One Monday of a Hill

Okay, so. If the last post made me sound less than the cheery person I am at the moment, well... I'm fine and actually doing very well.

School is all but over. I have a few papers (yes, two of them late) to finish before I can shrug off another semester. That one class I only attended 5 of 15 times? I definitely got an A in it.

The graduation ceremony is this afternoon. It occurs to me that this may be one of the last causes to make that trip to campus. It's about a 13 minute bike ride for me. And it's taken four months to be able to visualize the route in my head. Notsomuch because it's complicated, although depending on the exact route there can be many turns, but because of the gods damn terrain.

We don't do "terrain" in Indiana. We have flat. Yes, occasionally buildings or, I don't know, corn gets in the way of the horizon, but never earth. Hills were always what that slope up my drive-way was.

I really do think that this has impacted my geographical understanding. You could place me anywhere in Indianapolis and I could tell you which way was north. Kyoto? Not so much. And yes, I blame the hills. I've never had to consider the vertical axis before.

And another thing: you can go up-hill both ways to school. I do. There is one in particular about a block from the dorm. It is itself about a block long and parts of it are close to if not a 45 degree slope. I usually try to bike it, although I'm only successful half the time, either frustrated by a car coming down the one-lane road or an insufficient breakfast. It is as my friend Abby once said, "one Monday of a hill." Hell of a way to start your day, everyday. It's been a character in my life here, and I'd be remiss in not mentioning it.