Sorry you didnt meet me (

Sorry you didn’t meet me ( During the Meet the Bloggers party on friday, I sent the following email to Ben Jones: - Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 21:03:56 -0400 (EDT) Subject: is there a meetthebloggers party and am i invited? -lulu - It turns out I was invited. Sorry I got confused. Its not too late though, to meet me, that is. You know where I live. Here a special shoutout to my homegirl Jessica. She was my prefrosh hostee for an overnight when I was a wee freshman and now shes all grown up and class of 2011 and everything :) aww I didnt get a prefrosh this CPW. I also didnt get to be Tim the Beaver, which cut me pretty deep. I havent updated in a while. What have I been up to? For one, I went to West Virginia. I know, I know, WHY? Well, because Cambridge was doing this: But also because: and and Me n my travel buddy: Also, I Got to learn how to drive stick-shift: Got to stand next to some big huge telescopes. Sometimes, nature does some strange things. You think you know, but one day it was thunderstorming and the lightning hit the little pine tree on the side of the road instead of the big huge telescope next to it. Did you know? The National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, WV is located in the nations only radio-quiet zone that spans approximately 15,000 square miles in area. (fact check!: 13,000 sq miles. source: Wikipedia) In addition, I Rode around in a convertible: Also saw some huge windmills: And more! But youd have to be in my writing class to know the rest. In other news, Ive been running around like a maniac, made two overnight trips to Connecticut in the same week because the US Government made me. The end result: IM A CITIZEN! Yeah go me, and good thing, too, since Ill be working at NASA this summer building a satellite. PAID INTERNSHIP. Because I dont think its top secret, Ill talk about it a little. Its called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), hopefully the lowest budget useful gadget well ever send into space. The launch is *hopeful* for 2009 2010 but one never knows. It will look for extrasolar planets (transiting planets- that cross in front of their host stars). The project is very ambitious for a 2 million dollar budget. Oh yeah and the project hasnt officially begun yet, which is really cool for me, maybe Ill play a minutely important role in the whole thing and see it go up when I graduate from MIT. Anyways Im really excited about that and on that matter I think Ill put in a plug for MIT: Look, go anywhere you want, but KNOW, that if you come here, youre guaranteed some pretty cool connections. I have to say Ive had generally great experiences with the professors and administration here. I dropped Aero/Astro and switched to Physics (which was, by the way, as simple as filling out a half-page form), but still go in and talk to my advisor from Aero/Astro (Prof. Wes Harris) about career plans and classes and things like that. A major in Course 16 has tons of requirements but if you want to build some kind of curriculum for yourself, its actually extremely flexible and allows you to petition out of many basic courses into the more advanced ones. Course 16 admins still send me emails about internship opportunities that open up (how I heard about this one), and I still have card access to the labs and lounges! (though that might be accidental) and UROPS! If I didnt get this particular job, I would have gone with the science team working on the MWA (Mileura Widefield Array, I believe) to Australia to help them assemble the radio telescope array. As a UROP student. Which, yes, at this point Im just bragging but LOOK AT THE COOL THINGS YOU GET TO DO! And Im just a dumb sophomore with okay grades and very limited experience. This internship is in California, so Ill be on the west coast for all the summer. But I wont be alone, there are 3 or 4 other students in Aero/Astro going out to this NASA facility (working on different projects, of course) and a couple of physics kids that I know. I cant think of anything else to talk about right now. Oh, the ring delivery is this thursday. Thats pretty cool I should have some pictures. And also, hope you had a good time at CPW. But remember, CPW might be fun, but keep in mind, Orientation is EVEN MORE FUN! p.s. I took a picture of a dog holding a whole sandwich in his mouth (this was in WV): I havent seen anything like that before or since. Good! Yay, pick a college. Do it quickly. Dont make a fuss. Sincerely, Lulu