And it begins...

School started yesterday. I really miss the whole not having homework thing, but I feel like that learning part of my brain that I suppressed for most of this past year is already back and kicking. Apparently I didn't get a whole lot dumber, which is pretty shocking. We haven't really started intense lectures or labs or anything yet, so perhaps this ego boost is a bit premature. Med school kids are also pretty intimidating with all the stuff they already know for some reason. I think this would be a good time to make friends that aren't in med school. Or you know, friends in general. Either way.

The weekend was really nice. My mama came in for my white coat ceremony, which started out promising enough, but then deteriorated into the painfully boring affair that I expected. Also, the part where we put on the coats was pretty anticlimactic. My brother's ceremony was less so because they individually put on the coats and got to say something short to the whole class and audience. We just kinda put on our white coats all at once. Imagine it. It's not exactly a momentous occasion. I'm sure leaving a room during the winter is a very similar process.

They did have really good food at the reception. There was much cheese and vegetarian stuff and the most amazing miniature desserts ever. So my mama and I basically ran from the ceremony to the reception and took as much free food as we could. It was pretty great. Now that I think of it I should have taken pictures. I swear I'll get better at this.

With my mama came the cushion she made for my bay window. Behold:

You can tell I immediately made use of it. She took the measurements for the space when she helped me move in. Then, she found a place in Fremont that cuts foam to a specific size and she sewed on the fabric herself. She's so giving Martha Stewart a run for her money. Also, matching pillows are in the works. I can't mention it enough, my mom's awesome.

Noam also came into town (Hi Noam. . .er, I don't even know you read this, but hi), which was really quite nice. We went out to brunch in Old Town (clever name) and I had a really good blueberry waffle, with plenty of actual blueberries on it. We chatted and joked and it kinda felt like being back in SF, and that was very much needed. I then took a walk back to my place, which actually wasn't that far considering I paid a cab $7 to get there. The neighborhood I walked through was super cute too, with ivy growing on the houses, pretty little gardens and houses built to look like castles. I like that neighborhood.

So yeah, that's basically all the noteworthy things that have occurred recently. Oh, my video game is starting to scare me slightly less, so you can all rest easy now.

Video games are frightening

Orientation week is over and I finally got a good 11 hours of sleep last night. I feel like such a little kid sometimes though because I get so cranky if I don't get enough sleep. Anyway, I got my white coat yesterday, and even though it's a women's small it is still way too big for me. I think I might just go get it tailored so I don't have to deal with it annoying me for the next two years. You'd think they'd be better about accommodating different sizes by now.

Warning: Lots of nerdiness ahead.

Anyway, the fun news is that I got a new video game (yes, I am a giant nerd, I know). It's probably one of the coolest ideas for a game I've heard of in a while. It's a one-person shooter game, but done with some style. The setting is an underwater haven for the geniuses of the world called Rapture, which is very much based on Atlas Shrugged. Everything is done in an art deco style, and considering the underwater world has gone to hell, it's pretty creepy looking. The reason that the world is now in chaos is that the people discovered some sea slugs that produce plasmids, which could be developed further to modify people's genetic codes (this is a rough explanation). The modifications essentially made the inhabitants into superhumans with various abilities, like sending electric bolts through their hands or having telekinesis. So as you run around this place, you can find these plasmids, inject them into yourself (which is kinda horrifying to see) and then kill people with your new powers. This is a pretty novel concept for a video game.

It doesn't quite end there, though. One of the best ways to be able to use these plasmids is actually through little girls. Let me explain. There are little girls all throughout the city that use large syringes to suck out the blood from dead people. They then drink the blood, and a parasite living in them processes it into something that'll allow you to absorb more plasmids called Eve.


Since little girls are pretty helpless, they have incredibly large men in underwater tank suits with a metal drill for an arm protecting them. They're known as Big Daddies, but the little girls call them Mr. Bubbles (kinda disturbing isn't it?).

So, if you want more superpowers, you either have to get the Eve stuff from the little girls by killing them (which will give you lots of Eve), or by saving them and removing the parasite (which will get you less of the Eve). Either way, you still have to get through the Big Daddy first. Yeah, whoever thought of this is incredibly fucked up in the head.

Really, as scary as this game is, I am kinda determined to beat it just to see what happens in the end. The game emphasizes the fact that as you keep modifying yourself and killing these little girls, you lose more and more of your humanity. I doubt it'll be a happy ending.

Anyway, this is pretty much the big thing going on in my life right now because I'm so cool. I'm just oozing coolness, I know.

