1st the Worst, 2nd the Best, 3rd the Nerd the Thunderbird...

I don't know if this title truly fits my experience so far, but it's still a fun title. Yes, I have officially survived my 2nd week in Texas and will be commencing my 3rd week day after tomorrow. Overall, my 2nd week was considerably better than the 1st. It was nice to stay in the same area for once. I literally did not stay in the same place from May 19th to the 27th. A solid 9 days of being a pro-mad...Mom's new word that combines professional and nomad.

Anyway, here are some highlights from the week. Work is really starting to feel more comfortable. One thing that I really like about my job is that whenever you see someone, you shake their hand and greet them. I know it's small, but it is actually a great change of pace. At home many times if you don't know someone well enough to hug them, you go through a little awkward moment during introductions where you don't know if you should hug someone, shake their hand, or just smile. Here it's a little more defined. Shaking hands is as common as saying "hello" here. Kind of a cool thing.

I think the main reason I'm starting to feel more comfortable at work is that I've been able to spend more time in the field with my co-workers figuring out what is going on at the plant. Instead of just being told about distillation columns or cokers, now I can actually look up close at some of the mechanics of them and actually picture what's going on. Another big help has been spending time in our machine shop. Our machine shop does service on a large portion of our mechanical systems and the guys over there have been incredibly accomodating when it comes to explaining what is going on in a pump or compressor.

Since we all know that I'm a big fan of heavy machinery, I'd like to announce my top 3 favorite pieces of big equipment for the week.

1. First Place goes to the "Evil Sisters". These diesel engines are nearly 2 stories tall and look like an automotive engine on steroids. They are no longer in commission, but just imaging the power they can put out makes me a little week in the knees (...nerd alert).
2. Second Place goes to a very special gas turbine generator. In comparison to the 1" motors I'm used to, this bad boy boasts a stator size of nearly 8 feet. Say hello to "Suck, Squeeze, Burn, Blow...and Generate" at its finest!
3. Third Place goes to a hot little number. Over a thousand degrees to be exact. This sweet little heater has a flame taller than me and can pack enough heat to melt even the coldest heart.

Now that flexed my nerdy muscles for the day, I'll focus more on other stuff going on around here. Outside of work, I've been spending many hours at our local gym enjoying free group fitness classes. Last week alone, I attend a yoga/pilates, spinning, and kickboxing class. All of them were really good. I felt like Gumby after the yoga/pilates, a sweaty mess after spinning, and a big 'ol pile of goo after kickboxing. It's been 2 days since kickboxing and I'm still super sore. This morning as I tried to get out of bed I not only made old lady noises, but I also teetered back into bed because my calves were so sore. Yay for getting used and abused at fitness classes. : ) Hopefully I'm come back to the Mitten looking buff and slightly tan (okay, sunburned).

Other highlights of the week have included hanging out with other interns/full-timers at our weekly BBQ or BBBQ as the guys call it, having Friday off (yaaay for 9/80 schedules), and attending the Buu Mon Lotus and Bamboo Festival. Check out some of my best shots of the day...

What's That Again...?! I Know You Just Told Me...

Well, here starts my 2nd week of work down South. I'm continuing to work on my "y'alls" and trying to perfect my Texas accent. It's kind of funny, but I take a certain pride in my Michigan accent a bit even though I catch myself with a drawl every now and again. It was the same way in Ireland. For the first 2 weeks, I started getting a hardcore Irish accent and even thinking in my head with an Irish accent, but after a while I reverted back to my old ways because it reminded me of home. We'll just have to see what happens as time passes. Either I'll come home with the most ridiculous southern accent ever (mixed in with Michigan, Cincinnati, Yooper, and Irish) or I'll sound like I did the day I left home. Who knows..

Anyway, my weekend was fairly uneventful, but slightly productive. I got my first real Texas sunburn while sitting outside writing/reading and waiting for my laundry to get done. It was nice to get a little sun even if my back is itchy now. I needed to get rid of the ridiculous tan lines I got in Cincinnati as well. Anyone who saw those tan lines can attest to how ridiculous they were. Completely lame and uneven. Other than my getting a "tan", most of my weekend was spent relaxing and multi-tasking on the internet. I'm proud to say I updated my resume to reflect some recent changes in GPA, projects, and my internship. Along with that I finally putin my submission for the SWE Region H Collegiate Emerging Leader Award (I hope I get it this year!!) and made sure that our SWE section put in its financial report. All is all, not a bad list of accomplishments for a lazy weekend. Plus there was an extended gym trip in there.

For anyone who is truly aware of my sleeping habits, let me amaze you by saying that I have successfully been to work by 6:30 AM since I've started my new schedule (okay, so it's only been 3 days, but that's a big deal for me!) and made myself go to bed by 11 PM at the latest. I even got to work at 6:15 AM this morning. I truly hope I can reform from my 12 AM - 8 AM sleep schedule to something like 10:30 PM - 5:00 AM (gack) so that I don't muss up my work by being late all the time.

