23 December, 2005
18 December, 2005
Reading to Norman
After my first month in Reading, I felt like anyone who grew up in England and later visited the U.S. (particularly Norman, Oklahoma) would feel like it was paradise. The exchange students at OU from Reading who I knew did seem to like Norman, but didn't think it was so much better than where they came from. That used to surprise me, but now I understand very well.When I first came to Reading, I judged it by the things I liked about Norman -- the variety of good food, cost of living, modern conveniences, cleanliness, architecture of the university, exciting weather, etc. And judging by those criteria, Norman seemed far superior to Reading.
But now that I'm used to living in Reading, I can see things the other way around. If I judge Norman according to the things I liked about Reading -- the closeness of everything, trains, lack of need for a car, proximity to London, natural beauty (especially at the university), liveliness, history, style, etc., Norman doesn't even come close. And for an 18-20 year-old who's social life heavily involves drinking/pubs, Norman (or anywhere in the U.S.) might be a hard place to live.
It'll be interesting to talk to the current Reading exchange students here (i think there are 7 or 8 this year!). I met one yesterday, which was very neat. I look forward to meeting the others after the break. I think I have a pretty good idea now of what they went through when they first came here.
15 December, 2005
More to come
Even though I'm not in England anymore, I will continue to update this blog. Just like a meteorology research paper, there's still a lot of analysis to do now that the 'observation period' is over.A lot of things in the UK just seemed normal to me, so I didn't notice them very much. But now that I'm back in the US, a lot more things seem different. Here are some things that have jumped out at me since I've been back:
14 December, 2005
I'm home?
I'm home now. I think.It feels so weird to be here. It's even hard to think of this as "home". I got so used to living in Reading that Oklahoma feels like a (very different) foreign country.
Right now I feel like I have 3 'homes'. After a year or so of being in Oklahoma, I considered it "home". But after living in Reading for a couple months, I began to feel like "home" really was San Jose. I used to feel like I was half Oklahoman and half Californian. But after being way from both states for a while, I've realized that I'm more like 95% Californian and 5% Oklahoman. Whenever anyone in England asked, I'd always say I'm came from California, and usually didn't mention Oklahoma. But when I moved to Childs Hall for the last few days, I felt like Reading (specifically Windsor hall) was home.
I'm sure Norman will start to feel like home again soon. If not, maybe San Jose will when I go there next week for Christmas.
Wow, even though it feels like a hotel right now, it sure feels great to have a nice, clean, quiet house all to myself! I can get used to this.
Now I just gotta try to remember how to drive so I can go get a burrito!
Day 141 - Long trip to Oklahoma
I'm finally back in Oklahoma. Wow, what a long trip that was! 22 hours!I left Childs hall around 7:00. I got to Gatwick airport around 9:30 and was sitting on the plane around 11:00. As we were starting to take off at 12:00, a lady on my flight passed out, so we had to return to the gate so the paramedics could come. We were ready to leave again around 12:45, but then there was an announcement saying the RADAR at Gatwick airport was down and no planes could take off. When it finally was fixed, we lost our place in the queue and had to wait a while to take off. We finally took off at 1:30, after sitting on the plane for 2 1/2 hours.
So I was on that plane for over 12 hours. I had a very bad cold & sore throat, the worst headache I've had in several months, and had only slept 1 hour in the past 2 days. The first 4 hours of the flight were miserable. The last 6 hours were even worse. I was SO happy to get off that plane!
I arrived in Houston at 5:40, right as my flight to Oklahoma City was leaving. So I had to take another flight a few hours later. I got back to Norman shortly after 11:00.
12 December, 2005
Day 140 - Last day
Today I went to a few new places around London that I haven't been to yet. Brixton (a dodgy part of town that people warned me about -- hence, my first choice of places to go), Chelsea (I've been all over Kengsington but never to Chelsea until today), the National Gallery, the Science Museum, and a couple other places. I met my friend at Piccadilly Circus and we eventually ended up at the Thames near Embankment -- one of my favorite places in the world.As for last night, I had a great time. After the Back of Beyond we went to the Purple Turtle, which was a very appropriate place for a true Reading/UK experience.
11 December, 2005
Day 139.5 - The Back of Beyond
Today was a strange day. I've never had a day quite like it. The closest thing I could compare it to is the day before I left San Jose to move to Norman, Oklahoma. But even that was different, because (relatively speaking) it wasn't so far away and I knew I'd be returning to visit often.Today I said goodbye to everyone at my main church. It was very sad. I really felt like part of a family there. I will miss them a lot. In an hour I'll be going to my evening church to say goodbye to them. Though I wasn't as involved with that church, I will miss it as well.
