It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I'm done! I have successfully completed my first semester of veterinary school! Sure, there are still 7 more to go, but it's a wonderful feeling nonetheless. Finals were truthfully a lot more intense then I originally expected them to be; somehow I figured beforehand that not having class and such and having all sorts of free time was going to make the whole thing a cakewalk. Oh the naivete. Oh well, this is how we learn. At the moment, however, I am just so thankful to be done, and I'm looking forward to a whole month of not studying. It will be amazing.

After we got out of our immunology final yesterday, a couple of us were sitting around in our lounge, basking in the glory of being finished. After everyone else was done with the test, Dr. Gogal, one of our three immunology professors, came out of the classroom. At first it sounded like he was just going to wish us a Merry Christmas and be on his way, but he suddenly, and without any provocation whatsoever, launched into a very long explanation of why he and the other two professors had made the test they way that they had (including a fair amount of clinical based questions, not just general knowledge questions). This turned into a discussion of how we should keep the same level of passion all through vet school, even though things are going to get harder, and about how later years are going to be different because everything's going to start becoming more clinically based. He talked for a good 15 minutes, while the four of us, in our sleep deprived states, spent most of the time smiling and nodding. Perhaps he was concerned about the test being hard and us holding a grudge. It also might have had to do with the fact that he's getting ready to move to a new vet school, and he felt compelled to leave behind something that would last us for the rest of our time here. It was interesting, and his sincerity was touching. Although I'm worried about the time that we start moving on to everything being clinical based, in another way it's also something to look forward to. Especially after two weeks of memorizing massive quantities of information, it's encouraging to know that we will eventually be moving on to more applicable stuff.

Today has been spent cleaning up the apartment (which it needed terribly) and packing. First thing this morning, Candace and I were having breakfast and suddenly hear a large amount of rattling coming from our Christmas tree. This is what we found:

Elisa suddenly has discovered that the tree is climbable, and that it makes a pretty awesome cat hideout. We've generally been trying to discourage this throughout the day, especially since my parents won't want her to attempt climbing our tree (with it's breakable ornaments) at home, but it's pretty adorable. I'm looking forward to bringing Elisa home, although I'm a little worried about how she's going to adjust staying in a house with two other cats and two rather large dogs. It should keep the holidays interesting.

First thing tomorrow morning, I'll be making the drive home. I have my mapquest directions all ready, and I'm hoping I won't get lost this time. Getting home from Blacksburg is a good deal more complicated than getting home from Williamsburg was. Good news is, the longer drive means more time for loudly singing along to Christmas carols!