Living outside the mainland

Waqaa (Hello)!

It’s been longer in between emails than I’ve done in the past. I’m sure you’ve all been just dying for an update! ;)

Life has been good in Sitka, Alaska. More than anything though, life has been… well, life. I feel like Sitka is my home now. I know where everything is, the best spots for certain things, the names of mountains and trails and outlying islands, a large number of people, the nicknames for the island and tourists and fish, and the politics of the community. I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t go somewhere without seeing someone I know. The biggest reason I now feel like a local is because I’m staying the winter. Sitka clears out in the winter. Even the lifelong residents tend to leave for a month or two. Despite feeling like a local, I will never be one. The politics of Sitka only really count people as locals if they’re the third generation in Sitka. Of course this is an informal rule, but it holds pretty true. Little island communities are pretty exclusive. I’ll go with that as the big theme for my email – the community.

Little island communities are also very active locally. We have had so many events in town.

• · It started with the Running of the Boots – where everyone dresses in goofy outfits and Xtratuf boots and parades through town. This is the celebration of the last cruise ship coming in and the end of tourist season. After the “run”, there is a bunch of free food on the street and everyone hangs out on the main street. I felt a little like I was in the TV show Northern Exposure - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9CngpLaDDc.
• · Halloween is huge in Sitka. The main event is the Stardust Ball. Hundreds of community members dress up in costumes they’ve worked on all year long and come together for a ball. The ball consisted of a lip sync contest, a costume contest, and a dance to a band. The band that came was The Gourds. They sing that well-known adaptation of Gin and Juice (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4hGSR5njZE). The event was quite a spectacle. Our very own mayor was dressed up as Fidel Castro and my boss, the principal of the school, was the pope. Trick-or-treating is different in Sitka. The big trick-or-treat is in town. All of the businesses buy candy and the kids go there. There is no assigned time for residential trick-or-treating and not a lot of kids go around to houses.
• · Then we had Alaska Day. Alaska Day is celebrated throughout Alaska, but the main celebration is in Sitka. The governor comes (no, not Sarah Palin…) and everything. There is a HUGE parade – I felt like I was in a big city! It was awesome too… not like in the mainland where the parade is just a bunch of fire trucks and ambulances. There are a ton of other events including a recreation of Alaska being handed over from Russia to the U.S., musical performances, dance performances, dinners, and most notably the Alaska Day Ball. At the ball, everyone dresses up in old-fashioned regalia. They pull out all the stops. I went to see what the fuss was all about. I was one of maybe ten people not all dressed up. I felt like I was at a prom for mid-aged and senior citizens. It was a site to be seen. All weekend there are bagpipers that walk around town. They go in and out of bars and everyone dances and hoots and hollers. Why bagpipes? No one knows. Also walking around are the Keystone Kops. They give everyone big kisses in exchange for two dollars. They're dressed up in crazy clothes and walk all around town two weeks prior to Alaska Day.
• · Next we had WhaleFest. WhaleFest attracts visitors from all over the country and maybe even internationally. Marine scientists of sorts get together and give talks. All weekend there were lectures that somehow related to whales. There were also concerts and dinners and whale watching cruises and a big market. It’s held because the big migration of whales from Alaska to Hawaii (sounds like the people migration too!) happens in November and Sitka gets a good sight of this migration.
• · The Grind is a monthly community talent show. Starting in November and going through April there is a talent show once a month. Every month is themed, but you can do whatever you like that fits inside the theme. They’re always full of talents and the show is always sold out. I’ve volunteered every month running the dessert table. You either pay $5 or bring a dessert. Everyone enjoys dessert during intermission and there’s a contest for the best. How is this for small town?! I’ll be in the show in January doing a dance with a fellow dancer friend who also works at Mt. Edgecumbe High School as a rec staff. The best thing about the girl I’m dancing with – I’ve convinced her to apply to OSU to get her PhD in dance! Hopefully she gets in and goes!
• · How about a spin on the traditional holiday favorite The Nutcracker?! Sitka had a showing of the Nutcracker this year, but it was absolutely not the typical show. It was the Sitka, Alaska version! We had mosquitoes as the rats, dances with fish and bears, and instead of the dances of the world in the second act, there were the dances of Alaska. We had tap dancing in Xtratuf boots, a scene of tourists dancing around, a boat mosey across the stage, and much more that was traditionally Sitkan.

Speaking of whales, I’ve had some fantastic whale excitement lately. I have seen whales swimming as I stand on the shore, I’ve been on two boats where whales came right up to the boat, and I’ve gotten to be hands on – literally – with a baby whale as the kids at school dissected it. I learned a very… interesting tid bit about whales from the scientist who helped with the dissection. This is a little PG-13 – R-rated, but he said it to the kids so I’ll share with all of you. Ready? Female whales are selective about who they will mate with. Groups of males will follow a single female around but if the female isn’t interested in any of them, she will prevent them from mating with her. Female whales have been known to create a barrier by using a boat. Yes… they suction their vagina to the bottom of a boat so a male cannot get in. But males, being as determined as they are, have been known to reach up into the boat with their… and still try to mate with the female. Imagine being on that boat!!

In other news, I am in the airport on my way back to Ohio from Hawaii. I took a week vacation to Hawaii with the guy that I’m dating now. He’s from Maui and invited me to come when he went back for a visit, so I figured there would be no better way to visit Hawaii than with a local. I definitely got to see a different side of Hawaii than what a lot of tourists see. I’ll give some random facts about Hawaii instead of Alaska in this email.

• · “Pigeon” is the combination of English and Hawaiian. There are a lot of Hawaiian words that are used frequently but often in combination with English. The Hawaiian language is definitely more alive than I realized!
• · There is a plant called “silversword” that is found exclusively on the top of Mt. Haleakala. This plant cannot grow anywhere else but on the top of that volcano. It looks like a bunch of shining silver swords but it is incredibly soft.
• · Speaking of Mt. Haleakala, it is still an active volcano although it hasn’t erupted in 1000 years. It looks like another world on top of it. NASA thought it looked like what the moon might look like… so they did training up there before the moon expedition!
• · The volcanoes on the Big Island blow over smoke to Maui – they call it “vog” (volcano fog). It covers the island with a fog until the tradewinds come and blow it away. I found “vog” funny because of how literal it is, but nearly everything there is pretty literal. For example, there is “Big Beach” right next to “Little Beach” (their sizes are as their name suggests), “Plenty Kiawe” is a grove where there are a lot of kiawe trees, and on a certain beach the sections are labeled for what they’re in front of – pavilions, middles, trees.
• · The last sugar cane plant in the United States is in Maui.
• · Flip flops are called “rubba slippas” and that’s all anyone wears.

As I said, I am in the airport on my way back to Ohio now. I’ll be in Ohio until January 10. I hope to see as many people as possible. Give me a call, text, or send me an email if you are available to get together. I’ve thoroughly been enjoying my time outside the lower 48, but I’m excited to get back to Buckeyeland and see everyone!

Aloha!
Katie

President Gee was voted as Best College President by Time Magazine!

Check out the article!

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1937938_1937934,00.html

somehow I thought I would become an adult when I started medical school

But I still drink just as much...

(Audrey Hepburn and a flapper girl)

Dear James...

