Saturday

Last night after work I went for chocolate mud cake, carrot cake and coffees with two of my part four students to celebrate Friday. They're all busy freaking out for orals, which are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday of next week. Then I went home and had dinner, and an early night in preparation for my long run Saturday.

This morning, I woke up early but made myself go back to sleep. When I was finally up for good (10:30ish), I stayed under the covers, languishing in the warmth and peace of morning and the bird chirp symphony outside my window. My usual goal is to start running by noon, hopefully avoiding any dastardly weather.

I left at 11:45 on my preplanned route, downtown, to the waterfront and back home again. I was in my own little ipod world when this guy ran by, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Good on you!" like I was a two year old who needed encouragement. Either I looked like I'd never run a day in my life and was about to die on the pavement (highly likely) or he was just wanting to make himself known. Either way, it was scared me out of my little world.

A few minutes later, I was about to take the pedestrian bridge home to my place, but discovered that it had been boarded off by the city after recent heavy rains and unstable ground, so I was forced to take a route-lengthening detour. I tried to beg the construction workers to let me through. (No success there.) So I continued on, arriving home about twenty minutes later without any new knee pain. The goal is the Auckland Marathon on November 2nd. I'm actually on track this year.

I've really been enjoying my students (especially since I've started teaching part threes clinical examination with demonstration patients) that I'd almost considered staying a little longer. But we had a staff meeting on Thursday and I was reminded why I cannot stay in this position longer than one year. There'll probably be about four of us leaving at the end of this term. I'm not convinced that it will considerably improve even with a new head of department.

In other news, I've finally moved into stage four of the cultural assimilation process. Yes, I like New Zealand and I think I finally have a decent understanding of the country. Musically, I am also expanding. I often catch the weekly hip hop countdown in my lovely red ghetto wagon (it's the only station that comes in) and I actually like it. Egads!