The Great Week 8

This past week was another busy one. Luckily, my homework load was a little lighter this week thanks to the fact that I didn't have two exams on the same day. I did okay on Physics. I just need to be more conscientious next time about the multiple choice. I think my "cheat sheets" with equations on them also need some examples so I don't forget the process. I am actually glad that we have another test on Friday of Week 9 because then I get another chance to redeem myself. I have been doing pretty well in lab and on homework assignments thus far, so I'm not too worried about my grade. Botany went really well. I missed the top score in the class by one point! In lab, I only missed two points on the quiz. In addition, our group is almost done writing up our experiment. We just need to edit a few sections. Then, it will be ready to put on a poster board and present to the rest of the class in a little less than two weeks.

This week was an important one because I registered for my Spring Term classes. I had a little trouble when one of my classes had a time change and conflicted with another class, but I got everything sorted out, so now I am taking Physics, Anatomy, and Argument & Oral Advocacy--a kind of speech class featuring persuasive speaking, debate, and small-group discussion. I am looking forward to Spring Term, especially because of the large animal internship.

This week was also my first Vet Med Mentoring meeting as the secretary. Everything went off well. We practiced diagnosing a past case from the president's shadowing experience, which was really fun and good for our future work. We also read journal articles from the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) to see what's new in veterinary science. One of the most interesting articles was about a new sutureless procedure to repair blood vessels (it involves a special kind of glue and something like tape).

I did not end up going to that BBB social because I had a lot of homework to do and wanted to get to bed at a reasonable hour. I spent most of last week up past 11:00, which was not the best.

I'm making really good progress on my Molecular Genetics project. I finished all of my research for my independent question, and now I just need to put everything together in a poster. We will have poster defenses during Finals Week, so I will need to know my poster like the back of my hand as well as understand and remember all of the concepts we have discussed in lab this term. I have already finished the first draft of the Introduction section of my poster, which is an exciting accomplishment to me. I can tell that the finished product is really going to be quite the achievement and something that I will be very proud of.

This weekend was another movie-filled weekend. We watched The Help on Friday while eating Chipotle burritos and chips with salsa. Sadly, we also finished the first season of The Big Bang Theory. It's going to be a hard wait until we get the second season. Last night (Saturday), we watched Sliding Doors with Gwenyth Paltrow and Bottle Shock with Chris Pine, Bill Pullman, and Alan Rickman. The former was about a woman who finds out what her life would be like both if she caught the train and if she missed it. It takes place in London, which was awesome because I saw some very familiar sights (including the Westminster Tube station!). The latter movie was about the early days of Napa Valley when California wines were just beginning to rival those of France. Tonight, I intend on catching up with Glee and getting a long-overdue dose of QI. 

This afternoon, my good friend Heather and I went to the QCBC for the Chocolate Festival. Ticket prices were a bit steep, but we went because we both need points for BBB and because the funds go to keeping the QCBC open. We had so many delicious chocolate treats and treats of other kinds, including Whitey's ice cream, dark Italian roast coffee from Starbucks, cookies, shortbread, truffles, marshmallows, cake, and more! We even took home a small bag of chocolate-covered raisins and a small packet of chocolates from Fannie May, a chocolate vendor in East Davenport. Heather says we should take a bike ride there in the spring. I have been a couple of times with Mom and Dad, but I think Heather would like it.

In other news, I have already started a small "bucket list" for my remaining time at Augustana. It's amazing how much time I can spend here and still not see everything:
1. Visit Skybridge, a color-changing skyway in Davenport.
2. Visit Niabi Zoo in nearby Coal Valley
3. Take a daytrip to Le Claire, Iowa, a Mississippi River town not far from here
4. Eat at Ribco (the Rock Island Brewing Company, a popular weekend hangout for Augie students)
5. Visit the Putnam Museum, a local science museum
6. Visit the Figge Art Gallery, which I hear has a lot of cool pieces
7. Take a walk through the greenhouse on the fourth floor of the science building. What's in there, anyway?

That's about it for now. I'm sure I will add a lot more soon as I remember things that I still need to do.

This coming week should be a good one. We have open nominations for Circle K at our meeting on Tuesday. Heather is nominating me for Service Chair, and I will have my chance to persuade everyone to vote for me Week 1 of Spring Term (our next meeting after this week). I also have another Physics test, which I intend to be better than my last test. I am most looking forward to Tuesday, though. I hear tell that my very good friend Hannah will be back on campus that night for Intervarsity, and I'm trying to convince her to make a pit stop at Heimdall to see all of us. I really miss her, and I want to talk to her and ask her how everything is going and if she has figured everything out yet. I know she will be back on campus for the start of Spring Term in March, but that is still an awfully long way from now.

I hope that you all have had a good week and that this next week will  be just as good and perhaps even better. Cheers!

Studymania--Week 7

As the title indicates, this week was filled with lots of studying for two tests (Botany and Physics, both on Friday). I took my Botany lab quiz on Monday, which I think went very well. I felt confident about my answers. Our group for lab also just finished the first draft of our results and discussion sections of our experiments. We slaved over writing them for 3.5 hours on Sunday night (the day after my last post). I was not intending that we should spend so much time working on it, but I think it paid off, and the subsequent versions should be even better. I had my first Circle K meeting since being back on Tuesday. We ate cookies and talked about upcoming events, including Kiwanis Pancake Day. I have signed up to work the 6 AM-8:30 AM shift on a Saturday in early February. I think I might be crazy. But my good friend Heather Ohde will be there, too, so it should be a good time: she is crazier than I am!