...if you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it.

Miss everyone.

Boy, Does Time Fly

Hey Everyone! It seems that time certainly flies when you're not back in school, or atleast that's how it has been for me. I'm currently still living back home in the pa and working for the same medical device company as before. I work in Clinical and Regulatory, and my regulatory supervisor is leaving in December on maternity, and I will be replacing her for that time, which is a huge step up and some serious responsibility! I have also been traveling (site monitoring, and presenting to doctors) for one of our clinical trials, which has been great. We are conducting a trial for our cartilage repair device, and have sites all over the US. I spent all of September in St. Louis, MO for 2-3 days each week - I saw the Arch, which was unbelievable, and I touched the Mississippi River! I could definitely get used to the traveling lifestyle and being able to expense everything. :)

I finally got a car, my dad's hand-me-down graduation gift 2000 chevy impala that I am pretty excited about! My older sister just had her first baby on Tuesday, Oct 13th. She had a baby girl, Erica Lily, and she is beautiful. I understand why Megan loves being an Aunt, it is quite the experience!

I am still searching for a position in the pharmaceutical industry, and I hope to go back to school for my PharmD (I actually miss school!). My neighborhood had an Oktoberfest block party this weekend, in the pouring rain, and I met a lot of young, new neighbors who are actually in the industry and offered their connections, so things are still looking good.

I miss everyone immensely!

Brianna

Greetings from Texas

Hi friends,

So it's been a while since I posted on here or anyone for that matter. Things are going alright in Texas for me. My apartment is a huge step up from my campus residences. My roommate is pretty cool. It took him a bit to realize I'm not much of a chatter in the morning though. He cooks a lot of delicious food and actually shares it with me, so that's different from before too. His name is Tyler and he is from Colorado. He's kind of a mix between Jon Avery and my old roommate Mason (Hey Arnold/Football Head). He brings the random/pointless knowledge of Jon with the love of outdoors/randomness of Mason.

I've made a close group of friends so far. It's me, Tyler, and two girls named Kate. We do homework and eat dinner together frequently. They are all classier people than I am. They like to eat better food, drink wine with dinner, and drink microbrew beer. I am definitely known as the cheapest and least classy of the group, which is expected because I fill that role in most groups of people. They are slowly rubbing off on me a bit, so maybe I'll be a classier individual when you next see me. One of the Kates reminds me a lot of Maggie, except without the student affairs mindset. I describe her as a sarcastic, mean, yet humorous and friendly individual. We get along well by making fun of others, mainly Tyler. Another similarity he has with Jon. We haven't gone out drinking much so far because downtown is kind of far away and you can't walk there. I hate not being able to walk there. Also bars are expensive and aren't the chill drinking scene I enjoy like house parties. The Drunk James you all know and somewhat love has a lower tolerance now, so it'll be interesting to see how things go in that regard in the future.

There's a solid group of OSU alumni down here. There is a bar that shows all of the OSU games which is amazing. I don't know what I'd do without that. I'm also on a kickball team with some of them through the city of Austin. It's a really social league with everyone on the team being under 30. We bring a couple of cases of beer and drink on the sidelines and sometimes on the field. It's a nice group of friends I'm trying to make outside of the chemical engineering department. We volunteered to run tables at college fairs at local high schools to promote OSU, so that was kind of interesting. It was nice to talk to students about the great things OSU has to offer.

Academically things aren't going as well. The classes are harder than I expected and I spent a ton of time doing homework. If I had to do Stater activities now, I would fail. The students in my classes are also much smarter, so I can't bank on a low curve now. The biggest problem is that I still haven't been placed with a research advisor. I won't take many classes after this semester and will just be working full time in a research lab under one professor, so the advisor selection process is incredibly important. We submitted our top 3 choices, but I didn't get any of them because my 1st choice was really popular and my 2nd and 3rd choices had already reached their allotment with other students that picked them first. I am kind of in limbo right now waiting to hear back from a couple of professors to see if they still have room for another grad student. I'm down to my last 2 solid options. If these 2 don't work out, I'm not quite sure what to do next. I should figure this out by the end of next week, so I'll either be very relieved or very pissed/depressed.

I did go to the Texas-Colorado game this past Saturday because Tyler wanted to go because he went to Colorado. It was interesting. Their stadium is newer and nicer looking but not quite as big. They have a U-shaped design but their south stands equivalent is smaller but with a massive scoreboard (the godzillatron). They don't use nets behind their goalposts which I found interesting. It did get really loud in there because they were playing really poorly against a lowly Colorado team. I was impressed with the intensity of the fans after the game was well in hand however. That is something we don't do well at OSU. Once we are up 20 points, the fans take it down a significant notch. I was curious to see how I would feel at the game. Would I develop some love for my grad school? Not at all. I really didn't care who won. In fact I mainly wanted Colorado to win just to see the devastation on the faces of 100,000 UT fans. I still take joy in other people's misery in case you were wondering.

I got a digital camera before I left for Texas and included some photos below. I think I'm going to put some up on Facebook as well. I know I'm surprised about this as well. The first one is me and the 2 Kate's at the Texas State Fair. This was a fun day filled with fried food and a "Dancing with the Dogs" show (ridiculous) but I was disappointed in the people watching. I wanted hicksville Texas cowboys and I got none. It was the same type of people you'd see at the Ohio State Fair-weak. Tyler took the picture early so I look ridiculous. The Kate on the left went to Notre Dame (also weak but she's not stuck up like most of the Irish) and the one of the right went to Princeton and is the Maggie clone. The next picture is of me and Tyler with some random food mascot from the fair. I think he looks like Steve Nash the basketball player but some people disagree with me. We also purchased Sham-wows which are the things in our hands. They are awesome. The third pic is from the Texas game. The guy one the right is genius who helps everyone with homework. Then its me and Tyler again. Guess how old the next guy is? ........................37 years old!!!! He doesn't look or act like it, but he's in our first year class with us. He has crazy life stories. Then there's Kate again. Check Facebook for some other pictures. Alright I think that's all for me tonight. Hopefully all is well with you all too. Let's get some more posts on here folks. I miss the good times we all had in Staters and OSU in general. I'll be back in Columbus for Thanksgiving and around Christmas so let me know if you'll be around then as well. Adios!

-James

Learning from the "Edgekimos!"

Waqaa!

That is "hello" in the Yupik language. Yupik is the language of the central and western Alaskan natives. There are a lot of Yupik kids that go to Mt. Edgecumbe High School and I'm getting some Yupik lessons from a few of them. It's an EXTREMELY difficult language to learn because it uses a lot of sounds that aren't found in the English language at all. It's pretty cool, though!

This email will be largely dedicated to my service site, but it also features a very special guest author! Get excited!

I've been extremely busy with my service site since I last wrote. As a reminder, I serve with Mt. Edgecumbe High School. It's a residential boarding school for rural Alaskans. It's for kids around Alaska that have no high school or just want a better education from what they would have otherwise. I've talked to a lot of kids that there are something crazy like 12 kids in grades K-12 and ONE teacher who teaches all of them all day in many of their home villages. Can you imagine?! So, a lot of those kids will come to MEHS for more. And they don't have to pay - it's all pretty much free for them because it's federally funded. It's the top ranked high school in the state! Although from sitting in classes... it makes me feel bad for every other high school in the state if this is as tough as it gets!

