"Leadership Training," Day One.

So today, the third day of orientation, focused on "leadership training." Instead of wearing business casual, like we've been instructed to do for orientation, we were all supposed to wear our matching teal "DVM 2014" shirts.

For those of you who know me, you can probably see where this is headed: a very unhappy Karin. To be fair, I know I'm starting a new program, and I know I need to not make a shitty first impression, so I did participate, but I definitely was pretty grouchy about the whole thing all day.

I showed up wearing business casual - just in case a decent sized minority decided not to wear their class t-shirts. Unfortunately, everybody did, so I quickly threw my shirt over what I was wearing. Usually, I wouldn't have a problem being the one sticking out like a sore thumb, but first impressions and all, I figured I should cave.

After a welcome speech from the Dean of the college, we were herded back into the same room as the previous days. We were then greeted by a guest speaker from WSU, who runs these "Veterinary Leadership Experience" camps. So yes, he's associated with a school, and he's a DVM, but he's also got that cheeseball professional "inspirational speaker" vibe to him.

So its not going too badly - cheezy powerpoint lectures with "funny" (yes, that's in quotes for a reason) pictures and videos, and lots of talks on personal responsibility, self actualization, how preconceived notions color your perceptions, and responsible leadership. Nothing too bad.

Untill he throws on some terrible music, makes everybody stand up, and start doing some coordinated line dance. It occurs to me at this point, that I can just leave, and go back to Colorado. If it had been at an undergrad college, I probably would have. However, since at this point, this is what I want more than anything, I decide that since I already made it this far, I might as well be a sheeple and join. Yes, I died a little inside.

Then we break up into small groups, and go outside. We form a circle, and have to play a "get to know you" game with a rope, and going around the circle answering questions about ourselves. I'm pretty burnt out on this whole thing by now, and its not even lunchtime.

For lunch, we're packed onto yellow school busses, and shipped to a hotel conference room, where we're fed banquet food provided by the California Veterinary Medical Association. After a free lunch, and a talk about the CVMA, and its insurance arm, we're given dog food scoops, and pens bearing the name of the insurance company.

We're shipped back to the school, more dancing insues, there's a speech about imposter syndrome (which is actually a pretty interesting subject I've read tons about) was touched on, then more leadership crap, and meyer's briggs personality tests were touched on.

Outside again to do a "teamwork exercise," that is just like this computer game, only with us standing on paper plates, and we had to use teamwork to solve it. Whee! Can you just hear the fun meters going off? Seriously, at this point, I'm wishing that cyanide capsules were part of the required school supplies.

Inside again more more pop psychology brainwashing. Out again for another game (where people have to form a circle, and play a bizarre form of tag where groups of three have to act out animals.) This was supposed to teach us empathy for the person who was "it." Apparently, we were supposed to feel bad they were "it." I didn't. I was insanely glad that somebody other than me was "it," and was using my best "fuck off and die" vibes to keep anybody from tagging me while yelling "ELEPHANT!"

Back inside one last time to hear the Hills rep say something to our class, and try to buy our loyalty with free backpacks and planners.

Ok, this is a bitchy and cynical post. Anytime something is billed to be "fun" when its not actually fun, I'm going to be annoyed. Especially if said activities are pretty much forced down your throat. Last time I checked, I was entering proffessional school, not elementary school. Enough with the juvinile games. And I get annoyed when information that could be delivered in a couple articles that could be read in less than an hour, is stretched out over 8 hours, then made worse by forced "fun."

And I've complained already about how we're given so much stuff from all these different companies (and I'm only 3 days in and haven't officially started classes). Its worth checking out the No Free Lunch website. Its geared towards how all the free stuff piled on med students influences their decisions as a physician, but there's no reason why the same wouldn't hold true for dogfood companies and vet students. Basically, when you're given something for free, like a pen, or lunch, or whatever, it makes you feel indebted towards x company. Then when you're practicing, instead of looking for the company or product that's most appropriate, you tend to lean towards the one you feel indebted to. No free lunch advocates turning down all freebies to avoid this. I figure, that just saves the companies money on students that won't be profitable for them later, since they're resisting the manipulation. My plan is to cost them money in freebies, then as a practitioner, ignore the hype and do the right thing. Maybe by taking their stuff from them (and then re-homing it,) it will raise the costs of "buying" students, and hit them in their wallets. Like that hills laptop backpack I got today? Its going to goodwill, or a school supply drive.

Anyway, tomorrow's another 10 hour day of leadership/teamwork bullshit, and then back to more informational, less "inspirational" stuff. After today, I really can't wait for classes to start - I'm done with orientation. And when classes get bad, I can always think "well, I'm completely overwhelmed with what I have to learn, and I always feel like I'm behind, but at least they're not coercing me into dancing again."

