Thankful Thursday, Snow prep edition

 Happy Thursday folks!

This week I'm thankful for: 

1. I was able to see a close family friend in the hospital last week. For a while it looked like circumstances were conspiring against us, but we made it work. Vague-booking on purpose.

2. I'm over my food poisoning. Holy crow, did I eat something last weekend that angered my tummy. Possible culprits were raw cookie dough (most likely), tacos (relatively unlikely, I've been to that taco place a bunch), or a burger (also unlikely because it was well done, but I've never eaten there before). I was down for the count Sunday through Tuesday, and only began to slightly feel normal yesterday. Let's... not do that again, eh?

3. Good books! I finished 'The Other Americans' by Laila Lalami and 'Becoming' by Michelle Obama this week and both were excellent. I've now started 'Castle in the Sky' by Diana Wynne Jones and its a fun read so far.

4. Incoming snow! I am so excited we might get some good snow this weekend. Less excited for the potential of ice, but we'll see what happens. I braved Costco today because I am insane, so I have yummy food for a while.

5. A successful work presentation on Wednesday. Sometimes presenting virtually over Teams can be bumpy, but I think this went well and we had a good discussion.

7 Quick Takes, pre-trip edition

I'm going to try and blog regularly again, starting with my work-trip to Lesotho and Malawi. Here's a life update before I (hopefully) flood the interwebs with pictures.

1. Job is still going really well, and I get to travel to visit my field teams in Lesotho and Malawi! I'm also getting to do more technical stuff using my public health background as well, so life is good.

2. Did I mention I fly out on Friday? My life is currently a giant to-do list of things that need to be done before I leave the country for 3 weeks.

3. The typhoid vaccine is no joke. It makes me feel cruddy every time I have to have it, which is unfortunately every 2-5 years. However, typhoid is also no joke, so I much rather 2 days of vaccine side effects that you know, actual typhoid.

4. I'm still finding it difficult to keep myself updated with world and especially US politics, and maintain my sanity.

5. I visited 11 embassies last weekend during the Passport DC embassy open house. Karen and Elizabeth and I combined managed to go to Nicaragua, Kazakhstan, Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Iraq, South Africa, Tunisia, and Brazil. I am now the proud owner of a huge brightly colored straw hat from Nicaragua and very tired feet.

6. I've discovered a website where I can play Dominion online. Cue geeky comments.

7. I've been slowly decluttering my apartment. It helped that my apartment complex wanted to see the floor of my closets a few weeks ago- nothing like dragging everything you own into your living room to motivate you to get rid of some stuff.

7 Quick Takes, aka a life update

1. My job is going really well. It's about a 45 minute commute, my co-workers are super nice, and the stuff I'm learning about international health projects is interesting. Win-win-win.

2. I'm not coughing anymore. Holy moly, did I catch a cold in the Grand Canyon. So I slept the weekend I returned, and was at about 75% energy for my first week of work, and slept a lot outside of work. But even when I felt fine again... I. was. still. coughing.
Oy. So almost a month later, I seem to have fully recovered. Coughing is the worst.

3. I went kayaking last week and I remembered how much I love being on the water. Bird pictures in the future, since I got some good ones of a green heron.

4. It finally feels like July. Don't get me wrong, I haven't been pining for 95 degrees and 100% humidity, but it was bound to come sometime. Thank goodness for AC.

5. I just finished an interesting historical fiction novel set in the early 60s in the rural midwest. It was sort of coming of age-ish, and then took a dark turn concerning race relations. "A Fireproof home for the bride." by Amy Scheibe. I recommend for those that like historical fiction. Trigger warning for sexual abuse and racial violence.

6. Speaking of racial violence. This week has been awful, between the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and the 5 police officers in Dallas. The result seems to be a lot of incensed people on social media. I'm hoping to find ways to be more involved in working for justice than just facebook conversations. #blacklivesmatter

7. I got to hang out with one of my childhood friends on Tuesday, who I haven't seen since before I left for Peace Corps. She and her husband are really fun, neat people, and their 6-year old is adorable and sweet. Old friends are the best. When they marry cool people, it's like bonus points. And being able to hang out with their kids is another level of amazing friendship.

7 Quick Takes

1.  I'm at the beach again.  I think this is the 5th time I've been at the beach this summer, albeit 2 of those times were only for a few hours each.  No tropical storms crashing the party as of yet.

