Ribosome Love with LOTS of Sprinkles

"You're not going to be responsible for anything on here except for love," said Dr. Warner, as he advanced the Power Point to a slide showing a 3D molecular view of a ribosome. It was nice to hear 163 medical students laughing together at 8:30 in the morning on the day of their first quiz. The quiz itself, which we took an hour later for histology, went just fine. It must have been because of the love and goodwill toward ribosomes that we all possessed in our hearts. Anyway, I suppose we're real medical students now because we've had our first test of any sort, so it's nice to have passed that particular milestone.

I have a confession to make: I probably haven't been as diligent in studying as I should have been. I certainly haven't been as diligent as I could have been. I just can't type out notes and read books and think about case conferences without needing some breaks, and when I get particularly bored or antsy, I turn to cooking. This week, much to the delight of my roommates and friends, I baked. Kendra's 7 rotting bananas had been tempting me for a while, so on Tuesday, I baked 2 batches of banana bread. It was supremely satisfying to mash 7 bananas to the sweet sounds of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. I half hoped my roommates would walk in and find out just how weird I am. Anyway, the baking was a success, and I ended up with a 3 loaves and 12 muffins of tasty banana-chocolate chip-walnut bread.

They were even more beautiful combined with the aroma...

I spent most of yesterday and today in the city. I know, I probably should have been studying, but it's nice to have a break and a change of scenery. Saturday was spent mostly walking around midtown, going into shops, taking in the busy city life. I also went to church at St. Patrick's Cathedral -- and I loved it! I don't think I would want to go there every week, but it was definitely a cool experience. There were people from all over; I would assume lots of tourists go there for Mass if they're visiting New York over a weekend. I am going to reiterate my somewhat ambitious desire: I would love to attend as many different churches in New York as possible. I don't know if I'd ever be able to make it to all of them, but I can certainly try.

Looking even more splendid in the afternoon sun

Afterwards, I met up with some of my Einstein friends in the Upper West Side for dinner and drinks. We had fantastic Thai food at a place called Land, and then we moseyed over to Crumbs, a cupcake shop. Yes, a cupcake shop. There were at least 2 dozen different kinds to choose from. I went for the Good Guy, a funfetti-inspired creation including cream filling, generous frosting, a white-chocolate drizzle, and LOTS of sprinkles:

How could you not love this?

My main excitement for the weekend, however, was this morning: I ran in the World Trade Center Run to Remember 5K race. This was the first year of the race, so I'm hoping that they'll continue to have it each year. It was on Governor's Island, which is a short ferry ride south of the tip of Manhattan. It was a gorgeous day for a race -- low 70s and sunny skies, with the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Manhattan itself shining in the sun. I (barely) got a PR with a time of 22:06 and was 72nd overall out of over 600 runners. I didn't stay for awards, but I later found out that I won my age category! Cool.

Manhattan gleams in the sunshine.

We were treated to views of Lady Liberty during the race...

...and the stretch coming to the finish line provided another view of Lower Manhattan, the Financial District, where the Twin Towers used to be. If that's not motivation for a 9/11 remembrance run, then I don't know what could be.

After getting back to the mainland, I spent a bit of time walking through Battery Park, which was full of people waiting to board ferries for the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island. Someday, I must do that as well. I may live here now, but can still be tourist when I feel like it. Some parting shots from today:

These kids took their 100-meter dash REALLY seriously. They were fast!

The older buildings of the Financial District have so much character.

The best part about the race? The bagpipe brigade that played as we ran past. Classic.