Week 10: You're going to miss me when I'm gone.

This was the last week of my internship. I can’t believe how fast it has gone. I’ll talk a little about the last weekend though. Saturday was packed full. I went to the Hirshorn museum of art, which was really cool. I have realized that I enjoy art museums more that I originally believed. I also went to Eastern Market for the last time and bought $10 worth of nectarines so that I could bring some to Julie’s house the next day.

I then caught up with Jamie and Darren and grabbed a bite to eat at Good Stuff Eatery. Their burgers and shakes are SO good. I chilled at home the rest of the afternoon before heading out to Virginia to go with Julie to a mosque to celebrate Ramadan. We went to the Lutifullahi Asalta International Mosque which is a Nigerian mosque in Hyattsville, Maryland. I learned how to tie a mean hijab beforehand and I looked really legit. So legit that people kept greeting me in Arabic once I got there.

We prayed with them, which was a really neat experience because although we are of different faiths, we both can commune with God. It was then time for the feast. We had spicy rice with spicy meat and spicy plantains. They also had a molasses soda, water and a ginger drink. It was a little too spicy for my palate, but it was a good experience. It was also nice to talk to some of the women there.

I don’t know if it was the food from the night before or simply that I was getting sick, but I woke up Sunday morning really sick to my stomach. I felt pretty terrible the whole day. I did end up feeling well enough to go out to Julie’s house for dinner one last time. We had hot dogs, watermelon, potatoes, nectarines and bread. It was delicious and helped settle my stomach a little.

Monday was our presentation practice. It went way better than I expected especially considering that I was feeling really sick. I wanted to present earlier, but Toni had a meeting and wanted to see it, so we presented right before lunch. We had lunch with Fred Dylla, the CEO of the American Institute of Physics, and Beth Cunningham, the Executive officer of The American Association of Physics Teachers. It was fun to talk to them a little about our experience because they couldn't make our presentations on Tuesday. I left shortly after lunch because of how ill I was feeling and worked on finalizing our presentation for Tuesday at home.

Tuesday was our final presentation day. My family, parents, brother and sisters, few in the night before, so they came to my presentation. My mentor from NIST, Mary, also came and it was really nice to see them all. Caleb and I did our presentations together, and I thought it went really well. We talked about our kit, did an activity, did a demonstration and then talked about NIST. After all the presentations, we had lunch as a big group before heading off to the state department tour. On the way to the tour I felt sicker and sicker, so by the time we got to Foggy Bottom I just decided to go home for the rest of the day.

Wednesday was our last day of work. We wrote thank you notes and filled out information about the internship. Then we had lunch together and did a little tour of ACP. We talked with Beth Cunningham of AAPT, Kate Kirby of APS and toured the library. After I finished a few things at the office, I packed everything up and headed home. It was so sad. I finished packing up all my stuff at the dorms; cleaned and headed over to the hotel my family is staying at as we tour around DC for about a week and a half.

It was really sad that the internship was over. I can’t believe how fast it is gone. This has been a really great opportunity for me and I have learned a lot. I will miss all the wonderful people I worked with and all the great friends I have made. We have been singing “You’re going to miss me when I’m gone” from Pitch Perfect. Now it’s true.

Week 9: Fat and Poor

Saturday I went to the Library of Congress to get my library card and I went to Eastern Market to get some produce. That night was really fun because I went out to my friend Julie’s house to go to a party. It was a glow-in-the dark paint dance party out on a farm in Virginia. It was a lot of fun, but we grew tired of it quickly, so we went cosmic bowling afterword because we glowed. It was a really fun night.

This work week has been back at ACP. We are working on finalizing the SOCK instruction guide. It is fun to be back at ACP with the other interns. I have also been working on the final presentation for the summer. I still feel like we have so much to do and so little time.

Monday I replaced my computer screen that broke two weeks ago. I felt like a champion because I did it all by myself. I love it when I can be handy.

We also had our final outreach on Tuesday at the University of Maryland. It was for the Physics Summer Girls Outreach Program for rising 9^th graders. There were about 14 girls and they were all so smart. We were able to test our modular “theremin” activities. It was really helpful and we learned a lot of new things. That evening, we went out to dinner as a group because it was Dayton's last night. It's always so fun to hang out with the group. 

