Over halfway through the term

Currently it's Wednesday of Week 6 of a 10 week term, and boy is it flying by. I am not used to the quarter system: I was on the semester system as an undergraduate and am feeling the effects of this compressed time frame. On the positive side, I have fewer classes, on the negative side there is a lot more work to do per class. As far as the work itself, the biggest change for me is the level of coordination involved. I have a group in Methods as well as in History & Theory, that I need to regularly check in with and do tasks for. My first few assignments have gone well enough, both earning me B's, so it appears that the A's I was used to the last couple years won't come nearly as easily. I don't seem to have that killer competitive drive anymore to get the highest scores possible, rather much more of my time and energies are being devoted towards my ultimate goal of getting a job within the field upon graduation.

I am reasonably enjoying my classes, although I do occasionally daydream about getting done and getting back into the real world come next June. For Methods I interviewed an East Portland resident and got great insight into some of the challenges that exist out there as far as getting more people to use active transportation. I like that the assignments for that class focus on a real problem, and that some of the data that we collect and conclusions that we come up with will ultimately find its way into the City of Portland's plans for that section of the city.

As I mentioned in my personal journal, I enjoyed the class trip down to Salem to learn more about what the Department of Land Conservation and Development does and meet some of the people that work there. My take from the visit was that I think it would be an agency I would enjoy working for, however I am not entirely excited by the prospect of living in Salem.

I am officially doing what a Graduate Research Assistant is supposed to do - research! I had a meeting with my advisor, Jennifer Dill, and she let me know about some research she had started with a visiting professor from Australia about electric bicycles. To begin with she wants me to do some literature review and get up to speed on what she has already discovered. She ultimately wants me to interview early adopters of these ebikes to get a sense of why they purchased them and how they fit in with other modes of transportation. I will be meeting on Thursdays with Jennifer to check in with her on my progress and to get direction on where to go next. At this time I do not believe that I will end up being a researcher after school, but I like the idea of getting credited for my contribution to a paper that she may ultimately get published.