Exams are over??? Freedom at last!!
After the stress of exam time, one of the best ways to rejuvenate is to step back and relax. This looks a bit different for everyone. Some like to sleep for 5 days straight to try to overcome the “permalinks-tired” phase all vet students face. Others stay in town but do very little unless required to leave the house. While others like to travel far away from the university and forget that another semester is looming ahead. This last option happens to be my preferred method. University is great, but when given 3 weeks off, one must explore the world around them. As soon as exams ended I jumped on a plane and didn’t come back until uni started back up again.
Christmas celebrations
I traveled to one of my favourite destinations during Christmas time. Known for its Christmas markets and holiday spirit, Germany took my mind off exams and looming semesters. The first week of break was spent meeting with friends and enjoying the holiday spirit. Not to mention all the “Kinderpunsch” I consumed while visiting Christmas markets. (This is a non-alcoholic version of the mulled wine served at the markets). Having been to Germany before, I was craving the food and drinks long before my plane landed. This meant that when I got there, my first stop was to the grocery store to pick up all the food I had missed while being away. If you are ever traveling to Germany, make sure to try all the local food and I promise you will not be disappointed. Due to my almost addiction to kinderpunsch I had to travel to as many Christmas markets as possible and managed to attend five while on my holiday. Definitely a new my record for me.
The day after Christmas I got to welcome my mom and sister as they joined me in Germany. We planned a great road trip down to Switzerland that lasted all week before we made our way back to our starting point. All along the way we were visiting my old friends and making plenty of new ones. The highlights from the trip were definitely the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) in Germany and Jungfraujoch in Switzerland. The beauty of these places took our breath away as we drove through the forest and the alps. I already know I’ll be traveling back to these areas again someday!! Even though these two things were our favourites, we still loved exploring all the castles, churches, and stopping in all the little towns just to look around. Food tips are definitely to try some cheese fondue, racklette, and of course some chocolate from both countries.
THE NEW YEAR
I had a great start to the New Year by ringing it in with fireworks in Germany, followed by standing at one of the highest summits in Europe! There is a mountain in the alps called Jungfrau which we were able to summit thanks to some help from a cogwheel train. They first started building this as there is and research centre at the top. This centre is now used for other things, but we enjoyed being at 11,000 feet above sea level! The top of Europe is one of the highest points and I can now cross that off my bucket list. It got me thinking that I should try to climb the next mountain I summit, but I will try to pick one that hopefully isn’t as cold!!
Of course with the New Year come new goals and resolutions for the coming months. I of course sat down and really thought about what I wanted to accomplish and more importantly work on to continue to grow and learn on a personal level. It was a great experience that I may have to share another time. If you haven’t thought about where you want to be at the end of 2019, I suggest taking a few minutes to ponder it out.
Back to reality
Unfortunately, the holiday always goes faster than you think and you have to come back to the real world. The memories are there to keep you going as you push on through the lectures and practicals. Although I do have to admit that the semester I have ahead is one of my favourites. We are learning about exotics and will soon start equine as well. Exotics is an area of medicine that we don’t always get much exposure to. I find that I am completely loving it and want to learn all that I can. Our professors are engaging and everything is pretty interesting for me at least. Let’s hope this interest keep up through the semester as well!!
