When I'm Not Napping

Successful Day

Here’s what I did today:

1) Did laundry

2) Went food shopping

3) Rented 1984 and For Whom the Bell Tolls to read when I have downtime

4) Starting re-watching the best TV series of all time: LOST

That’s a good day.

The Safety Alarm

I have a theory. Usually during the weekends, I will set an alarm that is late enough for me to sleep in a good amount, but not too late that I ruin the whole day. This is usually somewhere around 11AM. This is the safety alarm. I usually do this during the school year for the reason explained above. Now that it is the summer and I don’t have any work to worry about for my REU (generally speaking), I don’t have to set a safety alarm.

The theory is this. You sleep better without an alarm. This may be obvious to some, but it’s really nice not having to set an alarm every day. It’s a refreshing change. Whenever you wake up, you wake up. Your body isn’t waiting for any alarm to go off. You feel better in the morning without the safety alarm. Try it out some time.

How I Met Your Mother

Well, I’m all caught up with the show. This is kind of sad, but I only started watching a few months ago. I’ve watched all 7 seasons in a pretty short amount of time. If anything, I’d say that’s dedication. I really do love this show.

City Adventure

I got my first REU check today. $1400. Not bad, huh?

I needed to deposit this check. I had looked up locations of my bank in the area and I found one that was roughly a 25 minute walk from my dorm. So, I went to explore the city on my way to the bank. Bare in mind, it was about 5:20 when I left and my bank closes at 6.

I’m walking for awhile. I got to see more parts of Columbia, which is really nice, if I may say so. There’s a bunch of little outlets and restaurants all around and some tall-ish corporate buildings (they aren’t like New York or anything). I got to the part where I was supposed to turn and I did like Google Maps showed me before I left. I was walking a few more blocks and I could not find my bank!

I turned around. I asked someone for directions. By this time, it’s 5:50. Now I’m thinking to myself I’m probably going to find it right before 6. I kept walking the way the guy told me and still I could not find it. I was ready to give up, but it wasn’t 6 yet, so I walked one more block. And, there it was. My bank. And, it was only 5:58. I went inside, deposited my check, and that was that. Success.

It felt really cool walking around the city and then finding my bank right before it closed. I call that a win.

Man, I really miss watching LOST.

My Trip Thus Far

Wow. It has been an awesome last few days.

I arrived in South Carolina around 10:30AM on Sunday after being up at 2:30AM (I was grumpy, to say the least). The flights were mostly okay. The first flight was a normal airplane size and was relatively turbulent free, so no issues there. I had my layover in Charlotte, where I quickly realized I was in the South with all the barbeque restaurants and sweet tea places all in the airport. I waited around for a bit and took my express flight to Columbia. This plane was really odd—it was more like a jet and it was pretty small (3 seats across). I even hit my head on the ceiling a few times. Anyways, it was a little more bumpy on that, but I made it. No problem.

When I arrived, it surprised me because the environment reminded me of Florida a lot (I’ve been to Disney World about 5 times in my life). There were palm trees, it was a bit muggy, and relatively hot, but it seemed nice there. Oh, on the drive to campus there were waffles houses and fried chicken places everywhere. Sounds awesome.

I got to the University of South Carolina’s campus for my REU and I was a little intimidated. I go to Lehigh University and the campus here in South Carolina is A LOT bigger and more spread out, as opposed to Lehigh were everything is relatively concentrated—building wise. Anyways, my roommates are nice, so that’s a plus. I’ve been food shopping already—I feel a little bit more grown up having to come up with a meal to eat for everyday. Breakfast and lunch are easy for me, but dinner will be a bit of a challenge. Meal plans really put us students at ease.

The REU program itself is very cool. I have a lot of freedom to work on my research, so once it gets going, I’ll be able to be a bit more independent and just do my own thing. The people here are really nice, so that’s a plus (professors, grad students). I may even play some basketball with my professor and grad students tomorrow. Stay tuned. Speaking of basketball, the gym here is ridiculously nice. I can’t even describe it—it’s just immaculate. Having that should be great because I’ll have time to work out whenever.

I’m really excited for what the rest of the summer holds! It’s gonna be great.

My Flight

I’m pretty excited for tomorrow. I get to fly on an airplane for the first time since before I had a cell phone (yeah, I haven’t had opportunities to fly anywhere, really and it’s expensive). My summer chemical engineering REU at the University of South Carolina starts tomorrow. It’s going to be great. The only problem is…my flight is at 6:30 in the morning! Gah.