Summer Updates and the Beginnings of Philly

With school about to start, I thought it would be best to talk about the summer before getting caught up in the business that is sure to follow.

I took this summer "off", as off as any student who is used to working at a college can be. The previous two summers, I worked full time at KEYW Corp. as an intern and the summer before that I worked 50 or so hours a week as a camp counselor.  Summer off was a relatively new thing for me. 

Needless to say, after the first week I was tried of relaxing. But God works in wonderful ways. It seems he always puts us where we are needed, when we are needed.  

As it was, my mother was working on achieving one of her dreams: opening a quilting fabric shop. By the time I had gotten back from school, her partner and she had managed to find a location and were already buying inventory!  They were thrilled when I wanted to jump in as their IT support guy.  I spent a decent amount of time over the summer sitting at one of their computers and wrestling with making their internet connections work properly, setting up the different pieces of hardware they had bought, and just trying to make all their technology work in general (that's a full time job!). I loved the experience; I had the opportunity the computer science and technical support skills I learned at GCC.  I also got to invest myself in the shop, which helped me see Mom's world. 

The shop has been a whole family experience. My dad stopped by fairly often and helped out with food runs, sanding furniture, or some other odd job, my cousins have spent time working in the shop (one of them even made the website! http://printscharmingqs.com/), one of my aunts is teaching a class... You get the picture. My family is a huge support for Mom in this undertaking.

Aside from the shop, I spent a good deal of time up in Lancaster, PA, visiting my girlfriend Chelsea. Since she's still at Grove City, we are not going to be able to see each other nearly as much as we were accustomed to, so we were trying to spend as much time together as we could. Those days definitely seemed to blur together (not to mention prepped me a little bit for cooking on my own). Needless to say, now that I am in Philly and her at GCC, I miss her.

As some of you who are reading this know, my sister and I planned to go to Rome this summer. Unfortunately, those plans fell through, so that didn't happen.  However, good did come from the time I was going to spend in Italy. Earlier in the summer, I had started painting the interior of the house. Mom and Dad had started doing it when they thought they were going to sell the place (not getting into the story of why right now), but that stopped once Mom got really involved with the shop. Seeing as that it needed to be done and that I had free time, I decided to work on finishing it up. Word got around to some friends at the church that I was doing interior painting, and they approached me with a job to paint their sun room. I was thrilled. The job was great, and I am still very grateful to them for the opportunity and for their generosity.

Our first real dinner!

So now for Philly.

As some of know, I accepted an offer to Drexel University's PhD. Physics Program last April.  Drexel is in Philly, so now I am in the city. I moved in about two weeks ago with Andy Caffro, another GCC graduate who is working in the city. Our apartment is nice, plenty for the two of us, and I've been spending the time to learn this part of the city and get comfortable with doing simple chores like cooking.

Our kitchen

Moving in itself was an adventure. Dad and I packed the van with two bedframes, two mattresses, a folding bookcase, and a bunch of cooking supplies and my stuff. There was actually room left over!  When we got to Philly, I got the keys to the apartment and took Dad to the right street. Unfortunately, I didn't remember exactly where it was, but we managed to park right in front of the place! The day was mid to upper 80's, so we weren't thrilled with having to move it up to the second floor. We did it though, and had time to spare before Andy came to move in.

Fortunately for us, my cousin Ben is an undergraduate at Drexel. We called him to ask him to dinner, but he showed up to help move Andy in! After moving in Andy and eating, Dad took as to Walmart to stock us up on food and other things we needed (such as trash cans, box fans, shower curtain).  Andy and I are both still very grateful for that.  We have enough beans and rice to last us a while!

My room, in all its glory.

Andy in his windowed room

Tomorrow I begin orientation at Drexel. The program is two weeks long and includes a variety of things. Most of the program is an introduction to scientific computing using Python. Fortunately, I spent a good part of the summer familiarizing myself with the programming language, so it shouldn't be extremely difficult. Other parts of orientation will include lectures on how to do research, how to fulfill the role of Teaching Assistant (my official job), as well as faculty research talks.

In another two weeks, I'll be in actual classes. Since Drexel is on a quarter system, I'll be taking 3 classes: Mathematical Physics, Dynamics (Mechanics), and Biophysics. I'm excited to get started with classes again since most schools have already been in session for two weeks already!

Living Room Pt 1

Living Room Pt 2