Exploring in New Mexico

I haven't written since Wednesday night when we pulled into Los Alamos, so I will recap what has been going on with me the past few days:

On Thursday, my dad took the car in to get fixed because the steering wheel was making a funny noise. Turns out, something in the steering mechanism was broken so we had to leave the car in the shop until the next day. We were without direct transportation but instead of sitting in the hotel all day, we decided to take advantage of the free bus ride into the main town of Los Alamos. We went walking around and found the Bradbury Science Museum. It was really cool! There were a lot of different exhibits on the lab and its history with nuclear warfare and it was cool to learn about the Manhattan project and the bomb testing they did nearby. I really don't support nuclear weapons, but it was interesting to learn about how they were made and about the scientists and engineers who worked on the project. After we went to the museum, we walked around town, had lunch, and met up with my REU supervisor to sign some papers. He seems really nice and I am looking forward to starting at the lab on Monday!

Yesterday, I moved into the woman's house I will be living in for the next 8 weeks. It is a small house but cozy. After I moved in, my dad and I took a ride into Santa Fe. It is a small city with a cute little downtown area. It is not the "city" atmosphere that I am used to (there are no huge skyscrapers or tall buildings anywhere!) but it was such a nice place. I am probably going to spend a lot of weekends down there shopping and walking around. It is really only 35-40 minutes away so it is definitely worth the drive! Plus, the scenery along the way is gorgeous! There are a lot of great shops, restaurants, and a pretty park area. There are also some museums that I would like to visit. My dad and I went to the New Mexico Museum of Art yesterday because it was free after 5 on Fridays! There is also the New Mexico History Museum and a Native American Art museum that I want to visit soon.

Today, I drove my dad to the airport in Santa Fe (which is by far the smallest airport I've ever seen...yes, smaller than Tallahassee, smaller than Valdosta, GA, etc). It was sad to have him leave because I had such a great time with him this week and now I'm going to be all alone :[ but hopefully come Monday I'll meet some friends at the lab. For now, I guess I'll enjoy the independence and relaxing weekend. After I drove my dad the hour into Santa Fe to drop him off, I headed to Walmart. This is the closest Walmart to Los Alamos which makes me sad. It also makes me sad that I have to depend on Walmart to survive! Anyway, after that I headed to Borders and sat and read for a little while and then bought Brave New World. I have been meaning to read this classic for a while and I figured why not now, when I have a lot of spare time on the weekends.

Tomorrow, I think I am going to head into town and go to this store called "The Black Hole" where they collect and sell (?) old "junk" from the lab. I've heard it's pretty awesome so I am excited to check it out. Would it make me a huge nerd if I ended up buying a Geiger counter? Probably :]

Peace & Love,

Val