Monday: Guh. Plane, wait, plane, wait, wait, plane...ski lodge? The airport in Bozeman looks like a ski lodge! The weather was cold and rainy, and it hasn't really gotten better since then. They didn't have me on the list to get a room (bureaucratic error?), so they threw me up on the 7th floor in a single room with no one around me. Not bad, really, until I saw the other peoples' rooms and now I feel gypped - their rooms are HUGE! On the other hand, it would probably be even colder than it already is if my room were any larger...the heat has been turned off for the summer, even though it snowed on me yesterday...
Tuesday: I got to meet the people in my lab and learn what felt like everything about what every person in there was doing. I also got properly "oriented" and got my Cat Card, which is really just a fancy name for student card. The photo turned out really well. I expressed my surprise at this (Well really, do pictures like that ever turn out? No.) and the photo-lady got very offended at the thought of her taking a bad photo. 'Twas funny. I also got a GIANT stack of reading that I still haven't finished from Dr. Smith and Hugh, and since I hadn't met anyone to hang out with yet, spent the rest of the day reading.
Wednesday: The two students who are in my grade in the lab showed up today...and their names? Ryan and Orion. If this wasn't bad enough, someone else in the lab is named Brian... The rest of the day was pretty much readings, meetings, and taking notes on what we're to be doing. While checking my mail the department secretary (who already knew my name, amazing!), upon hearing that I hadn't met my REU group yet, hauled me off to meet the Solar kids who were in the computer lab down the hall. So I met the other physics group, but not mine. Fortunately there was an REU Mixer that evening and the Solar kids invited me to go along with them, so there I got to meet my own group. And my group? They're really, really, really shy. Of course, I'm the only girl, so maybe that's part of it? *shrug*
Thursday: More meetings and readings in the lab department. Lunch in the SUB with the Solar kids, and the evening was spent with Solars Nick, Jenna, and Jacob...we got ice cream and just kind of sat around enjoying the 10 minutes of sunshine that occurred.
Friday: The three seniors in the lab got to do a lab! During lunch break I bought my bike for the summer. After lab Orion invited everyone to his house across the street for turkey - 26 pounds of turkey! According to Ryan "the best food in Bozeman" is to be found at this fellow's house, so hopefully more turkey-like evenings happen, because it was indeed good. He also drives an Outback, and I swear, every third car in Bozeman is an Outback. It's insane. Nick (above) has a game called "count the Outbacks" that he plays on the way to class. I should really start playing.
Saturday: I was supposed to go on a hike with my group (CM) but I slept through my alarm clock. Since that never happens I guess I was extremely tired...good that I didn't go, then? I found a place that has good espresso, got snowed upon on my way back, and ran into some of the guys who went on the hike in the dorms. So we went to lunch, then downtown to check that out, and then to get groceries - one of them (Chris) has a car, nice to have in the terrible weather up here. (The other guy on this little adventure was named Rob.) Chris neglected to mention that it was his birthday - Facebook told on him - so later I made birthday brownies and we all sat around watching Flight of the Conchords until our EST-programmed brains could stay awake no longer.
Today: Not too much happened...more reading, talking to Aaron and John for a while...Aaron was telling me about seeing the Carolina Chocolate Drops in Morehead yesterday (so sad I missed them!) and later John was trying to figure out what dates to come visit. The Solar kids came back from Yellowstone so I visited Jenna and Krista on the 4th floor, where there was a tent hanging out in the hallway. It's really funny because that particular hallway is painted with a mural of a Montana landscape, so it's like they're just pretending to camp. I dunno, maybe you have to see it.
1 comment:
I heart you Alyssa!
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