Winter in the City

In november, I got to experienced the first snowfall of the season. I was really excited since I've only seen snow while on vacation skiing and never actually seen the snow fall. So when the first snowflakes started coming down I turned into a kid and went a little crazy. I think I went out almost every day to just explore the city and take pictures. Most days I would go off on my own and just walk. I enjoyed the alone time and it gave me a chance to really appreciate the beauty of everything and the fact that I get to live here for five years. I'm definitely looking forward to the first snow again and having snow days! Now that the whole school is based in Easter Bush if it snows bad school will be cancelled...this past year school was cancelled for a week at the Bush, but since 1st and 2nd had classes at Summerhall(in the city) we still had to attend. Also in late November the Christmas Festival and German Market opens which has rides, an outdoor iceskating rink and tons of different food and craft stands. I really enjoyed going the first night when they have a large lighting ceremony and fireworks. There's just so much to do in this city it hard to keep up at times. Here are some pics from November and the christmas festival :

Squirrel Preparing for the Winter (IDK where it got a grape from tho)

Christmas Festival the night of the Lighting Ceremony

Fireworks ending the lighting ceremony

First snow!

Snowing in Princess Street Garden

One day my friend and fellow vet student Tyler and I decided to climb up Arthur's Seat! It was a little harder to climb up since there was snow and the steps up were now flat, but the view was definitely worth all the effort.

Me B4 the hike up!

View of the castle from the top...notice the tiny people lol

Well I haven't talked about school much so I'll try to keep it short and add on to future post. During the first semester, we take the Animal Body 1 course which is basically cell biology and the anatomy of the dog. Cell Biology was sometimes very complex and hard to understand, but since I majored in Biology in college I had a great background and had learned some of the material in previous classes. I don't know how the students without previous degrees can learn all of this when hearing it for the first time. My favorite part of the Animal Body 1(AB1) course had to be anatomy. Our first dissection was of a rabbit, then we moved onto the dog. Dissection was great there were 3 people per dog, and every dissection we would move to a different dog so we can see the difference in breeds, age, and weight. Fat dogs were harder to dissect since you would have to clean off fat to see the muscle so it took more time. We had dissection about 2 times a week for 2hrs at a time. In the AB1 anatomy course, we looked at muscles, nerves, veins, arteries, the skeleton, and the organs. We didn't go in depth into the organs since we will be learning about the body systems this year. We also had AHWAFS (Animal Health Welfare and Food Safety) classes which taught us about basic animal husbandry, veterinary public health, and animal welfare. The last course we take is Professional and Clinical Skills which we only had a few classes in first year. That course just helps us prepare for clinical years so we can build up over the five years by knowing breeds, what normal ranges are for TPR(temperature, pulse, and respiration) of the dog and cat, estimate weights and age, and to examine a patient properly. I found those classes very helpful since we got to physically examine a live dog. We would also go to our school's dairy and sheep farm to learn cattle and sheep handling skills. If you have any questions about Edinburgh and the vet program feel free to comment or message me and I'll try to answer it to the best of my knowledge.

Here's more winter pics for you...

St. Cuthbert Cemetery near Princes st

Christmas Festival

my headless snow angel

Church near Tollcross

Heading to climb Arthur's Seat w/Tyler

on the way up

climbing up to the heavens

the end is almost in sight

can never get tired of the view from the top

heading to Summerhall for morning classes

view from the dissection room of heavy snow in the Meadows

hot chocolate w/baileys courtesy of Melissa...great on cold snowy days

decided to go exploring one day on my own

like a whole different world

geese and gulls walking on ice

love the swans

behind the palace

Palace

Time to Catch Everyone Up

Wow I cant believe 1st year is over and 2nd year will be starting in about a month. I have so much to share with you all. Well I will start back in Nov my friends and I had a great time on our road trip. On the first day we headed out to the William Wallace Monument which had amazing views from the top or the tower. I still haven't seen Braveheart tho so I def need to do that sometime soon.

First View of the William Wallace Monument

View from the Top of the Tower (love the fall colors)

Me on top of the Monument

After the climb we ha a short drive to the Doune Castle which is most famous for being in the Monty Python the Quest for the Holy Grail Movie...which if you haven't seen it you should it's hilarious. That castle was great! We were basically the only people there that day plus there wasn't anyone watching your every movement so we ran around acting silly and just had a blast.

Doune Castle

On on drive to our first hotel for the night we even got to see some highland cattle otherwise known as hairy coos. We saw Hamish a well known Hairy Coo and his friend.

Hamish is the one in the back..he ignored us. Arent they cute!?

We stayed at the Onich Hotel which is right on a loch and had a gorgeous view that morning.

stones and shells on the shore of the loch

After breakfast, we made our way to the Eilean Donan Castle. We didnt go into this castle and just explored outside which was great. We even found a dead shark! Only vet students would be excited about that lol.

We left and drove, which seemed like forever, to reach our B&B near Loch Ness for the night. The next day we went to Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. It's pretty much just ruins but still beautiful, and I was def looking for Nessie while we were there lol but sadly no sightings.

View through Binoculars or the flag which was on top of the castle

Urquhart Castle ( used the color accent on my camera )

We left Loch Ness and headed to a small hotel in a town called Dinnet. On our way to the hotel we even got to see snow!

Dead Thistle in the Snow!

The final day we headed to Aberdeen to shop and have lunch before the long journey back to Edinburgh. On our drive back we even got to see the North Sea for the first time for all of us. It looked cold and rough but amazing.

The sun was just starting to set and was a great way to end our trip.

I am hoping we will have many more road trips in the future, there's so much of Scotland to explore. I'm glad I have four more years to learn and explore.

I'll be updating in segments so I'll see you guys tomorrow and thanks for reading!