Hmm...I got a chance to check out my gym's group Yoga/Pilates fitness class today. It was totally killer and awesome. I felt like Gumby afterwords and think the class could really up my flexibility fast. Next week maybe I'll do the spinning class before it...it'd be mild aerobic suicide, but I think I could handle it. Time to take on the engineering gut! That that caffeine, college food, and too many hours in the EB!

The only thing really left to talk about for this week is prospective road trips I have been thinking about. My top options look like they are going to be:

• Austin, TX
• San Antonio, TX
• Houston, TX
• Dallas, TX
• Galvaston, TX (Maybe?)
• Baton Rouge, LA
• New Orleans, LA

If anyone has any other suggestions let me know! I have a feeling I'm going to have the mad urge to get out of town soon enough. Including this weekend. It sounds like there may be some stuff around here so I guess if I pack a few fun events in staying won't be bad. We'll see.

That's about all I have to yack about! I'm alive and well and still super strechy from yoga! : ) It's still hotter'n heck down here and today was the 1st day of hurricaine season (oh crap), but I'm keepin' on keepin' on. Adios!

I Survived!!! (For Now)

I would just like to report that I have survived my first week at my new internship! It has been quite a week. Between driving almost 500 miles for work purposes (wow, I didn't realize it was that much) and trying to keep my learning curve as steep as possible, it has definitely been full of new experiences. I even got to try gumbo! Though I can't talk about specifics of my new job, I can say that it is definitely going to be a challenging opportunity. I'm completely out of my element in a new industry, climate, and culture to say the least. So far so good though. I've been really enjoying the new gym I joined, tried to embrace saying "y'all" at least once every hour or so and have been proudly rocking my new flame-retardant suit at work.

I guess that kind of gives y'all (there's another y'all use for the day) an idea of how things are going thus far. I'm hoping to schedule some road trips soon to visit friends so hopefully I'll have some good pictures and stories real soon.

The Roadtrip

Well...I'm here! It only took five days, 16 armadillo roadkills, 100+ reminders of my new company logo, 1300 miles  and ~40 Waffle Houses, but we made it! I just wanted to take a few minutes to jot down a few fun stories from the road. 

Day 1 & 2:

As mentioned earlier, before we even departed on our trip, I got the sinus infection of the century. This wasn't exactly the best start to a really long road trip, but we made it work. Our first stop along the route was in Cincinnati to visit several of my friends there. Getting to go back was great! After living there for a few months while doing a co-op, my affections for Southern Ohio grew immensely. I think it was mostly because the friends I made there were outstanding. It also helped that places like Penn Station and Graeter's Ice Cream make my

 taste buds extremely happy. Anyway, it was great to go back and have a few more adventures. 

My road tripping buddy even got to meet some of the outstanding friends. Some of the highlights of the stop included going down to Newport for the day to watch the riverboats go by, an incredibly uneven suntan I got from resting my arm out the window, being reminded of Cincinnati traffic, and snoring loudly while my poor friend wanted to chuck me off the side of the air mattress. Okay, so that's a little scarcastic. It was great to hang out with friends and I'm happy to have been able to spend ti

me a place I hold near and dear to my heart. 

Day 3

This part of the trip included the most driving (about 8 hours) and the beginnings of our armadillo road kill sitings. Surprisingly enough, the driving wasn't too bad at all. Kentucky and Tennessee are gorgeous states to drive through for the most part! All the hills and rock formations by the roads are great to look at. And let's face it...it's way more exciting driving through there than it is through central Ohio which is flat, flat, and more flat. We were lucky enough to not encounter too much traffic which was real nice as well. Overall, a solid day of driving.

The place we went to dinner in Mississippi is worth dropping a few lines about. This little pizza place has a presidential seal on the wall because according to google reviews, George Bush liked the pizza so much, he go one of his guards to run over there after their meal and give them a presidential seal. We even saw the seal! 

Day 4

This day of driving was pretty much just a general tour of Mississippi. To be quite honest, it wasn't too exciting. All the exciting stuff was after we reached Baton Rouge. We stayed in BR with a friend of mine from college and also got to catch up for a bit with one of my driving buddy's friends. The highlights of our stay included walking around the Mall of Louisiana, going to Tsunami in downtown BR, and having my friend make us a fantastic breakfast!! : ) While in the Mall of LA, I was introduced to one of the most ridiculous massage chairs I've ever seen. This this definitely had a mind of its own. Our dinner at Tsunami was fantastic. We got to sit out on the patio overlooking the Mississippi River and take part in some great conversation. It's always great to catch up with old friends and introduce new friends to how crazy you and your friends really are. Best of all, our breakfast the next morning prepared us for the final leg of our journey to my final resting place in Texas. 

Day 5

This last day of driving was our shortest part of our journey, but it also included the most overall time driving through the bayou. I'd say that at least 1/4th our drive was on bridges. We also learned that in Texas, bridges are suuuuuper tall! Aside from the Mackinac Bridge, I've never been on bridges quite that tall. It was a little like being on a rollercoaster. Though a little scarier because you're the one driving the car. 

