My First Weeks at Drexel

Five weeks ago I began orientation at Drexel University. Needless to say, orientation is a terrible time filled with paperwork and other unnecessary meetings, especially when the orientation is two weeks long. However, the time was well spent. Besides learning how to code basic Python and listen to different scientists research topics, the two weeks of orientation allowed us first-years to meet each other and start meeting the other people in the department.  At first, we were all pretty shy, but that's going away bit by bit.

At the end of orientation, the physics graduate students went on a camping trip to the beach in Delaware. The weather was beautiful that weekend (except for some rain on Saturday night) and was a great icebreaker for the first years to feel included in the department. It also gave me some much needed alone time to sit and think about where I was and what is in store for my immediate future. I was rather sad and conflicted. I didn't necessarily want to make new friends as I felt it would be betraying  my friends from earlier in life. Of course, this isn't true, but that's how I felt. I saw no reason to try and convince myself otherwise, so I just let myself feel lonely for the first time in a long time. It was a good experience and reminded me about how much my life should not depend on relationships with my friends, but rather with Christ.

Even though that last paragraph sounds depressing, I thought that the camping trip was an amazing experience. I am very glad I went. For the parts that I felt lonely, there were other parts where I felt connected, or was doing something stupid (such as throwing myself at the ocean), or sculpting a sand mermaid.

Almost as soon as we got back from camping, classes started up and the first-years got our office space assigned to us. Having an office is rather new to me, and I'm fairly excited about it so far. I have a bookshelf where I can keep all of the textbooks I need so that I don't need to lug them around, there is a communal refrigerator and microwave, and I have a nice study spot any time I want one. All in all, I am very happy with it so far. We've done a bit of re-arranging. David (another first-year) is rather artistic and brought in some of his works. We've hung them around the room adding some color and class. It definitely feels much homier than it did before.

As for classes themselves, they have been less organized than I was used to at GCC. For the first two weeks of classes, our schedules kept changing because professors kept changing when they wanted to have class. This was rather frustrating to try and tell my students when they could contact me since I didn't know at the time. However, the earser shavings have ceased and my schedule will be left alone just long enough for me to get used to it before I have to change it up again come December.

Since I just mentioned it, I should probably talk about my class.  I teach a non-calculus based E&M course for biology and pre-med students. Long story about how that happened, but I do 2 labs and 2 lectures a week. It's been interesting and I've learned the following:

1. I enjoy teaching, but I enjoy it less when I am pulling the teeth of the people I'm teaching.
2. My dry humor does not work well in lecture when students don't want to be there.
3. I know a whole lot more about a subject than I thought I did.
4. People in physics classes are usually not physicists. They simply have to be there and don't really care about the physics at all.
5. "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking." -Joshua Reynolds

All of these things being said, I am trying to learn to become a better teacher. At the same time, I'm holding in mind that I cannot make my students learn. They have to put in the effort and I am willing to help them learn as I can. However, I should not do more than this.

Academically, I think I am doing fine. All of the first years come together and help each other out when working on homework, which I really appreciate. I spent most of the past week hashing out some classical mechanics problems with David and getting to a point that we understand the material well. Then we are able to teach what we've learned to the others and they can use the information for there. They do the same for us too. It's been a very good relationship so far and I hope it stays this way. It's a lot of work (so far about 60-70 a week), but that's still less than GCC. When I come home from Drexel, I leave my work there and I can do whatever I feel like without feeling guilty that I should be doing some work. I'm going to keep trying to keep this mentality up, but just the other day I brought some grading home. I did it intentionally, and I plan to keep doing it in the future. I see nothing wrong with grading at home.

I think that should be more than enough for now. Before I close, I just wanted to give a shout out to all my GCC prof's and thank them for helping to prepare me for this. You all helped shape me into the man I am today, and I really appreciate it. I'd also like to thank Dr. Mark Fair for teaching me to be rigorous in my approach to physics. At first, some my classmates thought how I approached problems was unnecessarily complicated. That lasted until they tried to determine the kinetic energy of a particle in spherical coordinates (let alone more interesting coordinates)... 

I should be posting about my experiences at homecoming within a week. Until then, 

"May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer." -Ps. 19:14

The Changes I've Already Seen.

Sorry for the delay folks. This one has been written for a couple of weeks and I simply didn't post it.

I've been in Philly for less than a month, and I can already feel and see God moving in ways that I've never seen before. Those of you who have seen me over the past 3 years know that I can get wrapped up in my work.  I would say wrapped up in it to a fault. Most of my entire world focused around getting the next assignment done. While there is a definite pleasure in that, completing assignments is not what makes life worth living.

All that being said, I was looking forward to moving as a fresh start. Granted, I was not entirely excited for it-I hate leaving my comfort zone-but I was still looking forward to the chance to depend on God a whole lot more than myself again. That's the way I started at Grove City, but I don't think that's how I ended.

So now that I'm here, I've been trying to integrate myself into the community. Fortunately, Andy is very good at getting involved quickly in a community, and I've been tagging along with him to a bunch of different things. The first thing I got involved with was a homeless Bible study. The group meets at a church just around the corner from us and also has a soup kitchen dinner beforehand. Going to either was definitely different for me. For the past 4 years I been surrounded by a fairly homogeneous group of people.  However, even though I was uncomfortable, it was at that dinner that I met a man named Jesse.  He was very open about his life and the pain he was going through. It was a very moving experience for me; listening and talking with this man I just met. I'd like to say more on it, but for now, I'll leave it at that.