I was finishing exploring the city this week. I went to the American History Museum and the national portrait gallery. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed looking at art. It was really interesting. I also tried Good Stuff Eatery for the first time with Jamie and Darren. It was SO good! It is probably a good thing we didn't discover it earlier or else we would have been fat and poor.

I think that was all the excitement for this week. I can’t believe how quickly this summer is coming to an end. 

Week 8: Kiss and Ride

I can't believe how quickly time is passing. We only have a week and a half left, which is crazy. I am really enjoying the projects I have been working on and really like the other interns. It will be so sad to go our separate ways in just a few weeks. This week also signifies an end to my time at NIST. It has been so amazingly fun and a great learning experience. It has also inspired me to think about possible directions I want to go with my career.

But, before we get to all of that, we'll start with the weekend. On Friday night, my cousin, Becca, arrived from Boston to DC. We ate a quick dinner before heading out to buy some groceries at Target. I also did some laundry that evening. I decided to start her DC trip off really unexciting, so that the bar would be set low.

Saturday was fun. Becca and I went to Ford's Theatre and took a tour. It was really interesting. The national park rangers do the tour and he did a fabulous job. He was VERY animated and a quite good storyteller, so it was very captivating as we listened to how everything played out that evening. We then grabbed lunch at Kanlaya, a Thai restaurant before heading to the International Spy Museum. My friend Julie met up with us there, and it was really cool to see all the old spy equipment and to hear the stories. After the museum, we were pretty tired, so we grabbed milkshakes at Ted's Bulletin and headed home. That evening, my cousin Becca and I watched Top Gun. I had never seen it before, so it was nice to finally understand all the phrases so often quoted from that movie.

Sunday we went to church with Amy, which was fun. It is crazy how different it is compared to the DC 2nd ward. That evening, we went out to Toni's house for dinner and to watch the Wizard of Oz. It was really fun. Burgers were delicious and it has been a very long time since I watched the Wizard of Oz.

The work week has mostly been focused on wrapping up the Summer Institute. I have been working on going though the assessments from the teachers of all the activities that they had done. It has been interesting to see the difference of opinion for the same activities. Overall, the reviews were very favorable. I also started working at ACP and I am working on the write ups for the SOCK activities.

 I also did some fun things with my cousin, Becca, this week. Monday night, we walked around to all the monuments. It was really nice. Tuesday we went to the temple and did inititories. It is always amazing to be in the temple. Funny story, there is a temple shuttle that goes between the metro station and the temple. Every time I go, I chat with the driver. As we were pulling into the metro station, Becca read the sign "kiss and ride" sign and asked what it means. In jest, I said, "some cabbies charge in kisses." As we left the shuttle, I thanked him, and he said, "What, no kiss?" Sadly, I didn't hear it, but it was mentioned to me later. A terrible opportunity to miss! ;)

Wednesday, we went on a tour of the pentagon. It wasn't that great of a tour. The fun part, was that we organized it through my grandma's cousin, so we had a navel officer meet us at the top of the metro escalator. He got us through all the security without even the slightest check. I don't know what my grandma's cousin does, but clearly, it's important.

Also, Becca made it to the metro station before me. While she was waiting, a man walked by who was probably in his mid-fifties. He was looking at her and made eye contact. Well, she loves making eye contact, and since he was still making eye contact, she was kind of playing the staring game and looked right back at him. He looked away and she started texting. When she looked up he was looking at her again. He then proceeded to ask her out for a drink. It was quite funny.

Thursday my cousin, Becca, left to return home to Boston. It was also my last day of work at NIST. It was sad to turn in my badge and to leave. I really loved working there and working with Mary. It was really incredible to work with all the teachers and the scientists and to make so many amazing contacts.

Friday, we had a tour of the capitol and the Hill interns took us to their office. It was really interesting. I find politics and policy really interesting, but I feel like I don't know much about the whole process. I learned a ton about the process and the ways that the interns are involved. I was kind of bummed that I couldn't apply for the SPS Hill internship in the future.

Week 7: The Bees Knees

Friday night, I came home and crashed hard. It had been an exhausting week and I really needed the down time. Plus, the weekend was going to be busy.

