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.

catching up

It's been almost two weeks since I posted! Last Tuesday was the first time I worked since the semester break. It was good to see Stephen, and really cool to note progress. It's so encouraging to see differences even over a very short time period. Since the first day I saw him, he's gone from being fed entirely by a caregiver to the point where I can hand him his fork with food on it and watch him put it in his mouth and drop it back on the plate or bowl of food. HUGE progress!

Last Thursday was my first exam of the semester. Physiology = NOT so good. The Tuesday morning lecture was the first time all the previous lectures started to gel and make sense. Since I worked Tuesday as soon as I got out of school, that left Wednesday afternoon and evening to learn all the material. Oh well. I'll catch up eventually.

Saturday (September 17) was the DPT Run for Research. The second year class put on a 5K and 10K race as a fundraiser. Our class had at least 10 people running and at least 10 volunteers. Here is our program director, Dr. Kapasi, running the 5K with his daughter:

Here are Martin and his girlfriend Erin after they ran the 5K:

The 10K women's winner came from our class - 2014. The mens 10K runner was from the 2013 class.

Tuesday I stayed late at school to study for our neuroscience exam (this morning) with a few friends. As we searched for an open room to use in the school of medicine, we went in a stairwell where we realized there's actually quite a nice view of the School of Medicine building even from inside it!

Since it was pitch black when we finished, I got a ride home with a friend. As we walked back to the parking deck, we were stopped in our tracks by a loud noise. We looked up at the parking deck and saw fireworks being shot off. That explained why those with parking passes had received an email requiring the top level of the parking deck to be cleared by 5pm! It was basically right over our heads, and was a full blown fireworks display, I think it went on for 30 minutes. I still am unclear as to the occasion for this. Homecoming is this weekend, but that doesn't explain Tuesday night fireworks.

Wednesday morning on the way to school I noticed a beautiful multi-colored maple leaf on the ground. THAT means that fall is on its way! I can now REALLY look forward to cooler weather for more than a couple days at a time.

white coat ceremony

Today was our "White Coat Ceremony" in which we were presented with - you guessed it - white coats! Here's the wikipedia link for an explanation of sorts: White coat ceremony. It's supposed to mark our transition from basic science to clinical study, however the program at Emory integrates the two from the first week of class. We filed into the pews in alphabetical order, followed by some opening remarks and a speaker. We were then robed in our white coats by Dr. Kapasi, our program director and anatomy teacher. After reciting the APTA code of ethics, we filed out again into the bright sunshine for a class picture.

Cousin Linda MacFadden was on hand for the ceremony. It was wonderful to see her, although she sadly had to leave immediately afterward.

Here's a group shot of the best dissection lab group, EVER.

Later, during the reception, Lara, Daniela, and I got a photo with the inimitable Dr. Kapasi.

holy tornado warning!

Labor Day weekend was relaxing for the most part. I swam Saturday morning - forgot my goggles, so just kicked 800 yards, actually. Sunday afternoon we played volleyball again. The weather was great, not too hot, overcast, and occasionally sprinkling. It was great timing, as it started to rain pretty hard as we drove away. Most of the group went out for dinner and then to Mackenzie and Anjali's apartment for a couple movies. It was pretty exciting to actually WANT to put on jeans for the first time since I moved here!

Monday I decided to be responsible and do my homework, especially since it was pouring rain for most of the day. I was sitting at my desk working away when I heard funny sounds. I realized they were coming from outside, then I got a text message on my phone: "A tornado warning has been issued for the Emory Campus. Seek shelter. Refer to local tv/ radio for updates." It turns out those were the on-campus warning sirens. Seriously, Emory? "Seek Shelter." Could they be any more vague? For those who have been through tornado warnings before, I'm sure it made perfect sense. For a West Coaster, I'd be much happier with an earthquake, thank you. I did the intelligent thing and posted my facebook status update as, "a tornado warning has been issued for the emory campus. what am i supposed to do with a tornado warning? i come from the west coast, i know what to do with an earthquake..." Although I got the expected silly responses from a bunch of friends, I also quickly got the correct answers. Not very helpful for my situation, but at least I know what to do now:
Stay on the lowest possible floor of a building, move to the center of the building, stay away from windows, get in the bathtub. Hmmm. I live in a one-story, two room little house with big skylights where the bathroom is at the tail end of the house and doesn't even HAVE a bathtub! And I'm under several large trees. Oh well. The situation is over.

Back to the homework. I was still trying to accomplish this when the power flickered a couple times and then went out briefly. It came back with no problems, except I no longer had internet access. My landlords were out of town, so I suspect they needed to push a button or something to restart the wireless. So this is the consequence of procrastination:

I had to drive to campus to use the on-campus wireless to finish my homework. Sigh. I guess my landlords are back because the internet has returned. Good thing - we actually have a lot of things that require access for classes and other school related activities.

The grapes keep coming, I'm now up to 4 classmates with whom I share them, and I still have plenty for myself!

a plethora of grapes

The grapes are ripening faster than I can eat them. And that's just the ones that DON'T get knocked down and chewed on by the critters of the night!

This is what I picked after playing volleyball today. Before volleyball, I had already picked two small bags and shared them with friends. I'm going to have happy friends tomorrow!

FULL BORE

We've been back in school for 3 days now - had 6 hours of physiology lecture, 4 hours of neuroscience lecture, and 6 hours of other lectures. Oh, and 2 hours of lab, too. INTENSE. Physio and neuro are coming at us at 100 miles an hour. For a couple classes, we didn't find out about required textbooks until the first day of class... but we're supposed to read before we come to lecture. My physiology textbook (all $150 worth of it!!) had an estimated arrival date of September 20 - thankfully it arrived today. Buying online is significantly cheaper than in the bookstore, but we then have to wait for the books to arrive.

I spent the rest of my break working and relaxing. I worked Tuesday through Friday evenings, and it's really amazing to see things Stephen learned in even that short amount of time. It's very intensive and very rewarding. The weekend was spent recuperating. I swam again on Saturday - the undergrads are definitely back. The pool deck was jam-packed, I got the last chair. If you look back to my August 19th post, you can see that I nearly had the place to myself. It was funny to realize the reason it seemed like a high school pool party to me - most of the kids around the pool were probably freshman and only a couple months out of high school, anyway!

Another way I can tell school's back in session for our class - we played volleyball yesterday afternoon. It felt good to get out and hit the ball again - it had only been a week and a half, but it felt like months.

In more fun and exciting news, my early Christmas present from my parents arrived yesterday! Hooray and THANK YOU for my new iPod Touch! The main reason I wanted one is because we sometimes get emails in the middle of the day relating to our classes or other on-campus activities. I don't have a smartphone and don't want to pay for a data plan. With free wireless on campus, the iPod Touch solves that problem. The first thing I did (after connecting to my home wireless) was to link my school email account to it.

This morning, I discovered another potentially VERY helpful feature. One of the free apps that comes on it is "Voice Memos." With this handy tool, I can record lectures. This may prove invaluable for both physiology and neuroscience.

This evening, our anatomy professor (and Program Director) Dr. Kapasi took us to see the Bodies exhibit at Atlantic Station. For those who have not seen a Bodies exhibit, it's a display of incredible dissections of the human body. These bodies have been preserved in such a way that they will "last a lifetime" according to the docent. It was fascinating to see much cleaner dissections than we had done, and cool to be able to identify almost everything we saw. You can read more about the exhibit on their official website here.