anfin’s Blog

I’m never going to catch up with real time if I don’t combine a few days, so for this one-time offer you can get four days for one post. Yes, that’s right. You heard correctly. FOUR DAYS for ONE POST! Granted, these four days weren’t nearly as interesting as the first three, but that’s beside the point.

Tuesday consisted of me giving Rusty a bath, calling five-billion vets/kennels, and realizing that boarding dogs is at least twice as expensive in Gainesville as in Greenwood no matter who you call.

Wednesday was a day for getting to know the bus system and finding the Internet. It’s about a twenty minute bus ride to the other side of campus to the Reitz Union where the bookstore and such are. Once I found a computer lab, I spent a few hours checking my mail, realizing that Facebook is not available on UF computers, updating my blog and Flickr account, figuring out how to get to the DMVs, and paying some bills.

On Thursday, I went to the DMV for registering my car where I was only able to fill out the paperwork because I only had a debit card and they would not accept any payment other than cash and checks. I spent the rest of the day figuring out where to put things that were still in boxes in my apartment. At the same time, I was listening to my much neglected Jekyll and Hyde CD and discovering that it is an even better CD than I remembered.

Friday I got an early morning Internet fix and then set up an appointment at the only DMV in town that offers driver’s licenses. The other DMV had told me that if I didn’t set up an appointment, I would be waiting for hours. Clearly, they have not revamped their DMV system like South Carolina. I was unable to get an appointment until two weeks away because apparently this is the time of the year when large numbers of foreign students like to set up mass appointments and car pool. After setting up the appointment with that DMV, I went back to the other DMV, waited, wrote a check, had the check rejected because no one cared to tell me that the checks had to be local, went across the street, got money from the ATM, went back, waited, gave money to the uninformative lady, and left in a huff. I spent the rest of the evening organizing My Documents on my computer and continuing to setup house. The end.

I woke up Monday morning with two major goals, and I accomplished both by the end of the day.

The first goal was to start figuring out how to use the Gainesville bus system which is free for UF students. The first step in this goal was to walk to the OTHER side of campus to say hello to the Chemistry department so that I could discretely ask where to get my student ID. This was a big step (one hour and twenty minutes of steps actually), and it didn’t take me long to figure out that I would not be walking to work every day or even ever. The graduate studies coordinator directed me to the ID office which wasn’t far away. I had to go through the book store to get there and on the way through I saw some Internet connected computers. I got on, checked my mail, and looked up the bus routes relevant to my new apartment. I obtained my ID, went to the nearest bus stop, and took my very first Gainesville bus ride which dropped me off at my doorstep in a quarter of the time it took me to walk the other direction. Goal one accomplished.

Goal two was to groom Rusty because he seemed to be very hot. Due to my refusal to waste too much energy (i.e. money) by cranking up the AC, in addition to my unusual dislike for AC, I have in fact not turned the thermostat down from the 80 degrees I left it at for the past month. I wouldn’t think this would make much of a difference to the poor dog considering the fact that that is the very same temperature that I slowly but surely turned up the thermostat in Greenwood to (due to my aforementioned unusual dislike for AC). However, hearing him panting through the bathroom door well into the night made me feel extremely guilty so I had to due something to relieve him. I started out going to the Petsmart down the road and getting some grooming tools. The only one I ever needed was the demattifier (I don’t actually think this is its name) and the rake comb. In case you haven’t already noticed, A LOT of hair came out just with the brushing. No wonder the dog was so hot. After I brushed him, I trimmed his hair a bit. The pile of hair from this venture was noticeably smaller than the first, but nonetheless impressive. What’s most remarkable is that after losing all that hair, Rusty doesn’t really look any different (except for the fact that I was a little bit too gung-ho about cutting the hair on his back right leg).

Some other notes about Monday:

1. I found myself an outstanding pooper-scooper at PetSmart. It’s everything a pooper-scooper should be, and using Walmart bags was getting old.
2. My Old Navy pants of which I have four pairs and which I have worn almost every day this summer apparently contain some sort of chip which sets off half the security doors to large stores in Gainesville. I am going to have to apologize and explain my pants every time I enter fine establishments such as the UF bookstore, PetSmart, and Target. Woohoo!

When I woke up on Sunday, I was already feeling a bit better after having a good night’s sleep. I got up and got dressed for church. The only problem was that I didn’t know where I was going to find one. Lacking the Internet, I opened the phonebook that greeted me on the doorstep when I got here, and saw what I thought were the only 5 Southern Baptist churches in Gainesville (It turns out that for some odd reason Southern Baptist and Southern Baptist Convention are listed differently). Only two had numbered streets and, lacking a map, I figured they were my best bet. They were both NW and I’m in the SW quadrant, so I got in my car and headed north. I never found either one, but while I was getting lost, I came upon Westside Baptist Church. It looked like a nice place, and it seemed big enough for me to be comfortable (Small churches make me kind of nervous) so I pulled in the parking lot. I even noticed the girl who parked next to me getting out wearing jeans so I knew that this church was at least a bit contemporary. I walked down the sidewalk and passed an older gentleman, who turned out to be a staff member, and asked him if he knew where grad students should go.