Saturday, I cleaned up in the morning, and then headed out to Prince George’s Plaza to grab lunch with a mission friend, Rebecca Carver. It was so good to see her. I thought she was so cool on the mission and she was so sarcastic and funny, it was great. She ended up marrying and American and is now living out here. It is amazing how many people live out in this area. I am more popular than I thought.

Saturday night, I headed out to Alexandria, Virginia to help the city celebrate its birthday! Julie and I decided to walk around the city a bit before heading to the party. We grabbed dinner at the Fish Market. We got crab stuffed avocado for an appetizer and then split the salmon plate for dinner. It was the perfect amount of food. We got to the park for the party, just before it started to pour. Luckily, they had built little rain shelters, so we stood under the rain shelters for maybe 15 minutes before the rain cleared up and we headed back out for the party.

They gave us free cupcakes! The symphony played while they shot off fireworks, and they also fired the cannons. It was really cool. However, the highlight was a little boy named Oliver. He was about 18 months old, and he came up to Julie and started sitting in her lap. Oliver’s mom came up to fetch him, but we were okay with it. The family ended up moving their picnic blanket up next to ours and we spent a good chunk of the evening playing with him. He really liked touching my knees for some reason and pretty soon he was hugging Julie and me and sitting on our laps. He was so adorable. Okay, mother nature, I am getting the baby memo.

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxed. And Monday started another week! I continued my work at NIST, which I would write about each week. It can be read here. The sad news, was that on Tuesday, I broke my computer. I was working on it while I was sitting on my bed, and I set my computer down a little too close to the edge, and when I went to get up, it fell off the bed. The good news, is that the computer functions just fine, however, the screen is completely ruined. So, I have been looking into whether I want to buy a new computer or just buy a new screen.

This next weekend should be exciting because my cousin, Becca, flies in on Friday night!

Week 6: Fly Me to the Moon.

This week has been crazy. It was fun spending the weekend with my cousins, but the trip back to DC was a bit of a mess. I few back from Atlanta to Charlotte, North Carolina and then from there to Baltimore. Unfortunately, I was flying US Airways, and airline that in my experience is quite poor in terms of their service. My flight from Atlanta was delayed because they book the flights so close together that any little problem can cause a big delay. Because of the delay, we arrived late, and I had less than twenty minutes between when I stepped off the plane and when it was to push back from the gate. I was told the wrong gate, so I headed to another terminal. Luckily, I checked the boards and found my gate was back where I was originally. I walked straight onto my plane but not before they made me check my bag. I was not happy about that.

My flight headed to the runway, and then we stopped. The captain came on and explained that he had been told by the tower that they couldn't take off for 35 minutes. I wouldn't have bothered for much except that I had one friend picking me up at the airport who had school in the morning and another friend coming to stay with me that night. When we landed, I went to claim my bag, and, of course, my friend Amy, who was there to pick me up, had just been told by a police officer, but two minutes before I was ready, to move and had to circle the airport to pick me up. It took her about a half an hour to make it through the traffic and back to where she was originally waiting for me. I had R let my friend, Candice into the building because my roommate, N, wasn't home yet, and I wasn't either. I finally arrived home at about midnight and hurriedly went to bed. 

Monday started the NIST Summer Institute for Middle School Teacher, which I was helping with. Most of my adventures can be found here. I really enjoy working with the teachers, and I am learning so much about NIST and techniques for teaching science. I really enjoyed the Ballistics Lab Tour. They let us try on the bulletproof vests and they let us take a test shot at one of the vests they were testing. It was a really cool tour.

On Wednesday, we got to take a tour of NASA. It was really cool, but a bit long and at some points boring. The first thing we saw was really cool. It was a giant sphere that had different images projected on it. We looked at earth pictures showing flights around the world, pollution and other things. We also toured a facility that had very large equipment, including a four story clean room and a giant centrifuge, which were being used for the new James Webb telescope. We also talked with Darren’s adviser, which was really interesting. He has had an amazing career. 

I also had a really fun time with my friend, Candice. She was in town for a few days, so we went out to have dinner together for and then grabbed ice cream on Monday night. Tuesday we went and saw Despicable me in the park, which was fun. All the fun tired me out, because I ended up staying up pretty late every night and waking up pretty early.

