Fishing and New Ward

My summer classes started on Monday. I am taking an Anthropology course called Southwestern Archaeology and I love it so far. I am also taking a required Humanities class called...something about society and technology. Truthfully I am taking it as a summer course so I don’t have to suffer through a whole semester of psychoanalytical babble. Cody is ending his quarter and he needs to choose a lab but he can tell you all about that. Okay I can take a hint. I think Emilee wants me to write something here. Here's a quick run down of my UCSD experience so far. This school year I've done rotations in three different labs: a lab working on type 1 diabetes, a lab working on Alzheimer's disease, and finally a lab studying basic cell biology. The experiences I've had in all three labs have been great. When I started graduate school I thought I wanted to pick a lab based solely on the topic they studied but now I've realized that it is just as important to pick a lab based on the professor. If I can't stand working for a certain professor it doesn't matter how exciting the science is, it would be impossible to work there. So in the end I'm leaning toward the lab working on basic cell biology. The professor is young but extremely intelligent. He got his MD and PhD from Harvard. He is also a great mentor, he is a good teacher and he seems to really care about his students. I'll let you know which lab I end up in. Let’s see…other news is that our ward was divided and we were made part of a new ward with all new leadership. It will be interesting to see the ward dynamics change. We sat down in sacrament meeting and noticed that the whole stake presidency was sitting on the stand and we knew something was up but we were just thinking we were getting a new bishopric but he blew us all away with the announcement of a new ward and new ward names and a new bishopric. So we are now in the University City 2^nd ward. Woot!

Last Saturday we drove to the top of Mt. Soledad, a hill right by I-5 that overlooks downtown La Jolla. There are multi-million dollar homes with awesome views built up and down the hill that have had sad days because of landslides. Here is the beautiful view!

Yesterday we went fishing at a manmade lake because it was free fishing day in California. The park was closing just as we started seeing fish jump. We didn’t catch anything but I got to cast out my lure several times. It was my first time fishing. I can see how it is a huge hobby for lots of men… all those lures and flies and weights and bobbles and fishing line and poles...being able to fend for yourself in the great wilderness…sitting on a lake during a serene sunset or sunrise waiting for a bite...