My new year began once again in Wheaton, Illinois ...surrounded by snow.  The snow lasted forever! My roommate, Katie and I decided that we must enforce some summer upon it!  So, with the help of my mom's "Summer-in-a-Box" care package, we transformed our room into a nice makeshift beach--inflatable rafts, Beach Boy's music, sunglasses, palm-trees "painted" on our mirrors, and the heater on full-blast! (You can see us catching some "rays" on our raft in the photo below!)

At the end of the year I found out I had been accepted into the HNGR (Human Needs and Global Resources) program here at Wheaton College.  This means that I'll be leaving in June for a 6 month internship in a medical clinic in either Honduras or Guatemala.  I'm looking forward to everything the Lord has in store for me there.

Over the summer I was in the Black Hills of South Dakota where Wheaton has a science station.  There I took Plant Taxonomy, Field Zoology, and Ecology.  It pretty much consisted of amazing hikes and field trips during which we ran around and identified plants and animals.  We did some sampling in Lake Sheridan...

hiked up Limestone Ridge...

and visited Crazy Horse!  

It was an awesome summer!  If you ever feel the need to see some Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, or just about any order of the insecta class up close, stop by our house and I'll show you my collection.

I came back to Wheaton in the fall.  I'm keeping busy as always.  Right now I'm volunteering for hospice, preparing for the MCATs and medical school applications for next semester, working as the fishkeeper for the biology department, and playing some IM soccer while getting ready for lacrosse in the spring.  

We just finished celebrating the end of finals by ice skating down in Chicago on Navy Pier.  It's beautiful down there with the lights, buildings, and almost a foot of snow covering the ground.  

Have a Merry Christmas!