Comedy, cruises and general laziness

I'm officially in the middle of orientation week. I'm tired. The first day was ok. I showed up for breakfast and awkwardly looked for people to talk to, which took a while. Most people did the whole "Hi, where are you from?" thing, and when I told them Berkeley they didn't seem exactly interested. The majority of responses have been "Oh yeah, there are a lot of people from Berkeley" followed immediately by the person finding someone else and conversing with them. One person actually turned their back on me and started talking to their friend. That's not exactly the warmth I was expecting from someone thrown into this crazy med school thing like me. Naturally, that person is on my shitlist. I guess I didn't realize half the people already know each other because they did undergrad at Northwestern, so it's kind of a weird dynamic and trying to make new friends is way harder than I thought.

I eventually found some nice people, and we went to a comedy club the first night (Second City). They did mostly sketch comedy and some improv, and they were really really good. We also went for free, so that was nice. I think one of my favorite lines was "Oh honey, did you see this abortion bill? What do you think?" And the husband said, "Pay it." It probably doesn't translate as well on a blog. They also did an army recruitment scene where they ended up calling both Rumsfeld and Bushie 'shitheads,' which made me so amazingly happy. That's my favorite insult ever (hehe).

Yesterday was ok. We have orientation at 8am everyday (except tomorrow it's at 7:30, those bastards), so the fact that I hadn't slept enough Sunday and Monday nights kinda caught up to me. After all the boring info sessions during the day, we went on an architectural boat tour which was actually really chill and nice. I tried to take pictures, but it was kinda hazy, as you can see.

So you can see half of navy pier at the far left and you can make out the Hancock Building on the right. Despite what it looks like, yesterday was actually pretty sunny and crazy hot. I was sweating profusely throughout the entire thing, even though it was about ten degrees cooler on the lake than in the city (I still don't get how that works). As you can see, these random people fell asleep in the heat. I actually don't know who they are, I guess I just didn't lift my camera high enough to get them out of the picture.

Sears Tower is the tallest building that looks ominous and pointy. Apparently Trump is in the process of building a residential tower that's taller than Sears Tower (or almost taller, I forget), but that's only halfway done right now. There's also another residential skyscraper being built that will definitely be taller, standing at 2000 feet. It's this building:

It's disguised as a residential building, but in fact it will be the world's largest vibrator. I've been told twice now that there's a sapphic building, which I have seen, that was built by a woman in response to all the phallic buildings designed by men.

This isn't the greatest picture, but I think you get the idea. I feel like these two buildings should meet or something. :)

Anyway, I've basically given up on social activities for now, because it is way too forced to be enjoyable. Also, did I mention I have to be at CPR training at 7:30am tomorrow? I know my attitude isn't great, but that's because it is a giant 'fuck you, fuckers' to the people giving presentations. The gist of most of the presentations has been proving that not forming meaningful relationships with other people throughout your life will lead to a sad, lonely, young death. My take on it is that now they want us to be good doctors by studying all the time AND by finding, forming and maintaining 'meaningful relationships.' It's like maybe this would be a good idea if my personal life hasn't taken such a horrifying beating by my career. Like at this point it's Career: 5,392,671, Personal life: -3. But now they have proof that I'm more likely to die young because of this, and they decide to share this with me. Fan-fucking-tastic. As if I'm not stressed out about school enough. Fuckshitfuckfuckfuck.

So yeah, instead of dwelling on this I decided to forgo the social activities, take a walk along Michigan Ave and along the lake, and just chill and read. I figure stressing myself in order to make friends, then dealing with the stress of figuring out who's a normal human being and who's crazy, and eventually reaping the benefits of those friendships is asking way too much right now.
Also, I miss you guys.

Don't make me go

I spent most of yesterday in my apartment, because I'm exciting like that. I eventually got bored and decided to go check out the air show because it was free and I just had to put on pants and walk to the end of my block to see it. So that's what I did. It was actually pretty cool. The jets did roll over thingies and then went straight up into the air and then straight back down. I'm pretty sure those pilots are the biggest adrenaline junkies ever. I know if I even got up the courage to get in one of those things, I'd probably just spend the entire ride puking all over the plane and crying for my mom.

I tried to take a picture, but as predicted, my cell phone camera didn't do a great job.

See, I even circled the plane for you, although that could also very well be a seagull. (note: I didn't realize there were seagulls here until yesterday, because there isn't a sea. I think they're confused, or whoever named them was an idiot). I tried to use my nonexistent computer skills to zoom in on the plane, but I don't have Photoshop. This is the result from Paint.

Well, at least you can tell that's definitely not a seagull. The whole airshow thing actually lasted a grand total of five minutes for me. I caught the end of this show, and then it immediately started raining, so I went back home. The weather here has been super crappy, but it's very Bay Area-like so I've been enjoying it. It's like April weather, where it's foggy and raining lightly but not cold anymore. I went running last night after the rain broke for a bit, and it was about 65-70 degrees. For some reason I was the only person in a tank top and shorts. Everybody else had windbreakers or some sort of jacket on but the weather was perfect. Yeah, I felt pretty good.

