Hello, Columbia!

I've taken Columbia by storm, and I've only been here two weeks! Okay, not really. If anything, it's taken me by storm and I keep getting lost, but you know what I mean.

South Carolina is a wonderful place. The saying "southern hospitality" is alive and well. It is rare to go somewhere without someone (usually a nice southern boy) holding the door open for you, or hearing yes ma'am, or someone saying "Hi Y'all" when you walk into the grocery store. It's a nice little state -- other than getting lost a lot.

For those who have ever been in a car with me, I am directionally challenged. Very directionally challenged. So driving around a new city has been an adventure to say the least. For the first few days I still couldn't figure out how to get to any of the main roads, or the highway, or anywhere. But thanks to my handy iPhone and GPS, I figured out to get to most of the places I needed to be. Parking in a city is difficult, and I am slowly but surely learning how to parallel park (a new adventure in itself), as well as making sure I always have quarters on hand. With that combination, parking/driving it getting easier. But that's just a small look at my current life.

Cooking. Another new part of my life. I have my "go to" recipes, such as chicken parmesan, grilled cheese, spaghetti, veggie stir fry, and some other concoctions I can come up with. I can follow a recipe, almost anyone can, but finding the time to look for recipes, go get all of the ingredients and cook everything is very time consuming. I've been eating a lot of salads, grilled cheese, cereal, fruit, and have learned to appreciate the luxury, and necessity, of always having a rotisserie chicken on hand. Time will tell how that goes, but for now, it's going as well as it could be!

As far as grad school classes go, so far there is nothing I didn't expect. The most challenging concept I've discovered is attempting to understand Excel spreadsheets and formula cells (something I know nothing of), but other than that, classes are interesting and I know will prove useful as time goes on and concepts build. Right now I am waiting to figure out my graduate assistantship, probably the best part of the program. I will be working between 10 and 20 hours a week in some sort of position to help me grow and understand more about the healthcare field, but as of right now, I have no idea where that will be. What I do know, is that I don't despise reading my textbooks, something that has never been the case. My books are interesting, the information is important, relevant, and thought-provoking -- and I love that.

Something else that's wonderful are the people in my program. Although we all are very new friends, thrown into this little world called grad school together, we seem to be bonding very well. Last weekend we had a BBQ, went downtown for drinks, and got to know each other. Tomorrow is Carolina's first football game of the season, and after our class, that gets out around 8 p.m., we are heading to one of classmate's houses to watch the game together. I still don't understand football, nor particularly care for it (so sue me), but I'm excited to see how games are in Carolina in the upcoming weeks. Apparently if you don't own a garnet and black dress here, something is wrong with you. Guess I know what I'll be keeping my eyes out for!

But that's Columbia so far. A thriving new adventure for a 21-year old recent college grad trying to find her way to the nearest grocery store, parallel parking spot, and mall (something I still haven't discovered). Keep tuned for more stories to come!