It Snowed!

YAY!

I am glad it snowed, even though I was not nearly as productive today as I would have been if it did not snow. It is beautiful outside and it snowed basically all day long. I went over to Jessica and Sierra's apartment to "study." We took a nice study break around 2:15 and went to walk around the cemetery. We had a snowball fight and took lots of pictures. I made several snow angles. We attempted to sled down the hill at their apartment with Rubbermaid cartons/lids, and garbage bags. The latter worked somewhat well for Sierra, but not really for me. And we made SNOW CREAM! It was yummy!

I love playing in the snow because I feel like a kid again!

And I must say, it is much more majestic driving around and seeing snow in the mountains than it is in Wilmington, Greenville, or Raleigh, NC.


All of us having fun in the snow!

Make-shift "sledding."

Another attempt at "sledding." One of my snow angles.

Making snow cream.

Just something pretty to look at!

Juxtaposition

I just got back from The Lyric Theathre for a Juxtaposition concert with some friends. Juxtaposition is the all male acapella group at Virginia Tech. The group has a lot of fun with each other and their songs. It makes it extremely entertaining for the audience. I really enjoyed it, and it was a great way to end the week.

Pumpkin Goodness!

I am taking a quick study break to update on all things pumpkin!

I thought I wrote a post about going to the pumpkin patch, but I just realized that I never did. So... a few weekends ago I went to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins for pies. I went to the patch, instead of somewhere like Walmart, because I wanted to see what the selection was like and I wanted to take fun picutres. However, the pumpkin patch I went to had very little selection. It was so much smaller than Wesley's. On the other hand, it did have corn mazes and hay rides, etc. I had fun though, and took several pictures.

That evening, I scooped out all of the pumpkin guts and seeds, and cooked and scooped out the meat to prepare for making pumpkin goodies! I also made the seeds that night. It was a very busy evening! :)

(Unfortunately, I forgot to chronical my pumpkin making adventures with photographs.)

A few days later, I made pumpkin pie! Yummy! Jessica came over and make the crust because she said I was not allowed you use a store bought crust. Then we had a study session.

Soon, I plan on making more pie and some yummy pumpkin muffins.

Did I mention, I love all things pumpkin!

Week 6

Well, I put a lot more time into studying for the exam this past weekend, and there was improvement in several courses. However, there were still some courses that I did not do very well in, and one in particular that needs vast improvement. I have spent time this week talking to the professors in this course about advice for studying for their course. Hopefully, these techniques will prove successful on the next exam.

The block is half over. It is hard to believe that in a few weeks we will be having our White Coat Ceremony.

This weekend, Morgan came to visit!! :) It was great to have her here, but unfortunately it meant I did not get much studying done, and it would have been a great studying weekend. Oh well, I definitely needed friend time and I was great to spend it with Morgan!

We went to the movies, and to Jefferson National Forest and walked around the pond. We had plans to go to Roanoke, but we never went, it was a nasty, raining weekend, so we decided just to stay in Blacksburg instead. I did show her all of my "backyard" animals! :)

Weeks 4 and 5

Well, last week I found out that I did not do as well as I hoped on several of my first medical school exams. The first round is over, and tomorrow is the second round of exams. I have been studying almost non-stop since I got my grades back, hoping to do much better on these exams. Tomorrow is the Block 1 Pathology Final Exam, and we have five other exams. The good thing is....we are done by noon!!!

This weekend I studied a lot with Brittany. It was really good to have another human being in the room whlie studying. For the most part, we were very productive while together, though we did of course get off on some interesting tangents. Yesterday we went to Jefferson National Forest and studied outside for a little while. It was very nice to get out, and quite relaxing.

Today, I finished going through my notes around 5:15 P.M. and went out for a run through the pastures. I have no idea how far I went, but I turned around when I saw a hawk fly away with a very large mouse....at that point I figured I was too far out in the country for today, though it was absolutely beautiful! I even met Eeyore (or some of his family) while out on my run this evening!

It has been a very relaxing evening. I am glad to have the time to give my brain a rest before the exams tomorrow. I only pray that I have learned enough and do well on the exams.

Thank you Lord, for your beautiful, amazing creations in nature and the intricacies of life. The more I learn and the more I see, the more you become real to me!!

I cannot wait for Thursday, September 24! Morgan is coming to Blacksburg, and we are going to have tons of fun!!! I miss Morgan so much, I cannot wait to see her.

Tubing - One Last Day of Fun!

Today, I went to New Life Christian Fellowship, a church in downtown Blacksburg with Paul and Erin. It was a great service and the sermon was thought provoking. I really enjoyed it, but I think I want to go to a more traditional style church service.

This afternoon, I went tubing down the river with a bunch of fellow VCOMers at New River Junction. We had a good time riding along the slow paced river and banging into several rocks (the water was very shallow in areas). I think most of us got a few scratches or bruises, but for the most part we made it out in one piece. :)

There were a few very mild rapids which were fun to ride along, and at the end was a big rock where you could stop, climb, and jump off into a deep pool in the middle of the river. This was a nice area for swimming and relaxing, too. The hardest part was getting back across the river to get out at the road (the current was pretty strong at that point in the river).