It doesn't look like the rain is going to stop though, which makes me confused. It's August. It's supposed to be summer's last hurrah with lots of heat and sun. Instead it looks like this:

If you'll recall, this is what the Hancock building looks like from my apartment:

Yeah, that's a hell of a lot of fog and clouds. Oh and rain, lots of stupid, wet rain.

I also start orientation tomorrow at 8am. And just so you know, I'm not that excited. For one thing it's at 8am, which means I won't be getting my 10-11 hours of sleep. That is, unless I go to sleep by 9pm tonight, which seems unlikely. For another thing, it's raining and they're making us do a scavenger hunt tomorrow. In the rain. It also means that my year of fun and freedom is over. I'm going to be tied to my career for the rest of my life. That blows. Quite hard. I've also been having fun with my new imaginary friends, so it's not like I need to make new real friends. I mean the logic's all there. Don't make me goooooooooo

Wind? Trains? No, that's the sound of fighter jets.

So, as promised, I'm going to post pictures of my apartment. My 282 square feet of apartment isn't terribly exciting, especially since I found out that decorating any home is pretty freaking expensive. It's cute though, and I rather like it.

This, clearly, is my sad little bed. I still don't understand why they couldn't move it out so I could get a full bed. Possibly because they want me to fall off my bed periodically and curse the day I was born. More likely though, they're lazy. You can also see my nightstand, and my new giant purse next to the books. I felt that at the sweet age of 22, I should embrace being a full grown woman and thus the giant purse that comes along with that role. So far it's not the giant abyss where cell phones go to die that I thought it would be, so that's good.

This is my desk, my fancy leather chair and part of my kitchen. Oh and that's my blindingly bright window. Nothing very exciting. You can see however that I have two dressers. I nearly had an orgasm when I saw that. I have so much storage space, it makes me want to go shoe shopping.

This is my kitchen. Anyone who's lived in Berkeley/SF can appreciate this. Look at all the counter space! I actually have room for all of my appliances, dish rack, AND I still have room for actual cooking and chopping and whatever else I like :) It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. Also please note my one cheap shot at decorating, the pink candle at the front of the picture. It's not much, but it makes me happy.

And this is my bay window. It's called a bay window right? My mama is going to make a cushion to fit that space so I can sit and do reading there. I love my mama. I also love this space. Anything that's cute and nook-like automatically wins points with me.

Also, I've been spending quite a bit of time there trying to figure out what's making these loud jet-like noises. There haven't been any thunderstorms lately, so it wasn't that. Someone (ahem, not bragging or anything here, someone) suggested that it's the elevated trains or wind passing between the high-rises. This noise, however, only started yesterday and I recognized the sound of an engine (thanks older brother) so I insisted that they were jets. I checked and it turns out the Chicago Air and Water Show is this weekend. Apparently, the fighter jets decided to play a prank on everybody by constantly flying around the downtown area to make us think that we're being attacked. Bastards. I finally caught sight of one of them today, and man those suckers go fast. I'll try to get pictures tomorrow, but I don't know how my cell phone camera is going to do with that. Also, I'd like to note that I was right about something. Everyone remember this moment.

I have internet!

Yesterday was fairly entertaining. A massive amount of lightning and thunder woke me up around 6:30, which frightened me. That is not a pleasant way to wake up. I had heard on the news that there were supposed to be thunderstorms in the early morning and scattered thunderstorms for most of the week. Being from the bay where this generally means it’ll actually be rainy I put on my boots and headed out to get my hair cut. About two blocks from my apartment I realized that this was a horrible mistake. Apparently the weatherman meant there would be one thunderstorm during the night and a crapload of humidity and sun for the rest of the day. Walking around in those boots was absolute torture, especially since everybody else was wearing flip flops. I hate that weatherman.

Anyway, the hair place was right next to Wrigley Field (cue obligatory picture of the Wrigley Field sign).

The salon was literally the only shop on the street that wasn’t a bar or bank (well, there was Subway too). My stylist told me stories about how drunk people accidentally wander into the salon looking for a bar on game days and just look confused for a while. This led me to the conclusion that Cubs games aren’t all that different from A’s games. I think I’m going to have to go to a Cubs game. And yes, I realize I'm one of the few people that would go to Wrigelyville not to see the Cubs, but to get a hair cut instead. That's just the way I work.

Oh and I also got my hair cut. It is super short now, which is nice. I didn’t really like that awkward phase it was at, where it wasn’t short nor was it long. I do not have the patience to grow it out again, so I chopped it off. Here’s a picture of the back of my head. I tried to take a picture of what it looks like from the front, but I couldn’t get over how silly I felt taking my own picture like that. Take what you can get :)

Look how silky and straight it is! And the hair person only used one product to get my hair to do that! Well, she also used $100 flat iron that apparently locks in moisture instead of frying your hair. Now I want that flat iron. . .and this is where someone takes my credit card away from me. (Also, I just realized you get a pretty decent of shot of my bathroom there, I'm so classy).

