Whistle while you work.

I think I've finally found my favorite type of community service: Habit For Humanity! I had the opportunity to volunteer earlier this week through the business I work for, and I had SO much fun, even despite the heat.

I've never been too handy (silly since I'm an engineer, right?) and I've NEVER worked on a house before, except painting, so it was an awesome first experience. There were five of us from Eaton, including the other Operations intern and my roommate, so we all got to "take the day off" from work and give back to the community. The job site we worked at was building a duplex, but it is still in its early stages of building, so we got to build and put up wall frames. I'm such an engineer, I think I had more fun reading the schematics than anything else. :P

I learned quite a bit, too, of course! I now know what "flushing" boards means and the actual definition and purpose of a "stud" and why it's important to build walls in certain ways, especially when there's two stories to the house. The main architect gave us some great tips on how to use basic tools too, like the best way to grip a hammer and all that kind of stuff. I imagine this might not be new to anyone else, but I definitely benefited from talking with him all day. That just means I'll be that much more prepared when it comes to working on my own house in the future :)!

Here's some pictures of the house we were working on and some of the things we got to do!:

Holding up the stairway wall before it's "tacked"

Holding up another of the walls we built

The front of the duplex! The boys put up the front walls!

Team Eaton :D

What we accomplished in 8 hours. It doesn't look like much, but it was a ton of work.

Because I had an incredible experience and so much fun doing Habitat, I think I'm going to start volunteering at home too! Anyone know of any places near East Lansing? 

Oh, did I mention I got to use a giant table saw and was trusted to cut studs to exactly the right lengths? :D

I scream for... sandwiches?

The East Lansing City Council recently passed a policy that will allow two food trucks to roam the streets of East Lansing over the next year. It’s basically the same concept as an ice cream truck: goes around a specific route every day and stops at populated locations to make business. Funnily enough, the first time I ever saw a food truck was out here in Oregon. Every weekday the local Mexican cousine sends their food truck to the industrial park I work at. The truck worked it out with all of the companies out of the park so the truck will be at their specific location when their employees go on break. Honestly, that’s a great way to manage business for both side: keeps the money coming in for the truck and keeps the employees happy with having food available close to the plants they work at.

But back to the real deal in EL, what do you think about this? What kinds of food would you want to food trucks to serve? Where do you think they should make their stops?

Personally, I would love if it came to the Engineering Building a few times a day (especially since I will BASICALLY be living there for my senior year), but I would definitely want it to serve healthy option foods. Apparently, there’s already a food truck in Lansing called the The Purple Carrot that serves locally grown produce! That would be really cool if East Lansing could do something like that.

The disadvantage with this new program is that local restaurants on Grand River and even those on campus are expected to take a hit. Think about all of the efforts MSU has put into making the new Sparty’s cafes that serve more than just packaged snacks and drinks, and how business owners north of campus feel? I haven’t decided if I agree with this new system just yet; I guess I’ll just have to wait and see until I get to campus!

You can read the whole article here to find out more info and how you can give your input!

You could travel the world, but nothing comes close to the golden coast.

WOW, it's been such a busy week! There's a little less than a month left in my internship, and even less days of work just because of all the presentations I have to do/attend! I've been trying to wrap everything up at work as well as packing up things at my apartment (early I know, but the sooner I start, the less I'll have to worry about later!) I realized I'm going to have to package A LOT of things up and ship them home, mostly because of souvenirs from vacations and whatnot :p

Speaking of which, here are some of my pictures from my trip to Crater Lake, OR and San Francisco, CA! I took over 500 photos between the two locations, so there's no way I could show them all. Here's some of my favorites though:

Our first campsite in Crater Lake! And yes, that is indeed snow in the background. It got down to 30 deg that night!

Crater Lake, OR. One of the clearest and deepest lakes in the world. And in my book, the most beautiful I've ever seen. 

"Crater" Lake used to be a volcano. This is the tip that's been sunken into the lake after it erupted thousands of years ago. There's still geothermal activity on the bottom of the lake, as well.

Riding on the cable cars in San Francisco! Definitely a 'must' if you ever go there! And hint: if you're there for a couple of days, it's worth buying the multi-day passes. We definitely got our money's worth!