It turns out that I came just in time for the 10 minute mingling time of college and grad students prior to Sunday school. I met the grad class teacher and his wife (a very sweet couple) as well as the other grad students. They were all very welcoming. They were also all medical people. The teacher was a dentist, one student was going into dentistry (just had her white coat ceremony), one student was going into audiology (is about to have her white coat ceremony in DisneyWorld), and one student is either going into anesthesiology or dermatology. No Mom and Dad, I’m still not going into any medical field—I just thought it was an interesting coincidence. We had a good class time, and it reminded me a lot of family group with Furman BCM.

After class, we all sat together in service. The church’s pastor of 27 years had just come back from a month-long vacation, and he gave a good sermon. The music was also good—a mix of traditional hymns and contemporary praise songs—more like SMSBC than Newspring, but I’m okay with both styles. Overall, I felt very at home at this church. Unfortunately, they don’t really do any drama, and that’s somewhat of a problem for me. I’ll probably still look at some other places to be sure, but maybe not until I have good access to the Internet. It’s at least nice to know that there is a church in town where I can feel somewhat at home.

Well, Rusty and I have arrived safely in Florida. For any of you who are terribly interested in the details of my moving and settling in experience, I will try to fill in all the detail of the past several days. However, I don’t feel like writing one huge post, so I’ll write one for each day and then put one up every time I get access to the Internet. Let’s start with Saturday.

I drove 8 hours from Greenwood to Gainesville, and got lost twice due to badly marked detours that pulled me away from my Mapquest directions. I can now safely say that Rusty does not enjoy 8 hour car rides or doggie seat belts. He does seem to be content now that he’s here, though.

When I arrived, I shoved most of the stuff from my car into the apartment. I then realized that I had no food except for the snacks I had brought for the trip. More importantly, I realized that Rusty had no food and that I hadn’t given him food since the afternoon before in preparation for the long trip. Knowing that I would need many other random items, I decided to head to the obvious store – Walmart. When I got there, I was very saddened to see that this was not quite as useful a Walmart as the Walmart Supercenters back home and in Greenville. The only food it has is junk food – no Lean Cuisines for me. I went ahead and got the dog food and some dog bowls, and then I remembered that there was a Target down the road. Hurrah! The Target will at least almost replace the Walmart I’ve lost. It’s still not as good as the Supercenters, but at least it’s something.

Back at the apartment, I was feeling rather lonely. Thank goodness for Rusty, but it’s still an unpleasant feeling to be somewhere where you don’t really have anyone who knows or cares about you. The lack of Internet and TV also creates a feeling of disconnectedness from the world. At any rate, by the end of the day I came to two very important conclusions. I must have Internet in my apartment, and I must find a church the next morning. It seemed however, that the latter might be challenging without the former. . .

It took me until the my last day of classes at Furman, but I finally hopped into a fountain. Well, actually, according to Lauren I just sort of eased into the water, but that’s beside the point.

Rusty and I will be moving to Gainesville this Fall. I hope the gators don’t eat him. I’m pretty excited. I really felt like University of Florida was a good place for me all along, but I tried REALLY hard to convince myself that I would be at least as happy at Northwestern. Yes, UF doesn’t necessarily have the prestige of Northwestern, but it’s still a really good school, and there are tons of professors there that I would love to work for. I also just felt a lot more comfortable around the people there. At any rate, after these last couple of days, I’m just glad to have the decision made. I truly am THE WORST decision-maker in the world, but after many conversations with professors, family, UF and Northwestern grad students, and members of my Bible-study group, it really feels like UF is the place I’m supposed to go. Hopefully, this decision turns out as well as my decision to come to Furman.

Despite my recent lack of internet presence, I am in fact alive and here’s what I’ve been up to:

• For the past forever, I have been spending my weekends visiting grad schools. I think I’m going to Northwestern outside of Chicago. Chicago looks like this. I know that I’m not going to Stanford. Stanford looks like this. Pop Quiz: (1) Which place looks colder? (2) What am I thinking?
• I am finally using my iPod regularly. It’s nice. What’s not nice is that every time I plug it in to my computer, iTunes decides to welcome my “new” iPod and makes me go through set-up again. Any suggestions?
• I have just won two small chemistry awards, and both of them involve me receiving a personalized copy of the Merck Index which I’m not entirely certain is something I will ever need to use.
• I plan to try out for Little Shop of Horrors at GCT this summer. It’s not my favorite play, but the music’s fun. If I had a choice of who to play, it would be the evil, flesh-eating, world-domination-planning plant. Unfortunately, that particular part is meant to be played by a baritone man. However, this is not necessary to the script, and if I’m lucky, they won’t have a good baritone man try out. If not, I would be happy playing one of the back-up doo-wop singers. In related news, while trying to sing along with the CD, I discovered that I am completely incapable of doing the nasal New York accent of the leading lady Audrey (same accent as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls).
• I just got new Timberland Boots. This make me happy.

