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.

dominican republic!

I'm DONE!  More on that later, but that's why I've finally got a blog post up for the first time in nearly two months.

On March 2, I woke up at some ungodly hour in order to be at Lindsay's by 4:15.  Holly and Meg showed up and we piled all our stuff into my car - it was very full with four people, two boxes of crutches, four walkers, one bag of medical supplies, and THEN our individual luggage.  We got to our prepaid parking, dropped off my car, and took the shuttle to the airport.  We waited around for at least one more classmate to show up - we had four people and nine bags.  One bag per person was included in the ticket, a second bag was $40, a third bag was $150.  As soon as Michael showed up, we checked in for our flight, Caroline showing up before we had even all gotten in line.

We flew off to Miami where we met up with Lilly, then continued on to Santo Domingo.  As we got in the line to pay our entrance fee to the country, I found out my wallet was missing.  The last I'd used it was to pay for the bag of medical supplies back in Atlanta.  Hypotheses include leaving it on the counter in Atlanta, dropping it somewhere, or possibly having it stolen in Miami since my backpack was found open at one point while still on my back.  Thankfully I do my best to minimize my losses before I start - I only lost one credit card, my driver's license, and some cash (all my cash for the trip).  Thanks to Lindsay, I was able to keep my small expenses covered while I was there and just pay her back when we returned.

on the flight and in the santo domingo airport.
bottom right photo (l-r) lilly, caroline, holly, lindsay, meg, michael

Once we got through customs and immigration, we headed to the arrivals area and waited for the direct Delta flight to arrive, carrying Dr. Pullen - our professor, Lucia - the other licensed PT, and Angela - our remaining classmate from our team of eight.  We piled into a minibus with all our luggage - the back row of seats was completely full to the roof, plus the space behind the seat and a lot of the floor space.  It was about two hours - most of us slept for at least part of the drive since we were so tired from getting up early.  We made a stop in the middle where snacks could be purchased - those plantain chips are amazing!  We arrived at our destination, San Francisco de Macoris, and moved into Rosa Burgos' house for the week.  The seven female students shared three bedrooms upstairs, while Michael, Lucia, and Dr. Pullen all had bedrooms downstairs.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner before collapsing into our beds for the night.

The next morning we went right to work, heading out to a clinic for the morning.  Shortly after we got there, Dr. Pullen was summoned to go visit a family in the area.  She took Lilly with her since it was related to public health and Lilly is getting the dual DPT/MPH degree.  We watched them head out, then through the window, we suddenly realized they were getting into a car!  They looked a little unsure before they got in as well - clearly they were not expecting a car ride.  We realized then that it might be seven students and just one PT for the rest of the morning.  We were given two spaces in which to work, so Lucia took four people upstairs with her while three of us muddled along as a team downstairs.  Michael, Lindsay, and I together managed to evaluate seven patients that morning, as best I can tell from the notes I have.  One patient was referred to see a doctor, while we sent the others home with exercise programs.  Their complaints ranged from wrist, shoulder, knee, and ankle pain to neck problems and hand tremors.  Dominican Spanish is very hard to understand - they drop a lot of consonants, slur a bit, and speak VERY fast, so the three of us pooled our bits of understanding to piece together each patient's story.

clockwise from top: street view from the clinic; babies are common motorcycle passengers;
when school let out, the street was no longer for cars; the sign on the clinic

We returned to Rosa's for lunch, then went to the hospital for a tour in the afternoon.  We were introduced to a few important-looking people and shown all the different wards in the hospital.  Unfortunately, I understood a lot more from the signs on the doors than I did from the spoken descriptions!  That evening we took a trip to La Sirena.  It's a huge department store, sort of a Dominican version of Super Target with a greater emphasis on groceries.

clockwise from top: sunset from rosa's roof; hospital main entrance;
walking through la sirena; lilly with the public health vehicle - an ambulance

The next morning we went to a different clinic.  This time we split into two groups of four students - one group went out in the community with Dr. Pullen while the rest of us stayed in the clinic with Lucia to treat patients.  We saw a total of 9 patients that morning, treating seven of them for various conditions including leg pain, old fractures, and  chronic stroke.  After lunch back at Rosa's we went out into the community again where we delivered a few of the donated canes we brought with us to patients we had seen in the morning.  After those deliveries were done, we had a tour of the facility next to the hospital, a private clinic with an extensive therapy setup including pediatrics, occupational therapy, and speech therapy as well as a huge selection of modalities including electrical stimulation, ultrasound, and whirlpool treatments.