And just an image to sum up how I feel about today:

Vet school orientation

I just finished day 2 of vet school orientation.

Day 1, we showed up, picked up our orientation packets, which included our parking passes and white coat ceremony tickets. Then we had to go through several stations, which included ironing out any admissions issues, setting up our laptops (basically setting up our email clients to get the pop3 western mail,) and photos. The photos were funny. Basically, we took one for our IDs, and then they through a gown/robe on us, then had us take our graduation pictures. Taking my grad pictures before classes even started cracked me up a bit. I also picked up my white coat and nametag, and got a "Western U CVM 2014" t-shirt.

After that, we sat through a series of introductions, had Chipoltle brought in by Purina (They apparently try to start buying our loyalty early,) then 3 more hours of speeches of what to expect.

Day 2, they had the financial aid office talk to us, then talked about the cirriculum for awhile. Then Schering-Plough supplied pizza (once again - jumping in early to buy our loyalty), then we did a practice PBL session about a dog brought in for a wellness check, more lectures about the school, then an "expert meeting," where we circulated around and met with different faculty, talked about their areas of expertise, and they reccommended which books they prefer.


There are some things that are a little disorienting about the way Western's set up. They don't have any required books - they just tell you to test books out from the library, then only buy the ones you like. I did, however, enjoy the practice PBL session. Its going to be hard for the next 4 years, but it'd be hard at any school - at least this way I don't have to sit through lectures.

We got a list of required supplies, which I suppose I should start trying to accumulate - surgical tools, stethescope, scrubs, coveralls, boots, otoscope, and a couple other things.

We also got our schedule. It looks like mondays we'll be in class in the morning, then have the afternoons off. Tuesdays and thursdays have us in clinics in the mornings, then in the lab in the evenings. Wednesdays and Fridays are more classes. I'll probably scan my copy of my schedule later in the week.

Tomorrow and thursday sound pretty unpleasant. The schedule says "leadership training," but the 2013 students make it sound like forced teambuilding. Nobody will tell us what it involves, just to wear comfy clothes that we won't mind getting dirty. Now, I'm sure some people like the teambuilding crap - but I'm not one of them. Hopefully its not too bad, and hopefully its over soon. I think one of the days is almost 12 hours. I'm definitely to the point to where I'll be happy when this week is over, and real classes start.

Can't Sleep

Orientation starts tomorrow. Its 12:30, and I should probably be asleep right now, but I'm more nervous than tired. I wish the tired would kick in. I've got butterflies in my stomach, but I am so excited. In 7 1/2 hours I will officially be a vet student!

Bonfire at the beach

Last night about 40 people from Western's DVM class of 2014 got together to meet before classes started. It was a little overwhelming to try and remember so many names - and its only a small fraction of the 105 people actually in our class. However, it was really nice to meet people ahead of time, and it looks like I'm going to have a bunch of kick-ass classmates. 2 more days off, then orientation starts.

Less than a week until classes start

and I think I'm ready. Thursday, a bunch of the vet students are getting together for a bonfire on the beach, so I'm excited to meet my new classmates, and I've got a couple of loose ends to tie up, but I think I'm ready for this.


Hopefully, soon this blog will be more of what it was originally planned to be: an in-depth look at a student's journey through vet school. During the application process, I got rather addicted to a couple vet student's blogs, but I couldn't find one that corresponded with Western U and their PBL curriculum. I'm going to try really hard to keep up with posting, so hopefully in 4 years, somebody who's curious about the whole process can read from beginning to end what to expect.


In other news, Skwissgaar is feeling a million times better than last week. The first couple days he was home, he mostly slept a lot, and would only eat a couple bites of wet food, if you really tempted him. Now he's running around like crazy, eating normally, drinking, and generally annoying the crap out of me. I've never been happier to be annoyed.


I also finally got my car tags taken care of, and now officially have a California car. I bought the car in June, and didn't want to have to transfer the tags, so I decided to drive it here on temp tags, and register it here when I could. Bad idea. It took forever for my bank to get the title from Colorado, and when I showed up at the DMV, nobody knew how to deal with an out-of-state car that had not previously been registered. It took 3 hours, and having to get the teller at the DMV to consult with her manager, but its taken care of. And to make me smile, my new liscense plates have a "TA2" in them. Stupid textspeek? Sure, but this tattooed freak appreciated it.

A week of scares, close calls and thrills.

This week, Chelsea and Gentry flew out to visit us. The original plans were to spend the week having fun and hanging out with our friends: visit the beach, ride roller coasters, and generally just goof off.



We went to LA, walked hollywood blvd, visited the wax museum and ripleys, then boogie boarded at Santa Monica beach. The week was off to a good start.



