First Post

So far, Kentucky has been as I've expected with a few nice surprises: there are lots of horses, lots of green hills, and--one of the surprises--some abrupt and violent thunderstorms. I'm definitely enjoying myself! On Saturday, I went hiking at Daniel Boone State Park with Melisa, Katie, Michelle, and Alina. The most exciting parts included driving through a one-lane tunnel through the side of the mountain and getting lost on the trails so that we ended up hiking about eight miles instead of four!

I recently finished reading my last Jane Austen novel so I've been hunting for cute bookstores in Lexington and the two I like best are "Black Swan Books" and "Glover's Bookery." Both of these shops advertise books of "military history," "equestrian history and literature," and some bizarre genre called "Kentuckiana." This probably means I'll be branching out from Jane Austen.

I am also very excited about the Trader Joe's in town! According to Melisa, we've already gone three times. My one regret about the store is that they do not sell coffee mugs, which means I've been drinking tea out of my little green plastic cup for the past week. I hope the plastic is BPA free.

In terms of research, I've been doing quite a lot of reading based off the the papers that Dr. Grady has recommended. I'm also partially successful in my first use of Autodesk Inventor to design a petri dish holder for Dr. Grady's new florescent microscope. The good news about me not knowing entirely what I'm doing is that I've made friends with Floyd the machinist as of this morning. Thankfully, he has given me some helpful tips.