First Day of NASA Internship

Today was the first day of my internship at NASA Goddard and it went pretty swell.

My dad dropped me off at the Vistor's Center and went I went in, I immediately saw a group of interns in a circle. I thought they were surrounding a coordinator or something but it was actually just them being "social" and "talking to each other" and forming "SQUADS" on the first day. The guys looked like they were all in some kind of uniform: crisp button down shirts (mostly in the color blue), khaki pants, and those tan loafers/boat shoes that preppy boys seem to wear. Majority white. And actually pretty handsome. Basically, the type of guys that are recruited to go to UVA.

The girls varied a bit but of course, the seemingly most popular girl there was a averagely prettyand talkative girl in a cute dress. I stayed in the circle for a few minutes until I realized that my anti-social self was not fit for this squad so I began looking at the displays set up at the center.

I guess I was a bit caught off-guard. So yeah, I looked up some of the interns on the intern contact list just to get some ideas of the type of people that were going to be there. Most (if not all) the guys looked like stereotypical nerds and the girls varied a bit. So when I saw could-be Hollister models, I was a bit shocked.

Once a good number of people had arrived, the coordinators started checking us in. We went into a room with a bunch of chairs set up, got badges, and waited for the presentation to begin. I think I waited up to an hour just for the presentation to begin and in that time, I was surfing on my phone, doing nonsense because I was so bored. But everyone else was chatting up with the people around them. Like, is this how college orientation is going to be? Am I going to be sitting there like some kind of loner? Will I make no friends?

But no, seriously. People were way too friendly and it was kind of awkward for me. I normally make friends in a casual way. I can't do small talk. I eventually run out of crap to say and I'm already awkward as it is. So that's how it is. I was perfectly content sitting there. I was just boored and I wanted the presentation to just freakin' start.

Well, like I said, after an hour... Biggest regret of the day. A million different people spoke and very few were remotely interesting. It didn't help that I got like 3 hours (if even) of sleep last night and I was so used to a schedule of sleeping in two back-to-back intervals. I got Interval I and not Interval II. So by 10:00, I was done and the orientation started 9:30 AM.

So after the orientation finally finished, we were given Papa John's pizza (my favorite pizza) and we sat outside at some benches. I sat at a bench with a girl on the other side of the table. I gave her an awkward "Hi". Then two other people came to the table and we all eventually started chatting up each other.

It was nice. Still awkward but nice. There's really so much you can say when you barely know someone.

After that, we met up with our mentors. My mentor (who was not actually my real mentor) texted me saying he would pick me up after orientation and I thought that was really sketchy. I told him to meet me at the Visitor's Center. Then he sent a text saying he was wearing a blue plaid shirt and a tan cap. So as I was with my temporary SQUAD, someone pointed out a white man, chill-looking, probably in his 30s, wearing a blue plaid shit and a tan cap. I went up to him and asked if he was "Tracy". He was like, "No. I'm Shawn." And I was so blown.

My temporary SQUAD was blown too. Like what is the chance of that even happening?! Like HOW?!

Then, eventually a hefty black man appeared in the hills with a blue plaid shirt and a tan cap and I went up to him and that happened to be Tracy.

He was a nice fella but a bit creepy-looking, especially when he took me to his car to get to my building. But I noticed a bunch of other mentors were doing the same. I still didn't feel comfortable so I took my phone out, prepared to call for help if I needed to.

But he happened to be super nice, like I said. He showed me my building, which was in the health unit and I was immediately taken to my computer, which hadn't even been set up yet. I met a Asian man who also worked there and the two worked to set up the computer and get me started on it. I guess there really wasn't much for me to do because of how much stress they were putting on getting the computer set up.

I'm not going to go into too much detail. But I was introduced to a bunch of people in the building and then, he took me to his building and introduced me to people. I was then taken to the cafeterias. It was all by car. I then concluded that it was really going to be a struggle to get anywhere in the NASA Goddard campus because everything was a distance away.

I mean, I thought the UMD campus was big until I got used to walking on it all the time. I'll start walking on the Goddard campus, just to get a feel for it. Maybe it won't be as bad as I think it is. The problem is that it's summer and it's so damn hot. Maybe in the mornings I'll walk and in the afternoons, I'll take advantage of the shuttle.

Another idea is to make friends with another intern who can drive and see if they could get me rides to and from my building. An even better idea is to make friends with a cute boy intern and knock two birds with one stone: get transportation and knock off the "kiss boy" portion of my summer-to-do list.

;) I kid. That would never happen.

So we ended up back at my building and we hadn't been able to fix the computer. A tech person was supposed to come look at it. And I also realized that my mentors were absolutely clueless because when I was entering my information, they kept attributing my inability to log-in as a problem with my log-in information when clearly, it was something to do with the internet connection.

But yeah, my mentors left and I was left sitting in a room with nothing to do so I slept. I was really tired.

When I woke up, everyone was still gone so I roamed around, pooped, found myself a book to read, and that was it until the Asian man came back. I still did absolutely nothing. I found out a girl in my class had interned here last summer and it explained why she had the NASA intern gear without being in any of the internship classes.

Tracy came back and he took me to the Main Gate and that was the end of my day.

I forgot to mention that I got the MOST DELICIOUS cake EVER. Oh my gosh. I don't think I've ever tasted cake like that before. It was some time of coconut cake and it was so sweet and moist. It was made by this doctor who works at the health unit. A skinny doctor. How funny, right?

It was so rich, I really couldn't eat much of it. But man. I'm going to have dreams of that cake.

I also got a goody bag with a pen, some picture frame/alarm clock thing, a thermal, and a fanny pack. I ALSO got a  box of office supplies. I told my dad about it and he thinks it's just for the lab, but I think I can take it home. If I can, that means I save a few pennies on school supplies. I love office/school supplies though. Just buy me that stuff for my birthday and I will love you forever.

So yeah, I was happy when I left my internship. I may have to pay to get home though, which sucks. But hopefully, I'll be able to get around that somehow.

Today, I dressed up in this really professional looking dress and I felt just a smidge out of place. But luckily, my internship site is pretty casual so I guess I'll be wearing jeans and flats tomorrow. I do need to buy more internship appropriate clothes. I feel like I have nothing. Since the beginning of summer, I feel like I've worn about the same 5 outfits. The two dresses I have, shorts, these gray jegging pants, and this muscle t-shirt. I try to avoid wearing real pants as much as possible because it's so damn hot and humid.

I don't know how I'm going to manage wearing pants again for my internship. I really need to get a few more dresses and a skirt for some off-days.

Oh, I also didn't get my paycheck today. It wasn't the biggest thing on my mind throughout the day and I kind of expected that would happen. But man, I was thinking of all the things I would buy on the days leading up to my orientation. This is why my expectations are so low for everything. I hate being overly excited and then, disappointed.

I'll end it here. I have some training I need to do online for NASA. I should also pick out an outfit. We'll see what happens tonight.

Bye.