2013 - The Year of the Sock

I am so very fortunate - I continued to be the lucky recipient of gifts long after Christmas was officially over. My roommate Zohreh gave me a 5-pack of colourful socks and a notebook (I have a bit of an addiction to notebooks since I have been keeping a journal, albeit often full of the most mundane and dreadfully dull entries, since my first trip to India in June of 1991). The notebook says 'I love you in Swedish'.

Other sock colours are peachy-orange, forest green, navy blue and a dark turquoise

Then earlier this week I received 3 pairs of socks from my dear friend Dawn in Canada. I now have enough socks that I can begin to throw away the ones that are wearing thin on the heels or actually have holes in them. Nothing makes you feel warm and cozy on a cold winter's day like a pair of comfy socks. Thanks to you both.

Canadian socks eh!

By this time tomorrow ...

This view is no longer extraordinary (this is from December 4, 2012) but thought those of you in Victoria might like to feel smug about how good the weather is where you are

I will have finished the exam for the second course in my program and will now be moving on to non-mandatory classes. The ending of these first two courses (Global Health and Research Methods for Global Health) means that a couple of people (at least) are leaving the program to either pursue other opportunities that will interrupt these studies (like taking a semester of Italian in Florence - sounds rough doesn't it!) or taking courses elsewhere that have been approved for credit within our program. It is bittersweet to say farewell to those we have become so close to so quickly.

I hope to get to a blog post this weekend and will give you the thumbs up or thumbs down then based on my perception of how the exam went.

Happy 2013!

Just a quick note to say that within a couple of weeks I will be done the second course in my program and that this means all the mandatory courses are out of the way now. After this we move onto Global Nutrition and I can't remember what's after that.

I have been feeling less than spiffy for the last 24 hours having come down with some kind of a cold or flu. It started with a sore throat and I've just felt dragged down and exhausted all day. Hoping to get it out of my system before school resumes on Monday. I went out for a walk and it was like toiling uphill in a windstorm I felt so pooped. Oh well, soon back to normal I am sure.

Here, for no particular reason, is a picture of the oldest tree in the botanical garden. It's a 300-year-old pear tree that still bears fruit. Perhaps I am posting it just to remind myself that summer will come again - I just need to be patient.