Cuttin' people up!

Hey guys!

I really hope everyone is doing great. It seems like forever since I've seen you all, especially since I have had so much new stuff going on, and I miss you all! So I helped Krishna move into Norfolk with his parents and his new roomate, Aravind, who is Indian, and from UNC, and was a bio major, and is from Greensboro and is very nice, so that is good. They both have a sweet apartment literally across the street from campus which is very nicely furnished with dressers and bookshelves that we assembled as well as an awesome suede couch with reclining chairs that we had to take the front door off to get in!

After I helped Krishna move in, I came down to Chapel Hill last Tuesday to get settled into my new place (the second floor of a very nice home, which is off Hillsborough St. so it is really close to campus and Meredith, of a women with MS who uses a wheelchair, so I have the whole second floor to myself! and she is very kind and is only charging me utilities!!!). She has a crazy cat named Lucy who hates me, which she made clear by biting me and trying to scratch me as much as she can (which fortunately is not very much since she has been declawed, although I think that is a cruel practice, esp. if you have seen the movie Bolt, which I highly recommend!) I think Lucy has finally come to accept that I will be living here and has been trying to hurt me less.

So last Thursday, I started a 3-day orientation, which has been awesome! I am soo glad that I chose Carolina, it is definitely the best program that I applied to and also the best fit for me. I have 26 people in my class including myself, and everyone is soo nice, it has been so easy getting to know each other and we are all equally excited about the program! We have also gotten to know the faculty and second year students very well, who are all so welcoming and awesome! It definitely be a vigorous program, but it also looks like it will be a ton of fun, plus I love what I am learning and it will be my career in the near future! This semester is broken up into 2 8 week blocks and this first block I have gross anatomy with a complete cadaver lab!

My cadaver is a kind old man with lucky for me, very little fat. The first day I dove right in (you get over the ick factor pretty quickly) and removed the skin from his back, and reflected his superior back muscles to get to the deeper ones, which I removed so that today I could saw off part of the vertebral column (with a bonesaw! which is definitely the worst smelling activity ever!) and we exposed the spinal chord!! It is all soo cool (I hope I didnt gross you guys out too much, sorry, I just can't get enough of it!)

So anatomy is what I spend most of my time doing, usually 1-5 everyday. Another group's cadaver has a tattoo of people having sex on his stomach, which is pretty awesome, and proves that there are all types of cadavers out there! So everything is going great, except that my car was broken into in the driveway where I live last week. I can't believe it, they broke a window in and all they stole were my jumper cables!!! I really don't have anything of value in my car, which I guess they realized a little bit too late. But, I was pretty lucky since a neighbor left her purse in her car and had both her car and her purse stolen. So I mainly have been busy getting ready for school, getting immunizations, fixing that window (which included going to get the glass from a junk shop in the middle of nowhere North Carolina), getting to know my class, and doing dissections!

I definitely miss Krishna a lot, especially since we really only get to talk to each other at night since we are so busy, and can't wait to see him on labor day weekend, since we both have labor day off, although we are not sure yet who will drive where.

I hope that everyone else is doing well! Btw Steph, I spoke with Cari today and she said that you were coming into town for her bday on Oct. 7th! I am soo excited and can't wait to see you then, we will def hafta hang out! Yay! And Angie, what time do you have lunch, do you eat at the Beach? I want to see you! And Meredith, sorry I didn't text you back yet, but we should get food soon (maybe this Sunday?). So, sorry this has been soo long, I am just so excited about everything!!!

Love,
Stina