My House in Seattle

Although my life has become exponentially less interesting since I have returned from Africa, I still find blogging to be a soothing release for my now very stressful life. Therefore I have decided to subject you all to some very boring blog entries about my mundane life.

Some of you asked about how I was able to find a house in Seattle really close to the UW campus while I was in Africa. It really was an answer to prayer.

During my work in Uganda I started emailing some girls who were renting out a room in a Seattle house. Everything looked good until they asked me to come by the next day and sign the lease and give a deposit check. I told them I was in Africa and asked if they could email me the lease, etc., but they decided I wasn't worth the effort and found someone else to rent the room. I was a little frustrated, and quite worried that I was going to come back to the states 3 weeks before med school started and not have anyplace to live. On my SLOW Ugandan internet connection I posted a housing request on the UW school of medicine housing board saying that I was an incoming med student who needed a place to live. I stated that I pretty quiet, fairly tidy, and wanted a specific price range, but most importantly I was currently in Africa and needed someone who was understanding of my situation.

The very same morning Kate and Melissa (two 3rd year medical students) decided they should rent out their spare 'study room' this year to save money and went on the UWSOM housing board. My housing request is the first one they saw and they immediately decided that I had to be the person who lived with them next year. (Kate did Peace corps in Zambia for 3 and half years and returned only 2 weeks before she started medical school so she knew exactly how I felt. Melissa had also travelled extensively). They emailed me and told me about the house - it was absolutely perfect. They were so nice, they saved the room for me and told me not to worry about the lease or the payment until I actually moved in.

The house is awesome. It is within walking distance of the UW school of medicine, is very clean and decorated with pictures and many wall-hangings from south eastern Africa. Kate and Melissa are also extremely friendly and fun to hang out with.


This is the door to Kate's room, immediately across the hall from my door. She bought this Giraffe wall hanging during her time in Zambia.

My room is fairly small, but has a huge walk-in closet. Kate suggested that I put my bed in the closet and then make a really nice study area with the rest of the room. She said only half-jokingly, "because you will spend more time studying than sleeping for the next 4 years!"

After looking at the space I decided she was right and so I put my bed in the closet. The closet looked a little bit like it was hit with the ugly stick (a magic stick that makes things ugly), so I decided to do my own version of, "Extremely Closet Make-Over, East African Addition."

The East African fabrics at the head of my bead in the now beautified ugly closet. The blue and black print is from the Maasai market in Morogoro, Tanzania, the red and black giraffe pillow case is from Malawi, and the white and orange scarfs (yes, I know, the orange doesn't match the red) are from Ethiopia.

The map, money and picture decorations at the foot of my bed. I bet you all didn't know that I am so rich I can affort to have 1,000s in bills taped on my wall! Just kidding. I am currently the defination of someone who is very poor. The bills on the wall from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi only total a couple of US dollars even though they are thousands of shillings.

Here is the 'nice study area' which is in my actual bedroom. Kate and Melissa were kind enough to leave the white board in the room f0r me to use. We have been learning the heart and the lung in Anatomy this week.

Some more of my room. I tried to cut my desk out of the picture because it had a pile of Anatomy books and study materials on it, but it didn't really work because you can still tell that my desk is really messy.

This is Melissa, my housemate. She is a 3rd year medical student at UW and is currently doing her internal medicine rotations. She is really nice. She is originally from Montana and is at UW through the WWAMI program. University of Washington is the only medical school for 5 states (Washington,Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho). WWAMI students do their first year of medical school in their home state and then come to the UW Seattle campus for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year.