Break?

Alas, while I started out break with every intention of doing nothing related to school, I started making flashcards yesterday to study for my upcoming parasitology lab practical exam, and just now finished. They all look basically the same- either some variation on this:


or this:
... with subtle differences in each one that I'm supposed to be able to use to identify the bug down to genus, and sometimes down to species. Who knew you could learn so much by looking in poop?

The rest of this semester is a hodge-podge of final exams, mini rotations, lab practicals, "client simulation activities", preceptorship hours, and Swine Core (oh boy, swine). After classes end, it's my birthday (yay!), then Christmas, and then Chris and I are considering taking a trip up north to go skiing. I've never been skiing... But I'm excited to see what the Gunflint Trail looks like in the January (although if we don't make it up, we can still indulge in the new Bearskin Lodge webcam to get a peak of the lake in the winter). I like to think of our ventures into the wilderness as trials that I can look back on during these rough parts of the school year and say, "I survived a deafening thunderstorm, made it through a sea of wild rice, and completed a dozen portages with an enthusiastic corgi attached to my waist- Parasitology's got nothing on that." This coming semester is going to be rough, so I think I need a new wilderness challenge to boost my courage. Snowshoeing is too easy. Skiing to a yurt when I've never skied before is hardcore. What do you think?