When I was returning from a jog (1.4 miles!) this past Tuesday, I was stopped by a man I could hardly understand (see side note below). From what I could gather, he was from South Africa, but had relocated to Brooklyn and was now in Philly. Unfortunately, he was unable to find work here in Philly, and he had a wife and two daughters he was trying to support. I don't usually carry money on me, but as it happened, I had a dollar in my pocket, so I gave it to him.

All that is great and all, but the most wonderful part was that I go the opportunity to pray with him. This is not something I do, not something I even suggest. I tend not to talk much with strangers at all, let alone pray to God before them. However, Christ is bigger than my inhibitions. He's called us all to evangelize, no matter how much it may fly in the face of cultural norms or our own feelings.

God is working in Philadelphia, just as He is everywhere else.

SIDE NOTE:
As a general rule of thumb, if anyone stops you on the streets in Philly, they are asking for money. This is an interesting situation for a Christian. For years I have harden myself and become cynical to these people, but I am constantly trying to tear down those walls. The question then is whether or not to give money to the person. I am not going to try and answer this question in any large or general way, but I know that it is something that continually bothers me.

Summer Updates and the Beginnings of Philly

With school about to start, I thought it would be best to talk about the summer before getting caught up in the business that is sure to follow.

I took this summer "off", as off as any student who is used to working at a college can be. The previous two summers, I worked full time at KEYW Corp. as an intern and the summer before that I worked 50 or so hours a week as a camp counselor.  Summer off was a relatively new thing for me. 

Needless to say, after the first week I was tried of relaxing. But God works in wonderful ways. It seems he always puts us where we are needed, when we are needed.  

As it was, my mother was working on achieving one of her dreams: opening a quilting fabric shop. By the time I had gotten back from school, her partner and she had managed to find a location and were already buying inventory!  They were thrilled when I wanted to jump in as their IT support guy.  I spent a decent amount of time over the summer sitting at one of their computers and wrestling with making their internet connections work properly, setting up the different pieces of hardware they had bought, and just trying to make all their technology work in general (that's a full time job!). I loved the experience; I had the opportunity the computer science and technical support skills I learned at GCC.  I also got to invest myself in the shop, which helped me see Mom's world. 

The shop has been a whole family experience. My dad stopped by fairly often and helped out with food runs, sanding furniture, or some other odd job, my cousins have spent time working in the shop (one of them even made the website! http://printscharmingqs.com/), one of my aunts is teaching a class... You get the picture. My family is a huge support for Mom in this undertaking.

Aside from the shop, I spent a good deal of time up in Lancaster, PA, visiting my girlfriend Chelsea. Since she's still at Grove City, we are not going to be able to see each other nearly as much as we were accustomed to, so we were trying to spend as much time together as we could. Those days definitely seemed to blur together (not to mention prepped me a little bit for cooking on my own). Needless to say, now that I am in Philly and her at GCC, I miss her.

As some of you who are reading this know, my sister and I planned to go to Rome this summer. Unfortunately, those plans fell through, so that didn't happen.  However, good did come from the time I was going to spend in Italy. Earlier in the summer, I had started painting the interior of the house. Mom and Dad had started doing it when they thought they were going to sell the place (not getting into the story of why right now), but that stopped once Mom got really involved with the shop. Seeing as that it needed to be done and that I had free time, I decided to work on finishing it up. Word got around to some friends at the church that I was doing interior painting, and they approached me with a job to paint their sun room. I was thrilled. The job was great, and I am still very grateful to them for the opportunity and for their generosity.

Our first real dinner!

So now for Philly.

As some of know, I accepted an offer to Drexel University's PhD. Physics Program last April.  Drexel is in Philly, so now I am in the city. I moved in about two weeks ago with Andy Caffro, another GCC graduate who is working in the city. Our apartment is nice, plenty for the two of us, and I've been spending the time to learn this part of the city and get comfortable with doing simple chores like cooking.

Our kitchen

Moving in itself was an adventure. Dad and I packed the van with two bedframes, two mattresses, a folding bookcase, and a bunch of cooking supplies and my stuff. There was actually room left over!  When we got to Philly, I got the keys to the apartment and took Dad to the right street. Unfortunately, I didn't remember exactly where it was, but we managed to park right in front of the place! The day was mid to upper 80's, so we weren't thrilled with having to move it up to the second floor. We did it though, and had time to spare before Andy came to move in.

Fortunately for us, my cousin Ben is an undergraduate at Drexel. We called him to ask him to dinner, but he showed up to help move Andy in! After moving in Andy and eating, Dad took as to Walmart to stock us up on food and other things we needed (such as trash cans, box fans, shower curtain).  Andy and I are both still very grateful for that.  We have enough beans and rice to last us a while!

My room, in all its glory.

Andy in his windowed room

Tomorrow I begin orientation at Drexel. The program is two weeks long and includes a variety of things. Most of the program is an introduction to scientific computing using Python. Fortunately, I spent a good part of the summer familiarizing myself with the programming language, so it shouldn't be extremely difficult. Other parts of orientation will include lectures on how to do research, how to fulfill the role of Teaching Assistant (my official job), as well as faculty research talks.

In another two weeks, I'll be in actual classes. Since Drexel is on a quarter system, I'll be taking 3 classes: Mathematical Physics, Dynamics (Mechanics), and Biophysics. I'm excited to get started with classes again since most schools have already been in session for two weeks already!

Living Room Pt 1

Living Room Pt 2