2.  I'm going to Botswana in less than a month! 

3. It's kind of hard to pack for 2+ years when I really don't know what to expect there.  I'm stocking up on a few things I'm not sure I'll have access to there like quality shoes, and hoping I can find whatever else I need there.

4.  Mom and I have worked on sorting every cluttered room in the house.  None of them are completely junk free yet, but the crypt is 3/4 organized, the furnished part of the basement is about 2/3 organized, the garage is organized except for 2 shelves, and we cleared 2 desks in the office.  There is still a lot of junk to deal with, but we've made a LOT of progress!

5. I bought myself a netbook and am attempting to adjust to a smaller keyboard.  Here's to travel-sized electronics :)

6.  I think I'm also going to break down and get a kindle too.

7.  I'm in this country until 9/11/2012, so please give me a call/e-mail if you want to hang out before then!!

7 Quick Takes

1.  I really stink at time management.  Just saying.

2. I realized the other day that I read a lot of mommy blogs.  I'm not sure this is normal for a non-parent.

3. I really like having a dog around the house. Jana is fostering a sweet Great Pyrenees named Magic.

4. I'm a super light sleeper.  I kicked Magic out of my room the other night because she kept waking me up and licking herself.

5.  My great aunt Mrs. Henderson died yesterday, at the age of 101.  She was a sweet loving person and is in a much better place now.  I'll be going to her funeral this weekend and seeing a lot of extended family.

6.  I attempted an online workout routine and am super sore. 

7. Atlanta seems to think its spring already judging by the weather.  I'm not complaining.

7 Quick Takes

1.  My Christmas/winter break was pretty awesome.  I got to see a lot of people, play with a big goofy black lab, and help my mom start cleaning out our basement.  You might not think that last item is awesome, but trust me, it is.

2. I took a condensed class (read, 2 credits in 1 weeks, class 8:30am-5:30pm) last week and it was really interesting.  Also informtion overload, but still really cool- Environmental Microbiology: Control of Food and Waterborne Diseases.  Now I just need to finish the assignments for the class.

3. My mom is currently in Israel and my cousin is in Antarctica!  I am by far not the only globe trotter in my family.

4. I have this little thing called a thesis to write this semester.  It's more than a little intimidating.  I'm sure I'll blog about it more, because so far I have been very creative in finding ways to avoid working on it.

5.  I'm still applying for the Peace Corps.  I'm currently in the land of a thousand doctor's appointments, to be followed with probably more doctor's appointments, and then hopefully a placement.  So far I've been nominated for a health position- no shock there :)

6. I have recently read several books, and one of my goals is to blog about reading more.  But for now, titles will suffice:  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Ghost Map (for my class, but I already owned it), and 'We Swam the Grand Canyon: A cheap vacation that got a little out of hand'.
Currently reading: King Leopold's Ghost, The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation  Crisis, and Generations.  A lot of my Christmas loot was also books, so there's a lovely pile in the non-yet-started category too.

7. My new years resolution is 'To not let the perfect get in the way of the good'.  So, to not let my human imperfections stop me from trying things and doing them imperfectly.  This is for scheduling, dieting, writing, reading, and all other goals that I make and will probably screw up at some point.  Reading 300/365 days of the year is much better than 0/365 days, even though its not a perfect 365/365.  So we'll see how things go :)

7 Quick Takes

1.  It's been a really long time since I've blogged.  I keep thinking of all of these things to write about, but I never have time enough to write that 'perfect' entry I'm conceptualizing.  So one of my new goals is, in the words of The Frugal Girl, a blog I follow: "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good".  So here's to more imperfect blog entries.
2. Speaking of imperfect, I feel like something is wrong with the space key on my laptop.  So if there are two words run together give me some grace, I promise it's not that I failed 4th grade grammar.
3.  I'm just short of being halfway through this semester (yikes?), and it's awesome.  It's a lot of work, but I really like my classes.  Mental note to expand on those in another post. I'm not currently working, but debating a job or internship for next semester- we shall see.
4.  Um, I'm back from Ghana?  Maybe that should have been #1 on the list.  My summer in Ghana was awesome and although I only posted about half of what I wrote about the summer so far, another one of my goals is to rectify that in the future too.
5.  I forgot how much I like to write.  Somewhere an English class (or two or ten) scarred me from writing and it's taken me years to realize that I actually really enjoy writing.  It's another form of creativity for me.
6.  As I am writing this, I am swaying back and forth to the music stuck in my head, Michael Jackson's 'Beat It'.  I think listening to a big 80s weekend on the radio has lasting side effects.
7.  It's fall break!  Which means I didn't have class today, which is nice.  Fall break extends into tomorrow also, but since I don't have class on Tuesdays, today is the real break.  And since half of my classes are on Mondays, it's a real break indeed.  It's also following a rather insane 2 weeks, so it's much appreciated.  So far I've been to the zoo, the Stone Mountain laser show, church, and the grocery store.  And slept a lot.  I've also been cleaning, scrap booking, baking, and catching up on some neglected friendships.

