When I moved to Atlanta a year ago, I'd assumed I'd do grad school for two years then work some federal government job or private job and start saving up money. I told myself I wouldn't date in my program because that can get messy fast so I was going to focus on schoolwork, likely not doing any dating during the two years. I bought a place since I intended to stay locally and wanted to lock in a good price, which I think I did. But then very quickly into the school year, I met my current girlfriend and it's been going extremely well. But she can't stay in Atlanta for health purposes. And it's getting to the point of her having to apply for jobs in the next few weeks. So it's about the time to decide whether I stay in a city that is a fun city where I have extremely affordable living in a good area, especially useful because student loans, but is way too humid and hot, requires a car, and has no good hiking within two hours, or do I follow my girlfriend, losing my affordable housing? It's an extremely tough decision and one that I thought I'd have about 15 weeks to decide, also leaving a lot less time between decision and potential move, but is now about 3-4 weeks away with an extra twoish months between decision and potential move. We've both discussed and we both see a future with each other and are committed to that happening, but it's still a huge decision regardless, especially since I decided to buy.

Otherwise, classes are going. First week is officially done, and I'm onto the second. The epidemiological methods class this semester was making sense for the first half of lecture yesterday, then without warning started introducing the Greek alphabet for no reason and I got super lost super fast so lab today and the homework due in a week will be an interesting time for sure. But the GIS class (ArcMap, since I know some of you are curious) is super cool so far. The professor is super chill and is just obsessed with maps. Among the assigments this semester are map-based songs for a map playlist, and a link to the coolest map you know. He's great. Other classes feel like they'll just be average and I'm okay with that. Thesis still waiting for IRB approval. Might take two months. I was hoping to start well before October, but now I'm not so optimistic.

steve (thanks again!) is one of my interviewees for an assignment I get more info on later tonight and is due in a week. It's about disaster preparedness I believe but it's a bit vague right now. There's one more interviewee spot open if anyone wants. Shouldn't take more than an hour, and will likely take less than that.