So that’s what’s been happening with me in the last while. And now for a post that I actually wrote last winter:

Various observations and such:

• I have great roommates. I don’t think we are going to become best friends for life or anything, but they are nice and considerate people. All roommates should be like them.
• If in the future you ever think to yourself, “I really want to get Sarah a nice expensive gift of some sort. What on earth shall I give her?,” then think no more. A Wii is clearly the perfect gift for any young lady.
• I am taking Intermediate Spanish and not completely failing. This is good.
• My ground floor apartment is great. I might think differently in the winter when I have to ride my bike or walk across campus in the cold, but for now, my apartment is great.
• I’m not sure how long the one working break on my bike will last.
• I have a lot of plays to review and papers to write for my Theatre class. I really need to start working on those…
• I took the General GRE today and didn’t completely fail. I’m only in around the 86 percentile, but the actual scores are about average for the grad schools I’m applying to. Now all I have to do is take the behemoth that is the GRE Chemistry Subject Test. I may die.
• I’m a senior. I’m old.

P.S. I present to you Flowers and Other Plant-Life of Hawaii Part 2.

So we had the one-mile run yesterday for the Iron Man Competition, and I came in dead last. This was not much of a surprise though (Crazy people who run 5-something-minute miles), and even if I didn’t get any points, at least I can say that I tried. Anyway, at some point late in the day yesterday KM mentioned that I’d probably be sore today. I said probably not since it was only a mile and all, but in fact I am fairly sore today. However, I do not believe that it’s from the running. Yesterday evening I rode my bike and all its squeeky goodness for a little over an hour around the mall at Furman. I had also done the same the night before only not for as lengthy a time. Anyway, doing so brings me back to my old favorite pasttime–when I would ride for hours around and around our house and just think about whatever. I certainly don’t have to waste anytime thinking about my route when I’m going in a circle, and it’s not overly strenuous if I don’t particularly want it to be. What I’m basically doing is being lazy while still getting some exercise into my routine. Hey, it’s better than watching TV.

In a related note, a FUPO car almost ran over me two nights ago. Seriously, if I had not slammed on my one working break (Consequently, with all the pressure on it alone, it’s not working as well as it used to), then I would have been knocked to the pavement. What happened was I was just minding my own business riding around the circle up next to the PAC, and just as I was passing in front of the turnoff that leads to Timmons, the FUPO car came up from behind me and turned off directly in front of me. Seriously, he was less than a foot away. Now, I was clearly in the bike lane, and normally I would think that I had the right of way since I was going straight and he was turning. Of course, now I’m not so sure particularly since it was a FUPO car. So you tell me. Did I have the right of way or would Mr. FUPO Officer have gotten away with smacking me into the pavement? Regardless, I will be looking over my shoulder from now on.

Today has been an unusually eventful day, and in fact the same can be said for this entire week. For one, I’ve synthesized at least three different products in high yields and am working on a couple more. Sad thing is (or is it?), one of the best of the products was not even one I was trying to make. I accidentally used the wrong reagent for a prep and ended up with a fantastic yield of ridiculously pure product. It’s not what I was going for, but it’s still a useful compound for our lab to have so I’m not feeling too bad about it. What I am feeling bad about is the fact that my computer has decided to go on strike until I finally yield to the demands it has been making since last winter term concerning replacing its faulty fan. This makes for a sad lack of internet unless I trudge to the library or rely upon the kindness of roommates. Sad day… In happier news, we had the 100 meter run for the Iron Man Competition this morning, and I came in fourth for the girls. This is a joyous thing, but it is now time to give you fine folks some explanation of the title of this entry. Imagine to yourselves that you are in downtown Greenville and see a mass of people all walking down the sidewalk and that each person in this multitude is carrying a loaf of Sara Lee Soft and Smooth Whole Grain White Bread. I personally would find myself rather confused. At any rate, this unusual phenomenon did in fact occur today after the Greenville Drive game attended by the Chemistry Department. It seems that the generous people at Sara Lee decided to give one such loaf to everyone at the game. Maybe it doesn’t sound so impressive to you, but all of us college students were pretty excited. I mean, it’s free bread! We’re not going to complain.