It's Good To Be Home

So What If It's Been A Month...

... since my last post.

I'M COMING HOME TODAY!

I have a quick breakfast with the other TAs from this quarter and our professor, then it's off to the airport!

I can't wait to get home to Raleigh.

Biscuits

Yesterday, among doing other things, I made Grandma's buttermilk biscuits for the first time. They turned out pretty good, and were liked by everyone!

Professor for a Day!

Yesterday I made my first foray into teaching... to a huge lecture hall full of second-year students! Talk about being thrown into the fire. I got to develop the lesson plan, prepare example problems, and teach the whole class (Statics) from start to finish. The topic for the class was the Method of Sections for truss analysis, plus a bit of coverage of the problems that had been on the previous day's quiz.

Altogether it went very well; I stumbled on one of my example problems because I was too into explaining one concept that I neglected another simple step in the calculations. Thankfully a student pointed it out and, after fixing the error and laughing about it a bit, all was well. I very much enjoyed the experience and am thankful for Dr. Van Den Einde for allowing me to give it a try. I'm hoping to do it again next quarter in the next class of the sequence, which is Dynamics (then Vibrations in the Spring).

Best of all, UCSD records a lot of lectures of undergraduate classes to publish as podcasts for students. You guessed it, there's a podcast of my lecture! For the so-inclined, you can find it here, lecture number 19 from November 5th.

Besides teaching my week was very busy with 3 different assignments and a midterm, and this weekend will probably entail just as much work. But, it's still beautiful in Southern California, so I don't have too be too unhappy about that.

All my best to everyone at home!

Pumpkin Carving!

I got to take a break from my consecutive busy nights of studying tonight and carve a pumpkin with my roommates (plus Alyssa, Cat, Mike, and Burcu). It was such a great reprieve after having been stretched pretty thin over the last couple of weeks. We even watched "Young Frankenstein" while carving!

Don't Panic Just Yet

I promise I haven't fallen into the ocean and been eaten by a shark, been attacked by a swarm of killer bees, or been kidnapped in Tijuana. I've just been busy!

More to come soon, I hope!

Peace, love, and banana pudding.

Windansea Beach

A few photos from sunset last night at "our" beach... it's a 5-minute walk away! :)