I think he ate it. That might not be such a good thing. I'm not a veterinarian yet Face Mow... slow down on the fly eating there!

Last Day of Orientation

Herro! It's currently 9 am and I am still at home. =) Our group in orientation has free time this morning, so we don't have to be at school until noon for lunch. Of course, sleeping in was not an option since Mike woke up to go to work... it's kind of strange. I don't consider myself a light sleeper by any means, but I just can't seem to stay asleep in the mornings when Mike gets up. Since he's bustling around, showering, changing, etcetera... it gets me up. But if it's night time and I'm tired and falling asleep... no amount of noise can get me up. And I don't usually get up in the middle of the night either. I'm one that tends to stay asleep throughout the night. But come morning... when Mike gets up... sleeping in is not an option. Which sucks because I used to be able to sleep in until all hours of the day. Weird isn't it?

Today is the last day of orientation... then CLASSES on Monday! Craayyyzeee. It's starting already... Saturday I'm going to meet Allison (my sophomore buddy) for lunch. I lucked out with my sophomore buddy because I met her on SDN (student doctor network) and she offered to be my buddy. I'm glad because she is so helpful! A lot of the other people in my orientation mentioned that they haven't met/seen/heard from their sophomore buddy. I'm sure they will all hear some time this week though, since this is the week everyone will be here in town. But my buddy did tell me that some people just don't really participate in helping their buddy get acquainted. So I'm fortunate I got such a nice one! On Sunday I want to go to the Sunset Zoo. The price for admission is so incredibly cheap... $4! Can't really beat that price.

Tonight I'm either going to go out with Mike and his new co-workers or maybe go to a pizza thing at someone's apartment (someone from class). She posted a thing on Facebook inviting people, but who knows how many people are going? And an apartment can only hold so many people... I'll try to find out how many people are going, then see if it's a good idea to go.

Everyone's been really nice here, but I do feel a little homesick too...

Orientation Week

Hey there! Orientation week of vet school is almost over... I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday. Monday was a bit nerve wrecking. After we were seated for about 10 minutes, Dr. Elmore says that we're all going to introduce ourselves one by one on a microphone in front of our new class and all our family and significant others that we brought. First of all, I despise public speaking to begin with... plus my nerves on the first day... plus my surprise when I saw my photo up on the screen saying that I was from South Korea! Well, I mean, I most certainly am Korean and was born there, but I guess I was expecting to see my location as California since that's where I lived the last oh I don't know... almost 10 years of my life? haha.

Because of that combination, I completely forgot to answer one of the questions asked about everyone.. His instructions were... "Introduce yourself, tell us what you might want to focus on, and an interesting fact about yourself." =/ So I completely walked off without saying what my focus was. I felt like such a fool afterwards... b/c I was taking note of everyone else.. and I seem to be the only one who had forgotten!

The first day wasn't too bad though... I met some people that day, but I'm so horrible with names, when I got home I couldn't remember anyone! Plus everyone's faces look so similar... 95% of my class is white... so it makes it that much harder to remember names and faces. In California I was so used to seeing such a mixture of ethnicities... California's a melting pot of races! Blacks... whites... asians... people from middle eastern countries... even seeing people who are half white/half asian... none of it is ever a surprise and always common in California. I'm not saying that all white people look the same... but having diversity in a group of people definitely help to remember names with faces. And there's not much diversity in terms of ethnicity in my class... plus my horrid memory at names isn't going to help either. It's just going to take me a while that's all!

I've been meeting more and more of my classmates as each day of orientation passes. Everyone has been super nice so far. There's a few people that are really quiet... there's a few people that have already somewhat irritated me... there's are lots of people that I think are awesome... of course, it's all preliminary at this point... so I'll just see how things pan out with our class.. I wish I could just know how things are going to be already.. but time is making us all wait.

Time to eat lasagna and ponder no more! =)

Can't Sleep

Well, as expected, I can't sleep. Orientation for vet school starts tomorrow and I'm excited about meeting my future classmates to be for the first time. Of course, I already know one of them. And I'm actually going to pick her and her boyfriend Dan up tomorrow for the orientation because they are on my way and right next to the school. She didn't buy a parking pass since she lives so close, she's going to try and walk/bike when she can. We had lunch the other day actually, at this awesome pizza joint called Gumby's. The great thing about that place is that the earliest time they close is at 2 am on Sundays. On the weekends they close at 3:30 am! That's going to be the closest thing to Denny's that I'm going to get around here. Anyway. Her boyfriend is going to be attending an 'orientation for families' thing that the SOKS (Significant Others of Kansas State club) is hosting. Michael is actually going to the orientation too. Except he'll be coming a little late because tomorrow is his last free day before he starts officially working in Kansas and he needs it to get an oil change and register his car.

