The Places In Between

This summer came to an abrupt halt yesterday with the official "Welcome to the Second Year of Medical School" Lecture.  Sometime last week, after two weeks of no school emails I realized I changed my password without changing my forwarding password and voila, 15 new emails all about important things for the next week and year and, you know, life. Naturally, I disregarded them. At that point it was still summer. And it looked something like this:

Zoology went to the bay and found plenty of critters to play with.

 Zoology seems a lot more interesting than biotechnology mainly because they get to dissect all different multicellular organisms, whereas I get to prep labs that use E. coli culture. We did make bacteria glow using a jellyfish gene. My prep days consisted of setting out glassware and aliquoting solutions.

 But my nights and weekends make it worth it every year. Kate and I continued our adventure. Our trip to Providence basically turned into one of the better dates I have been on. We went to the mall and shopped a bit. We realized that there is not a lot we like at Forever 21 but we were filling dressing rooms in Ann Taylor Loft and digging the music selection. This was one of the first signs we are getting "old". After lamenting the loss of our childhood, we walked to find dinner away from the crowds. Yelp showed us a street with lots of Italian restaurants but I really doubted it when we walked under the 95 N overpass passing a car with a broken in window. Low and behold we turned a corner and came across a bustling street. We found a plaza that looked straight out of Italy with a fountain, flowers, and live music. The wait was 45 minutes but the hostess let us steal a reservation that looked like a no-show. Homemade pasta and red wine were just as good as the atmosphere and spectacular people watching. We laughed at the scantily clad girls strutting by our table. While I might be the same age as them, there is definitely a disconnect. I enjoyed my wine, the view, and a good friend.

 We then walked down to the canal for Waterfire which is basically piers of fire on the canal with gondolas and throngs of people. Our search for ice cream was a complete bust which is astounding given the massive amounts of families that flock to Providence for Waterfire. We decided that a traveling ice cream stand could make a killing on Saturday nights in Providence.

Staff BBQs are also a staple of my summer adventures.

A spectrum of skin tone (featuring Amber's glow-in-the-dark skin)

I got a reprieve from Biotechnology when I went with Kate's astrophysics class to the science museum in Boston. The planetarium was spectacular for napping and the electric lightning show was awesome.

Tuesday night TA-RA bonding at Colt State Park was a success even with impending doom on the horizon.

And while the sunset was spectacular, the sky looked pissed a full 180 degrees in the other direction.

 So we ditched early and got some ice cream. Did I mention we eat lots of ice cream at camp?

 

 Kate and projected karaoke onto the side of our building and the staffers sang the night away in celebration of the near end of camp and completing student evaluations.

Our last day festivities included a 100 foot long slip and slide full of baby shampoo (easy on the eyes) made my me and Kate. While spectacular, something about sprinting and flinging yourself on the ground makes ones body angry for several days.

 And later in the night there was mattress sliding.

This was followed by stuffing and pumpkin pie for Gaby who, being from Mexico, has never had Thanksgiving foods. Great times were had by all and the next morning was snap back to reality, pack the car, drive home to an apartment in ruins. Thanks to the help of my mom and sister, less than 24 hours my new apartment is looking great. Pictures to come!
So while summer may technically be over, I'll be skipping class and hitting the pool and trying to hold on to my youth as long as possible, even if I like the music at Ann Taylor Loft. I'll happily live in the somewhere in between.