It begins again...

So la Ardilla was here for a week for her birthday which was great and wonderful. But I missed her as soon as she got in line for security. Aw. It's going to be a rough year, but I think also a good one. I will just have to try and plan a few visits ;)

I have somehow managed to convince some one to wake up at 5 AM and go to White Rock to bike with me. K is the only guy crazy enough in the department to agree to it, and probably the only guy in the graduate school crazy enough to actually like the whole "100 Mile Ride" plan. In fact he's been so enthusiastic about it this week, I feel confident that when I'm tired and not wanting to do anything HE'LL be waking ME up at 5 AM.
We did 10 miles in 1 hour and 7 minutes on Monday (average somewhere around 9 MPH).
12 miles in 1 hour and 9 minutes on Tuesday (so close to breaking 10 MPH).
14 miles in 1 hour and 14 minutes today (broke 10 MPH -barely-. The goal is to get up to 15. We've got a ways to go).
We were joking that at this rate we'd better get faster or else it will take us the entire day to do 100 miles. Poor K has been using my old mountain bike on the trail, which is heavy, but not sluggish thanks to the new oil on the gears. The brakes still squeak but they work (and when we go downhill they are a reminder that yes... he is behind me, and I can keep my pace up). However, the frame was made for some one between 5'5" and 5'8". K is 6'.
So he looks like a big brown grad student on a kiddie bike. Which honestly... is pretty funny. But if you see the get up that some cyclists are wearing these days... well... he's not alone. I look pretty ridiculous on the bike too, so.. yeah it's fun.

Sadly no Papa Yella sightings, but there have been funny occurrences. The freshmen are checking out the trails while class hasn't started yet. K and I usually walk for a half mile before we leave to stretch our legs and shoot the breeze. When K is telling a joke, and he's about to laugh, his voice pitch jumps. High. Very high. 9 year old girl high. So we're telling jokes about what we should do to go faster, and he suggests we get a little computer robot bug thing to follow us around and hurl insults at us if we don't go fast enough (he said it came from Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I'm not recalling that bit). So he's giving an example of what this bug will say... as two of these fresh faced young Mustangs are passing us with their "Class of 2010" t-shirts. Well... K is spewing out a high pitched tirade of insults, curses, and general unpleasantness as they're passing us. The guy wheels around thinking he was talking to him, the girl jumps and I think is about to scream, but when they see us both laughing, and continuing (I suggested a few insults myself -with fewer curses-)they sort of figure it out. So they keep going, no harm, no foul. And I assume (seeing his SMU t-shirt) they are hoping that he isn't a professor.
It must be a weird sight. Short white guy laughing as the 6 foot Indian next to him is saying, "You F***ing ***** *** *** go faster or I'll **** **** with a **** so you *** **** **** and your dog's **** *** ***** will eat that liver **** *** *** mother's **** **** *** and Hare Rama!" And keep in mind... this is in the voice pitch of a 9 year old girl. Wish I had a tape recorder.

The hare Rama part by the way comes from when he biked around a very religious village near his hometown. He noticed that everyone before they passed would say, "on your left!" here in the US. Apparently in this town, you just say, "hare Rama!" when you're passing. Kind of the equivalent of saying "Praise Jesus" if you bump into some one in the crowd on accident.

Going to meet with a prof about the possibility of doing an MA thesis. Hope it works out. Otherwise I'll just take courses, and then a take-home test in the Spring. And that is pretty much the end of my time here. A nice feeling though to know I'll be missed by the upper classmen. One of the Chinese students here got a post-doc position in Minnesota. He had the choice between assistant prof. at OU, and post-doc at Minnesota. When he told me that, I asked him, "Have you seen Norman?" "No." "... it's not a choice dude. Go to Minneapolis." "Yeah, that's what I've been told." Nothing against Norman. Wait.. yes. I mean... I love The Library as much as the next guy, but when you're options for stuff to do are drink and storm chase... and you can only storm chase during certain times of the year... well... not a fun time. He told me to apply to Minnesota, and if I get in, we'll go have dinner and try to figure out the Minnesota accent. Not a bad offer. Mighty cold up there though. He also suggested Berkley. "There are no quals." :)

But missing the squirrel. The web camera's are working, which was fun. It was good to see her smile, even if she wasn't with me. So she's heading up to the big East, and I'm down here. At least for another year. It's all starting again. That's a good feeling overall though.