January 2008 Archives

I spent most of this break traveling which is kind of ironic in a way because I'm going to be gone all semester. I went skiing for a weekend, traveled to western Maryland with my family for a few days, went to Seattle to set up my internship for the summer (If you know how to find housing in the university district for the summer from abroad I'd love to talk to you) and then flew out to Arizona and drove back to the east coast with another Olin student.

I'm excited for my summer internship in Seattle. I'll be working at the Pacific Marine Environmental Lab at Sand Point. My boss seems pretty cool and I'll be working on a unmanned aerial vehicle project. I've also been told that the weather will be nicer in the summer than it was when I visited. I think I saw sunlight for about two or three hours out of my entire three day trip. The weather reminded me of winter at Olin, just a bit warmer.

Overall winter break has been tons of fun and I got to see an bunch of places I'd never been to before. I'd never spent much time out west and I got to go twice. I ate dinner in the French Quarter in New Orleans when I'd never been to Louisiana. I visited five states over break that I had never been to before. It was great. However, it didn't leave much time in between jaunts to prep for leaving the country for 4.5 months.

I am the type of exhausted that only 2 hours of soccer in light French rain with swarthy French college students on a gravel soccer pitch can make you feel. I'm the type of well-fed that only a customary 9 o'clock 3.5 course French dinner with salad, plat principal, cheese, and after dinner tea, can make you feel. In fact, I'm getting the proportions of mind blowing and entertaining that only a study away overseas in a foreign language can give you.

Greetings from Rome, Italy!

Saturday morning at about 8:30 am (Rome time; it was 2:30 am on the US east coast, from whence I had departed the previous afternoon), I arrived in Rome. After getting off the plane, going through customs, exchanging most of my remaining US dollars for Euros, waiting for my luggage (two suitcases, each about 50 pounds), checking in with the JCU representatives in the arrival area, waiting for a shuttle, finally getting on the shuttle (we shoved four people into a seat meant for three), and a moderately terrifying ride into the city, we arrived at John Cabot University.