September 20, 2009

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It’s a weird feeling – the feeling of being at Embry-Riddle for more than a month. As it is now a month into classes, there are plenty of tests and homework assignments that have kept me busy enough to forget about time. The homework load isn’t scary or difficult in any way, however the amount of studying required for classes reached a new level last week.

The first barrage of tests is always the most difficult. Each professor has their own style, and they also have their own ways of making up tests. The first test generally gives you a rough idea of the future format of forthcoming tests. Since I did not have the slightest clue as to how difficult my tests would be, I’ve put a lot of effort into studying (at least 3 hours each).

With a good amount of time invested into studying each week, the weekends come quickly. There are always great things to do on and off campus. This past weekend, I went to Embry-Riddle’s observatory for quick glimpse at the stars. Nearly a dozen telescopes were set up, each with a different star in focus.

Embry-Riddle’s student government run Touch-N-Go Productions always has something planned for the weekend. Aside from movies during the week, there are events, such as this past weekend’s Friday Night Laughs (comedy). Events like these allow you to hang out with friends, and make new ones.

Trip to Yelvington Aviation with CEO club.

I’d like to touch on my experience with the college of business this past month. Wow! And I mean it. Every Embry-Riddle business student is enrolled in “intro to business programs,” an advisor-run class that helps you with the in-and-outs of campus and the business school. We spent the first two weeks getting to know classmates, exchanging phone numbers, and genuinely discussing what each of us are passionate about. This past week we created our four year plan, which maps out the classes we’ll be taking to earn our degree. 120 credits seem like a lot to get through, but I’m excited to take most of the classes I’ve chosen. I’ve officially declared my major, air transportation, and will likely minor in communications.

As for clubs, I’ve joined a few. I plan on being active in Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization (C.E.O), as everyone involved is interested in starting businesses with a focus on new and innovative ideas. I also plan on joining the Airport Management Club, which has yet to have their first meeting. On the topic of clubs, I’ve attended a number of club meetings and events, yet sometimes there are clubs that you know you will not fit in with, or you just won’t like – that’s why there are roughly 150 clubs. There really is something for everyone; if not, start one!

With weekly club meetings, studying, sleeping and time spent hanging out with friends, the weeks go by quickly.

Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back in a week or two.
Jonathan

September 2009

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It has been a good first month here at Embry-Riddle. I have learned so much already and can’t wait to experience everything else this place has to offer.

During the beginning of the semester, every club/organization on campus gets together at what is called the “Activities Fair.” I learned about all the different clubs, sports and organizations on campus and, of course, the activities within them. A few of which I definitely liked were The Avion (our campus newspaper), First- Generation Students, Eagle Sport Aviation Club, Ultimate Frisbee Club, and Airport Management Club. Many fraternities and sororities were also a part of this event. Unfortunately, because of my class schedule, I cannot participate in every club I was interested in. Hopefully next semester I’ll have the time, but until then, two (Avion & First Gen) is enough for me.

Living on campus is definitely the best place to be freshmen year. You get to adapt to the college lifestyle and best of all, you’re in the most convenient location possible. All the amenities are available to you: Food, Internet, Movies, Laundry, Parking, Shopping, etc. In addition, classes are just a bike-ride or walk away. I prefer biking to class because it is the quickest way, however during a peak-time, when everyone is walking, it could be a little difficult.

I’m definitely lucky I was paired with some cool people for room assignments. Our room is kept clean and in some order for the most part. We’re all Aeronautical Science majors and get along really well. We help each other out with homework and study together on occasion. On the weekends, we try to all do something together; in addition, we each have our own groups of friends.

Flying here, in my opinion, is the most exciting thing to do on campus, hands down. However it is not all fun and games. It requires hours of study time and demands a lot from you. But in the end, when it’s all over, it is well worth it!

As the semester continues, the workload increases tremendously and the excuses start to become unacceptable. Excuses in general are not acceptable, but now they are inexcusable. I’ve learned you shouldn’t study for a test only two hours prior, and you shouldn’t wait 1 hour prior to class to complete a homework assignment. This isn’t because each assignment will take one hour, but you should allow time to completely understand the assignment, rather than just ‘winging’ it. Also you should factor in some “technical time”, such as scrambling to find a working printer, if needed. What may have been working in high school does not work in college, and, in the end, does not work in reality.

