Oh Sweet US of A

I have officially been back to the US for one month now.  It seems like only yesterday that I was waiting at the airport in Nigeria, ready to leave for.... well, for good.  My last day of work at the CDC was April 16, 2011-- I was working pretty much until the end, somehow they piled up a whole bunch of stuff on my plate before my last day... gotta get the most bang for the buck I guess.  Is that the right phrase for this?  Haha.  Let me see, what have I done since I've been back in the good ol US of A... I was home for about 1.5 days before flying out to the Midwest.  Spent the majority of the time at my aunt's place in Indiana, but was in Chicago for two days, for a couple of interviews and hanging out with Sae-Rom.  Yay for friendsies times.  The interviews at UIC made it even harder to choose between Chicago and Cincinnati for med school... and the trip down to Cincinnati for a second visit didn't really bolster my interests towards the school.  I was sitting around for the next three days thinking about which school to choose, when I received an email for a scholarship notification to UIC.  Thank the Lord!  I feel so blessed that I got a scholarship, because it made the decision so much easier.  And with my aunt willing to "lend" me her apartment in Chicago, everything is so amazingly taken care of... YAY!  Now I feel so much more settled. :D

After spending some time in Indiana, I flew home, spent a day at home to get a very-much-needed haircut, and then drove up to Stanford to help out my old research mentor for about 2 weeks.  It was so nice to be back on campus, and the weather was sooo nice.  Stayed with my postdoc from the lab at her apartment... had a fun cat to play with :)  Got to see the entire lab gang again and help out in the lab for a bit... actually was quite busy while I was there. I was invited to a wedding at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco over the last weekend and that was fun too... felt like it's been forever since I've been in the city.  Although parking up on that crazy hill wasn't so fun.  Finally got home a few days ago... it's been nice just bumming around... I signed up for 24 hr fitness so I've been attending a few of the group fitness classes--kickboxing is fun!  Did yoga today, tomorrow I'll try zumba.  Yay for exercise :)

Now, I've got 3 months to just.. do ___________ before school starts in August.   What's on my bucket list to do?  Train for a half marathon!  Learn Spanish!  Learn how to sew!  Get rid of my weirdo t-shirt tan from Africa! :D