Wednesday was a pretty important day for me because I met with my advisor, the amicable Dr. Good, to discuss Spring Term classes and the remaining three terms of my college career (gosh, it went by fast!). With Dr. Good's assistance, I will be doing a three-credit large animal internship (basically just glorified shadowing) in addition to Physics, Anatomy, and Public Speaking. I am excited to get deeper into large animal medicine because that is potentially my path as a future veterinarian. We also discussed the idea of my taking Winter Term off next year. I have enough credits to graduate in just two trimesters next year, and at first, I wanted to come to Augustana for Fall and Winter Terms and then be home for Spring Term. However, there are a couple of classes (Immunology and the ever-elusive Animal Behavior) that are only offered in the Spring, so he told me that I could leave for Winter Term (and be home from early November to early March) and then come back to finish the year off at Augustana. I really like the idea of this for several reasons. First of all, Winter Term gets really long and annoying because we have so many breaks. It's such a hassle trying to drum up rides to and from Minnesota. If I stay at home for Winter Term, I can celebrate all of the holidays with my family with none of the stress of traveling. In addition, I will have plenty of time to work and earn money (more even than if I took Spring Term off) which will be great for paying rent when I get back as well as saving some money for vet school. Thirdly, many vet schools have their interviews in January and February, so if I am lucky enough to get invited for an interview, I won't have to worry about missing school (as I would if I took classes during Winter Term). I would also FINALLY be able to take Animal Behavior. Let me explain. In high school, an Animal Behavior class was offered to upperclassmen when I was a freshman. I dreamed of one day being in their shoes and taking the class, especially since it involved interacting with actual animals like rats, turtles, and birds. However, the next year, I found out that the school would not be offering the class anymore. How disappointing! Well, I was super excited when I saw that Augustana has an Animal Behavior class. Most vet schools like to see students take all of those animal-intensive courses. I was going to take the class this year, but it has not been offered at all. It looks like I will have to wait  yet another year to take this class, which seems so interesting. If you didn't already know, Animal Behavior is something that I am toying with as a backup plan if I don't get into vet school (i.e., I would apply to graduate schools with Animal Behavior programs). As such, it would be extremely beneficial to me to get a small taste of it before I decide to make it my career. My other option is Animal Nutrition. Speaking of which, Purdue offers an online Animal Nutrition course that I am going to take this summer. I need it for a couple of the vet schools I am applying to. Again, it will be good for me to get an idea of what it is all about before I pursue a full degree in it. Anyway, I am very excited about all of these opportunities and possibilities.

Thursday was my first Vet  Med executive board meeting as the secretary. Our president, Lauren, outlined my duties so I know what is expected of me. We all talked about ways to get more people interested (especially upperclassmen, who could be good for advice for underclassmen) as well as activities we could do at meetings and trips we could take as a club (like to Niabi Zoo or the Scott County Kennel Club). I think that it will be a great experience for me to have some actual responsibility in one of the clubs of which I am a part. Heather told me that she is nominating me for Service Chair for Circle K next year. Nominations will be announced next meeting (Week 9) and elections will take place Week 1 of Spring Term. I hope I don't have too much competition and that if I do, I can persuade my peers to elect me because of my experience and my commitment to Circle K--I go to all the meetings and participate in numerous volunteer activities throughout the year. I'm a pretty organized person, so I think I would be good at the position--which requires keeping track of everyone's service hours, calculating totals to award Member of the Month and conduct the raffle (one ticket for each hour of service), and seeing which service activities get the most participants and total hours so we can decide which things to keep doing and which things no one likes. Not only that, but I get along really well with the rest of the executive board (especially Heather, one of the co-presidents).

In Molecular Genetics, we each had to come up with our own unique question to ask about Meiothermus ruber. I was nervous that the professor would tell me that my topic was not good and that I would have to find a new topic after spending so much time trying to pick the perfect one. Well, good news! She loves my topic. I am studying catalase (the enzyme that degrades hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen) in Meiothermus ruber and comparing it to catalase in Thermus thermophilus (a highly related organism). It turns out that Thermus thermophilus can be made to overproduce catalase, and I want to know if  Meiothermus ruber can be forced to do the same. Hydrogen peroxide degradation is important in many industries, including textiles and the dairy industry. It's good to have catalase from organisms like Meiothermus ruber and Thermus thermophilus because they are thermophiles--organisms that like it hot--so their proteins and enzymes can withstand the high temperatures that often accompany industrial processes. Anyway, my research will mainly involve the use of bioinformatics programs to compare the catalase gene sequences of Meiothermus ruber and Thermus thermophilus. If I can sufficiently conclude that the two are fairly similar, that will be good evidence that Meiothermus ruber can be used to produce large quantities of catalase, just like Thermus thermophilus. As you can see, I am very intrigued and excited by my topic. I look forward to sharing the results with you, especially when they end up in my final poster! I never thought my senior inquiry project would be like this. I thought it would be hard and unenjoyable, but I could not have been more wrong. I love Augustana for its classes like these. They make things that used to scare me--like my senior project--seem more manageable and not scary at all. Again, thanks for sticking it out while I explained everything. I just really like talking about it (ya know, that whole ownership thing again).

Friday was the day of truth. I took my Physics and Botany tests. Physics was, well, okay. I mean, I studied a lot and really felt like I got it, but even with my pretty detailed "cheat sheet," I still couldn't remember a few things that I needed to solve a couple of the problems. Luckily, I think the multiple choice section went better than it did last time, plus our professor awards partial credit, so I might not have done so badly after all. Botany went much better (both better than Physics and better than it went last time). I have few worries about my grade on that one. After the tests--which were a mite exhausting, mind you--I got the privilege of returning to the animal shelter! I was so excited to see my beloved FIV kitties again. But I was disappointed! We were not allowed in because there was apparently some potential problem that the vet wanted to investigate before the shelter could allow volunteers to socialize with the cats. I am afraid that one of the cats might be sick...I hope it isn't any of them! I love Thomas and Kringle, but I also love the rest of them a lot, too. A few of them have been pretty sick during their lifetimes (even big, strong, durable Thomas was very ill a couple of years ago), and they definitely don't need anymore of it. It was still a nice time, though. We played with the normal cats, which were pretty sociable until lunchtime. Then, they all devoured their food and went to sleep, hardly paying any notice to us. One of the nicer cats there is named Boomer. He is a very sweet boy of medium build with big grey patches on a white body and light green eyes. I have decided that he is my favorite normal cat because he likes to be pet and sit on laps, just like the FIV cats.

The past week has been exciting in a different way, too. Sarah just introduced me to the sitcom The Big Bang Theory about two physicists and the girl who moves into the apartment next to theirs. It is wildly funny and utterly addicting. I've watched half of the first season during the last week (last Saturday and last night). We also watched The Lion King last night, and we are planning on watching at least a couple more movies tonight. Hurray for mini Disney movie marathons with the roommates! Sarah and I also made tacos last night. Sarah asked me to chop vegetables, including tomatoes and "lettuce." When I first took the "lettuce" out of the fridge, I thought it felt a little...rubbery. When I took it out of the bag, my suspicions were confirmed: Sarah bought cabbage instead of lettuce! I didn't say anything until she realized it herself. Silly girl. She makes me laugh.

Still no sign of my lost camera cable, but I did manage to find my envelope of coupons, including a $5 gift certificate to Whitey's, the best ice cream in the Quad Cities and a veritable mecca for sweet-toothed college students. I may have to use that sometime soon...