During my time here so far, I’ve experienced a night shuttle launch in Titusville, Florida with some of my friends. In fact an ERAU alumni was on board, headed towards the International Space Station (ISS). I’ve spent a weekend with my cousins in Satellite Beach, Florida, where I was given the opportunity to go tubing out on the Banana River, which was a lot of fun! Most recently I went to Universal Orlando City-Walk one night for dinner.

My plans for October include getting my Private Pilot License, taking a trip to Universal Halloween Horror Nights, and possibly taking a few scenic flights around the state.

That’s all for now!
Over and Out.

September, 2009

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Hello everyone and welcome aboard! My name is Stephan Wlodarczyk and I am a first year transfer student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Originally, I was studying Information Technology at the Rochester Institute of Technology for two years. Growing up, I’ve always had a knack for computers but I didn’t have any leads as to what type of career I wanted to pursue with them. Majoring in Information Technology was the best choice as it would allow me to expand my interests into a variety fields.

At the conclusion of my freshmen year, I discovered a passion that completely flipped my world upside down. I was taking a liberal arts core requirement in U.S. History, wondering to myself why do I have to relearn all of this. After all, our nation’s history is a subject that we begin learning about upon the first day of elementary school. As the old saying goes, “What you put in is what you get out.”, so I kept an open mind when going to class. The day my professor lectured about the space race, I became overly indulged and inspired. The whole idea of people riding a top of a converted ballistic missile venturing out into the unknown completely fascinated me. I fell right into a daydream, thinking what it must have been like to see our planet from a distance, to see it hovering in the black void of what we call space.

From that day forward, I made it a goal to establish a career with NASA and furthermore, fulfill my lifelong ambition of becoming an astronaut. I eventually found out that in order to become an astronaut, one must pursue math and/or science related degree. Information Technology was out of the question, but I didn’t want to switch majors into something I had no interest for. I didn’t want to create a checklist of how to become an astronaut. It was important for me to make sure I found a career path that I would enjoy. I stayed at RIT for one more year, seeking out areas of how I can be involved with our space program as an IT professional. However, my degree wasn’t supporting my passion.

I was recommended by a colleague about Embry-Riddle. He mentioned that the institute has the number one aerospace engineering program in the nation. He proceeded to say the degree is right up my alley and he certainly couldn’t have been more right. By the end of my sophomore year, I made the decision to apply. During the summer break, I toured the campus with my family and met with a few advisors. Upon being acquainted with them, I was greatly affected by their positive influence and complete faith of stating that I have what it takes to succeed here and live my dream. It’s a tremendous feeling to know that the faculty, staff, and professors are 110% behind you. I know now that I’m headed on the right track to chase down my dream and I couldn’t have made a better decision than to choose Embry-Riddle!

I have already started a blog titled, Working My Way into Space, that is devoted to keeping track of my progress, commission, studies, and the tasks I am performing to get involved with our nation’s space program. You can follow along at: http://www.stephanwlodarczyk.blogspot.com.

September 7, 2009

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Hello and welcome back! As some of you may know, my name is Kaleigh Sides and this is my third year at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I have had the pleasure of writing a journal since my freshman year! You can take a look in the archives to read my past entries.

Let me tell you a little about myself: I’m a senior majoring in Aviation Business Administration with a concentration in General Management, I’m in Air Force ROTC and will commission in May 2011, and I hope to start working on my MBA next semester. I enjoy going to school at Embry-Riddle and the weather is an added bonus! I’m from Sidney, Illinois where snow at Halloween is not a surprise, Florida weather is nice and, if you ever get too warm you can go jump in a swimming pool or the ocean!

The summer seemed to fly by for me! I went back home to Illinois for the first two months and worked at a local ice cream shop, and then I headed to Maxwell Air Force Base on July 4th for Field Training. In order to commission into the United States Air Force, ROTC cadets must complete Field Training between their sophomore and junior years. I spent 28 days with cadets from around the nation developing and enhancing my leadership skills, learning what happens in a deployed environment, and how to be an effective team player. The whole experience was fascinating and something that I had been looking forward to accomplishing. After Field Training, I had two weeks left of summer and spent my time working and getting ready to come back to Daytona.

