Leave the Path

On a whim, Emre and I went to Eno River Park yesterday. It’s only about 30 minutes from our home, and it’s really a travesty that we didn’t make it earlier.

The weather was perfect. We passed children swimming in their clothes on the first part of the trails, but as we moved farther from the parking areas, we were practically alone.

The trails meander a few miles over hills and along a lazy river. The Eno river is broad and shallow in places and deep and rocky in others. It was invitingly cool – green and blues, glinting with golden flecks of sunlight.

All around us we witnessed wildlife. Yellow Painted Lady butterflies flitted across the path in front of us. Beaver-chewed stumps poked up into our trail. Lizards dodged our footsteps on the rocks. Wildflowers flourished, including some that I did not recognize.

Emre took this great shot of a Five Line Skink. Apparently they only have blue tails in their youth. Most of the year the adults are brown and light striped, but turn this brilliant red-orange for their mating season.

We walked quietly and paused to follow the rustling of creatures moving in the underbrush. Some of the creatures we saw, and some of them slithered away to stealthily.

[Look for the snake in this photo. Hint: follow a diagonal line from the lower left corner.]

We paused for a while on a smooth table of rock jutting out into the stream. Where the ledge of the rock dipped under the water, we could see dozens of brown snails and river clams. A pair of Canadian geese paddled by, turning up tail to eat whatever it is that grows on the bottom of shallow rivers. We sat for a long while, just watching the water flow over the rocks. I felt really happy, peaceful more so than I have in a long time. There’s a whole world beyond my own trials and concerns, and perhaps they’re less significant than I believe.

I had spring break last week and community week the week before that. It was really good to get a break from the exhausting routine of classes and tests that had filled the last 10 weeks. Seeing sick kids and visiting family always puts things in perspective. Liz visited for a few days right after classes ended. I’m always happy to see her, and I wasn’t expecting it so it was all the better. Then I did community week for a while and it was great, but very fast paced. I saw lots of great kids, but obviously didn’t take any pictures. I also learned a lot about the history of vaccinations and colors of baby poop. I guess doctors need to know these things.

At the beginning of spring break Emre and I went to my grandparents’ house for a while. We all fishing one day out on Baden Lake. Emre and I actually got up at 6:00 a.m. in mid-March to go sit in a boat on a lake.

It was pretty, but bitterly cold and windy. Notice the frost on the dock. We did catch some fish, but we headed in before lunch when we realized we had all started lost feeling in our hands. The highlight, in my opinion, was when Grandpa tried to swing a fish into the boat suspended from one of his 8-foot rods. A gust of wind hit it and it smacked me in the face. Due to my excessive protective gear, I didn’t even see it coming. I have never been so surprised in my life.

Emre and I also went to see my parents in Bessemer City. Their new house is really nice. My mother has put a lot of time into decorating it and now she’s working on the landscaping. My dad seems to like his new job. They seem really happy there. The town is also a far cry better than Roanoke Rapids. It’s actually smaller, but there seem to be more shops and more kinds of restaurants. It’s also really close to Gastonia and Charlotte, so whatever metropolitan treasures one would hope to find in North Carolina can be accessed within the hour.

While we were in town, my mother took us to a giant garden near Belmont. It inspired me to want to plant something. It is spring, after all.

There were lattices and flowering trees and fountains. The highlight in my opinion, however, was the topiaries that all sort of looked like unfinished dinosaurs. Seriously, what else could this be?

When we got back to town, I did lots of errands and then my brother Jon came to visit. We played board games and ate food with various friends, including Jason and Rachel and Abhineet. We also went to the Duke Lemur Center.

Ringtail lemurs smell really bad, for the record. The males do something called “stink fighting” whereby they rub a fluid from scent glands onto their tails and flick it at one another. How you would win at this contest is beyond me, but it keeps them from fighting. The other less-stinky lemurs were pretty neat and they were all pretty active when we visited. And it was good to spend some time with Jon. We only live two hours apart and I feel like I never see him.

In other news, we got more pictures of the baby. Volkan and Hanzade’s daughter Zeynep was born in January. Periodically we get updates and photos.

We gather that she’s healthy, growing, and clever. We can’t wait to go meet her. That’s just one of many reasons to go traveling again soon. We haven’t left NC since October and I’m feeling a little stir-crazy. My friend Stacey is in Belize at the moment, Grandma Mattie just got back from Hawaii, and many of my friends from school are going to exotic locals this summer. I’m a little jealous; we’re probably going to stick around here this year. Currently I want to go to Botswana. I’ve been reading the #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series of books. They’re fantastic and paint what seems to be a realistic portrait of what it’s like to live in the relatively peaceful and comfortable African nation. I know I won’t actually going any time soon, but it seems like a really interesting place. Maybe one day I can take my own pictures of giraffes and lions.

Friday night we went to the WXYC 80’s Dance. Every year it’s a big thing. Hundreds of people turn out in leg warmers and acid washed jeans to dance to Duran Duran and classic Madonna hits. We pretend it’s ironic, that we only dress like this because we know it’s ridiculous. But the truth is that it’s really very fun and, on some level, everybody there thinks they look good.

