The Road Less Traveled

My cousin, Sonya, sent me some homemade brownies for my birthday.  She shipped them all the way from San Diego.  I heart her.  She rocks.

Sorry for the lack of updates.  The internet in our apartment has been down (again).  We got a new router, however, and now all is right with the world.  :)  

When I moved to New Haven I really had no idea what to expect.  I had a vision of how things may be yet everything seemed so distant and far off.  I haven’t been here long at all.  In the grand scheme of life, four weeks really is nothing more than the blink of an eye.  Yet, it feels like I have been here for a lifetime.  My goal coming into all this was to make the most of the opportunity I have been given and live each day for the blessing that it is.  While I knew coming here was a blessing, being here has exceeded my wildest expectations.  It’s not so much the classes.  I know they are the reason I am here, but my favorite moments of course, take place elsewhere.  In the past week alone, I have gotten to sit in a room and listen to Tony Blair speak, walk down the street and hear bells toll from one of the many chapels on campus, and see and amazing view of the school from the top of the school of architecture.  These moments are what they are however, because of the people I have met.  I’ve kept milk in the fridge longer than I have known most of the people out here, yet somehow they feel like family. 

Speaking of family, Janice and Gabe are flying out tonight to celebrate our birthdays!  I’m going to meet them in Manhattan tomorrow afternoon.  I can’t believe that in a little more than 12 hrs I am going to be spending time with two of the people that I love the most.  Really, can life get any better? I think not.

Happy Birthday to two of my favorite people on the planet, my bans and my bee.

I miss you both dearly.  I wish I was there to celebrate with you.  I am certainly there in spirit.

THURSDAY

Work Hard, play harder, sounds like a good motto to me.  I certainly lived by that creed this weekend.  Thankfully, I had no classes on Friday, which meant we could kick off the weekend on Thursday night.  Yeeli (classmate/roommate), Chandy (classmate/friend), and I spent the evening floating back and forth between two of our favorite locales, BAR and GPSCY.  We ended the night by stopping by some random house party and then attempting to find food at 3:30 a.m.  We finally hooked ourselves up with some pizza, which tasted phenomenal!  Overall a very good night.

FRIDAY

Being the brilliant person that I am, I booked myself an eyebrow waxing appointment for 10 am on a Friday morning, knowing full well that I was going to be staying out late the night before.  I woke up at 10:03 am.  Fantastic.  I called the salon and was informed that there was an appointment right after mine, so I had to be there by 10:20 latest, or reschedule.  I brushed my teeth, threw on some gym shorts, and ran the six blocks to the salon making it there by 10:16.  Whew.  You will never, ever catch me running if I am late for class.  Threaten to make me miss an eyebrow appointment, however, and my ass moves.  Overall consensus;  not as good as Rana in Costa Mesa, but good enough to prevent me from looking like a Sasquatch while I am in New Haven.  

I came home, showered and then slept until 2pm.  When I woke up it was pouring buckets.  It rains here so frequently, its insane.  Definitely going to take some getting used to.  I spent my afternoon doing Epidemiology homework (how exciting).  At around 7:30, Chandy came to pick us up for dinner at the Noodle House on York Street.  The food was decent, but the boba was severely lacking.  It really made me miss Cha for Tea.  After dinner, it was off to Chandy’s house for some cookie baking and studying.  We made the most amazing chocolate chip cookies ever and then proceeded to do biostatistics homework.  It was about 3 am when we finally decided to close our books.  Since it was so late, Yeeli and I ended up sleeping at Chandy’s on the futon.  

SATURDAY 

We were woken up by the sultry sounds of Chandy’s roommate, Bo, singing and playing the guitar.  The guy has an incredible voice and writes and composes his own music.  It’s so awesome to hear.  Note to self; get some of Bo’s music in MP3 format.  After an hour of being mesmerized by Bo, Chandy dropped us off back at our apartment where I attempted to read for Health Policy.  I wasn’t as productive as planned, however.  Oh, well.  Better luck next time.  At around 7ish we proceeded to get ourselves dolled up for the Med School Semi Formal. $20 bought admission as well as open bar.  Sweet! We met up with classmate/friend Javier and attended another house party for a power hour, which is the same thing as century club, just with a more rhyme-y title.  From there, we proceeded to catch the bus to take us to the dance.  

The venue was beautiful, but the company was what made the night.  

With Yeeli

With Javier (note the shape and cleanliness of my eyebrows!)

