Beach Break

Laura:

Last Sunday (July 24) we did a couple fun things. First, we went to lunch at Magnolia's Cafe with my really good friend Rachel and her boyfriend Bryan. Rachel and I were lab mates during our undergrad years at Mizzou (University of Missouri). She is also currently a 4th year medical student at the University of Rochester and was a great resource to talk to while applying to their medical school. Lunch was really great and it was nice to hang out with some familiar faces (for me at least....Alex had never met Rachel and Bryan before, but I dare say we'll be seeing them again soon!).

While we were chatting with Rachel and Bryan on the walk home and they suggested we go to the beach! (Bet you didn't think that would be a perk of living in the Great White North, eh?) The weather was gorgeous, so we didn't need much convincing! For our first excursion to the beaches along Lake Ontario we decided to go to a large public beach called Ontario Beach County Park (see the last map in "A Little Geography" post). As always the beach was only about 15 minutes away, so we grabbed up all our beach gear and some snacks and headed for the coast!

On the way up, we drove along the aptly named Lake Shore Boulevard and saw a number of other beaches we'll need to visit in the future. Since it was the weekend there were tons of people along the shore partying with friends, playing around, and having a great time.

When we arrived at the Ontario Beach County Park we were a little disappointed to see rope blocking off entry to the water....BLERGH!!!! Apparently the beach was closed for the day due to high levels of E. coli bacteria in the water....sounds familiar....cough....cough....LAKE OF THE OZARKS.....cough....cough. However, we were still able to lay our towels out so we could people watch and spend some time relaxing in the sun. There was a group of people playing beach volleyball, lots of people wandering around with metal detectors, and even a church youth group playing "icebreaker" games on the beach.

Chilling out on the beach with some snacks and some sun was a great way to spend our Sunday afternoon! Even the seagulls wanted to get in on the fun.....or maybe they just wanted a Cheez-it!

He wants your cheez-it!

Involves lots of running and posing....weird!

Alex:
Beach time was a good time. We brought some snacks (chips and salsa, cheez-its) that the seagulls were very interested in. The strange games the youth group was playing were pretty entertaining, starting with "Giants, Wizards, Elves" which was pretty awful and just seemed to consist of a lot of confusion and screaming... Sort of like Red Rover. Apparently they would line up and do a Rock/Scissors/Paper type thing in a big group, then the winning team would chase the losing team. Those kids managed to get so confused it looked a little less like a scene from Braveheart and a lot more like a bunch of flies buzzing around trash. It was entertaining to watch though, but not nearly as entertaining as the next game: Bodyguard.

Maybe some of you have played Bodyguard... the concept is simple enough: It's like circle dodgeball (people standing in a circle throwing balls at people within the circle knocking them out until no one is left) except there are only two people in the circle, the president and the bodyguard. The bodyguard blocks all the impacts and has to protect the president, who just has to not get hit. The most fun part was when one guy (possibly a camp counselor) as the president grabbed his bodyguards arms behind his back and swung him around to absorb the throws in his face.

We left about the time they stopped playing bodyguard and started singing some kind of Kumbaya with drums and guitars.

After leaving the beach we took a walk down the pier, which is about a half mile out into the lake and runs along the Genesee river as it empties into the lake. At the end is a little beacon with graffiti all over it. We got a few nice pics as the sun started to go down.

Laura:
Since this little excursion to the beach, we have since learned (through local new casts and word of mouth) that the Ontario Beach really isn't very nicest and is frequently closed due to algae or bacteria. The surrounding business area is nice, but not the beach itself. A 4th year medical student recommended the Hamlin Beach (west of Rochester) if we really wanted to go swimming in the lake, but said really....it's not that great. Oh well....water is probably really cold anyway, so I'd rather just sit out on a towel and enjoy the warm sunshine (while it's still here!!!!).

