The Year in Ann Arbor [2017]

January began with a 5:30 flight back to Ann Arbor, followed closely by the start of round two of kinetics and heat and mass transfer. In between problem sets, I read thirty year old research papers and continued playing with the Ann Arbor Concert Band (AACB).

In February, classes continued, I watched the Revolution play in the Desert Diamond Cup via the internet, and I once again started working with Fortran code for my research project. #FortranLives

March brought fun with COMSOL Multiphysics, which was only slightly less temperamental than Aspen Plus. [Note: For non-science/ChemE people, COMSOL solves differential equations such as those for heat and mass transfer. Aspen is a chemical process simulation used mainly (exclusively?) by chemical engineers.] At the end of the month we took a road trip to Ohio to meet with some of our lab’s collaborators.

In April, the MLS season was well underway, with the Revolution drawing four of their six matches that month. I gave two presentations, wrote two final reports, and took a final exam in the span of five days, while also preparing for my doctoral candidacy exam (DCE). On Easter, I was given the responsibility of hiding the eggs for the Easter egg hunt.

The big news in May was taking and passing the DCE. The AACB also had its last concert of the season before breaking for the summer. I baked thumbprint cookies for a church Memorial Day picnic and backyard soccer game.

With June came the start of summer. I took a break from research for a couple hours to see the peonies at the arboretum, ate a vegan sloppy joe from a food truck, and visited my brother in Chicago to see him graduate. On the way back to Ann Arbor, my parents and I saw sand dunes, checked out the Meijer Sculpture Gardens, stopped by Holland, and paid another visit to Greenfield Village and the Ford Museum.

In July I biked across most of Ann Arbor. Multiple trips to the farmer’s market and library were made. Research also picked up, I actually (finally) started getting results, and I read thirty years of papers on the rheology of every salt/surfactant combination possible except the one I’m interested in. After much searching (and some help from a friend), I found an apartment for the next school year and was officially not homeless.

I was, however, temporarily homeless for a couple weeks in August. I was (very kindly) invited to stay with a family from church and ended up house and cat sitting for them. One of the cats ignored my existence unless he needed food. The other loved my feet and would not let me eat dinner in peace. After I moved into my new apartment, I made a trip to IKEA and got to assemble Swedish-named furniture.

The fall semester started in September. I only took one class, on methods and practice in scientific computing, which was almost more trouble than it was worth, but I did get to program in Fortran. #FortranStillLives At the beginning of the month, band rehearsals started up again, and I dutifully made my return to the band room; I also went rock climbing for the first time in over a year.

October was occupied with research, class, and keeping myself fed and clothed. I tried a couple more restaurants in Ann Arbor (One Bowl, Jolly Pumpkin) and baked brownies, bread pudding, and beer cake.

In November, I went to my first hockey game at Michigan and saw Michigan beat Ferris State 7-2 at Yost Ice Arena. Additionally, I gave my first group meeting presentation. There was yet more baking to celebrate lab birthdays and Thanksgiving with both church friends and my research lab.

December started with an 8:00 am phone meeting with our collaborators, successfully using a debugger to find a segmentation fault, and documenting our code, because best practices. I finished my one class with a final presentation and report, was kept out twice until midnight by church Christmas dinners/parties, and finally returned home days before Christmas. At home, I ended the year with a lot of eating, sleeping, and watching TV, including Jeopardy!, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and The Great British Baking Show.