Quals

As usual it's been a long time since my last post.

Last semester was good. I got to TA for a frosh/sophmore class on sustainability and that was a lot of fun. Tons of work, but also pretty cool. I got to do fun things like have my students take water samples from the creek that runs through campus and lead discussions on a variety of topics.

Now, I guess it's back to the grind of research. I finally finished my masters in December. My brother, who is an astronomer, said that unlike him I cannot claim to be a master of the universe. Ha ha. I say that since mine is in environmental engineering I can claim to be a master of the earth, or if I stretch it a bit I could be a master of the world :-)

My next daunting task is to take my PhD qualifying exams. VERY SCARY! In my department quals are oral exams that are given by a panel of professor. I have four out of five professors picked out. For my last professor I have to decide between one who is known for asking students to use really crazy math to describe pollutant transport or the professor who tends to ask really off the wall/unpredictable physics questions (he likes to bring in random mechanical toys and ask you to explain the physics behind how they work). Ugh! Both professors are really nice, but the whole idea of quals is just really intimidating. So I'm getting ready for a hellish month of studying. It looks like my exam will likely be scheduled for late March. Hopefully it'll be before Jenny's wedding so that I can make it out to St. Louis.