I'm going to Ghana! and other random news

It's been forever since I've updated this- graduate school eats all of my free time and then some.
So...
7 Quick Takes:

1. I'm going to Ghana!  In 2 days!  For my practicum for grad school I'll be helping conduct a survey about baseline water and sanitation usage/access in a small fishing village outside of the capital, Accra.  Much more to come on this later.

2. I survived another semester of grad school.  This one seemed to be about 3x as much work as the first one, but it was great and I learned a lot.  And worked a lot.  Maybe I'll post on classes at some point.

3. I got back to Atlanta last night after spending a week and a half at home in MD.  Note to self: driving most of 11 hours on about 3.5 hours of sleep is not the best plan. Made it, but so very tired.

4. I have such good friends in many places.  I managed to drive up to Delaware to see Meghan, hang out with Matt and Babs in Gaithersburg, see a bunch of college friends at Julie's wedding, -be- at Julie's wedding!, and see lots of friends at church in Gaithersburg and Blacksburg.  Also got to see youth Sunday in Blacksburg and hang out with the Hunters over lunch.  Good times!

5. I got to see lots of my family too- Dad's side of the family came over for lunch last Friday, minus Stephanie and Arlene in California.  Kate was right, we should have tried to call or Skype them with everyone there. :)

6. My cousins are a lot of fun.  It was extra special to have Kate in town and we got to hang out a lot driving to and from Arlington and at our parents houses.  I'm an only child, but she's the closest thing I have to a big sister, and although I'm sure I get on her nerves like little sisters do sometimes, she's awesome.  Spending time with Charlie and Allison was also great (more cousins), including gallivanting around the Rio shopping center and making our own puppet show with the stuffed animal golf club covers.  Its the closest I've come to being kicked out of a store since college I think :)

7. It's weird being in Atlanta and not in school, and weird that I'm alone in my condo.  I know in a few days this won't even cross my mind, but the few days between visiting home and leaving for Ghana are this weird limbo of feeling like time is crawling yet having tons of things to do.

7 Quick Takes

1. There will be an epic story of losing and finding my car tonight, but I'll save that for tomorrow.
2. My classes look interesting for the semester, but a LOT of work.
3. I have no idea what I'm doing this summer for my practicum and its beginning to freak me out.
4. My roommate is completely amazing.  Will expand tomorrow.
5. Trivia is my new favorite hobby- go team Tuskegee!
6. It's really fun to road trip somewhere on 24 hours notice.
7. I sent my Christmas cards out this week.  They were only what, 4 weeks late? :)

7 Quick Takes

1. I’ve found a church that’s pretty awesome, and one reason is because it has a lot of young adults.  Don’t get me wrong, I love all ages, but it’s important to have friends that are in my stage of life as well.  I’m in a small group that meets once a week, and we have really good discussions.  We also laugh hysterically about a LOT of things, biblical and non, as well as carve pumpkins, snack on chocolate, and pack Operation Christmas child shoeboxes.  This group is a huge blessing in my life J

2. My mom is currently on a mission trip with my home-church to Tennessee to help with the areas that flooded so badly in Nashville.  She’s been on about 10 of these trips to New Orleans.  My mother is awesome!

3. The weather here is really nice.  It’s mild during the day and cold at night, which means that aside from needing lots of covers on my bed, it’s wonderful.  I think I also don’t realize that Thanksgiving is in two weeks because I associate it with much colder weather.

