FULL BORE

We've been back in school for 3 days now - had 6 hours of physiology lecture, 4 hours of neuroscience lecture, and 6 hours of other lectures. Oh, and 2 hours of lab, too. INTENSE. Physio and neuro are coming at us at 100 miles an hour. For a couple classes, we didn't find out about required textbooks until the first day of class... but we're supposed to read before we come to lecture. My physiology textbook (all $150 worth of it!!) had an estimated arrival date of September 20 - thankfully it arrived today. Buying online is significantly cheaper than in the bookstore, but we then have to wait for the books to arrive.

I spent the rest of my break working and relaxing. I worked Tuesday through Friday evenings, and it's really amazing to see things Stephen learned in even that short amount of time. It's very intensive and very rewarding. The weekend was spent recuperating. I swam again on Saturday - the undergrads are definitely back. The pool deck was jam-packed, I got the last chair. If you look back to my August 19th post, you can see that I nearly had the place to myself. It was funny to realize the reason it seemed like a high school pool party to me - most of the kids around the pool were probably freshman and only a couple months out of high school, anyway!

Another way I can tell school's back in session for our class - we played volleyball yesterday afternoon. It felt good to get out and hit the ball again - it had only been a week and a half, but it felt like months.

In more fun and exciting news, my early Christmas present from my parents arrived yesterday! Hooray and THANK YOU for my new iPod Touch! The main reason I wanted one is because we sometimes get emails in the middle of the day relating to our classes or other on-campus activities. I don't have a smartphone and don't want to pay for a data plan. With free wireless on campus, the iPod Touch solves that problem. The first thing I did (after connecting to my home wireless) was to link my school email account to it.

This morning, I discovered another potentially VERY helpful feature. One of the free apps that comes on it is "Voice Memos." With this handy tool, I can record lectures. This may prove invaluable for both physiology and neuroscience.

This evening, our anatomy professor (and Program Director) Dr. Kapasi took us to see the Bodies exhibit at Atlantic Station. For those who have not seen a Bodies exhibit, it's a display of incredible dissections of the human body. These bodies have been preserved in such a way that they will "last a lifetime" according to the docent. It was fascinating to see much cleaner dissections than we had done, and cool to be able to identify almost everything we saw. You can read more about the exhibit on their official website here.

6 day... break?

First semester is done as of Monday evening, eight semesters to go... Now I'm in the middle of a 6 day "break" but haven't taken much of a break - I'm working every day! It's been a great experience working with Stephen, a 6 year old special needs boy. He's very sweet, and needs almost constant attention.

The grapevines outside my door are providing delicious grapes in abundance:

However, this is not always a good thing... This is what I see outside my door every morning:

I'm not sure whether it's squirrels, chipmunks, or something else that's causing grapes in all degrees of ripeness to end up all over the patio. Many of them are partly or half-eaten, attracting a constant cloud of fruit flies.

Garden update:

My tomatoes have taken a break - there are 4 or 5 green ones on the vine, but I haven't had a ripe one in a couple of weeks, maybe even 3. The plant was nearly getting overshadowed by the marigolds so I rotated the pot 180 degrees this morning.

I have super scraggly lettuce, and there's a tiny mushroom farm on one side of the pot. At least the lettuce still tastes good! I've been using it in sandwiches.

I've pretty much given up on the zucchini. It keeps blooming, but never seems to want to produce any fruit.

I purchased "live basil" in the grocery store a couple weeks ago and decided to plant it when I got home. It's doing well so far, even though I've picked off a bunch of leaves a couple times!

My favorite breakfast - homemade waffles! I make a batch of batter and then keep it in the fridge, it lasts me 3 days.

In other news, I've continued swimming at the Clairmont campus. I think I probably did the slowest 1400 yard workout in the history of swimming today, but it feels good! I ride my bike over there, and every day, I have to clean spider webs off the bike. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't turn out. It's amazing how fast those arachnids get to work!

