Musings ::: 12.31.05
Retrospective
It's been a short and eventful year. More short and eventful than normal, which might explain why I'm having trouble summing it up. I started the year in Taiwan, month 7 of 9. In April, I had a 3 week layover in the US before catching a flight to Europe. June found me back in Philadelphia for some reading, relaxing, and website revamping. 3 months later, I had packed my bags for Evanston, where they were promptly unpacked. Along the way, I've caught up with old friends, made some new ones, and unfortunately lost touch with more than a few. Perhaps the biggest change over the past year is that I now consider myself to be a quasi-legitimate adult. I'm paying rent, paying bills, and punching the time card at lab. Not that I didn't do those things while I was in Taiwan, but for some reason I felt more like a college student pretending to be an adult. After all, most working adults don't spend half of their free time planning out what part of Taiwan or East Asian country that they are going to visit the next weekend. The other big changes are my location and vocation. From June '04 to April '05, I was an engineer at Taiwan Semiconductor. April was also the month I signed my life away to be a graduate student at Northwestern University's Department of Materials Science. For the next five years, I will be working with Professor Faber on synthetic seashells. I like it here at Northwestern, but I do miss my friends from Taiwan and Boston and Philadelphia. (For those of you who are having trouble translating, that's an open invitation to crash at my place if you are ever in the Chicagoland area.) Peace, ~Hermit12.31.05 Comment