Week 5: Georgia Bound

Saturday we went to the Folklife festival put on by the Smithsonian. They had booth set up about the Americas, fashion, as well as a bunch of booths for Hungary. It was fun walking around and seeing all the displays. They also had food, so we got some Chicken and Waffles and fresh fruit. It was fun but really hot. That evening we went to McFadden’s Bar because J won an open bar. I went to help her try and win two bottles of champagne. I didn't stay very long, but I stayed long enough to drink a sprite. The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxed. 

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I was focused on helping Mary prepare for the Summer Institute. I had to finish ordering supplies, unpack the boxes of supplies and reorganize them. I also worked on an evaluation that we will be giving to the teachers to help make the summer institute better. I am also in charge of finding a good way to document the week and provide the teachers a way to find that information. So we discussed ideas and different types of online sources we could use. Right now we are thinking of using a blog and pinterest. We’ll see how that turns out.

Tuesday night I went to Institute. I really like the institute group. They are really fun and it is nice to have the spiritual boost once a week. Plus, Sister Fulkerson makes delicious treats. I really like going and I need to make that a big part of my life.

Wednesday night, I flew to Atlanta! My cousin and his wife just had a baby boy named Hans. He is SO cute! Since I am here on the east coast, I decided this was a good opportunity to come and see him and visit my cousins before I move to Oregon for the fall. My trip to Atlanta will be for four days and It should be fun.

Thursday was the fourth of July and was pretty uneventful. It has been raining in Georgia, so the fireworks were canceled. It was nice though to spend time hanging out with the family. We played Dance Central on Kinnect and Betrayal at House on the Hill. It has been a really fun trip and I am really glad I got to see my first cousin once removed. I will get home just in time for the summer institute to start, which should be a crazy adventure.

Week 4: Ahoy Matey!

Friday, C and I went out to NIST, where I will be doing the other half of my internship. We met with Mary, my new mentor and talked about how we were going to incorporate the SOCK with the rest of the program. We decided that we would do a demo show for the teachers and then have them build an optical Theremin. I also met Brian, who one of the teachers from a previous summer institute and he has returned to NIST this summer to work with a scientist for a few weeks. We left NIST at about 1:30 to head back to ACP so we could finalize our supply list and send it to Mary. That evening I went to the DC temple to do sealings. It was really nice. There is a free shuttle that runs from the metro station to the temple.

Saturday, I got up early to go to Eastern Market for their Farmer's Market. They had beautiful produce. I got a carton of tomatoes, squash, peas, strawberries, blueberries, and 5 peaches for a little over $20, which I thought was great. I went home and Jamie cut my hair before I headed off to a Nats (Nationals) baseball game with Julie. The game started at noon, so it was hotter than anything. It was fun though. I'll be honest; I mostly go to baseball games for the food and company, especially since nothing usually happens. The rest of the afternoon and evening was pretty uneventful. I mostly hung out around the house, and by that I mean I read a lot more of the Hunger Games. F, R, D, Dy, J and I decided to go out that night to a French Music concert. After walking into Georgetown for it, we realized that it wasn't outside, and we were too hot to go into a building especially with the number of people outside, trying to get in. We went home and I went to bed.

Sunday, I went to church like usual and then I went out to Julie’s to have a picnic with her sister and roommates and friends. Because it had been raining earlier that day, we ended up just having a dinner at Julie’s place.  We had barbecue chicken, fruit, quinoa salad, and brownies and cake. It was great and I ate so much!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday worked on finalizing the order list for the SOCK and work on writing up instructions. We ordered the materials, but decided we had to scrap the laser harp because it was going to cost too much and we aren't sure we could build it in time. We do have more types of sensors like pressure sensors and bend sensors.

Tuesday, R, J, D, C and I grabbed a bite to eat before heading on the Boomerang Pirate Cruise of the Potomac River. It was two hours of fun, although it is surprising how warm the city is even after sunset, so it was a little sticky and hot. We had a lot of fun and got to see some of the beautiful monuments.

Wednesday after work I went straight to the National Museum of Natural History. It was really neat. I saw dinosaurs, a giant squid, a whale, a giant sloth and the hope diamond, to name a few. It became more fun once I started texting my friends and sister about some of the fun facts I learned. Here are some of my fun facts.

