Diary of a College Senior

Sept 19 - Three hours in the rain

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

The sky was pouring when I woke up this morning.

Too bad I have a lab scheduled this afternoon and we have to go to the field. We have to map out a creek along with its features and I am not looking forward to it. The only good thing about the lab is that Addie is in it, and we have agreed to be lab partners.

Traffic was horrible. It felt like the entire school population had decided to drive and the commute took almost an hour. When I finally got to class, I was ten minutes late so I had to use the back door and sit in the back row. 

When I checked my phone, there was a text from Addie. "Where are you?" She asked.

"Just got to class, sitting at back row now. Traffic was horrible." I replied.

"Probably 'cause of the rain. And I need to talk to you about the lab later." She wrote.

After class, Addie and I agreed we should leave at 1:30 pm so we can arrive at the field site at 2 pm, which is when the lab starts.

The location is beautiful, complete with trees in various shades of autumn hues, paved hiking trails, little foot bridges, and a winding creek. Everything was perfect except for the rain and the cold (5 degrees Celsius, WTF!).

I had worn my waterproof fall jacket and I zipped it up all the way to my neck. Addie had borrowed her boyfriend's big hoodie to keep warm since she had stayed over at his place last night.

A little after 2 pm, our professor arrived along with four T.A.'s by his side. I thought I recognized one of the girl T.A.s from a mandatory prerequisite course I took two years ago. She was two years above so she must have decided to go into a masters program now. Thinking about it just makes me feel old all over again. As people I used to sit in class with are now working as T.A.s and for the very classes I am taking!

As we proceeded through the lab, Addie and I encountered a lot of familiar faces. Having been in the program for three years now, there are not many new faces compared to an introductory first-year course. Although we are not close with a lot of these people, it was still nice to have small chats with them and just say hi.

Addie and I followed close behind a group of boys who sounded like they know what they were talking about. They recognized the features around the river and pointed out special areas like water marks and eroding banks. We ended up asking them some questions and even compared our answers with them.

Toward the end of the trail, Addie and I realized we were so engrossed in drawing the map that we had forgotten to fill out the corresponding question sheet! So we had to go back to the places we already walked past just so we can answer those questions.

By this point, the rain was pouring down harder and a strong wind was blowing.

"I can't feel my hands!" I told Addie, as I struggled to print my answers on my damp answer sheet.

"I know, I just want to go home now!" She said, her entire body shaking.

When we finally finished, we sat in Addie's car (she had driven us there) for a long time with the heat turned up until we felt alive again. As we drove away I thought it is such a pity the weather was so bad. Had it been a fine autumn day, I would have enjoyed a stroll in the ravine. Heck, I would have lingered behind even longer just so I could enjoy the view!