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| With the 1st year cohort at the football game against Air Force (Fall 2017) |
How exciting! Graduate school! UM!
As many of my peers at Carnegie Mellon went off to jobs etc, I decided to continue my schooling. It's a pretty swell time here. I am very happy with everyone I've met so far and happy to see many people in the same stage of life open to doing similar things. One person has been very proactive with organizing activities to meet everyone and we are trying to have a routine of regular potlucks every Wednesdays.
I moved in to Ann Arbor, MI on Labor Day this year, the day before classes! My mom was so wonderful and let me take some furniture for my new apartment. In addition, she helped to pack anything you can think of needing for a new place. I find my apartment mates to be wonderful people. We only met briefly during graduate school visits and coordinated housing before starting.
Of course, we were still short some things here and there around the apartment: coffee table, shoe rack, tv stand, etc. One of my roommates so graciously shared his $250 amazon gift card for communal use and we got any miscellaneous supplies we needed (napkin holder, paper towel holder, tool kit etc. As well as these fancy string lights for our rooms that can be controlled by a remote!) One of my cohorts living nearby offered to go shopping for furniture at the local Kiwanis Club in West Ann Arbor. This was an adventure! We packed his subaru forester to the brim. I even had this end table in my lap on the drive home. We also used a roof rack to secure furniture. This was mainly because I decided to get a large 6 ft coffee table.
During the second or third week, my roommate's mom came to stay with us due to Hurricane Irma. She lives in Miami and was predicted to be in the path of the tropical storm. It was so nice to have her and she brought great energy to our living space. I think she really brought everyone together and we are regularly enjoying each other's company.
The apartment is set up very nicely with my desk in the living room. I have my speakers and amazon echo set up to play music all the time as well. My room is my sanctuary and the kitchen is stocked for food adventures.
Classes has also been interesting. I am required to take MSE 532 - Thermodynamics this semester. Besides that, I signed up for a class with the school of education and a solid mechanics class in the aerospace department. I'll let you know how these courses are in my next post!
Transportation here has been ok. The buses are free for students and it's been an adventure figuring out what apps to use to track the buses as well as determining what bus routes to take. Mostly just riding them once or twice is enough to figure out how to between the campuses. I am also slowly figuring out how to get home, downtown etc. The biking here is also very doable while the weather is pleasant. I regularly bike to classes - a short 10 min morning ride to north campus.
Gyms here were difficult to incorporate into my routine initially. Mainly due to proximity. The north campus gym is currently under renovation until the next year. The only other gyms are NCRC (North Campus Recreation Center) and the Intramural Building; both located on south campus. A 30 ish min bus ride/bike ride. However, some good news is that there is a small 'Fit World' park right near my apartment that is nice to go to after a run for some calisthenics. I am a huge fan of these exercise parks for the public - they are around my home in Columbus and are also very prevalent in Taiwan. So far my routine (I have not followed it very strict) is to run MWF and use the gym in south campus TTh. It works out this semester because I have the education class in South Campus Tuesday morning and the bible studies are usually on Thursdays on South Campus.
I have a multitude of goals that I am trying to achieve (order random).
- Maintain my relationships with friends from CMU
- Regularly skype home to my parents, once a week
- Train for the Pittsburgh marathon - healthy lifestyle decision
- Learn spanish
- Improve at playing the guitar
- Create a morning routine
- Become Christian
- Meditate?