We had a little get together at the apartment beforehand to eat pizza and get ready. It was a small group, but I had a great time picking out outfits and reminiscing about the pop culture that shaped our collective childhood. I’d posted about this on the first years’ forum last week, hoping that some of the fantastic kids I’ve med at med school would come out. Someone else threw another, unrelated 80’s party the same night, though, so only Erica and Danielle came to the apartment, and Erica brought her friend Ben.  Since tickets for the WXYC thing sold out, they went to the other party instead of to the club. I hope they had fun, but it would have been awesome if more of the people I usually see in khakis could come moon walk in their glitter and glam. Maybe next time.

The Turks did come out in force. Bilgen wasn’t feeling well, so she only joined us for dinner and primping. Berk and Sarat, however, came out dancing and then for tea afterwards. (For the record, Berk has some really awesome Michael Jackson moves.)

Emre willingly decked out in authentic 80’s prep gear. I have a copy of the Official Preppy Handbook circa 1980, and Emre literally took a page from it. All he lacked was the tennis racquet and blow-dried hair. It was awesome. I wish he would dress like that every day. I couldn’t stop giggling.  (On a side note, the VW hatchback is listed as one of the top 5 prep-mobiles.)

Our friend Stacey came out as well. I don’t get to see her very often, especially since she started a new job lately and I’ve been studying or procrastinating all day most days. She was a really good sport about dressing up, though, and pulled off a perfect “mall rat” look. She met up with some other friends once we got to Cat’s. I don’t remember their names, but they seemed cool. They also had good costumes, so that got them bonus points in my book.

The five of us arrived at Cat’s Cradle a little before 11 and danced almost continuously until 1:30 or so, when things started to wind down. It’s always hot like a furnace from all of the dancing. I didn’t drink because I was driving and I must have had 5-6 cups of water to keep me going. I don’t understand why the drunk kids impersonating FlashDance moves don’t just collapse after the first couple of hours. The human body is truly amazing…

One of the cornerstones of the WXYC 80’s dance tradition is the costume contest. Emre, after a few beers, decided to join the contest as “Your Preppy Dad 1982” and was chosen as a finalist. He was hilarious in that he looked the part exactly and stood out as the golfer on the stage full of rock stars. His goofy moonwalk dance earned lots of applause, but unfortunately he didn’t win. It takes a lot of chutzpah to get up on stage in a silly costume in front of hundreds of people, so I was proud of him anyway.

When we finally came home in the wee hours of the morning, no one felt like sleeping, so we all stayed up for tea and chatting in our living room. I remember talking about forest fires and global warming. I love conversations that happen after midnight. One of the things that I miss about the dorms is that there just aren’t as many people around at weird hours. Maybe I should get to know the neighbors better.

So yah, the 80’s dance was a success, as per usual. As the first time that I’ve really “gone out” since orientation, it also got my thumbs up. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy dancing with Emre. The world needs more events that necessitate silly makeup and embroidered pants.

And, in memory of nights out in Grenoble with Fiona and Emre, here’s a little of the Croydon rudeboy dance. (Notice, if you will, that the guy at the door misread my drivers licencse and gave me the under-21 red stamp instead of alcohol-allowed blue.  I don’t know if I should be flattered or what.)

My fall break is a week from today. Emre and I recently bought tickets to go visit Liz in New York. I’m excited. Since returning from Turkey, we’ve not left NC and I’ve been itching to see more of the world. Not that NC’s been such a bad place to spend the end of the summer…

We did go to the grandparents’ place during July 4^th weekend. (It seems like ages ago now.) We had a fantastic time. Grandma made a feast, complete with homemade ice cream. July is a great season to be out in the country.

We watched the martins argue and the hummingbirds fence with their sword-beaks and the dragon fish lazily paddle around the pond. We also got to sample the bounty of the gardens, including fresh green beans and tomatoes, which always taste better at Grandpa’s. On a walk one evening, Jon and Emre even found a nest of baby birds in a mail box.

We visited Mom and Dad before school started, as well. Emre and I bought a new car – a silver GTI – and we took it to meet the old red GTIs my brother has. Jon and his little red cars and his psycho cat have since moved to the house on the hill behind Grandpa and Grandma’s so that he can go to school in their town. He also got an apprentice-type job with some tech people in a factory and he seems to like it. Mom and Dad are currently moving, too. Dad found a new job that’s half way between Dad’s mother and Mom’s parents. They’ve been really enthusiastic about trying something new and so far it seems to be working well.

A bunch of friends from Science and Math came to visit one weekend in August. Liz and Elizabeth were between a contra dancing festival and moving Liz into her apartment in NY. They stayed for just a couple of days, and it was awesome to see them again. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to play Settlers of Catan because I had to go study in my room. It was sad.

We also got a chance to look through old year books. There were whole chapters of the S+M saga that I’d forgotten. It’s always great to be around people who know who we used to be.

Since school started, I haven’t had as much time as I’d like. Med school is, well, not easy. I have classes every morning and some afternoons. Then I study an average of 3-4 hours a day on top of that. After all of that of studying, even really small things can be wildly amusing. For example, a silly drawing of a shark in an enzyme cascade.

So far we’ve been studying almost exclusively biochemistry. Two months of biochemistry, all day every day. I’ve done okay on the tests, so far, and I like my classmates. But our tests are on Mondays, so I spend every other weekend studying. I don’t feel like I’ve recovered adequately from the first and second tests, much less the third one. I’m really tired and burned out on pathways and vocabulary. The last exam will be 7 days from now, and I’ll finish it just in time to go hop on the plane. Did I say I’m excited about going on a trip? I’m excited about being done with the chemistry, as well.