tuesday morning's clinic including lindsay and meg working with a patient,
a random photo of lilly, and the middle picture is rosa's house with the minibus

tuesday afternoon - delivering canes in the community
and another young motorcycle passenger

Wednesday saw us off to another clinic.  We split into the same two groups and the four of us who worked in the clinic Tuesday went out into the community.  We were able to visit four homes, walking up and down steep rocky dirt roads to get there - highlighting the helplessness of these patients who were almost completely homebound due to their location.  Conditions we saw included severe birth defects, old motorcycle injuries, a stroke, and the results of a head injury at 6 months.

visiting the community of las hermanas mirabal (formerly alto manhattan)

In the afternoon, we had been asked to perform screenings at the private clinic we had visited the day before for children to determine whether they needed physical, occupational, or speech therapy.  Since the screening day had been planned before they ever knew we would be there, and we as students would be able to do nothing but watch, our professor vetoed that idea and instead directed us to el Museo de las Hermanas Mirabal.  I'm not going to go into the history, but here is a link to the Wikipedia page on the Mirabal sisters.  Suffice to say it was very interesting, and inspired to me to buy and read the book In the Time of the Butterflies as soon as I got home.  We also visited the "Peace Park" near the museum.  It was filled with lots of signs with messages and artwork promoting peace.

wednesday afternoon.  group shot - front row: rosana, angela, lucia, me
back: lilly, lindsay, caroline, michael, holly, meg, our guide, carmen, dr. pullen, rosa

Thursday morning we were expecting to go to the hospital to watch Dr. Pullen give a lecture to nursing students.  We were confused because we were leaving at 8 and the lecture wasn't till 11.  When we were dropped off at the hospital's outpatient clinic, we learned we were treating a bunch of patients first!  Had we known that, we would have brought along our supplies.  As it was, we made do with what we had and saw 20 patients between us, and made it to the lecture late.

caroline, lindsay, and i tend to get carsick - we took the front row seat daily in the minibus
rosa's parrot lulu made funny noises sometimes, and could get out of her cage! 

That afternoon we had some downtime so there were some workouts including yoga and Pilates.  Rosa's granddaughter Keylin was adorable as she joined it, mimicking as best she could.  That night, Manuel, one of our bus drivers, took most of the crew (everyone under 30 chose to go) out dancing.  I heard it was a lot of fun, but painfully loud so I'm glad I chose not to go.

keylin doing pilates with lilly; meg and michael yoga posing; and girls ready to dance

Friday we were taken to Playa Grande, an incredibly beautiful beach on the northern coast of the island.  We spent a wonderfully relaxing day lying in the sun, playing in the water, and eating delicious food.

there was a rare halo around the sun that day

Saturday morning we headed back to Santo Domingo for our flights home.  We had a fulfilling four days serving needy people in San Francisco de Macoris, followed by a day to recover on the beach.  I think it's fair to say most of us were still processing the experience for weeks afterward.

this was crazy - we were stuck in traffic and there were vendors between lanes,
they just sort of leaned sideways to allow motorcycles to pass them

three quick weeks

I got back from Las Vegas on a Friday, and Saturday went in to school for part of the first year class' makeup from the previous week's snow days.  They also had class all day Friday to make up the class time.  Preceptors were needed to help with the EKG Challenge, where the students competed in teams to see who could correctly identify EKG rhythms the fastest using this website: Six second ECG Simulator.  When my class did this challenge two years ago, I was one of the faster people, but there was one even faster on my team so I didn't participate in the final challenge between the top performers on each team.  It was fun to watch as a spectator/ proctor this year instead of being focused on participating.

