Leave the Path

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.