Spring Break? Whats that?

Well, our stuff is (mostly) unpacked, the garden is planted and classes have started already. I will try to post pictures soon..
I am only taking 2 classes this quarter: soil microbiology (seems interesting) and design and analysis of experiments (seems boring, but required :P).
Today is César Chávez day which means that we have no classes. I had to look up who César Chávez is- he was farm laborer rights activist, kinda like MLK except for farm workers I guess. He is pictured to the left compliments of Wikipedia.

You can stick a fork in me-

Cause I'm Done! D-O-N-E Done with a capital D!

Whoo!

Fire!

This is reason number 12949303274628 why I am happy to be done with the train!! Thursday afternoon about 10 minutes after our train went through, the track/bridge caught fire. They suspect arson. When people told me I thought it just a minor thing but looking at the pictures and reading the article I see that it is a big deal! The bridge over the American River could have collapsed. Its going to cost millions of dollars to fix since they have to rebuild the trestles and UP is losing tons of money since they have to reroute everything up to Marysville. Amtrak is busing riders to Sac where they can catch the train westward. A minor inconvenience compared to what would have happened if the fire had been 10 minutes earlier!

The homestretch

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! All I have left is a take home exam, which is already half finished, and two papers to put the finishing touches on. Then I get to start packing and cleaning! I'm not sure how much better that is than school but at least its something that doesn't involve sitting in front of the computer all day.
Grad students at UC Davis are much more dedicated than the ones I knew at NCSU, including myself :) They stay up late all the time and try to work as hard as they can on every possible thing. Maybe I am just jealous... or maybe its just because they are boys ;)
This picture is a very cute puppy that I happened across on the internet. Don't worry I am not getting a dog. I barely have time to take care of myself much less a dog- but boy is he cute!! He would probably eat our shoes and pee everywhere though. I'll just keep telling myself that...
Tomorrow is the last day that I have to ride the train!! I think I will miss it a little bit. We had a St Pattys day party on Thursday with corn beef tacos! And I inducted as an official CC Rider- just in time to leave. Oh well, at least I got a cool pin :) Well, thats all the interesting stuff I have to report.. Goodnight!

I have a dilemma

Well, maybe 2. First I don't how to spell dillemma? And also I have an exam at 8am tomorrow. I have 2 options for getting to campus: Train or car. Train is usually on time but has been known to be late on the days that I actually need to be on campus on time. Car is usually reliable but have some slight mechanical issues which could potentially backfire. If the train is late or gets cancelled I will most likely have a ride to Davis via someone else. But if the car breaks down I am pretty much going to miss my whole exam trying to deal with it. Hmm.. sounds like the train may be the best choice.
Or maybe the car would be better because then I have a better chance of getting out this dreaded microbiology exam... bleeeach!

Today is Tuesday

That means that there are 4 more days until the quarter is essentially over!! That also means that I have four days to finish 2 papers, 2 presentations and a final exam. The only thing I am really worried about is the microbiology exam. I have had a hard time learning everything for each test so the idea of having to stuff 3 tests worth of stuff into my brain at once makes me slightly anxious.

The fact that the timing belt on the car is cracked also makes me slightly anxious. I don't have time to deal with it until next week so hopefully it will hold on until then!

My garden is almost ready for planting! I finished clearing out the area this weekend. Things left to do include: fixing/finishing the fence, creating raised beds and working in the mulch/compost. My cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers are almost ready for planting. I started some greens, herbs and marigolds this weekend so hopefully they will be ready in a couple weeks too.

This morning on the train I was thinking about the differences between NC and CA and the main one I thought about is the sky. The sky out here seems so much bigger. You look out and its like you can see forever. Almost every sunrise and sunset that I have seem is breathtaking. This is probably because of terrain. I grew up at the beach and its pretty flat but but nothing like here- I can look east or west from the valley and see flat nothingness, flat nothingness -- MOUNTAINS! That is when there isn't a smoggy haze. .
I was also thinking about how in 2 weeks I will never have to ride the train again. All I will have to do is get out of bed and ride my bike 5 minutes! Thats 1 hr and 15 minutes less of a commute than I have now :)