My role in the school is to do... everything really. I spend my days doing office work, helping teach leadership and freshmen orientation classes, driving kids around town, working the rock wall, helping with a dance group, hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, or any other strange thing that may come up. This weekend as I was going on a stunningly beautiful 6.5 mile hike with the kids it really hit me how fortunate I am to have such a cool job. Just 11 hours before hiking, I was chaperoning a 80's themed dance and danced my butt off with the kids! How cool! I've also gotten to do some substitute teaching. I've subbed for the P.E. teacher four times now (imagine me teaching gym!!) because he is also the volleyball coach. Fun thing about being on a sports team in Alaska - you travel EVERYWHERE. Every weekend the teams are gone to some other little town in the state. Other cool things about my job include the staff - they are so much fun and genuinely nice people; the facility - I am welcome to anything the school owns so I have camping, hiking, kayaking, etc gear at my fingertips; travel - I got the opportunity to go to Anchorage to pick up kids from the airport (p.s. don't go to Anchorage. It just looks like every other strip mall you've ever seen... just with beautiful mountains as the backdrop).

The students are truly the best part, though. They are very different than high school students down south (meaning anywhere in the lower 48). They are much more polite, respectful, and form better relationships with adults. They're also quirky in some funny ways. They say "just kidding" after everything they say, even if they're clearly being serious. It's kind of weird and a habit I'm trying really hard not to pick up. They eat a TON of candy, LOVE soda and energy drinks, and live to eat McDonalds. They love soda so much that there is a black market on it. The school doesn't provide it, so kids will go to town and buy cases and sell the cans at a marked up price. It's really funny but the little entrepreneurs make quite a bit of money! Another interesting thing is their voices. The accent of the Alaska Native is so different than anything I have ever heard and it's really difficult to describe. My best attempt to describe it would be lower (they don't upspeak), choppier, and as if it's a second language (but they grew up speaking it as a first language). I've made really close relationships already with a handful and good relationships with a lot more. I've even had some very difficult situations because of my close relationships. One girl told me she thought she might be pregnant, another told me he smokes weed, another that she attempted suicide, and another that her mom is an emotionally abusive alcoholic. There is virtually zero crime in Alaska to the general public, but there sure is a lot of bad stuff that happens in the home here. It's very sad. Despite these hard things, it feels incredibly rewarding to bond with the kids.

Things I've learned from the Edgecumbe students:

- Most little villages don't have cars. Everyone has a snow machine! They have snow machine drag races because snow machines can go around 140 mph!!

- Parents will give their kids away. One girl told me her mom gave her sister away because a neighbor only had boys and wanted a daughter. Apparently this isn't extremely uncommon.

- In the Tlingit culture, you are born into the clan of your mother which is either a raven or an eagle. They have a matrilineal society! And, to them, this is a way of trying to dodge inbreeding.

- There are Native Olympics. The games are completely different though. All the games represent something in their society and are largely games of physical and mental stamina. Some include tying a string to your ear and it being pulled (representative of frostbite), hanging from a stick by only your wrist, and jumping from two feet and kicking a ball with one foot then landing on that same one foot (record is over 90 inches high!!).

- Nearly every village isn't connected by road to anything else.

From all of my time I've spent with the kids and all of the stories I've heard from them, I feel less and less like I'm in such a different place like I thought I was when I first got here. I'm sure when I get back home for the holidays and have malls, speed limits over 35, and people who believe in using umbrellas when it rains I will again feel like Sitka is super different. But, quickly, I'll give a few highlights of my off-duty time in Sitka. I have made good connections with the person who runs the biggest music festival in Sitka (http://www.homeskilletrecords.com/homeskillet-festival-by-homeskillet-records/) and I'm going to help with planning it next year. I'm really excited about working with Alaskan artists and getting to put some of my event planning to the test again! My roommates and I have become hosts of couchsurfers. If you aren't familiar, it's a website that puts travelers in touch with locals to stay on their couch for the night. We have had four couchsurfers so far (two groups) and they have all been really awesome. It's been neat to meet these people from all over and get to share Sitka with them. Also, I've gotten very good at goodbyes unfortunately. People move in and out of Sitka so much, especially summer help, that many friends I've made have left or are leaving. It's a very hard town to be in for this reason!!

One of the most exciting things that has happened recently was a visit from a friend. I really must have the best friends since one already came up from Ohio to the Great Land! Here is my guest author - Adam Burden!

I have always wanted to visit all 50 U.S. states. When I heard Katie was going to Alaska, we made plans to visit once she got settled in. It was in short – amazing. It was great to see Katie and get toured around by a “local.” :) Some of the things we did were a 3 ½ hour hike up and down Mt. Verstovia; have a potluck dinner with other Americorps volunteers and Katie’s roommates; walking tour around downtown; hitchhiked; took a boat ride to an abandoned island where we cooked over an open fire; and saw an eagle, sea lion, and jumping salmon.

For a little Sitka (and Alaska) context,

-If you make your right hand like a gun, then turn it upside down, that is Alaska. Sitka is on the inside knuckle of your thumb.

-According to the United States Census Bureau, Sitka is the second largest incorporated area in the U.S.

-If you live in Alaska for more than 12 months, you get a free check mailed to you (the state has that much revenue from oil companies).

-Alaska is much greener than I imagined. It was rainy, 50s-60s and lots of trees, but no snow!

-The pace of life is much slower and relaxed. If you are making plans, give yourself + 30 minutes on either side.

-The tap water tastes like it was run through a water filter.

-Life is much more centered on the weather and environment. For example, if you wanted to go hiking in Ohio and it was raining, you might make other plans. If you were in Sitka, you would strap on the raingear and just make sure you pick a trail where you won’t get eaten by a bear! No joke…one of the first things we did when I got there was bear safety.

Some other observations I made on the trip,

• When you pick up your bags in the Sitka airport terminal, they will be in carousel #1. Because there is only one baggage carousel.
• If you need to go somewhere and don’t want to walk, you can call Hank. He’s the taxi driver. He also doesn’t have a meter in his cab. When I got to the airport he just said, “Uh, nine dollars.”
• You can tell out-of-towners if they are not wearing Xtratufs boots. Everyone has them and they even wear them out at night to the bars. There are 4 bars. (Thank you Katie and Mt. Edgecumbe High School for letting me borrow Xtratufs and raingear! I was definitely underpacked.)
• The Radio Shack also doubles as the tanning salon.
• The lower 48 states are referred to as “down south.”

Katie has some great roommates and friends already. I don’t think I could live there, but I understand why people could like it so much. So, if you are thinking of going, I would definitely recommend it.

---

I have begun to notice how badly I miss all of you and Ohio. I love it here and I'm having a great time, but there is a lot to miss back home. The time difference is very difficult, but please feel free to call me anytime and if I'm available I would love to talk. Also, please do tell me about what is going on with you via email. I love hearing the stories and sharing in all of your lives.

Lastly, I have some pictures up on facebook but I need to update more. Feel free to check that and keep on the look out for more to come.

All my love,

Katie

They pay me for this....

