free at last!!

I am done with two semesters now - and these were supposed to be the hardest semesters of the program!  I finished my last final about an hour ago and am home finishing up laundry and packing my bag to get out of town.  My ride comes in about three and half hours, my flight leaves in about seven.  I can't wait to get back to California, for a month.  I'm excited to see family and friends, to read books for pleasure without guilt, to sleep without an exam hanging over me, and I could continue this list on for a while.

These past couple months have included walking to school in the dark and seeing the sunrise sometimes:

Walking home and watching the sunset - in this case with the moon in the upper left of the picture:

enjoying more little snatches of fall color - this in my front yard:

And having a chair collapse beneath me Monday night as I was sitting STILL (I HAVE A WITNESS) studying:

It was actually terrifying, a slow-motion fall with absolutely no control over what was happening.  I am thankful that I didn't hit the floor too hard because it was slow motion.  My back is sore but getting better and I hope the pain will continue to decrease.  I am now throwing out both this chair and one of the other chairs that has cracks in it so this doesn't happen to anyone else!  Thankfully, my other two chairs are pretty solid.

On that pleasant note, look forward to my next post being from and about CALIFORNIA!

thanksgiving! and the countdown...

I spent a very pleasant Thanksgiving with my mom's cousin and family.  Adam and Bernard took charge of an amazing turkey, mashed potatoes, chickpea salad, collard greens with smoked turkey wings, and Georgia shrimp.  Linda cooked up some delicious stuffing and sweet potatoes with marshmallows and pecans.  Rachel added some oven roasted asparagus and squash and I brought my homemade bread.  Top it off with pumpkin pie and Dutch apple pie and you have six happily stuffed people!

Traditional after-Thanksgiving family Christmas picture

Rachel and me

Linda and me

Dinner was followed by Monopoly which was followed by card games.

I went home the next day and pretty much straight to work.  Now I'm trying to catch up with all of my end-of-semester projects and it's probably time to start studying for finals.  BUT, the countdown is ON!  I will be flying back to California eleven days from now!

sweetwater creek state park

On Saturday, a small group headed out to Sweetwater Creek State park, about 15 miles due west from downtown Atlanta.  We were hoping to catch fall colors in their full glory, but realized before we left that it was probably a bit late - especially with the wind and rain we've had recently.

We took the Red Trail out along the creek and the Blue Trail back through the woods - the Red Trail is a mile to the waterfall, and we were somehow under the impression that it was supposed to be an easy trail, good for families.  The trail was actually quite rocky with lots of roots, several wooden staircases, and some seriously sloped areas.  The Blue Trail was a winding two miles, and quite pleasant.

Dan and Marie along the creek

"five-story ruins of the Civil War era New Manchester textile mill"

D, Lara, & me with Timber and Nika

the sun came out just as we were getting back to the parking lot.

These photos have been enhanced with Photoshop - it was pretty, but the colors had definitely begun to fade, and most of the leaves had already fallen.  Nevertheless, it was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon, and it was great to get out and take a short hike!

walking around the block

I know, it's been a while.  In the past few weeks I've survived 4 exams, worked a couple days, endured what seems like endless hours of physiology lecture (how's 10 hours in a week sound?), and ended up on an intramural basketball team.  I went climbing late (the wall is open from 4-8 pm) one Wednesday so I would finish just in time to watch our intramural basketball teams play their first games before I went home.  I watched the "A" team win by a huge margin, and somehow ended up on our "B" team in order to keep us from a forfeit - co-ed basketball teams MUST have at least 2 female players on the court to start the game, they only had one at the beginning of the game.  This is particularly funny since I haven't played basketball since 7th grade.  It's been fun, and I even scored a basket in each of the last two games - the first two games I avoided getting the ball on offense at all.

I slightly sprained my ankle in a game November 2, so I haven't been climbing or much else.  In order to get some exercise, I've been walking around the long block on which I live - it's about 5K, or 3.1 miles.  Here are some highlights from that stroll:

 Fall colors come out in small pockets.

