A Mid-Westerner in Mid-Wales

After what seems like an eternity, I returned to Massachusetts to defend my dissertation.  After arriving in Bean Town from an adventurous journey, I took my left-hand drive car west and began my trip down memory lane.  Not having encountered too many rotaries in the US, I had to do a double take at the Concord rotary when I was expecting traffic to go clockwise!  That rotary is bad enough without the added difficulty of expecting traffic in the opposite direction (can I get some confirmation from our Northeast readers?).  Continuing on Rte. 9 west, I saw some snow/ice in areas of perpetual shadow as well as broken tree limbs, another reminder of how mild the past winter was in Wales.

After arriving in Amherst and saying hello to the movers and shakers of the department (the administrative assistants), I left for my second indulgent meal of crappy food, paid homage to Dave Thomas, and drove to yet another airport to pick up my parents who thought it would be a good idea to see their son for the first time in six months when he is at his most stressed.  No one can say they don’t love me!  With my preparations almost complete for my talk the next day, I decided to take my parents out to a nice meal in Noho for my Father’s birthday.  I was going to take them to Del Ray’s but as we drove by we noticed that, well, a lot can change/disappear in two years.  So we spent a great meal at Caminito.  Happy birthday Dad!  Feel free to draw your own analogies to the great dinner that happened some two thousand years earlier.

Who’s idea was it to defend their dissertation on Good Friday!?  I was just asking for it.  I arrived into campus a little more than hour before my defense to do some last minute corrections/reviews.  I grabbed the portable projector and headed up to the defense room in time to set up 15 minutes before the talk.  When I arrived my committee was all waiting in the front row and before I can begin to process what is going on I hear my advisor announce to the other room where the tea was being served, “Alright, he is here, let’s begin.”  Now I realize that tea was at 9:45 with the talk beginning at 10:00, not 10:00/10:15.  It is one way not to have time to stress immediately before the defense.

The talk went half-way decently, not perfect, but respectable.  The closed door questioning was a little bizarre and not what I was expecting.  To be fair, I was expecting the worst but I wasn’t really expecting the curveballs.  Maybe that is what it is always like.  Finishing my questioning after about an hour, I headed downstairs to await the verdict which came a few minutes later.  I PASSED!  Not only did I pass, but I received edits from only half of my committee and those edits were mostly included in the much more extensive edits I found myself on the plane ride.

Finishing up the edits

The rest of the afternoon was spent gathering signatures and filling out various university and NSF forms, and I spent the remainder of the weekend working on those pesky edits and remaking one of my plots.  Nonetheless, three days after my defense, I stood at the Degree Requirements window of the Graduate School and dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s.  I was officially a doctor.

Getting the final approval

The trip to Massachusetts ended a little more uneventfully.  I took my parents to eat Korean food, I ate my Bueno y Sano burrito, and had sweet potato fries at the ABC.  My trip to life in Amherst was now complete.  Finishing everything a day early, I drove back to Boston for another sampling of Mexican food at the Border Cafe.  Good chips and salsa.

The flight back on Air Canada lacked the drama of the outgoing flight and when I managed to find my way out of Heathrow, I took a bus to Reading to attend the Dielectrics 2009 conference.  The first afternoon was a little hard to get through (I am man enough to admit I may have nodded off once or twice) but the conference was great overall, met people, learned things, and made connections.

The final leg of my journey was a two train trip back to Aber.  I caught the train from Reading to Birmingham and arrived to see the Aber train departing and the conductor waving goodbye to the station agent.  Another two hour delay.  I can’t catch a break on my travels.  I arrived back at 9:30 on Friday to the welcoming arms of IAC and the welcoming paws of Siena.