Hello!
So I have completed my second day at the office. It already is a lot of fun. I have been introduced to the various projects and have been assigned work for warranty already! I walked in the first day and was asked if I had ever worked with Microsoft Access before. Seeing as I hadn't, but I have worked extensively with Microsoft Excel, I decided I could figure it out. At the end of the day today, my computer and I were not on the best of terms, but we sorted things out and decided we wouldn't talk about work until Monday. All in all, the work side has been interesting so far. There are a lot of cool things like sextants and other naval tech around the office, which is fun to look at when Microsoft Office decides to crash the computer and restart.
The place that I am living in for the two months is actually really nice. I didn't really know what to expect of it, but upon arrival I am pleasantly suprised. I have my own space to myself and have full access to everything in the house. I ended up arranging to stay in a room with a couple who rents out rooms in their house as if it were a bed and breakfast. Nice couple, and nice place. I just wish it snowed a little later in my stay so I could have seen the house in all its glory. My first night here I didn't do much but get settled. My second day was the first day I went to work, so the morning was spent getting ready. That afternoon it started snowing pretty hard, so my boss sent me home early at 4:00 PM so that I didn't get caught in the snow. Over that night, it snowed a good four inches, stopped snowing, and then started gusting wind really hard. The result was that this morning I walked out to my car and the doors were frozen shut. After breaking the seal and entering my car, I turned it on and started clearing off the snow. Once I was sufficiently frozen to the bone and my car was clean I jumped in the car to warm up... except my engine decided it liked being cold and took a total of about fifteen minutes to warm up enough to give me heat. The weather when I arrived at work was 15 degrees outside with a wind chill advisory, which was well merited.
I am working with a graduate of Webb from the class of 2013, Gerardo Nixon. He apparently has become the office resident food guru since he began working there and has already taken me to two fantastic restaurants. The first was an awesome Cuban place where I got some fantastic spiced meat and veggies with a delicious rice and bean mixture. The second was a great japanese place that had wonderful sushi and rice bowls. I'm excited for my lunches to come and I might go out to eat somewhere for dinner tonight, but I'll figure that out when I get really hungry.
Well it was good catching up, but I'm off to go enjoy Silver Spring some more!
Eric Harris
