the good and the bad

My first full week of Princeton is done, and it was quite fun, I must say, in hindsight. There were some rough spots, but that is to be expected. I just keep telling myself that I am getting paid to do this. So this week/weekend was full of really good things, and really bad things. Let me recap:

• Feeling intimidated by my German class - bad
• Taking Dad's advice and contacting the German professor and thereby not feeling so intimidated about said class - good
• Having absolutely no idea how to do math homework because I've never had a formal class in real analysis - bad
• Attending the math review and having everything come together like a light bulb going off - good
• Wine and cheese social - very good
• Friday night cocktail hour - extremely good
• Playing a really fun scavenger hunt game across campus - good
• Surprising the crap out of Laura by driving down to Maryland Saturday evening for her surprise birthday party - good
• Seeking Skylar take some steps - good
• Having Skylar cry when I left - bad
• Witnessing an accident on the NJ Turnpike as I drove home - very bad
• No one was hurt in the accident - very good

Ok, here is the most momentous event that happened to me this past week, and it happened today, actually. As I was driving home from Maryland, while I was on the NJ Turnpike between exits 3 and 4 (I know, that could be like a 30 mile stretch), there was a car in front of me (but not too close, thank goodness) that suddenly swerved out of control and rammed into the Jersey barrier before cutting across the turnpike again and stopping in the breakdown lane. Luckily I wasn't so close that I had to slam on my breaks, but I had to slow down very very fast and move out of the way quickly to avoid hitting the car myself. I then quickly pulled over to see if anyone was hurt and saw a woman run out of the car, reach into the backseat, and pull a little boy out. She then collapsed on the grass in hysterics. I rushed over to her to make sure she and her son (15 months old!) were ok. Thank goodness, they were. She was just badly shaken and her face was a bit cut up from hitting the air bag. Her son was ok, he was in a car seat in the back. Another car pulled over as well and they called the police/ambulance while I comforted the woman. I waited around with them until the police and ambulance came and they left for the hospital. I was pretty shaken myself thinking about what might have happened additionally. I am just so glad no one was hurt. It was really scary.

hail the conquering hero

I finished my math proofs. Sorry, I know this is wicked dorky, but I was so excited, so I just had to share. MAE 501, bring it on.

and so it has begun

That's right. I'm officially a grad student now, I suppose. I've attended my first lectures, received my first homework assignments, attempted said homework assignments, and then put them away in frustration. I signed up for 5 years of this? I have to keep reminding myself that I actually like school, because right now I'm thinking more about what a nice summer I had. Hopefully I'll get back in gear soon enough, otherwise it'll be a long 5 years.

I've settled in here quite nicely, met a lot of nice people, from all over the world, including Britain, Germany, India, China, Mexico, France and Canada. I love hanging out with the Brits just to hear them talk, and I've discovered, much to my delight, that my German came back to me quite easily (I haven't spoken it really in about a year). I've had some fun conversations with the Germans and I hope to keep it up.

The Old GC (where I live) is a really fun place to live, because it's where most of the 1st year graduate students live (with a smattering of upperclassmen) and I have fun eating dinner with everyone in Proctor Hall, enjoying free cocktails and milkshakes in the common room on Friday nights, playing beach volleyball games at the outdoor court and watching people tee off right outside the GC on the Springdale Golf Course.

There has been such a slew of activities this past week as everyone moved in and started classes. On Monday I met with the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) for the Chemical Engineering department. They fed us lunch and went over the Chemical Engineering Ph.D. program. I met all of my classmates (who are really cool) and then just ran some errands in the afternoon. On Tuesday I had the Graduate School orientation. It was really boring but they gave us free T-shirst and bags, so that's pretty cool. They also fed us breakfast and lunch, so I can't complain about free food. That night, I checked out the Taekwondo club that meets three times a week on campus. It was pretty good, and I have decided to join the club. The classes are taught be senior students (black belts) and starting this week, a 5th degree Master (Master Choi) will be coming in and running the classes. I even helped recruit for the club at a Graduate School clubs fair on Wednesday night at the Old GC. On Wednesday I had the Engineering Graduate School orientation. It was also boring but was followed up with a BBQ with free beer and a free T-shirt. I am well on my way to owning way too many articles of Princeton clothing. On Thursday classes began, and I started off my graduate career with Mathematic Models for Engineering Analysis. Now, normally this class is taught in the Chemical Engineering department and so it's just the ChE class, however, due to some abrupt departure of faculty, we have to take the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering section. It's pretty much the same material, but the class is huge now (due to all the MAE people). I'm not sure what I think of the class just yet. I would like it if I were good at formal mathematics and proofs, but I've never really had that, so I'm sorta struggling right now. We'll see how it goes. My second class was Advanced Italian, which I was very excited to take, but upon reaching my third class, Advanced Thermodynamics, I discovered I had to drop Italian because it conflicted with a problem solving session that is mandatory for Thermo. Crap. Friday was very easy, as I only had one class at 1:30. It is Reaction Engineering, which I really liked when I took at URI (the undergrad version), but the professor does not seem to care too much about what the course is supposed to be about and instead seems to be teaching us what he find interesting. Needless to say, after one class, it seemed to have nothing to do with reactions, or anything remotely related. I will see how this class goes. My only other class is a German Seminar on Monday evenings. It seems really cool. It's all about 20th century history/politics in Germany, so from the wiener Republic, through Nazism, to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's taught in German and has a bunch of German and English texts. I hope it is a good class and that everything goes as planned (don't want to have to drop it like Italian), otherwise I am short one class (we are strongly recommended to take 4 courses).

