Grad School: Second Year

My second year of grad school has begun! Looming large on the horizon is the qualifying exam, but in the meantime I have some other things going on.

This semester I’m taking Mechanics and Statistical Mechanics. They’re challenging subjects, but not nearly as bad as E&M and Quantum, which I had last year. In addition, I’m taking yoga again on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Those aspects of my schedule aren’t to bad. The draining part of it is the teaching. On Mondays and Tuesdays I teach labs for three hours, which pretty much drains all of my energy for the day. I’ll be trying to get some qual problems done in the evenings, but I have a feeling I’ll be having more success on other nights of the week.

I’ve also promised to attend some swing dancing with Anna. I still remember most of my old moves, I think, so it shouldn’t be too tough, but my persistent ankle problems have made me hesitant. It’s crazy, actually, but I don’t have much of a social life at all these days. In undergrad, I played frisbee with the ultimate frisbee club, worked for the honors college, wrote for the school newspapers, practiced Tae-Kwon-Do, and went to SPS meetings. These days it seems like all I do is hang out with physicists. At least they’re pretty cool people! As my life progresses, I seem to have a knack for running into more and more interesting characters. Grad school has certainly be no exception in that regard.

That’s all for now! More entries to come soon, hopefully.