THE LORAX

A Little Geography

Most people have no idea where exactly Rochester, NY is located (I know I sure didn't until I started applying to U of R), so I thought I would provide some visual aids to help explain where our new home town is located.

Rochester, NY is located in the western part of New York state and is about 8 miles off the southern coast of Lake Ontario.

Rochester certainly isn't isolated by any means, but we are at least a few hours from any of the "BIG CITIES" you might associate with the East Coast: NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, etc. (Sorry if the font is a little small. Click on the picture to see a bigger version.)

Here are a few major landmarks.....again click the picture to see a larger version.....

The funny thing about living in Rochester is that it only takes about 10-15 min to drive anywhere in town.....ANYWHERE! Only 10 min down to suburbia strip malls, 15 min up to the beach, maybe only 8-10 min to the med school from our apartment. It's crazy!!!! Luckily this makes going to see all the interesting places around town much easier. You don't have to plan for a 45 min drive because of horrific traffic or sheer distance.

Well that's our city! If you have any questions, just post them in the comments section for this post.

-Laura-

Rochester Public Market

Laura:
Yesterday we went to the Rochester Public Market to pick up some fresh produce and scope out it's awesomeness. I was hearing rave reviews about the market way back when I first applied to U of R for medical school, so we definitely had to check it out ASAP. Verdict: It's pretty awesome!

THE MARKET!!!! 

The public market is an outdoors farmer's market with vendors selling everything you could ever want: fruit, veggies, bread, fish, meat, flowers, purses, sunglasses, etc. There was even a specialty pasta stand where we purchased Basil Garlic Penne pasta. Can't wait to cook with it! Aside from all the vendor stands there are a number of small restaurants/food carts set-up around the market so you can grab a bite to eat while you're there. Next time we'll definitely be hitting up the empanada stand. :0) We didn't stick around too long because we went right around 1 pm, so it was pretty hot out. We did manage to buy lots of tasty treats though during our short visit....check it out!

$4 for the specialty pasta in the paper bag in the back, $10 for all the produce.

Alex:
The crazy flavored specialty pasta wasn't terribly cheap, but it was pretty tasty!  I was really tempted to buy some of their herb plants so we'd have some right away, but decided to hold off to see how my seeds at home do.  There was also olive oil tasting in one of the little coffee shops, so we got some drinks and tried a few.  Now we're tempted to make our own flavored olive oils!

Laura:
Our first trip to the market was a great success and we'll definitely we going back soon!

THE LORAX

Friday Update

Laura:

We've survived our first week in Rochester! We arrived Sunday (July 17) night around 7 pm and got our keys from the landlords. Since our furniture wasn't arriving until the following morning, we just camped out in the living room on air mattresses. For our first meal in Rochester, we ordered pizza from Mark's Pizzeria. While we were forced to enjoy our pizza sitting at our cardboard "dining room table", we were still able to thoroughly enjoy the DELICIOUS pizza.

Movers dropped off all our stuff Monday morning. Everything went very smoothly and nothing was broken. It rained for a little while when they first arrived, but stopped after a couple of hours. I think they arrived at 8 am and were done around 1-2 pm. Not too bad for just two guys moving our stuff in and setting up our furniture!

Alex:

There was one thing broken actually...  So the moving truck was huge -- an 18-wheeler with special doors on the side and cargo space underneath.  There was street sweeping in the morning, so all the cars on our side of the street were gone (and we parked our cars out front to block the spaces just in case).  Unfortunately there was one thing we could not account for: a low-hanging tree over the road.  Now when I say low-hanging, I'm really saying that a few feet over the curb there were a few branches maybe 12+ feet off the ground.  Anyway, they rammed and scraped up some branches pulling in front of the house, but when someone was trying to pull out of a driveway they had blocked they were forced to back into the tree again to let them out.  They slowly inched back further and further to let the person out, pushing on the tree until there was a loud crack! and leaves and water spraying everywhere (it was raining during our move in).  A giant 15-20 foot branch tumbled into the street.  The movers dragged it into the mall in the middle of the street so people could drive through, but we were worried that since the tree was in front of our neighbors house that we might not be well liked in the neighborhood...  Luckily we went to talk to them later and everyone was very nice about it.  Since it was between the sidewalk and the street, it was technically city property, so the city would come by and collect the branches and the neighbors didn't care about the tree much.  Our landlords even said it probably needed to be pruned anyway, and we were just lucky it wasn't one of the other 100-year-old magnolias lining the street that the city does care about.  That was our excitement for the day on Monday...