Mike actually fell asleep tonight at 9 pm! He's tired from all the driving he did the other day. I wasn't sleepy at all of course, so I watched the Olympics... and I'm trying to go to sleep... but alas, sleep will not come even to these tired eyes.

The Olympics this year has been great to watch. Actually, I shouldn't say that as I don't really remember watching any prior Olympics as much as I'm doing this year. It's definitely the year of Michael Phelps that's for sure. I'm not that big on swimming, but I was definitely thrilled when Park Tae Hwan won a gold medal for the men's 400m. I think the event that I had the most fun watching was gymnastics. Nastia Lukin and Shawn Johnson are without a doubt, amazing and wonderful to watch. I was so happy that Nastia won the Gold for the all around.. and I was really really rooting for Shawn Johnson in the individual Gold on floor exercise... but she was beaten by the very last performer. =P I just really wanted her to have that Gold medal since she got silver in the all around. Not that that's bad... I just wanted her to have her glory you know? But I mean.. it is the Olympics... it's the best of the best competing... and it's going to be close.


Look how cute Shawn Johnson is. She's awesome!! YAY USA!


Look at this girl!! I can't even believe how small she really is... and how she's able to gain so much height.


Look at her look. So fierce.

Those girls were awesome... their strength in gymnastics gave USA the chance to medal in the team finals as well. Of course I wish they won silver, but bronze is definitely something to be happy with!

We get our tablets tomorrow during orientation as well. That's going to be fun getting to know! I'm finally going to have my own laptop. =) That's something to look forward to.

Tomorrow is a day that has been a long time awaited by me. I'm excited that it's finally here... but since I'm excited, I can't really sleep! Oy. But I'm going to try again... and that time is right now... Good night.

Cicadas

Ever since my first night in Kansas, I've discovered that there exists some kind of loud buzzing insect that goes off every night. I've also discovered in the morning when I go to walk Cory, I see tons of brown exoskeletons that has been molted by some kind of creature.



That brown exoskeleton that the more colorful insect is hanging onto is what I am referring to.

This morning I saw something very similar to what this picture holds. That colorful winged looking insect right next to the exoskeleton.

I figured that this must be the insect that is making the ruckus every night.... I do a little bit of googling and find out that it's called a cicada!! I'm just excited that I found out what it was. =)

Note to self:
Drink to order at bar - Cape cod

Goals for today:
-yoga
-dishes
-laundry
-bake cookies
-watch 'martian child'

I'm off to do them!!

Alone

Michael is gone until Saturday night. FREEEEDOMMMM!!! hehe. I'm jk. He flew back to California tonight so that he could pick up his car and drive it all the way back here to Kansas. Crayyyyzeee. Things didn't work out with the car shipping people. So, this is what we decided on. It's good and bad being alone. The good things: privacy, quietness, aloneness. The bad things: paranoia, scared of the dark, monsters and goblins appear when Michael isn't near. All right, I'm over exaggerating the later part of it, but I'm certainly paranoid.

Tomorrow I'm going to have lunch with Jaime and her roomies. Jaime is someone I know from Cal Poly Pomona. I never got to know her well as we only had a couple of classes together. But lo and behold, we ended up at the same vet school the same year. I'm not sure if she's been around the area much, so if they haven't been to Aggieville yet, I think I'll take them there.

It's Thursday night... I watched 'P.S. I Love You' by myself. To be honest, I'd rather watch romance movies alone. I'm not exactly sure why. But part of it I know is because I feel so vulnerable when I watch romance movies simply because of the way they make me feel.

Speaking of romance, Mike surprised me a few days ago by bringing home flowers. It's the first time he's ever been able to surprise me with flowers. I always KNEW when he was getting me flowers either because he asked me what I liked or I reminded him on birthdays, valentines.. blah blah blah... so I was truly surprised when he brought them home for me. It was nice. =)



Aren't we so cute. =P

Kazuki has already started classes at Western. He says he loves it so far. I want to start school so badly already too! =/ Yes, I'm pouting. Now that I've started, I've definitely got to stop writing. Good night.