4. I’m going home for Thanksgiving!  If you will be in Maryland the week of thanksgiving, facebook or call me, we should hang out!

5. I still like my classes, but they are coming to that end of the semester crunch time where they take over my life.  I’m really only worried about our project for my global health class, but theres lots of work in others as well.  Less than a month of class left :O

6. I went to trivia sponsored by a student group at Rollins, the Emory Global Health Organization (EGHO), and it was really fun.  One of the groups was named ‘we are not global health’ and another was ‘proc freq all night long’.  Did you know that cholera is in its seventh pandemic?

7. I’m volunteering with Refugee Family Services in their afterschool program, and the kids are a blast.  We tutur, assist the teachers, and play with the kids.  On Monday a group from Georgia Tech came and donated several new soccer balls and goals, which led to utter pandemonium as about 14 different games happened at once on the blacktop- multiple games of soccer, catch, basketball, tag, Frisbee.   It was awesome to watch, and I’m surprised no one got a ball in the face.  Helping kids be happy is the best feeling ever. 

7 Quick Takes

7 quick takes: 
1. I think I need a tape-recorder for my brain.  I think of all of these good ideas for posts, and then I forget to actually write them.  Could someone please invent that for me? Thanks :) 
2. I survived my first round of mid-terms in Grad school, huzzah.  Of three tests, I did great on one and so-so on another, with another not returned.   For my 4^th class, I actually have received no grades yet even though I’ve turned in two papers.  So really no idea how I’m doing in that class.  But I still really like my classes, so all is well. 
3. I need to get on the ball in finding a job.  I’ve sort of neglected that, but I really should try to obtain some income :P 
4.I have to pick classes for next semester soon, and so I’ve chosen a concentration (infectious diseases) and have an appointment with my recently assigned advisor.  Here’s hoping I can figure out what I’m doing soon.
5. Mom came and visited me two weeks ago and it was a lot of fun!  We talked and ate a lot, went to the Greek festival, and hung out a lot between me trying to study for midterms.  There will be some pictures of the Greek festival at some point. 
6.  Over fall break I went and visited my aunt and uncle and cousin and sweet dog in Columbia for a long weekend.  It was nice and relaxing and fun to welcome my cousin home after he just completed the entire pacific crest trail.  I’m sure impressed!
7. Last weekend I went to my friend Katherine’s house Friday night and Saturday we hiked for several hours in the North Georgia mountains, on the approach trail to Springer mountain and the Appalachian trail (which said cousin also hiked all the way through in 2001).  Pictures coming soon of this as well.

Seven Quick Takes

Someday, there will be an actual post that's not in bullets. Someday. but until then... bullets! :D

- The shuttle system here and I are sort of fighting. On Tuesday, it just didn't show up for almost a 1/2 hour. So I wound up driving to class, being slightly late, and very angry. I called them later in the day and they are supposed to get back to me about what the heck happened. Yesterday I decided to walk home from campus and it took about 45 minutes... in the Georgia heat so I almost died :P

- I'm still trying to wrap my brain around epidemiology, but I love it. I'm still learning my way around case design and interpreting data, but its SO cool. And even though my case study class can be hard, I really really like it.

- I learned how to bake fish! And it only caught fire once. What actually caught fire was the butter that melted off of the fish, and that's because I was trying to broil it and it was a little close to the broiler. All I had to do was take it out of the oven and blow it out, and the fish was fine, the aluminum foil was black. Smoke detector didn't go off though, which makes me wonder what it will take to make it go off :P Also made me think I should get a fire extinguisher if I continue to experiment while cooking.

- Georgia might actually have seasons... shocking I know!! But it's getting cool at night which makes walking to the bus stop nice, and then we can prop the door open at night for a breeze.

- It might be a good idea if I let the rest of the world know where I lived. I keep meaning to e-mail my friends and family with an address update, and I need to get my drivers license switched too. Oops.

- The hardest thing about my degree right now is choosing between all of the different cool things I could do. There are like 400 different things that interest me and I need to narrow down experiences I want to get and classes to take. But EVERYTHING here is so freaking cool and interesting... what a great problem to have :D

- I own a suit now. I don't know if this means I've arrived or sold out. But I needed it for a job fair last week, so I officially own a suit.

