A backpack and a Bike. (and lots of rain)

I came back to DC for the school year on the 24th of August. I traveled from 7 in the morning until 7:30 or so and then Sue Johnson, the person I am staying with, picked me up from the metro station. We went back to their house and had some delicious wheat free pizza. Sue’s husband had read the book called Wheat Belly, which apparently describes the negative side-effects of eating wheat. Anyway, the pizza had an almond/flax crust and lots of olives, mushrooms, onions, peppers, pepperoni, and real mozzarella cheese. Like huge amounts of it. It was really delicious, which surprised me, since I usually don’t like mushrooms or olives. Sue showed me around the house and my room and I unpacked my suitcase. The next day, I put together my road bike and rode into Bethesda to get some groceries and to go to the bike shop since my front wheel wobbles a little bit. I found the bike shop and waited a bit, being to nervous. When I finally got up the nerve to go in, I found out that they wouldn’t be able to get to me until the next week, since they were so busy. I just said I might call back later, but actually, it wasn’t that bad of a wobble anyway! I went to Safeway and loaded up my new Swiss Gear Backpack with snack foods and some sandwich making materials for my lunches. Later that day, I took my bike route all the way to American, then down to Georgetown and then all the way back up to my home. It is about 7 miles to American from the house, and another 3 to Georgetown. On the way home, I ride the bike down towards the river, since there is a nice bike trail that goes from Georgetown all the way up to Bethesda. I get off on Bradley Blvd., which has quite wide shoulders ideal for bikes, and that takes me all the way to Burning Tree road, where the house is. On Sunday, I went to church and then got all of my things from there. I brought them home after bringing some of Amy’s things down to her apartment, since she wouldn’t get there til the evening before her classes started. I originally had a bit of a scare, when I thought I had put all of my hanging shirts and things in one spot. When I went to get them (my tux and dress shirts) there were only the suit coats and 2 nice shirts there. I thought there should be more there, but I later found them in one of my boxes. What was worse was that several ladies in the church were worrying about the shirts too, since they had been moved around several times while there was a large gathering at the church. Anyway, I made it home, unpacked the boxes and then ironed my shirts. Monday was my first day of classes. Since I already have my schedule typed out for some other thing, I will just use that. Here is my schedule: Monday: PHYS 110 8:55-10:10, Differential Equations 1:10-2:25, Chamber Singers 2:35-5:15, Physics tutoring 6-8 Tuesday: Math and Computational Physics 11:45-1:00, Number Theory 2:35-3:50, Introduction to Modern Algebra 6:45-8:00 Wednesday: Experimental Physics10:20-1:00, Physics front desk 11-4, at Georgetown 4-9 Thursday: PHYS 110 8:55-10:10, Physics front desk 11:00-1:00, Differential Equations 1:10-2:25, Chamber Singers 2:35-5:15, Introduction to Modern Algebra 6:45-8:00 Friday: Math and Computational Physics 11:45-1:00, Number Theory 2:35-3:50 I also am doing some research with Nate Harshman concerning few body quantum wells. I like all of my classes so far, but they will be pretty difficult, I think. All of my math classes except differential equations are pretty theoretical and proofy. My experimental physics class will be pretty interesting. The first experiment that I am doing, with one partner is measuring G the gravitational constant. We are using a torsion balance, which essentially is a tiny thread that has some force as its twisted. There are different sized metal balls that are attracted to each other a very tiny amount, which we try to measure. I am also a TA for the Physics 110. It is nice to get paid to go to lecture and it is also fun to take the class again with a different professor. I even help with things sometimes. Today was a big day. I had been down at Georgetown with Amy working on homework and such during the day. Then it started to lightning outside. I didn’t think that it would rain too much, so I didn’t worry about it. PS, I like to ride my bike in the dark, because there are less vehicles and people using the paths and it is also much cooler. So, I made the mistake of waiting until it started to rain a lot. I then waited in side longer until the rain had at least slowed where I was and then I began to ride my bike home. Amy helped me rig a trash bag over my back pack to protect everything from getting wet. As I rode, it made flapping noises a lot. The roads were quite wet as I left but it wasn’t raining much at least. There were flashes of lightning about every 3-5 seconds. After I was probably 2 miles down the trail, there was a large tree branch on the trail. I was able to miss it, but when riding a bike quickly in the dark, everything seems to come quite quickly at you. I even had my 350 lumen bike headlight on high (not turbo, but high), Right after this tree, it started to rain really hard. This is like Montana Super hard, or the eastcoast/Midwest moderate, but still, I got soaked in less than a minute. Then there was the remaining35 minutes of riding in the rain… That was fun. On the way, my headlight shown like a beacon in the night, casting a beam through the rain and fog. Spider webs even got stuck on my handle bars and I could see the single strand of webbing. I also saw 2 deer, a rabbit, and lots of toads on the bike path. PS, I have seen 6 deer already and a fox on this very trail. Anyway, the power has gone out at this house, so I suppose I should stop wasting my battery and go to bed. More updates later. Today (a different one than above), Sunday the 2nd of September, I went to church with Josh and met Amy there. We brought my bike in his car so I wouldn’t have to ride it. After Church, Amy and I moved her remaining things from the Church to her apartment and then Beth took us to lunch at Leo’s with Rena Lu, another one of Amy’s roommates. I think all of her roommates are pretty cool, so this year should be pretty good as far as that goes, I think. It was nice getting to go to a dining room where you can eat whatever and however much of anything you want. They recently got a Froyo (frozen yogurt) machine in their dining room. After this, Amy and I went to walk Buffy, an English Mastiff she is watching for the weekend. Then we went back to Georgetown and waited for the shuttle bus that would take us and the rest of Amy’s roommates to Target. A campus organization sets up the buses 2 times a year to take kids to Target for only 1 dollar. Lots of kids went. Anyway, I helped them shop a bit for their apartment. They got nearly all of the essentials for decorating, storing, trash, cleaning, and eating for less than $70 apiece, not too shabby! After the shopping and delicious Safeway Selects pizza for less than 4 dollars for 2100 calories of 4 meat goodness, I headed home once again. I did the 11 mile ride today in 43:33 which is an average of about 15 mph. I got rained on a little bit again, but it wasn’t too bad, and truthfully, it made my shirt less wet than my own sweat does… (its gross here). For a downhill section I averaged nearly 22 mph, but don’t worry, I have my helmet on. Ok, now the posts should be smaller than the first 3 since I am officially caught up for the first time in about 5.5 months.