Settled

I'm finally all settled down in Manhattan, KS. Every last box has been officially unpacked. Every new thing that we needed to buy for the apartment has been bought. True, there are a few little things we need to do here and there.. like get renter's insurance and small things like that... but, generally, we are done.

With that being said, I've been a little on a bored side. It's so ironic. When you are working or in school or both.. you want to pull your hair out from all the chaos it's causing to your once peaceful life. But when you're not working or not in school, or in my case, both... I'm bored out of my mind. It wouldn't really matter THAT much where I am.. even if I was back at home in California, I'd feel the same way. But I have to admit that I feel the boredom a little bit more here because I don't have friends or family to pester physically. It makes me miss California, even though I don't really have any real reason to miss it.

Last night Mike and I went to watch the UFC fight at a bar in Aggieville. Unfortunately the bar was completely filled with undergraduate boys, so we decided to have dinner at another bar and go back to watch UFC later. While we were eating dinner, we watched some of the Olympics. I was so excited when Park Tae Hwan won a GOLD MEDAL for the 400m freestyle for KOREA! It's the first medal that any Korean has won in the swimming category, so it was truly exciting! Right after the race was over, they went to a clip of his parents sitting in the stands, and they were just so happy. It's always really funny to see old Korean folks go crazy because typically they are always so subdued. After we had dinner, we went back to the bar. Fortunately they had a huge screen out in the back where we could just stand and watch the fights. I follow a little bit of UFC because of Michael. It's certainly entertaining. One day, when I actually have money, I want to take me and Mike to a UFC fight in Vegas. That's the goal in 10 years from now (I hope).

Orientation starts in 1 week.... at this point I can't wait to start. What I'm not looking forward to are tests EVERY Friday. Is that really necessary? =P

Oh, one more thing before I go. Contrary to what many people think about Manhattan, Kansas.. there is an actual MALL here! Granted it's not your typical two-storied gargantuan mall that you expect from Southern California... but it does carry a Gap (even the Baby Gap), American Eagle Outfitters, Victoria's Secret, Aeropostale, JC Penny, Bath & Body Works, Sears, Champs, Payless, etcetera etcetera. I was really surprised that they had some of these stores here! People were telling me that I should do all my shopping in California before I left for Kansas, that there would be no where to shop in Kansas, yadda yadda yadda... For me, this was the total opposite of what I thought I would find. Plus they have all these cute little stores in Aggieville, quite frankly, it's more than even shopping for this Californian girl. Although, I do admit that I'm not THAT big of a shopper compared to the average girl in California. But I definitely do like to shop. And I do miss H&M already. [sigh!]

Sofa King Tired.

That day finally arrived. The day that Michael and I left Californeeway was this past Saturday morning. We had breakfast with some of our folks at IHOP and we were on our way. The first day we drove 11 hours to Gallup, New Mexico. To get there we drove through Arizona, which Michael and I have affectionately dubbed the devils asshole because it was blazing hot every time we got out of our truck. Every time we stopped for gas, I worried about our animals overheating. Faceman actually panted a couple of times after a gas stop. It totally freaked me out since cats panting means respiratory distress. Thankfully they were only short moments of pant and not continuous ones.

The next day we drove 10 hours to Dodge City, Kansas. On the way there we nearly got into an accident when a truck lost control (I think the driver fell asleep) on the other side and started barreling towards us through the middle dirt intersection. Fortunately we were going fast enough where he just barely missed us. It was pretty scary though! I really thought we were going to die there.

Finally the third day (today), we drove 4 hours to get to our final destination to Manhattan, Kansas. We arrived here around 4:30 pm central time. Michael and I unpacked 2/3rds of our truck in 105 degree weather. It was excruciating! We decided to unload the rest of the truck tomorrow because we were tired and sweaty as hell.

There's a lot of other little things we need to do before we are completely settled in... one is buying shelves for one of the cabinets in the kitchen... another is possibly getting the bottom of the sink shelf replaced (we think there's mold at the bottom), get our cable, gas, electric stuff set up... buy a house phone... buy another lamp... BAH!

Lots of work to be done tomorrow...