Things are going very well for me now that i finished up with the first wave of exams and papers of the term. on top of that yesterday was Undergraduate Break Day so I did not have to go to my one Friday morning class and instead spent the morning catching up on sleep.

The day off is informally known among the students and some with-it professors as "Suicide Prevention Day" since the winter and the school make it an especially tough 11 weeks. This is probably because in the past it has fallen on a day in January that experts have said is the most depressing day.

Spent the day off downtown with Mary my girlfriend getting some new clothes which was something i had been putting off and stopped by in Borders to get a Mocha and ended up entering the raffle there for front row tickets to the musical Wicked, since the drawing was only a half hour away, but we didnt win.

I thought I'd write again today, because the rest of the week will be busy for me.

I mentioned my Bio midterm is friday - well im not too worried about it b/c it is by far my most interesting and fun class. It has a real fancy name: Molecular Genetic Analysis of Bacterial Pathogenesis, but it just means we're learning how bacteria cause disease in plants and animals (usually humans). It's a cozy class (just 10 students total) and though there are 3 professors depending on the day's lecture they all really know their stuff since they do research in the field and they're very funny. I find the topic interesting and Microbiology is currently my "specialization" within my major of biology.

Hi everybody! I think the new setup of the website is fantastic - it's a great way for all of us to keep in touch. I hope to be using it to give you all updates on my life in Chicago and I encourage you to do the same (I want to live vicariously also).

I've already read all of Anne and Chuck's and Kara's blogs and I like being able to hear about you all from afar. The adventures ahead for Aunt Anne and Uncle Chuck sound exciting - have fun!

Right now I'm in the middle of midterms at the U. of C. since crazy midwesterners like to be on the trimester. It's officially the 5th week of the 2nd 10 week (plus a finals week) term of the year. It's a little misleading to be calling it midterm time because in courses such as Organic Chemistry where there are 2 exams during the quarter, as we call it, they are both called midterms, and I took the first this past Thursday and hope to hear about it soon. Thankfully, there is only one final. Similarly, for one of my courses I have 3 papers and just handed in the first earlier today.