Karine

You can ask my friends: I'm the french girl who likes running WAY too much and still struggles to pronounce a few English words correctly, despite having lived in the US for 8 years. I was born in Paris, and lived there until I turned 13, when I moved to California with my family. I still go back over there every summer, to hang out with relatives and childhood friends. I miss my culture, my grandparents' French cuisine, and our 230-year old stone house on the Atlantic coast... I train for and compete in half marathons, now that my demanding career as collegiate cross country runner is over. I like other endurance sports too (although nothing beats running), traveling, hiking, climbing Mount Shasta. I love camping and being outdoors: I'm not difficult, as long as I have open spaces around me!I studied my butt off for the past 4 years at UC Davis, but I guess now it's paying off, because it looks like I have a good shot at being accepted to one of the med schools in California (we'll see though, can't speak too soon). Although this is supposed to be my year "off", I'm a TA for a few Exercise Bio classes on campus, which keeps me fairly busy. It's awesome: I'm getting paid to go to class with my friends and tell them what to do in lab, to then go out with them on the weekends! I also intern at the UC Davis Sports Medicine Clinic, in a lab where high-caliber athletes (Tour de France cyclists, olympic runners, Ironman triathletes, etc) come to do various performance tests and obtain training tips. It's amazing to work with celebrities of the athletic world! You can find some pictures of the things I've been up to recently, at www.picturetrail.com ; member login: kakipuce (right hand corner of screen, not left.)