My favorite part of the trip at Cable Car Museum! It's an engineers paradise: these are some of the sheaves that run the four lines of cable cars. And this is only the part that is above ground, the rest of the engineering is below the city. :)

I ran across the Golden Gate Bridge on our final morning in the city! All 1.7+ miles of it :) One of the best experiences I've ever had.

It was super foggy the entire trip so I couldn't get a decent picture of the bridge. This angle is still one of my favorites though. It was taken from Fort Pointe, which is the old city fort that is directly under the south end of the bridge. Some awesome history there!

This is for all of my bakery friends. San Francisco is known for their sourdough bread by Boudin's Bakery. The ovens run 24/7 to make enough bread bowls for San Fran's infamous clam chowder every day! Not to mention all the other amazing kinds of bread they make too! 

 We waited an hour or so in line to drive down Lombard St. Now I can say I've driven down the curviest street in the world :)

Last picture of the Golden Gate Bridge and the fog decided to clear up RIGHT as we drove under the towers :D

Muir Woods, home to some of the largest and most beautiful Redwood trees in California.

Seriously, that tree could eat me.

And they are GIGANTIC.

This is a slice of a tree that started growing in 909 AC until it fell in 1930!

Basically, we did all of the tourist-y things like eating at Fisherman's Warf, driving down Lombard, riding the cable cars, crossing the bridge, etc. Another one of my favorite parts, of course science and engineering related, was going to the San Francisco Exploratorium. It's basically a massive hands-on science class with specializations in biology, physics, electricity, automation, and the five senses. We spent three and half hours in there and didn't even get through HALF of the exhibits! If I ever go back, and I probably will, I'll have to go back there and finish it off :)

After we went to the woods on Saturday, Blake and I just decided to drive through the night to get back home so we could have all Sunday to rest before the work week started again. It was a LONG drive total, but definitely worth it and one of my favorite experiences of being in Oregon this summer! :D

Happy Free Slurpee Day! :)

7/11 7/11 7/11! Means free 7.11 oz slurps at 7-11! Wow that's a lot of numbers..

But I was so excited to get my free slurp after work today! I'm just glad that the store still had cups left! Every year that I tried to go in Michigan, the stores always ran out of cups before I could get there so I'd have to buy them (even though they're not that expensive to begin with). I got Lemon Creme Freeze today :)

But! It's now very late and I still have to take a shower since I just got back from my run! I'll upload photos from Crater Lake and San Francisco soon! :)

Oh, we're halfway there. Oh, livin' on a prayer.

Friday marked the halfway point in my internship. It is an interesting feeling because I can't believe I have already been here for a month, but at the same time I felt like its been going so slowly. And I still have so much work to do too!! I mean, I've definitely accomplished A LOT so far, but I still have a ton to get done before I will be satisfied with what I accomplish during my time with Eaton. I just have to make sure to stay busy over the next six weeks! I can do that, right? :)

Let's see, what else have I done so far.. Oh! I got new running shoes! I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but Portland is a HUGE running and cycling city, so they have their own athletic store called the Portland Running Company. They have trainers there that watch you run to determine what shoe will fit you best. I had been running in the wrong kind of shoes for the past two months, so I've gotten some horrible shin splints :/. I ran for the first time in my new shoes today and they felt so great! I can’t wait to go again tomorrow.

New shoes! Funnily enough, my best friend (who had suggested I get new shoes because my shins hurt so badly) texted me and said, "Hey! I have those running shoes too!" Honestly, we WOULD buy the same pair of shoes :p

Another random story, but this is the third time in a row I’ve burned my banana bread. For whatever reason, I always forget that I have it in the oven, even when I set a timer to take it out. Fortunately enough, only the outside is burned, so if you just pick around the edges, it still tastes pretty good. I’m glad my breakfast muffins for the week are still intact..

And speaking of this week: I’m going to San Francisco for vacation! With it being Fourth of July and all, my coworker and I are taking our holidays on Thursday and Friday, so that means we’ll have six days in the great state of California! I just hope that we’ll be able to see some cool firework displays over the Golden Gate Bridge :)

I hope everyone has a great holiday! I'll be back with a ton of pictures :D