More Hiking. More Studying.

After a fun trip to Philly over Labor Day, we eased back into a 4 day week. Stefanie was gearing up for the exams that she took today, and Jonathan settled into the second week of classes and started establishing some rhythm to the school days and week. On Wednesday he found out that he passed both of his comprehensive exams (woohooo!!) which he had taken in August. To make the week even better, on Friday morning Jonathan taught three sections of Intermediate Macroeconomics. He loved teaching! Looks like it is gearing up to be a good hear of reading, writing, and teaching.

Stefanie entered the weekend resolved to be in a good mood about studying for her Monday exams, despite it being a beautiful weekend to be outside. Her determination lasted until about Saturday night, which is better then the last exam weekend. However, the weekend of memorizing what seemed like millions of skin and bone diseases paid off. She has, however, decided that she definitely does not want to be a dermatologist.

On Saturday, Jonathan headed off with a few people from our neighborhood group to Old Rag Mountain in Virginia. They headed off early, had a great and challenging hike, and came back tired but happy. Stefanie was there in spirit. Here are a few picures from the beautiful hike:

Starting off on the trail.

Everyone brought some kind of food to share with the group, so they had a ton of snacks! As Jonathan says, "We ate our way to the top." Stefanie got a good laugh out of the fact that Jonathan carried up the entire bear carton of animal crakers (see picture), which apparently made a great jiggling noise each time he took a big step.

The view from the top.

More of the gorgeous view!

Stefanie's outdoor treat for the weekend was a new pair of running shoes (much needed) and a beautiful run in the great fall-esque weather on Saturday. Also, she heard such good things about the hike Jonthan went on, that she is planning on taking a group of her med school friends to go to Old Rag Mountain over Columbus Day Weekend.

It was a busy weekend, in different ways, for both Stefanie and Jonathan, and we're looking forward to a calmer week with a chance to get back into a normal rhythm of work and life.