• North Atlantic Right Whales reach about 140,000 lbs which is equal to 12 African elephants or 10,000 kitty cats.
• Snarge is the name of bird remains scraped from aircraft
• It took researchers over a decade to sequence the DNA of Neanderthals because they were contaminated by bacteria and the researcher's DNA
• If you could type 360 letters in a minute for eight hours a day, it would take you nearly 100 years to type all the letters in a human genome.
• The world's larges flawless quartz sphere is 106.75 lbs and 12.9 inches in diameter
• The Portuguese diamond glows bright blue in UV light.
• One of the owners of the Hope Diamond, Evalyn Walsh McLean, used to keep the diamond beneath the sofa cushions.
• In the early 18th century, an ivory woolly mammoth tusk trade began. In the 250 years since, it is estimated that 46,750 mammoth tusks have been removed and sold. That is an insignificant fraction of those still buried.
• If you could connect the microscopic strands of DNA in all your cells, they would reach to the sun and back nearly 600 times.

I had been craving Wendy’s for a few days, so I got Wendy’s for dinner afterword.

Thursday was my first day at NIST. The first order of business was getting my badge and my computer account set up. It wasn't until almost the end of the day that I realized that I had the wrong name on my badge. They spelled my last name as Quiet, sounds like a subtle message to me. I had to leave work early to go to the reception with the development board for SPS. It was really fun to meet with the members of the development board.

Friday was a busy day. I worked on ordering parts and Mary and I went through the schedule for the Summer Institute. I also left early because we had a dinner with the SPS executive committee. After dinner we all headed downtown to see Capital Steps. It is a musical comedy show about politics. They make fun of both democrats and republicans, so it is completely offensive to everyone. It was really funny and a very fun night.

Week 3: Laser Light Show in the Cafeteria

So, last Friday, after work, all the interns, except F, who hadn’t arrived yet, went to the Symphony. We decided to eat dinner before because Dy’s friend suggested a Chinese restaurant in the basement of the Watergate hotel. The Watergate is across the street from the Kennedy Center where the symphony was. Sadly, we got to the restaurant and discovered that it had closed down the week before, so we grabbed some pizza before heading over to the concert.

The concert was the National Symphony Orchestra with David Hardy on the cello. I got to sit on the side with the harp. I couldn’t see super well, but the harpist is amazing. Her name is Dotian Levalier and she studied with Carlos Salzedo and Marilyn Costello. That’s amazing! She has played for the National symphony for 44 years and she is retiring this year. It reminded me of how much I love playing harp. I hope I can find a harp shop in DC where I can go play a harp sometime.

I went to bed early Friday night so that I could meet up with my friend, Julie, in the morning.  She came in from the West Falls Church Metro Station and I hopped on her same car at Foggy Bottom at about 8:30 so we could go to Easter Market. We got BlueBucks, or blueberry buckwheat pancakes, which are apparently famous. They were really good. We then walked around the market. There was so much fresh produce; I wanted to buy it all! We were heading to a museum after, so I couldn't buy anything.

We decided to walk from Eastern Market to the Newseum. We walked past the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress. We also walked past a soap car derby down Capitol Hill. It was super cool to watch. We got to the Newseum a little before the other interns. It was a really cool experience, but it is quite pricey. I don’t know that it is worth going to again. They do have a really cool hall of the front page of newspapers on important days around the world. They also had a really cool exhibit on the FBI and another one on 9/11.

We were getting hungry, so Julie, A, R and I went to the Museum of the Native American Indian and had lunch. They have a cafeteria with traditional Native American foods. I had salmon, with a corn and cherry sauce. It was delicious. We grabbed ice cream at the ice cream truck outside before walking down the national mall. A little way down, we found a metro station and headed home, where we chilled for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, I went to church, like usual. The air conditioning was still broken, so it was sweltering the whole time, but I felt more included this week. R met me after church and he played some piano on the church pianos. It was beautiful! He is an amazing pianist, he could be professional. After he played for a while, I went home and skyped my family. Oh, and our final intern arrived, F. It will be fun to get to know her in the next few weeks.

Monday started my third week of work. What? How did that happen? We had our first outreach on Tuesday at Tuckahoe Elementary, so Monday was our day to prepare. It was midafternoon when we were starting to feel ready for the three, one hour classes of 40 third graders the next morning. Then Toni got a message from our Tuckahoe Elementary contact. Because it was the last week of school, they only had time for one hour with all 120 third graders. Eeeek! Some of the activities we were planning on doing would be chaos with that large of a group.