That night I joined my friend Lauren (from Graduate Christian Fellowship) at Winter Jam, a Christian music festival/ concert.  For $10 we got to see 10 bands, a visual/ performance artist, a speaker, and Nik Wallenda, a daredevil tightrope walker.  It was held in the Georgia Dome, and Nik Wallenda walked a wire set across the width of the building, with no harness or net.  I'd guess he was at least 60 feet above the floor.

winter jam concert at the georgia dome

nik wallenda tightrope walking across the dome

lauren and me

On Monday I got caught up with work answering admissions emails and then spent four hours in lab with the first year class.  I had been watching the weather forecast and suspected we were going to have another "Snowpocalyse."  After climbing at Emory's wall, I checked my email and found out that Emory was indeed going to close the next day as a preemptive strike on the weather.  Unfortunately, that turned out to be a rain day instead of a snow day - the university and the city could have easily functioned as they normally do in a downpour.  Since there was no ice on the roads, I got together with my climbing friend Anika and her roommate Julie and went to watch the Disney movie Frozen.  It was very good, fun to watch.

there's going to be a new muppet movie (trailer); oscar nominated short
"get a horse!" precedes the movie; main show

Wednesday a couple inches of ice pellets fell, making a legitimate snow day.  The University remained closed Thursday to allow the roads to melt and dry out, so it was essentially a repeat of the time lost two weeks earlier.  I stuck around my house, bored.  I baked cookies, wrote a couple of blog posts, cleaned my house, did laundry, prepped a short presentation for the first year General Medical Conditions class, and still managed to go stir crazy!  I went for a walk around the block, but it just wasn't enough.  When Friday rolled around, I had my presentation to give followed by another lab for the first years to make up for time lost due to snow days.  The lab lasted till nearly 6 pm - they had several extra hours of class that day in lieu of coming in on Saturday to make up the time.  That night, I went climbing at Wall Crawlers with their cheap Friday night student rate - it was SO good to get out and do something active!

walking through the puddles

frozen pink dogwood buds

anika, marius, david, tiffany, and me at wall crawlers

The next week was busy, with work, a seminar/ open house for the Emory Physical Therapy Neurologic and Orthopedic Residency programs, a lunch meeting for the Dominican Republic team where we spoke ZERO Spanish while we attempted to iron out a lot of details, my one consistent 2-hour class, community group for Passion City Church, a 3.5 hour research meeting to make up time lost from the snow days, my first climbing wall shift of the year because snow days cancelled two of them and I missed one while in Las Vegas, Graduate Christian Fellowship, and serving lunch at the Emory International Coffee Hour (a weekly gathering for international students).  In addition to all of those activities, I helped out with 15 hours of labs with the first year class, including their first simulation labs, where the students perform evaluations and treatments on mannequins.  Friday evening I covered my friend's shift at the Emory climbing wall and afterward headed to Wall Crawlers - it's a great way to finish the week!

That Sunday was my classmate Lara's baby shower.  Most of the guests were from our class, we had a good time celebrating the rapidly approaching birth of her baby girl, due any time now.

elizabeth, angela, lara, me, and tyler

The last week before heading to the Dominican Republic was even busier, including dinner with my friends Laura and Debbie from Veritas church which I attended 2011-2012, sharing with the first years about clinicals and how to succeed in their upcoming first clinical, our final Dominican Republic planning meeting, a trip to Embraced Atlanta with my classmate Angela to pick up donated medical equipment to bring to the DR, work, coordination with my classmate Christine on getting all our ducks in a row to take the PT board exam for California, a shift and a half at the Emory climbing wall, my regular Tuesday class, and another 3.5 hour research meeting.  Thursday, February 27 was "Shine a Light on Slavery Day" from the End It Movement - I joined thousands of people across the world with a red "X" on my hand to spark questions.  The goal was to promote awareness of the prevalence (or even existence) of human trafficking and slavery today.   I ended up fielding questions at work in the PT office as well as in lab with the first year class.  As a preceptor, I put in around 20 hours of scheduled time that week plus an additional 2 hours helping a student practice for her practical.  8 of those hours were on Friday during their first OSCE practical  exams - where they go into a small room with an actor/ patient and there are two cameras recording the interaction.  That day was interrupted with two meetings to set up access to the admissions email so I could answer emails the following week from the DR since my supervisor was going to also be out of the country, but without internet access.  I ended Friday by heading to Wall Crawlers again.

enditmovement.com

Saturday was the last chance to get all my things packed - including an extra bag for medical supplies Angela and I had picked up at Embraced Atlanta.  I went over and compared space available in my CR-V versus my classmate Lindsay's newer CR-V and decided the larger storage capacity of my older vehicle would be ideal to get four of us to the airport the next morning.  I made a last minute trip to Target to pick up a few items, and then attempted to get some sleep!

snowpocalypse/ snowmageddon/ hothlanta/ atlantarctica 2014 and then some...

