24 September 2001 - Lisa Neef ('01)

[Editor's note: Lisa is a graduate student in atmospheric physics at the University of Toronto. Last summer, she worked at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD this past summer for the second summer. She worked under/with Prof. Gary Morris in problems in atmospheric physics.]

I hope the new school year is getting under way well! I can just picture the seniors whining about quantum and the throngs of 141 students lining up outside Dr Stanislaus' office. Here's a little update on what I've been doing since I last wrote. Actually, I don't remember when I last wrote so I'll just fill you in on everything that happened after I finished my gig at Goddard. I moved to Toronto in the last week of August, and spent a week like a hobo, staying in various hostels (of varying quality!) while looking for a place to live in the tight Toronto housing market. By a sheer miracle, I landed a nice, comfortable basement apartment that I an just-so afford.

Since then, my classes have gotten started. I'm taking intro classes for Geophysics and Atmospheric Physics, an Asymptotic and Perturbation Methods class, and an engineering department course on Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer. The CFD course will no doubt be the hardest one this semester, particularly because we have to write our own code to do the problem sets, and I have yet to learn either FORTRAN or C. But it's good material, so if I can get through it, I will have gained a lot. And just to keep things interesting, I'm auditing a lecture on Dostoevsky and taking intro to Russian as well. I also got sucked into the physics department's ultimate frisbee team, aka "The Field Operators", which is a lot of fun.

They've got me teaching 'Physics for the Life Sciences' aka physics for freshman pre-med students. I teach two 26-student tutorials and so far it's been going pretty well- even though I know that probably 95% of these student will have changed their major by the time they graduate. It's amazing how many kids think they can become doctors and avoid ever learning math or science!

I love living in Toronto, going to school on an urban campus, and the mix of cultures here. I'm certain that I picked the right place. Also, coming from Valpo, it's even more exciting to see just *how much* a big school can encompass- the immense library system, activities, athletics, etc. Nonetheless, I found that I miss the friendly atmosphere at Valpo very much, and I think I would have been miserable at a big school 4 years ago. I miss strangers smiling at strangers, the familiarity of everything on our small campus, and even the physics study room.

When the attacks on the US happened 2 weeks ago I was on the subway on the way to my first class of the day. When my professor mentioned it, I thought he was joking. When I realized it was true, my immediate thought was about the people I met while working in DC. Fortunately, nobody I know was hurt - although my second cousin had just arrived in NYC that very morning from Germany to start a high school exchange. In a choice as to where to go sightseeing first, his group chose the Staten Island ferry over the World Trade Center, and though they witnessed the whole thing, it literally saved their lives. People are saying that this marks the beginning of a new era of warfare. I'm still trying, like everyone else, to understand the meaning of everything that's happened.

Part of the Canadian reaction here (and the German one as well, from what I've read) is admiration of Americans for sticking together and rushing to help out those involved in the disaster; the general solidarity that Americans cling to. I'm not much of a patriot, but I really think that small communities where learning takes place side by side with community life, like Valpo, are essential for making American democracy work and something to defend. But that's a whole other conversation...

Regards to the other profs and students,

Lisa