We had to decide if we still wanted to do the outreach. We decided we wanted to and we modified our activity, so that instead of measuring the length of the room with different sized sticks, they would measure the lengths of equally long ropes. We kept the LED vs. Laser demonstration we had used before and the laser-sound demonstration. It was a little thrown together, but we felt like we could pull it off when we left on Monday.

Tuesday, we arrived early to set up the cafeteria. R, J, CA, C, Toni and I did the outreach. It went really well. I was surprised at how excited the kids were about measuring rope. They were really smart kids and I saw multiple methods for measuring. It was great. They were very involved and I think they had a good time and learned a lot. It could have been better organized on our part, but I was really happy with how well it went.

Toni took us out to eat at Busboys and Poets, which was really good. It is very hip and quite delicious. Our server, Noel, was super awesome and we shared quite a few laughs with her over the course of the meal. The rest of the afternoon and week was spent working on pricing and models for the rest of our kits.

On Monday evening, we decided to get some Mexican food. Clearly, I can’t read a map, because it told me that the food was only a mile away from us, but it was more like two. Oops! It was pretty good though, and it was fun to bond with J, F, D, and R. It was weird because we were the only patrons in the restaurant, which was a little unnerving.

Tuesday evening, I went to institute. The BYU Barlow Center is really close to my dorms, so I walked there and had a nice lesson. I think it is really good for me to involve myself in more church activities. The rest of the week has been pretty chill.

I went to work early on Wednesday because I wanted to stop at the bank before it closed. It was really nice to have the office to myself to get a few things done. I think I will come in earlier a few more times in the next few days. On the way home from the bank, I was stopped by a man from England named Gionne (I think?) who was talking to me about donating to a charity to help children go to school and to have better food and water. He was really nice and it seems like a really good charity, but I am a little uncomfortable with signing up for something so spontaneously. It was a pleasure to talk to him.

I went home from work early on Thursday because I wasn’t feeling well, which is a bummer. Hopefully, I am not catching something and just need a little more sleep. Anyway, it has been a fun week. I am really excited for the adventures to come. Pretty soon it will be July and I will be working at NIST. Crazy!

Week 1: How do you make scrambled eggs?

This week has been quite a whirlwind. I flew out to DC on Sunday and took a taxi to GWU dorms. In celebration of my arrival, the heavens opened and it started to pour. In the sixty feet it took to get from the cab to the Amsterdam hall, where I checked-in to my room, my jacket and suit cases were soaked through. Luckily, in the time that it took to check-in, the rains stopped and I walked the four blocks to my new dorm room. I spent the rest of the evening unpacking, before my roommate N came home and we started to get to know each other.

Monday was our first day of work. Orientation was quite a wealth of knowledge. We had the privilege of eating lunch with Dr. John Mather, a Nobel Laureate.  It was really interesting to talk to him about science policy, education and his work at NASA.  After our lunch, we headed off to our different assignments. Toni took C, AA and myself out to NIST, where I met my supervisor for the other part of my internship, Mary Satterfield. We also took a tour of the NIST museum and some of the labs, which was really cool. That evening, I met up with a friend of mine who was in town for a wedding and we had dinner.

Tuesday was our first real day of work. When we arrived, Toni quickly got C, J  and me started on building a laser sound demo for the outreach on Sunday. It is so sweet! The music player modulates the intensity of the laser, which is shot at a solar cell. The solar cell turns the light back into a signal which is played by the speaker. C and I started going through the boxes of old SOCK kits later that day. After work, I went out to Virginia to meet up with an old college friend. We had dinner and then she kindly took me shopping. Now I have a pillow, yay!

Wednesday, C and I worked on a second demo for the outreach. This uses diffraction glasses to look at the spectra of LEDs vs a laser. We used poster board to create a display. After work, we all went out to dinner and told hilariously bad jokes. I really like the other interns, and we have a blast hanging out together.

Thursday, we worked on finishing up everything for Sunday. We all left early to attend the Einstein Fellows Poster Session and Reception at the Russell Senate Office Building. The Russell Building is beautiful and being by all the senator offices reminded me of the great city I am living in. It was really nice to talk to some of the educators who participated in the fellowship. It reminded me of why I am excited to go into education research.

