Presidents, Hockey and Sheep Brains, Oh My!

It's been a zoo-ish week, mes amis! But a good one, nevertheless. We're jumping right into school with both feet, so sometimes it's a little overwhelming. But I'm handling it much better than I ever would have in the past, and mostly just really enjoying myself. :)

Today was our anatomy and physiology lab, and we got to begin dissecting a sheep brain. First you have to cut off the dura mater, which is a crinkly covering that reminded us of our latex gloves. It comes off fairly easily, but you have to be careful not to rip the pituitary gland off! Then you peel off the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater. This is much trickier, as they adhere tightly to the brain's surface. Peeling it off feels and sounds pretty neat. Kind of like pulling sticky tape off of your skin. Then we got to poke around in the sulci (inward grooves) and find all the cranial nerves and other topographical kind of stuff. Next week we're actually cutting it into pieces to get to see what's in there!

I've got a ton of homework and reading to do this weekend, but Hannah's coming over Sunday afternoon to do some of it together. And I think Megan's coming over tomorrow night to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (best. musical. ever). Chris might be coming, too... I'm not sure yet. And of course, Sunday morning's church!

Life is therefore busy, but good. And now I believe my turkey bean soup is bubbling merrily, and is ready for me to eat. Yummmmm...

Talk to you later!

Love,
me