Hello from the road to DC! Matt and I are on our way up for our friend’s wedding.
I spent yesterday getting all sorts of school work done so I wouldn’t have to worry about it this weekend. My classmate, Maria, and I met up at Weaver Street Market (an awesome local co-op grocery store) at 11 and stayed until nearly 3 p.m. studying biochem — we have an exam next week.
Maria is awesome — she’s the only person in my year of the masters program who is also married with children. Every time I think that I’m super busy and overwhelmed, I think about how Maria is doing our full time masters program while also taking care of her two young kids, and I tell myself to shut up. So impressive.
Maria and I started studying together in the fall; in the first year of the program, we didn’t really know each other that well, but we happened to sit next to each other (front row, nerd bombing it) in our biochem class last fall — notoriously known as the hardest biochem class of our program. After getting our first tests back and neither of us doing so hot, Maria asked if I would be interested in studying together sometime. I said sure, and we set up a date after class later that week. From the first day, we discovered that the two of us are amazing study buddies — we both learn really well by talking our way through everything, and it seems like whatever I understand, she doesn’t, and whatever I don’t, she does, so it’s perfect. Explaining things to others is such a great way to learn yourself! After that first study session last fall, we studied together at least once per week and also met with our TA once a week to ask questions about stuff neither of us understood. And what do you know? We both slam dunked the hardest biochem class of our program. We’ve continued to study together all during this semester — both for biochem and also for our comprehensive exams, coming up in 2 weeks (gah). She’s the best. I seriously don’t know what I’d be doing if I had to study without her! 🙂
Since we knew we’d be at Weaver Street studying during lunch time, we both treated ourselves to lunch there. Here’s Maria’s tray:
And here’s mine!
A massive salad, plus a quinoa/tofu dish they have a lot that I really love.
I had a serious case of eyes bigger than stomach — I ended up saving half the salad to take home, but eating all the quinoa tofu dish and also this fun nut jam cookie thingy I nabbed for dessert.
After Maria and I were done studying, I came home and knocked out two more assignments. Whew! I’m so glad I did because I know I won’t have time to get any work done this weekend in DC.
Matt got home around 7:30 so I had a fun dinner waiting for him when he arrived.
I whipped up some roasted asparagus and sweet potatoes (which got slightly burned but were still really good), plus one of our favorites — Almond Encrusted Tilapia (click for recipe). I didn’t have any regular flour on hand, so I used a mix of chickpea flour and ground flaxseed as the breading. It worked really well and Matt couldn’t tell the difference. 😉
We have a busy weekend ahead in DC — we’re meeting my high school BFF (and MOH in our wedding) Jenny and her husband for lunch when we arrive and then spending the afternoon continuing our apartment search… boo. Tonight, we’re having dinner with my mom, then heading to the welcome party for the wedding we’re attending — which is at 2:30 tomorrow (Sunday). I’m hoping to squeeze in a run with my dad and brunch with the fam tomorrow before we have to be there! I’ll be getting up super early on Monday to drive back to Chapel Hill — I’m going to miss my 10 a.m. class, but will be back in time for our biochem review session at 2 — or at least that’s the plan!
Have a great weekend, friends! And in other news — Matt and I just saw that my car now has over 100,000 miles on it! Wow.
