Well hello there, all! Finally sitting down to do this bumper update that's going to be a bit of a paired down version of a two week diary simply because the weekly ones alone usually take me an hour or so to write, and exam term is not exactly...stress free. I moved back in two weeks ago now, and with so much going on haven't properly sat back to process any of it, so this week's post is a slightly different formula with summaries of periods as opposed to distinct days. The next few minutes of your life are going to be spent looking at a collection of insanely random photos that sum up a measly few hours, and my messy attempts to explain them from the midst of my exam revision stress bubble - enjoy!
The weekend I moved back in....
Boy this was a warm one! My normal staircase was in isolation thanks to testing positive for Covid (to be completely honest this was highly likely a false positive but they were stuck there regardless) so the vets and I got treated to the pleasures of temporary accommodation in Second Court. Although college is a lovely place to be regardless of where you're actually living, Second Court is currently heavily impacted by building works going on to rebuild our cafeteria. It's also tiny and quite frankly doesn't hold a candle to Library Court so, although of course liveable, I decided pretty quickly I'd be spending most of my time in Matthew's staircase and avoiding my own.
We had a lovely welcome back, with lots of stuff going on and being busy with social things we missed out on last term now the restrictions had lifted slightly. In between this I was busy catching up on an essay I hadn't had the energy to write during Lent holidays and an anatomy mock exam I did surprisingly well in for someone who the other day forgot the name of the fetlock joint. HOM mock was a totally different story (but we don't talk about respiratory lets be honest here). I made this fantastic pizza as well (brie, sweet chilli chicken and pasta sauce base) since the one gratifying thing about Second Court is some of the microwaves have an oven setting - life saver. (Yes, I did eat this out of a wok, because all my plates were trapped in the isolation staircase).
The rest of that week
I'll be honest here, I don't completely remember this much. There was a lot of socialising, a lot of JBar (Jesus College's Bar) and a general lack of me actually doing the work I was meant to be doing. But that's okay, because you don't go 9 grand in debt a year to spend all your time in a room, and I'm doing okay so far (lol, ignoring the minor cryfest I've had recently over my fear of actually failing my biochemistry exam).
It would seem, however, that I did actually do quite a bit judging by some of the interesting photos in my camera roll. One stand out was the freshers BBQ, where I actually met more of my year in one evening than I had across the entireity of the rest of my first year at uni. Very good veggie pizza too, which I'll admit to ordering by accident and refusing to admit to enjoying because...vegetables.
Through it all it would also appear I was also entertaining my staircase whilst they were trapped in iso, with Lucy and Josh sending me a number of Snapchat photos that they probably wouldn't want me uploading to the internet. (I would usually just ignore this, but given I'm living with them for the next two years I probably shouldn't actively be trying piss them off - survival techniques and all that, you know?)
I finally got back into Library Court
Oh what a joyous day this was. Space! My cutlery! Clothes! All at the expense of having to lug some heavy luggage across college because of course second court is literally on the other side of the site to Library Court. But we survived using the kind services of the residents of Library Court who given they'd just spent 10 days trapped inside probably weren't thrilled at the prospect of carrying all my stuff across the courtyard. I then also promptly smashed an egg on my carpet (which I'm blaming on Arlo although he seems to think it was clearly my fault) so I think that says a lot about how that process went.
Lara and I took this picture, definitely not on C-Sunday and definitely not on Jesus Green either, and it's now one of my favourites.
We went out for drinks a lot as a vet group, and we have more planned for this week too with some girls from other courses to try to expand our horizons a bit. Library Court also has the luck of being the only court with access to a 'garden' (well it's an alleyway that runs behind all the staircases but STILL) so Lib 2 hosted a nice get together with the other households so we could finally meet each other.
I went on more walks with people than I can count and bought more coffee than anyone should realistically have access to, and there was a significant amount of swearing and sweating in the dissection room in practicals that were meant to sum up everything we learned last term...thankfully no one else seemed to know what they were doing either, so that was at least semi-gratifying knowledge. Side note: the gall bladder is disturbingly green.
Food
In an incredible week for me, I actually made some decent dishes, and got so excited about them I thought I'd brag about it here. Yes, nan, that is actually vegetables I have voluntarily washed and eaten myself...I know! Thanks to mum's microwave grill I've managed salmon, burgers, cod and some badly turned out brownies (next year we'll hopefully have an oven but I just wanted to find out if grill them would work...it doesn't.) That pasta is actually spicy curried prawn linguine - it's nicer than it sounds, don't worry, and if you'd prefer I've discovered you can make a perfectly acceptable creamy prawn linguine with philadelphia spread and milk.
Vetty Stuff
Other than the usual barrage of lectures, in general the vet stuff has been pretty limited. I had my horse reassessment up at the vet school which was interesting - had a nice little allergic reaction and am now currently going through Occupational Health for more blood tests than you would think were necessary to make sure I'm not going to drop dead at the sight of a Shetland. Thankfully I passed (albeit by the skin of my teeth) but given my past experience with horses this in itself was a miracle. Something tells me equine vet is not going to be a viable career path for me...
I also gave blood which was a brand new experience for me. Massive needle but free snacks afterwards and man did I milk that - Tuc biscuits, a kitkat, and a bag of popcorn. Practically lunch!
Spent my weekend trying out for vet lacrosse - as expected, was absolute rubbish and made a complete fool of myself but am still going back for who knows what reason. Maybe a death wish?
Podcast
And finally, Elin and I are setting up a brand new podcast to tackle Oxbridge access, university life, and anything else that takes our fancy (basically, this blog, but less vetty, far more interesting and with a range of guests from other subjects!) If that's something you fancy giving a listen to, click here to read more about our plans and sign up to be notified when we go live!
You can also follow us on Instagram too!
That's all for this week folks, see you next week for more revision, breakdowns, and an update on how far the single thread of sanity I have remaining has frayed!
xxx
