First Med School Interview!

So as I may have alluded to on fb, I had my first Medical School interview this Wednesday at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. It was...very interesting, my first interviewer was an older Irish (Not a typo literally from Ireland) Doctor, she was nice and i thought it went well. The second interviewer though, if any of you watch or have even just seen the show "Chuck" well my interviewer was basically Captain Awesome. He was a total bro, he used phrases like "Yeah and with good STEP 1"s you can get into a kickass residency" also called me a dude a couple time, but overall that interview went fantastic so...!!!! I've got interviews at Marion and UIC coming up so I'll see how those compare. In the mean time I've sort of just been killing time, mixing paint and tutoring for $ and playing a quite frankly LARGE amount of L4D2. In more cultured new, Joel you will be happy to know I FINALLY read "The Great Gatsby". I'm still in the West Illinois/Iowa Quad Cities area so if any of you are rocking I-80 and want to stop for lunch well hit me up.

Wyatt "Working on not being a complete bum" Verplaetse

I have a job now!

As some might have heard, I signed my employment contract with an engineering firm close by. The firm is Baxter & Woodman and I will be doing transportation engineering in the Crystal Lake office. I start the Monday after the Michigan game so, I've been cramming in leisurely activities for the bast week. Most notably is starting (and finishing) the Lord of the Rings in both book form and newly purchased extended edition blu-ray. I have now completed my LOTR fandom and can geek out with the best of them. I'm also getting pretty serious in my beer brewing and if people are curious about the batches I'm brewing or wants to talk about beer, I'm all for it. I'll be working around my home so if any of you are in the Chicago area and want a day out in the suburbs, chances are I'll be around.

Jon "I'm naming my dog Strider...whenever I get him" Miller

One Month on the West Coast

Part I - The Journey

As Mo mentioned in her post, I am already leaving my job in the great state of California to work in Colorado for the next two months. In fact, as I write this I'm looking out of an airplane window at the Sierra Nevadas. Since I haven't had a chance to post anything since I left home a month ago, I'm going to include a bit on my trip out to California as well as my first 3 weeks of work. Of course, I'll throw in a few of my favorite pictures along the way.

On August 4th, I set out from Silver Bay with a fully loaded car, a tent, and a vague plan to take Highway 2 as far as I could and get to Sacramento about a week later. The first day was filled with a lot of nothing…I mean North Dakota…until I finally stopped driving at 2am and set up my tent at a city park in Montana. The next day I packed up quickly and hit the road, destination Glacier National Park. Not only was the drive several hours shorter the second day, but the scenery also became much more interesting as I approached the Rockies.

After arriving in Glacier, I spent the next 46 hours driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road, hiking as many of the trails as I could, and taking over 1000 pictures. To say that Glacier is a photographer's paradise is a severe understatement. Rather than write an entire blog post on those two days, I'll just say that Glacier is one of the most amazing places I have ever been and I would go back in a heartbeat. Now for some pictures:

St. Mary's Lake

View from the Going-to-the-Sun Road in the early morning light.

Hidden Lake from the lookout near Logan's Pass.

Apgar Lake at dawn.

After leaving Glacier, I spent two more days on the road to Eugene, OR, where Kirsten Adam (former clarinet and bio major) is now going to grad school. We spent a day exploring the city and wine tasting in South Willamette, making great use of the wine-tasting techniques I learned from our very own Jon Miller. The final day of my trip took me down I-5 all the way to Sacramento and thus ended my 7 day, 2500 mile journey.

Part II - The Job

Several days after I arrived in Sacramento, the West regional fellowship training for Environment America began. The training included 3 second year fellows and 3 other first year fellows besides myself, along with a rotation of mentors including the regional director, the political director from DC, and the state director for Environment California. The first week of the training consisted of intensive classroom training encompassing every facet of the organization and the work that we'll all be doing for the next two years. Following that we did a week of door-to-door canvassing to sign up new members and gather public support for a statewide ban on plastic grocery bags, which was awaiting a vote in the state senate. After that, our official training ended and most of the fellows went back to their home states to start working on their own state campaigns. 

