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STUDENT DIARY
Mark Challoner
, Manley, Cheshire
Fourth year student, Liverpool University
SUMMER 2012 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
18
I arrived at the beginning of March to a
very snowy landscape, which all melted over
the first 4 weeks, giving me just enough time
to get a bit of cross country skiing in! The
weather here has been cold but now we are
into May the sun is shining and I managed to
leave my warm coat at home for the first time
today, however it still gets very cold as soon
as the sun goes down. I have so far done 3
weeks of small animal surgery and 5 weeks
in the equine hospital. This week I'm doing
3 night shifts at the small animal hospital
dealing with emergency patients.
I have to spend a lot of my time asking what
exactly is going on but everyone here speaks
really good English and either the vets or the
students will translate for me and the relaxed
attitude around the hospitals makes life easier.
My knowledge of Finnish is embarrassingly
bad even though I've been here two months
but I recently learnt the numbers 1 to 5 so
now I keep hearing numbers all the time,
even if I have no idea what they are actually
talking about! I've really enjoyed the rotations
and it's great to finally be doing something
practical and getting some real hands-on
experience. I think the case load here is much
smaller than Liverpool but we do get a lot of
hands on teaching and a chance to practise
on each case. Despite making a fool of
myself on multiple occasions and answering
many questions wrongly I really feel I am
starting to get some practical skills to go with
the theoretical knowledge.
The equine work has definitely been the best
part so far and was made easier by one of
the head clinicians being South African; so
everything is done in English anyway. This
makes me feel better about everyone in the
room speaking in English and not just because
I'm there. My own patient, a mare with 2
week old foal, went home last week after
spending two weeks in the hospital following
a colic surgery and nearly every possible
complication, and it was very rewarding (and
slightly relieving) to see her and her massive
foal finally leave in one piece. I'm getting the
benefit of the Finnish 40 hour working week
here (due to labour laws which also apply to
students) much to the envy of my friends back
in Liverpool. This has given me the chance to
get out and explore Finland and even
manage trips to St Petersburg and Estonia.
On the 1st of May we celebrated the Finnish
spring time festival of Vappu, which proved to
be a real experience! The night before we
went into Helsinki with the Finnish vet students
to a horse and foal statue which they
Moi from Finland!
I am writing this at midnight in the middle of a night shift so I apologise if
it gets a bit disjointed - it's probably because something started happening
half way through! I'm now two-thirds of the way through my exchange in
Finland which has gone very quickly.
proceeded to bandage, feed and attach a
drip line to, before standing around it singing
songs (most of them once translated are
unrepeatable here!) After this we went to
another statue in the centre of town which
every year, live on TV, has a high school
graduation hat put on it (all Finnish people
get a hat a bit like a ship's captain’s hat
when they graduate from high school) and
everyone then cheers and puts on their
own hats which then stay on for the rest of
the festival. Everyone is out in town that
evening and the streets are crammed with
people celebrating.
The next day everyone heads to a
Kaivopuisto park in Helsinki for an all day
picnic. All of the university departments got
there early and had tents set up by 9am to
bag the best spots. The whole festival was
really good fun and had a very big
community feel to it and I struggled to come
up with any kind of comparable day at home
(I think the closest we get is bonfire night).
I've also become quite a fan of the Finnish
sauna which when combined with dips into
an ice lake is a very relaxing and refreshing
experience, although the requirement to be
‘au natural’ has taken a bit of getting used to!
I'm yet to see much of the farming here yet as
my farm rotations start in 2 weeks, although I
get the impression the farms are much smaller
here. The reaction of students when I tell them
we have 350 sheep at home is hilarious as
a large flock here is about 50, mostly
because the very cold winters make keeping
sheep very expensive. With only one month
to go it will be good to return home and see
everyone but I do think I will miss a lot of
things from here. I've just heard a dog with
a gastric torsion is on its way in so I'd better
go, Moi Moi!