Seven Quick Takes

1. Classes have started and they are fun so far! I have awesome professors (more on that below) and they seem really interesting. Most excited about a case study class I'm taking in infectious diseases, we basically focus on a case a week and figure out how to work up out-breaks :D

2. My roommate is pretty awesome. She's invited me to things, helped me figure out where to park on campus, texted me today about a really bad traffic back-up near campus so I could avoid it, etc. We've had some fun conversations around the condo too. Good times.

3. Not only am I in a world of fellow students that went to top schools as undergrads, I'm in a world of professors that are experts in their field. As in, been working in AIDS since it was discovered, or worked on AIDS in Africa for 20 years, or worked in Asia eradicating smallpox for 15 years, or head of the Emory-wide center for global safe water, or former head of the entire country of Mexico's program on AIDS. It's awesome and intimidating at the same time. Makes it harder to work up the nerve to talk to them after class as I try to find a part-time job and/or research opportunities.

4. My Garmin has been doing great helping me get around Atlanta. Until tonight. When I asked it to find a Target, it dropped me in a residential neighborhood in the woods. Wtf Garmin?! It was so random. And it was like 8:30pm so it was dark. Luckily I found my way out and was mostly laughing to myself, but seriously? I think this is the 2nd time my Garmin has tried to kill me. Last fall on the way back from Amy's wedding it told me to turn left at a light... into oblivion. There was no road there! Dark and in the rain didn't help. So although I like my Garmin, I'm not sure the word describing our relationship is trust.

5. I've attended Clairemont Presbyterian Church twice and I think I might join a small group. The people there seem really nice and down to earth, and I like how the service is very scripturally based and worshipful. And when the pastor says in her sermon, "And at this point we are wondering what David was smoking..." its a good church =)

6. I'm trying to figure out what to do over the long weekend. I want to go to Six Flags but obviously not by myself. Other ideas include finding places to hike, exploring bike trails, and scrap-booking. Oh, and of course watching the Hokies play on Monday =)

7. I met some cool people, including a lot of returned peace corps volenteers (RPCV)s and other masters international (MI) students like me, on Friday night. I went to cocktails at the Fernbank, or whatever the event is called. Basically for about $7 you get into the museum from 5-? with a cash bar and you can buy IMAX tickets too. There's something cool about sipping a cosmo under a dinosaur skeleton. Afterwards we went to a Mexican restaurant because the food at the museum was very expensive. But it was an interesting experience =)

Seven Quick Takes

Seven Quick Takes:

- I am moved. Last week my move went fantastically well, due a lot to Evan and Stuart and my mom who helped a LOT. Everything made it in one piece including me J

- I drove a 16 ft truck without hitting anything- for about 8 hours! The weekend before the move I went home, saw family and friends, and mom rode back with me. Then she drove my car while I drove the truck; driving a truck was enough out of my comfort-zone as it was, without adding a tow-hitch to the equation.

- Truck weigh stations really need better directions. I just followed what the trucks in front of me did, and assumed that since no one came running out of a building chasing me down, that I did it okay. But there were really no instructions other than don’t brake hard and go 30mph… no human beings even.

- I like my new place. I’m in a condo in Decatur (e-mail if you want my address) with a roommate, who is really nice and helpful. I have my own room which is bigger than my last room, and my own bathroom, which is nice. And, it has a walk-in closet that holds a –lot- of my stuff. This makes my room much less crowded and cluttered than in previous years :D

- It is ridiculously hot here. I’m walking about 10 minutes to a shuttle stop to get to campus, since I don’t want to pay $650 for a parking pass. When I got home this afternoon, I literally jumped into a cold shower to cool off. I might start a countdown to Christmas simply because I hope by then I can go outside without breaking a sweat. Que molleja de calor!!!

- I feel like I live in the city, but it’s actually suburbia I think. It’s so much more crowded and urban-ish than obviously Blacksburg, but Gaithersburg too.

- I sort of feel like I’m in the twilight zone. New state, city, home, school, field... and I know almost no one. I feel like I might wake up tomorrow back on Mountain Breeze Drive in Blacksburg, go to work in the chemistry department, and have dinner with Becca. I’m missing all of the above. Add to that a completely new field that I know almost nothing about, filled with fellow students that went to Harvard and Berkeley and well… its very very different. Nothing bad, just getting hit by a lot of water balloons from change.