Last week and a half in Washington State! Next Thursday is my last day here at Boeing. It’s a bittersweet moment. I’m very excited to get back to my life at Riddle in Florida, but I will definitely miss all the great people I have met this summer. Although I must admit that these past 13 weeks have gone by painfully slow at times, I really did enjoy myself here and I’m forever grateful at all of the opportunities I’ve been given this summer.

Enough with the cheesiness, let’s get to the fun stuff! July seems to be one of the busiest months in Seattle. There are a lot of events going on in the area every single weekend! Nathalie, another ERAU student, and I decided to take a trip to DragonFest—a chinese food festival in the heart of Seattle’s international district. Lots of great food at really great prices! We even got roses from a Buddhist monk booth!

DragonFest!

It was a very nice touch 🙂

As part of the Propulsion Systems Division’s internship program, they hold an annual intern competition. This year: build a glider out of balsa wood. Very EGR-101, might I add…if you don’t know what I’m talking about, refer to one of my first blogs here where I talk about my freshman-year glider for the class (wow I’m old!). Needless to say…this time around, things didn’t go as we planned. It took a very long time to carve out the thing! And to perfect it? Yep, lots of blisters and cuts ensued…My team and I ended up getting 4th place…which isn’t too shabby I suppose.

Anyways, remember how I said ERAU alumni stick together? Well I keep getting proved right! Jose, who is a shipside support manager for the 787 Dreamliner, has welcomed us all with open hands! He gave us a tour of the Dreamliner assembly line (we even got to see the first -9!) Thanks to him, I even got to job shadow a Dreamliner liaison engineer one day. I had a lot of fun.

The weekend after that, my dad came to visit. He is a huge aviation fanatic (although he is not in the industry). Sadly, he was only here for a few hours, but we got to go to the Flying Heritage collection here in Everett, where they have military airplanes and tanks on display. We even got to see a V-2 rocket!

P-51 Mustang from the Flying Heritage Collection

Alas, but the weekend wasn’t over! The rest of the weekend, I spent it actually exploring Seattle. We visited the space needle, the EMP museum, the science center, the museum of flight at Boeing Field and the aquarium. And that’s not even a shadow of what the city has to offer!

Dalek (from Doctor Who) at the EMP museum

Blue Angels!

The last flying DC-2 in the world

Pike’s Place Market – the infamous wall of gum

In just 10 days, though, I will be making my way back to Florida. I’m really excited about all the changes coming to Riddle! I heard the new observatory went up on the College of Arts and Sciences, and that Daytona Beach has a new roller coaster! It always amazes me how many things can change in a span of just a few months.

Another really neat thing going on is that campus has gone tobacco-free, effective Aug. 1 2013. I think it’s a really great thing, and very progressive of ERAU to be doing that. A lot of big-name companies out there like Boeing are doing the same thing! Boeing has been a tobacco-free workplace for some time now, and from what my coworkers tell me, it makes a huge difference not only in health, but as a courtesy to others and overall employee well-being. It will be really nice to be able to walk around and not have to gasp a cloud of second-hand smoke while walking to the library. The University will be offering workshops for those students who want to quit smoking as well. Way to go ERAU!

Bye for now Seattle!