At least two inches of snow fell, which isn't much at all in Tahoe or in any city that is used to snow, but Atlanta is (even after a similar debacle in 2011) not prepared to handle it.  I spent Tuesday afternoon after Emory shut down in expectation of the snow and a few hours the next day walking around with Anika and a couple of other undergrads since the school was closed.  We took photos of the snow and were people-watching - it's fun to watch the reactions of people from different places to the snow.  Atlanta is beautiful with a blanket of snow, just close to nonfunctional.  Unfortunately, Emory closed on Thursday also, despite the fact that most roads were completely dry again, so that put me way behind on work, since the next interview day was Friday.  By Thursday evening, I was going stir-crazy, so I invited a bunch of friends from Graduate Christian Fellowship to come hang out.  That was a good few hours of "friend time" before the next day's hectic start, complete with snacks, hot chocolate and tea, and music.

just the beginning of the crowds gathering to take the shuttles

group of east indians in a snowball fight tuesday afternoon

i'm so thankful i didn't have to be part of that traffic!!

this bench is even nicer with snow on it

"sledding" on grass with a little snow in lullwater estate

me, anika, and rachel at the downstream end of candler lake

funny little snowmen

my street wednesday morning, it really was very slick

school of medicine wednesday mid-morning

Friday was the second and final interview day.  I arrived just before 7 am to find the plaza in Woodruff Health Sciences Center Administration Building (WHSCAB) empty and the lights off - not a single table or a single chair in the space that was supposed to serve breakfast and receive 100 applicants plus about 100 guests, faculty, staff, and current students.  I was about to head over to the PT office to help bring supplies when the first applicant showed up, looking understandably confused.  After I reassured her she was in the right place, and the interview was indeed happening, I texted Monica, my supervisor, to let her know I was there and would remain there until others arrived.  In the meantime, breakfast arrived with Emory Catering.  I discovered a long table downstairs by the WHSCAB auditorium entrance and dragged it up the stairs to give them something on which to set up - the catering folks had to do some rearranging since they usually used two tables, but they made it work admirably.

Monica arrived with loads of paperwork and her three sons, who were still out of school due to the weather.  She had answered many emails the previous two days from applicants concerned about travel and whether the interview would actually take place.  Her three sons (two high school age, one elementary) dove in with a will and helped me collate the papers and assemble informational folders in time to get them to each interviewee before the day officially began.  I set student volunteers assembling name tags - they were then able to pass them out as interviewees arrived, handing out the folders as we completed them.

Chairs and tables arrived after the morning's activities were well under way, including giving my part of a presentation on our research project.  The research presentations were given on the previous interview day as well.  I came back to WHSCAB plaza to help set up the tables so it was ready before lunchtime when the interviewees were brought back by their tour guides.  I did my lunch order and delivery run like the previous interview day with a little less running around - I brought a cart this time and was able to deliver in one long trip rather than four short ones.  In the afternoon I filled in for a bit answering questions at a poster for Service Learning, which is an important part of Emory's DPT program.  I was finally able to leave at 5:30.  96 of the 100 interviewees made it, despite delays, cancelled flights, and other problems.

One thing that we also managed to get done during the day was an Indiegogo crowdfunding page for the Service Learning trips we will be taking.  8 of us are going to the Dominican Republic during the first week of March, and a group of 14 will head to Jamaica the following week.  Two of the students going to the Dominican Republic will head straight to Jamaica.  The campaign is only on through February 14, and we are hoping to raise as much money as we can to defray costs associated with the trips.  We have met our official goal, but that goal is only a small portion of the costs of the trips.  For more information and if you're interested in donating to help us lend a hand in the Caribbean, here's the link: http://igg.me/p/665024.

I was pretty exhausted by the time I got home that evening, but knew that I'd be spending the next day travelling to Las Vegas and probably not getting a whole lot of exercise aside from walking for the next week, so I joined a group to climb at Wall Crawlers for their $6 student night.  It was good to climb, especially since the Emory wall had been closed along with the rest of the university Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (meaning I still haven't gone back to work yet, as I am scheduled for Wednesdays).  Once I got back home, I still had to pack for the upcoming week.

I woke up early the next morning to get a ride to the airport, and off I went to Las Vegas, Nevada for the APTA CSM (American Physical Therapy Association's Combined Sections Meeting) - the biggest convention of the year for Physical Therapists.

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...

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