After that I'll be going to the "Back of Beyond" pub (and the Purple Turtle) in the town centre for a "going away" get-together with the meteorology people (mostly MSc friends). I know that also will be sad, because it may be the last time I see most of them.
Tomorrow will be much different. I plan to spend the day in London, mostly with a friend from Windsor Hall. She's from Hoogerheide, the only town in the Netherlands that I've been to. Maybe spending the last day with a non-Brit will help me forget how much I'll miss British people.
It might've been more fitting to spend my last day in Wales or Birmingham, but London isn't far behind those two. I'll be sure to take one more walk along/across the Thames at night (an awesome experience that I'll definitely miss).
By the way, if any of you are wondering, I wasn't very close to the big explosion in Hemel Hempstead, but some people from my church did hear and felt it and said their windows shook. It might've been what woke me up early this morning, but I doubt it. I definitely could see the smoke from it. It covered much of the sky in Reading today. Very eerie.
10 December, 2005
Day 139 - Childs and Skittles
Today I moved into Childs Hall. All I'll say about it is that I now have a much better appreciation for Windsor and Sherfield. It has a reputation for being one of the worst halls. So now I've lived in one of the worst and one of the "best" (Sherfield), although my favorite is probably Windsor.Tonight I went to a pub in Theale with one of my main church cell group. We played Skittles. It was very fun.. like bowling, but requires less skill.
Yesterday I posted some of my best memories (at least the ones outside of Reading), so tonight I'll post some of my worst memories here:
It's a short list. I'm having a hard time thinking of any, to be honest. The worst would probably include being sick shortly after I first arrived here, missing my flights to Frankfurt and Barcelona, walking around Rome with huge blisters on my feet in unbearable heat with no AC anywhere, and walking home from the Reading town centre (~30 minute walk) in heavy rain with no umbrella. But none of those were all that bad. If those are the worst things I can think of, it should tell you how good my time here has been.
Day 138 - Best memories outside Reading
Here are some of my best memories away from Reading. (I'll probably mention some of my best Reading memories in another post.) These are roughly in chronological order:Family trip - It was great to see my family when they came to visit. And we went to some great places including Birmingham, Manchester, Blackpool, and London.
Wales - I can't say enough about my trips to Wales. My experiences in Wales might be the most memorable of my entire time here. Whenever I come back to visit, Porthyrhyd Llanwrda will be one of my main destinations.
Camden - My first authentic English pub experience. The setting was perfect. Afterwards, getting lost and spending the night at Paddington Station only made it more memorable.
Venice - It's hard to describe the feeling of walking around venice at sunrise. There's nothing quite like it, not even in Las Vegas.
Rome to Durham - My first Ryanair flight, and first time returning to the UK after being in foreign countries. Darlington/Durham felt so much like home!
Belper North Mill, Nottingham - Probably the most memorable of my day trips in England. I learned a lot about one of my famous (in America; infamous in England) ancestors, and had a very nice tour of Nottingham.
Dorset Field Trip - If my trips to Wales were the most memorable, the Meteorology field trip to Dorset was a close second. That weekend had the biggest impact on my time here. Before the trip, I only knew a few students in the department. After a wonderful weekend of meteorological measurements, presentations, pubs, and badminton with a ping-pong "bat" (paddle), I knew almost every MSc student and began some good friendships.
Crazy 8-country trip - Too much to mention. The highlights include visiting relatives in Oslo, the spectacular train ride from Zurich to Austria, the party for being on Ryanair's first-ever flight from Szezcin to London, and helping the English-challenged Polish family get to their hotel.
I've probably left a few out, but there really are too many great memories to mention.
08 December, 2005
Day 137 - Charlie & the Climate Factory
Tonight I went to the Christian Union meeting and the "pantomime" (really a play/musical) performed by some of the meteorology Ph.D. students. Both were very enjoyable and a little sad.The play, "Charlie and the Climate Factory" was great! We do something similar in the OU meteorology department, but it's nowhere near as big of a production as this one was. It was very funny, but probably would have been a lot more so if I'd been around the department longer and knew more of the faculty (who they parodied).