With Einstein.
 back (l to r): R, AA, Einstein , me, N
front: C, CA

Second try.
Back: N, C, A, Einstein, R, CA, AA
front: me

Friday, we got everything else for the demo show loaded up and ready to go. We also started brainstorming for the SOCK. For the SOCK this year we are partnering with NIST and our focus is on meters, sensors and detectors. We'll see what we come up with...

This evening we have plans to attend a free concert in the park and continue exploring the city. This week has been a amazing, as evidence by the lack of sleep. There is so much to do in DC! I am excited for the work and the adventures this summer.

Week 2: Starships were made to Fly

Friday we ended up not going to the outdoor concert because it was raining so much. Instead we went to an Ethiopian Restaurant called Etete. They had these really good appetizers that were like Indian Samosas. We got them for free when we order an entrée because of our InternsROCK cards. Then we headed to the Krispy Kreme on DuPont Circle because it was National Doughnut Day! Doughnuts always taste better when they are free! N, my roommate, left before we went to dinner to spend the weekend at home, so I had the whole room to myself!

At Etete (l to r): CA, C, R, me, D, J, A

Saturday, R made us scrambled eggs for breakfast because of an ongoing discussion about what scrambled eggs are. A few interns say that any additions to scrambled eggs make it an omelet. I disagree, but whatever. After getting ready, we went to Target to pick up a few things. I decided to buy a mattress pad because our beds are a little lacking. We chilled in the afternoon before going to get dinner at a Mediterranean place. AA was in the city looking for housing, so we met up with her to eat before she went home.

We headed home to hang out and we played a few games including the three object game, and How's yours. J, D and R had bought some alcohol earlier, so they were drinking Whiskey-Cokes and taking Whiskey shots. D had never been drunk before, and so they (D and J?) decided he should get drunk. We knew he hit that point when he said, “I can’t feel my tongue.” Then he promptly started playing with his tongue. He wanted to do summersaults and started doing push-ups. He kept apologizing to me that he was drunk. I don’t know why he was feeling so guilty about it. It was making me a little uncomfortable only because he was saying things he would never normally say because he was inhibited and therefore it was a vulnerable situation. I left because it was getting late anyway and I hadn’t been getting enough sleep.

Sunday, D brought us apology doughnuts from Krispy Kremes. I got ready for church and then took the Metro up to the DC 2^nd Singles Ward. The other interns left at about the same time as me for the outreach at the STEM fair. Church was good, but SUPER packed. The ward gets huge in the summer because of all the interns. I am not sure if I am going to go to that ward or to the ward in Maryland that Amy goes to. Amy works at SPS too. She just got back from her mission to Malaysia and starts grad school on Monday, so today (Friday) is here last day.  Sad.

I headed home to change my clothes before taking the Metro out to West Falls Church to meet up with my friend, Julie who lives there. She invited me to have dinner with her and some friends. They made pizza on the Barbeque, which was super cool and delicious. We also had homemade ice cream. It was fun to hang out with Julie; her sister, Jen; Jen’s husband, Mike; her roommate, April; and two friends, Tim and Joe. I then went home and went to bed. I heard from the interns that night, that the outreach went well, which is good news. We also got a new intern that night named Dy from Idaho.

Monday started a new work week. This week we are really focused on brainstorming ideas for the SOCK. We really need to figure out what we are going to do for the kit this year. It is quite a difficult subject because it is involved in every aspect of science. We spend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday doing a lot of research and brainstorming. Thursday we built an optical Theremin which has been our inspiration for the laser harp we hope to build. Today, we are working on putting together the demo show we will be doing next week at Tuckahoe Elementary School on Tuesday. Eeek! It’s so soon!

A, F (we take pictures
with the missing intern), J, D and myself

Monday, since we had a new intern, Amy, Elizabeth and I went out to lunch with Dy at Noodles. It was delicious and fun to get to know them. After work, we went straight to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum right after work. J and I met up with D and A there, which was really fun. D and A work at NASA, so they know much more about space than J and I do. It was fun having a little tour from them. I especially enjoyed D's fun facts.

J and D in spacesuits

Me and A in spacesuits

Later, the interns went to visit a bar using our internsROCK cards. I decided to stay home because I was wet and tired. It turns out that most of the interns didn’t go in because some of them were under 21. J and D did, and a few cheap drinks later and J was drunk. Luckily, D got J home safely. The other interns went to get Thai food.

