Periodicity

This blog has none. I guess I'll take to updating it when I remember about it. Wow, so meta.

So first semester has come and gone. I got the grades to stay in the program and have begun research in the lab of Esther Gomez. Things are going well, but I still have a lot to learn. I currently study cell traction forces and how cells interact on a mechanical level with their environment (extracellular matrix and surrounding cells).

I've come to really enjoy the communities that I'm a part of here. PSCG has been a great blessing to me, and the friends I have made are fantastic. I'm even involved in a couple of accountability groups that are based back home, so I can maintain good contact with people I love and miss.

More to come? We'll see. Most who would read this probably already know these things anyway.

Substitution for a descriptive title

So the Alabama game came and went. We lost, but watched a fantastic U of M game when I got home. The atmosphere was very cool at the game though, it must have been a bit distracting for Alabama. In other news, I think I found a church home. The Evangelical Free church is right down the road from us and we know a lot of grad students there. It's pretty great. Our first couple of homework sets are in now, we have another due Friday, and next week is our first exam. I feel pretty good about that class, but the other two are enigmas. The prof in one of them is super helpful though. In the other we are learning statistical mechanics from a theoretical physicist turned ChE...so that is not so fun.

Things are feeling more scheduled now though. I've made lots of friends here thus far and am enjoying it. The next couple weeks will be interesting, as we are picking our thesis adviser for the next five years. It's kind of important because we have to like working with them, and be interested in the project. So far I have more choices than I thought I did coming in, which is really great. Next football game I will try to remember my camera and post some pics.

We are PENN STATE!

So I went to my first PSU football game on Saturday against Indiana State. It was so much bigger than I had imagined, and such a good time. I went with Alex and Devon, a friend from PS Christian Grads. The opening kickoff resulted in a return for touchdown for the good guys, and the game pretty much went that way the rest of the time.

It turns out that the stadium is loud and full of yelling. Pretty great, not unexpected. The students do a variety of waves, including a slow wave, which was cool. I was pretty keen on that if I can use a word my dad might. It was really hot and we biked there and back, but other than that it was boatloads of fun.

I can't wait until we play Alabama next week! It's going to be packed. I would say that I feel much more like a Penn Stater now after going to the game.

Opening week

Since last Thursday, class has started.

We spent last weekend at a new church and checked out Christian Grads, which is part of Campus Crusades for Christ. Yesterday I even went disc golfing with a guy I met there, which was pretty sweet. I even finished -1 :). I think that will be a group I'm going to enjoy being a part of. Tonight I'm going to hang out at the leaders place too.

Class the first couple days has been interesting as well. There are some new concepts to learn mathematically, which continues to be a delight (except, not). I bought a license for Mathematica, which I'll have to learn for all of the classes basically, but we have some good camaraderie among students in trying to figure this stuff out. The first homework isn't due for a little bit yet, but it doesn't look too bad (at least for that class). Our schedules are quite empty, in terms of time actually spent in class, which is nice. On Tuesday of course we felt the earthquake in class. At first I thought the building was coming apart, which to be honest would be more likely due to its age, but in fact: earthquake.

So yeah, just waiting for football games to begin and keeping up on learning for now.

Orientaçois

The first church we went to was an assembly of God service which went two hours. Their pastor had recently passed away though, so this is kind of a weird time for them. We liked it well enough, but will be trying other churches out as well.

On Tuesday we moved all of the stuff that wasn't ours out of the apartment, which was nice. There was a similar amount of vacuuming that needed to be done, but only a little to be shampooed. It is not a habitable living room with couches and chairs! Also, nearly all parts of the computer I'm building came, and we put them together. So far they all work, which means the only components left to test are the RAM and graphics card. This is good. What's bad though is that they sent the RAM twice as far as they had to (Groveport, OH) before it can come back to me through UPS' system. The funny thing is that I ordered the RAM first. Anyway, I'm using the monitor with my laptop to write this, and it is impossibly large compared to my lappy screen :). The best part was all of the deals that I was able to find on parts...it's a pretty decent build.

We saw Alex for the first time since this spring at orientation yesterday morning, and then all day. It was nice to see and meet the ChE students again since the spring when we had recruitment weekend. The afternoon general graduate school orientation was long and boring though. Part of it was 2 hours about insurance, the only thing I needed to know from that was that by September I needed to get a brochure outlining the policy benefits and things not included. Awesome.

We also found out that the best commuting option for us is to buy a cheap parking permit ($90 yearly) and carpool then take a free bus loop in to campus. Also also, Alex lives right across a field from us, which was had no idea of until yesterday at 7pm when we got back, so YAY God for that! I guess some other ChE students live in our complex as well, which is cool.

Oh, and finally, we met a bunch of cool Nepalese people yesterday and I now know the only Jwala that I probably ever will.

Arrival

I got here on Wednesday to a very dirty apartment, and a whole room filled with other people's stuff. That was great. Thank goodness for my family! We headed to the store and bought cleaning supplies, got some food and set to work. Unfortunately I didn't think to take a before picture, but basically the kitchen was covered in an orange layer of grease, and the cupboards were pretty viscous to the touch...blech. That night though and the next day we managed to cut away at it, and remove the slimy touch from most of the kitchen and my bathroom upstairs. We vacuumed the carpet with a vacuum already there that we thought to be good, but when using the vacuum the Gifford's brought the next day, we pulled up just as much if not more dust. At that point though, the apartment started to look more livable, and after a shampoo, the carpets are much better i.e. I feel ok about walking on them without shoes. The cleaning process basically went for 3.5 days overall, and technically hasn't stopped, however we did hit the point where it is livable.

My room is quite spacious as you can see, and now that the kitchen has been christened with chocolate chip cookies and has some groceries and clean cookware, I feel much more comfortable. At this point we even have internet access, after a snafu that Comcast was able to solve this morning. So far we are very happy with the service that they have given us. Since the Giffords left on Friday after lunch we have just been hanging out at home (it rained this morning), but I plan on going on a bike ride tomorrow (they have nice paths here). We watched a movie and found a great shopping place at Wegmans (even though I accidentally bought organic milk for $5.99...won't do that again) last night, and I showed Nate the wonders of a rice cooker and can of soup combo. We have a better grasp of the locale after doing some driving around, which is nice, because getting lost is dumb.

I guess now we wait until Wednesday orientation and the arrival of Alex from Ingelheim. I'll try to answer any questions that are posted in the comments in my next post.