So its been about 3 weeks since my last blog - and a lot has happened since!! I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST! but apart from that the next most exciting maybe is that I finished my AS exams!! best day of my life (: I didn't think that any went particularly amazing, especially physics. I actually cried about that one. Finishing them was great but we were all back to school on the following Monday, no rest for the wicked!
Luckily me and 3 friends had booked a week away in Mallorca which was AWESOME. best holiday ever (also the first one without parents!) it was sooo good and we all really needed a break.
Only downer is now we're back at school and catching up A Level physics is no party. I've already dropped English - the school recommends you wait till results day to decide but I figure that all vet uni's prefer physics to english - especially Cambridge - and although my grade may actually be better in english than physics, I enjoy physics more so why wait?!
Some really really good news is my contact at the zoo nearby has got permission for me to help out in the primates section - I'm so happy about this because getting work experience there is normally impossible, they like you to be doing some kind of course (veterinary, zoology, animal handling etc) at uni or college and be at least 18 - neither of which I am.
People keep mentioning personal statements and CV's to me... but so far I'm being quite successful at pushing them to the back of my mind. I've made a little start, and to be fair my CV just needs touching up and updating but my personal statement is going to take A LOT of time.
The EPQ (extended project qualification) is getting into full swing now - I still have to properly decide what I'm doing but I'm pretty sure I'm going to focus on the human-animal interface in a certain situation - probably using my D of E African expedition to base it on... but maybe using the war in Afghanistan... I'm not decided yet.
I'd LOVE the summer holiday to be now, I'm going to be struggling through the last 4 weeks of school. I miss the long GCSE holiday! Instead I'm now back to catching up on quarks and leptons, on which I have a test tomorrow...
roll on the holiday!
Life is going soooo fast at the moment. my chemistry exam is in two weeks and a day. oh dear. I don't know why but I just can't revise- I just watch 90210 which probably won't get me an 'A'. The trouble is even though I know that, it doesn't make me revise any-more which is a shame (:
I know afterwards I'll hate myself, I just have to find the 'on' button.
So I was too late to book myself for RAVCs open day and now I just found I've done the same for Bristol. I tried the day after booking open!! Gahh whats a person got to do to visit a university round here. I rang the admissions person though and she said just keep checking, so I'm constantly just refreshing the page- another reason I'm not doing chemistry!
So the Port Lympne conservation thing turned out to be nothing which was kinda disappointing. Actually make that VERY disappointing. You have to be between 12 and 16 for a start, which I'm not, and it just wasn't what I thought it was going to be.
I think I've made up my mind on what I'm doing next year though - dropping English and carrying on Biology, Chemistry and Physics as well as doing an EPQ which as well as head girl should keep me occupied! I'm looking into negative aspects of conservation and human - animal interface focusing on game reserves in Africa as a general area for my EPQ which will take advantage of my Duke of Edinbugh Gold expedition and is also an area I'm interested in.
Last week I did a practice-practice expedition for my D of E which involved camping at a nearby site and walking 35km over two days in the pouring pouring rain. It took me a few days to properly dry out. I've never been so glad that we're doing the real thing in Africa, where rain is pretty unlikely.
I s'pose I best do something constructive, hopefully involving revision...
wow - blogs are pretty good for venting stresses (:
Had my last sunday morning at the animal sanctuary today. Its weird but I think I'll actually miss it! Wasn't expecting that - early mornings and lots of cat poop. I know I'll miss Jim (the rabbit)! and the kittens that were born a few weeks ago have grown so much! (see picture) but they are still smaller than my hand. Everyone there was so nice, I'll definitely keep in touch.
Another day full of plans (revision) turned into setting up a Twitter account. I don't understand it (:
So 6 months at the animal sanctuary means only 12 months left to do for my Duke of Edinburgh volunteering section. What to do next? I might do weekends volunteering at a farm vets or there is a conservation thing thats being set up at Port Lympne and Howletts zoo which is near me - I'm not sure exactly what thats about - a teacher mentioned it to me in passing and I haven't seen her since. Need to find out more details.
This weekend has gone past wayyy to fast - with a week full of tests ahead I'd best do some revision....
Yesterday at school we had this talk on 'the whole UCAS procedure' the summary of which was the next six months will either kill me or result in me being in a good position to get into vet school. Me being the worrier that I am got home and immediately started planning MORE work experience and producing an edexcel spreadsheet showing the pros and cons of universities I'm looking at- slightly OTT some may say.
I've been trying to organise work experience at Pfizer for the past few weeks but their summer work experience week clashes with the Nottingham Uni Vet-Sim course which I really wanted to go on after having such a good time on their Vet-Med Link course last December. After much deliberation I think I'm going with Pfizer... simply because its a field of veterinary that I haven't looked at before.
Liverpool Vet course has the biggest work experience requirement list (10 weeks in total!) including 4 weeks at at least 2 practices. I'm in the middle of contacting Burnham House Vets to see if I can go there for a week in summer and Lady Dane is next on my list - I've already done 2 weeks at Manor Vets which I loved and am trying to fit in the odd day for me to go back.
Abattoirs are so hard to get work experience at! Thanks to that vet student who went in and videoed one no abattoirs want any work experience people, hopefully JR Farm Meats will let me come for a day!
Turns out the vet at Port Lympne is away in Germany until next Tuesday so I'll have to wait to find out about that one.
Fund raising for my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award is going well, I'll make my next post about that.
AND as well as all that stress we have mocks starting next week! I'm really not looking forward to them, I may have left starting my revision a bit late - cough, cough last night - but I really want them to go well as our predicted grades for A Level are partly based on them. Oh no. Needless to say I'm stressed.
