Endless summer, never autumn

October in Honolulu is a very different beast than in Baltimore. The leaves have all remained the same color, the temperature is a balmy 82 degrees during the day, and the sun is almost always shining. Back at home, this would be an Indian summer, a perfect autumn day. Here, it’s just the normal state of things.

I like things here, don’t get me wrong. Cold weather was never something I particularly liked, but at the same time the weather in Honolulu leaves something to be desired. There’s no variety! Even the rainy days are hardly what I would consider ‘rainy’ back at home. But hey, that’s just culture shock talking, right?

Last week was crazy hectic. We had our Electromagnetism exam on Friday, so the entire weekend and week before it was spend practicing problems and memorizing solutions. Even the night before the exam, I was kind of bummed out and worried I wouldn’t do alright. Everything seemed to be falling apart as I discovered holes in our solutions. Still, I buckled down and managed to memorize the answer to a somewhat challenging Jackson problem and I was quite proud of myself. Afterward, I celebrate by drawing a giant tentacle monster consuming the planet Earth on our office chalk board.

The exam didn’t go too badly, although I wish I had budgeted my time better and finished one of the problems. Now, I just have to wait until Wednesday to find out how I did. In the mean time, I have to work on quantum homework and prepare for the upcoming exam in that class ( in just three days, eek!). I haven’t studied nearly hard enough yet.

One things that’s keeping me going is looking forward to visiting friends and family at Christmas time. Normally, I’m not the homesick type, but as I get older I’ve started to value my close friends and family more. They’re not going to be there forever, you know? Plus, I can’t wait for a break from the studying and manic lifestyle of grad school. It’s awesome and way better than an hourly job at some lame place like Barnes and Noble, but still kind of stressful. At least the semester is almost half way done.

Onward! One more midterm to go.