The week ahead looks to be a good one (and thankfully, quieter than this past week has been). I register for my classes on Tuesday. Tuesday is also the BBB social (it was moved from this week to next week). Instead of Bill Nye the Science Guy, we will be watching Contagion, which is frankly more relevant to us (many of us are considering medical professions). We still get free pizza, though! I have another Vet Med meeting on Thursday, and it will be my first time monitoring attendance as the secretary. I'm sure all will go well. I think next weekend I will be going to a magic show on campus (I still need to ask my friends if they want to go) and the Chocolate Festival at the QCBC. It costs $10 to get in, but BBB is going for a social, and I get 2 points for going. Plus, it's basically a bunch of chocolate treats to eat! What's not to love?

Happy Winter (Finally)--Week 6

This week was a busy but rewarding first week back on campus after break. We got a pretty decent accumulation of snow Wednesday night and most of Thursday, but I was pretty okay with it because I got a chance to try out my new snow boots that Mom bought for me on our shopping trip last Saturday. It was a little inconvenient, though, because then we had all of this snow piled on our steps and no one to clear it except ourselves. I realize that this is part of becoming an independent adult, but when we are all college students with busy schedules, we don't have time to do things like shovel snow and sprinkle salt on our walkways (at least Augustana gave us two shovels and a bag of salt). Luckily, I had time to clear the steps and porch (front and back) on Friday after class (I was pretty proud of myself), so it wasn't a huge deal. Maybe I can convince my roommates to do it next time it snows that much. With this snow comes the feeling of finality. Winter is here to stay. I fear that this will be the snow that sticks until the thaw comes in March or April.

But on to more pressing matters. Like getting back into my classes. I was so glad for the break. I could tell right from the get-go on Monday that three weeks off had made a huge difference. I feel so much more relaxed right now; everything seems much more manageable, and I know I can do a good job on my assignments. Even though I was working, it appears that just being home and in the daily company of my family (and watching some great movies every night and taking a break from homework) really helped to recharge my mental power supply. I feel as good as new!

I found out that I got 90% on my last Botany quiz (the one I took just before break), so that was a nice surprise on Monday. We also took a field trip to the Quad City Botanical Center (QCBC) on Monday for Botany lab. It was a fun change of pace from regular lab, and we saw a lot of cool tropical plants in the Sun Garden. I even saw a small toad sitting next to a bamboo plant. As with most conservatories, there were a couple of koi fish ponds, and the fish looked excited to see us. I guess you can buy fish food in the gift shop, and the fish are used to being fed by visitors. Smart animals. I also enjoyed seeing all of the tropical flowers (like the orchids) and a banana tree with a big flower on it (I have never seen a banana flower before).

Tuesday was a pretty uneventful day (except for going grocery shopping and AT LAST getting another bag of yogurt pretzels), but Wednesday was a little more interesting. I met again with my SNT for our third meeting (which means that, technically, I have fulfilled my SNT requirement for being inducted into NSLS). I still need to go to three speaker broadcast events, but I'm sure I will complete those by the end of the year. Anyway, I really enjoyed our meeting. We have a new (male) group member, which is always fun, especially since so many things that I do are dominated by females. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I just appreciate a little testosterone here and there, as any female in her right mind does (or maybe not?).

Thursday I had another BBB meeting, and just before, I found out that I already have three points for this year (one for attending the week 3 meeting and two for doing the suturing seminar), which means that I only need nine more points for the year in order to remain a part of the organization. Five of those points will come from the five remaining meetings (including the Thursday meeting), and the other four will come from two events (we are having a Bill Nye the Science Guy viewing party on Tuesday next week as well as a trip to the Chocolate Festival at the QCBC on January 29th). I will probably end up doing more things than just that, but it is nice to know that I don't have to worry about losing my membership. On Thursday, I also went to Sorensen and the Community Engagement Center to pick up a prize. I entered my resume in a contest they were hosting and won! (So did 19 other students, but that's beside the point). My prize was a whopping $20 gift card to Target! Yippee! I frequent Target quite, well, frequently, so this will be a great thing to have. Thursday was a great day for two other reasons, too. First, Mom's package arrived, bearing my hat and scarf, which I dorkishly left at home. I guess I was so used to being there that it didn't feel like I needed to pack up and leave until Saturday, and then I was rushing to pack and forgot a few things. In addition, I learned in Molecular Genetics that we will be picking our own unique question to ask about Meiothermus ruber related to its genome and such (and we can only use bioinformatics programs). I found some good articles so far about Thermus thermophilus (a related organism) to use as a model, and I think that my options are feasible at this point. I'm thinking either of studying t-catalase (it degrades hydrogen peroxide) or thioredoxin (it helps proteins in the cell keep their shapes in high temperatures by promoting bonding between sulfur atoms). Both seem exciting and doable, and I'm looking forward to having something unique to do all on my own to incorporate into my final product. I'm ready to take ownership of this thing and see how I do. Oh, and my apologies if my language just now was too technical. You can ask me for a better explanation if you need one. But you're all smart people, so I don't  bet on that too much. ;)

Friday was a great ending to a pretty great week. I got into the Botany lab room for some much-needed study time. We have a lab quiz on Monday, and I didn't do so hot the last time. I think I was rushed in lab and didn't get a good look at the slides, so when I saw them on the quiz, I was unprepared. That and my lab partner is kind of a dork and wastes my time (he insists on sharing a microscope when there are plenty for everyone). But that's a whole 'nother story that I won't go into right now. Anyway, it was really great to have my own microscope and to take my time going through the labs and looking at slides to make sure that I can identify structures and such. Afterwards, I went back to our house and did some laundry and light cleaning. I felt much more organized. That night, I watched Holiday Inn with my roommates and ate pizza (not homemade this time). We took down our fake Christmas tree and had a semi-dance party, too. It was quite fun.

This afternoon (Saturday) I was a glutton for punishment and decided that as my outside activity for my Aerobics class, I would participate in Zumbathon. Zumbathon is a fundraiser put on my Dance Marathon. Entry costs $5 for two hours of Zumba madness, and let me tell you, those $5 go a long way, and I didn't regret spending them at all. Zumba is a kind of aerobics routine that combines moves and dance steps from many different kinds of dance, including hip-hop, pop, Latin, and Indian. We were moving nonstop for the full two hours. I took a break a few times to get a drink of water, but other than that, I kept going along with everyone else. It was basically a big dance party. I had so much fun. I even saw two girls that I know there, and we hung out for a bit before Zumba-ing and then picked spots next to each other in the group so that we would feel less awkward. Needless to say, I was pretty worn out when I was done, but it felt really good (both because of the money and because of the killer workout). I was glad that I did it because otherwise I would have sat on my butt all day and did homework (well, I would probably have gone for a run, but that would not have been nearly as intense or satisfying as Zumba).

