california (eventually)!

The week after Thanksgiving included submitting our group research proposal, taking orals for research, and taking a yoga final.  Friday evening was the last First Friday Dinner of the year for Graduate Christian Fellowship with an Advent theme and a white elephant gift exchange.

just before the white elephant gift exchange

Monday morning was the final for Advanced Medical Screening.  I had the afternoon to study for my Spanish final before meeting three friends at Passion City Church for the Grove, the women's ministry.

it got very rainy - this is during a break in the clouds Monday afternoon

aubrey, me, laura, and ashley at the grove

Tuesday morning I had one last research meeting for the year followed by a meeting for one of my electives for next semester - a preceptorship for the first year's General Medical Conditions class.  There will be five preceptors assisting the faculty with labs.  I left the meeting early to rush over and take my Spanish final.  I did my last email answering for the year, climbed at the Emory wall for the last time in 2013, and headed out to Passion City Church again for community group.  We spent some of our time gift-wrapping childrens' books - the congregation of Passion City Church gave a book to each child in grades K-5 in the Atlanta Public School District, delivered in the week before Christmas break.

Wednesday morning I got up dark and early to catch a ride to the airport with one of my classmates.  Hope's roommate gave her a ride so she could head off to Sydney, Australia for a month!  Since her flight was a couple hours earlier than mine, I hung out with her until her flight boarded before heading to my own gate.  I got on my own flight later and was happy to get back to the BEST COAST.

hope's pretty excited about going to australia!

My mom went off to her taiko drumming session shortly after I arrived so my father and I walked across the street for dinner at Mango Garden.  The next afternoon I headed up to Tahoe, arriving just in time to surprise most of the worship team with whom I used to sing at their practice.  Friday I went to Sierra and was able to ride for a bit and even ran into a couple of the Brackett kids.  That evening I went to Sierra Community Church's Christmas dinner.

sierra - found a couple of bracketts, joshua and janessa, as well as their friend jeff

Saturday I caught up with the Sierra team and was able to ride with them for a few runs before catching a last end-of-the-day run with my good friend Jim.  Jim and I started teaching snowboarding at Sierra the same season, 1998-99.

got to ride with the sierra team, lauren and megan

Sunday morning I was able to join my former worship team leading for both the morning services at Sierra Community Church.  It was also a good chance to catch up with a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a while.  I joined my friend Nicole that afternoon at Sierra for her first time back snowboarding after a four year hiatus due to finances and injuries.

sunday morning at sierra community church

Monday I had planned to snowboard in the morning before joining a couple friends for horseback riding in Minden in the afternoon, but I noticed a deep ding in the base of my board and took it in for repair instead.  I still got my ride in, though!  Monday evening I had dinner with my friend Jim, his wife Erin, and their two small children.

a monday afternoon horseback ride with leigh wayne, marissa, and valerie

Tuesday morning I went to Minden again, this time for an interview at a private PT clinic.  It went well and looks like a promising option for after graduation.  Wednesday I observed in the Carson City office for that clinic followed by a couple of hours at the Minden location before taking care of a dentist appointment (my dentist happens to be just around the corner from the Minden office).

beautiful sunset from lisa's lakefront condo

moonset at sunrise

My last day in Tahoe I got a couple of runs in at Sierra before meeting Pearl in Folsom for lunch.  I enjoyed dinner with Libby and family in Walnut Creek and ended up back in Cupertino that night.

lunch at the olive garden with pearl

me with libby after dinner with the fongs

thankful

A review of the past couple of weeks showcases some of the things for which I am thankful, including friends, climbing, the weather, hiking, Graduate Christian Fellowship, Passion City Church, Stride Ahead therapeutic riding, horses, work, school, movies, and more.

