I have new pictures posted! Check out the album (click the picture)
The Getty Center is a very beautiful museum. The main draw is the view! Its gorgeous, you can see all of LA. There are hummingbirds EVERYWHERE too. However, it is very much a date place. I had a loneliness relapse after Kris left and decided to go to a few museums on my own, which was a bad idea. However, I was better a week or so later after I stopped feeling sorry for myself and starting calling people.
Last weekend I was able to go to the SWE (Society of Women Engineers) regional conference on USC's dime in AZ. It was so much fun. I was excited because I would get to made some friends with some of the girls outside of my program, since there are so few in Controls. It turns out that there was only one other Grad Student out of the bunch and she was 22, the rest of the girls were about 17-20! Yes, once again I am the oldest in the bunch but it was very okay.
We had a blast in the car ride there. I remember how easy it was to make friends when I was younger, its as easy as walking up to someone and saying "Hey lets be friends!". No weird communication rules, the right amount of eye contact, the correct firmness of the handshake etc. These girls were no frills, friendly, intelligent, and down to earth. I forgot that everyone was an engineer, that usually means easier conversations!
After the car ride, we had dinner with other schools and participated in a build a paper bridge contest. Our team won a blanket (one of the 4 bridges that held up). In the evening we had super girl bonding time in the hotel room. There were 4 girls to a room. I don't have a sister, but if I did I can only imagine it must be as much fun as we had talking and joking with each other.
Saturday we had breakfast and several workshops, as well as a career fair, lunch, and finally dinner with a keynote speaker. Several positive things happened for me that day. I spoke to some recruiters at Intel, and while I am not looking for an internship (I will be at GM this summer), I was interested to see what they might have available for full time. Turns out a female pursuing an MS in Controls is very rare. It was great to hear some encouraging words that my future will be bright. There are always days that I am discouraged by the multitude of international students getting straight A's without trying, and it was nice to hear positive words from normal people.
I want to point out the cutest thing in the world- The girl I shared a bed with, and was co-driver with, woke me up on Saturday night by hugging me. She had rolled over onto my side of the bed and threw her arms and legs over me and started hugging me! I woke up laughing... so cute! She said that her and her sister share a bed and she always hugs her at night.
On the drive back we stopped at a gift shop in the middle of the desert where I picked up some very vintage post cards. Please send me your snail mail address if you want one!
XOXO
Crystal