I see some people are on their 3rd posts already so I figured it was about time for me to post something finally. I’m going on 2 ½ months here at my job which is still going well. From a work load perspective it’s been all or nothing. As some of you may remember from earlier in the summer I was crazy busy working 12 hour days and frequently on weekends. Now that we finished that project I don’t really have anything to do (hence my free time writing this post). I’d say in a given week I probably only do about 15 minutes of real, actual, work. I keep hearing that a bunch of projects are suppose to be coming through and I’ll be busy again soon, which would be a welcome change for the moment. The people I work with are awesome so it allows me to just BS with them for 8 hours when I have nothing to do.

I moved off campus about a month ago and am living up north of 270 right off High St. My new apartment is great, but I guess any real apartment is awesome after off-campus housing. I don’t know how many of you remember my roommate Kraig, I lived with him a couple years ago on campus. I’m living with him again and he has officially surpassed Van Wilder as he will be entering his 8th year of undergrad at OSU this week. If anyone is going to be in town and needs a place to stay you are all welcome to crash at my place. I also bought a new car last weekend, a new 2009 Nissan Altima. The Cavalier was begging to be put out of its misery.

I hope everyone is doing well. Let me know if you will be in town it would be nice to see you guys.

Live Free or Die

In case you didn't know, that's the state motto for New Hampshire.

Other fun facts about NH:
- There is no seat belt law or helmet law.
- Manchester is the Queen City of NH and the largest city in New England north of Boston.
- The bars here close at 1am. (this encourages me to be even more of an old man)

Fun things I've done since being out here:
- Hampton Beach, NH (no not The Hamptons)
- York Beach, ME (had my first lobster roll, yummmm)
- Lake Wesserunsett near Skowhegan, ME (another VISTA took us up to his lake house for Labor day weekend)
- New England Aquarium in Boston

I booked my flight to come home for Thanksgiving. I'll be in Columbus Nov 20-29 so I'll be looking to spend some quality time with anyone that will be available. I'm working on RJ to make the trip back for Michigan weekend.

It's been weeks since anyone has posted on here so get to it people, especially those of you that haven't graced us with your updates and stories yet.

Rob

p.s. I got me a girlfriend out here.

They're gonna let me be a doctor?!

I spent the entire summer after graduation puttering around Columbus, teaching a few MCAT prep classes, getting away when I could, and being as lazy as possible-- the entire time reading the exciting adventures of my friends, and eagerly waiting for my life to change in some way.

At this moment I am still living in the same apartment that I have for the past two years, but I am really excited to move on Friday into a cute town house in Harrison West (a small neighborhood west of Victorian Village, on the other side of Batelle from campus) with a friend who is starting Pharmacy school and (strangely) the daughter of the academic director of my first two years of medical school who is finishing her Masters in Public Policy. (Fun Fact 1: Both of my roommates are alumni of Hilliard-Davidson High School. Fun Fact 2: Nissa (public policy masters) took a dance class with James Knight in which they performed a song from Aladdin... guess who was the only boy in the class and, therefore, Aladdin?! She remembers this and has recently given him crap about it. Awesome.)

August 10th started my adventure in medical school. The first week was orientation, but this orientation is nothing like the undergraduate orientation that so many of you previously worked to make. For starters, there are no cheesy games, ice breakers, or really any attention to group dynamics as a whole. The word "professionalism" replaces the phrase "get involved," and we can all legally drink so social lubricants frequently aided the process of meeting the class. I am attending one of the larger medical schools in the country, with 226 in my class and 800+ in all four years.

Somehow a class of 226 felt larger at first than undergraduate at Ohio State felt; it is possible to meet and know the names of 226 people, so of course I started out by placing this expectation upon myself... I quickly let that one go.

Orientation was non-stop sessions and socializing, staying out too late and getting the fun out of our systems before classes started last Monday. Highlight of orientation was definitely the "White Coat Ceremony" (Picture above with my parents, who drove from Maryland to see it). I took my first oath into the ideals of the profession and was "cloaked" with the sign of our profession-- the white coat. In a few weeks I'll have my name embroidered in it, and will look dangerously close to someone who should know what she is doing...

We start with 12 weeks of Anatomy-- learn the entire human body and how it develops. Aside from the terror of being too stupid to handle all of this, one of the more jarring parts of Anatomy is our lab. Yes, human cadaver dissection accompanies the book studies. Yes, I will spare you all details of my interactions with Grace, as I have named her (I got a "her").

After a few hours of lecture in the morning I either head to anatomy lab or the library, where I have taken up a partial residence. Thompson library is open and completely amazing. The opening party was this past Saturday, to which my friend Alex too me as her "date". Spending a Saturday night in the library sounds bad, but when there's an open bar, it's quite the opposite!

One of my classmates aptly described our workload as if we had a final every day. It feels like a constant finals week (except you also have to attend class, lab and the occasional afternoon session). The first week was pretty grueling. I would study for hours and go to sleep feeling prepared for the next day, but, without fail, by the time I woke up I had magically gotten behind in the material. Today was one of the first days that I actually started to feel better about my prospects of survival. I'm beginning to expect the amount of studying that is necessary, my endurance in mental attention is increasing, and I've been pleasantly surprised that I frequently know answers to my classmates' questions.

Being at Ohio State has certainly added to my comfort level. Last night we had a "Dinner with the Deans" and hospital leadership (many of whom taught me in the classes for my major). The greeting I got from the man who oversees the 600+ residents in the OSU Hospital system was a high five and yelling (in a lecture hall) "Welcome to the team!". It is nice to already have strong connections with my faculty (and to run into the occasional Stater in the library) to make it all easier to handle.

With that, I must return to learning the geography of nerves in the forearm (partay!)

at jon's nagging (and its about time)...

Hey all-
Glad to here so many things are going well for you and that we've settled (somewhat) gracefully into our new post-grad lives! I've been in Dayton now for a week and a half and at my new job just as long. I really like the new job... everyone is awesome and I've been getting to do a lot of training to meet other new people at the base and get acquainted to my unit. Some interesting notes… 1) I get paid to work out 3 hours a week so I’ve decided that’s worth a commitment to hit the gym… 2) I’m the youngest in my engineering unit by about 15 years and the only female… 3) my townhouse is so cute and deserves some visitors!

I added a picture of my place. The other photo is my brother Craig’s new beagle puppy, ten weeks old, that I babysat the last couple weeks. Her name is Maya, and she’s incredibly cuddly and adorable when she’s not biting everything in sight. I hope she still remembers me when I go back… I’ve never had a puppy before and I’m not sure how that’ll work!

I’ll be in Cbus this coming weekend for summer graduation (my brother) and at least Homecoming weekend, not sure what else. It’ll be depend on traveling for the AF and some family stuff.

Also, send me your addresses so I can send you some mail!

looooove, emeyer

I Really Am In An Alternate Reality

Hello All,

Hope all is going well. I have a few things to contribute.

1. Who will be in Columbus for the USC game? My dad won the Alumni Lottery for the USC game, and since the game is on the 12th, and my birthday is the 13th, he lovingly gave me a ticket. I also finally got time off granted. I hope to see some of you there!

2. I live with 195 sorority women. I have been told that two of the sororities I have are the "top" or "snobbiest." Believe me, I can tell. These women are crazy. Most are very nice. Some I wonder how they are able to function in this world.

