Sunny Skies In Waterloo (S25)

Ask any student here about life at Waterloo, and a good number of them will tell you how boring it is. However, I'd fiercely argue otherwise. The KW region has amazing nature and little events all summer long. And there's something just so wonderful about a summer term, where instead of trudging home from class in the dark, you're embraced by the warm sun (sometimes to a fault) and beautiful skies.

Summer is the time where I hit up my usual routes, like Victoria Park and St. Jacobs. These all are pleasant, mostly flat routes where you have a fun destination to go people-watch. Having something to do - whether it be buying groceries at the market, or hauling a ginormous box of apple chips home on a poorly-secured front rack - is the perfect motivation to go ride. I've also taken quite the liking to RIM Park - whether you hike or bike, the river and winding trail are amazing.

St. Jacobs is definitely my main route. Sure, the market is pretty touristy, with many vendors pushing generic clothing and crap, but it still feels special. There's so many interesting products and it's just so fun to people watch. Grab a coffee, some schnitzel, a baguette, vegetables, sausages, and fresh pretzels and you're off to the races. Once in a while you get the treat of seeing the Waterloo Central Railway roll past you.

One thing I'll never do again though, is bike the Heath Valley Trail. I would never bike it unless it hasn't rained for a week. The one time I did, there was so much mud everywhere: mud in my fork and seat stays around the brake calipers (stopping my poor Jamis from rolling), and mud balls caking my shoes and pedals (preventing me from clipping in - even with the mud shedding Look XTracks!). There's rocky river streams and log crossings - the ultimate cyclocross journey, and certainly no place for a bike that can't take more than a 25c in the rear.

Bikes aside, 3A has been a blur of a term. You get a mix of frustrating profs, terrible projects, but also fantastic people and lasting memories.

Of note, you get to play with some cool high voltage electronics in the MTE320 Power Electronics lab and fiddle with programming a 2 axis machine in the (oh-so horribly organized) MTE325 Lab.

Project work is always slow but steady... finally finished the Gokart Steering Wheel (at least mechanically and electrically). Not perfect, but good enough. I've slowly started to transition away from Electrium Mobility, and been helping out here and there with the airframe and infrastructure subteams at Waterloo Rocketry.