Back to the student life, sort-of

Well, it is midnight my time, and I've been working hard since 7 am with classwork, reading, assignments, 7 hours of actual classes, team meetings, going out for drinks with friends, etc.  I must be a student!

Only, times have changed me a little...  today I didn't give myself a large enough window to "warm up" before our first team meeting at 7 am, and needed to excuse myself to get sick (darn pregnancy, I thought I was past that).  And before lunch, I had a free hour while others were reviewing Excel skills, and I headed straight to bed for a nap instead of out for a run or to a quiet place to study.   And while I did go out "for drinks," mine was a sip of sangria and a tall glass of water.... and after an hour, I said good-bye to my party-hopping fellows and came back for some studying, and what was supposed to be an on-time bedtime.

I am really liking school, and I'm finding that the students are fun and interesting and much more laid back than at many other schools I could have chosen.  The faculty seem to be genuinely top-notch and actually darn funny!  They really know how to relate things to the "real world" and don't waste our time with a lot of unnecessary number-crunching or detail, concentrating instead on making sure we really understand the concepts and the reasoning behind the details. (Which is not to say there aren't plenty of folks worried about all the math!)

I am halfway through my first residency now, and was doing really really well with being away from Xander (Jake too, but he's left for work several times, whereas I've never been away for more than a night from Xander).  We've barely left our building in 5 days, and have been busy from morning 'til night, so I've really been too busy to be too homesick. That is, until last night, after seeing Xander on Skype, and today when all the family rolled in for the family orientation and fun-afternoon tomorrow.  So many really cute kids, and proud parents, and I got a little teary and lonely, I'll admit!

Tomorrow will be a little bit of an easy day, since I don't have family to show off or show around.  I've taken a few pictures, which I'll post tomorrow.  After morning classes, I hope to finally get a run in and counter-act the long hours and 6 meals a day that they feed us here, and get ahead again on the workload- or, maybe I'll take another quick nap...

-Erin