This week looks to be an important one for sure. Like I mentioned earlier, I have a Botany lab quiz on Monday and then a Botany and Physics test on Friday (one right after the other like last time...lucky me). Tuesday is my first Circle K meeting of the calendar year (and my first since being back). Tuesday is also the Bill Nye BBB social and hopefully another successful run to the grocery store with my roommates (always a good time). Wednesday, I am meeting with my SNT group and having my advising meeting so I can arrange spring shadowing with a large animal vet in the area and try to figure out what to do about scheduling for my last three terms at Augustana (Spring Term, Fall Term 2012, and Winter Term 2012-2013...pretty freaky.)  Thursday and Friday look pretty calm. Hopefully, I'll get back to the animal shelter on Friday because I haven't been in about six weeks. I think I need some cuddle time with the FIV kitties.

Well, I hope you all had a good week. I'm looking forward to telling you about this week and seeing what new adventures I have to recount next time. Until then!

P.S. I am having a little trouble finding the cord that links my camera with the computer, so I can't upload my pictures at the moment. Hopefully I will find the cord (I hope I didn't leave that at home, too), and I will be back in business in no time. What is it with me and failing to produce pictures? I tell ya...

An Exotic Getaway--Winter Break 2011-2012

Everything has been pretty routine and uneventful here at home. I have enjoyed my break time. I leave Sunday to head back to Augie, but I want to record one very important Winter Break adventure before I dive again into my studies. I was very fortunate to be able to shadow an exotic vet on Wednesday (January 4th...happy New Year, by the way). The cool thing is that she was once a student at Augustana College! If I can accomplish my dream of becoming a veterinarian and then work in Minnesota, I won't be the first Augie grad to find employment as a vet in the Twin Cities. Her name is Dr. B. She was really a cool person. I admire her passion for her field and also her intelligence. I was privileged to be party to an appointment with a guinea pig and another appointment with a bearded dragon. They are both really cool animals that I don't see when I shadow with Dr. J. Dr. B taught me a lot about exotic animal medicine, informing me that these species tend to be more sensitive than dogs and cats and that it is important to learn how to treat them effectively because they often come into the clinic very sick (it's hard to get the husbandry right, even with an abundance of resources available to pet owners; as such, the owners often don't realize that their animals have any problems until those problems are far advanced). I did not see any surgery while I was there because as a city clinic, the hospital sees a lot of patients who were adopted from the Animal Humane Society and thus have already been spayed or neutered by the shelter vet. The majority of veterinary clinics' daily surgeries consist of routine procedures such as spays and neuters. Cedar Animal Hospital, like St. Francis Vet Clinic, has a clinic cat. Her name is Rosie, and it was hilarious to watch her reaction to all of the animals that came in. Cedar Animal Hospital is interesting because the animals are taken back into a treatment area behind the examination rooms, even for minor procedures like vaccination and blood draws (this differs a bit from St. Francis, where those procedures occur right in the owner's presence). Of course, the clinic understands if the client would prefer to remain with his or her pet, but the clinic has found that the animals behave a little better out of sight of their owners (kind of like the kids that mysteriously behave for every adult but their parents). I actually really like the set up because it allows the veterinarians to examine the charts of their patients out of sight of the owners (at St. Francis, the reception area is within sight of the area where the veterinarians receive their charts, so it might--to some people--look as though the vets were milling through the charts and deciding which cases they would prefer to take. Not so good for client relations.) This setup also seems to provide a relatively quiet working space for the veterinarians and vet techs, away from the hustle and bustle up front. I was also lucky to meet Dr. B's dogs, Lucy and Ginger. Both were very friendly. Most of my day was consumed with appointments for dogs and cats, but I was so glad that I got to see even a couple of exotic species. You will probably laugh at me, but now I think exotic medicine might be a great choice for me. However, I still like the idea of large animal or wildlife medicine, so I will keep my options open. Besides, I have a little bit of time (even in vet school) to decide which field I would rather prefer. I just like the idea of the variety that comes with treating exotic species.

Please enjoy these pictures from the hospital website (vcahospitals.com/cedar).

Rosie the Clinic Cat.

A front view of the clinic.

One of the examination rooms.

The reception area.

So, now I look forward to returning to school and starting fresh. It had been a tough four months before I went on break, but now I think I am recharged enough to refocus my efforts and really excel the way I expect myself to. Until next post!

Oh, There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays--Week 5

Wow, what a hectic week this was! That's the only explanation I can give for why this post is about a day or so overdue.

Tuesday was Sarah's Sankta Lucia performance. She read part of a holiday poem (in the original Swedish) called "Tomten" about a gnome observing the wintery scene outside his home. She read with a very nice accent and a very clear voice. She was definitely one of the better readers. She was all dressed up in a white robe and shiny silver wreath around her head. She said it was really itchy, but she looked like a Christmas angel! I got to meet her parents after the show, and they are both really nice. I'm glad that Sarah was able to introduce us.

Wednesday was the much-awaited suturing seminar. I actually wasn't half bad at it! Maybe I've just seen so much from watching surgeries at the St. Francis Vet Clinic that it was more or less second nature to me. Admittedly, I really only practiced a couple of really basic styles of suturing, but it gave me confidence that suturing is a skill that I will be able to learn and really get good at in veterinary school. I also opened my Christmas present from Sarah on Wednesday. She got me pretty much the coolest present I can think of: a necklace with a bird and a bow-and-arrow. Now, that might not seem remarkable to you, but I am a huge fan of the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. The bird and bow-and-arrow are very similar to the symbol on the front of the books. I won't go into a lot of details because you can all read up on it (and read the books!) yourselves, but suffice it to say that the necklace and the symbol has a lot of significance for the series. I got Sarah a hot pad...I felt like I got the better end of the bargain. Devon told both of us that she will try to send our gifts to us over break or, at the very least, bring them back to school with her when we are at Augie again in January.

Sorry about the bluriness. I took this picture with my cell phone. But compare to...

The mockingjay symbol (you'll have to read the books to really understand what a mockingjay is and why this symbol is so important in the books...)

Thursday was also pretty intense. I wanted to go to the Christmas convocation, but my Molecular Genetics class went a little bit over time, so I felt like I shouldn't go late and bother people. Besides, I felt better having extra time to do homework before proctoring. In the evening, I went to Lessons and Carols in Ascension Chapel. It was really nice and relaxing, a great way to wind down the week and get into the spirit of Christmas. I loved getting to sing some Christmas songs, including "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Silent Night" by candlelight. Nothing like fire and college students to make everything more interesting, right?