We ended the night at a house party (again), and left around 4ish.  Classmates/friends Javier and Otis were nice enough to escort us home.  It was raining when we left which made the walk not so fun.  We made it back safely though!  A nice conclusion to a very fun night.

SUNDAY

Woke up at noon and dragged myself out of bed to meet up with some friends for brunch.  Ate at a place called Copper Kitchen on Chapel.  My bacon and cheese omelet was fantastic.  After brunch I again made a feeble attempt at reading.  I managed to finish all of my articles for Social and Behavioral influences on Health, however failed at writing the paper associated with them.  Must do it tomorrow!

Thus concludes the weekend.  It is now time to resign myself to five days of reading, homework, and classes.  :(  Happy Monday everyone!  (Yeah, I know….there is no such thing, but it’s nice to be optimistic)

It rains so freaking much here.  Good God, it’s annoying.

7 years ago today, I was sitting in a hotel room in Paris watching as airplanes flew into the World Trade Center.  At that moment, I had no idea how immense of an impact that event would have on the future of our country and the world.

2 years ago today, I started my job at the Health Education Center.  At that moment, I had no idea how much of a role that job would play in shaping my future career goals.

Today, I am a graduate student at Yale University.  At this moment, I have no idea how much my experiences here are going to influence the rest of my life.  I know the impact will be profound, but in terms of  tangibility, I can’t seem to grasp it all just yet.

What is going to happen in the upcoming years?  Where will our country be?  Who will be our leader?  How will the rest of the world view us?  And personally, who am I going to be on September 11th of next year?  What will I have experienced by September 11th five years from now?

I have no idea what the answers to these questions are.  I can say however, that I am very, very excited to find out.

Ticket to go see Tony Blair speak; handled!

I fully intended to post all about my journey and arrival in New Haven, as well as give updates as to what I did during the first week here.  I waited too long, however. Now I’m just lazy.  Instead, I will say this;  

New Haven is great.  Classes are already starting to get challenging, so I really have to make sure I stay ahead of the game.  I need to get tickets for the Yale vs. Harvard game and also to see Tony Blair speak.  He’s a lecturer here this year.  How cool is that?  I just hope tickets for both of those events don’t run out before I can get my little hands on them.  

Despite all of the amazing things that are going on here, the best part of my day is talking to people from home.  Sometimes it takes someone who is 3,000 miles away to put what is right in front of me in perspective.  That, and it’s always nice to talk shit with someone who actually understands and is willing to tolerate my humor.  

Last, but not least, I finally have consistent internet so posts should be much more frequent.  Thanks to my adoring public (all three of you) for reading this.  I promise not to let you down!

I made it!  I am in New Haven.  I apologize for the lack of updates.  I have been without internet for the past week, which totally sucked ass.  I have it now though, so regular updates will be coming!  I will post later in more detail everything that has happened in the past week and a half.   For now, I’ll just say that I like being at Yale quite a bit.  The majority of my classmates are extremely friendly as well as extremely intelligent.  I have a feeling I am going to learn a lot from them.  New Haven is a quaint little town with a whole lot of character.  There are tons of great little restaurants all packed into a single mile radius.  The nightlife is also surprisingly fun.  Within the first two days of being here, I’ve identified a few places that I think will become consistent watering holes for the next couple of years.  

In other news, I started classes a couple of days ago.  Its a bit strange to be a student again.  The concept of going back to having homework sort of boggles my mind, especially since I haven’t touched a textbook in over five years.   Homework fears aside, however,  I actually really enjoy schoolwork, and studying sort of floats my boat so I think I am going to really like the next couple of years.  

In case anybody is interested, my classes for this semester are as follows;

Biostatistics I

Epidemiology

Toxicology

Social and Behavioral Influences on Health

Health Policy and Administration

Biostatistics is the course that worries me the most.   I am pretty sure that I can rock the rest of my courses, but I have a feeling that one is going to give me a bit of grief.  The cool thing about Yale is that all the courses are pass/no pass so I think I should be alright.  

I am making lots of new friends here, but I still really miss everyone at home.  At this moment in particular I am especially missing Janice, as it is her birthday today.  Happy Birthday, Jan!  I love you!

The clock on my computer is still set to Cali time which is quite deceptive.  When I glance up I see that it is 1:10 am only to realize that it is actually 4:10 am.  Holy shit.  I really should change the damn clock, but I kind of don’t have the heart to.  Not just yet.  I really should drag my ass to bed though.  I’ll update in more detail (with pictures) tomorrow!