I was excited to come back to school and see all my friends again! This semester has been another full of firsts: my first time having my Jeep in Florida, my first apartment, and my first time living by myself. A car is not necessary to have when coming to Embry-Riddle and my freshman year I walked all over the place with my friends. My sophomore year I got a scooter and was able to go a little bit further from campus. So far I have enjoyed having my own car because it’s nice to not have to ask people for rides or have to plan around the weather when I want to go somewhere. Right now, I’m living in a studio apartment about 5 minutes from campus. I like the fact that it’s close enough to go back if I have a break between classes, but far enough to not be on campus all day, every day. After having roommates for two years, I decided that I would like to live by myself and so far I’m enjoying it!

This semester I’m taking 18 credits which equals out to be 6 classes. Since I’m in my senior year, I’m just taking business classes and I’m enjoying all of them. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I have Aviation Labor Relations and Professional Selling. My Aviation Labor Relations class is not just textbook work, but also a simulation where the class has become a company and labor unions may or may not become part of the company and every student has a role. I decided to take Professional Selling because I wanted to work on my public speaking and I heard this class gives you multiple opportunities to do so. Currently, we are making business cards and working on a 30-second commercial to sell ourselves to prospective employers. Also, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning I have Air Force Physical Training (PT) or Lead Lab (we learn about the Air Force). Tuesday and Thursday are my busy days where I have class from 8:15 to 2:00. My morning starts off with Air Force class where we are learning about leadership and what it means to be an officer. Then, I head over to the College of Business where I have Strategic Management, Aviation Insurance, and Management of the Multicultural Workforce. After class, I usually feel a little overwhelmed with all the information that I just received. In order to take all the classes that I wanted to, I had to make my schedule this way; however, I sort of like it because I have the afternoons free. I’ll keep you posted on the interesting things happening in class!

This year I also got a job working at the Embry-Riddle kiosk located in the Daytona Beach Airport. I work three times a week and answer people’s questions about Embry-Riddle or the arriving flights. I love being busy and I think with all that I’m doing this year graduation day will be here before I know it! Since many of my friends are graduating also, I’m trying to spend time doing fun things with them. This weekend I went to a comedy show in Orlando, rode on one of my friend’s motorcycle (kind of scary!), played poker for the first time and came in second place, and went bowling. Next weekend I will be in Washington D.C.—I’ll tell you more about that in the next journal entry!

Until next time,

Kaleigh

September 6, 2009

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This is one of the rare events of the week when there is nothing to do but write a blog post. No, I’m not burdened by homework or studying (yet), but there is always something to do at Embry-Riddle. Every day, there are a variety of events and club meetings to attend, making it difficult to find sparse time. This is my second week here, and already time is flying (literally). It’s unbelievable to think that I’ve moved in, and already went through two weeks of classes. Of course, new friends and a great roommate have helped tremendously. Within the first few days of living on-campus, I met a ton of people with the same passion; aviation. Meeting people at Embry-Riddle is easy. There is a common bond that usually can serve as a conversation starter or reviver: flying. However, it doesn’t stop with students – even one of the security personnel has his commercial pilot’s license.

Everyone I’ve met that works for the university has been very kind and more than helpful. Professors and instructors are very keen on why students are here, and all of them seem to sense that we already know what we want to do with our lives. With that said, professors are very good at relating classes directly to aviation, making it easy to get involved during class. Initially, meeting other business students was very difficult. However, unlike Aeronautical Science (and some of the other larger majors), there are a few people that you’ll continuously see in many of your classes. For the first two weeks, my Introduction to Business Programs class focused on getting to know other freshmen business students, making it easier to get to know peers in the business program. The College of Business seems to be a place where everyone knows each other – making it a tight knit community.

As for room and board, I couldn’t have been matched with a better roommate. Even as an incoming freshman, it’s possible to pick your roommate in advance. I met my roommate (Jeff) through a mutual friend, and we became quick friends weeks before we moved down to Daytona. Jeff, from Rhode Island, is an Aeronautical Science major. If you choose not to pick a roommate prior to moving down, I believe you’re assigned someone from your major. Having a roommate with a different major gives you another perspective of the university, and I’ve been fortunate enough to join Jeff on a flight. Having a roommate that you get along with is half the battle. Our room in Adams Hall is great. Many of the essentials, like a refrigerator and microwave, are provided. Additionally, there is a sink located in our room – we share the bathroom (toilet and shower) with the room next door. Our Resident Advisor, Brent, has been very helpful and kind. Every now and then, he’ll pop in just to say hi, and he does a good job remembering names (they’re also posted on your door – he might be cheating). He’s arranged several events, including a trip to a NASA shuttle launch and a seminar on “microwave eats,” which have helped us get to know others on our floor and improved our cooking-with-microwave skills.