3. On Saturday, at 2:30 pm, while I was sitting at our check-in desk for move in, in the same polo shirt that I had to wear from Thursday to Sunday and had to pay 1.50/time to wash it three times, I saw two women decked out for the evening. At two thirty in the afternoon. On Sunday, at 2:15 pm, when I was back at the check in desk, I see the same two women come back in, hair all over the place, makeup smeared all over their faces, and their dresses and their heels still on from 2:30 pm the day before. I had a nice laugh. They looked slightly embarrased. Maybe proud. Unknown, there was too much runny makeup to really see what their true expressions might have been. (PS, I was wearing a polo shirt and khaki pants, two things I hate more than anything in this world. It comes from having to wear a uniform for 13 years of grade and high school. So you can tell how excited I must have been this past weekend!!!!)

4. Yesterday, I was walking behind two women, and another woman was walking in our direction. The two in front of me stop abruptly to greet their friend. The friend yells, "OMG YOU ARE SO SMALL!" Small girl replies "OMG YOUR HAIR IS SO BLONDE!" Blonde friend "Yeah, its like totally blonde." Small girl "Yeah. Love us bitch." Blonde Friend "Totally Love us bitch." It legitimately happened. This truly is my kind of place.

It actually isn't as bad as I have made it seem. I actually like it a lot. I start class tomorrow. I am excited for them, they should be pretty interesting.

Hope all of you are doing well. Miss you all!

What's new in the AK

Hey from the great white north!

I'm really starting to feel like a local here in Sitka, Alaska. I know many of the streets, I know some people pretty well, I've done a lot of the things you're "supposed" to do, and - most importantly - I own a pair of Xtratufs. EVERYONE here has the same exact pair of boots, Xtratufs. They're even in the same color, brown and tan, because that's the only option. If you don't have them on, it's obvious you're not a local. People even wear them out to the bar.

Another funny thing about clothes - people wear the same outfit for days in a row. Everyone showers daily because they all smell like fish, but they just throw the same clothes on for about two-three days. I'm not sure if I'm going to get to this point, but if I do, please stop me when I get home!!

I have done a lot of really cool things since I've been here. I've gone hiking up a mountain which was insanely beautiful and stayed overnight in a remote floathouse that had no electricity or running water. We had to collect wood from the forest during low tide to make a fire and boil ocean water. I feel pretty resourceful! I've also gone kayaking a few times already. Kayaking in the ocean around a bunch of sea lions... there's really nothing like it. One time we stopped off at the causeways. This is a place that was used during WWII as a bunker. The rainforest is overgrowing the bunkers, but you can still hike around the little island and investigate. It's neat to see something so historical that hasn't been touched by tourism at all.

I have also gone out fishing with an Alaska fisherman and a friend. We fished the "cheater" way with a sockeye hook. There is no bait involved, you just go out into the ocean near the shore and toss the hook out hoping to just snag a fish and reel it in. Once you reel it in (this is going to get graphic... get ready), you jab it with a big metal hook then hit it with a wooden club until it's dead. Fishing is pretty bloody!! We caught some nice salmon but that's not what the real fishermen are after... the salmon are simply bait for the halibut. So, once you catch about four salmon, you cut off the head and tail then cut the rest into slices. The slices are then put onto hooks for the skate. The skate is a 160 ft line dropped into the ocean with bait attached. Halibut then come to eat the bait and end up getting hooked. Fisherman reel in these skates the next day and hopefully have a big, hundred pound halibut attached! When I was fishing we unfortunately didn't reel in a halibut because there was a ton of sea lion around and they eat the halibut before it gets pulled into the boat. It's a sad day for fishermen (everyone here actually hates the sea lions), but it was really neat to see for me! The sea lions were doing really Sea World like tricks like flipping on their sides and jumping in unison. They celebrated snatching our halibut by tossing the fish parts around back and forth to each other.

The bears around here have been a big focus of the town the past couple weeks. They're apparently more aggressive than ever because it hasn't rained and the salmon aren't coming up the streams as quickly. A few people have had bear run-ins. People aren't really going out hiking as much. I had my very own bear experience to share. I stayed in a cabin one night out at this campgrounds where a sow and two cubs live. We went out to look for them from this bear lookout and saw them. It was sooo cool to see! We didn't think we would have any troubles at our cabin, though. Funny us. So, we're in the middle of the woods, pitch black with really no moon and definitely no electricity. We just had our campfire. We kept hearing these weird noises and we eventually stopped to really listen. We decided it was a bear in the creek that was about 25ft from us and ran into the cabin. We got brave and came back out but we kept hearing the noise. This very tough, very stereotypical Alaska fisherman friend of ours decided to go investigate. He took bear mase and went down into the creek. A few minutes later he came back and said he thought the noise was just salmon jumping in the shallow creek. A bit later we heard the noise again and thought that it really sounded like a bear. This guy, out to prove us wrong, went down to look again. ...The scariest thing to experience is the toughest guy you've ever met running full speed toward you screaming "Run! Bear! Into the cabin!" Needless to say, we all went running into the cabin. The bear didn't come up after us, but we did now know we had a scary neighbor next to us the whole time. We even had fish with us, so we were lucky the bear didn't come up. It was pretty crazy at the time, but now I have a cool bear story!

I'm enjoying my job very much so far, but I'm excited for what is to come. I have just been working in the office of the school preparing for the teachers and kids and doing paperwork. I keep hearing how cool the kids are though. They come from really remote places, many without running water. It's going to be an interesting adjustment for many of them. I'm a little worried about discrimination. I've heard some of them have a hard time with white people and nearly all of them have a habit of being very quiet and not looking people in the eyes. It gets better with time I guess, but for a while I think I'll have a hard time getting through to them. I'm excited to learn from them though. I think they're really going to have some amazing stories and experiences. I get my first taste this Thursday when I will spend 48 hours straight in the school - office/training in the day then chaperoning the kids two nights in a row. Should be crazy!

Things I've learned:

- To commercially prepare a fish: turn the fish over and cut from the butthole up to the neck. Remove the eggs/sperm and cut out the liver. Then cut out the gills because those are the first things to go bad. Lastly, pack with ice.

- Bear mase is not bear spray. You can't spray it to prevent bears, you spray it if the bear gets dangerously close. Once you spray, you have to leave the area because with time it attracts bears.

- If you're ever trapped in an avalanche, the hardest thing about climbing out is figuring out what way is up. Just make an air pocket then light a match (which you should have stored right on the front of you) and see which way the flame goes.

- Black bears are virtually dead when they hibernate. You can crawl into their cave and pull their hair and they won't do anything about it. Brown bears, on the other hand, will eat you alive.

- The word "eskimo" is like saying "colored people" - it's an outdated and bad term. "Inuit" was the next step from "eskimo", but now that is outdated too. The term to use is "native Alaskans."
- ALL of Alaska has the same area code: 907. In Sitka, your number can be 907-966-#### or 907-747-####. So, when people give you their number they say "6-####" or "7-####". Five digits!

As with last time, please let me know what is going on with you. I want to hear your good stories too! I definitely miss home, but I'm really starting to feel like this is home now, so I need to keep informed of what's going on in the Lower 48!

I attached a few pictures. The first is from my hike and the second is one of the harbors.