Other than that, the movers were great!  Really friendly and professional.

Laura:
After the movers left, we decided to find something to eat and then hit-up Home Depot and Wal-mart for various supplies. We stopped at DogTown for lunch. It's a great little hot dog place down the street from our apartment. They have all sorts of topping variations to put on your Red or White Zweigle's hot dogs. If you ever come up to visit Rochester, I would definitely suggest you stop by!

The majority of my week has been spent slowly unpacking all our belongings. The kitchen was unpacked by Tuesday, so we were able to make some Jambalaya for dinner.

We are also very happy to be using our brand new dishwasher!!!!! It's an incredible perk of this apartment seeing as Alex and I have both been living without one for the last three years. Wonderful, wonderful inventions!!!!

We've made very good progress on the unpacking of our apartment. As of today, everything is very liveable (minus the lack of AC during this summer HEAT WAVE). Kitchen is fully functional and now fully stocked after a trip to our local Wegman's (grocery store). Living room is pretty much totally put together....TV and Xbox working....couch and such set-up. I'll try to post some pictures next week once we're totally set-up. I know people are just dying to see what our apartment looks like. :0P

This weekend we're planning to explore the city a little more, especially since there should be a break in the heat (mid to low 80s....WOOT!). Hopefully we'll have lots of fun pictures from our excursions.

Med school update: I've purchased my first two textbooks! They're both for anatomy lab. I also need to procure some scrub pants and an old grungy t-shirt to wear for anatomy lab. Don't want my fancy clothes to start reeking of formaldehyde. ICK! Next week (July 24-30) is my last free week. My pre-matriculation course starts on August 1 and is designed to help get students back into the groove of schooling if they've been out for a while....like say if you took three years off between med school and undergrad to do some rockin' research. ;0) Hopefully the pre-matric course will help boost my conifidence about starting school again! After the pre-matric course we have Orientation Week, during which I'll get fully signed up for classes and get all the administrative business taken care of before classes actually start. CRAZY!!!!!!

Alex:

I've started my working from home.  Specifically, I started on Tuesday, which was way too early.  Next time I move across the country, I'm taking more than a 3-day weekend!  Since we didn't have internet until Wednesday afternoon-ish, I went to Panera on Tuesday and worked a half-day, and worked a half-day Wednesday too.  Things have been going just alright so far, but I'm not sure how a full 5-day week is going to be this coming week, especially since we won't have AC until later in the week!

And speaking of AC, Foof totally downplayed this heat wave!  At first it was just funny when it was in the low 80's, but it's been in the upper 90's the last few days!  I think our thermostat only begins to tell the story:

I think it topped out at about 85...but really it was way hotter!  It's almost midnight here and it's SIGNIFICANTLY cooler than earlier, but the thing is still reading 82.

We have a box fan and an oscillating fan here with us, and during the day wherever one of us is in the apartment there is a fan blowing a few feet away.  I've taken up keeping my hair wet from about 11am through 6pm, and all afternoon today at work I was wiping a wet washcloth over my arms and face.  It's been crazy!  I can't wait for our AC to arrive.  We had to order online because all the stores here are sold out of AC units -- ALL OF THEM!!!! 

Laura:
That's it for now! More posts and pics to come about our car ride up to Rochester and apartment progress. :0) 

THE LORAX

Reconnected

Hello there.....we officially have internet at our apartment!!!!! More posts all about our first few days in Rochester coming soon!!!