 I just find this street name amusing.

 If you look closely, there's a plastic snake in the top of the shrub - Halloween decoration!

 Yes, this is really someone's mailbox!

 Another pocket of color.

And a pretty leaf.

I also went for a hike with some friends this past Saturday - that's a subject for another post.

so you think YOUR parents are cool?

On Saturday I got a "Click 'n Ship" confirmation email from the USPS telling me a package had been sent to me from my parents.  This is what I got today (minus one item that I will probably show in a later blog):

Yep, that's fresh fruit - Asian pears, a lemon, and some HUGE Fuyu persimmons.  Even better, they're picked right from the trees in their yard!  Other assorted goodies will keep me fat and happy until December when I get to go back to California.

I found a new favorite store in Atlanta - H Mart.  It's a Korean grocery store that stocks all variety of Asian foods (in addition to "American" staples).  I was able to get mung bean sprouts and Taiwanese basil to add to beef, pho seasoning, and rice noodles I had purchased earlier for my first attempt at pho. 

It was pretty tasty!  I had Sriracha hot sauce and it would've been nice to have plum sauce as well, but I forgot to look for that.

I also got a Daikon radish and some Korean cucumbers (who knew?  I just chose the cucumbers that looked the best size for my purposes) and made my own pickled veggies.  Yummy!

Walking to and from school every day, I see leaf prints on the sidewalks - two different kinds.  I can't think of having seen either kind anywhere else.  The first one is actually imprinted into the concrete - as if someone had pressed the leaf into the concrete after it had been textured but before it even began to set.

The other kind are more common.  I have no idea how they occur - it doesn't seem to necessarily follow a rainstorm, and it's definitely not every leaf that leaves a print.  Somehow the leaves put a brownish pigment down on the sidewalk.

Either way, they're pretty, and a nice distraction when I'm walking the same sidewalks every day.

Other randomness: 

This must've been quite a sight on the road, it already looked pretty funny parked in front of Costco!

tomato update and more

I've been trimming off the branches of my tomato plant as they start to look pathetic.  I neglected it for a couple weeks (since it hadn't been giving me fresh tomatoes!), and then chopped off a bunch of branches.

The unexpected result:

 The plant has a LOT of new growth - one stalk over 10" tall, 10-12 new flowers, and at least one tiny tomato that's over 1 cm diameter visible on the upper right.  The larger tomato that's beginning to turn red is the last of the "old" crop.  The last few tomatoes were rotting on the vine before they were all the way ripe.

And here is evidence that fall is really trying to be here:

I did NOT get to play tennis with my friend Aylin on Friday since the varsity team had all the courts booked on the main campus.  We had quite the on-campus adventures instead.  The end results - we logged quite a few miles walking back and forth and around campus, I have now had my first ride on the Emory Cliff Shuttle - only to have it break down on us, I have a locker in the School of Medicine in which I can keep stuff through next summer, I now own of a ping pong ball courtesy of the on-campus gym, and Aylin and I played ping pong in the School of Medicine instead of our planned tennis lesson.

Fall Break!

I had never heard of the concept of "Fall Break" before arriving at Emory, but I'm sure not complaining! We had 3 exams in the past 3 days, and I studied quite a bit leading up to them. This semester's coursework is definitely more difficult than last semester, largely due to the sheer quantity of information we are expected to know for each exam.

I think I might've slept 15 hours total for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. Last night I slept 11 hours - I pretty much passed out on my futon by 9 pm and only got up to brush my teeth and move to my bed.  I think that should allow my body to revitalize.

Today (besides enjoying the chance to sleep in) was a bit of a catch-up day.  I did two loads of laundry, sorted through a bunch of papers, went rock climbing with Daniela, and now am back home eating dinner.  It certainly is nice to think I still have 3 more days off!  I'm looking forward to attempting to play tennis tomorrow, and possibly some more rock climbing before the weekend's over.