Love from AK,

Katie

I'M SO WET! Celebrating 1 Year in the 'Ville

I visited Nashville this weekend and was thinking about you all, so I figured I'd give an update and some entertaining stories. It's great to hear about everyone's adventures in post-grad life.

Today was a very wet one in Louisville. If six inches in 90 minutes doesn't leave you dripping, I don't know what will. Luckily, I live and work on high ground, so I didn't have any trouble aside from a brief power outage. There was some significant flooding and damage downtown and around U of L's campus, but I think everything has calmed down tonight.

Work is going well. I was in the highest performance bracket for one year evaluation and have moved from refrigerators to the exciting world of top-load washing machines. This is my latest geek topic, so let me know if you want to talk washers or laundry... Last week was the end of summer semester for Georgia Tech and I'm proud to announce I aced my wind turbine class putting me 20% done with grad school rocking a 4.0.

Mom and Dad Berger came to visit last week and send their love to you all. They came down with my Uncle Dan and Aunt Chris (you might have helped moved furniture for her hair shop at South 40 2008). We enjoyed pre-game dollar beers before the Louisville Bats take on the Toledo Mudhens (we left early for the bar because it was raining), then spent a day touring and tasting at 4 distilleries and 2 wineries. Apparently Kentucky has equivalent vineyard conditions to California, Spain, France, and Italy, but the vines were all bulldozed during prohibition to capitalize on tobacco crops. I'm excited about the resurgence of wine country and would be happy to share my favorites or the scenic drive if you're ever in town!

This weekend I visited high school friends in Nashville and relived some great memories at Downtown bars, the Parthenon, the Opryland Hotel, and the Pancake Pantry. I once again enjoyed the Santa Fe pancakes with Fremont Heinz ketchup on my home fries. We visited the Parthenon at night, which had been rented for a reception - Athena looks even more majestic when "Don'tcha" is being played in her presence. We also checked out the farmer's market, library, big band dancing in the park, the library, and the Loveless Cafe (home of biscuits, pie, and all that is fried).

I'll close with a drunk story for James' sake. A couple of weekends I went to a wedding for one of my friends from work. His parents are both OSU alums and I've known him for about 5 years from co-oping. My mission was to try my luck with his older sister. Unfortunately an open bar left me unable to tell the difference between the older sister and the 18-year old younger twin sisters (all blond curly hair). Needless to say, I didn't get very far. For all the future brides, please put your bride's maids in different dresses or find a way to clearly differentiate them - I feel I can safely speak for James and myself when I say we'd appreciate it.

Greetings from Sitka!

I sent this email out to the Stater listserv, so if you got it already I apologize!

I really can't believe that I've been here a couple days now!  I've kept really busy, but in a good way.  It's all been incredible from the moment I left the lower 48.  The flight up to Alaska is breathtaking.  There is nothing...nothing... at all out there.  Mountains as far as the eye can see.  It's such an awesome sight to see though.  Landing in Alaska was like nothing I could have imagined.  The airport in Sitka is tiny and right on the water, so you feel like you're going to land right in the ocean.  It's fine though because you're so distracted by the unbelievable beauty around.  The mountains come right up out of the ocean.  There are tons of little islands around Baranof and Japonski islands (the islands that make up Sitka) that are all like that.  They are covered by Sitka Spruce all the way up to the summit which is covered in just a bit of snow.  It's like the whipped cream on top!  I couldn't believe it when I got in and I still really can't.  I feel like I'm in a storybook place.  I walk around with my jaw dropped everywhere I go.  It all feels very surreal.  I'm told that I'm getting spoiled by the weather though.  It's been in the 70s and sunny since I've been here.  Usually it's rainy, so I guess I lucked out!  The town itself is really cute, too.  There is a super touristy street, historic sights, residential areas, more towny streets, and of course the beaches and mountains.  It has a little bit of everything.  There are also lots of cool wildlife.  I have seen bald eagles (they hang out in town!) and a sea lion so far.  And honestly, these are the nicest people I have ever encountered.  I've learned from other AmeriCorps that have been up here for a while that they have never met an unfriendly person in Sitka.  Everyone wants to share Sitka with you and hear about your life.  I have eaten both of my dinners so far at local peoples houses because they just invite you over.  It's crazy!  People are especially interesting because most people I've met aren't native to Sitka.  A lot of people go on some adventure or something when they're young and somehow find their way here after traveling the state.  Others are from other parts of Alaska.  A handful came on visit and didn't leave, found a job here, or stumbled upon the place some other random way.  It makes for some pretty interesting stories.  I've heard a lot of really incredible life stories from people so far.  It kind of makes you feel like you haven't done a lot with your life!

As far as details about my new life go... I live in the bottom floor of a house and it's really nice.  It feels very homey.  We can see the mountains from our living room window, too!  Two of my three roommates are here already and they are both great.  One is really outgoing and a little wild, but in a fun way.  The other is quieter but not shy, kind of nerdy and outdoorsy, but again, in a good way.  I think we'll get along well!  I had my first day at work today.  We're just doing office work until the kids get here, but I heard so many exciting things about what happens when the kids get in.  I'll learn about so many native customs, take free trips around the state chaperoning them, and get to "help" with classes that I want to learn (I'm going to take Chinese!).  I'm excited about the job.  I've spent all my time really immersing myself in the city and the people outside of work related things.  I have gone in museums, art galleries, blueberry picking (tons of kinds of berries grow wild everywhere here and you can eat them all right off the side of the road!), walking along the beach, ate dinner over a campfire on the beach, and ate fresh Halibut and Black Cod caught that day in a beautiful house on top of a mountain that overlooked the ocean.  I'm going kayaking in the ocean tomorrow and hiking up a mountain this weekend.  Honestly I'm a little nervous but I'm really pumped up about doing it.  I'm having a hard time believing all that has happened so far.  I think I can already see why people come up here and never leave!

I do feel a little out of place, but I think it will be fine.  I'm the only one I've met so far that hasn't really done any of this outdoors stuff.  I don't know anything about hiking, kayaking, fishing, etc.  I have SO much to learn!!  But overall I'm having a wonderful time and I think I'm going to really like it here.  Everyone should come visit!!  sitkaphotos.com - if you want to check it out a bit (totally doesn't do it justice though!). 

A few fun things I learned:

- Natives are allowed to kill and skin baby seals.  People joked about me doing this when I got here, but it's for real!

- Natives in villages where the pipeline runs through get approx. $3000/month starting at birth just because by the oil company.  This is a reason why they have such big families.

- Whalers have bombs attached to their harpoons and it takes about 5 harpoons (with bombs) to kill a whale.

- People turn up their noses at pink salmon here - you must have King or Sockeye!

- You can get a forest fire on a glacier.

Still Jobless

Hey Everyone,

So after about ten minutes of trying out how to actually write a post, here I am. My summer has been slightly uneventful so far, yet not as terribly boring as I thought it would be.

I am working right now as a temp at the same medical device company I have worked at the past three summers as an intern. I am on day 28 of no health insurance (woo!) and still looking for a full time job. Jon has been amazing at offering me assistance trying to find a job with the FDA and other government agencies. Yesterday I got a call for an interview for Aflac - as much as I love the duck, I declined because I want to stay in pharmaceutics. I've been applying to research positions, sales positions, you name it, at Pharma companies and hospitals up and down the east coast.

