Springtime is here!

I've never experienced such a colorful flowery spring. And apparently, it's just getting started. I am really grateful for the beauty around me!


I never would have guessed that such pretty white flowers would be...
in such large numbers and...

on so many trees!


I don't think I've ever seen so many purple trees before or if I've ever even seen any purple trees before.

I found these flowers in my front yard. Can you guess which one was pre-planted by my landlord and which one just popped up in my lawn one day?

Duke

I visited Duke University this past weekend. I thought the buildings were pretty neat.


The chapel was especially neat. The architecture on the inside was beautiful!

Snow Day!

Apparently this town doesn't look like this very often. The pictures above are of my house and street. For pictures of where I spend my days go here.

graduate school

I'm happy to report that I survived my first semester in graduate school. It was a bit harder than expected, but I didn't realize how good of a school I am at until part way through the semester. As it turns out, Chapel Hill is a really, really good school. And so, I'm very happy to report that I have passed all of my classes.

On an even better note, I recently discovered that I am now doing exactly what I told myself I wanted to do 4 years ago. Four years ago, I took a class called discrete mathematics. I loved the class. The topics we learned in that class are still my favorite topics that I've ever learned. At that time, I told people and myself that I wished I could major in discrete mathematics, but unfortunately it appeared to me that there was nothing in discrete mathematics beyond that course. My school did not offer any classes on the topic, and I thought that was the end of it. I'm happy to report that most of the things I do in my new program are advanced topics of the things I did in discrete mathematics---graph theory, discrete time markov chains, and others. Furthermore, I've discovered a new pastime that I might spend some time with this winter break---binary programming. Maybe I'll write a program that can solve these hard Sudoku puzzles for me. Or maybe I can write a program to solve this impossible riddle I tried to do a few years back.

My New Nephew

I went to Texas for Thanksgiving to visit my sister's family. While I was there, I met my new nephew, Kyle, for the first time. I promised my mom I would take some pictures, so I did. I now I realize, that I didn't take very many, but I promise that there are a lot more on Kyle's mom's camera and Kyle's grandpa's camera! Just tell Kyle's mom to post them on her blog. I think it's time for more pictures on her blog.

The scenery

Here are some more things that I am thankful for:

Color changing trees:
Colorful Trees next to a lake:And the sun glistening over the lake.

The New Hideout

Thanksgiving is coming up, so I'll take some time to show you the new things to me that I am grateful for.

I am grateful for my new bedroom:I have 2 closets
A really cool desk and comfy chair
And a bathroom to myself.