The faculty and grad students at Wake Forest are amazing! During my visit in February of this year, Dr. Guthold, Dr. Bonin, Dr. Macosko, and several other professors and students all made such an awesome impression. All three of the professors I mentioned (including others) are also heavily involved in biophysics research, and to my knowledge, at least two of them collaborate with the Wake Forest medical school. The student to faculty ratio for the physics department at Wake is also very small, so I will have a great opportunity to really get to know the professors and talk through difficult concepts with them. Plus what's really nice is that the faculty is so willing to work with me. For example, they said I could start with 600-level courses instead of 700-level ones in order to build a more solid understanding of the curriculum. With this route, I will be able to take less classes this summer and spend more time with friends and family.
As for other news, this morning I was injected with bleomycin at the BYU Health Center. When I went to see the foot doctor, he took a quick look at my foot then said with a grim face (in essence): You have three options for curing the infection, all of which will be painful. We can either cut it or freeze it off, but chances are the infection will come back. Or we can use an air gun to inject you with bleomycin and entirely destroy it, BUT you will be in pain for about two days (you can imagine my reaction). After choosing the bleomycin, he gave me a friendly blast of it then sent me out to schedule my follow-up appointment. The last thing I remember though was agreeing to come back at 1 o'clock next week just as the pain started to settle in; before I knew it people were surrounding my past out body on the floor wondering what happened. Wow, the doctor wasn't kidding about it hurting! No worries, though. The nurses were all very nice and got me on my feet again.. well, sort of. Fortunately, the pain is mostly gone now (yeah, so much for two days.. no complaints here though). Unfortunately, the nurses say I might need to do one more injection since the infection was fairly large.
Yesterday I had some friends over for Sunday dinner after church. Joseph and Mitchell Kelly, Nick and Rachel Purse, Rachel's two friends Amy and Desiree, and Dan, his wife Becky and daughter Lili, all came. We had beef and cheese enchiladas with all the seasonings, chips and salsa, and arroz con leche (rice pudding) for dessert. We also played telephone charades, and had lots of laughs with that.
I am now officially living in Devonshire, too, an apartment complex on 700 N and University Ave in Provo, UT. It feels really nice to have roommates again! Living in my parents' condo definitely had it perks (plus we were saving a lot of money), but at the same time, it feels great to have someone to talk to and hang out with at the apartment.
My parents and I are planning to fly out a week or so before classes begin in August to visit campus and surrounding areas, plus maybe go see Duke and UNC while we're there. To give you a better idea of the university, it has two campuses (the Reynolda and Bowman Grey campuses) both in Winston-Salem, NC. Wake Forest has a student body of about 6,800 (about 4,400 undergrads and 2,200 grad students) and is currently ranked in the top 30 by US News and Report for National Universities. Its basketball team also does very well, too; in fact, at one point it even reached the No. 1 spot in NCAA Division I polls last year! As for the physics department, there are about 20 or so faculty members and about 30 grad students. The physics building, known as the Olin Physical Laboratory, is located on the Reynolda campus (the main campus of Wake Forest) right next to the library. During my visit we spent most of our time on the Reynolda campus in the Olin building. We did get to walk around campus for a bit though; wow, it is so green and well-kept! The buildings there also have a very interesting Georgian architecture. The surrounding area seems very nice, too (i.e. the cities of Winston-Salem and Greensboro). Check it out on Google Maps!
As for other news, this morning I was injected with bleomycin at the BYU Health Center. When I went to see the foot doctor, he took a quick look at my foot then said with a grim face (in essence): You have three options for curing the infection, all of which will be painful. We can either cut it or freeze it off, but chances are the infection will come back. Or we can use an air gun to inject you with bleomycin and entirely destroy it, BUT you will be in pain for about two days (you can imagine my reaction). After choosing the bleomycin, he gave me a friendly blast of it then sent me out to schedule my follow-up appointment. The last thing I remember though was agreeing to come back at 1 o'clock next week just as the pain started to settle in; before I knew it people were surrounding my past out body on the floor wondering what happened. Wow, the doctor wasn't kidding about it hurting! No worries, though. The nurses were all very nice and got me on my feet again.. well, sort of. Fortunately, the pain is mostly gone now (yeah, so much for two days.. no complaints here though). Unfortunately, the nurses say I might need to do one more injection since the infection was fairly large.
Yesterday I had some friends over for Sunday dinner after church. Joseph and Mitchell Kelly, Nick and Rachel Purse, Rachel's two friends Amy and Desiree, and Dan, his wife Becky and daughter Lili, all came. We had beef and cheese enchiladas with all the seasonings, chips and salsa, and arroz con leche (rice pudding) for dessert. We also played telephone charades, and had lots of laughs with that.
Wait Chapel, Reynolda Campus
Benson Student Center, Reynolda Campus
