Minor League Baseball - Major Country Star

Oh how weary one can get! I decided to share some of my fun times from last week to keep from feeling so haggard. :)

The Durham Bulls stadium hosted the minor league baseball championship game! Exciting... but not why we sat in the pouring rain. And why did we? 

Because Scotty McCreery sang "take me out to the ball game" during the 7th inning!! 

For those of you who do not know Scotty, you should get to know him! He is a county music star from right here in North Carolina! He actually goes to school in Raleigh.

Also here are some pictures from the Blue Collar battle of the bands. It was at the American Tobacco campus in downtown Durham.

And lastly, I have come to terms that I would, in fact perish if I were to keep eating what I am eating. So here was my idea of a "green" lunch. :)

 

Warning: Flash Floods

 Flash flood warning last night for Durham and Orange Counties due to rainfall. Its a good thing I live in a third story apartment!

I am not sure what is going on along coast, but we have been having super heavy rainstorms that last all day. I guess it good to stay inside when you have homework. I never knew what homework was until I came here... My routine the past two weeks has felt a little bit like this: reading for a few hours in the morning, go to class for a few hours, go home and watch video lectures and do papers and projects, and then before I go to bed I will read for a few more hours to prepare for class the next day (that or go out and play hooky). On the weekends I work 12 hour shifts on both days and then come home and pass out. This week I have lived off of a solid diet of teddy grahams and nachos.  It was ironic that yesterday we had our abdominal assessment class, another classmate was pushing on my stomach and asked if I had any pain. :) 

Its time to start putting the rocks in my jar before the sand. But, this next month I cut back my hours at work and my classes start to back down on the work load. Overall I love it and am so happy! I am learning so much, meeting so many amazing people and am witnessing the love God has for me. The south is such a beautiful place inside and out. 

Maple View

Maple View is a dairy farm out in Hillsborough. If you cannot tell from the name, it is out in the sticks, but only a 25 minute drive from my apartment! Anyway, this dairy farm has a little ice cream shop with a wide front porch and rocking chairs that face the sunny horizon. :)

My classmate Kaci and I went out to get some fresh country air after a long pathophysiology class. 

Harris Teeter

We are having an ice cream social for the relief society sisters this week and I was given the task of buying the ice cream. I was asked by a passing Harris Teeter associate if I was okay. He may have asked this because I was standing with my face 2 inches from the frozen glass in front of the Bryers ice cream, just starring and squinting. "Yes sir" I replied, "but will you tell me what this sign means". The sign said " BUY TWO, GET THREE FREE". I thought I must be missing something! But no! Best deal ever! My cart ended up looking something like this. 10 half gallons of Bryers ice cream.

Thank you Harris Teeter!

D-U-K-E Rah!

This was the first Duke Football game of the year against Florida International University!

 For those of you who cannot read this sign, this part of the campus (where we were tailgating) is dedicated to our beloved basketball coach, Coach Kryzewski. You may have seen his as head coach of the US Olympic Basketball Team!

 Hmm, in the distance in this photo, you can see the large undergrad student reserved section where everyone is packed in and standing. In the foreground is in the grad student reserved seating where we are very spread out and all sitting down. 

The other main difference between the grad section and the undergrad was that our male fans were not all wearing shorty-shorts, sailor hats and shirtless. :) A complete anomaly.

Coach K came out onto the field at half time to say hello and the whole student section and marching band started bowing...  we have some serious admiration for our Coach K here!

Final Score 46 - 26, Blue Devils Win!!

So it begins

Waaa! It has finally started! I had my first week as a graduate student! Monday started out a little rough for sure. My car had broke down the Saturday before school started. But, I am a grad student and I had a plan!

MY EXPECTATION: Taking the Durham Transit bus to school, arriving early and being prepared...

REALITY: me sitting on the dirty curb, crying, listening by phone to the man at transit authority telling me that because of a mislabeled bus, I had missed my route and no other bus would be coming for 1 hour.

Thank goodness for good my wonderful friend Laura who came and picked me up from the dirty, Durham curbside and drove me to my first day of grad school. Talk about ways to keep yourself humble...

After "the incident", I had a magical week! It was exciting, intimidating, encouraging and completely overwhelming. :) Loved it! I cannot wait for the things that I will be learning. I thought that maybe I would have to wade through some fluff classes, but we are jumping right into things I would do in clinic every day. It is so practical and is taught by teachers who are not just preparing for lectures before class, but that are recognized nationally as experts in the subjects that they are teaching! Amazing!

Good idea/Bad idea

Here is a little game of good idea/bad idea:

GOOD IDEA: 

Getting free tickets from work for Laura, Jeanette and I to go to the first Duke home football game this season...

BAD IDEA:

 Going to the game the week before the game is actually played...

We still cheered anyway... :)

Then we went to discover Duke Gardens.

Laura telling us to look natural in the bamboo...

Catching my very first firefly and watching it glow in my hands!!

I love you all very much! Good luck to those of you starting school this week! :)