At Long Last! An Update! (4-10-11)

After nearly a six-month hiatus, I've finally made it back to writing on the blog! As you might have guessed, a lot has happened since I last wrote back in October. This semester has been especially brutal. Obviously I won't have time here to detail everything here, but I figure those of you reading this (or at least most of you) have at least had some contact with me in the past six months anyways. I could probably write entire entries just about some of the things that have happened, but as stated, such would not be practical. I'll try to keep this mostly to the biggest and most recent events, and hopefully this will suffice.

Just for a brief overview of more distant events, last semester ended well, being a good help for my GP (as I'll mention later, it'll probably be balanced back out by this semester). After finals Julie and I had a lot of fun getting to see both our families. We spent the first part of our Christmas break more with Julie's family, then got to see my family for the second part. With both families we had the happy opportunity to see siblings who came to visit--it was an especially notable change at my parents' house! I got to go cross country skiing once with my dad, Karen, and Jeff, which I was very glad for since it was the only time I was able to go. We got plenty to do with Julie, Mike, and Kadin as well, which was very fun. Unfortunately these things can't last forever, and so Karen, Jeff, Julie, and I headed back for Provo before class started the following day.

The next few months of school feel almost like a blur, with so much happening and yet so much of it the same. This semester has been my last French class, ending with the 202 level. It's been a lot of fun getting to learn the French language for the past year and I'm grateful for all that I've learned. This final class has been substantially different from previous classes with a heavy focus on French culture and literature. French has officially taken root even in my Spanish language, albeit not so much as it had a year ago. Now instead I'm more consistent in the French words I use when I'm speaking Spanish (mostly using "avec" where the word is "con", as Julie can attest). It's generally become the language I think in if not in English, though given the circumstances perhaps that isn't so surprising. For those of you Spanish speakers, I can still speak Spanish quite fluently, which I had to prove the other night during family prayers.

As my time learning French comes to an end, I'm also coming to other changes. Last semester was the last time I had a religion class chosen by the university. Having completed two courses in the Book of Mormon and one each of New Testament and Doctrine and Covenants, this semester (and for two more after) I get to pick from the myriad of other religion classes offered here at BYU. This semester I decided to take a course on the Pearl of Great Price, which has been very informative and uplifting. It's amazing how much has been fit into less than seventy pages of text. As such a small book, we've had the opportunity to go a bit more in depth and to discuss more of the history of this marvelous book of scripture.

Of course, getting further along in my education also means more classes in my schedule devoted to my major. I had a break from them since last winter since I needed to take Ordinary Differential Equations before I could take almost any of the courses remaining for my major. Having gotten that behind me last semester, this semester I've been back at it full swing with two classes. One of the classes should almost count as more of a math class. The official name of the course is "Introduction to Classical Field Theory." It might be more aptly named "Partial Differential Equations with Physics Applications" or "We're going to test all of the math you've learned so far and add one more complication." I suppose that's how most classes work though. But despite how bad it might sound, it's actually been a fairly easy class. The professor is very willing to help (even with assignments from other classes) and he's pretty funny (he even writes comics, which you can see at http://www.sqcomic.com/).

My other physics class is...well, interesting. My other physics class (more like an actual physics class instead of a math class) is Statistical and Thermal Physics. This is the class which is rumored to be the most difficult undergraduate physics class, and from what I've seen, I'm apt to agree with that statement. If the title doesn't describe it well enough, here's the basic rundown: we spend the first three weeks talking about the usual thermodynamics, including discussions on engines, and of course lots of talk of entropy (the measure of uncertainty of states). Thermodynamics is a general topic that applies to many large systems without much thought given to how those systems are made. The world turns upside-down after that crash-course though, as we head into the world of statistical physics. What this basically does is it takes your nice, simple world of physics and turns everything into thermodynamics in a very specific way. From magnets to Fermi and Bose gases, we consider the microscopic properties of these systems and show how things like the number of possible states gives macroscopic quantities for things like entropy, chemical potential, and the Gibbs Free Energy (which I won't bother trying to explain here). There are few ruling fundamentals here, instead giving way to lots of specifics, making for a very difficult course. If there's one thing I've learned from it, it's that I do NOT want to be taking many more courses on statistical physics.

The class that's probably brought me to the biggest decisions has been Theory of Analysis 1. This class has really showed me what proofs are all about. It makes last semester's "Fundamental's of Mathematics" seem like a review in college algebra instead of a class on proofs. The class hasn't necessarily been that exciting or eventful--quite the contrary, in fact. We've gone over calculus using proofs, which has been only somewhat interesting. Really the only thing that really stood out as having any real significance to me was our proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus during this last week, in which I finally saw how the anti-derivative of a function can tell you about the area of it, and that was more of a personal satisfaction than something very important. No, it hasn't been what the class has taught that has lead me to the biggest potential decision of the semester, but rather the dry, almost ridiculous exactness of the class. I've come to realize that learning proofs, while mildly interesting, is not something that will likely be of much help in any field I might go into. It is for this reason that I am thinking that I might be better off not getting a double major in math. I have already earned the math minor, and taking this last class has been a good way to see just how rigorous proofs have to be. But by not doing a double major I will be opening up more time which would allow me to take a graduate level physics course or two, as well as take another minor and a few more electives. Considering how my research has been so computer based, and just from listening to professors, a computer science minor seems as though it would be more advantageous than further study of mathematics. Of course, making that decision will have a substantial impact on my future.

While on the topic of the future, Spring term is coming in just two weeks! I'm already signed up for my two classes. I will be taking yet another physics course, this time learning about Mechanics. It should be a good break from Thermodynamics, as it would seem that Mechanics will be quite a bit less abstract. The other course I will be taking is German 101, which I will be taking in preparation for our trip to Europe. I know I mentioned it in the last blog, but obviously lots has happened since then. For a brief overview (any who have talked to Julie much in the past 3-4 months will probably already be aware of this), we're planning to head out in mid-June and be over there for two months. Our primary reason for going is so that Julie can do an eight-week study abroad program in Berlin and Tübingen before she graduates. We'll be heading over a couple of weeks early, going first to London for a week, then parting ways as Julie goes to Austria to do research for a professor while I go over to Paris. We then meet back up in Berlin where we will be staying for the next month. I will be taking a course in German while Julie gets to take classes on German art and art history as well as a language course. The German courses will be offered through the Goethe Institute and will be very different from the classes at BYU (I'm expecting a greater mix of cultures and many people who are older than me). We will then part ways as Julie continues studying in Tübingen while I head off for a couple more weeks in Europe. I'll be heading to Italy and to Spain before heading back and getting ready for school. Julie will be arriving two weeks after I do, so I'll be roughing it on my own for about a month. When she gets back she'll be starting right into her graduate work, doing the Comparative Studies program.

Well, this blog has already gone much longer than I had anticipated, but I guess that's what happens when you don't write any of this stuff for six months. I hope you all are doing well, and I'll try to be more frequent in my posts!