hit the ground running!

Although I have the most relaxed schedule I could imagine with only one weekly class and two weekly meetings, the first three weeks back in Atlanta felt like at least six.  I got back into Atlanta the evening of January 11 and got picked up by my friend Lauren and her boyfriend Michael.  Lauren had flown in a few hours earlier, so the two of them went to dinner nearby before picking me up.  The next day, after attending Passion City Church, I did a bunch of grocery shopping to replenish my cupboards and get ready to go the next day.  Somewhat exciting news, I won an iPod Nano and "Noise Cancelling" Headphones from a website where I take surveys when I'm bored.  I said I wasn't going to believe it until they showed up, which they did while I was away on break.

hooray!  free ipod nano and headphones!

Monday morning I went in to work for DPT Admissions - there was a lot to prepare before Friday, the first interview date for applicants.  Throughout the week I assembled folders of information for the interviewees, made an interview schedule, and answered a ton of emails.  Monday afternoon, I got started as a preceptor by attending my first lab for the first year's General Medical Conditions class.  We preceptors paired up with faculty to teach four different stations during the lab covering different topics.

Friday was Interview Day.  I was up dark and early and on campus ready to work at 7:15 am.  I worked straight through 5:15 pm.  I found myself running around all day long, answering questions, taking orders and delivering lunch for the interviewers, setting up, cleaning up, and generally keeping busy.  I was very happy that breakfast and lunch were provided!  It ended up a very successful day with 89 interviewees, over 80 current students involved, and at least 12 different interviewers.  That evening was a joint dinner for Graduate Christian Fellowship, Faculty Christian Fellowship, and the undergraduate InterVarsity groups on campus, so I came quickly back to campus to attend that.

all set up for the afternoon reception on interview day

Saturday I got together with one of the first years to help her practice her lab skills, then joined my classmate Rob to watch my first ever rugby game.  Unfortunately, Emory lost to Valdosta State 90-0.  It was still fun to learn a little bit about the game, and I hope to see more to get a better idea of how the sport is SUPPOSED to go.

Sunday, Passion City Church met in Phillips Arena in downtown Atlanta as a followup to the Passion 2014 conference.  I picked up my friend from the Emory climbing wall, Anika, and met my classmate Jessica on campus to carpool.  It was HUGE, with lots of talented musicians leading the singing, then a message by Louie Giglio, the pastor of Passion City Church.

passion city church packed out phillips arena!
jessica, anika, and me on the left, me with dan on the right

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so I joined 9 others for my first hike on the Appalachian Trail.  The group was loosely connected via Graduate Christian Fellowship, with a couple of alumni and three guests including my friend Anika.  We hiked from Unicoi Gap to Trey Mountain for an 11 mile out and back round-trip.  One member of the group is an endurance runner, whose idea of hiking is to get the best possible workout in the shortest possible time.  This meant that the first half mile or so was straight uphill at a breakneck pace which led me to get a pretty solid headache and another person to feel quite nauseous.  At that point, three of us decided to hike at our own pace and enjoy the scenery, after Tylenol and some food helped ease symptoms.  The speed hikers thankfully didn't seem to mind stopping and waiting for the rest of us.

view from the trail

anika, eric, katherine, marissa, jenn, jared, steffi, lilly, ben, and me on trey mountain

The rest of the week I kept busy with work, my one class, research, and a lab with the first year class.  I had an appointment at the Emory Travel Clinic to get necessary vaccinations for my upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic, went to Graduate Christian Fellowship Thursday evening, and volunteered with the therapeutic horseback riding Friday afternoon.  Friday evening was a "Cornhole Tournament" for Jenn's birthday.  The party was mostly members and alumni of Graduate Christian Fellowship.  For those who don't know, there's an explanation of cornhole here.

my awesome teammate candace - team candancy!  we lost in the semifinals

Saturday morning I got up dark and early again to run a 5K - the "Race to End Homelessness" benefiting the Atlanta Mission.  Anika again joined me, and we were pretty happy to keep running for the whole distance and maintain an under-11-minute-mile pace since neither of us are actually runners!  It was under 20 degrees Fahrenheit when we got there, and probably about 25 by the time we left a couple hours later.  It was a challenge to figure out what to wear since we had to wait around for nearly an hour before the race started.

anika and i met harry hawk of the atlanta hawks after the race - because he stole her banana!

On Sunday after church, I stopped off at the beginning of Remi's birthday party to wish her a happy birthday.  Remi graduated last May from Emory with a DPT.  Later that afternoon, I joined Laura, a friend from church, for her birthday celebration, meeting 6 new friends in the process.  We ate at The Nook on Piedmont Park where I learned about Totchos - tater tot nachos.  The Redneck Totchos with pulled pork that I tried were pretty tasty, though not exactly what I'd call healthy!

Monday evening the climbing wall finally opened for the semester, and I was looking forward to getting back in climbing shape and getting some more work hours at the wall starting Wednesday.  I did get to climb Monday, but then came Snowpocalypse/ Snowmageddon/ Hothlanta/ Atlantarctica 2014.  Call it what you will, it was a mess.  I was in my meeting for the upcoming Dominican Republic service trip, watching snowflakes drifting down outside the window, when we started getting emails and texts telling us that class was cancelled and Emory was closing for the day.  It seems that all rational thought ceases at times like this for some people.  Watching out the window, we saw a pickup truck with about 10-15 construction workers piled in the back driving up Clifton Road.  I understand that they wanted to get back to their cars quickly, but the back of a pickup truck does not seem like the safest way to start off their commute home.  Later that night I saw a car abandoned in the middle of a traffic lane on Clifton - in a flat area where there was no chance of sliding out of control at a slow speed.  I also heard stories of people abandoning cars in the middle of the travel lane in the on-campus parking decks, causing headaches for the people trapped behind.  These are the stories that DIDN'T make the news...

truckload of construction workers; barely any snow in the quad;
pretty snow on leaves; falling snow around the main campus gate

abandoned car on clifton rd
hazard lights on but no attempt to move to the side of the road

I'm going to continue this in my next post because this is getting really long...