Overall, the most ridiculous part of our entire trip happened in a matter of a few minutes as soon as we arrived in Texas. After meeting my new roommate and getting settled into my new apartment, we went on a mission to find groceries, a gym membership, and other essentials. Our first ridiculous incident came in the form of a total fail by my GPS. My GPS accidentally steered us down the wrong way of a one way expressway. Good job GPS. : / Before we could get creamed by oncoming cars, we turned back around and went the correct way down the street. 

Not far from this little detour, we were sitting at a stop light. The truck next to us had a full set of hydrolics and as we watched, proceeded to drop the back of the truck into the ground. After the initial crack, the truck then proceeded to creep forward, allowing the back bumper of the truck to scrape across the pavement. At this point, I realized that I'm definitely going to need my passport to live here. 

Our next incident was far scarier. As we were about to stop at a light, a motorcyclist in front of us started losing control of his bike and fell/slip a few feet down the road in the lane next to us. Luckily, he was wearing a helmet and was able to avoid any cars. We all immediately stopped to check on him since he had some fairly significant road rash because he was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. I'd just like to include an aside here to thank all of my motorcyclist friends who ALWAYS wear a riding jacket, helmet, gloves, riding boots and long pants. You guys (or gals) rock. 

After making sure the motorcyclist was okay, we continued on to the HEB to grab some groceries. As we were about to park, a girl who looked about 11 years old was running to her car after her mom. As she ran, her shorts pretty much fell down right in front of us. If everything is determinted by fate or luck or change or whatever, I don't know who decided it'd be a good idea to have us get mooned by a little girl. The problem was, they were parked right in front of us so we had to try and keep from laughing as to not completely humiliate this girl. By the time we finally got out of the car, we had to hold each other up just to walk into the store we were laughing so hard. 

I'm not quite sure how we survived our road trip, but we did! Many thanks to everyone at our stops who provided us with a place to sleep and good conversation! Starting tomorrow I will have to begin what I refer to as "having to be a big kid". I'll have orientation all day then it's back here to start at the plant. Wish me luck! 

So Far So Good

I'd just like to report that our road trip down south is going well! We made a stop over in Cincinnati for a few days to visit some of my friends from a past internship and have no continued on south. Driving so far has been pretty good! Nothing too exciting along the way. Except of course our first armadillo road kill spotting!! An ARMADILLO! It was quite sad looking! We named in Bogart so that Humphrey (the Half-A-Dillo) would have a friend in armadillo heaven. The story of Humphrey is rather long so I won't go into detail. It has something to do with a motorcyclist friend, a rather unfortunate incident, and my odd ability to make up stories about how narcoleptic armadillos bite the dust in Oklahoma. Yes, I'm odd. 

Anyway, all is well and my wonderful friend who volunteered to drive down with me can still look at me without feeling ill (I hope..). My sinus infection is even getting better. It no longer sounds like I have bees up my nose. Though it was reported that I snored last night. : / Sorry! Hmm...other highlights of our trip have included a happy visit to the Ohio River. It has been almost 10 months since my last encounter with the Ohio River. I've visited its buddy the Mississippi River recently, but left it alone. It was good to be reunited and watch B & B Riverboats float down between the many bridges of Cincinnati. Like usual, no trip to Cincinnati was complete without stops at Graeter's Ice Cream and Penn Station!

That is about all I have to report so far. The trip is going well and I am alive! For anyone who saw me a few days ago when I was at the worst of my sinus infection from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks, no worries because I'm feeling much better. Time for a little relaxation before bed. We have five hours of driving tomorrow and hopefully so touristy fun at our next destination!  

Oh, the Power of Zithromax!

Since my last post, I have had a substantial amount happen. I've finished up all my coursework (yes!!) of my penultimate semester, had to reinstall Windows on my computer (with help from a CompE friend), completely moved out of my apartment and back into my parent's house, and somehow managed to come down with the sinus infection to end all sinus infections. And now I am about to start packing because in 24 hours I will be moving down south for my summer internship!

I hasn't quite hit me yet that I'll be leaving home for the next three months in the next day. I guess I'll be able to be eased into the idea while road tripping the 1300 miles across the U.S. with my good friend. We'll be stopping to visit a few friends along the way including a few of my work friends in Ohio! : )

As I am clearly still a little fuzzy in the brain from too much cold medicine, I will continue my entries later on this week as we reach our check points. Wish me luck! This is going to be an adventure!

D-O-N-E Spells Get Me Outta Here!

It's official! I have finished Finals without too much mental or physical pain! It's a little bitter sweet since a whole lot of my close friends are going to be graduating, but I wish them all the best. In about 8 months I will be following in their footsteps at Breslin.

In addition to finishing up my classes, today I also added a new electronic gadget to my repertoire. Thanks to the help of my bosses @ The Center, I was able to purchase a Flip Video to add supplemental videos to my career blog! (http://www.spartanjobseeker.blogspot.com) Plus I can use it to send videos to my friends and family at home or wherever they will be. Kind of like little video-grams to prove that I'm still alive and well while I'm far far away from home.

Beyond all that jazz, things are quite uneventful around campus. The crowds are starting to clear out and even the gym was empty at 7 pm on a Tuesday night. I'm just a few details away from getting everything wrapped up for the year AND being ready to move! Yaaay! : )