R & R (and studying)

Yesterday morning I posted here after my final... and then had a full day on top of it. I rode my bike to the Clairmont campus to attempt to swim laps. I am hoping to find a way to swim freestyle that won't aggravate my shoulder. I swam only 600 yards before I was tired out - and half of that was just flutter kick with a kickboard. So I lay in the sun to dry off and look over my anatomy notes.

Unfortunately, studying didn't last long - the combination of heat and humidity meant I was actually getting wetter instead of drying off! So I gave up and went home.

Later that day I got to see my first Braves game - playing the Giants, no less! First we met in the parking lot for tailgating. There were 31 of us - 29 DPT class of 2014, 2 guests.

Tim Lincecum was pitching for the Giants. It was a good game - close! No score until the 5th inning, with a solo homer giving the Braves a 1-0 win.

ONE MORE CLASS!!

This morning I took my Basic Measurement practical. I think Jackie and I both did well. This means we only have Anatomy left! Woohoo!!

Celebration after our ethics final yesterday was again volleyball - for the first time, we actually have pictures!

The sand court at the Clairmont campus is quite nice, but the best part is that we can jump in the pool and cool off when we're done!

Tonight: Braves vs. Giants at Turner Field. Should be a good time, 28 of us are going!

finals, a job, delicious dinner...

Finals week is here. It's really hard to believe that the first semester will be completely over in 9 days. I'm already done with one class (online final), have one project to turn in Wednesday or Thursday, and need to study for three written finals and two final practicals.

Yes, you read the title correctly, I have a job! I will be working a few hours a couple afternoons a week with a 6 year old boy with special needs. He's very sweet - I just met him and his parents today. I'm looking forward to the learning experience, spending time with him and his family, and of course a little bit of income.

In order to motivate myself to study, I prepared a delicious dinner, if I may say so myself! Wild sockeye salmon with fresh basil, zucchini, bell peppers, mushrooms, carrots, celery, and onions, and some killer mashed potatoes. YUM!

And now, I will get some studying done.

more climbing!

Yesterday afternoon - 3 hours of sand volleyball! Today after class, Martin, D, and I went to the gym and climbed a bit. Didn't get any pictures of D, but here are a couple of the other two of us. Here's Martin climbing:

I didn't even know D took this picture...

But I saw the flash from this one.

Good fun! Tomorrow after class - ultimate frisbee round 2!

outta town.

This weekend was a very relaxing women's retreat with Veritas Church. We went from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon to a house on Lake Hartwell. The lake straddles the Georgia/ South Carolina border. The house belongs to former members of the church.

Here's the view from the balcony:

This is a closer view of the dock where we spent the middle of the day Saturday. 5 of us spent a while in the water - it was definitely worth it to be in the water, but I'm spoiled by Lake Tahoe. It was weird to have the lake bottom be slimy and muddy, and also not to be able to see down even to my feet.

This is the whole group. It was great to have a chance to just hang out and get to know some of the women at the church.

And I came home to the sad news that a mountainboarder friend of mine was killed in a car accident Thursday in Alaska where he moved in 2006. Rest in peace, Jason "Small Dog" Small. It was a privilege to call you my friend. This picture is from a demo June 12, 2004 in Carson City, NV.

learning

You go to school to learn new things, no? So, today I played ultimate frisbee for the first time ever. It was a lot of fun, although i'm pretty sure close to 100-degree heat with fairly high humidity was not the best conditions for learning!

In other "news," I baked cookies on Saturday evening, and just started another batch this evening... I've shared so many that I need more!

Walking to the bank yesterday I spotted a cool looking spider (clarification - I DON'T like spiders at all!!). I tried to take a picture of it without getting too close, but it's blurry:

It jumped down off the web before I could try again, but I got the focus better so the cool-looking web is clearer.

Here are some mushrooms that were under a tree in the quad - past tense because I think they were literally mowed down today. They have a sort of ethereal glow because the humidity caused my camera lens to fog up immediately after opening!

I don't know what flower this is, but they're pretty common here. Tiny little buds, in the yard here as well as along the road and elsewhere.

There are day-lilies growing along the driveway, they're rather cheerful and pretty.