The week finished up with a welcome back party in Proctor Hall/Old GC common room. It was lots of fun, a.k.a. free drinks! Haha. I love going to a pretentious school. After the party, a couple of the guys in my class and I walked onto campus to see if we could get into an Eating Club (what Princetonians call Fraternities) and crash any of their parties, but unfortunately when we arrived they all seemed to be over or were only letting members in. It was a fun walk though.

This weekend Mom and Dad came down to visit and I showed them all around campus. I showed them where I lived, where my classes are, and just the campus in general. We went out for dinner at a really good Italian place (La Mezzaluna) and had tuna and tiramisu! The next day we had brunch at this really good pancake house (PJ's Pancakes) and then went shopping all around the town. They had tons of good shops for Mom and she bought me some things too (as moms do). Then around 3PM they hit the road and I retreated to my room to tackle some more thermo problems. So it was a very nice weekend and anyone reading this should also come visit me. I'll show you Einstein's house and other points of interest. Those are the updates for now. Who knows what next week will hold.

P.S. I added some more photos to the princeton album, so be sure to check them out.

first days

Let me tell you, my first days here have been a mix of fun and uneventfulness. I find I am either writing emails to people and updating my blog, all from the solace of my awesomely cool room or I am being totally un-Meg and am being social and witty and fun. Hard to believe, I know. I totally just randomly went up to someone last night at the New Grad Student social and chatted him up. I am proud of myself for my forwardness. Usually I like to be a wallflower, or cling to the safety of friends, however, both were in short supply last night.

As promised, I took some pictures of where I am living. More to come, for sure, but today I ran out of battery life in my camera so I had to call my photography expedition short. The photos can be found in the usual place, or by clicking here.

moving into princeton

What I have been doing since driving through 4 states this morning? I know you are curious. I arrived at Princeton circa noon and proceeded to lug my crap to entryway 16, room 8 (yes, that is where I live) in a beautiful Oxford-like castle. Yup, I live in a castle. Don't believe me? I'll take pictures tomorrow and show you. Seriously though, it is really nice, and even though I ended up with the small room in my two-room suite (I have a suite mate), I don't mind because, as I shall explain, I think I like the small room better.

So here is a description of my housing. It was built in the early 1900s and was set up so one student would have two rooms: a study and a bedroom. The study was equipped with a fireplace, naturally, for heating purposes at the turn of the century. Anyway, now that it is 2006, enrollment is slightly higher and so they have converted these two-room suites into suites for two people. So it is slightly odd because one comes in the door, walks through the study, into the bedroom, and then off of that is a bathroom. Anyway, my roommate arrived from Shanghai, China on the 4th and just took the outer room (the study, a.k.a. the bigger room). I had originally hoped to get that room because it has a fireplace (even though you can't use it, but it is nice) and more windows. However, that was not my luck. After moving in though, I find that I like the smaller room ( a.k.a. bedroom) better. It feels more private because one does not have to walk through it to get to another room and the bathroom is adjacent. It also has a closet ... the other room doesn't ... which is key. So that is my room, and as I mentioned a bit earlier, my suitemate is from China. She's wicked nice and I think we'll get along really well. Her English is so cute. She's going to teach me Chinese too, I already know this: Ni hao (hello!). She taught me goodbye but I forgot it.

So that is my move-in scoop. I was so tired from unpacking and stuff that I'm just spending the night in tonight and tomorrow I start with all the welcome festivities (barbecues, wine tastings, museum gatherings, orientation, etc). Classes start on the 14th for me, so wish me luck. I have a lot of things to figure out but I think I can handle it. It's fun.