Friday after class I did a lot of the packing I needed to do for going home the next day. I was glad for all of the extra time that I wouldn't have had if I had left on Friday instead of Saturday.

And that was pretty much it for this week. As you probably know, right now I am chilling at home. Not too much has happened so far. I am working at Hidden Treasures over the break. It is a bit stressful and not really what I need right now, but I also really need the money. Besides, I am still having a fairly relaxing time at home watching movies and talking with my family even after I get home from work in the afternoons and evenings. I'm very fortunate to get both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off because the store will be closed.

On Wednesday, I was able to shadow Dr. J, the small animal vet who is married to my old AP Biology teacher. I watched three cat spays and a cat neuter and paid special attention to Dr. J's suturing techniques based on what I had learned in the suturing seminar. I think I understand a little bit better how to do a continuous suture after watching her. I was pleased to see that I really understood what she was doing when she did the basic stitch to close up the body cavity; I had done really similar stuff when I was practicing during the suturing seminar. I saw so many cute and friendly animals during my shadowing day (my boss is really nice and lets me take Wednesdays off for just this purpose). I was reunited with the clinic cat, Odie. He is toothless and clawless, but he is such a great cat! He loves attention, which I give him plenty of because I really don't seem him that often. He enjoys sleeping on my lap whenever Dr. J and I have down time, and I happen to be sitting at the table in the break room with an open lap and a book in my hands. I also got to play with six Cavalier King Charles puppies. I met a friendly FIV cat named Tuffy (why are they all so awesome? I think I'm going to adopt one someday). I also met a German short-hair pointer/lab mix named Cooper who is looking for a home. He came into the clinic with a mangled paw, and the man in charge of him said that he was going to be shot. However, the kind hearts at the clinic couldn't let such a terrible thing happen. Cooper is sweet  with beautiful brown, soulful eyes, but he also needs a lot of training. He's about two years old. One appointment that Dr. J had was with a man and his dog, who has bone cancer. The poor thing was surprisingly happy and calm. He didn't look too uncomfortable and was glad to meet me (he wanted me to keep patting his head and almost looked like he was going to jump up on me and lick my face). Perhaps my favorite animal, though, was a tiny pit bull puppy who came in wearing an adorable sleeveless sweater. Oh my gosh. He was the cutest thing ever.

As you can see, break is pretty busy for me so far. I am excited for everyone to open his or her gifts on Christmas because I really think I did well in the gift-buying department this year. I'm not sure when I will post next (I'm trying to keep this blog centered on my school and veterinary experiences and less on stuff that happens at home), so I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Someone on campus obviously has a sense of humor. Charlie Brown, anyone?

I thought it might be nice for you all to see the front of the house since you've already seen the inside. Home, sweet Heimdall!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas--Week 4

Hurray! The wonderful Christmas season is upon us, filled with lots of wonderful Christmas-y things to see and do! We had our first real snowfall on Tuesday morning. This is what it looked like at 7:30 AM and later at 4:30 PM. Not too impressive, but it was still exciting.

Early morning.

Early evening.

As always, my classes are going well but continue to keep me pretty busy. I was pleased that my research for Molecular Genetics is going according to plan and that I was one of the ten students (out of thirteen) who followed the protcol appropriately and got colonies of E. coli on my petri dishes! I am very excited because now I can test to see if I successfully cloned my gene. In Botany, we took our lab quiz on Monday, and I gave my Botany-in-the-News presentation on GM tomatoes. I think it went over pretty well. I was very proud of my poster, and I don't think anyone looked too bored while I was talking. Friday was my midterm in both Physics and Botany. They went a lot better than I was expecting. I can't wait to get them back in class tomorrow to see how I did!

Tuesday was the Circle K Christmas party. We had some pretty good food from Fazoli's. Their breadsticks are to die for! Then, we did our White Elephant gift exchange. Everyone was jealous of the girl who got my gift because I put (unwittingly) Ticonderoga pencils in the gift. I guess those are a pretty hot comodity! (I wouldn't know...I use only mechanical pencils.) I ended up with a pack of mints, which I suppose isn't such a bad thing. One girl got two full bars of Lindt chocolate! I was pretty jealous, but then again, it was only milk chocolate and white chocolate and not dark chocolate, so it was probably just as well that someone else a little less discriminating in her chocolate tastes got it instead of me. We did a mini service project, too, writing letters for soldiers who won't be home for Christmas (especially those who don't get a lot of mail, normally). I felt good giving my encouragement to a brave man or woman who has done so much for my freedom and our country.

Thursday was a pretty exciting day. I had another great day at work. I attending a Vet-Med Mentoring meeting, and I found out that the executive board will be selected based on statements written by the members about what position they would be best for and why. I wrote a statement applying for the position of secretary, and I think that it sounds pretty good. Hopefully the advisor for the group (Dr. Good, my academic advisor) will like my statement and pick me for secretary! I have wanted an executive board position for quite some time now. I thought that Circle K was going to have elections in the fall to fill the last remaining seat on the executive board (service co-chair), but they never did, so I never got my Circle K position. Heather (the president and one of my very good friends at Augustana) says that next year, she will remember to include me on the ballot (I didn't run because I'm not very good at self-promotion and didn't feel right nominating myself). Anyway, I am looking forward to submitting my secretary statement and having it reviewed so that when I come back from Winter Break, I will find out whether I made the executive board or not. Later in the day, Heather, three other girls, and I went to a small warehouse in Rock Island to sort bottles and cans for the Cans for Kids service campaign. The program takes refundable bottles and cans and uses the money to help pay for medical equipment to treat sick kids in the US (at least that's how I understand it). Whatever it's true purpose is, it has something to do with helping kids, which is cool. It was a little bit of a dirty job because some of the bottles and cans still had liquid in them and some of the bags had non-recyclable items in them, but it was still enjoyable once I got the hang of sorting (even though the warehouse wasn't the warmest place on Earth). We talked and listened to the radio, and the time passed pretty quickly. After I got home from volunteering, I finished up studying for my two finals and then watched White Christmas with Devon and Sarah because Devon had never seen it before (well, she had seen part of it before and the whole thing once when she was doing homework, but that doesn't really count). It was a blast. We put up our Christmas lights this week, and Sarah bought a fake Christmas tree from Target, so now our halls are definitely decked out for the holidays. We match everyone else on the street, too! It's a lovely sight to walk back from the library at night when everyone turns on their lights on our street.