This is so much more I can write, but I’ll include that in later posts. The first few weeks here have been awesome, and I hope you got a better view of what Embry-Riddle and Daytona Beach are like. Do you have a specific question? Feel free to email me at heckmanj@erau.edu

Best,

Jonathan Heckman

August 2009

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I continued my flight training throughout the summer and planned to complete everything by early August. However, I ran into delays due to weather, illness and scheduling. Nevertheless, I completed everything in the Part 141 syllabus, literally two days prior to the move. I was rushing to finish up training in order to arrive at ERAU with my certificate. Because of this, I wasn’t able to fully grasp every topic to the fullest that was required. In the end, I was signed off to take my FAA check-ride, but failed it. As a result, I learned a valuable lesson; flying should be something you enjoy doing and should not be considered at any time a “crash course”. In addition, stress and emotion should be taken into account any time one goes flying. The ‘IM SAFE’ checklist is a good way to determine if you are fit for flight:

  • Illness – Am I too sick to fly today?
  • Medication – Are my medications approved by the FAA?
  • Stress – Am I too stressed out to go flying today?
  • Alcohol – Is my judgment impaired for any reason?
  • Fatigue – Am I too tired to go flying?
  • Eating – Is my body well-nourished for today’s flight?

We had packed the cars the night before, so on moving day I only had to pack final items, such as toiletries, alarm clocks, etc. During our travel to Daytona Beach, my family and I took the Auto-Train from Lorton, VA to Sanford, FL. This cut down on the driving and gave us all a more relaxed and more comfortable experience. We had driven to Florida one time prior and it was enjoyable, but I don’t plan to do it again for a long time. The Auto-Train provided us with breakfast, dinner, a reclinable chair each, a lounge car, movies and the most legroom you could ask for. It was the cheapest way to transport a car down south, aside from driving it. I think it’s the greatest option, because you’re constantly moving, getting served, and they don’t nickel and dime you for luggage like at the airport because you just shove everything in your car. Upon arrival in Sanford, Florida, we waited a half-hour for our cars to arrive at the lot, which is typical wait time. It took less than an hour to arrive in Daytona, and according to my mom, I drove right up to the place, like I had already been there before. Upon “de-car-ing” we were greeted by two upperclassmen ready to assist us with unloading our stuff. Which at the time seemed overwhelming, but as time progressed, I purchased more and more stuff for the room.

Orientation week was really great, we had so many shows and lots of activities to choose from. There were shows such as Survey Says, For Men Only, a Hypnotist, and a comedian to name a few. Activities were all across the board from BBQs, to pool parties, to “play fair.” It was really the most fun that I’ve had in a while. Unfortunately I was unable to make “play fair” because we took an unexpected tour of the beach. During which I drove off the path and got my car stuck in the sand. We waited an hour for beach patrol to come with the truck to pull us out. It was a lot of fun regardless, but I had definitely learned a lesson there.

During my first week of classes I learned a lot about how to manage my time. I learned when and where to do my homework. It was the same back home, but I definitely need to take it more seriously now that I’m in college. While in college, each student is provided with a course schedule/syllabus which describes what will be covered each class and what homework is due for the next. This helps a great deal, especially when your professor verbally assigns homework and you’re not sure if you wrote down the correct task. Emailing and getting to know your professors is the key to success in college. You’ll get a better experience because your professors will get to know your learning abilities or disabilities and will work with you should any issues arise. College isn’t like high school, you are the person who needs to make the initial step of explaining to your professor if you’re not understanding something.

Constantly you will hear people talking about time management. It becomes very important, when you realize mom and dad aren’t there to help you with the chores. Laundry, cleaning and eating well are now your responsibility. You have to make time yourself to go partying or hang out with friends. You won’t be asking your parents if it’s alright anymore, because you’re the boss now. You won’t fully realize it until maybe the third day on campus.

Daytona Beach is definitely a great college town. Nearby are Stetson University, Daytona State College, UCF Daytona Campus, Keiser University and Bethune-Cookman College. The town is split into two main parts; Speedway and Beachside. Speedway is all shopping centers and chain restaurants and of course the NASCAR speedway. Beachside is where the beach hotels, thrift shops and clubs are located. Both parts of town are busy, however the beach is definitely the place to go on the weekends.

