Well I have now been in Tennessee for a little over a week. It has been very busy and I have only just now found time to sit down and update yall on how things have been going. Justin, my parents, and I packed up all of my belongings into a UHaul Thursday July 29th and drove to my grandparents' house in Granite Falls. We enjoyed dinner with them and my aunt, uncle, and cousin. The next morning we finished the journey to Knoxville and arrived at my apartment complex with plenty of time to start unloading before the cable man arrived to hook up my cable and internet. My parents stayed until Sunday, helping me get everything where I wanted it. My dad helped hang pictures and decorations with mom's perfectionist eyes aiding along the way. Needless to say everything is hanging squared and centered.
Justin has been here for the entire week helping me as I get to know the area and settle in. I am so grateful he stayed because I would have been a wreck without him here. It is such a crazy experience being somewhere completely new. You never realize how comforting it is to just recognize where you are driving or to see the same faces day after day. It's definitely different and I was not expecting the feeling of being out of place. After a week, however; I am beginning to figure out roads and locations of the essential stores (Wal-Mart, Food City, Michael's, Lowes, the mall, movie theaters, Walgreens, tack shop, etc).
Justin and I have been enjoying our time together. We have gone to a few movies (Toy Story 3 and Shrek 4), visited the mall, wandered around the Worlds Fair Park, walked around a greenway, layed out by the pool, eaten at a few restaurants (Olive Garden, Buddy's BBQ, Domino's, Marble Slab), and just enjoyed each other's company while we can. He leaves tomorrow and will start classes this coming Wednesday! I think he is not really excited about getting back into classes, but also not dreading it either.
On Thursday and Friday (5th and 6th), I got to attend the Applied Reproductive Strategies in Beef Cattle Conference in Nashville, TN. I went along with 5 other grad students from UT. It was a great conference. It lasted all day Thursday and most of the day Friday. It was filled with lectures on all sorts of reproductive topics from making a calf to artificial insemination to synchronization protocols to embryo transfer. Some topics were definitely more interesting than others, but all in all, it was a great way to refresh on the material and to get to know the grad students and some of the faculty at UT.
Monday will be my first time in the office. I will be reading research articles and hopefully getting to know my way around the lab a little bit. I will certainly need something to keep my mind busy and occupied since Justin is leaving that morning. Essau will be arriving Wednesday morning, so that will be good. I am ready to have him here so that I will have something else to do and so that I will have something from home just down the road at all times. I think he's going to be a great stress reliever for me and will help me along this journey.
I have uploaded some pictures from the move and my first few days here. I will be updating it with pictures from the barn and when Essau arrives. Enjoy and feel free to SKYPE me sometime!! (mgmacdougal)
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