One semester down.

Alright, it's a new year. Somehow I made it through the most challenging four months of my life. Even moving halfway across the globe on my own couldn't have prepared me for this whole graduate school experience. I had too short of a winter break in Colorado, where I just barely recovered from Fall semester. Winter semester is already in full swing.

My classes this semester are more technical with a GIS (geographic information systems) class and a site engineering class. On the artistic side, I'm taking a landscape design history class, which has been really interesting so far. We'll be doing an art installation toward the end of the semester at the Heidelberg Project in Detroit. I also have a graphic communications class where I'm hoping to brush up on my artistic/digital rendering skills.

My design studio course this semester is about landscape ecology. Last semester my design studio was more design focused. Now it's all about the ecological implications of site design. We're actually doing two real world projects this semester. One will be a design for a children's garden in the Arboretum (where I live as the caretaker) in connection with the nearby Mott's Children's Hospital. We also have plans for a project in Detroit with the Detroit Wildlife Refuge.

I actually can't think of anything I'd rather be doing in my life right now. It's amazing to be intellectually challenged on a daily basis and to finish each day knowing something I didn't know the day before. So even if the dark circles under my eyes and the moments of panic and stress seem like too much, on top of the complete lack of a social life, I know I'm doing something I feel passionate about, and I'm giving this my best shot.

Meanwhile, life continues on in the world around me. The Peace Corps Volunteer in me wants to drop everything and go directly to Haiti to hand out medical supplies or rebuild houses. I am going to stick with this grad school thing though, so hopefully someday I will be leading my own restoration/revitalization projects in the world.

This is me signing off 'til sum-sum-summertime. Winter semester ends on April 27th, then I'll have four months of sweet freedom. My long anticipated return to Black Rock City is in the works. No doubt a trip to the California coast will work itself in too. I do miss the coast.

I'll leave you with a photo of my back yard at the Arboretum. Winter may be cold in Michigan, but it is beautiful.