However, the Californians had a more interesting adventure in the works. Three of us set out with a 25 foot inflatable turtle and a goal of setting up four press conferences in four days at four famous California beaches in support of the bag ban. I don't think we could have been less prepared when we started out, but somehow we made it work and had a lot of success getting press at all of our events and finding great coalition partners to work with. There were certainly incredibly frustrating times during the week, but just as many times when it seemed like we were having way too much fun to possibly be getting paid. In the end, the bill we were supporting did not pass through the senate, but in every other way our press conference tour was a great success as well as a great learning experience! Plus, after the whirlwind of activity it took to get those press conferences set up, organizing one with the normal three weeks of prep time should be a walk in the park.

Myself and other Environment California supporters with the giant turtle!

Part III - The Weekend

After being back in Sacramento for only a day, I took advantage of my first break from work to visit Mo in the bay area. I stand by her synopsis of the weekend and so I'll end this post with a few pictures from our hike.

Water slide at Big Basin State Park.

Waterfall at Big Basin.

Waterfall pool at Big Basin.

Kitesurfers on the Pacific Ocean.

A month in unorganized pictures

I thought I'd post an update before heading home to the Dome this weekend, where I'll get to see at least a couple of you friends I think. August was a busy month for me, which was definitely a good thing because I didn't really have time to get bored. I do feel like I'm still settling in, although I've been here for almost two months already (how did that happen?). But at the same time I'm learning my routine and finding ways to have fun, and making my apartment feel a little more like home with every Target trip.

So I'll focus on my weekends, because what I do during the week probably doesn't sound that exciting. I mean, if you really love data or attorney calls then shoot me an email and I'll give you a play-by-play. But for the rest of you, here are my weekends with plenty of pictures. The pictures are not always related to the paragraphs around them so it's like a game!

My welcome gift for my first day of real work. 

First weekend in August I got to visit one of our favorite rising sophomores, the esteemed Mr. Hagwood himself. He and his family spend a few days in Santa Cruz every summer, so I took a day trip to visit them. I spent the Saturday walking the boardwalk and the pier in Santa Cruz with Austin and his brother Garrett, eating brats, riding an old roller coaster, and watching the Dark Knight Rises. It was lovely meeting his mom and overall an excellent Saturday. It was so nice to see someone familiar (this sentence will reappear later..) and talk about mutual friends (aka all of you). Plus we saw tons of seals hanging out under the pier.

Seal! Challenge: guess which end is the head.

The next weekend, the 11th, I decided to be brave and go to an ND Alumni Club event. We took a Google bus to Napa and visited a winery with ND ties, a winery with a great picnic area for lunch, and another winery just for funsies. I figure if my day starts by making new friends who offer me mimosas on the bus at 9am, then it's a good day. Everyone was super friendly, surprise, and I met a few girls from the class of 2011 so yay maybe I'm making friends.

When Christina visited we enjoyed some gold ole 'Merican beer at an Oakland A's game and watched the Yankees lose to the A's so Christina was happy. The ballpark was strangely shaped.

Also sometime in August I went to an SF Giants game with work.
The Giants' ballpark is beautiful. The score was not. 'Nuff said.

On the 18th of August I abandoned the polished landscapes of wine country for the rugged terrain of the American River to go white water rafting with my company. The water was very cold. Since I was in the front I was constantly reminded of the temperature because I received copious amounts of water in the face every time we went through a rapid. It made me feel alive. And hypothermic. But mostly alive. 

This is a real picture. My dad, brother, and the guys in the family went on a big fishing trip in MI at the end of July. I later learned this was one of their boats. How awesome? Very.

This past Labor Day weekend may have been one of the best weekends yet. Full disclosure, I kind of have to say that since I spent it with one of the fine authors of this blog. Of course, Erik may be too busy getting ready to live in Denver for two months to read this. We'll see. I offered at first to visit him in Sacramento, but after a few plan changes it ended up that he would come down to me on Saturday afternoon. I did a training run, 19 miles, that morning. Then when Erik arrived we walked around my neighborhood, made guacamole, made more pasta than my skillets and Dutch oven could handle, and had some local beer at a brewing company within walking distance of my place. Sunday we went biking/hiking in Big Basin State Park, and saw some fantastic waterfalls. Erik used his new tripod to get some great pictures.

The photographer at work.

Hopefully this overexposed photo will both give you an idea of the amazing waterfalls we saw, and encourage Erik to post his own, better pictures.

Till next time!