I finished my last exam on Wednesday and no more lectures ever. Woo hoo!! Will be starting my yearlong clinical rotations in January 2008. Thought I’d give a recap of all what I did and learned at Camden this past semester. In addition to lectures on ruminants (cattle, and sheep), pigs, poultry, horses, and pocket pets, I participated in weekly prac classes. Some of the cooler stuff I learned included pregnancy testing in cows (you have to stick you whole arm up the bum of a cow in case you were wondering…); giving an epidural to a cow; learning how to do a necropsy to investigate cause of death or disease (human equivalent of autopsy); equine anaesthesia and dentistry.
Of all my classes, I really enjoyed equine lectures and practicals the best. Some of my favourite pracs included learning how to float horse teeth (you have to use these giant-like nail files and rasp the teeth to remove the sharp edges); performing an ophthalmic examination (which I had to give a nerve block first to prevent sensation and keep the eyelid open…); and equine anaesthesia. In equine anaesthesia, I was the closest to guess the horse’s weight so I got to put in the jugular catheter. Before I could do this, I had to first inject local anaesthetic into the skin just over the jugular vein. Then, I had to insert this really long catheter (about 6 inches long) into the jugular vein. I was nervous and excited at the same time, but my prof was there talking to me the whole time. Later we used the jugular catheter to insert various drugs to make the horse lose consciousness like if you were to do in the field for surgeries etc. And, wow what an amazing experience watching this huge beautiful creature fall gracefully to the ground in 3 mins!
I just got back from my 2 week visit to Singapore. Stayed with Cheryl and her family. While there, I attended her brother’s wedding, went to Vietnam, and went to Singapores’ famous Zoo, Night Safari, and Sentosa. In Hanoi, Vietnam, ate local Vietnamese food, shopped, and went to Halong bay, a beautiful world heritage place. In Halong bay, spent 2 nights staying on a junk boat and went cave trekking. Definitely a one-of-a-kind experience! 
I figured a post was long over due and I’d give a recap of my happenings. Mom came to Sydney and spent a month with me. We celebrated New Year’s at Taronga Zoo and watched the fireworks over Sydney Harbour. We had a lovely picnic dinner and donned our festive glow-in-the-dark jewellery. For her Birthday, I took her to her favourite beach—Manly and we had steak and wine. In the month 
that she was in Sydney, the days were filled with lots of walking, talking, laughter, shopping, gelato, and eating! The highlight of the trip was when we spent a week in Cairns. In Cairns, we went on day cruise, saw the Great Barrier Reef, walked in the rain forest, and went to a rainforest village called Karrunda. The day in Karrunda began with a scenic train ride to the village that overlooked waterfalls, and the city of Cairns. At Karrunda, we spent most of our time in Bird World where these beautiful exotic birds would eat out of our hands. At the end of the day, we rode a sky rail over the rain forest canopies. The views were just spectacular!!