Sorry it's sideways...you'll read more about why later...

I thought I was going to go to Kayla's this weekend for our big Lord of the Rings marathon, but we all decided that we had too much homework to do and that it would be better to have the sleepover in the spring when the weather will be better, we can all make it, and we are less busy. It didn't matter too much to me, though, because I found some other great things to occupy my weekend (I hate doing nothing but homework on my two days off from school per week). Friday was a great night. My friends and I went to see Augustana's student version of Last Comic Standing with musician Jason Lavasseur as the emcee and musical performer. Most of the students were pretty funny, especially the eventually winner Alex, a student from none other than Tuscon, Arizona. He made a lot of Arizona jokes, like how the sports teams stink and how he finds the Illinois weather pretty difficult to deal with. Jason Lavasseur was just great. He was so funny, and he has some great music. He even did a few covers ("Wonderwall," "With a Little Help from My Friends," and a sing-along of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?") and a couple of medleys that made us all laugh. I will definitely go see him again if he comes back to campus next year (which I think he will because I seem to remember hearing his name before, sometime during sophomore year). Anyway, I had a lot of fun, and it was so good to see my friends again.

I volunteered more on Saturday, ringing those iconic Salvation Army bells outside the Jewel-Osco in Moline with Heather. We had a great time. She left me alone for a few minutes while she went to drop off the two girls who were ringing bells before us. In the meantime, I greeted people who walked past me and said, "Have a good afternoon" to people who were walking out the doors. I got two donations while Heather was gone! We did even better as a team, though. We laughed and talked and when we got really bored and cold, we started singing Christmas songs. I'm sure it didn't sound that great, but we were having fun. One guy even came up to us and said he liked our singing. He put $1 in the bucket and told us that he had been looking for a place to cash his check all afternoon and that Jewel was the only place that would do it for him. By the time our two-hour shift was over (we went from 4-6 PM on a pretty chilly evening), we were half-frozen and couldn't feel our extremities. We hurried inside with the bucket and then did some grocery shopping because, well, wouldn't you? I mean, we were right there. However, I will not be shopping at Jewel again because their fresh produce looks disgusting and is way too overpriced for how it looks. Also, half gallons of milk are $.3.09 (they are a mere $2.39 at Hy-Vee, even for my favorite milk, Swiss Valley), while full gallons are only 30 cents more. Furthermore, they didn't have any yogurt pretzels! If you didn't know, I absolutely love yogurt pretzels. They are such a delicious snack. Hy-Vee sells a pretty sizable bag of them for about $2.99. Well, Jewel only has chocolate pretzels (not as good, surprisingly), white chocolate pretzels (close but still not delicious yogurt pretzels), and the weird-sounding strawberry pretzels. I was a little disappointed, but I only have five days until I am home again, so I will be able to pick some up from Cub or some other nearby grocery store before I head back to school at the beginning of January. Oh, man. I love Winter Break. I get three full weeks off from school, and I get to spend it all at home with my siblings and parents! In addition, all of my friends are home, too, which is rare given our extremely different school schedules (trimesters are so weird...). I will also get to work this Winter Break, which is great because I have basically no money. I'm looking forward to celebrating Christmas at home once again. I get pretty into the Christmas spirit here at school because of all the amazing events, but I really get excited once I go home because I actually have time to listen to Christmas music, watch Christmas movies with my family, and help Mom bake Christmas cookies. Hers are the best in the world! (Along with everything else she makes, of course.) My heart was warmed on Friday by a lovely card from Grandma and Grandpa Hart. It is now installed on my wall so I can look at it everyday and look forward to being home again.

I suppose I should take this opportunity to make a little confession: I am writing this blog from one of the computers in the library. I would rather not be here on a Sunday afternoon, but I have no choice. My poor computer caught a virus, and now it doesn't work...I tried to fix it myself, but I am not enough of a computer whiz for this one. Luckily, I only have one more school week before I can take it home to be fixed. I have already lasted about six days without it, so I think I can do five more. I just need to do a little more planning and spend a little more time in the library. Mom works with a couple of guys who are good with this sort of thing, so hopefully it can be fixed pretty rapidly so I can start using it again to do homework and such.

But, enough about all that depressing stuff. This last week before break is going to be great! Tuesday is a traditional Swedish meal in the College Center called a Julsmorgabord (it costs to get in, but it will be delicious) and right after is a free Christmas celebration called Sankta Lucia. Sarah is minoring in Swedish, so she will be a part of the celebration, singing part of a song in Swedish. I think she wants me and Devon to be there to support her, as she seems a little nervous about having to sing into a microphone. Most of the other attendees will be older people, so I think she might feel better if a couple of her peers (and peers she knows and trusts) come to see her. Wednesday is a suturing seminar sponsored by BBB and the Vet-Med Mentoring group. Two doctors are coming to campus to give a lecture about suture techniques and then will allow each participant to try his or her hand at it using his or her own set of materials. I've learned a little bit about suturing from Dr. J (the small animal vet that I shadow) and from the vets at the Leatherdale Equine Center at the University of Minnesota, but this will be my first real hands-on experience. Thursday is also going to be great. It's finally time for the Christmas Convocation, where I will hear Christmas music performed by a few student music groups and get to sing along with other attendees on a couple of tunes. Later in the day I am going to yoga because everyone in the Aerobic Dance class must attend at least one outside activity and write a short report on the experience. In the evening, I will go to Ascension Chapel for the Lessons and Carols I was telling you about last week. It should make for a wonderful last day before I leave Friday. Well, now you are all caught up on my life at Augustana. I hope you all have a fabulous week, and you'll probably hear from me next time when I am at home in good ol' Minneapolis, Minnesota.

My new door dec, which features one of my favorite foods in the whole wide world. :D

This Crazy Life--Weeks 2 and 3

Hello, everyone! Thank you for being patient, once again. I am a terrible blogger at Augie. My life here is so hectic, it's insane. But I absolutely love it. I wouldn't trade this for anything. I love my roommates. I love my room. I love my classes. I love everything about Augustana (except the dog food smell from the Purina One factory, but that's small potatoes). I will try to give you a succinct summary of all that has happened to me in the past two weeks.

