barry burton

Spring?

So the changing of seasons is kind of nice. The weather gradually warmed last week, and yesterday the high very nearly made it to seventy (or twenty-one in euro-international speak). Sidenote: now that I have passed through the phase of complete confusion after changing all of my clocks to 24-hour time, I have decided to switch all of my weather sources to use Celsius. For the time being, I never understand how a particular temperature will feel until I convert to Fahrenheit. Anyways, the warm temperatures of late do make my room somewhat warm, especially since the heat, being out of my control, is still on, but that means I got to revert to sleeping with the window open. I generally enjoy this but the close proximity of so many people adds additional complications.

By yesterday afternoon, almost all of the snow had melted. I saw baseball fields and basketball courts and leaves and grass where before all had been homogenous white. The melted water made torrents from all of the creeks and there was not a place in my day to day travels that was out of earshot of the pleasant whirring of falling water. This morning it began raining pretty hard. Bummer, I thought. It only rained for an hour or so, however, before the rain suddenly transformed into heavy snow. It was a bizarre sight. Apparently winter wasn’t quite finished. Or maybe I wasn’t supposed to yet see the ground. I’ve been here two full months now and yesterday was the first time I had seen any of the ground on campus.

The snow that is falling now is what I call the wet variety. It is the kind of snow I saw when I was growing up. I think it is because the air is close to being above freezing or maybe it is in some places, but the snow melts and sticks together, and sticks on other stuff and can be made into snowballs and whatnot. It is also easier to see since the flakes are all clumpy and I think float more on the way down. For most of the time that I have been here, the temperatures were closer to 0°F / -18°C, and then the snow is very dry and powdery and does not make even small clumps on the way down, so it falls faster and more uniformly. Once on the ground, this snow cannot be formed into snowballs. That part is disappointing, but balanced by prettier reflective aesthetics.

Another strange difference the warmer temperatures brought: dark nights. Previously, full cloud cover was a constant and all of the ground was covered in reflective white stuff so the lights of the town were enough to keep everything well lit, even late at night. The night before last when walking home late it was eery to be unable to make out each house on the street around me.

So as far as classes go, which I suspect should be the main point of my being here (not the weather, though I seem to be confused on this point), I started out taking two classes. As of last week, I thoroughly bombed the prelim (Cornell’s word for midterm. Strange, I know.) in my compiler class, so I changed my registration status to audit so I just don’t get a grade but I can keep going to class. I like that grad school offers this new option. However, next week is spring break, and I will be staying here, studying, so that I don’t repeat the prelim deficiency in my parallel architectures class. Somehow it would feel wrong to not be taking any classes for credit. In practice, it very well may be wrong, though I could not claim to know.

I am thinking of making a trip down to NYC for a few days next week, if only to study in new and probably cooler environments. If not then, then sometime soon, so if anyone actually reads this and has suggestions for things to see, do, and eat (all actions need not be taken on all things) then by all means let me know. Lest I appear to be the fool who asks a question and receives no answer, I will also specify that recommendations may be emailed to me, such that now no one can tell conclusively that I have received no such recommendations, and I can enjoy the embarrassment free life which has always been dreamt of.