The three months I spent away from Atlanta lulled me into thinking that all weather was like Seattle weather. Now that I'm back in Swamp City, I'm once again astonished that anything gets done in the South. Where do people find the incentive, I'd like to know? The amount of effort and willpower it took me to leave my apartment and trudge up to the lab to renew my ties to that holiest of places would have been equaled only by that which Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary must have needed to scale the last five thousand feet of Mt. Everest. Yet Nicky insists that Houston is a thousand times worse than Atlanta, which leads one to wonder how bad Houston can really be. I can't begin to comprehend it.
Nikki came down from NYC to surprise Nicky. I was there during the surprise, and let me tell you, I have never seen anyone less surprised than Nicky was when the moment finally came. It was almost admirable. The undergrads and fresh grads who had been studying diligently in the lounge got the fright of their lives when Nikki's "boo" pierced through the silence like a gunshot, but Nicky was unperturbed.
I went back to the lab, as I mentioned earlier. I wrote the professor an email asking if I could come back to the lab this semester, and he responded very graciously. And so labward I went.
W. seemed happy to see me. He's always been exceedingly nice to me. Nicer than I remember being to anyone. Last semester I saw his paper ("our" paper, because he was nice enough to include me as a coauthor, even though I did jack shit - and here the nice theme makes another appearance) get rejected three separate times, and each time he read the feedback he got and planned his next submission without getting the least bit frustrated. It was like watching a Zen Buddhist do his thing. That was also the moment I was convinced that I'm not cut out to do a PhD temperamentally. I would start flipping tables after my first rejection.
At any rate, W. asked about my internship, and I did my best to explain what I did in intelligent language. Then W. told me about the things he worked on at MSR and about the interesting tools and technologies that he encountered for the first time during his various endeavors. I nodded and pretended to understand what he was talking about.
Speedy came along at one point and engaged me in a very animated conversation about - yes - the weather. He agreed that the weather in Atlanta sucked.
"I go outside and it's like, 'Why are you doing this to me?'" were his exact words, I believe.
I agreed wholeheartedly.
"It's the same in Costa Rica, except we don't have ACs."
I expressed my shock appropriately.
After leaving Illinois, I didn't think I'd find another place where conversation about the weather wasn't just something you used to fill in awkward silences, but apparently Atlanta has that effect on people who have freshly arrived from better places.
As for courses this semester, I'm taking Real-Time and Embedded Systems, Computer Networks, and Machine Learning for Trading, in addition to doing research at the lab. This should still leave me with plenty of time to get rejected by companies.
Nikki came down from NYC to surprise Nicky. I was there during the surprise, and let me tell you, I have never seen anyone less surprised than Nicky was when the moment finally came. It was almost admirable. The undergrads and fresh grads who had been studying diligently in the lounge got the fright of their lives when Nikki's "boo" pierced through the silence like a gunshot, but Nicky was unperturbed.
I went back to the lab, as I mentioned earlier. I wrote the professor an email asking if I could come back to the lab this semester, and he responded very graciously. And so labward I went.
W. seemed happy to see me. He's always been exceedingly nice to me. Nicer than I remember being to anyone. Last semester I saw his paper ("our" paper, because he was nice enough to include me as a coauthor, even though I did jack shit - and here the nice theme makes another appearance) get rejected three separate times, and each time he read the feedback he got and planned his next submission without getting the least bit frustrated. It was like watching a Zen Buddhist do his thing. That was also the moment I was convinced that I'm not cut out to do a PhD temperamentally. I would start flipping tables after my first rejection.
At any rate, W. asked about my internship, and I did my best to explain what I did in intelligent language. Then W. told me about the things he worked on at MSR and about the interesting tools and technologies that he encountered for the first time during his various endeavors. I nodded and pretended to understand what he was talking about.
Speedy came along at one point and engaged me in a very animated conversation about - yes - the weather. He agreed that the weather in Atlanta sucked.
"I go outside and it's like, 'Why are you doing this to me?'" were his exact words, I believe.
I agreed wholeheartedly.
"It's the same in Costa Rica, except we don't have ACs."
I expressed my shock appropriately.
After leaving Illinois, I didn't think I'd find another place where conversation about the weather wasn't just something you used to fill in awkward silences, but apparently Atlanta has that effect on people who have freshly arrived from better places.
As for courses this semester, I'm taking Real-Time and Embedded Systems, Computer Networks, and Machine Learning for Trading, in addition to doing research at the lab. This should still leave me with plenty of time to get rejected by companies.
3 comments :
Hahaha. Houston weather is a nightmare I have tried forgetting.
(No, I cannot forget it. *shudders*)
Haha. I had a feeling she might be doing this, because the trip was pre-planned and then "cancelled".
Looking forward to more lab stories this sem. I'm sad we don't have a common course, but we should hang out regardless.
Hahaha. Houston weather is a nightmare I have tried forgetting.
(No, I cannot forget it. *shudders*)
Haha. I had a feeling she might be doing this, because the trip was pre-planned and then "cancelled".
Looking forward to more lab stories this sem. I'm sad we don't have a common course, but we should hang out regardless.
Aren't you a regular Sherlock Haha
I thought I did a decent job keeping the whole thing a secret. Nikki was worried I'd tell you everything, which made me want to tell you everything even more.
Anu was a cow, though.
He was like, "Ohhh I know where Ani went."
You were like, "Where?"
He was like, "I'm not telling."
Had we been a bit closer to the railing...
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