so this weekend i spent a lot of time studying...actually, i spent
all my time studying. other than my time at church, all i did was read and read and read. the weird thing is, it didn't even really bother me. in all honesty, i was excited that i got to spend my weekend studying. then it hit me -- i am an uber nerd. what's worse is the fact that...i'm becoming boring! i was sitting in the cafeteria with one of my classmates on saturday and as soon as she sat down i started asking her questions about connective tissue and epithelial glandular cells and we talked about this stuff for like forty-five minutes without even realizing it. then i was like, "do you think this is bad that when we have lunch together on a saturday all we talk about is school?" i am truly concerned...all i think about is school...really! but she just shrugger her shoulders and said "that's all i ever think about"
after studying on friday i was walking to the parking lot and (surprisingly) it was pouring rain, there was this asian guy standing just in front of me and when i passed him he said, in broken english, "ahh, excuse me, are you headed toward lake city way?" of course that was exactly where i was headed and i knew the question that would follow once i acknowledged him and told him that i was in fact headed in his direction. i cringed as i said "ye-s?" and then he started bowing and gesturing gratefully, explaing that his ride had forgotten him and he had no way to get home and he would be so thankful if i could give him a ride. reluctantly i said, "well sure, just tell me your name" he then ensued to tell me his name, that he was from japan and had only been in the states for a week and was still overcoming jet lag. i felt bad for him...and i was glad i could help him out, but unfortunately i was still i bit sketched out...i mean, c'mon, its a new, big city, no one would ever know if i disappeared and for all i know this is the line he gives everyone. but, i decided to go with it...i knew if i died it would be my fault for being stupid.
turns out, he is an undergrad student at bastyr and when he graduates he plans to return to japan to go to medical school. "you came all the way to the states to do your undergrad at bastyr?!" i asked quizzically "oh bastyr is famous, more famous in japan than here" he said as he laughed. he had only been living here for two years but he would be done with school in may. his entire family lives together in a village just outside of tokyo, his gradparents still use botanical medicine but his parents will have nothing to do with it. when we arrived at his house he gave me some seaweed tea and a packet of seaweed soup. it was still pouring rain, but he stood on his driveway waving goodbye and smiling as i drove off.
today as i drove to school with my carpool buddy we chatted about our weekends, about school and stress, and about how we hope we don't get sick but that we can mix our own herbal tinctures in the herb lab if we do. the weather is getting more and more seattle-ish every day. this morning it was still pretty dark on the drive to school and thee was a lot of fog in the air, its getting cooler and it seems like it rains more consistently everyday. i commented on the change and then he said, with mock enthusiasm, "oh well you just wait, it gets better, darker, colder. rain every day...you'll love it."
my roomates are in medical school and they said that in phrmacology they learned that from november to april seattlites don't get enough vitamin-D becuase of their extremely reduced exposure to uvb rays. my carpool buddy concurred, he said about 50% of seattlites suffer from seasonal affective disorder and that his wife had to sit in front of a sunlamp every morning just to lift her spirits a bit.
i like to memorize verses, and i've found that with all my commuting, the time i have in the car is a great opportunity to review some of my memory verses. i have one stuffed in my dashbord right next to the temperature guage...my c.b. asked me "what's that little notcard?" so i told him it was a verse i was trying to memorize, and he asked me for what and so i told him, for my heart. obviously he was intrigued, he asked if he could see it and so i handed it to him and he asked again "you mean you actually memorized it?" "well, yes, at least i'm trying" i responded, so he quizzed me and this is what i said:
"the unfailing love of the Lord never ends, by His mercy we have been kept from complete destruction, great is His faithfulness, His mercies begin afresh each day. lamentations 3:22-23"
