Intern Training

So, I’m sitting on the plane right now on my way back from training (posting later obviously). And I can’t sleep so I’ve decided to start on the evitable blog that is bound to be written anyway, might as well do it now since I have nothing better to do. Only problem is that since I’m in the air and I’m on a little itty bitty plane (try 3 seats across, ugh!), it’s kinda bumpy and consequently hard to type. But I’ll manage, I always do :). Training was fun, long, but fun. I met lots of cool people from all the different offices all over the country, hopefully all of whom I’ll get to see again at the end of the summer in Orlando! It was super cool hanging out with “my people” all week. You know, all the Com Sci, CprE types… nerdy/geeky computer people. It was great! They had us out in one of those hotel/conference centers in the middle of no where New Jersey. We spent way too much time in the hotel, not fun. I start getting a little stir crazy being cooped up indoors all day. But a couple nights we went down to the bar in the hotel and shot some pool and had some good quality intern bonding time. One night we went in to New Brunswick and hit one of the local college (Rutgers) bars. That was uber fun (more intern bonding time). Overall it was a good week. We leaned a lot about the company and the different groups within our branch. We also got a better idea of what we will be doing and what we’ll be working on this summer. Granted, by today, most of us were in information overload and nothing was sinking in. We were all standing out in the lobby waiting for our respective transportation, and the bunch of us just looked so dead tired and drained. Probably the coolest thing we did this week was get our laptops. Granted they’re hp’s which wouldn’t have been my fist choice. I was really hoping for a ThinkPad. No such luck :(. Regardless, it’ll give me a chance to use a laptop for a couple months and really decide if I want to shell out the money and buy myself something. One of the cool things about being an intern is we get some of the full time employee perks, like discounts on computers, cell phones, other techie type stuff, clothing etc., which is really cool. I’m gonna have to check it out later when I get home. I might finally be able to get my laptop or my pda. Yay! Oh, and the really crazy thing, is they already have me on a project Monday when I get back. I think I’m going to have to meet with clients Monday afternoon, and I have to be in around 7:30 so I can be debriefed before our little StL intern orientation so I can be prepared for the afternoon. Talk about throwing you in head first. Not even going to get a chance to get settled. But it’s probably a good thing for me. I’ve been bored and itching to get to do some real work. Ya know, I like flying. Looking out the window and all you see is the cute, fluffy tops of the little clouds. It’s like a whole other world up here. All blue and white, calm and peaceful looking and you can see forever. Ha! That was really random. But I’m tired, so it’s ok. I was sleeping while we were sitting on the tarmac in Newark, and I was asleep through take off, but unfortunately I woke up shortly after and now I can’t fall back asleep. Not that that’s a bad thing, I’ll just sleep all that much better tonight when I finally get home. And the randomness continues… I should probably just stop while I’m still ahead and before anybody thinks I’m too crazy, even though most people who know me already know that I am crazy. But that’s ok, maybe more later…

More later... So yeah, got back to St. Louis about 8:30 central time. And I'm in the airport waiting at the luggage carousel waiting for my bag, and I'm waiting and I'm waiting... and my bag still isn't coming around, and I'm starting to wonder wtf. Finally the guy at the little desk makes an announcement that there are unclaimed bags from the Newarkflight by the desk that had never even made it onto the carousel. Now, why would you do that? That is so annoying. Why would you only run about half the bags through on the carousel, that makes no sense to me. But whatever. Crazy airport. But yeah, it's really nice to be back in the Midwest again. Clean smelling air, fields... just a totally different atmosphere. As much as I complain about it, I miss it when I'm gone. That's kinda weird. You don't really appreciate a place until you have to leave it. Like Iowa, it's boring and blah blah blah... but now that I'm in Missouri I really miss it. I mean, yeah, it's just north, but it's so much different down here. Different corn, different roads, different just about everything. And the worst part is about a month after I get back I'll be complaining about it again. Oh well :)

Jon Stewart is my hero

Jon Stewart is my hero! What else is there to say. The Daily Show is just great, sometimes I feel that it's the only news source that isn't owned by The Man, and hence can report the real news. Yes, I realize some of it is a little skewed, and it's a touch satirical, but it's more factual than some of the crap they play on Fox News. But yeah, I was just watching it, and I haven't for a while, and I'd forgotten how great it really is. It's nice to see someone poking a little fun at the news and other current events while still giving you the facts.

