Just Another Day

The alarm clock goes off at 6:30, there is a hint of twilight in the sky but not enough light for the Circadian rhythm to help me out. My body is tired from burning the midnight oil studying integration and my legs feel like they are on strike after being put through ten straight days of hard workouts. Within a few minutes I shake off the cobwebs because a very busy day lies ahead and 16 km North. This is coincidentally the direction where the 20 km/h wind is coming from, which will be my next challenge. I quickly make a large fruit smoothie and pack my bag full of school books, delicious homemade Indian food and extra layers.

I set off for the University of Ottawa on my reliable Norco, my face is stinging and my chest is tight from the cold. Within a few minutes my heart is pumping, my legs are pumping and my body is warming up as I continue North into the wind. The roads are clear and dry and I feel like I am winning the rat race. Twenty minutes into the ride I feel the endorphins rush into my brain and give me an extra boost of energy and sense of well-being. Before I know it I am changing into my skates with steam coming off my head, arms and neck.

The canal is empty and justifiably so. The winds are making forward progress a formidable challenge and I feel like I am on an ice treadmill. However, I manage to make it to school just moments after the start of my 8:30 Statistics lecture where thankfully we are reviewing for our upcoming midterm. I hand in my assignment and pick-up the previous weeks 13.5/20, another pass. At 10:00 we are released and my next task is spending the next hour and a half studying for my Analysis midterm at 1:00. The studying goes well and I feel comfortable if not confident about the upcoming test. The next class is Differential Equations. I hand in my second assignment of the day. Our topic for the day is the application of second-order equations. The professor is an expert in biological modelling and an excellent instructor.

Next is the midterm. Before we begin my professor spots my smoothie sitting rather inconspicuously at the side of the room and asks the class if it belongs to anyone or if he should be concerned that is it some sort of toxic liquid. I reassure him from across the room that it is non-toxic and quite palatable and we begin the test. It goes about as well as I imagined it could but the time flew by and I really could have used an extra half-hour.

It is now 2:30 and time to meet my student. I manage to wolf down some lunch as I wait. The subject is second year business statistics and the student needs a lot of help. I go over some problems with him but he needs to do more homework. After an hour we devise a study plan and agree to meet again the next day. It is now 4:00 and the last lecture of the day is in Applied Probability. The topic is Markov Chains which is a fascinating and useful tool to analyze the evolution of systems. The instructor is good at what he does and has a very subtle self-deprecating sense of humor which I enjoy. He calls it quits five minutes early and now all that is left is the journey home. Just look at how bad the traffic is: