I made it safely through the first week of classes.  Didn't even get lost! (knock on wood!) Or have heat stroke.  Wow, it's been hot.  I don't think the daytime high has dropped below 90 in the (almost) two weeks that I've been here. Yuck.  I have definitely inherited my mom's genes when it comes to handling the heat.  At least it's not 95* with a heat index of 120* though, right?

Classes all went well -- The nerd in me is excited about it, ha.  I actually feel like I'm finally going to be doing what I want to do.  The major problem I had working at the hospital was feeling like I was going absolutely nowhere.  The only chance for advancement in that job required me to be an RD.

My classes: Medical Nutrition Therapy, Nutritional Biochemistry, Nutrition Communications & Graduate Seminar, and Nutrition Assessment.  I can tell much of the first few weeks are going to be review of what I went through in undergrad.  This was a major concern of mine when I was applying for and deciding between schools/programs.  I knew that I would have to take a couple classes incredibly similar in content to what I had at St. Ben's, so I was a bit worried that I would feel like I was almost "cheating", that I wouldn't be challenged enough to feel like I was truly earning a higher degree.  I've had three of my most admired professors tell me the same thing, though -- "Grad school is going to be what YOU make it.  You need to take advantage of the opportunities you are given. Build on your experience and use your knowledge to your advantage."  However, if this past week was any indication, I don't think I have to worry too much about being challenged.

Definitely going to be busy -- I actually don't have classes on Fridays this semester, but I'm not sure how many of those I'll have free.  We're required to put in 40+ hours of community service in all things nutrition-related.  The opportunities are already flooding in -- I'm putting in a few hours working at a farmers' market a couple weekends over the next couple months!  They recently started accepting food stamp benefits, and an alumni of the program works for the non-profit, Utahns Against Hunger, that runs the booth that uses a POS machine to trade their benefits for tokens to spend at the market.  I think the part of this that I'm most excited about is getting the experience in and making the connections with an organization that does precisely what I think I am most interested in as far as a career goes -- community nutrition & health promotion.  I can go more in-depth on this later, but I just want to work with food. Sometimes, I think, there is too much focus on specific nutrients in the diet -- leave that up to the researchers.  I want to show people that eating better is not such a daunting task after all.  The average person, in my opinion, does not need to count calories or nutrients, but rather focus on a whole food "diet" (if you want to call it that).  Starting with one small change -- such as replacing sugary, refined cereals with a whole grain cereal -- is going to make a difference.  I don't want to just tell people what to do -- I want to show them.  Cooking, gardening, grocery shopping!  Anyway, I digress.

[A little side note in relation: If anyone wants some really awesome recipes, check out eatingwell.com.  It's the website for my favorite magazine, EatingWell (duh), and they have fantastic recipe collections as well as well-supported food and nutrition articles. I have a sooo many recipes bookmarked to try.]

As much as I was thankful for the short and sweet orientation, there's a whole lot that I wish they would have gone over with us -- like printing.  I've got a few journal articles to print off for classes and am slightly confused.  I'm a big girl though and will just have to go exploring.  Or take the easy way out and buy myself a printer, since I didn't freakin' bring my one of my own from home.  Blahhhhh, it wasn't like we didn't have room for it either...

The first weekend here is almost over.  I didn't do a whole lot.  Got some shopping done yesterday that Dusty and I didn't have time for last week.  Or were just too exhausted for, is more like it.  Actually spent about six hours shopping -- definitely not what I had expected.  My room and bathroom are almost all fixed up, now.  Just need to put something on my walls! There's nothing up right now.  I bought a couple picture frames and the supplies to make another "apparatus" for hanging pictures.  I was going to buy a couple shelves to put up but I was all shopped out and didn't really feel like putting them up anyway, haha.  I promise I'll get pictures up of the apartment sometime this week.

Oh, and I was also thinking I may want some sort of bookends to put on my desk.  Anyone have an idea of where I could get some??