Late June adventures

Sunday was a full day. I went to a friend's lake-house in Charlton, a dinky down to the south of the Woo. Actually I had been to Charlton twice before at astronomy outreach events at their middle school. Anyway, I was there enjoying the weather and the company of some friends. We grilled some cheeseburgers and had couscous with black beans.

After the lake-house, I went to Kent's parents' place. They were having a get-together. It turns out that just a few miles from their place, I got lost and so I showed up a bit late. In fact, I had already missed the soccer match between Spain and Germany. Just a quick word on that. So to recap, Turkey was the most amazing team in the Euro, but they lost to Germany for a number of dumb reasons. Germany therefore advanced to the final but lost to Spain. Now, I am glad that Spain won because not only do I not forgive Germany for what they did to Turkey, but also because Turkey is going to get their chance to play Spain this winter and spring. Why would I care about that? Well you see, if the conditions had been more natural, I think Turkey would have beaten Germany and gone on to play Spain. Which makes me wonder, what would happen in a Turkey-Spain match-up? Now we will all get to find out. And it's not just going to happen in friendly matches, no, no. Spain and Turkey are in the same group for World Cup 2010 Qualifying. And if Turkey beats Spain in both those games, I will say there ya go. They should have won the Euro. But if not I will say shucks-a-bummer, they would have gotten second place.

So now you're all wondering, how was your first day with the new internship? Great question, great answer. It was great. I am working for a Dutch consulting company called Kema. So it turns out that I will be working some of the time with a guy who heads up their community wind feasibility study branch, and some of my time will be helping out with some green building projects. Windpower? Green buildings? Yeah, I know it is sweet.

The only real drawback from my internship is that I have a lot of driving to do just to get out there. However, I am taking some steps to reduce the amount of driving I have to do by staying a couple nights a week with some friends in Framingham.

So that's the latest. With little time to spare during the week and so many interests, I find I have to allocate every moment for something. I guess it makes my day to day more predictable, but then again is my life ever predictable? Rarely.

Another summer in the Woo

I am back in Worcester for the summer again. This time I have an internship about an hour away so I won't be here all the time, but I happy about my situation. Here are the reasons.

1. I have a number of friends here. First of all there are a bunch of other WPI people who are here for the summer and that is nice. That includes my Turkish friends who are endless fun. Secondly, the local Ecuadorians all hang out together on the weekends and I like to join them. They call me Jeremias and we share a lot of laughs. Every Sunday they get together to play soccer and I joined them yesterday. It was fairly informal but the rule was that the team that wins stays and plays the next team. The problem was that the team I was on kept winning. So I played like 5 games in a row, each lasting roughly half an hour. Now I am sore, but it feels good. This leads in to reason 2.


2. Football. The real one (you know where you use your FEET to hit the BALL). I love playing this game because it is intense, aerobic, and lots of fun. Some days I do great, some days not so great. So I love the exercise but I also like the fact that I meet a lot of people, I get outside, and I have something to look forward to on the weekends. Also I should mention that watching football is so much fun. Right now the UEFA Euro 2008 is happening and I have been hardcore rooting for Turkey. What an amazing run of games they have had! down 1-0 against Switzerland they came back and won 2-1 to eliminate them. Down 2-0 against Czech Republic, they came back in the final minutes to win 3-2 (if you're unfamiliar with the sport this is totally unheard of). Then, get this, they played Croatia in the quarterfinal and were tied 0-0 the whole game. It went into extra time and with one minute left in the game Croatia scored a goal. I was devastated. But then! On the last play of the game, in the final seconds Turkey got a miraculous goal to even the score. The game went to penalties and Turkey won. It was absolutely epic. Now they are going to play Germany and I am hopeful, but Turkey has lost a lot of players to injury and suspension so it is not looking too good. We'll see. The game is Wednesday. Ok, I am not here to blog about sports but what a great Euro this has been. Onto the next reason why I like Worcester in the summer.

3. I have a car and I am mostly centrally located. My sister and one of my best friends are about a 2 hour drive to the west. Mom is a 30 minute drive to the north. Dad is about 5 hours to the northeast. My brother is a few hours south. My job is an hour east. That leads me to reason 4.

4. I just got a summer job! It's with a Dutch company called Kema. They do consulting and feasibility studies and stuff like that. That starts in a few days, and I am very excited. I drove to their offices this morning in the pouring rain, had the interview (went really well) and then drove home. The commute is long and will probably get annoying soon so I am looking into some options for staying a little closer by a few days out of the week.

Anyway I included a picture here of one of my close Turkish friends, Merve. She lives in a nice apartment that has a pool. I really enjoyed the chance to swim (as you can see above).

I will try to keep up with this blog and upload pictures form time to time to show the friends I hang out with and the different aspects of my summer. Feel free to leave comments or ask me questions. And if you are in the Woo this summer too, or just passing through, give me call.