Living up the summer

So it has been 4 weeks since school has been out. What have I been doing with my time you ask? Well, I have been keeping busy for sure. Sometimes I feel like a bum because I'm not actually working at at a job this summer. You see, we only get ONE summer off during medical school, and that's this summer. Because of my trip to Indonesia and other things I'm doing, it turned out I wouldn't have much time for a job anyways, and I think I will be glad that I took the time to really have fun. It has also been nice to spend time with friends and play/listen to music! I have been playing a lot of guitar, and finally got out the trombone too. P-town has a yearly blues fest, and the AF has a concert every year which I went to also. Fourth of July, of course, had fireworks, and there has been lots of other random activities, errand-running, READING, and preparing for my trip too.

I also moved into a new house with my friends from med school (2 of the people are in my class plus 1 is an honorary-med student...i.e. med-student wife). It is a wonderful place and in a lovely neighborhood. I am really enjoying my new living arrangement--especially because we are all friends: we care about each other's needs, can go have fun together, and share the love of Christ. The house is near the river, which has a very nice trail next to it that doesn't allow motorized vehicles. It has easy access to downtown too, and isn't too far from school. We share a nice big living room, 2 decks, dining room, and kitchen, and before I moved in Brian and Julie even put in some carpet in the garage to make a bonus room.

Since I've only been in town for a year, most of which was spent doing school stuff, I've been taking the time to do a little more exploration around the city and be outside as much as possible. Brian and Julie and I a few weeks ago one pleasant Saturday evening decided to go on a spontaneous camping trip--that is, at 6pm we decided to go somewhere and by 7pm we were out the door. I have been camping so much this summer--it is awesome! We headed out I-84 hoping to find a campsite somewhere. Well, we ended up having to keep traveling from place to place looking for a spot. When we finally found one at a state park along the Columbia we discovered why: it is RIGHT next to the train tracks, and so several times that night we were wakened by a blaring train horn! It was probably my first camping trip out with friends (I had always gone with family), first time so spontaneous, first time sleeping out w/o a tent, first time(?) roasting marshmellows over a campstove (we searched for firewood but couldn't find much...the next morning we snagged some from an empty campsite). The following morning we headed to Eagle Creek and took a long hike up to some waterfalls. A splendid time!

I've also been doing lots of biking since there are lots of great trails and roads planned for biking. Sometimes it's just too hot for me to go running, although I've done a little of that too. I've also enjoyed swimming in the Columbia in this hot weather--there's no Lake WA to swim in and I've been hankering for a cool dip. I think I was spoiled growing up next to the lake. I learned after moving here (and after I took a swim in the river myself) that the Willamette is severely contaminated...

Another fun thing I tried was windsurfing!! My bf Dustin is a big windsurfer, and was willing to teach me, so we went out to Hood River in the Gorge and I rented some gear and tried it! It was actually very fun, though difficult and progress was slow, and I can't wait until I get to try again. Gear wasn't too expensive to rent. As Dustin says, once you have gear, all you need is $ for gas and wind...I never would have done it though if someone close to me hadn't been into it.

And now what? I'm off to Papua, Indonesia TODAY!!! The time has finally arrived and I am so excited! I will plan to write stuff up on the blog when I get back. However, my sister's wedding is the following week, so it may actually be a bit before the full-meal-deal gets up.

A great start to summer on the road

Well, I am living up this summer break! So much has already transpired since I last blogged. Time has gotten away from me.

Back at the end of May and beginning of June I did a LOT of traveling around to various graduations and activities. Two of my sisters graduated (one from college, one from high school), and since I live out of town, this necessitated driving quite a bit. Of course, family is worth it. Schoolwise, we finished up the year with more infectious diseases and treatments, now of which I cannot remember hardly anything because my brain has been on sleep mode. On June 15 we had our final exam which was cumulative for the entire course. The evening before was Cynthia's graduation, so I had to drive up north. I had brought my flashcards that have all the wierd bugs to look at while I was waiting. It was kind of funny because I was sitting next to my grandma, and she kept looking over my shoulder reading them too. Anyhow, I was proud of Cynthia for graduating (the last one from high school!), and she was very happy to have had all of us there.

The next day I got up bleary eyed and studied a final bit before taking the final at 8am. Whew! Then the rest of my family joined me for lunch, and we sped off into the east along I-84 to go on our Road Trip 2007 to the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone Ntl Park, and Glacier Ntl Park. What a trip!!! So many strange and wonderful and magnificient things to see--wildlife, towering mountains, mudpots and hot springs, bacteria mats, and geysers. Yes, we saw Old Faithful go off--it was kind of funny because there's this whole crowd of people waiting on bleachers to see it, and at first it tricks you because it's just spurting. Then it goes of really huge for a few seconds. In some ways, Yellowstone feels like a theme park which I didn't really like because it's all touristy and doesn't feel as natural--which is what so amazing because all of it is. Another interesting thing is that Yellowstone keeps changing over time due to the techtonic plate movements. It is an amazingly beautiful place and people come from all over the world to see it and even to work there.

Jess and Derek tag-teamed with us for 2 days to Wyoming. Total, We spent 6 days camping in various places, a few even in RV-type parks which is NOT our traditional style of camping (we prefer more wilderness), but it was fun. We drove over 2000 miles in 7 days, sometimes putting in 12-14 hrs of roving about the parks so we could see things. We weren't originally going to go to Glacier, but we finished Yellowstone in 2 days, and so we decided to drive up there. Unknowingly, after driving through miles of Montana wilderness we find that Going-to-the-Sun road is closed at the pass! Thankfully, we were still able to find a campsite on the east end, and then the following morning drove as far as we could going from that direction, then drove to the other end and followed the road nearly to the pass. The mountains were absolutely magnficient. Unfortunately we didn't have much time to hike around, but just seeing the mountains and waterfalls was beautiful in itself, and we listened to a very interesting bear ranger talk the night before with a lovely campsite looking out towards the mountains. One funny thing that happened was my dad who was the camera-king, dropped his camera in the toilet!! Thankfully he was able to open things enough to let it dry and the pictures and camera function was preserved.

I actually was quite proud of the family for getting along so well. We normally get along really well and love each other lots, but it had been quite some time since we had been in such tight spaces like the magic red van for hours like that. And there was also the fact that 3 of us kids are out of the house now and are used to doing our own thing or going at our own pace. It was probably the last great adventure like that we will have for a while because of where I'm at with my schooling. What a great start to the summer!!!