The beginning of an adventure

So, I don't usually write blogs, but I've had several requests from people asking me to keep them updated with how my summer is going, so here I am! For those of you just tuning in, I applied for several REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) programs back in February and ended up choosing the program at Oregon State University in Corvallis.  The program lasts 10 weeks, and there are 14 other students in the program with me.  I flew out on Monday, June 16 from Dulles (my first time traveling all by myself! Good thing my parents gave me 20 years of experience, so I knew what to do)



and arrived in Portland at 9:00PM Pacific time (but my brain still thought it was Eastern time).  Luckily, one of my fellow REUers picked me up from the airport, so I didn't have to wait around 2 hours for the shuttle that runs from Portland to Corvallis.





The first day, we had a group breakfast and introduced ourselves



and listened to presentations given by previous REU students.  We had a campus tour, followed by a lunch at Chipotle with some of my pleasant new REU friends. After lunch, I got a tour of my working facilities by my mentor (Dr. Andrew Thurber), who also gave me some light reading material (2 textbooks on oceanography)



Fast forward to day 2: We were picked up and driven to the other REU location for Oregon State in Newport at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.  The HMSC has a lovely visitor's center with a plethora of interactive exhibits, which I thoroughly enjoyed, because



After lunch, we played a round of volleyball which was made interesting by the sand court being surrounded by abundant prickly vegetation.  We then took a trip to the beach (my roommate's first time to an ocean!), which was incredibly relaxing and enjoyable.

So that's my adventure so far, we'll see how well I can keep this blog up. Here are some pictures of the HMSC Visitor's Center and the beach!