Friday, August 21, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
More funny/interesting North Carolina experiences:
-you can buy pepper spray at the license branch here. (Well, at the plates one, which is separate from the one you have to go to get your driver's license). Yes, I'll take my plates, and one of the pepper spray, I said. "Sure, sweetie, what color do you want?" Um, blue, I said. Score. Now I am ferocious or something.
-I went to that license branch wearing a black flip flop and a tan one and didn't realize this until I went to my bank for what was I think the 5th time in 3 days because of all the paperwork and accounts I've been doing, like I think I should be hanging out with them on the weekends or something now, and the lady was like "Ms. Jantzen, did you mean to put on two different shoes today? Is that maybe an Indiana thing?" Nope... Not even she believed that one... I had two pairs of flip flops under my desk here and just put my feet into them and never looked down.
-You can buy alcohol on Sunday. Laura-Lee and I wanted a bottle of wine with dinner and asked first at customer service, where I think they thought we were crazy. "We're from out of state," I said.
-Today one of the orientation events was an optional safety/security seminar. Since I come from a college where you could leave your door standing open and your laptop there while you wander the campus alone at 3am, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get some education. There were only probably 12 of us there, and 4 of us were BME students. What is it about us biomedical engineers that made us either more afraid or more into safety? Yes, there are a lot of us, but 4 of 12 is still disproportionately high. Not sure what this says about us but will keep my feelers out.
-The Engineering Dept. apparently puts on a happy hour with free beer from 4-6 every Friday at the cafe in the bottom of our building. What a fun idea! Beer or no beer, it's just nice that they do things to get all the engineering programs together, both students and professors. There are rumors that budget cutbacks might affect this nice service this year, and I hope that doesn't happen (what unfortunate timing on my part that would be).
-you can buy pepper spray at the license branch here. (Well, at the plates one, which is separate from the one you have to go to get your driver's license). Yes, I'll take my plates, and one of the pepper spray, I said. "Sure, sweetie, what color do you want?" Um, blue, I said. Score. Now I am ferocious or something.
-I went to that license branch wearing a black flip flop and a tan one and didn't realize this until I went to my bank for what was I think the 5th time in 3 days because of all the paperwork and accounts I've been doing, like I think I should be hanging out with them on the weekends or something now, and the lady was like "Ms. Jantzen, did you mean to put on two different shoes today? Is that maybe an Indiana thing?" Nope... Not even she believed that one... I had two pairs of flip flops under my desk here and just put my feet into them and never looked down.
-You can buy alcohol on Sunday. Laura-Lee and I wanted a bottle of wine with dinner and asked first at customer service, where I think they thought we were crazy. "We're from out of state," I said.
-Today one of the orientation events was an optional safety/security seminar. Since I come from a college where you could leave your door standing open and your laptop there while you wander the campus alone at 3am, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get some education. There were only probably 12 of us there, and 4 of us were BME students. What is it about us biomedical engineers that made us either more afraid or more into safety? Yes, there are a lot of us, but 4 of 12 is still disproportionately high. Not sure what this says about us but will keep my feelers out.
-The Engineering Dept. apparently puts on a happy hour with free beer from 4-6 every Friday at the cafe in the bottom of our building. What a fun idea! Beer or no beer, it's just nice that they do things to get all the engineering programs together, both students and professors. There are rumors that budget cutbacks might affect this nice service this year, and I hope that doesn't happen (what unfortunate timing on my part that would be).
Monday, August 17, 2009
I have made it to North Carolina! Last weekend Melissa & her mom & I packed up my house and then Saturday we loaded the truck with the help of several other friends. That night Carrie & Alyson & I drove down to my parents' house, where we overnighted before making the 9-hour trip to Durham. Sunday evening, we got everything moved in down here. The 3 of us lovely ladies really did it all - so we felt kinda like superheroes :-D They helped me unpack a bunch and we also got to spend a few days looking around the area. So grateful to have had all the help I had - packing, loading, moving, unloading! Don't know what I would have done without my friends for all of that. :) During this past week I got business taken care of - library & bank accounts, new license & license plate, bought my books, met with my advisor, etc.! Then my friend Laura-Lee was down from Friday night to this morning and we bought me some things I needed like a bed and some little cabinets to put around the apartment. It's coming together! :) Classes start a week from today, but orientation is this week, so there are various events here & there. I'm pretty terrified of going to some of those things by myself - that's very hard for me, but that's the way I've got to do it to make friends.
