The first week of school has come and gone, along with our second Michigan football loss. Since football is so big in Michigan, I did get season tickets, and will be observing all of their losses from the stands, and hopefully some wins too.
The week started out bright and early in biostatistics class, at 8:00 am on Tuesday, where I found my buddies Steve and Krishna to hang out with. It turned out that attending class was fairly useless as a) we discussed ultra basic statistics, and b) we couldn't actually understand much of what our professor said because i) his mic was really quiet, and ii) he spoke with a very heavy accent. Honestly, I think the volume was the biggest of his issues.
After sitting through two hours of biostats, I remained in my same seat for an hour and a half epidemiology lecture by our Maltese professor, Dr. Sandro Galea. He is really awesome, and has a very weird Mediterranean-Canadian English accent. It's actually pretty cute, and the class will be pretty awesome.
After epid, we had an ice cream social, complete with Washtenaw Dairy ice cream and homemade treats: cookies, raspberry cheesecake bars, brownies, etc. It was a pretty sugary lunch. Post-lunch, I ran over to Steve&Barry's to grab a Michigan tee-shirt, since I had to borrow one from Kellie for the previous Saturday's football loss. I only had a sweatshirt.
Post-shopping, I ran to my health management and policy class, entitled "Issues in Public Health Genetics." It's a class mixed with second years, since our class has to take our genetics concentration classes out of order due to a professor being on sabbatical. But, a lot of my friends are in the course, including my favorite second year buddy, Katie, who taught me the ropes at Michigan back in March and swayed my decision-making.
After HMP, I met a new girl named Sam. I'll admit, she's pretty cool, plus she's in almost all of my classes. She's from NYC, and we've already decided to attend some of the Michigan gymnastics meets together. So, we bonded instantly.
Kellie, Krishna, and I went to the bookstore later to see what books we could buy and, by that time (something like 6:00), all I had eaten was sugar and junk food so I was famished!!! We stopped by Jimmy John's and Kell and I headed home.
So, that's pretty much how my Tuesdays and Thursdays are. Start class at 8, straight until 11:30, break for a couple of hours, then get done at 4:30 on Tuesdays and 6:00 on Thursdays. Though, Ashley and I found out that we can do our stats lab outside of the actual lab time, meaning that we don't actually have to attend our 5-6 pm lab on Thursdays, except for handing in homework.
My Mondays and Wednesdays are pretty awesome because I only have one class, from 1-2:30. It's called "Pathophysiology." Intense, yes. I'm not sure I understood much that the professor was talking about on the first day, since I've never before taken a biochemistry class. However, it sounds like I can still pass... Plus, it seems that it'll be a pretty interesting course, encompassing anatomy, physiology, psychology, biochemistry, etc... Lastly, the professor is incredible. He's this black man with a heavy British accent and an affection for good ice cream and classical music. So, he's my fave.
Fridays, are great because I only have class SOMETIMES, and only for an hour... and lunch is provided. It's the independent study course required for my department, and a lot of it is chatting about our capstone project, or watching presentations of second year students.
I did get a job though, to fill up any free time I may find. As I may have previously mentioned, I'm working for an OB/GYN who does research on stillbirth and perinatal deaths -- from how mothers view their care to mental illness and its potential effect on said deaths. It sounds quite interesting. I haven't even begun to get into it though. The coolest thing is that I had to get a new Michigan ID badge, allowing me around the hospital complex.
Outside of academics, I've formed a nice group of friends that's always expanding. On Thursday night, we had an epidemiology outing at this bar on South University called Mitch's. Afterward, a few of us wandered around South U for a while before attempting to find the bus back to Northwoods, since I had parked at Sam's.
Friday was Catherine's birthday, so a bunch of us went to Arbor Brewing Company for dinner to celebrate, then followed up with hanging out at Connor O'Neill's. I met some new people there, mostly from the HMP department.
Saturday was a tailgate at Krishna's, then an awful and embarrassing football game. After the game, a few of my friends and I grabbed some coffee together and hung out.
Then, today, I ran some errands and went to a departmental picnic, filled with veggie burgers, swinging, and gymnastics on the lawn with Sam (don't worry, Mom, I didn't sprain my ankle this time...).
One thing I've noticed about the people I'm meeting is that a) they still fit in boxes -- i.e. there are the people you can tell were the popular girls, the ones who are more geeky and introverted, etc., and b) the conversations and senses of humor (ranging from sarcastic to silly) are all really interesting. We all are here for the same thing, which means we have similar interests, so we can switch conversation from a topic like "movies" to "health" fairly quickly. But, we're also getting to the point to start trusting each other with more personal things. The evolution of friendship is interesting to watch and experience. Also, because we're all here from places around the globe, we bond, at least at a superficial level, fairly quickly. Despite seeing that people may still be in their socially constricting boxes, we step out of them and reach out to people who may have never been our friends ten years ago, because of different outlooks on life or whatnot.
So, tonight is Sunday, meaning that I should get some work done and do any catching up I may need. However, first, I'm setting my new printer up!
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