End of week 2: Weekend of exploring

Aloha from Charlottesville!

This was the first weekend I was able to get out and about to explore, as there were no surgical cases over the weekend, so no post-op checklists for me to do during rounds. The fellows told me to focus on enjoying this beautiful weekend, so I listened :)

I spent Friday night out with new med student friends I'd met at the hospital. We went to a few bars and it was so nice to get out and be social in a new town.

Saturday I went hiking along part of the Appalachian Trail with my roommate. We tried to hike Humpback Rock, which had been recommended to me a number of times, but the road to get there was closed. So, we took Skyline Drive and drove until we saw anything promising in terms of trails. We found one, and it was beaauuutiful. Despite the snow on the ground, it was warm and sunny enough to go without a coat. If we'd continued along, we could've hiked all the way to Maine, but we called it quits after a couple miles :)

Here was our first stop at a scenic view.

Roomie with her two awesome dogs, Lola and Haley

It's no Hawai'i, but this isn't so bad :)

Saturday evening I joined my new friends for some fresh pasta making. This was quite an ordeal and required lots of teamwork as you can see from the strands of pasta that were multiple feet long. We made regular and spinach dough, which was shaped into linguini, tortellini and ravioli. I had never made fresh pasta before, and I think I'm converted. It was so fresh and delicious.

Flattening thyme-infused sheets to make ravioli

Waterfall of pasta!

The tortellini and ravioli had two types of filling: sweet potato and mushroom/onions. Both were INCREDIBLE. I think I ate my bodyweight in pasta, and there was still plenty leftover.

To-die-for-tortellini.

I couldn't show up empty handed, so I made my famous cookies (my Bennington and Hawai'i friends know all about these puppies). They must've been liked because I left with a bare plate.

Most incredible cookies in the world

After dinner we played dominoes and Catch Phrase. It was so great to see how close these students were, and that despite being in the thick of third year, they still make time to hang out and have fun (one of them was on surgery rotation, and yet was still there and awake. Impressive!).

Sunday was a day for exploring in 55 degree sunshine. I walked all around the Downtown Mall and found some quaint bookstores and an awesome little coffee shop with a great vibe, along with plenty of gelato places. It reminded me a little of Pearl Street in Boulder.

Downtown Mall

Public chalk board

I finished my moseying with a stop at UVA's pool, where I actually competed as a junior diver about a decade ago. I hadn't been back since, but it looks exactly as I remember it. An old teammate of mine now holds the guys' record on 1-meter and 3-meter, and I saw plenty of other familiar names on the record board.

UVA pool

Back at work tomorrow bright and early. Later this week I'll get to shadow in the cath lab, which I'm so excited to see. Next weekend I'm planning to go to Monticello and also to watch the UVA men's tennis team play matches (they're #1 in the nation...should be pretty intense). More to come!