Student SPHere 2008-09

Spring Break
While most of my friends went to places like Florida or Nicaragua, I stayed in Minneapolis. Fortunately, it was surprisingly warm. I caught up a little on work and cooked a lot. Udon with shrimp, shrimp fettuccine, ramen, etc. Everything new we tried turned out surprisingly well. It was a good mental break.

This is photo (not mine) is what we were going for when making udon with shrimp. But we breaded the shrimp with panko instead of doing tempura, since there were only two of us.

School
Busy as usual! You can safely assume that I will be stressed out until I get everything done. This week, I have to finish a literature review for work, a 20 page draft for my thesis, and some miscellaneous papers for my other classes.

Graduation
I will be flying home to Chicago to attend my brother's graduation. He's an electrical engineering major, or as he says,"Putting the double E back into 'geek.'" I haven't seen my family since Winter Break, which is probably the longest interval of time in which I have not gone back home. Usually during the semester I make it back once or twice. My sister also moved out to Louisiana for her job, so I am excited about going home, even if it is for a weekend.

I am not sure if I am walking for my own commencement. There are a lot of other projects I need to accomplish, so for me, walking is not a big deal. I wonder if I'd regret it - it should be pretty short anyway - but at the same time, I can't really envision myself walking when I have so many loose ends to tie up. I'd rather celebrate getting a job at this point.

Malpractice Ball
Last Saturday was Malpractice Ball. It's a formal event usually involving the Law and Medical School, but this year they included the School of Public Health. It was held at the Blaisdell Mansion.

Severin and I got there around 7pm, when it was sparsely populated. It felt a little like prom, but without the stress and drama. Here is a photo of the dance floor as it began to get busier.

Some of the first year Epi students. Everyone cleans up nicely! The concept of formal events is a great idea for graduate students to get out of their sweatpants and into some fancier outfits. As our taxi cab driver put it, "Wow, so it's like 'she's so pretty now, but normally she's so ugly at school.' That's how it is, right?" Well, it's not quite that drastic!

On Soccer
The Bad SASes finally won a game! It was the Sunday right after Spring Break. It was an amazing feeling, although I am beginning to tire of people on the opposing teams who take the game too seriously. I've witnessed a lot of dirty moves that result in bruising for our team players. Hey guys, it's INTRAMURALS.

On Ultimate
We had our first game last Sunday. A lot of people were not feeling one hundred percent due to Malpractice Ball, but we did really well considering. While we lost, there's a lot of potential this semester. I hope that the first years can continue this into next year!

We typically play on the West Bank Fields by the Walter Mondale Law building. The field on Sunday was amazing. All the rain and melting snow had saturated the ground to a point of extreme muddiness. My shoes are no longer bright yellow.

As a consolation, Severin and I went to Saigon in St Paul. It's a delicious Vietnamese restaurant that our friend Joe suggested to us.

This weekend should be pretty tame. My thesis draft is due to my advisor on Saturday, so my Friday night will consist of me, my laptop, and a lot of reading. I do have a breakfast party to attend Saturday morning, which I am looking forward to!