Winding down and winding up

We are reaching the end of the quarter and that means we're winding down for the year, but also winding up too. I've got finals the Tuesday after memorial day and there's always so much to get done at the end of a quarter. Tom won't finish up until mid-June so I guess I'm winding faster than he is :)

But what would this time of year be without some festivities? Last weekend marked a special occasion for Allison Craven, our friend from UPS. She graduated from PT school this weekend so we joined her and her family at her Aunt and Uncle's gorgeous home in Monroe, WA for a BBQ and a celebration. The view made me feel right at home!

Her dad (Dean) loaded us up with burgers and salmon from the grill and we settled in on the porch.

They even went so far as to have homemade maroon tassels for the silverware! It was so Martha Stewart :)

Here's Al and her cousin who graduated from undergrad this year too, giving their thanks to the friends and family in attendance. (Al's on the left if you're wondering who is who).

The next day Tom and I finally cashed in a gift certificate from Aunt Ann to go to HipCooks in Seattle for a cooking class. It's a shop right across the street from the main entrance to REI. Tom donned his apron and we set to work.

We all hovered around this amazing island and got our hands dirty as our teacher, Lisa, taught us about the "four S's" of Thai food: salt, sweet, spicy and savory (aka unami).

Here was our delectable menu for the day. My favorites: coconut sticky rice, the pad thai and the chicken satay with peanut sauce.

Here Tom is making the filling for our veggie spring rolls. It was a little spicy for the both of us, but I definitely liked the concept.

And here's the tray of our finished products! The teacher was so kind and let Tom and I have our own little plate of them without cilantro (I was pretty much the only one there that can't stand the stuff!).

Here is one of my favorites. It's coconut rice with lime zest topped with a shrimp that's been marinated in garlic, onions and a "special sauce" :)

Here's a mix of the pad thai and the papaya salad we made. The papaya salad was using "green papaya's" which I had never heard of. It's not just under-ripe papaya like I thought--it's actually a totally different kind of papaya that happens to be green.

Now, I'm not much of a curry fan, but this was pretty darn good. It's red curry with toasted cashews. Again, I'm not usually a nut fan either, but those cashews were yummy!

It's kind of a funny photo but here's the red and green curry side by side. This was "round 2" of my helpings, so I was so full I couldn't hardly take any...wish we could have had doggy bags for it!

And, to wrap out the weekend there were more celebrations. One of my classmates, Anna (who is also from Montana) got engaged this year (in fact I think there might even be a blog post about that already). Her friends all gathered together for a surprise engagement party complete with home baked masterpieces from another mutual friend Hilary (who is also in my amazing small group for school).

Here's her excited face as she learns that everyone she knows is at the same bar on purpose!

The party was at a place called the Shelter and it came complete with a smore making set up. of course Tom and I had to indulge.

We toasted the night away to Ann and Oliver!

Then the school week began and that was full of surprises too. We had sort of a weird end of the year "assignment" to write (and perform) songs about the parasites we are learning about in microbiology. Once again I am dazzled by the talent and creativity of my classmates. Here's a string of photos of the amazing performances-- needless to say it was a GREAT day in class.

I'm not sure if this video will work or not, but this is a clip of the performance by "The Anastamoses" a group I've written about before that is composed mostly of members of my small group. I think you'll recognize the tune--but you won't recognize the lyrics about worms.

To round out the week, we had another performance by the Anastamoses for our Cadaver Remembrance Ceremony. It was a beautiful way to wrap up the year and to share our thoughts from our experiences in the anatomy lab, express our thanks to the generous people that donated their bodies for our learning and to reflect on how far we've come in our process to becoming physicians. It was so refreshing and a wonderful way to wrap up the end of the quarter. Today is our last day of class and our finals start Tuesday! It's hard to believe year one of medical school is almost done.