Brrrrr

Wow, it's friggin' cold here. Last night it dropped to about 20 degrees F (-6 C) and it's been hovering around freezing during the day. It's so weird to look outside, see beautiful sunny weather, and then put on 3 layers and a heavy coat. Everyone keeps asking me, "Are you still excited about this weather?" To which I reply, "Yes!" To which they reply, "Well, just wait until March, then we'll see what you think." Seriously, I've had this exact same conversation at least 5 times in the past week. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to snow. I think it will happen the next time we have any precipitation whatsoever (but the forcast says sunny and cold for at least the next week).

I stressed a little over my exams, but they are over now and went fine. I did slightly better than average on both of them, and in gradschool, my understanding is that average is about a B or B+. It is also my understanding that no matter how poorly you do, they will not let you fail. That is, if you're actually willing to put in any effort they won't let you fail (this seems a sensible position for them to take considering they've already invested about $25,000 in each of us). In addition I have been told by everyone from my TA's to the Dean of Harvard medical school that no one will ever look at my graduate school transcript, so grades really don't matter. I'm still having trouble adjusting to that fact (and the fact that being average is pretty damn good considering the company I keep), but that knowledge is making hard to be motivated to study.

For now, I'm spending most of my energy focusing on my research, which is going pretty well so far. I will explain more or less what I am doing in my next post some time this weekend.