First 24 hours here..
The flight was uneventful and boring, that’s all I gotta say about the flights. I watched some movies, some comedies, listened to some music and slept some. That’s all I did and all there was to do on the flights. Detriot’s airport was pretty fun to see, but not really for filling up 3 hours of waiting for the next flight. Ah well, nothing I could do about that.
In Fort Lauderdale I got picked up by Gordon (my internship supervisor, more or less..) and Karen (colleague of Gordon at the USGS) and was basicly sent past the Wallmart (which is HUUUUGE, think of the biggest store you’ve been in in The Netherlands and multiply that by 4, that might be the size of this Wallmart) to pick up some groceries and stuff to get through the first few days. After which I was brought over to the house I will be staying at for the next couple of months. I talked a bit with my housemates Tim and James, who were there for a few weeks already and will be staying for a few more weeks also, doing research about sparrows.
The next day I got shown how my car works. Yeah, I actually got a vehicle assigned to me, owned by the USGS. It’s known as the ‘Little Blue Truck’ here and is a beaten up old Chevy stickshift pick-up truck that I’m allowed to drive on park grounds. After getting the car I followed Gordon to the office. Basicly meeting all the people working here, filling out paperworks, doing some computer-tests and starting with the aviation training, cause at some point during the internship, I’m going to be flying along with the helicopter to get some work done in the park.
Right, I got tomorrow off and there’ll be a little bbq at my house for the employees here to get to know me on a social level, so that’s all going to be great.
What can I say, I’m already having a great time and I’ve just been here for about 24 hours. This is going to be one hell of an experience, I kid you not! Alright, it’s 5pm here and it’s time to go home, so that’s what I’ll be doing right now. More from me later!
Oh, one last thing, there’s no internet at the house, but I’m allowed to check my mail at the office, so ocasionally I’ll check my mail and see if I have time to update this website. If not able to do those things I just mentioned, you’ll just have to assume that I’m having the time of my life here, cause I probably will. 😀
Themocracy
Man, I’m glad to see you’re off to such a good start. :] I think you’ll indeed have a great time there.
You were damn lucky to actually make it to the US too, bud. Not sure how much news coverage of it you get over there, but a few hours after you left, airtraffic broke completely down in Northern Europe due to that vulcano in Iceland pumping out tons of ashes. All airports north of the alps are closed down. Not sure when they’ll open up again… but hopefully within the next three months so we can get you back again. If you still wanna leave the US then that is. ;]
Thank god that you didn’t had that crap with that volcano eruption from Ijsland. the evening of the day you left all the flights got canceled. good to hear that your doing fine kaelin! make it a good one ^^
Hej Evert,
Leuk om wat van je te lezen. Je hebt echt zwaar geluk gehad met het vliegen, net nadat jij was vertrokken hebben ze het luchtruim afgesloten (ivm vulkanische aswolk vanuit IJsland) en het luchtruim is tot nu toe nog steeds dicht!!!! Veel plezier daar!!!
Groeten,
Tristan
Nice to know that you are having the time of your life !
Keep us posted, we’re interested in your events and experiences
Kind regards from Heiloo