November 16 I got to go climb outdoors again, this time in Sand Rock, Alabama, at Cherokee Rock Village.  David and Lisa went again as well as Craig, a philosophy PhD student I hadn't seen since the first week Emory's wall was open this semester.  It was chilly and foggy when we got there.  The fog cleared and it warmed up a little bit but stayed overcast the whole day.  I was able to climb routes that felt harder than the last place I had climbed with David and Lisa.

lisa leading a route that wasn't in the guidebooks

view from the rocks

craig leading "popular science"

Wednesday morning was a LONG four hours as all 14 research groups gave status presentations for their projects, with the entire class of 65 required to be present for the whole time.  Our group did well despite having our entire presentation reworked 22 hours earlier by our main adviser.  15 of us then went straight to yoga for another three and a half hours, and a couple of those students also had another three hour class after.  That had to be an incredibly long day - 8 am to 7:15 PM with less than one hour of breaks between class times.  I had wanted that other class as my third elective, this was one day where I was glad I hadn't gotten it!

Thursday we had a fundraiser to raise money to buy supplies for the PT service trip to the Dominican Republic next spring.  I am one of the eight students who have been chosen to go on this trip - I'm really looking forward to providing PT services and training, all in Spanish!  I helped out with the fundraiser after working for PT admissions for an hour (I'm now only answering emails, trying to help Annie, my fellow Graduate Assistant, catch up on hours by letting her do all the other tasks), and then went directly to Spanish class where I had to do a presentation on Costa Rica.  I already thought it would be a cool place to visit, researching it only made it more appealing.  Per my usual busy Thursday, about an hour after Spanish class I worked my shift at the climbing wall and then ran directly over to Graduate Christian Fellowship's Thursday Night Community Group.

holly, lindsay, meg, and angela at the dominican republic trip fundraiser

an interesting and random sight - monk on a bike

Friday night, I joined friends from Graduate Christian Fellowship to climb at Wall Crawlers in Decatur.  It's a great deal - students climb for $6 on Fridays.  Their routes are pretty challenging - harder than similarly rated routes at Emory.  Sunday morning I joined a bunch of other PT students from all three classes to re-certify for CPR.  Monday after class Jodi and I went to Stride Ahead and volunteered with the therapeutic riding lessons - Friday's lessons had been rescheduled to Monday because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

therapeutic riding instructor pam taking sarah the horse through her stretches
(for peppermints!)

Monday's weather was quite chilly, and Tuesday it rained cats and dogs!  I believe we got over 2 inches of rain in a 26 or 28 hour period.  Wednesday morning when I went out, there was a bit of slush on my windshield and on my landlord's umbrella which had blown from their porch into the side of my car.  I have been loving the cool weather and don't mind the rain even though I can get pretty wet walking to school.

hotlanta turned into coldlanta which morphed into wetlanta

and then it actually tried to snow a little overnight!

Thanksgiving day I drove up to Canton in the morning to meet my friend Aubrey from Passion City Church.  I joined Aubrey and her mother Sherry to go to Aubrey's sister Kelly's house outside of Chattanooga, TN.  Kelly's husband Brad smoked a turkey on their grill, and we enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving lunch followed by a short walk in the neighborhood to work up an appetite for a plethora of desserts.  We headed back to Georgia in the late afternoon since Sherry had to work early the next morning.

brad was rightfully proud of his first ever smoked turkey

me, kelly, kelly's daughter skyler, mom sherry, and aubrey

Since it was relatively early, I ended up heading over to Katherine's apartment where she had hosted a potluck dinner for Graduate Christian Fellowship students and alumni who were in town for Thanksgiving.

moire, steffi, katherine, jen (and jonathan doing the dishes)

Friday afternoon, Aubrey joined me for a hike at Sweetwater Creek State Park.  The weather was beautiful - sunny, crisp, and clear.  It was crowded for the first half mile or so and thinned out till we were by ourselves at the far end of the loop we took.

aubrey and me and sweetwater creek

Saturday was mainly a lazy day, with some schoolwork accomplished before I took a stroll around the block.  In the evening, Marissa, Katherine, and I went out and saw "Hunger Games: Catching Fire" at Movie Tavern, where movies are only $5 with student ID!

me, katherine, and marissa at movie tavern