Day 5...

...and the Daily (the UW newspaper) is already counting down the days until the quarter ends. Truth be told, I am not counting those days AT ALL. This is because, quite frankly, I have a hella lotta work to do before this quarter comes to a close. For crying out loud, it's only my fifth day of grad school! I like (or rather, don't like) to think of it this way: I feel flooded. Flooded by new people, flooded by the beautiful city of Seattle, flooded by a shitload of homework (for today, I had to read 220 pages for one class alone!), flooded by what I have accomplished since May. I am soaked with water, in other words. Completely and utterly overwhelmed. Plus, to top things off, I don't have internet at my apartment (or groceries for that matter - I'm STARVING), so I have no access to email - snowball effect shows that I will soon be feeling disconnected from home because of this. Ugh.

On the brighter side of things, I FRIGGIN LOVE SEATTLE. You might wonder why the name of my blog is Emerald City...it's Seattle's nickname! I thought this also to be relavent in reference (oh good Lord, I SOUND like I'm in grad school - kick me if I start to sound too pretentious) to the Wizard of Oz because, "There's no place like home!" Whether my home be Green Bay, Minneapolis, or Seattle. Like it?

To transition, let me just highlight a few of the interesting events that have taken place thus far before I have to catch my bus...

1 - My parental units were in town for the entire week and they helped me (along with their friends and my newly surrogate parents, Colleen and Jim) move in! My brother flew in from Phoenix on Thursday to surprise them and spend the weekend with us. It was the family vacation that I originally wanted for graduation! We had so much fun - we went to Pasco (a small city in southeastern Washington) for Kyle's (Colleen and Jim's son - the boy that I practically and willingly have an arranged marriage with even though he's only 13) soccer game on Saturday. Along the way, we stopped at a few wineries to taste test. Mmmm! We also had the opportunity to stomp some grapes! It was a riot. Colleen and my mom versus Tyler and I while my dad took pictures of the action. To my demise, Colleen and my mom WON. Who woulda known?

2 - My classes are going swimmingly! More on this later.

3 - No makeout dates yet, but there are bound to be a few within the next month for sure. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I gotta catch my bus...I have already waited for over an hour total for the bus today! Ahh, the "price" we pay for public transportation!