Week 2:
A short week because we had Thanksgiving Break. It was fantastic! I turned 21, which was very exciting. I enjoyed a nice glass of red wine (a vino nobile, I think, from Italy--vintage 2001) with fasu mada for dinner. It was great seeing family members that I hadn't seen for awhile and getting to talk about London. It's strange because all of the students agree that it all kind of seems like a dream now. London has this magic pall about it that I didn't quite realize until I came back. We were all in a sort of trance during those 10 weeks. We all have what we call "London moments" now, and I love catching even small snippets of the British accent or really anything British because it reminds me of London. Anyway, my research class is still going really well. I love working in the lab and feeling like I'm doing "hard science." It gives me great satisfaction. Botany is still entertaining, but I worry about the professor because he likes to quiz us on really obscure things. I guess I will just have to pay extra-good attention to detail for future quizzes and tests. My aerobics class is still fun and challenging. Physics is going pretty well, too. I had my first lab on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I was a little disoriented because I was basically just ready to go, but my partner is really nice, and we get along well, so it made everything a little better and easier to take. While I was at home, I bought some nice Christmas gifts for my roommates and also assembled a White Elephant gift for the Circle K Christmas party on the 6th (just some magnets, a notepad, and some pencils). I won't tell you what I got for my roommates in case they somehow read this before I give them their gifts. I'd hate to ruin the surprise. During this week, I also finally went back to the Quad City Animal Welfare Center (QCAWC), where I was reunited with my best kitty friend Thomas. He was happy to see me, so it was very rewarding to know that he still loves me. I was so happy to be back and playing with all of the FIV cats again. It's a great way to de-stress after a hard week and also to get some good service hours for Circle K. I think I was still pretty jet-lagged this week, even though I didn't realize it, because everything was a lot harder than it should have been. Don't worry, though, I am feeling much better now and much more in control of my schoolwork and such.

Week 3:
Classes continued much the same as they did last week. One thing that I love about Molecular Genetics is that we get to make our own agarose gels to run our DNA samples on (called "gel electrophoresis"). We basically need to make sure that we are isolating the DNA as we should and that all of our experimental procedures are going as planned. Gel electrophoresis helps us visualize the DNA to see if we got our expected result. An electrical current is sent through this rectangular piece of gel with DNA embedded in it at the top (deposited in little wells or depressions). After about an hour, the DNA migrates through the gel and comes to a stop at a certain point. With special dyes and imaging techniques, we can see the bands made by the DNA and photograph them so that we can analyze them. It's a very rewarding part of lab work because we can see the consequences of our hard work. On Tuesday of Week 3, we had our Circle K meeting at nearby St. Ambrose University. We ate pizza with our fellow St. Ambrose CK-ers. It was very cool because I have never really interacted with students from other colleges in the area before. Wednesday evening was my first Success Networking Team (SNT) meeting for the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS). We basically get together and talk about our goals and the specific steps we will take to make progress toward those goals each week. An important part of the process is getting feedback from other students about how best to achieve our goals. I picked a good SNT because I know a lot of the people in the group, which helps me feel more comfortable both sharing my goals and giving advice to other people on their goals. Friday was so fun because my roommates and I made pizza from scratch, dough and everything! It took us SO long (about four hours), but it was so worth it. We made a deep-dish style pizza with the cheese on the bottom and the sauce on top (which I think is a Sicilian way of making pizza), and it was fantastic. Afterward, we watched Elf and The Cutting Edge while cutting out paper snowflakes. Devon is an amazing snowflake maker. She is so artistic. Mine turned out okay, but they were definitely not as nice as Devon's. Another exciting thing about this week was that I finally brought my beloved Fabio to school with me. No, Fabio is not an attractive Italian man, although that would be nice. Fabio is a bamboo plant (more specifically, the Lucky variety) that my grandmother gave me this summer. I left him at home while I was in London and then forgot to bring him back to school with me when I moved in. I remembered to take him back after Thanksgiving, though, so now he is happily installed on my desk. He looks taller already! I was a bit upset with myself this weekend because I didn't realize that the choirs and the bands here were doing Christmas at Augustana already. Christmas at Augustana is a wonderful holiday concert filled with all the old favorites (mostly the religious ones, but those are the best, anyway). Some of the songs even have a singalong portion so the audience can participate. By the time I realized that it was going on, it was too late; my weekend had already been planned out, and I really didn't feel like spending $10 on a ticket. It's no matter, though. This Thursday is Lessons and Carols in Ascension Chapel, which has a few Christmas hymns and the singing of "Silent Night" by candlelight. I think the Thursday of Week 5 is the lovely Christmas Convocation, a lighthearted midday gathering of students, staff, and faculty for some cute Christmas songs (more singalongs!) and performances by the Hand Bell Choir and other student musicians. And let's not forget the Christmas buffet Augustana rolls out in the College Center! Yes, Christmas is probably my favorite time of year at Augustana. I especially love all of the Christmas trees and decorations around campus and in the TLAs. We just put up our Christmas lights in our little front porch. Now we look festive!

Fabio! The camera loves you!

Fresh pizza toppings, cut by yours truly and Sarah (whose last name is Mattimiro--to kill with a look, a made-up but totally kick-butt surname, in my opinion).

 Today (Saturday the 3rd) was a very exciting day in its own right. I spent a good chunk of the morning and early afternoon at Petsmart helping out with Santa Claws. People bring their pets to the store to have their pictures taken with Santa, who is just a volunteer. The other volunteers do things like canvasing the store for potential customers, positioning the pets on Santa's lap, squeaking toys at the pets so that they look at the camera, taking the picture, printing the picture, and placing it into the frame for the owners to take home. It was quite fun because the dogs were all very friendly and adorable. I also loved just hanging out with the other students while we were waiting between customers. Probably my favorite part of the day was having a couple bring their pet pig Faith (a Micro pig) to have her picture taken with Santa. She was so precious and cute. I loved her little wet nose, which twitched in a very cute manner when she was smelling my hand and letting me pet her. She let out little grunts of contentment when she got to sit on Santa's lap (which was warm and soft) and protested adamantly when she was taken off said lap. Later, I went to see the free on-campus movie of the week with my friend Haley. The movie this week was Fright Night (the new one with Colin Ferrell and David Tennant). It was an okay movie. The DVD kind of freaked out on us about 10 minutes before the end because it was too scratched up, so I never found out how the story finished. All the same, it was nice to see Haley. That reminds me of Thursday afternoon, when I saw my friends Lauren and Elizabeth in Brew by the Slough (AKA Java, the on-campus cafe). Lauren gave me a big hug. It was so nice to see them and chat with them. They both seem to be doing well. I can't wait until next weekend, when we will all see each other again at Kayla's house for our big Lord of the Rings sleepover! The only one of my friends that I haven't seen yet is Amanda, which is too bad because she and I get along really well (I obviously get along well with all of my friends, but there are some that I just click with better than others, and Amanda is one of those friends). I'm not sure why, that's just how we are. But I will see her soon!

