December

Dimitri and I finished our first semester of grad school in December and were glad it was over. Since I only took three classes my finals weren't too bad (2 fifteen page papers, a take home exam, and a volunteer journal). Dimitri ended up having 5 finals in two weeks. His exams were evenly spaced so he had a little time to study for each exam, but not a lot. After Dimitri received his final grades he had to email them to the Master in Applied Economics program so they could decide if they wanted to admit him to the program. Usually the teachers only have 3 days to grade the final exams and post the final grades, but one of his teachers took 2 weeks so we didn't hear from the econ department for a while.

After school finished we flew back to Spokane to visit everyone for Christmas. We were home from the 22nd to the 3rd. Unfortunately on Christmas I came down with the stomach flu and ended up getting sick that night and the next day (our anniversary). On the 27th Dimitri ended up getting sick, but WAY worse than I did. We ended up having to go to the ER where they gave him 3 liters of fluid and Zofran to prevent him from throwing up. We left the ER at midnight and then had to drive up north to go to a 24 hr pharmacy to get his prescription, so we didn't get back to his parents house until 1 am. Getting sick definitely put a damper on our plans, Dimitri didn't feel very good for a few days after he got sick so we just relaxed.

On New Years day we decided to go snowshoeing, which we were planning on doing on our anniversary. We had a lot more fun than we thought we would. We hiked up a trail at Mt Spokane and were surprised at how many people we saw. We hiked uphill for 2 hours but it started to get foggy so we decided to head back to the car, which only took an hour. After our hike we planned on going to the Flying Goat or Perry's Pizza for dinner, but they were closed for the holiday so we settled on Olive Garden. I can't believe we've already been married for 4 years! It doesn't feel like that long!

Dimitri had asked his grandma for a tree skirt for our christmas tree as our gift. She did a great job! Dimitri put it under our tree when we got back to Ann Arbor to take some pictures before we took down the decorations.

The day after we got back I had a data collection and the family brought us poptarts with the Michigan logo! I brought a pack back for Dimitri.

A few days after we got back Dimitri had an email from the MAE program and he got in! He is officially a dual Master's student in Financial Engineering and Applied Economics. Our classes so far this semester have been good. We are both taking 4 classes and so far Dimitri's homework load is at a reasonable level unlike last semester.

Next weekend we are going to the Detroit Auto Show with our friend Giovanni.

The Critter

     So as many of you know I have 40 hours of class a week including Saturdays. Well this last friday as I was walking through our parking lot to class I saw the University Operations parked by our dumpster. As I got closer I heard some scratching coming from the dumpster and decided to stop and watch the school workers and see what was in the dumpster. One of the workers grabbed a large branch and put it into the dumpster and out climbed a raccoon.

     Saturday morning as I was walking to class I heard the sratching again so I looked into the dumpster to see if it was the raccoon again. It was so I searched for the large branch and helped him out again. This time though he didn't run off into the forest but ran down a water drain. The picture above is a picture I took of him on Saturday. I have a feeling that this will occur again. I am thinking about naming him or her if it continues.

Ann Arbor

     So Ann Arbor is a really nice place from what we have seen so far. There are literally trees everywhere! There are parts of Ann Arbor that don't have dense tree coverage but these areas are highly populated and are mostly paved with asphalt and concrete such as campus, the city and other shopping areas.



The main road that is close to our apartment.

     The University of Michigan's campus is really big compared to WSU's campus and much flatter. West of campus there are a lot of ethnic restaurants around campus including a Mongolian BBQ which we might try out soon. The campus is surrounded by a few large buildings and small shops that give it a college town feel. The campus is smoke-free, has three recreation buildings, a library that looks like it is from Harry Potter, and is so large that there are three sections which are North Campus, Central Campus, and South Campus.

     We live by North Campus which has the Motts Children's hospital (which is top rated), the engineering and computer science buildings and the old Pfizer research compound which UM just bought for research purposes. Not surprising we have an automotive engineering program.

     Central Campus has the majority of class buildings and libraries. The photo below has the Rackham graduate school in the background which Arielle and I are apart of. We have only walked on central campus once to get our ID cards and went through a few buildings.

    We have not been to South Campus yet but it is mainly the football stadium which seats 109,901 people but usual holds 110,000. The record attendance for the stadium is 113,090 people at the 2010 season opener. There are also other sporting areas on South Campus such as tennis courts, a golf course, and one of the three recreation buildings.

   This weekend we went to the Henry Ford Museum which was very interesting and had a lot of stuff including trains, cars, planes, machines, and much more.

A Wright brothers replica plane with some of the original fabric.

    After the ford museum we went to Detroit and went through the GM building and saw Canada across the water. After seeing the city center we drove through some of the city which was in terrible condition including buildings that were graffitied, burned, and/or windows broken out.

The GM Building

    Overall Ann Arbor is very different from Spokane including the shopping (Ikea, Whole Foods, and many others), weather which is like Spokane in temperature but is more humid and has more storms including tornadoes, and the animals. We have seen a wild turkey, road killed foxes, larger squirrels (that are grey on top and reddish orange on the bottom), a mom raccoon with two babies in a dumpster, cardinals, fireflies, marmots, and I am sure many more to come.

Arielle's 23rd Birthday

Arielle’s birthday was May 2^nd. I made her small chocolate cakes with a chocolate cylinder to hold the cake together. Inside the cylinder were four layers of cake with caramel layers between them. They were then topped with chocolate ganache and strawberry compote with fresh cut on top.

As many of you know we are moving to Michigan to go to the University of Michigan. I got her a UM Sherpa lined zip hoodie and some t-shirts. My parents got her a UM t-shirt and a UM sock monkey. Her parents got her a gift card to Pottery Barn which is really nice since we have been saving up for a nice bed from Pottery Barn. Overall I think her birthday went pretty well.