Physics (and other graduate things)

This week, I'm doing orientation for the physics graduate program at the University of Michigan. A few things of interest:

1) Safety training is both boring and funny at the same time.  A lot of the information is things that you HAVE to know, but so, so boring.  At the same time, the pictures of things that happen when things go wrong are for some reason funny (like the tank full of some compressed gas that somehow broke free of it's holder and made a hole in the roof of the building).

2) I don't remember much simple physics anymore.  One of the things I'm doing this week is taking GSI (Graduate Student Instructor) training, even though I'm not going to be a GSI (yay fellowships), and one of the things we had to do is "grade" an assignment.  Yeah..., I don't remember simple angular momentum.  Also, I can't grade homework.  I'm too nice...

3) Physics Graduate Students are all wacky and crazy.  I'm glad I'm not alone...

4) Having an office is cool, but at the same time, makes me feel old.  However, I'll be in there for long periods of time, especially while doing homework.

5) Even though the summer program I was part of is over, I'm still seeing the friends I made over the summer through it.  Makes me happy that we still find ways to get together.

6) Gyroscopes are AWESOME!!  Yeah, I got to play with one.

7) Being a graduate student is going to be fun.  Hard, but fun.

This week has got me looking forward to doing everything I'm going to do.  I'm excited for my classes, even if they are though, and I'm really excited to do research.  There'll be times when I wish I was doing something else (like a job and getting paid), but I think that the next 5-6 (hopefully) years will be some of the most memorable I'll have in my life.  Graduate School, here I come!