April 7, 2009

  • We are Vi Hahr.

    Vi is married, I am not. And for the first time in my life, I'm okay with this! I don't mean the Vi part because of course I've always been okay with her being so disgustingly happy with Mr. B-Randon. I mean about not being married. I still say that yeah, I'd like to be in a situation where I could get married, but I'm perfectly fine with where I am now. I've experienced so many different things in the Midwest that I never could have done in sunny CA. One of them is curling.

    Curling is a ridiculous sport. There's really no way to look "cool" while sweeping, and, the weirdest people are involved in it, college level and beyond. I think it's just for weird people in general, but of course, normalcy is in the eye of the beholder. Curling is also a very social sport. "Broomstacking," the socializing period after the game, consists of food and drinks... and then more drinks. Our last bonspiel of the season was in Green Bay (I saw Lambeau Field!) and the whole trip just screamed Midwest, I loved it. hehe. The drive there was completely flat, with those trees (no idea what kind) that cover the midwest and have no leaves because it's still winter in April, and little towns that are spread out and full of farm houses and fields. We arrived in this town that was on the outskirts of the city, whose main attractions were the Packers and hockey. The people in the curling club had those funny accents ("MinnesOta") and drank Spotted cOw. The meals consisted of hearty soups, cheese curds, and steak. YUM. Michelle and I were the only asians there. And everyone else was mad good at curling because they had been doing it since birth. Oh, those Midwesterners are so cute!  To top it off, it snowed on the ride back (because obviously it's still winter).

    Other than curling, I'm grooving along with grad school and excited to see how things turn out with my research. Am I crazy? I honestly get excited when I get to collaborate with the other D3D people and share my data! I still feel very unknowledgeable and have even greater respect for my professor, the bearer of all steel knowledge and especially of all things martensite. I'm a little disappointed that I don't get to do traditional metallurgical things, though, like arc melting or dilatometry or even something simple like using the vacuum furnace. Instead I sit on the computer for half the year and get chubby.  My tummy is so squishy, but not as squishy as Sean's.

    Oh yes, the other thing about the Midwest is that weight gain is inevitable. It is totally true and proven. Just ask all the other grad students who came from other places. Or perhaps it's the grad school thing ... hmm, I have confounding variables.

    And now, how to connect Elisha Cuthbert to Kevin Bacon.  (I stumped Danielle in the "6 degrees to Kevin Bacon" game, but I know she'll think of something because she is a movie buff).