Some highlights of my summer include spending an afternoon with Linebaugh in Philly while he was here for training, washing and waxing my "almost mine" beautiful impala on the weekends when I'm bored (I get the car as soon as I get a job!), spending multiple weekends in New York visiting family, receiving inappropriate gchat messages daily from RJ because he knows I'm at work, playing coed softball a couple nights a week and basically hanging out catching up on some reading for pleasure. I was already fed-up with living at home about the second week I was here, although there are a few perks to being home - I'm saving money on rent and my dad's awesome coffee ready for me in the morning. Living at home isn't a bowl full of happiness. I really miss everyone but I don't think it will really hit me until its time to go back but I'm not.

Jon and I are trying to go to the OSU vs PSU game at State College this fall. My little sister (still not street legal James) will be a freshman at Penn State starting August 22nd and my best friend is finishing up her last semester so there will definitely be a place to stay. I think all of you should come even if we just tailgate the whole time (tailgate? whats that?).

Miss you all!

BJ

James Goes to a Bachelor Party-Hilarity Ensues

Hi Friends,

I'm glad people have been posting already. I hope we can keep this up with life updates and random stories.

I've been laying around doing nothing on campus for the summer. The weekends have been the highlights: 3 weddings, 4th of July, and bachelor party. My sister just got married yesterday, so that's kind of a big deal. I'll give stories from that later on: I found out where my mean drunkness comes from.

Some people have heard part or all of this story, so I apologize if you've heard it before, but I don't think you guys will mind too much. It is a long post, but I guarantee it's humorous. I apologize in advance for the stripper portion it is verbally graphic......
So I was a groomsman in my sister's wedding and went to the bachelor party in Chicago. I knew half the guys from either school or through Rob, my new brother in law. We went there because the best man, Craig, lived there. This was a stereotypical bachelor party: a group of guys drinking a large amount of alcohol with the addition of female nudity. A group of us drove there and as soon as we walked in the door we were handed beers and noticed that there was a hardcore porn DVD playing in the background. This played in the background pretty much all weekend. At one point Saturday the 11 of us were just chilling with beers watching porn for like 10 minutes-I found that somewhat awkward.

We're drinking Friday night and Craig says theres a stripper coming in a half hour. Sexy Lexy arrives shortly thereafter with her bodyguard and large suitcase of stripper accessories. She gets Rob in a chair and starts dancing all over him: stands him up, takes his shirt off (no one wanted to see that), takes his belt off, drops his shorts a bit, rips the elastic of his boxers and puts it over his head, and whips him with his own belt. She moves to the next part of her routine, but Rob says he's had enough. The group then decides that I, as the little brother, need to get in on the action. She pulls out a Black and Decker drill............with a dildo on the end of it-a drilldo. It looked a lot like the picture above. I'm sitting on the couch and she comes up and straddles the corner and just puts the thing in her and the hands me the handle-WTF. I am freaked out and nervous and barely pull the trigger, which she laughs at and forces the trigger to full speed and makes me move the drill back and forth. The other guys said it was one of the funniest things they had ever seen because of the look on my face and the fact that I was leaning away from her. I can only imagine how awkward I looked. Then she lists off the other things she can do: for $100 someone can use a dildo on her, for $150 she can masturbate and squirt 10 feet in the air, for $200 she can suffocate someone, or for $250 she would, I am not joking, put a pickle in vaj then shoot it out and knock over miniature bowling pins. I was in complete and utter shock. The group decided to do the suffocation thing with me again as the "lucky" receiver. I lay on the group with a $20 bill across my nose and mouth. She then sits on my face. The only thing between me and a stripper's crotch was a $20 bill. This was frightening. She then made me scream "I love pussy" but then she would do something with her ass cheeks that made my voice cut in and out (kind of like when you use your hand to make an Indian call). Then she tells me she's going to cut off my air and to tap out when I had enough. She then cut off my air by fully sitting on me, which I didn't really think she could do, but trust me she can. Then I didn't know what to do. Do I tap out quickly because this is rather gross? Do I try to be a badass and hold my breath as long as I possibly can? I think I went for like 30 seconds and then tapped out; it was so odd.

We kept drinking at Craig's place until we went to a decent restaurant to get delicious pizza at like 10 o'clock. We were all hammered so I'm not sure why they let us in even. We were loud and obnoxious. The few tables around us tried to block us out..........until we started rehashing about Sexy Lexy and then they listened intently. If you guys remember my roommate from the fall, Charlie, he joined us for dinner because he knows some of the guys as well. We then started walking back to Craig's when another guy, Bauer talked to some girl on the street and got her to come drink with us. The three of us were chatting on the walk over and she said she would call some friends over-the guys were happy. She has a beer then has me go downstairs with her to help her friends get there. In the stairwell she grabs me and makes out with me for like 15 seconds. This was totally random. I was not hitting on her or anything and I didn't initiate. As we are down there Bauer comes down and out of nowhere asks her for some ID. I am confused. She pulls out 2 ID's (bad sign) that say she's 26. There is no way she's 26. Bauer says he thinks her say she was 17. After we ask a few times she owns up to being 17. I had just made out with a 17 year old-wtf. In my defense I did not initiate and everyone there said she looked at least 21. More importantly what 17 year old girl is walking around downtown Chicago on her own and joins a group of 11 mid twenty year old guys for drinks? I then proceeded to call Justin and leave a drunk voicemail. I am told it's humorous.

After that we made it downtown to the hotel we were staying in, which happened to be the one Rachel Hilfer works at. Some of us went out to a bar for a bit after that, but nothing interesting happened. The next morning people got up and went back to Craig's to start drinking around noon, but I stayed at the hotel until Rachel got off work and we got lunch. Then I met back up with the guys at this place called Whirlyball. It is a 5 on 5 game played in bumper cars. You play with a whiffle ball and something kind of like a small curved lacrosse stick. The things used in Hyli (sp?) if you know what that is. So you use the sticks to pick up the whiffle ball and throw it into a goal; it was a blast. The place itself was weird because it had children's parties going on but also a full service bar. Then we all posted up at a bar at like 5 PM on Saturday. Needless to say no one was there. We informed the bartender we were there to do some serious drinking and went about our business. On the walk home from the bar, one guy tried to throw a half-full water bottle past me to hit his buddy, but he missed HORRIBLY and hit me smack in the face. I now have a small scar in between my eyebrows from where a plastic edge cut me. The other guys told me it looked like I had a red dot on my forehead and should therefore work my magic on Indian girls at the bar that night-this did not occur. We went back to Craig's to eat dinner and continue drinking. The porn DVD was again put on in the background. We left to go to a bar but Craig was done for. He face planted into the street at least 3 times. Jeff (my 3rd floor roommate this year) broke his flip flop and tried to trade shoes with a homeless man. We got on the subway and started a slow clap at each stop. We met a couple of girls that we convinced to meet us at the bar later. Craig knew most of the staff at the bar so we go into the secret upstairs bar, but he was quickly kicked out for being too drunk. They sent him home in a cab. Other highlights from the bar consist of one guy hitting on the girl from the subway only to be cockblocked alllllll night by her less attractive sister. The guy that hit me in the face couldn't believe a Bud Light cost $5 so he threatened to attack the bar tender and repeatedly asked him if he was high. When we left, Jeff ran off and we lost him. He found a receipt in his pocket the next morning from Subway, where he spent $23. He later remembered that he chatted with another homeless man in an alley and in exchange for subway the guy gave him a mix CD of his own rap songs. He raps under the name ill-noise (get it? illinois) and the CD actually wasn't that bad. I think he spent money on studio time instead of on housing. The rest of us made it back to the hotel bar to keep drinking. Some guys went upstairs to go to bed but couldn't get into one of our rooms so they pounded on the door until a middle-aged guy opened up. Apparently no one left any stuff in that room, so when the maid's cleaned it they thought we left and they gave the room to someone else. They went downstairs and bitched at the front desk until they got another room. In the meantime I had made friends outside of the hotel bar. The professional BMX tour was in Chicago that day and they all stayed at this hotel, so I drunkenly chatted with a couple of them for a while. One guy randomly offered me some roasted red pepper hummus and pita chips at 3 AM-it was delicious. When I finally head upstairs I see Jeff trying to get into the room. He came back late because he had passed out in the alley for an hour. When he got back to the hotel he pounded on the door of the room that wasn't ours anymore and woke the same guy up again-he was NOT happy. Then Jeff went downstairs and bitched at the front desk again-we were not good customers. Luckily I ran into him and let him in. We all passed out. We all regrouped at Craig's the next day and then drove back to Columbus, rehashing the events for at least the next 2 hours.

