Diary of a College Senior

Jan 8 - Back to Research

Monday, January 8, 2018

This morning, I had to get up at 6:30 am even though I have no classes to attend. This is because Professor T. scheduled a meeting for the research group at 8:45 am, and I need an hour to eat and get ready and another hour to commute to school. I made it to the meeting at 8:50. Luckily, Sunil and two other guys were even later than me.

The purpose of the meeting was for Mats to present his master's research. He finally finished all the requirements last month, so now all he has to do is present his findings to a panel of professors and take an exam. His official presentation is scheduled for Thursday, so today was his trial run in front of the lab group.

The first things I noticed in the meeting room were three baking trays sitting on the table in front of everyone. There were two trays of muffins in a chocolatey colour, and something that looked like a pie (it was a clafoutis). Apparently, Craig had made them for everyone.

After everyone got a muffin and a slice of the pie, Mats began his presentation. It was on superhydrophobic surfaces and I was happy to see his results. I had helped him with several experiments over the summer and the results from those were finally presentable.

When the meeting wrapped up, Professor T. surprised us all again with some macarons she made herself. They were so perfect, round and crispy and all, and they were lemon flavoured. We took them back to the lab room to be shared and I ended up eating four. Needless to say, I had a great morning gorging myself on these desserts. I was still so full by 12 o'clock that I skipped lunch!

As for actual serious work, I am happy to report I got some done today. I finally started my experiments and I did an initial trial run making nanofluids to see if everything works. Despite feeling a bit bummed that I wasn't getting paid for this (thanks a lot, stupid funding judges), I found myself enjoying the process all the same. Maybe it's because Cindy was doing her experiments in the lab as well. Nothing beats working together with a good friend, as time seems to pass faster.

Currently, it's 9:26 pm right now and I am preparing for my three classes tomorrow. I read over the syllabus for engineering law and construction methods since they were the only ones that were posted online. Then, I packed a notebook, pencil case, and folder into my backpack so I am ready for the 6 am wakeup call tomorrow morning.

I don't know why but I am getting pretty excited about these classes. Perhaps I won't feel this way in a month or so when assignments pile up and my energy spreads thin.