Student SPHere 2008-09

The past week was admittedly stressful. I managed to get seventy percent of my tasks completed, but also encountered several major stumbling blocks. I've gotten over the most embarrassing of them so I'll share that with you.

For my Master's thesis seminar this past Wednesday, we had to present five minute speeches on our research projects. Public speaking is not my strong point, although I no longer fantasize about tripping and knocking myself out as I walk to the front of the classroom. As they say, baby steps. In my mind, five minutes of public speaking is not a lot of time so it didn't seem like a big deal. However, I did not give myself enough time to practice my presentation, which became evident as soon as I opened my mouth. I gave people the wrong impression about my project; for some reason they thought I was doing a program evaluation as opposed to a data analysis of the survey. That's hideously far off the mark. Ironically, I was feeling relatively calm right before this fiasco. Typically my nerves are in tangle, so I suppose that was one positive note about the whole affair. Note to self: practice in front of the bathroom mirror, even if it's just a short speech.

The progress on my thesis is going more slowly than desired, but there are more pressing issues that require immediate attention: midterms! I have my midterms this week, so I'm feeling rather tense. My STATA exam was pushed back one week, so that's one welcome relief. Even though it's only Tuesday, the upcoming weekend is already showing up in my dreams.

This past Saturday I celebrated my birthday with a road trip to Duluth. Duluth is located on Lake Superior, which is probably my favorite lake. A friend had taken me up to Bayfield, Wisconsin a few years back, introducing me to its awesomeness. Lake Michigan can't compare. I had also read somewhere last year that the autumn is beautiful in Duluth and driving up there has always been on my mind. The previous weekend was rainy and postponed my plans until now. The internet was showing good weather on the 18th all last week, so my boyfriend Severin and I took it as a sign to get out of Minneapolis. Aside from planning to bring snacks, we didn't organize this too much. My main goal was to see the fall foliage; it's not hard to entertain me.

Driving there is easy; you can take I-35W all the way north until you hit Duluth. If you want to go further north and drive along the lakeshore, you take get onto Minnesota State Highway 61. There are plenty of natural diversions along the way. We ourselves were headed to Gooseberry Falls, which we randomly chose on the map after wandering briefly through the touristy district in Duluth.

On the coast of Lake Superior

Severin walking on the rocks

Gooseberry Falls was an excellent choice. There were plenty of waterfalls and hiking trails. The area provided an excellent view of the season.

A view at Gooseberry Falls

We finished the day with a delicious dinner at Nokomis. Overall, it was a great birthday!

We returned Saturday night because Sunday was the day of our playoffs. The Confounders were at the very bottom of the bracket but we played an amazing first game and won! Unfortunately our next game was scheduled right afterwards. In addition to our fatigue, we had a few people not show up. We lost that game, but I felt relatively happy. We're coming together as a team and playing more as a team, rather than some random SPH students playing together. I hope we can organize regular practices through the winter and perform even better next spring!

Peter shutting it down

Lizz making a great catch!

Final group shot of the season