-LORAX-

Quick note....

We're hanging out at a Panera in Rochester using the Wi-Fi, and this is the converstaion we just overheard:

Scene: Group of teenagers are on their way out of Panera. A worker comes over to clear their table.

Worker: Thanks for stopping by! Is it still hot out there?

Random Kid 1: Yeah it's pretty hot still.

Random Kid 2: It's so hot out there.....I can hardly breathe!!!!!

Alex and Laura roll on the floor laughing hysterically. 

End Scene.......

Current Weather in Rochester: 82 degrees Fahrenheit (feels like 84)....humidity 54%....Partly Cloudy....Winds From NNE at 9mp. 

Current Weather in St. Louis: 97 degrees Fahrenheit (FEELS LIKE 109!!!)....humidity 48% (oddly dry)....Sunny....Winds from WSW at 8mph  

AWESOME!!!!  If only they knew what REAL heat and humidity was.....someone send these kids on a tour of the Southern and Midwestern portions of the US......STAT!!!!


More updates coming soon.....should have internet at our apartment by lunch Wednesday. 


Laura & Alex

The Journey Begins!!!

Laura:
Hello World!!! LorAx here....aka Laura and Alex...aka Foof and Walex... We've started this blog to keep an awesome record of our journey to Rochester, New York. For those who don't know, we're moving to Rochester because I (Laura) will be starting medical school at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in August. WOO HOO!!!! Pursuing a career in medicine has been a lifelong dream (and struggle) for me, so I am SUPER excited to be starting school in just a few short weeks. Alex, my dear and loving boyfriend, is coming along for the ride! We'll be living and working in Rochester for at least the next four years, so we are going to use this blog as a place to keep track of all our adventure and misadventures as we explore our wonderful new home town. Hopefully this blog will function as a place to communicate with friends and family while we're so far from home and be a fun place to learn about all the neat things there are to do in our area.

So.....here.....we.....GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Today the movers came to pack up all our belongings so they can begin their trek up to Rochester. We've been in a packing frenzy for the last week and stayed up pretty late last night to get everything finished, so we were definitely ready to relax and let the workers move all our junk into the truck this morning (especially in this St. Louis summer heat!!! Heat index of 109....whoa!). Thanks to everyone who took stuff away from our apartment over the last week or so (my parents, Alex's parents, my sister, my sister's boyfriends, old friends, new friends, everybody!). We definitely had a lot!!! Thank you to Rick and Alice for stopping by yesterday to help us pack, clear out unneeded items, and have tasty Chinese take-out for dinner. Just what we needed!

The movers arrived around 8 am this morning and thanks to some preemptive NO PARKING signs (courtesy of the Clayton Police Department) there was plenty of room for them to park their giant 18-wheeler. Things went really well during the loading process...everything was inventoried, furniture wrapped, boxes lugged, and then the apartment was empty. <SAD> Now we're just hanging out with our "bare essentials" (Xbox....computer....millions of clothes....you know the essentials....lol) and trying to decide how to spend our last days in St. Louis. Hopefully we'll have plenty of time to see friends and family ONE MORE TIME before we head up to Rochester. That's it for me.....Alex.....got anything to add......?

Alex:
Well maybe Foof has millions of clothes packed!  I'm just hoping I kept enough work shirts around for the rest of the week...  If we're still in STL this time next week I might have to start borrowing.  We're just hanging out in our back room now, in our little camp we created from stuff we didn't put on the truck.  Here's a shot Laura just took of me sitting amongst the mess writing in this blog:

We'll have to go back sometime soon and put up some pictures of all our going-away outings and the extravaganza at our place a couple weeks ago.  That's where the real fun stuff is. 

Finally, a shot of our place all empty and echo-y.  haow!  so sad!

There will be plenty of exciting pics of our place in Rochester as we unpack and get our new home put together.  Stay tuned!