As far as tomorrow goes, I will be finishing up some homework items (studying for my Botany lab quiz, putting the final touches on my Botany lab presentation on GM tomatoes, reading my Physics textbook, and working on the bioinformatics portion of my research class) and hopefully meeting Lauren and Elizabeth in Java for some coffee and a chat. I will also hopefully go for a run in Pepsico. I totally should have gone today, but I really needed to work on homework because volunteering took up most of my morning.

A Micro pig (Faith was a little more mature-looking than this pig...I think this one is more of a baby). Photo courtesy of archive.blisstree.com.

This week is looking pretty exciting. The Circle K Christmas party is on Tuesday. I have another SNT meeting on Wednesday. My first payday is on Friday, as are my first two lecture exams (one for Botany and the other for Physics). I think that sleepover will be just the thing I need to relax and unwind after this week. No other news on housing for next year yet. We are still deciding what to do. I hope we can get this taken care of soon so that we can all have peace of mind in that area. Thanks for reading this long (and long-overdue) post. Have a great rest of the weekend, and you'll be hearing from me again in about a week!

"The purity of a person's heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals." ~ Anonymous (just some food for thought...)

Getting Settled--Week 1

Hello, faithful blog readers! Thank you for being patient during the week as you waited for this long-overdue post. I have been busier than I can explain these past five days. I started my new set of classes, all of which are challenging and exciting. I really love my professors. I thought that I wasn't going to enjoy Physics, but my professor is really cool and accessible. He makes class fun, and I can't believe how fast that class goes (and it's my first one of the day on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays). My Botany professor is really awesome. He is so enthusiastic, and I can tell that he is a highly motivated and intelligent individual. He makes ecology a pretty big focus of the class, which is a-okay with me because I think all of that is so interesting. That's part of the reason why I would really love to be a wildlife veterinarian. Jobs are limited, so it probably won't happen, but I think it would be so cool and rewarding. However, I am equally interested in large animal medicine, so either way, I won't feel like I'm compromising or selling myself short. Molecular Genetics is a very stressful class. I am doing research, and we have had two days in lab so far. Both days, I have had some problems and difficulties. Our professor told us that there is a "large learning curve" to all of this and that we should expect to be frustrated most of the time. Yippee. Yet I still enjoy the class. I like getting into the lab and feeling like I am doing real science. My Aerobics class has turned out to be more involved than I thought it was going to be. In addition to dancing, we will be taking quizzes and tests, filling out worksheets, doing other assignments (a month-long workout calendar, doing an athletic activity outside of class that has a leader), and eventually choreographing our own one-minute routine that we will teach to the class. I am a little nervous for that last one, but we went over all of the available steps on Wednesday, and I am already thinking of a handful that I really like and that are relatively easy for me to do. I'm glad that I have this required physical activity built into my schedule, otherwise I am afraid that I would not do it because the rest of my week is so jam-packed.

I haven't really seen any of my London friends yet (except for Haley). I'm trying to organize something for tomorrow night, maybe a group outing to the comedienne who is coming to campus. My friend Kayla, who lives in the area, wants to have the other six of us over to her house one night for a sleepover so we can watch The Lord of the Rings (probably the first movie or maybe a marathon of all three!). Lauren has never seen them, if you can believe that. I think that is so nice of Kayla to want to have us over to her home! She even said that her parents will feed us dinner!

It's been so nice being back on campus. I am lucky enough to have a class with my good friend Heather, who is also in Circle K with me. I went to my first Circle K meeting of the year on Tuesday, and I was so glad to be back with all of those familiar faces (plus some new freshman faces).

I also started my new job as an Organic Chemistry proctor. I will admit that I was a little fearful at first because I wasn't sure that I remembered enough about Orgo to really be a good proctor, but it turns out that it's really hard to forget how to do things in lab when you spend a full year on them. Plus, my two fellow proctors are really nice and helpful. In addition, I recognize a lot of the sophomores from last year; they were my General Chemistry students when I was a General Chemistry proctor. It's really nice because I don't have to do anything super scary or hard, and I feel like I am really helping the students. Most of the time, I just get to sit in a desk and do my homework. Hurray for paid study hall! Not only that, but the lab instructor is a different professor than I thought I was going to work for. His name is Dr. Narske, and he's this old teddy bear of a guy who probably shouldn't be teaching anymore. He is so hilarious.

On a different note, I really like my roommates. They are really nice and cool. I look forward to spending more time with them and getting to know them better in the weeks to come. At the same time, I have to get used to my new potential roommates for next year. I went to a housing and apartment fair on Wednesday night, and I found a group of four girls who are looking for a fifth roommate. Long story short, we are going to look at a couple of five-person houses with really affordable rents that aren't too far from campus on Sunday. I really hope this works out. I'm anxious to sign a lease and get this stressful stuff out of the way. That doesn't mean I will sign without thinking about it first, but we are kind of running out of time.

My weekend will probably consist of homework, exercising, and the other activities I mentioned before. In addition, I am working the BBB booth at Novemberfest (a fall celebration) on the Lower Quad tomorrow from 5-6 PM. If I haven't explained before, BBB is a biological honor society that promotes scholarship in the sciences and scientific research. We have meetings three times per term and plan activities and fundraisers related to the missions of the organization. Our booth will feature materials for people to make gingerbread houses, and in turn, we will tell them about BBB. It should be pretty fun, I think. Well, that's all for this week. Next week is a short week, as I will be leaving on Wednesday evening to drive back to Minnesota for Thanksgiving and my 21st birthday!

Move-In Day

Well, I am now all settled in my new residence at Augustana, Heimdall House. It is a lovely little house for three girls, and we each get our own bedroom. I absolutely love this arrangement. My roommates are really nice, and I can tell it's going to be a good rest of the year. It's been a tiring day. Mom and Dad drove me down, then we bought lunch at Hy-Vee (the local grocery store) and ate it at Heimdall before they took off. I unpacked my stuff all by myself and decorated/set up my room exactly to my liking. I'll probably turn in early tonight because tomorrow is going to be a very busy day. I am excited and nervous at the same time for a new term at Augie. I can't wait to see the people I have missed for six months and also to reconnect with my London Term friends (even though it's only been a few days). Enjoy these pictures of the house!

Our little backyard. I quite like the nice little flower bed and pine tree (I wonder if we're allowed to decorate it for Christmas?)

My room.

The dining room.

The living room.

Another sitting room off the porch and next to the living room.

A sitting room between the dining room and the kitchen.

Half of the kitchen.

The other half of the kitchen.