I also finally got my internet today. I'm excited to be back online whenever I want to be.

A fun-filled day of sleeping

My plan was to write something here yesterday since I had nothing else to do, but instead I decided to sleep. Five days worth of walking and carrying things left me pretty exhausted and with a giant blister on the back of my ankle. I slept 15 hours on Saturday night, waking up around 3pm on Sunday. I haven’t slept that much in at least 5 years. The rest of the day went pretty much the same as that, lying around in bed and watching Arrested Development (I’m already on season 2). My one big accomplishment of the day was showering, which I’m sure you’re all glad to hear. I know it’s not very exciting to read about, but it was really very nice.

Today’s been slightly more productive, but much less exciting by my standards because there was less sleeping involved. I continued shopping for more crap for my apartment, and on my way back from that I took more pictures of my neighborhood. I don’t know quite how Chicagoans (is that really a word?) do it, but there are pretty flowers and plants everywhere. Almost every restaurant has outdoor seating surrounded by a lush arrangement of plants and flowers, and the streets are all lined with flowers. Not a single one of them appears to be dying either, which is weird because flowers tend to die pretty quickly. Look at the evidence.

It’s so pretty! It’s almost magical how they manage to plant and grow these things every single year, because I fully realize they do this to make everyone forget the horrible, horrible winters. It’s funny too, because I tried to buy winter clothing while my mom was here, but nobody’s selling winter clothing yet at all. There are a few crappy jackets here and there, but not nearly as much as I expected. People really don’t want to think about winter here at all, and that kinda frightens me.

Anyway, there are also horses everywhere. Yes, horses. Apparently carriage rides are pretty huge here, especially on the weekends. While crossing the street, I had to look out both for cars and horses, which just doesn’t seem right. Also, if I leave my window open, I can sometimes hear neighing. I also don’t really see the point of paying $60 to ride in a horse-drawn carriage in the middle of a busy city for 30 minutes. I guess that’s because I’m poor. If I had more money to throw away, I’m sure it would make perfect sense.

Also, while I was walking around I saw this place. It’s a piano bar, but I thought immediately of Amanda. I’m sure you can see the resemblance.

Hehehe. . .I totally could have put up cornier pictures, just so you know. Also, these pictures are supposed to be side to side, but blogger doesn't want to cooperate. And. . .I'm done.

I'm slightly unsure about this. . .

So, here goes nothing. I have too much time on my hands, and I'm really far away from all my friends (yeah, you guys). I need something to feel like I'm keeping in touch because gchat, surprisingly enough, is not cutting it. I'm not particularly great at writing, thus the title of the blog (also I just watched I Heart Huckabees again and this reminded me of the very beginning, greatest thing ever). I feel like I'm in foreign territory, and yes that sentiment goes for both this writing thing and Chicago. By the way, I'm in Chicago. How fucking weird is that? I still kinda expect to be flying home with my mom tomorrow. But no, she's leaving me here.

The flight in sucked pretty hardcore (see, not good at writing). The flight was delayed for over an hour and it took over half an hour to get my bags. I then went straight to my apartment to sign the lease and check everything over. By this time it was 10:30pm Chicago time, I was tired and hungry, which meant I was also rather cranky. The apartment gave me the first impression of being a shithole. One of the lamps fell off the wall when I went to turn it on (it turned on though), the bathtub had hair in it, the apartment was less furnished than I imagined and the toilet was somewhat broken. This made me more cranky.

Things took a turn for the better though (cliches left and right). After checking in to the hotel, my mom and I went to a 24-hour diner down the street, which sucked, but I saw John Cusack there. Yeah that's right, a real celebrity at a second-rate diner. At that point, though, I was so tired that I just kinda stared and then went to the hotel to sleep. He wears a man-headband (man-band?). It's slightly unexpected because he doesn't seem like the man-band type. Oh well.

The rest of the days were filled with much walking, shopping, being caught in a downpour, more walking, some eating, and very little not walking. I'm basically all settled in now and have discovered that my apartment is in fact rather nice and comfortable. I also thought that I would share some pictures taken with my cell phone, because I don't have a real camera.

This is the view of the Hancock building from my apartment. I live a grand total of 2 blocks from it. Fancy, I know.

This is the view of the building across from my apartment, and the grass belongs to the back of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Yup, fancy.


This is a picture of the new Northwestern women's hospital that opens soonish. I will probably be working there at some point. This was also taken from my apartment.

And this is the incredibly unattractive alley right in the middle of my view. Not so fancy. Not at all. Stupid alley.

Ok, that's all for now. There are more pictures coming soonish. I check out of the hotel tomorrow and don't get my internet service until Wednesday. . .so we'll see how this goes.