Wordless Wednesday

 These are some pictures of a mural I helped paint at a professor's lakehouse about a week and a half ago :)

 The theme was mother and child since he focuses on maternal and child reproductive health.

Indigo Girls

This past weekend was homecoming at Emory, something I never would have known except that someone mentioned it to me in passing. Not only am I not an Emory alum (yet) but being a grad student, I really have no idea what goes on in the main part of campus- I pretty much stay in the health quad.

So last week my friend Meghan mentioned that the Indigo Girls were playing a free concert for part of the homecoming festivities, and was I interested in going? I was like, heck yes! Free concert for a band I like but don't actually know too well, yes please.

So we heard the concert was starting at 3, and got there a few minutes before after grabbing lunch at a Greek place in town. There was a huge carnival like atmosphere with free food, beer, random stuff (squishy balls, key chains, pens, etc), lots of tables from the different schools and alumni groups, giant trampoline with harness, etc. An Emory band opened for the Indigo girls until a little after 4. They were pretty good, but it was HOT outside. I was like, would it disrespectful to pray for rain? But around when Indigo Girls started playing it clouded over a bit and there was a breeze, which was fantastic.

The concert was awesome. They played a lot of their newer stuff which I really liked, and several of their classics that were basically a sing-a-long with the audience. I like how comfortable they are with themselves. They weren't super dressed up on stage, didn't make a whole lot of nonsense smalltalk between songs when they were switching guitars.

I really enjoy their music as well. They have a rare harmony blend that is simple in some ways, but beautiful and sometimes haunting in unexpected ways. I also really like the lyrics to a lot of their songs- its one thing to write a catchy tune, and another to write poetic lyrics, but its much harder to make them work together. 'Power of Two' is a great song.

After they finished they did an encore of a song I didn't know and then 'Galileo'.

Part of the cool experience of the concert was listening to everyone around me sing a lot of the lyrics, sometimes even harmonies. There were times when the Indigo Girls were like, you guys sing this verse, and everyone did. It's cool to see such a loyal fanbase.

So in conclusion, an awesome concert, and I think I might get some of their newer music on itunes :)

I can't write things down

All of these interesting thoughts that could be posts float through my head and then I forget to write them down. I'm attempting an experiment this week to see if I can blog everyday, even if it's short. Joanna inspired me, what can I say? =)

I had a good conversation with my uncle Art tonight. Granted, I should have been doing homework, but this actually turned into a better than normal conversation that I'm glad I took the time for. Sometimes I can't wrap my brain around how much the world has changed in the last 75 years (arbitrary number, slightly younger than my uncle). To hear his stories of growing up in the rural south as the son of a minister and a teacher, moving a lot, not having a lot of money but making ends meet, milking cows and feeding chickens. It seems eons removed from my life today, growing up in suburbia. Yet I feel like it's part of my past too, and I want to learn more about it. I was intrigued a few weeks ago studying polio briefly in one of my classes, because my grandfather had polio, or a polio-like illness, in 1946. The doctors were baffled as to what it was, which makes me think that it wasn't polio (I'm pretty sure they could recognize it at that time). I tried looking up some of the generic symptoms my uncle was telling me about, but there's really no way I can figure out what it was without a medical record or interviewing someone that was there. But I know they had recently got sulfa drugs at that point, and then penicillin, which was life changing.

Maybe the fact that there are such drastic changes in the last several decades is one reason I love biographies and learning about people's lives- so many of them are so different from my own, simply because of when and where they lived. Sure, reading the biography of a president is informative, but I think reading Laura Ingalls Wilder is just as informative, because it tells how a whole generation of people lived, even if they weren't famous. I wish I could persuade lots of my relatives to write their memoirs simply to record how things were, how they grew up, what life was like in a different time. Famous is relative anyway. One reason I like to write things down is I wonder if in 60 years, my notes and commentary of how I am living today will shed light on now, whereas the future could be vastly different. I don't really thing I'm going to be famous and that people will what to know every detail of my childhood; rather I want to preserve this moment in time for the future.

Why do you blog?

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.

Grand Canyon, Part 7

Day 6 started a little earlier than normal as we were trying to get on the river by 7- I think we only missed it by like 10-15 minutes. This is a good picture of a duffel line, how we loaded and unloaded the boats each day.
An hour or so later (moving fast we were) we stopped at Matkatimiba to hike the canyon. Karma 4 took the upper route and I went the lower climbing route, our lols (little old ladys, they called themselves that!) decided to stay behind. I was proud of myself for getting through the lower route without needing any assistance except a final pull at the end (which Mark gave to everyone. Last time 6 years ago I had Christian pulling me up in a spot and Bruce shoving me from behind at the same time. Apparently although I’m heavier, I’m a little better at climbing).