The second day, Skwissgaar, my dobe, started puking. The he started having diarrhea. I took him into the banfield that's attached to my school, they put him on antiemetics, and all was looking well. He was still running around, saying hi to everybody in the clinic, and for the most part, being his hyper self.



Later that night, he started puking again. Then around 2, he started shitting bloody liquid. It was seriously like he had some sort of super soaker spraying out of his butt. The whole time I worked at my old job, I never saw diarrhea that severe. Imagine the movie the exorcist. It was worse than the pea soup vomit. We rushed him to the emergency clinic. By the time we got there, he was refusing to stand up to get out of the car. Tyler had to drag him out. We were rushed into a room, and told that the doctor was finishing a surgery, and there'd be a tiny wait. In the less than 1/2 hour that we were sitting in the exam room, Skwissgaar basically crashed. He laid down on the floor, and when the doctor came in, he wouldn't even raise his head to look at her. I think if we had waited another hour, or if the doctor had been farther into the surgery, he would have died. Luckily, they were able to pump him full of fluids, and he started to get better. They diagnosed him with hemmorhagic gastroenteritis, with no idea what caused it.



It took less than 8 hours from the first vet visit, where he was acting normally, and feeling well enough that the vet didn't think it was a big deal, to crashing out on the floor of the emergency vet.



The next day, our out-of-town guests were stuck hanging out at the house, because I didn't want to be too far away from my pup. We went to visit him, and he was slowly, but steadily getting better.



The day after, I talked to the doctor, and she wanted to keep him an extra day, even though he was probably ok to go home, just to be on the safe side. We decided to take advantage of him feeling better, but being supervised somewhere else, and went to Six Flags Magic Mountain.

The only roller coasters I've ridden have been at Lakeside and Elitches. Let me tell you, those don't come close to the thrill that is Magic Mountain. The first one we rode was the Goliath. 85 mph, and a 255 foot 61 degree drop. Then we rode scream and Batman. Then came the Riddler's Revenge. Its a standing coaster, and was pretty amazing. Later in the day, we hit up the Terminator coaster, which by wooden coaster standards was really fast. Probably my favorite wooden coaster I've ridden so far. We then wrapped up the day with what ended up being the two best coasters at the park. First, was Tatsu. When you get on Tatsu, you sit normally like you would in any foot-dangling coaster, but your feet are clamped into these mechanical stocks. Then the ride rotates you, so instead of sitting, you're facing the ground head-first, as if you were standing on your hands and knees. It was this thrilling, almost freeing sensation of gliding through the air. The last coaster of the day was the X2. Its billed as the world's first "fourth dimensional" coaster. There are speakers embedded in the headrests. There are fireballs that shoot at you. And best of all, the seats rotate independently of the track. You start out going up a steep incline, then the seats rotate you so the first dive, you go over the edge head first and backwards. Then throughout the ride, the seats do flips and spin as you're doing loops and rolls on the track.



On the way home from six flags, I got the best news. Skwissgaar would be ready to go home the next day, and was most likely in the clear.



We picked him up, and even though he's sluggish, and obviously not feeling well, he's keeping his food down, he's no longer spewing liquid out both ends, he's lost about 10 pounds, but he's better! He's wagging his tail, eating small amounts of food, and occasionally playing with Izzy before passing out for a couple hours. My puppy's going to be ok!!!

I'm in California!

I meant to post this a week ago, but I was having a hard time posting from my iphone. We made the drive ok, and got to the new house with two very excited dogs, and three surprisingly not-too-stressed-out cats.

We left Colorado Springs at about 4pm on June 30th, and got to Pomona around 10 in the morning on July 1st.

On the car ride here, there were a couple interesting moments. At one point in the middle of the night, one of the cars I was behind hit something, and then I hit it. I have no idea if it was a piece of a tire, or an animal, or what.

When we were driving through Vegas, I saw a sign for "The Lion King," and asked my cats if they wanted to go see it. All three of them went from being quiet to meowing loudly at me. Tyler snapped "great, Karin, you got their hopes up, now they're going to be pissed when they realize you were kidding about seeing the lion king."

After getting here, I called the gas company to have the gas turned on, and they told me it'd take a week. So we had an entire week of ice cold showers, and no stove. Wednesday, our relocube was delivered, and we have our stuff, and today we got our brand new mattress delivered. Unfortunately, a lot of our stuff wouldn't fit in the cube, so at some point we need to find a couch, an entertainment center and a table.

We're exploring the area, and progressively getting more and more familiar with where we're going. I drove down to the school, and explored the campus a little bit, and I can't wait for classes to start. I probably shouldn't look forward to it too much, because before I know it, I'll be exhausted trying to learn everything there is about vet med.

Anyway, here's some pics of our new place: