Community College

While searching for interesting jobs, I stumbled across the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. I highly suggest you Google it and check it out. It's basically a school based on a way of doing medicine with which I highly agree. They are also very green, too. After discovering this school, I decided this was a career path I wanted to take. However, since I never took one biology, chemistry, or physics course at Gustavus, I need to take those here in AZ before I can apply.

Enter the Maricopa Community College system. This system has 10 community colleges so that a student can take the same course at any of the colleges. Though I have had some strife in arranging a class schedule, the first day of class this Tuesday I made it work. I am currently taking BIO-181 (General Biology) and BIO-201 (Anatomy and Physiology). Biology is basically a high school course so we'll see how that goes. Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) is more challenging, interesting, and worthwhile. Plus, we meet in a brand new building that has a shiny new cadaver lab in it! We get to look at muscles on cadavers in October! Super exciting.

So that's where I'm at currently. It's nice to have something on my weekly agenda, and a couple of textbooks to read when I'm bored. So far no job, but the local Starbucks is going to soon have openings! Wish me luck!

Hiking: Bobby's Rock Trail

Today was the third day I hiked Camelback Mountain. The first two hikes were up Cholla Trail, which is steep and 1.5 miles long (roundtrip?). Today I wanted something a little less rugged so I chose this short, "easy" trail. It was short, not well marked, and easy enough without being boring. I could see myself running this trail (carefully). The end of the trail reveals an awesome view of downtown Phoenix. After hiking this little trail, I sampled the Echo Canyon Summit Trail, which is the hardest of all four trails. Today I only made it to the quarter-mile marker but I'll start tackling that another day this week.
This is what the hiking terrain looks like in Arizona! Wildlife sitings have included little lizards, ground squirrels, and quails. So far no rattlesnakes!!

Apartment - AC = sweat^2

Last night the AC went out. How do I know? Well when I woke up at 5:30am the thermostat read 81 degrees, even though it was set for 71 degrees. Not good. By 9:00am it was up to 84 degrees. I made a maintenance request but forgot to undo the top deadbolt lock, and without undoing that they can't get it. Ugh. They should be here soon; it's up to 89 degrees.

The wisdom found in Las Vegas

I discovered this in our Excalibur hotel room in Las Vegas before arriving to Arizona.

This soap has grippers so it won't slide down into the sink after you've used it! How genius!

Up-to-date

So far life in Arizona is up and down. On the one hand, I love being here, living with Nick in our fabulous townhouse apartment. On the other hand, moving to a brand new place is difficult. I have few friends (the ones that are here are extremely busy with teaching) and no job. I get bored quite easily. It's way too hot to go outside so I stay in and do nothing. Unpacking boxes and trying to find a place for everything is not something I have been motivated to do.

However there have been developments. While job searching, I happened upon the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and realized that it was something in which I was seriously interested. Unfortunately, I didn't take any bio/chem/physics courses at Gustavus so I must do those now. I'm hoping to complete those prerequisites in a year and, if all goes well, be admitted to SCNM in Fall 2010. If for some reason that plan does not come to fruition, I will go for my Masters in Teaching with certification at Arizona State University in Fall 2010, when I will qualify for in-state tuition.

The job front has been difficult (what's new). I have gotten three "call-backs" from my resume submissions. Two of these have been for branches of an international parent company called Smart Circle, which basically makes its money off of mini-businesses that are run on a big pyramid-scheme where its employees sell stuff door-to-door (or within stores sometimes, too). It's very sketchy and I am very glad I did not agree to work for them. However, one "call-back" was from Banana Republic. I was invited to a group session where the woman went over the job description and said she would be calling each of us to see if we were interested in an interview. I am very interested and I hope to hear from her! Meanwhile, I am continuing to apply and I think I am going to apply for a Subsitute teaching certification to become a sub.

I have been keeping busy in the evenings cooking for Nick. I have mostly been cooking from the South Beach Diet cookbooks. I love the recipes and the benefits. But let me tell you cooking is hard and tiring! I know it will get easier with practice. Plus, I have discovered the greatness of Trader Joes, and shopping in this laid-back atmosphere is much less stressful than shopping at the chaotic Fry's down the street.

This is basically what has been going on for the past 3.5 weeks! Thanks for reading!