Week 5

This summer is really going by fast..It's already Week 5! I am both sad and happy because my summer is half over which means my internship is half over, but I'm glad that I get to go home soon because I am very homesick! In 19 days my mom flies into New Mexico and a few days after that my internship is over and we get to explore and then make the loooooong drive back to Tallahassee. A few days after that I get to go home to Long Island!!!! Even though I am sad that I only get to be home for 2 weeks, I am looking forward to starting the new academic year. I feel like this year is going to be different. I have grown from this internship in a lot of ways. I have always been the typical good student who studies, does the homework, gets good grades, etc. but I feel like now I will be the type of student who is excited to learn. I always go to class, but sometimes I slack off and daydream and I don't really pay attention. I always end up re-learning what was taught in class for the test, and I usually do well. But after this internship, I feel like there is more to just going to class, taking the test, and doing homework. It all matters! I never realized that before. Everything I've ever learned in physics, calculus, engineering, etc. is being applied to real experiments right in front of my eyes, and I have always taken what I've learned for granted. In the back of my mind, I always knew that I would need that stuff later on but I was so burnt out after each semester that I usually just emptied my brain of all the stuff I crammed in for the exams. Now, I am going to be the student who is excited to learn (or at least tries to be excited...some topics will always be boring) and who really thinks about what she's learning and doesn't write it off as worthless. I think being in the lab environment, whether it is somewhere I decide to be for the rest of my life or not, has taught me that there is always something to learn about and something to improve on which makes it exciting. I never really thought about school that way before, but now I am. If nothing else comes out of this internship, the desire to learn is definitely a worthwhile result!

Anyway, I'm done being dramatic and cheesy haha. This week has been pretty good so far. It is only Wednesday though! Yesterday felt like it took forever. I sat in the office for most of the morning because Victor (my mentor) was busy so I read up on some terms I did not know from the conference. I ended up reading about the different magnetic properties of materials, and it turns out that was what my mentor and I discussed about later on! Coincidence? I don't know, maybe. I just thought it was perfect timing. Anyway, after reading for a while (which by the way, during this internship is the first time I've really sat down and read a textbook!) I went down to the PPMS lab (I think it stands for Physical Properties Measurement Systems but I could be wrong) and helped Yoko figure out what was wrong with our probe and set up some equipment. I also (with Yoko's help) wrote a program on LabView (which is SO much better than Fortran, let me tell ya...it uses visual icons instead of text commands which is perfect for someone like me who needs to visualize things) that we would use in our RUS (Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy) experiment. I am not sure what I wrote but apparently it worked somewhat. We had some problems with the equipment however. After Yoko left, I headed back to the office and Victor printed out some slides from his lectures on RUS and his recent poster for me to read.

Today, I went into the lab a bit late because I thought I would be getting my car fixed today but I ended up waiting an hour by the phone for them to call me back and tell me whether my part was in or not. Turns out, the part was getting there this afternoon so I told them I would just bring my car in first thing in the morning. So tomorrow, yet again, I have to come in late to the lab. Tomorrow there is also a student/mentor picnic which should be fun. The 2 kids in my lab and I signed up to volunteer so we will be either setting up, cooking, or cleaning up.

Anyway, today at the lab consisted of more troubleshooting with equipment which was annoying. That took up the rest of the morning. After lunch, I headed to a lecture on "Shocking Experiences with Explosives". It sounds more exciting than it was. It probably could have been very exciting if they hadn't turned off the lights in the auditorium. I was trying SO hard not to fall asleep...can't say that much for the kid next to me however haha. After that was over I headed back to the office and wrote some notes in my lab book about the RUS slides and poster that Victor gave me yesterday. After that, he lectured on the white board about some of the background behind what we are measuring at the lab. This I guess is what inspired me to write that huge first paragraph about learning haha...it just took stuff I learned to a new level I guess and I have been experiencing this all along, not just today.

Okay well it is now dinner and relaxing time.

Peace & Love,

Val