I’m glad I’ve finally made it to college. I’m still wondering whether or not I want to continue with my Aeronautical Science Major. It all depends on how my first semester here goes. I’d also like to mention that everybody is different with managing their time, regardless you learn different skills to better manage your time in the University 101 course.

Over and Out.

August 17, 2009

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Hello, again. Much has happened since I last wrote, as far as work is concerned. However, I wanted to take some time in this posting to mention some of the other things going on in this area outside of work, since there is a lot and I don’t want to make it sound like there is no fun in Cleveland.

On the work front, the end of the semester is drawing near and tasks are being wrapped up. The Thermoacoustic Stirling engine I have been working with will hopefully be running before I leave here next week. I have been working in the Stirling Laboratory here installing thermocouples, assembling Labview modules, and running wires for the test setup. It will be great to see this project come to fruition.

To avoid making Cleveland and NASA Glenn sound as drab as I may have been doing I offer the following. The whole area is a very active oriented place. Recently I began mountain biking here, and there are several parks and trails in the area built by local mountain biking associations that are free to ride on. There is also the availability of water sports, since we are on the Lake Eerie coast.

Moreover, the younger people (and some of the older people) here at NASA Glenn are very social. There are groups here such as the Developing Professionals Club and Co-op/Intern groups that constantly organize activities. They go out to movies, go on trips to Cedar Point, and generally have a good time. There are also volleyball and softball leagues here that everyone is able to participate in. All in all, this area is able to satisfy both the technical and social needs of any intern.

Kind Regards,
Geoff

August 2009

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Hey everyone!
It’s almost it ! I only have a week of internship left! And it’s feeling like it’s the end: last Friday, the Bridgestone strike finally ended. I spent about four weeks covering that issue, and it felt really weird. But it’s for the best, these people were out of work for too long. During the time I covered this conflict, I actually learned a lot on how to write objective articles while making sure I wasn’t making the whole situation worse.

Anyway, that’s over! It’ll feel a little weird this week: for the past four weeks, I had been working on the same topic pretty much every day! I did a ton of other articles (on farmers, other strikes, competitions, schools, construction work, etc) , but I started my day with phone calls to figure out what was going on in the Bridgestone factory that day! Now I’ll have to find new topics every day. At least I can still work on it one more day: our readers will have to know how going back to work feels like after a two months strike!

This week, the newsroom crew changed again. It’s summer, and everybody is taking his vacations in turn. I’m the only one who’s been there every day for the past seven weeks. I have to say, it makes my work a little harder: every week, I have to adapt to new coworkers, and I’ve already changed three times of supervisor! Working hard on my flexibility there… They all want different things from me as far as topics or writing style, but I think it’s somehow a good thing. Overall, I’m learning a lot.

Now that I’m about to leave, people here are starting to know me. Despite the fact they’ve all been on vacation at some point, I’ve been here for seven weeks so they’ve had time to come back. They’re nice people, but I don’t think I’d like to work here for real. It would be too much of the same thing. Eight weeks here was just enough time to have fun writing articles about local things, but I need something else. I guess it helped me narrow my career focus. That’s one of the points of doing internships, right? Plus I got a ton of articles published. It’ll be good for my portfolio. They’ve used me a lot. Before I started I thought I would be mainly scanning documents for them, or something similar. I was hoping they would let me write a few articles. In the end, I had to write an average of two to three articles a day for eight weeks. It was awesome! I also learned a lot about how to behave in the workplace, and how to adapt to what is asked from you.

After this, time for a little bit of vacation: I’m going to Sweden for a few days. And then almost immediately going back to school! This summer went by fast!

Have a good day!

August 2009

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Every pilot, it seems, knows from the very beginning that he/she wants to pursue a career in aviation. I knew it the second I stepped foot into the cockpit of a FedEx Express Boeing 727 at Newark Airport. Even though I had no clue what I was looking at or what I was doing for that matter, it seemed just as cool then as it does now.

On almost every flight I’ve boarded since, I have received a tour of the cockpit, and have had the opportunity to sit in the captain’s chair. With each visit, I grew more and more interested in the aviation world. During my high school years, I spent hours researching aircraft, airports, playing MS Flight Simulator, reading the Airliners.net forums and looking up at the sky every time I heard a plane flying overhead.

I was an A- student in high school and I was a member of both the National Honor Society and the Italian Honor Society. Throughout high school I enrolled in as many dual enrollment courses as possible and took AP exams during my senior year. All of which turned into seventeen transfer credits to the University. I’ve basically wiped out a semester for a fraction of the cost. I definitely recommend it, because it’s a good eye-opener to college coursework, and because you can’t beat the prices.

