Finally bought a flight!! Leaving New York on the 21st and getting to London the 22nd. I wanted to leave NYC a day earlier but couldn't use my points. This flight only cost me a little over $100 USD. Going to San Francisco tomorrow to get my visa for Indonesia!!
This office move thing has worked out really well for me. I feel much more like a part of the group now. Also, the office ordered a ton of boxes for the move. I think I wrote about these boxes already. I’ve been hauling home two boxes at a time. They’re really nice. Nicer than those printer boxes we used to get. These ones are sturdier, comes with handles, and even break down really nicely when not in use. One of these extra benefits that come with working, along with occasional free food.
Next Monday, I’m down to having only one class. I usually have three so this feels a bit weird. One of my professors is away for the entire week for a conference in Europe. We’ve had two Friday classes so we’re not behind or anything. But we get a break from going to class for a week. There is an ASCE dinner on Monday that a bunch of people want to go to so we’re not having our Indonesia class that day.
I’ve been really putting my connections to work for this Padang project. After I sent out an email to the coastal and rivers list, I got various responses with hints of where to find information. I finally got in contact with someone who’s been doing some really detailed modeling in Germany. He emailed me back last night with a ton of his research. They’re really nicely done models of tsunami inundation heights and flow rates. I feel so accomplished even though I didn’t actually do the work!
I still haven’t decided on an exact last day at work yet. It’s looking like the first week of June though. People have been asking if I will go back in the fall. I really don’t know how much time I will have. Especially if I am supposed to be going around making presentations on this Indonesia project.
I have to emphasize the need to find a good mentor at my first job though. Someone who has enough experience to realize that my questions are actually not very sophisticated even though they might be hidden under depths of complication (i.e. be able to see that my questions are actually quite dumb and offer a simple solution). It’s nice to have people closer to my age but some of these recent grads are just about as clueless as I am. Yeah, I made another 5 min call to New York again and it really expedited my progress.
I managed to get back to campus in time for the department happy hour. Ate a ton of ice cream and then stopped by the Rains Thursday social thing for more snacks.
1 comment:
I took an empty box home the other day too! I'm not sure where it came from, but it was sitting by my desk and had handles and a lid and was supersturdy (two layers) so I took it home when I took a cab. Dont think I'm going to take any more home though. My parents still have the original mit10 boxes we got from moving and also a lot of boxes from the move in general, so I should have enough.
My office is going through a massive floorplan rearranging too. Of course, we need to move because the new analysts are coming and we need to fill the holes of the people who have left. But also 200 people from our division but not our immediate group are moving into our office, so we are really squeezing and adding desks. Lots of drama. Right now we have about 50% the number of people on other floors though, haha
Don't get what you said about asking simple questions hidden under layers of complication...?
I think I figured out where I want to go next summer (not this upcoming one)!
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