Back in Tennessee!
Hey everyone!
Thanks for reading again this year. I am finally back in Tennessee for another 5 weeks, and so happy to be back. I've come back to do a clinical rotation for school credit. I've kept in touch with my nurse practitioner Mary and Sheila (the nurse practitioner I work with a bit last summer who works mainly in the local school clinics and part-time at the health center where I will be), and Mary took me back to work with her again.
It is now Saturday, but I left Boston on Monday evening and took my time getting down here. Monday night-Friday morning was spent in New York and New Jersey with my lovely Aunt Margie and Uncle Joe, Grandma Bea, Aunt Marian and Uncle Mayor, Cousins Larry, Ilene, Rachel, Leanna, Bella, and Peter (aka Simcha). It is wonderful to have such great people en route!
Friday morning I picked up my friend from school Alayna at the Baltimore airport. She will also be doing a clinical rotation down here working with Sheila. We drove on down to Galax, (pronounced gay-lax) Virginia for the night, where we stayed at the Galax hostel on the Blue Ridge Parkway, overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains. Gorgeous! We moseyed on into town for to BBQ and bluegrass music then back up to the hostel for the night.
This morning, we went for a little hike just over the border in North Carolina on the Cumberland Nob Trail, a gully trail with a bunch of stream crossings. It was pretty steep downhill for the first half, and very steadily uphill for the second half, which reminded me I need to get my butt into better shape. Then we took the back roads (including some dirt roads) through the countryside to get back on our way.
Total miles traveled since I left boston on Monday-about 1075!
Tonight, we checked into the Knoxville Hostel where we will be living for the five weeks. We were greeted by Al, the super southern and super friendly hostel owner, who ended us giving us the “2 cent” driving tour of Knoxville, which was actually really great. The neighborhood we live in is really cute- with lots of little restored Victorian homes and hidden music venues. He did warn us that prostitution isn’t that uncommon in Knoxville, so if men in pickup trucks honk and holler at us, just keep walking. Good advice. He drove us all around the city and gave us some history and some fun and practical info on where to go, what to see, and a little pop-culture (including about a Simpsons episode that took place in Knoxville). He dropped us off in Market Square, the city center where we had a bite to eat. Then we walked around and caught some live British invasion music (whatever that is) in a pub and then walked home for a somewhat early evening after a long day of driving. We were honked and hollered at by 4 cars and pickup trucks on the way home, but we just kept walking