Discovering the perfect college for me, was not a simple task. I had always known about ERAU but wondered what other schools that offered similar degree programs were like. So I went exploring locally in New York, followed by a trip to the mid-west and finally Florida. After discovering what these other schools had to offer I was able to make my final decision; to attend Embry-Riddle.

During the first semester of my senior year, I submitted my applications to ERAU, WMich, FIT, JU, Vaughn, & Dowling. I applied to six schools, which I grouped into three categories, First-Choice, Medium-Choice, and Fall-Back. Fortunately for me I got accepted to each one, which was great because at that point my options were unlimited. The first school to notify me that I gained acceptance was Embry-Riddle, just before the Christmas Break and it was possibly the best feeling ever. Everything was going my way!

The remainder of my senior year of high school, involved a program called “Senior Seminar.” A class where each student enrolls him/herself in an internship; I choose flight training to become a pilot. To receive my flight training I attended a local flight school at Essex County Airport (Caldwell). I enrolled in a Part 141 training program to ultimately receive a private pilots certificate. I started out learning the basics during ground school, which was one-on-one with my flight instructor. I preferred this method over large classes, because it offers the student a better understanding of the material. In addition, my school had a full video library available to its students for training purposes, to reinforce each lesson. I highly recommend these videos from Jeppesen and King Schools to better any pilot during flight training. Throughout the course I learned many operations, maneuvers, and gained a knowledge about the aviation world. Overall I was loving every minute of it!

My final thoughts before leaving to attend ERAU were career related. I wasn’t sure if becoming a pilot would provide me with the job environment I had hoped for. I was constantly reminded by fellow pilots to always have something to fall back on. Whether it be medicine, engineering, or law, the key thing to remember is that your career as a pilot relies on you maintaining the conditions set-forth by an FAA Medical Certificate. Many people in their forties discover health problems which can determine them physically unfit to pilot an aircraft. Another factor to consider would be the trends of the airline industry, with all the furloughs and lay-offs that have occurred. These two facts need to be taken into account when determining a major or minor course of study. The ‘what if’ factor definitely should be asked upon oneself before finalizing majors and minors, so I’ll be exploring those options over the next months here.

Over and Out.

August 4, 2009

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Hello! It’s the last week of my internship and I can’t believe how fast the summer has gone.

Last week, four astronauts from STS-125 came to Ball to thank everyone for their work on the Hubble. In May they came out to Colorado to learn how about the hardware to be installed during the May final Hubble servicing mission. There was a lunch for the employees and then the crew talked about their experiences and showed up some cool video footage from the EVA (space walks) and their time in space. Then they presented the Ball Corporation and Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation’s presidents with a plaque of gratitude for everyone’s help. Another intern and I were talking about how awesome the job of an astronaut would be. You get to go into space, experience zero gravity, and perform all sorts of cool experiments. Sign me up!

Today was the final banquet for all the interns and co-ops. They showed up a really cool video about the launch day of the BIRST Project I talked about last time. I’m hoping they publish it on YouTube so I can share it with you guys. Sometimes pictures are proprietary information so anything that you want to distribute outside of the company has to go through an approval process. At the banquet my payload team presented our mentor with a trophy we made. One of the interns had a trophy from when he was younger and we wrapped the little topper man in duct tape (symbolic of the duct tape on the payload) attached an alien paratrooper to one outstretched hand and a mini Ball flag to the other hand. Then to represent all the epoxy we used on our project we dripped some over the trophy which had a final appearance a little like gloopy icicles. Overall the present was quite ugly but it wasn’t our goal to make something attractive, just something to signify the summer fun.

Last weekend I drove to a town in the south east/central part of Colorado to visit a friend doing an internship in New Mexico (we met halfway). One of my favorite things about doing an internship is getting to explore a different area then I’m used to. The town we went to was pretty small, and my GPS got us really lost while looking for some fun hiking, but eventually we ended up at a lake and some of the views were breathtaking. Colorado is definitely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. We found a restaurant which had singing waiters! They would randomly break out into opera-like songs! Crazy, that’s all I have to say about it. Next week I’m going back to my hometown in Minnesota for a quick visit before driving back across the country for the fall semester. I can’t believe how quickly the summer has gone. But I can certainly say that I didn’t just sit around and do nothing!