Here, finally, is my final post. I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting! I've begun classes at LVC again, and it took some time to get back into school mode. Coming back felt like the spring semester was ending and I should have been leaving for the summer. The 10 weeks I spent in California just flew by, and sometimes I catch myself thinking about my time out there, and then thinking, "Wow, I can't believe I just did that!"
The weather here also took some getting used to. The humidity was so great my first week back, but last week was more southern California-like, with dry air, cool temperatures, and beautiful blue, cloudless skies. I guess I got out of California just before the hottest part of the year, and narrowly escaped the wildfires. The Station Fire that has been burning since two Wednesdays ago is the largest in Los Angeles County history and has destroyed over 150,000 acres. It had been threatening Mount Wilson and even came within a few hundred yards of JPL! The skies in Colorado, some 1200 miles away, were hazy from the smoke, and ash was raining down on downtown LA! I wish I could be there to see all of this, and to see what has changed. I’d had some pretty amazing views of the San Gabriel Mountains from the top of the Millikan Library at Caltech (see my pictures). But I know that if I stood there now, I’d see those very same mountains on fire. That's part of the reason why getting back into school mode took longer than it should have; I have been distracted by the wildfires, thinking of the places I've been and how they'll be different when I return.
As promised, I have pictures of Caltech, JPL, and my flight home. Unfortunately, I took few pictures, so they don't even begin to show the beauty or diversity of what I saw. Regardless, I hope you enjoy the places and moments I was able to capture.
Caltech Pictures:
JPL Pictures:
Pictures from the flight home:
Once again, I'd like to express my gratitude to everyone in NASA USRP, JPL, and Caltech SFP who makes the internship program possible, to those at LVC in the technology and chemistry departments who set up my blog and prepared me for this amazing opportunity, to Veronica McGregor at JPL for reading my lab-related posts and allowing me to do this blog, to Paul and Rob for being awesome mentors, to the awesome friends I made, and to all of you for wondering what I was up to this summer. I want to reiterate what I said in the beginning of the summer; that is, the opportunities that LVC offers are incredible for its size and location. For the students reading this, I encourage you to take advantage of internship or research opportunites that may become available; they will undoubtedly help you come closer to reaching your career goals, or at least to determining what those goals are. I, for instance, have found that a career in astrochemistry is a goal I want to work towards. I have also determined that I love the west coast and would love to go to graduate school there. So who knows, maybe, hopefully one day, I'll go back to JPL. But the journey there all will have started here at Lebanon Valley College.