Curious Notions

In all fairness, I have a whole long list of items about which I need to post. I also now have homework in all of my classes, so some things will have to wait for a bit longer. The first item of importance for this post, however, is to wish my little sister a very happy sixteenth birthday. It’s absolutely crazy to think that she’s that old–God, that means I’ve been in school for sixteen years–but I’m happy for her all the same.

Item the second: the aforementioned school. Classes started last Thursday, so I’ve had all of my classes at least once now with the exception of the weekly department colloqium, the first of which takes place this afternoon. In other words, I’m beginning to get into the routine of the first-year graduate student and starting to get used to the idea that I’m a Cornell student. The latter part, believe it or not, is what I still have the most trouble with. It’s just a name, yes, but it’s a name that’s got a lot attached to it. Kind of like how saying, “I live in New York” is still utterly bizarre and foreign to me.

My three classes are entitled Foundations of Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics (601), Methods of Advanced Mathematics I (610), and Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer (737). To my surprise, 737 has been the most interesting. Even though it’s my earliest class (8:40 a.m.), I find myself looking forward to it more than the others. 601 may get better as we get out of the introductory material, but still, it’s all stuff that I covered last year with Dr. White. Sadly, this makes things a bit boring. My least favorite class will definitely be 610 since it consists of such unpleasantries as tensors, linear algebra, and complex variables, all of which I know just enough about to dislike.

On the bright side of all of this, all of my instructors speak English well and are pretty upbeat in lecture. It’s maybe a bit odd for me to comment on this, but it was something of which I took particular notice. I haven’t even been told by other students that these professors are especially good instructors, so it would be a pleasant surprise to find that this is the standard here. (And in engineering! *gasp*)

Outside of class, several of us first-years have already started forming groups to hang out in. In my typical fashion, every person I hang out with is not in my subfield. As an undergraduate somehow I was buddies with lots of computer scientists. As a graduate student in fluids, apparently my closest friends are all going to be in dynamics and controls. The irony is staggering.

In other news, it’s been pouring most of the morning. I’ve seen less water in some creeks than I did on every sidewalk on my walk back from campus. The really amazing sight was from the footbridge over Cascadilla Gorge. There’s a spot on the rock walls where water usually trickles down the side of the gorge and into the creek (river?) that runs down the middle. Today there’s a veritable waterfall shooting out from the level of the engineering quad. Even though I was getting soaked, I had to pause for a minute to admire it and wish–for the millionth time–that I had my camera on me. If I’d had one iota of sense, I would have pulled out my new camera and taken a shot with it. But I’m just not that kind of clever. I’m sure that it will still be exciting when I head back up to campus this afternoon.

In the meantime, those homeworks are calling, as is the kitchen and the idea of lunch.