Incommunicado

Ah, the farm: stuck between paradise and Siberia. It's beautiful, especially in contrast to New York. New York is not beautiful; it's just impressive (or opressive, depending on the day), with it's elephantine skyline and expansive bridges. For the first few days in North Dakota, I wondered how to find a balance between equally satisfying but remarkably different lifestyles. Then I realized that to balance them would be to dilute them, and so I have been satisfied with the extremes.

My ten days there passed with inexplicable haste. Kirsten and I arrived in Rugby (my birthplace, also the geographical center of North America) on the 6:45 a.m. train last Wednesday, the 9th. We had flown to Minneapolis the day before from New York, and spent the evening with a family friend getting a tour of the surprisingly cool city. The train from Minneapolis was torturously air conditioned, but we made it through by watching Six Feet Under episodes on my computer. When it started to get light we were almost there. My dad and Nadia met us at the station and minutes later it was like we had been there all along.

I spent the first few days distracted by my dad's birthday and my friend's bachelorette party. Suddenly it was Sunday and Kirsten was already packing for her road trip with Heather. Heather didn't escape without first being introduced to every machine my dad owns.














































































And one of the neighbor's. We were having dinner last Monday, and a buzzing sound in the distance began to crescendo. Moments later, this plopped down into our yard.



Here's the video of my dad taking off with neighbor Bob and his "Big Mosquito".

Don't waste your time

Please. Don't waste your time on my blog. If you want to read something incredible, go straight to Georgia's blog and read what she wrote today. I didn't see it until after I posted the stupid details about taking tests and getting drunk yesterday. If you must, come back and read about that after her story. But only after. Go on now. Click on "Georgia's blog" and scroll down to "Slappin' Ass."

Well, it's 9:30 a.m. and already 89 degrees outside. I have no plans to experience anything hot or noisy until my hangover subsides. In any case, Emily and I are making macaroni and cheese for breakfast, and who would want to miss that?

As of yesterday, Summer school is over. And what a day it was. Here we are just 24 hours ago, ready to finish.

Because I missed the first midterm of geriatrics while in London, I had to take both a final exam and a midterm yesterday. Yess! The O'Connotron (that's the robotic nickname we gave our robotic professor) had four case studies waiting for me when I turned in the final. Yesss! The exams were held in one of the largest classrooms at NYU; very "airy," according to O'Connotron. The final wasn't bad: fill in some bubbles, list a few nursing interventions, do a couple drug calculations. I was more or less ready for round two. About half-way through with my midterm though, I looked up and there was no one left in the room except me (sitting in one of only 300 or so seats) and her (standing at the podium on the stage staring at me). Yesssss! I'm not so familiar with test anxiety, but maybe I had it because I don't remember much of the second half.

I did my best to forget about it quickly, but nursing students (including me) seem to enjoy bringing up disgusting topics over margaritas and buffalo wings.



So we moved on for less nursing talk. Emily and Claire did a great job: click on the word "nipple" to see the video of them planning for the golden nipple suit party.