second year!

To start off my second year of PT school, I volunteered to help out with graduation for the class of 2012.  The next day, we started right off with a full 8-hour lecture schedule.  Fortunately, the schedule eased up after the first couple weeks, and we have a lot of labs now and not such full days of class.  I made a second try at container gardening, this time skipping the fruitless zucchini attempt and trying cucumber and rosemary.

baby tomato plant

pickling cucumber and rosemary

In early June, the DPT Class of 2015 showed up.  Each incoming student is paired up with a second year as a "big."  I met my "little" a couple days after she got to Atlanta.  That Friday the second years hosted a welcome party for the first years.

moire (my little) and me

She joined me for a walk up Stone Mountain with some of the women from Veritas Church.  The night before, I chopped off nearly a foot of my hair and donated it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

over 11 inches!!

panoramic sunset shot from stone mountain

moire and me at the top of stone mountain

some of the women from veritas church

The last full weekend in June I joined a bunch of classmates as well as PA students, med students, and other volunteers to go to Valdosta in south Georgia.  We held free medical clinics to help the many migrant farmworkers and impoverished locals in the area.  The PA students acted as primary care with volunteer MDs supervising, referring as needed to PT and marriage and family counselor students from Valdosta State.  It was an amazing experience, treating patients under the watchful eye of Emory PT alumni who volunteered their time as well.

a couple of farmworkers picking blackberries

setting up the PT treatment areas

group shot of the Valdosta team

Alan arrived in Atlanta for a work conference shortly before I got back from Valdosta.  We were able to coordinate busy schedules and get together for a little bit on Monday, since he was conveniently located in the Emory Conference Center Hotel, just up the hill from the main Emory campus.

alan with a borrowed bike from the emory conference center hotel

The first three weeks of June were mercifully cool compared to last year, followed by a week of increasing heat, culminating in a new all-time heat record for the city of Atlanta on June 30.

I've been helping out in the anatomy lab with the first year class.  It's been fun getting to know them a bit, and really great review as I am forced to remember or look things up each time they ask me a question.  Several of them have joined me at the climbing wall, as well!