J and A eating ice cream 

Tuesday night, we went to McFadden’s for $5 burgers. It was my first time eating at a bar and since it was fairly early, it wasn’t that different. After, we decided to walk into Georgetown since we were super close. Georgetown is really nice and it was fun to explore that part of the city. We got some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. It was delicious! Although, sadly they didn’t have my favorite flavors (Everything but the… and Half Baked). A taught us this game that his friends play called cut and paste. Basically, if someone says something that would be funnier said out of context, they someone else can say copy and then anytime in the next 24 hours say paste, and they have to say what was copied. It is clearly going to cause much hilarity the rest of the summer.

Dy and CA with their Ice cream

D in a little chair

Me with my Ben & Jerry's Shake

Wednesday was the ACP (American Center of Physics) summer picnic. They fed us picnic food and then there was a talent show. Elizabeth sang and did a fabulous job. All the performances were really good. Two of the employees did Morris dancing, which I had never seen before. It was really interesting.

That night, we grabbed dinner at Sweet Green before finding the outdoor movie at NoMa. They were playing The Italian Job, which I had never seen. Since it had been raining, some of the grass was a little wet, but A, AA, CA, R and I decided to stay. I found Samantha Williams, so we watched the movie with her and her friends. It was so good to see her! The best thing about my friendship with Samantha is that we can pick up right where we left off even if it has been a few years.

It is crazy how fast this week has gone. I am starting to have a hard time keep track of the days. I am having so much fun though.

Reading

I have been trying to read more, and I think my commute to work on the metro will help this summer. I like lists, so I thought I would fill this out.

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong– Sebastian Faulks
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Berniere
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

16!!! Way to go semi-literate self. I do have a goal to read more of these. Let's see what I can do.

Remember...to grow.

It has been a long time since I have posted. Well, over a year and a half. I don't have much to say about my life and what is going on (actually, that's not true, I don't have much I want to share at this time). However, I was reading this article and I liked the statements he made about what he has learned. I wanted to post them as a reminder to me to help me grow.

We believe it is a strength to conceal weakness.

It is easy to want others to overlook our flaws as we expect perfection in them.

It is hardest to show compassion and grant forgiveness to those closest to us.

While curiosity is a strength it can also be a curse.

We are creatures of habit.

Faith is a muscle.

It is far easier to deny deity than to deny desire.

The mystery surrounding death forces a consideration of spiritual matters.

Observance of the Sabbath recalibrates perspective and improves judgment.

Most of us bear scars from the failure, disappointment, and fear in our lives.  And, we prefer to wear long sleeves.

To deal with life’s pain most of us choose one of the following: alcohol, drugs, pornography, or spirituality.

Alcohol and drugs are the easiest path.  As long as you’re willing to never stop drinking, smoking, or swallowing.

Pornography is highly addictive and has nothing to do with sexual appetites and everything to do with escape.  And that the habit is never overcome in isolation.

We feel like a failure when we make mistakes even when we profess a belief that the purpose of this existence is to make and learn from them.

Forgiveness is the greatest gift we can offer someone.  And ourselves.

Many know about Jesus Christ but more of us could make an effort to know Him.

The strongest among us are those with the cleanest mirrors.

The sins of parents profoundly affect children.  And are often repeated by them.

Affection from parents profoundly affects children.

Most communication between parents and children is what psychologists call “superficial.”  Strong relationships are built on the “validating” variety.

Children desperately desire parents who listen.

Churches are not museums or catwalks for perfected saints but rather labs for sinners.

“Tolerate” and “love” are two very different verbs despite what popular culture professes.

There’s more sadness in this world than I had realized.

There is more goodness in this world than I had realized.

To be happy is a choice.

Those preoccupied with serving others have less time to count their problems.

A habit of one brief moment of spirituality a day can alter one’s entire direction.

We want God to grant us space to make decisions but step in to stop others, nature, mortality, or illness from hurting us or those we love.

Those who have made more mistakes have a great gift.  Empathy.  Now to the matter of searching out someone who hungers for it.

I have much to learn.

This fed my soul. I am mostly posting this for myself, but if it helps others, I am glad.