march and early april

I got back from the Dominican Republic on Saturday, and Monday started my extended job duties filling in for Monica, my supervisor, while she was out of the country.  I answered emails a couple of times while in the Dominican Republic, but the responsibilities were now greatly increased.  In addition to answering email questions, I was responsible for receiving tuition deposit checks, recording them three different ways, updating incoming student profiles, scheduling visits for prospective students, depositing the checks with the Bursar's office, sending out reminders, and updating lists and counts for the incoming class.

Of course, I still managed to find time to have fun.  The first year class had spring break and the one regular class I had wasn't meeting that week, so I essentially had spring break as well.  Tuesday I spent 6 hours at Stone Summit, one of the nation's largest climbing gyms.  I carpooled over with Jeff and we met Anika there.  It was really great - the other times I've been there it has been very crowded, where you have to wait for the rope to become available to get on whichever route you want to climb next.  On a weekday in the middle of the day, the huge place was practically empty.  We were able to climb whatever we wanted whenever we wanted, taking breaks and not worrying about missing a chance to be where we wanted.

jeff, anika, and me climbing at stone summit

That evening was community group for Passion City Church.  The last one got cancelled due to the snow days in early February, and I was very happy this one wasn't cancelled.  That week I volunteered with the kids and horses at Stride Ahead, gathered my usual group of friends to climb at Wall Crawlers, and had dinner with Stephanie, a friend of my cousin Queenie in LA from school at UCLA.  It was fun meeting her and hanging out - too bad I was in the last couple months of my last semester when I met her!  The next week started with getting together with Mina, a friend from Veritas Church, which I attended my first year at Emory.  She's now in med school in her home state of Oklahoma.  Then I collected friends together at the Grove women's ministry at Passion City Church - a group of six of us sat in the third row.  I love sitting up front, the room is so big that it makes a big difference.

mina and me after froyo

the grove with anika, natalie, and jessica

I went to Wall Crawlers again Friday, then the weekend included "puppy-sitting" (really just joining others taking her for walks) and volunteering with fellow Emory PT students and faculty to run a water station for the Publix Atlanta Marathon.  We were also able to cheer on a first year and one of my third year classmates as they passed us.

puppy-sitting aspen with caleb and katherine

emory dpt water station volunteers (photo courtesy of dr. rossi)

The next week was crazy-hectic with the General Medical preceptorship - I spent about 13 hours in labs or meetings, in addition to my weekly research meeting and one class.  The next week, starting on Monday, March 31, was vestibular week.  One of my three electives this semester was the preceptorship, the second was "Service Learning" - my trip to the Dominican Republic, and the third was Vestibular Rehabilitation (inner ear disorders - balance and dizziness).  This is an annual course designed for practicing Physical Therapists.  Since it was created by an Emory professor and is still hosted by Emory, twelve Emory students are permitted to take the course each year.  Competition is stiff - not all those who put the Vestibular Course as their top choice elective were able to take it.  It is very intensive.  We had over 60 hours in class Monday through Friday plus half of Saturday - mostly in lecture, but some in lab settings where we were able to practice techniques and then get tested on them.  Saturday we had two written exams, one based on videos of eye movements we were required to analyze and identify, and one purely written.  I managed to make it to my community group at Passion City Church on Wednesday, but I was exhausted!  A couple weeks after the course, we students received a congratulatory email.  One student asked for clarification, and we discovered that we had all passed the exams and had received highly respected vestibular certification.  We are all looking forward to applying these skills in our future practices.

enormous binder for vestibular course

"winsome wall" at passion city church - rare to see it lit up without tons of people

The following week I was a patient for multiple first year students who had to remediate their midterm practicals.  I visited Woodruff Library, the undergraduate library, purely to go up to the 10th floor balcony and check out the great view of the city skyline from there.  Thursday Anika and I went to the High Museum of Art - she had a couple of assignments from art classes to complete, and I went along just to visit the museum.  I also made it to the 8th floor balcony of the Grace Crum Rollins building for sunset.  It is one of the public health buildings near the highest point on campus, meaning the view was better than the 10th floor library balcony.

view from woodruff library balcony

cool sound and light reflector at high museum

sunset from grace crum rollins balcony

That weekend our class had a review course for the PT board exams, which are coming up in July for most of us.  It was much better than I had expected, so I'm really glad I took it, though it was really hard to sit inside all day Saturday and most of Sunday with the best weather we'd had in a while.