Our Week (1 down, 143 to go)

So another week has gone by. Ryan started classes on monday, so needless to say it's been a bit boring for me, ya know, cause I don't have a job yet. But I am enjoying this time. I've been exploring Cleveland and there are a lot of really neat things around here. I love Little Italy. It's a town that's like a little Italy, go figure:). There is a lot of shops and restaurants and Italian people.:) I'll post some pictures of it soon. Also, down the street a little ways is a store called Trader Joe's which I just love! It's an organic grocery store but the prices are a lot cheaper than normal organic stores. Anyway, The weather is awesome! so far:). It rains a lot, which I love. The rain storms are very different than in Utah. It POURS! It's like in the movies when people stand out in the rain and are soaked in five seconds. I used to think that was fake. It's not. I also love the evenings when the sun has just gone down. There are fireflies everywhere. There's always a nice breeze and it smells so good, especially if it has just rained. And there was this sound that I've never heard before coming from the corner of our yard. I thought it was a bird of some sort, but tonight my friend Diane and I discovered that they're small toads. I wanted to catch one because they are so cute! But I thought that would be rude to take it from it's home:). We went to another Indians game with some of Ry's friends from school. It was really fun. They won, because again we were there:). It was great to get to know Ry's friends and their spouses. So far it's been better than I thought, being here. There is a lot to keep my mind off of my homesickness. But I still get it. So just know that I am thinking about all of you and love you so much. I'll stop talking so Student Dr. Ryan can add his two cents. Love you, Bye.

So school started for real finally. For me it has felt like our three weeks here before school started have been 3 months. This week felt like 3 months all on its own. Not that school has been bad, cause it hasn't... I'm just going to have to get used to eight hours of class everyday. It will be different. Monday we had truly eight hours of class two of which we were doing hands on stuff so that was nice. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we had two hours worth of "independent study" which was taken up mostly by CPR trainings and other things similar. We didn't get a whole lot of study time and I am hoping that we will get more from now on. I promised myself and Kristy that I would break my bad habit of not studying and cramming everything in at the last minute. I have done well at least for this week and better keep it up because after my eight hour days I had about 2 to 3 more hours of homework this week and we just started. I will need everything I have to keep up. But I've been getting to know some people in my class and that helps. Going to the Indians game last night was awesome. Its good to chill with some calssmates outside of class and get to know them and their spouses. Not to mention that the Tribe won. A lot of our time is dedicated to what they call PBL or problem based learning, I won't bore you all with the details of it but basically I'm in a group of eight people and we break up the material we are responsible for learning and all do a lot of research then share our results with each other. I wasn't sure how well the whole thing was going to work until I saw it in action this week and I was amazed at how much information we put together and learned from the process. So it begins and I'm excited. I know that soon enough the time will be flying and finals will be bearing down on top of me. It is just nice to finally be doing what I've been dreaming of for so many years. Thanks go to all of you who encouraged me and supported me. Hope all is well with you. Oh and despite my repeated objections to it, it looks like I'm falling into being a Browns fan (not more than the Cowboys, no need to worry mom), it is contagious here. Love you all. Ry