So annoying!

So, have you ever been to a museum, art or otherwise, and have someone hover around behind you to make sure you don't touch anything or do anything you shouldn't be doing? Well, if you've never had that happen to you, consider yourself very lucky. I went to the St. Louis Contemporary Art Museum today, and I swear, every time I turned around there was someone standing about 5-10 feet away from me, watching me. And there weren't even very many people in there, and no small children. Common, I've been taught well enough that you're not supposed to touch the art work when you go to the museum. It totally ruins the viewing experience when there is someone hovering around behind you. But there were a couple exhibits I did enjoy. There were 4 all together; Kathrie Kuharic: The World Brought Low; Alexander Ross: Survey; and the 2 I enjoyed the most, Dzine: Punk Funk; and Ruby Osorio: Story of a Girl (Who Awakes Far, Far Away). Dzine is really abstract, bright colors, patterns, shapes etc. I loved it, it was so vibrant and alive. Ruby Osorio was completely different in contrast. All her art is done on paper, in ink and thread. The colors are much more sedate, and there is far more white space around her figures. Her stuff looks more like art you would find in a children's book. It's very beautiful, feminine and simple.

On a totally unrelated note, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, my home town, has the country's safest drivers. Now, growing up there, and learning how to drive there, and having driven other places, I already knew this. What slightly blows my mind is that Des Moines, Iowa is ranked 6th. There is a very stark contrast between how people drive in eastern Iowa vs how they drive in central Iowa. Granted. It's nothing compared to how they drive in Missouri or Illinois, but for Des Moines to be number 6 is a bit astonishing. Makes me wonder how they drive in other parts of the country... scary.

You can find me in St. Louie...

So, I'm in St. Louis. I made the 6 hour drive from Ames yesterday with only one stop. I'm rather proud of myself. The drive wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was long, but it was divided highway most of the way. There was a stretch between Mt. Pleasant and Hannibal that wasn't, but there also wasn't much traffic. The only bad thing was I hit the skirts of St. Louis around 4:30... start of rush hour traffic. Bleh! But as soon as I got on I-44 it got a lot better. Overall Avenue of the Saints treated me pretty well. It felt really weird crossing the Iowa/Missouri boarder though. I don't know why, but it did. Leaving the apartment yesterday felt really weird to. I know I'll be back in only 2 months, and those 2 months are going to fly... but it still felt odd leaving. As much as I complain about how boring Ames is, I'm going to miss it. Or maybe not so much miss Ames, but miss some of the people there. You know who you are.

The people I'm staying with are really cool, K and Paul. They have a pool, and I love their dog. He's fun. They've made me feel right at home and like I'm part of the family. That in and of it's self is making this so much easier. It's nice knowing people who know their way around... I'd be lost otherwise. Like today, I don't think I would have made it downtown w/o getting lost if I hadn't been able to ask K how to get there first.

So, lunch today, I got to meet all the other interns that are going to be in the St. Louis office. Most of them I won't be seeing too much of. We all have different training. I and the other Advisory intern, Temi, have training in Somerset, New Jersey for a week. We leave June 12th and get back June 17th. So basically, I have all of next week do to whatever I want, get to know St. Louis a little better etc etc etc. I think tomorrow I'm going to go in, and get a tour of the office (I haven't been there yet) and maybe go to lunch with my buddy Craig. Then June 28th the office is closing at 3, and we're off until July 5th... and it's payed time off! SCORE! I dunno what I'm going to do yet, K and Paul are going to be gone July 2 - 10. Regardless, it'll be a nice little mini vacation. Maybe find someone who wants to go to Six Flags with me. That would be fun, I haven't been there for a few years, and I love their roller coasters.

Well enough rambling for now. I'm going to either go unpack some more or find something else to do. Later!