Somerville, Massachusetts… h…
Somerville, Massachusetts… home sweet home!
What a last couple of weeks! I realize that I haven’t updated this in a little while, but life has been crazy, as you’ll soon see. I’m not spending very much time on the Intertubes during the work week, so I’ll probably be updating this every weekend.
Two weeks ago, I headed to Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, and spent a week hanging out at the first family reunion we’ve had in a long time. There were 14 of us initially, but that number dwindled over the course of the week as people returned to reality for school, work, new jobs in Cambridge, etc. We rented a beautiful house a block away from the beach and had a great time surfing, ocean kayaking, swimming, playing bocci, mini-golfing, seeing “Up,” and doing other beach-vacation activities. The weather was great for most of the week despite forecasts of rain, and it was great to see everyone!
On Friday, June 12, I flew from NC to Boston to move in and get ready for my internship. In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, my roommate for the summer (who I had never met in person) picked me up at the airport before going home for the weekend. My father flew up the following morning and spent the weekend helping me get settled in and enjoying the Somerville/Cambridge scene. We checked out some local eateries (the Sherman Cafe is great!) and headed over to Cambridge Bicycle to pick up a graduation present: a beautiful KHS Urban Xpress, helmet, and locks. Let there be transportation!
This summer, I’m living in Somerville and interning at Biogen Idec, right down the street in Cambridge. And on Monday, June 15, the internship began! We spent the first two days in orientation: learning about the company and the biotech sector, setting up computer accounts and learning the systems, safety training, and becoming familiar with the campus, buildings, and people. I met my supervisor, Dr. Chunyu Liu, on Tuesday afternoon, and spent the rest of the week working with her to familiarize myself with her research, figure out what we’d like to accomplish this summer, and getting myself set up on the many servers and systems I’m going to be using on a daily basis. (I’m going to post soon about the many things I like about working at Biogen Idec, but suffice to say, the first week was great.) I have some great resources at my disposal for the summer, and I’m looking forward to taking advantage of them as much as possible. Need to brush up on my UNIX a little bit first, though…