Friday, June 23, 2017
By:
This week I spent trying to get over a cold, so I listened to a lot of podcasts and had plenty of time for self-reflection.
There are other interns working at ACP(American Center for Physics) besides our group of SPS interns. There’s interns for accounting, IT, but also other physics interns. APS hosts two education interns, and one of them, Sam, and I got a chance to bond last weekend when we went on a quest to get art supplies. Sam needed canvases for his oil paintings and I needed mirrors and plastic for etching mirrors. We ventured over to the nearest Michael’s, about an hour away on the Metro. We also found some pretty good chinese and ethiopian restaurants. Spicy food when you are sick is great.
Sunday was Jacob’s birthday so on Saturday night a few of us interns went to this really nice restaurant, The Hamilton, to celebrate. Then we saw a live performance and showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As my first time seeing it, I was both impressed and disturbed.
During the week I worked on a mirror since the commercialized, diluted paste form of hydrofluoric acid I ordered arrived. You can see the small, “tester” mirror I etched and the stage just before it is completed with the paste-like acid in the pictures below. My week also consisted of finding great deals on food and drinks(Medaterra and The Front Page on Thursdays).
With the combination of being in Washington, D.C., the bustling capital of our country, and being surrounded by physics professionals with connections to almost every physicist I know, makes me realize that it really is a small world after all. If I could leave my small city in California and spend a summer in D.C., what’s stopping me from going anywhere, besides my own self? Maybe it’s just the physics network that makes the world seem smaller, or maybe it’s my rising confidence levels in my abilities that allow me to believe that I can do whatever, or go wherever, I want.
I finished up the three Startup Stories for the entrepreneurs we have. My mentor and I are now trying to get them up on the APS website, but since the website department is short on staff, it’s hard to meet up with them. While we are waiting on that, I am condensing one of the Stories to be an article that will go out on The Vector, an APS monthly email to assist undergrads. I also am going to work on another article that will go in APS News in August. Exciting stuff!
Mary Ann Mort