Unfortunately, there are no pictures. I don't have a waterproof camera and it was too difficult to try to take it out there even in a waterproof bag. I have lots of good memories of things I wish I could have captured on camera!

I start medical school in the morning, so this is probably the last great adventure for a while. :(

More Fun!

I made it through orientation and met lots of great people. I think this is going to be a wonderful year. Wednesday evening, I went to Brittany's to run through the booklist and order some of the 18 books on the list. Yesterday, I went bowling with Jenie, Caroline, and Jo! We had fun trying to make a total combined score of 400, and finally on the third game, achieved this goal!

Disclaimer: I know I am a terrible bowler, but I have lots of fun doing it. I actually made a decent score, for me, on the second game, but have no picture to prove it. :)

Today, I went to Roanoke to the Science Museum because I saw that it was free! It is right in the middle of Roanoke City Market which is awesome, too. I had lots of fun acting like a child in the Science Museum, and then I walked around the City Market and saw lots of wonderful fresh veggies and neat crafts for sale. You could definitely spend a good part of the afternoon in Market Square.

In this area, there is also a History Museum and an Art Museum. I will definitely have to go back to check these out as well.

Cascade Falls

Today I went to Cascade Falls in Giles County, VA with a group of classmates. It was a great hike up to the waterfall, beautiful scenery the whole way. I have, however, decided that a 4 mile hike while still recovering from the flu, not yet acclimated to mountain air (having lived my whole life at sea level), and with bad knees and no knee braces, is NOT the best idea I have ever had. But we had a lot of fun, and I would definitely do it all over again.

Here are a few select images from the day:

The guys minus Caleb.

The beautiful waterfall at the end of the trail. (I couldn't figure out how to rotate this picture in blogger, suggestions?)

Another view...

Relaxing at the waterfall pool.

Unfortunately, my camera batteries died once we got to the waterfall, so I have no pictures of the adventurous hike back to the car in the rain.

Fun Around Town...

Today was a great day!

This morning, I went to get my VCOM Passport (a.k.a ID) made on Virginia Tech's campus. After this, I decided to take some time and walk around the campus to see if I could find the library and some other buildings that I might be utilizing during my time here at VCOM. Well, the map I had was horrible and unlabeled other than a select few buildings, but I was able to find my way around to the library, the drill field, and back to my car without backtracking at all. Praise God I inherited my dad's good sense of direction!

This afternoon, several of my future classmates and I ventured around downtown Blacksburg to the annual street festival "Steppin' Out." It was much larger than I had imagined and we had a lot of fun. There were about 12 of us. It was a great opportunity to get to know everyone and see some of the local arts and crafts, listen to musical talents, and get fresh air! We were highly entertained by the hulahoops and the booth with the wire figures (especially the renditions of different medical specialties). I think I am going to go back tomorrow and stop at a few more booths.

Then, this evening, we all went to VT campus for bowling and billiards. Tech has a great indoor recreation center in the student union! My high score in bowling was a magnificant 60!! - in spite of my semester long bowling class in undergrad - sorry coach.

Well, that was a very full day. I am almost done organizing my apartment and cannot wait until that is completed.

Four (4) more days until Orientation, nine (9) days until my FIRST DAY of MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!

New Apartment, New State, New Friends

I moved into my brand new apartment on Friday, July 31 with the help of my mom and dad. We, however, had an unexpected turn of events when I signed in with the apartment complex that afternoon. I was asked, "Did you know you are moving into a handicap apartment?" Of course I did not. I had my choice of units when I came in March/early April to find a place to live. The apartment complex had an entire, mostly unrented building that was not even completed. Once I decided on my preferred floor plan they told me which apartments I could pick from. I was not allowed to see this actual apartment at the time because the did not yet have the Certificate of Occupancy for that building and there were inspectors on the property that day. We had many conversations from that point on, both via phone and email. At no point was I told that this was going to be a handicap apartment. To make a long story short, the floor plan on this handicap apartment made it much smaller than what I was expecting and much too small for the furniture I had purchased. Thankfully, they were nice enough to work something out with us. And, I actually like the apartment I am in better than the one I thought I was getting, in some ways. I am now in a two-bedroom apartment, but they have closed off one of the bedrooms so that I can still pay the one-bedroom price.

Before my parents left, we arranged all of the furniture and unpacked most of the boxes. I do, however, still have some boxes to unload and a lot of organizing to do. Unfortunately, I have been sick with classic flu-like symptoms since moving up here. I am starting to get better, but still have respiratory symptoms. Not sure it was actually the flu, but I am glad to be getting better. I feel like I have missed out on many adventures my classmates have already taken, but tonight I was finally able to get together with some of them to meet and talk for a little while.

Tomorrow, I plan to finally finsh unpacking the last few boxes and organizing. Then, Friday or Saturday, I am going to Steppin' Out, Blacksburg's annual outdoor festival. This sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Hopefully, I will be able to do a lot and meet several more people over the next few days before orientation begins next Wednesday.