The Kitty Doctor

Tomorrow is the first day of the week-long orientation for the Class of 2021. I'm excited to start but am also definitely nervous about meeting 120+ people in one day. The faculty/staff are splitting us into smaller groups of eight that we'll be working with (for the rest of the year?), so that should help with easing into the class. We begin at 8 AM tomorrow and end at 3 PM, although I need to visit the health center afterward to receive the first of three rabies pre-exposure vaccinations. Hopefully walking/taking the bus to campus doesn't prove to be too difficult. It's going to be a really long day and week, but it should be nothing but fun and new friends!

My roommate wanted to go on campus this morning to go to student services to purchase Microsoft, so I tagged along since student IDs are issued there as well. I received both my Hokie Passport and my vet school badge. I'm official! She also showed me around a few other buildings and landmarks, such as the Drillfield. Later in the day I ventured out on my own to check out the walking path--Huckleberry Trail--that leads to the vet school and the rest of the VT campus from this apartment complex. I passed several joggers and bikers. The path passes by dairy cows, beef cows, sheep, and horses! Plus the path follows a creek and has views of the mountains. It's definitely the scenic route. It takes approximately thirty-five minutes to walk each way between my apartment and the vet school.

Today is Monday and the third day I've been in Blacksburg, VA. On Saturday morning, my parents and I drove three and half hours from Richmond to Blacksburg, where we checked into my new apartment and got the keys. This was our first time seeing the interior since the previous tenants had still been living there the last time we visited, and it's absolutely beautiful! Even though the complex is large and has many sections, my building is at the edge closest to the vet school, and our living room, kitchen, and bedroom windows face a huge, green valley with mountains in the background. You can't see any other buildings at all! There is a lot of natural light, with views of both sunrise and sunset. One of my roommates (there are three of us) got her keys last week, and she's been slowly moving furniture since then. We got to see her and her husband today since they were here to move more stuff. We managed to unload all of my stuff from the car and carry it up to the t