Anyway I like the area where I'm living, I like my apartment, and so far the whole area here seems nice. It's pretty hot but I guess it'll be nicer in the winter!!! :) Oh, and did I mention? I loove Southern food :-D We used to have this chain Bojangles in Louisville and slowly they all went out and my family was so sad because we used to pick up lunch there on the weekends all the time, and I loved the fried chicken & their seasoned fries & dirty rice. And when we started getting within like 100 miles of Durham there were Bojangles signs for like every exit and I was like, sa-weet, I'm so excited! I ate there with Carrie & Alyson and with Laura-Lee, and it was just as good as I remembered! Not to mention the one on the week-day lunch was *packed* so I guess I can feel secure that not all of the milion of them in a short radius from me will be going out anytime soon. Plus Carrie, Alyson, & I went to this neat place called Carolina Brewery in Chapel Hill and I had some killer shrimp & grits. I have always loved grits so people have joked that I am Southern on the inside. I guess just without the accent.
That's all for now! Just an update since everal people have been joking that I must have fallen off the face of the earth or been trapped under a dresser or something :) It's been a very busy week takin' care of business!
Anyway I like the area where I'm living, I like my apartment, and so far the whole area here seems nice. It's pretty hot but I guess it'll be nicer in the winter!!! :) Oh, and did I mention? I loove Southern food :-D We used to have this chain Bojangles in Louisville and slowly they all went out and my family was so sad because we used to pick up lunch there on the weekends all the time, and I loved the fried chicken & their seasoned fries & dirty rice. And when we started getting within like 100 miles of Durham there were Bojangles signs for like every exit and I was like, sa-weet, I'm so excited! I ate there with Carrie & Alyson and with Laura-Lee, and it was just as good as I remembered! Not to mention the one on the week-day lunch was *packed* so I guess I can feel secure that not all of the milion of them in a short radius from me will be going out anytime soon. Plus Carrie, Alyson, & I went to this neat place called Carolina Brewery in Chapel Hill and I had some killer shrimp & grits. I have always loved grits so people have joked that I am Southern on the inside. I guess just without the accent.
That's all for now! Just an update since everal people have been joking that I must have fallen off the face of the earth or been trapped under a dresser or something :) It's been a very busy week takin' care of business!
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Should I have eaten an apple a day?
There is nothing like medical problems to make you appreciate your good health, including things you never thought you could appreciate. When I found out about my freakish skin allergies 3 yrs ago and learned that I'd probably never be able to buy mainstream shampoo at the store again, I thought that was a big deal. Like 'wow, I'm probably always going to have this. I'm going to have to deal with this forever, weird.' Haha, um, no. Not a big deal. Perspective is everything! It's kind of crazy because I'm still [technically] just 24, but yet have these random problems. How fun for both the wallet and the conversational circuit ;-) At least it's something that can be managed with medicine; hopefully that keeps me in check for a long time. :) So, it's all good, don't worry about me [although do pray for me if you do/ are inclined], just - if you're healthy, don't take it for granted :) Although as I've experienced it's almost impossible not to when it's all you know.
Now in other news I'm doing a thoroughly slowpoke job of packing up this house to move to NC. So, too bad that's happening Saturday!! I finished writing my goodbye notes to coworkers today but not without crying over a few of them. I realized yesterday that I definitely moved from the cold and unemotional stage to the hyperemotional stage of this process. And today at work didn't help what with all of the thoughtful cards, gifts, emails, etc. This is not easy. Even though the overall idea of what I'm doing is exciting, the nuts & bolts execution is not without its little bit of heartache.
*edit* I can't believe this, when I posted this that sentence read 'exiting' instead of 'exciting!' Geeze Louise! ;-) :-p
There is nothing like medical problems to make you appreciate your good health, including things you never thought you could appreciate. When I found out about my freakish skin allergies 3 yrs ago and learned that I'd probably never be able to buy mainstream shampoo at the store again, I thought that was a big deal. Like 'wow, I'm probably always going to have this. I'm going to have to deal with this forever, weird.' Haha, um, no. Not a big deal. Perspective is everything! It's kind of crazy because I'm still [technically] just 24, but yet have these random problems. How fun for both the wallet and the conversational circuit ;-) At least it's something that can be managed with medicine; hopefully that keeps me in check for a long time. :) So, it's all good, don't worry about me [although do pray for me if you do/ are inclined], just - if you're healthy, don't take it for granted :) Although as I've experienced it's almost impossible not to when it's all you know.
Now in other news I'm doing a thoroughly slowpoke job of packing up this house to move to NC. So, too bad that's happening Saturday!! I finished writing my goodbye notes to coworkers today but not without crying over a few of them. I realized yesterday that I definitely moved from the cold and unemotional stage to the hyperemotional stage of this process. And today at work didn't help what with all of the thoughtful cards, gifts, emails, etc. This is not easy. Even though the overall idea of what I'm doing is exciting, the nuts & bolts execution is not without its little bit of heartache.
*edit* I can't believe this, when I posted this that sentence read 'exiting' instead of 'exciting!' Geeze Louise! ;-) :-p
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