I visited Easter Bush for a day and now want all my lectures to be there

As an English Literature student, my life at the University of Edinburgh is restricted to George Square. This means that campuses like King's or Easter Bush are faraway places which my flatmates frequently disappear off to, but I never get to see. However, in the spirit of creative learning week, I decided to expand my horizons and accompany one of my flat mates to vet school for the day.

Complete with a farm animal hospital, a small animal hospital, the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Medicine and the Roslin Institute, Easter Bush is basically a utopian dream come true for vet students, and a hidden treasure for the rest of us.

7am

Vet students have a 9am almost every day, and to get the full Easter Bush experience I was determined to accompany my flatmate to hers. Seeing as I have been spending my Festival of Creative Learning finding out how little I can do in a day, this was a bit of a struggle.

I finally got myself up and was out the door at 7:55, as instructed.

8am

We were on the bus by 8 o'clock and on campus before 9am. Usually I haven't even woken up by that time.

The bus journey was already exciting

8.45am

After 45 minutes on the bus we arrived at a place in the middle of nowhere, out of the city and surrounded by fields of green. We started in the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Medicine teaching building. Inside you can find a lobby which is reminiscent of one in a five star hotel, modern lecture theatres, a library, and teaching rooms. It looks sleek, modern and clean both from the outside and the inside.

Beautiful

Vet school or airport?

9-10am

The lecture theatres are spacious and modern. The lights are bright and the floors are clean. This is clearly a space for serious learning, not for taking an afternoon nap or scrolling through ASOS for an hour.

If only George Square Lecture Theatre looked like this

10am-12pm

I sat in on two lectures. We began with a lecture on Neoplasia, had a 10 minute break and then learnt about Horse Husbandry (the art of taking care of horses). It goes without saying that I understood practically nothing of the first – biology is really not my thing – and was excessively distracted by pictures of horses during the second.

Fascinating

12pm

After a couple of hours of learning, my flatmate led me around campus some more. I wasn't allowed to visit the teaching dogs or teaching horses (as fun as those sound), but I did come across these two:

Making friends at vet school

My flatmate tells me that these can be practiced on for things such as milking or saddling. Amazing.

1-2pm

I started exploring the rest of campus, which also seemed to be full of beautifully designed, shiny buildings that make you feel smart even by just looking at them. This one is brand new and has a gym inside.

Home time, and final conclusions

I firmly believe that a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine & Surgery is one of the most difficult and strenuous undergraduate degrees which our university offers, and a nice campus is quite essential for a group of people who spend their 9-to-5 there every day.

I loved my visiting experience, and would 10/10 recommend it to anyone else who is wondering where their vet friends disappear off to during the day.