As always happens when I watch plays, it made me miss acting very much. But that's not what made it (and the CU meeting) sad. They were sad because they were probably the last times I'll ever see some of the people. Both the CU and meteorology department have a lot of great people who I've just started to get to know. It's sad to think I won't be able to know them better. There are two meteorology students who also go to the Christian Union who plan to attend the Univ. of Oklahoma as exchange students, so what will be neat. But I probably won't have another chance to see the rest of the CU people.
As for the meteorology people, I'll see some of them for the last time tomorrow. But quite a few of us are gonna get together for a "going away" night out on Sunday night. I'm very much looking forward to that, but it also will be sad, as it might be the last time I see any of them.
Day 136 - Moving again
Apparently I can't stay in Windsor Hall past 10 AM on Saturday, I'll have to move again, this time to Childs Hall for 3 days. It shouldn't make a difference because I'll be packing anyway. Before I move out, I thought I'd make a list of things I'll never forget about Windsor Hall:The people - I really like a lot of of the people here. It's the main reason why I'm so glad to be in this hall, despite the things I don't like about it.
The view - I can see from half of the campus all the way to the town centre, and even as far west as Tilehurst. It's one of the best views in Reading. And it's also great for pointing my temperature gun at various surfaces around the area.1
The pizza and donuts - Most of the food isn't that great, but it's not so bad either. The pizza and donuts are VERY good, and I will miss those.
The stairs - I live on the 6th floor and have to go up and down 6 flights of stairs many times each day.
The volume - They say that each floor in Windsor gets louder as you go up. That seems to be very true. The 6th floor is usually its loudest around 2-3AM.
Sharing - It's been many years since I've had to share a bathroom or kitchen with anyone. Now I share with about 12 people. It definitely helps me appreciate what I have back in Oklahoma.
The walk - Windsor is one of the farthest halls from the Meteorology building. I can't count how many times I've walked back and forth between the two buildings. Several times a day.
The heater - The heater in my room has a mind of its own.
06 December, 2005
Day 135 - Wild night
Last night was a wild night. That is, at the Crosstimber Micronet, the land that I own near Norman, Oklahoma. If you didn't know why this piece of land is so special or why I'm using it for my Ph.D. research, a graph of the temperature last night should give you a hint.
This graph shows the temperature during the night at 5 of the weather stations located there. One thing that immediately jumps out is the cold temperatures. At the Norman airport, the station nearest the Micronet (approx. 17 miles away), the low temperature last night was 24°F (-4C). At the coldest Micronet site (blue), the low temperature was 6°F (-14C).
But look at the differences between the various sites. At one point in the night, the coldest site (blue) was 22°F (12C) cooler than the warmest site (red). This 22-degree temperature difference is across a distance of only 500 feet.
To put this in perspective, the temperature range across my little 5 acres was larger than the temperature range measured across the entire UK, from southern England to northern Scotland.
05 December, 2005
Day 134 - 142 days
Today is "Day 134" and I'll be leaving in 8 days (Tuesday, 13 December). Yes, I know that adds up to 142 not 140. I believe the discrepancy is because I didn't originally include the days of my flights here and back, as those wouldn't be full days in England. The number is meaningless anyway, as I've spent quite a few days outside of England.However, I'm very glad it's 142 days (in Europe) instead of 140. It's really starting to hit me now that I won't be here much longer. Today was my last Monday of class, which I will miss. Tomorrow will kick off my last week (i.e., last 7 days) here. There is so much that I will miss, especially the people.
As I may have said before, I think I have more friends here than I did in Norman. Not as many close friends, obviously, but definitely more people who I talk to and hang out with. It's more a difference in lifestyle than in the people. When you live alone, work mostly at home, and only have one class, you tend not to run into many people during the week. Here it's so much different. And I have a feeling that when I get back to Norman, I'll be taking a lot of my Reading lifestyle with me.
Day 133 - Jesus is rael king
This morning before church I listened to a sermon by my favorite theologian, who happens to be from England. It was about Jesus establishing his kingdom, and the gospel message (i.e., the proclamation that "Jesus is king"). At church, I listened to a sermon about Jesus' birth in Bethlehem and his heritage as a descendant of king David. And at my other church in the evening, I saw a presentation on the history of the world and Christianity from ~4000 BC to the present. Wow! When the three are put together, it paints a truly amazing picture.Here are some of my thoughts. Keep in mind, they are not necessarily representative of the people/churches mentioned above.
3,000 years ago, there was a small nation named Israel. The people of this nation claimed that a descendant of their second king (a shepherd boy named David) would establish a very prosperous kingdom that would span the entire world, and that this kingdom would endure forever.
