12 Weeks in Portland: So much for that!

Well, so much for posting twice a week! I didn't even make it once last week. But we've had a busy first couple of weeks, and it's been fun.

Internship wise, things are basically on hold. My paperwork had a major error (my birthday was wrong) so it got kicked back to my sponsor, and now we're waiting on that to be corrected and sent back to HR, so that it can then be sent to the Department of Homeland Security for my background check. At the rate things are going, I probably won't get clearance to actually do anything before the middle of July, at the earliest, but my research mentor has said that we'll work around it somehow. As things stand, I've been reading a lot of background articles, getting to know the other T-35 interns and the 4th year students, working on protocols and study design, and playing a lot of Tetris on my phone. We've been meeting with each of the researchers to learn more about their backgrounds and past and current projects. We also had a research ethics class that turned out to be far more interesting than I had expected. Research ethics has a lot of twists and turns that just aren't considered in a clinical setting, and our instructor was really fun to get talking, since he works with the auditory systems of birds.

Exploring Portland-wise... Wellllll, I'll probably just put up a slideshow of pictures. But the Rose Festival was this past week, and I kicked it off last weekend by meeting up with an AmeriCorps pal and her parents (and their friends) for the Starlight Parade. There were some fun floats, and it was cool to see the entire city just shut down. Plus it was good to catch up with my friend, since I haven't seen her in almost a year. I hope we'll have more time together over the summer!

The people here are very nice. I have a suitemate, R, who's very nice, and we've hung out a few times. There's also L, who lives down the hall. M & I have also hung out with J & A, the other T-35 interns, and a few of the other students/audiologists from the NCRAR. Tonight we went for ice cream with a bunch of other interns from our floor. I think they're all doing some kind of Christian ministry internship, but I didn't ask for details. They're also all really nice and also very Southern. I will probably have acquired a touch of Southern accent by August if I spend much time with them. The people on our floor seem nice, for the most part, if a little aloof. Some people have their doors open a lot, others I've never met.

We've hit the farmer's market twice - delicious, if on the expensive side; the Saturday market - I may have my Christmas/birthday shopping done for the next year by the time I leave in August; the east side of Portland - very artsy; and explored Downtown a lot. We also visited the International Rose Test Garden, which was in full bloom and absolutely stunning, as well as the Japanese Garden, which was so quiet and peaceful. I'd really like to go back on a day when there aren't a ton of people, and spend more time wandering through it.

Tonight we went to Salt & Straw, which is an amazing ice cream place. They have some really strange flavors, but they also let people try everything. I ended up getting a split scoop - way cool! - of Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache and Coconut with Petunia's Salted Caramel Bars. It was amazing, and just perfect after a scorching 93* day.

Slideshow of our last couple of weeks below!! I'll try to be better about posting - that is why I downloaded the app on my phone.

More soon!
Anna