I think that sums it all up. Sorry it was long and if that at all offended people. That weekend was the last one in June. It caused me to miss South 40, which was very saddening. The wedding was this past Saturday, which was another great weekend as well. Adios friends!

Getting ready for a change

I'm pretty excited about this... and excited people are actually writing! Sounds like we're all living glamorous lives right now and I'm happy for all of us. ;) We're growing up!

This post is going to be short because nothing too exciting has happened just yet for me. I'm still in Mineral Ridge until Tuesday (7/28). I've been visiting with a lot of family getting ready for the big trip up north. I recently bought a nice camera and a new laptop, so I've been nerding out and learning about those things, too. The camera is for all of you to be wowed by the beauty of AK. :) Laptop is a Mac, which means I have webcam capabilities now. Let me know if you do, too.

I'm so ready to be out of here. Each time I'm back in Ridge I want to be here less and less. I did have some visitors though! My boys came up to visit along with Liz, Hayley, and our very own James Knight and Craig Morin! They saw the beauty of Y-town and the true lack of things to do around here. We did have a fun time climbing around in the woods and sitting around a campfire, though. It was the highlight of my time back home.

Next time you hear from me I'll be in Sitka. Hopefully it will be as fun as I'm hoping. It's going to be hard to compete against OSU though. I love and miss you all!

Manch Vegas

After couch surfing without an apartment to live in and spending a few days in Philly for a conference, I am finally settled into my apartment. Two of my roommates are from different parts of Michigan but seem to be pretty cool. The other one is from North Carolina and he's a bit of a handful. Overall, not too bad a mix of roomates.

I'm just finishing up my first week of work at the City Clerk's Office. I spent the first two days being shown the city by two former police officers that work in my office. They showed me all sides of Manchester. I was enlightened on video poker gambling("ManchVegas"), licensing every type of business possible, and the many issues with neglected properties. These past three days I've just been sitting here on my ass with nothing to do because the guys I work with are at some training thing. Hopefully next week I'll get a little more done.

I miss you all and I miss Ohio State but this is a very interesting place and I'm looking forward to the experience. I don't know if I'll make it back to Ohio until the holidays but if I do I'll let you know.


-Rob

A little of this and that

Hey Guys! Hope everything is well with all of you and everyone is transitioning smoothly :) I'm really pumped about the blog...I actually just recently started my own so I'm becoming a blogging queen now I guess.

Maggie, I actually met someone a few weeks ago who knew Scott Boden as well! That Scott is just too popular.

I'm still in cbus...nannying, but looking for something else full time. Recently I have become a jack of all trades apparently because someone found out I can give kids swim lessons so I literally have a list of parents wanting me to come to their house and teach their kids to swim...strange. I'm not complaining though - they pay.

I'm also helping Susie Whittington re-do her home office, which I think will be fun. We all know how sweet and awesome she is :) I went out to their house for a consultation and going back next week for some idea presenting, fun!

Going to Buffalo, NY this weekend to spend some time with friends of Nathan and I's...(that's weird to type, but it's how I say it)

Can't wait to hear what everyone is up to!

-Mama Godwin

Why My Life is Completely Insane

So I am at Miami University. In Oxford, Ohio. Near the booming metropolis of Hamilton, Ohio (In the week I have been hear I have heard it referred to as that 4 times.) Even though I am scared to death of small towns, I have a feeling I am going to love it here. It is like Rocky River on steroids, -the lake, +a WalMart and a bunch of townies.

I am going here for my Student Affairs in Higher Education degree and I am in a cohort of 19. My assistantship is in Residence Life and on the first day I had a guy come up to me and ask me if I knew Scott Boden. When I got really excited (I will tell you why later) he started doing an impression of Scott that was amazing. Sorry to tell you James, but it blew your impression out of the water. This impression happened at some roadside diner in Indiana on our way to a 4H county fair. Yes this is what my life has become.

I say that I got really excited about the whole mention of Scott Boden because no one here went to or has any connections to Ohio State. Which is weird for me. A couple of my professors do, but I don't start taking classes until August, so I haven't had much experience with them. Also, there are so many Kent, Texas A&M, and Grand Valley State people here that it is weird to not have connections based solely on the love of OSU. Needless to say, I miss Columbus and all of you. Hopefully I will have some crazy stories for you soon, but for right now I am in Oxford, Ohio at Miami University where almost no students take summer classes. The place is dead.

Hope all is going well for you.

(For those of you who spent a lot of time in the Union/were a marketing intern or know the marketing department well, one of the full time staff members that is on my team is Kurt Foriska's identical twin. Their personalities are nothing alike, but it is scary how much they look alike. I keep staring at him, which is weird and creepy since I am the new kid no one really knows, and I think he is finally getting nervous around me. I need to stop this. I am trying to figure out how to get a picture to you.)

Holler

Hello my fellow Stater Grads,

I hope you're all doing well. It's crazy to think that we're all preparing for graduate/professional school and/or a career at this very moment. Me? I just finished up my 2007 taxes and am working diligently to get the 2008 ones in STAT. You know, gotta catch up on all of those great things. I leave for Alabama (my dad's house) this coming Monday and then for Athens, GA for grad school on August 9th. My apartment is amazing, so you should all come visit. I'm paying an arm and a leg for it, so I figure I should share the fabulousness with as many of my friends as possible. You know, stick it to the man! (Shut up, James.)

In any case, much more logistical planning to do. This post is lame thus far, so I will end by telling you that at this past weekend's SPHINX Advance, I peed the tent - on both Vicki and myself.

Gotta love the memories!

ITS(Can't wait for James to post about the Blacker & Deckerrrrr)S,

Mark

The Beginning

Let's all give this a try!

-James