This must have seemed like a completely ridiculous notion, especially considering the insignificance of Israel at the time. They even claimed that their God promised this, which made their entire religion easily discreditable if it were not to happen.
1,000 years later, a child who came from the family of David was born in Bethlehem. He was proclaimed as the new "king of the Jews". He began with a meager 12 followers and a lot of skeptics. But less than two centuries later, the God of Israel as revealed in Jesus had followers as far away as Wales. By the 4th century, Christianity was the official religion of the most poweful empire on earth. Centuries later, after the Roman Empire fell, the lasting conquerors of their former lands generally either converted to Christianity or already were Christians themselves.
Fast-forward to today. What year is it? The answer should give you some idea of the significance of the birth of the "king of the Jews". What are the most prosperous and powerful nations in the world today? What is the dominant religion of those nations? (In other words, who is the ultimate "king" to so many of the people there?) Who's system of morality were most of their laws founded upon? Look at the nations that have declined in prosperity or influence over the past 50-500 years. What religion did they reject after once embracing?
Of the 20 richest countries in the world today, 19 have what I'd consider to be some sort of heritage related to that descendant of Israel's king David. If such a thing was suggested 3,000 years ago, it would have seemed ridiculous. But now that I think about it, such a thing WAS suggested 3,000 years ago. And approximately 2,000 years ago, when Israel was under the control of Caesar, it was proclaimed that the kingdom's fulfillment was about to begin. Now that's what I call 'gospel' (good news)!
03 December, 2005
Day 132 - 2.5 degree error
Today I set up my model to do forecasts over 4 months, rather than the 3 or 4 nights I've been testing before today. The average RMS error is around 2.5°C. That's not great, but I think it's already a fairly big improvement over other forecasts out there for this particular location.My goal is to reduce the error by another degree or so. The forecasts for most nights are already within about 1.5°C, but there are a few nights with errors over 5° that hurt the average a lot. I need to figure out what's happening on those nights.
I'm currently using a very bad soil scheme, and the surface properties in the model are the same in August as in December, which is not very realistic. I see those as two big areas for improvement. And I still have a lot of tweaking to do. So I think an average error below 2°C is very possible; maybe even 1°C for some months.
I suspect that the low temperature forecasts might be a little better. The numbers I'm quoting are the average error over every 5-minute period throughout the night.
02 December, 2005
Day 131 - Classes
This is the first semester in a while (maybe the only one) that I've looked forward to going to every one of my classes.My instruments class is mostly review of the undergraduate instruments class that I took several years ago. But it's a very important subject for me and I've been learning a lot, not just the things I forgot from my first instruments class. Okay, the labs are long and tedious and I don't learn much from them, but I suppose its a good experience anyway.
My numerical modeling class is great. I don't mind the Fortan anymore. It's still not my favorite, but I've gotten used to it. We're finally getting to the point where I'm learning a lot of very useful stuff.
My vegetation & the atmosphere class is very interesting, very relevant to me, and very unique. It's a lot more focused on the vegetation aspect of it, which is great.
Another great thing is that I haven't had any take-home homework yet in any of the classes.
I'm sure gonna miss them after next week.
01 December, 2005
Day 130 - Temperature of nothing
Sorry if this post is too meteorological or technical, but there's another philosophical question that I can't get out of my mind: If the energy budget of a surface is balanced (i.e., the energy going into the surface is equal to the energy leaving the surface), how can any net heating or cooling of the surface occur?It's easy to understand why if the "surface" is defined as a layer with a finite volume and mass. In this case, if the energy input and outgoing fluxes balance each other, no change in temperature change occurs. But in a finite non-zero volume, the energy input and surface fluxes don't have to balance each other. The energy budget is closed by net heating or cooling of the volume. No problem so far.
But it's also possible (and is commonly done, for example in model I've been modifying) to define the surface as an infinitesimally thin (i.e., zero mass and volume) interface. In that case, the net energy input to the surface must always equal the fluxes of energy leaving the surface. But if that is true, no heating or cooling can occur.
This contradicts what we know from observations -- that a surface temperature can change regardless of whether it's defined as a volume or an interface.
If we calculate (by integration) the average rate of temperature change over the depth of the volumeless layer, the equation reduces to 0 divided by 0. Just try doing that on a calculator, hehe. It's not necessarily 0, 1, or infinity. But in this case, could it be a finite non-zero number that's equal to the rate of change in the surface temperature?
I think the key might be in the fact that something with no mass or dimension can't have a temperature, much less a temperature change. It is in fact, by definition, nothing.