At the top we walked around a little and then made a butt dam. This requires sitting cheek to cheek with hands stuffed between you, damming up the water behind us (small stream) for about 10-15 minutes. It was kind of hilarious. I commented to the guides that they weren’t joining us in the dam, and they were like, uh, we’re supervising. We all stood up at once and the water went Whoosh! And it was cool.
A few minutes later we headed back along the upper route.

Around 10:30am we got to Havasu and actually got to park at the mouth instead of in the rapid, so we didn’t have to disembark with our life jackets on.
We grabbed our sandwiches and hiked to the pools, maybe a ½ mile? (So says the guides. We learned to believe everything they said unless it involved hiking.) It took about a half an hour.
We plunked our stuff down at the pools and ate lunch, and then swam, napped, and frolicked. We had a good long time there, so after I ate I went through this passageway to farther up the canyon and talked with Art a little bit and took some pictures.

I found the rock we jumped off of last time and almost pulled a Randy trying to figure out how deep it was underneath, if I could still jump. Being that one of the boatmen knew what I was talking about and didn’t say not to, I figured it was ok, and eventually jumped- the current at Havasu is very strong. Another lizard! (There were LOTS)
We eventually went back to the pools where our group was and took some pictures and waded around.
The guides passed out in their favorite place up on a ledge as always.

We made our way back and then rafted for several hours, a good 25 miles with not much white water, through the Muav gorge. We saw a lot of sheep!
One of the reasons that the last day is so long, almost a fourth of the trip’s miles, is that there are almost no campsites in the gorge, so once you are in it, you have to keep going. Karma 4 and I were nodding off on the side boards sometimes, it was so warm and with the hum of the motor, it just makes you want to nap.

We hit lava falls mid-afternoon. It was a better ride than I remembered, and I got a few pictures of the other raft going through as well.
We got to ride the sidetubes backwards on the last rapid which is always fun :)

We camped below mile 185 rapid, very close to the helopad we were going to in the morning. The beach was very wide and shallow, you could walk out halfway into the river and the water wasn't even up to my knees. Before dinner, which was porkchops, the boatmen took the sidetubes off the rafts so they would go faster in the morning.
I watched Scott do it with the help of Frank Philpot and Brett, and so I kept offering to help Mark, who was trying to do it by himself (while Park cooked almost everything I think). He kept saying it was easier to do it by himself, but he did let me deflate the tubes, and then Mike helped him roll them while mom and Jan and I stood on them- this was a precarious situation with both of them leaning on me and me afraid we were all going to fall in the river and get hurt. But it worked out and Mark gave all of us beers for helping.

After dinner we gathered our chairs in a circle and got some instructions about the next day.
Our awesome guides, Parke, Scott, and Mark.

Then we had a talent show/sharing time. Lots of people shared how much they loved the canyon and the trip, Matthew sang a song, and Ross told his poem, the Philpotts both mentioned how much they missed Randy, and Jeffrey did some backvflips. Then another group camped about 1/2 mile from us came over (we had dropped ice to them in the morning) and did 2 funny skits/songs for us to say thanks for the ice- the guys were in hula skirts and wigs, it was really funny. The best part was the guides did a skit for us called Little Big Man, involving Parke pounding about 7 beers and getting splashed with 'rapids' (buckets of water from Scott and Brett) and cracking eggs on his head, with Mark as his arms. Parke said he just jumped in the river when he was done, and that the worst part was that the last beer was actually a root beer, which was gross to chug.

I hung out with Monica, Elizabeth, Brett, and a few others for a little while on the beach, not wanting the night to end. I eventually moved my sleeping bag to about three feet from the water's edge and stared at the stars for a while before drifting off. Around 3am I realized the water was closer (it went down as the sun went down, due to less water being let out of glen canyon dam, and then back up overnight) to my sleeping bag and had to move so I wouldn't be wet in the morning.

Morning came at about 4- we packed everything up, had a continental breakfast, and loaded the rafts to the helopad. It was less than a mile downstream. We were the first group there, before 7am. The guides watered down the helopad so we wouldn't get sand blasted, and then we waited for choppers. They took our weight and weighed the bags and assigned up helicopters, and our whole group was out in an hour-ish.
We flew to the Bar-T ranch and had about 2 hours to kill before our little plane would fly us back to Vegas. Showers! Flush Toilets! Clean Clothes! Air Conditioning! As much as I didn't want to leave the canyon, it was nice having these things back. After a hard goodbye to most of our group who flew back to Marble Canyon Lodge, Mom and I and the Karmas and Jan flew to Vegas, and then eventually back home at like 8am the next day.

The Grand Canyon is my favorite place in the entire world.

Here is my 2010 River Family.