Interview Season

It's finally feeling truly like Fall in Chicago and I'm really missing the warm, sunny days I spent at the beach as I hurry into work bundled up in my coat and boots. Normally I would be feeling rather melancholy, faced with the prospect of a long winter indoors but as it is I'm much too busy to spend any time brooding over the death of summer. It's Fall and that means that interview season has begun in earnest! So far I have received interview invitations from Hofstra, Boston University, UVM and, just last week, UIC. On Tuesday, September 31, I flew back to the East Coast (which was a nightmare of cancelled flights and rescheduled interviews) to attend interview day at BU and then Hofstra and it was an amazing, exhausting, wonderful experience. I stayed on in New York City for the weekend following a Friday interview at Hofstra and met up with some college friends for a fun mini-reunion. I ended up flying back to Chicago Monday morning on the red-eye and making it to work, bleary-eyed on roughly 5 hours of sleep (half of which was on the plane so it barely even counts). I then had to go class after work so I didn't actually make it home until almost 10 PM!
It's been a very long and tiring week but I wouldn't trade it for anything and being away made me really appreciate coming home to my cozy apartment and adorable kittens. Oh yes, I have two kittens now. I decided that Rufus (kitten #1) needed a tiny friend to grow up with and keep him company so I adopted Lizzie Bennet, a beautiful gray tabby who keeps Rufus on his toes. She's a feisty little lady and her and Rufus are so adorable together it's incredibly distracting, I'm shocked I ever get anything done when they're around to cuddle with me on the couch.
Another reason I've been incredibly busy lately is that I've started volunteering at Lurie Children's Hospital. I want to save talking about it for another post but suffice it to say that I look forward to my shift all week and have really enjoyed it so far. On top of that I have a new class (physiology!) which has a hefty amount of required reading per week so I'm planning on shutting myself in with some tea and snacks this weekend and studying extra hard to get up to speed.
With everything going on (all exciting things!) it's been difficult to keep up with writing on this blog but I'm always happy when I get a chance to sit down and update you all. If anyone is interested in specific interview day posts for any of the above four schools I'm glad to oblige, just let me know in the comments!

Rufus & Lizzie being friends