Jun 12, 2006 20:14
First, let me back up and talk about Richie's visit. He arrived by train (the Ditty? or Dinky? they have some weird name for it) at 10:30, and we wandered about until lunch. Oh, we did sit and chat in a nice bookstore for a while too. The chatting was good; we discovered odd similarities between our two careers, such as the specific attitudes of people. We had lunch at a cute little restaurant, and ate till we were full. And I stole a muffin. We then walked back to my room to look at pictures, etc. Then back past the universtiy store, and to the square where they were opening their Shakespeare fest with some readings and scenes. Then the ice cream pub, and then it was time for him to leave... sad. Though, I must admit, by the end of the afternoon, I was suprised at how immature he still is. It took 3 or 4 hours for it to come out, and for me to really notice it, but it was definitely there, and it kinda drove me crazy. So the time I spent was just right... any more and I would have had to have said something.
And then he left, and I got all depressed.
But I dragged myself out to meet the rest of the people, and they are actually nice, fun, interesting, semi-normal people! We also came to the concesus that we wouldn't actually turn in the problem sets (which turned out to be true), so I felt much better. Let me introduce the people to you. You already know James, the odd one. The other girls are Cami and Linda. Both are nice, normal girls, who were glad that I was normal too. Ha... And the guys. Paul: friendly guy, personal trainer, speaks easily about physics, and knows what he wants academicaly. Austin: also friendly (yeah... everyone is), like me, he is worried about taking the GRE/applying to grad schools, and also like me, frustrated with his conservative college campus. He reminds me of Evan's friend Joe. Virage: cool guy, talked to him for a while, he's also a music minor who enjoys theory. We chatted about composition, Schoenberg, and playing piano. So the...7 of us went to dinner, and though it took us awhile, we finally found an italian sandwich/pizza/pasta place where we got some takeout food that we ate on a ledge between a few of the academic buildings. That night I hung out with Austin and Paul, and then hit the sack. I must admit that I'm suprised how much easier it is to be social than I remember, from the last time I went into a totally new setting. I am probably the more quiet one, but not by much, and I'm not at all shy.
This morning we met a bunch of other people at the bus stop and took a yellow schoolbus to PPPL (the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab). Then, 3 hours of lectures, lunch, and 3 more hours of lectures. Most of the lectures were quite good. During the intro lecture, I even answered some questions and spoke up. And I definitly understood everything. Our second (and fourth) lecturer was a young(ish... 35, 40?) British man. He had that wonderful dry British humor, and loved telling us about British physicists. Ha... he was describing how we were manipulating an equation as "a little bit of jiggery pokery." Hehehe! And he called tildas "twiddles" or "twiddlies." I love British people! And he also probably had the most interesting lecture topics, so that was good.
Lunch was mediocre, but we got to eat with the British lecturer, which was cool. He's also an astrophysicist, and he was talking to us about pulsars and frozen-in magnetic field lines. Lecturer #3 was boring, and he had a boring topic... um... magnetohydrosomething. MHD? Obviously it made an impression. And it was during my 1 in the afternoon sleeping time, so it was pretty impressive that I actually stayed mostly awake.
After coming back to campus, I went to the gym (!!! Crazy, I know) with Linda, Cami, and Paul. I biked for a good long while, and did crunches. Then dinner at the cafeteria, which was at the level of, or below, Aramark food. Scary, I know. Paul joined us, and we had a fun dinner, with good conversation. I do suppose the camaraderie is there:)
Anyway, I should... either go be social, or dry my hair, or reread some lecture notes. Something.
Later folks!
physics,
friends