HSU -- Hills and Stairs University

Today was my first day working through my internship and it, like every other first day of work I've ever had, was intense. Stressful is really the perfect word, not stress as in "zOMG! I have so much stuff to do" but rather like the "there is so many new things to take in". Names, faces, people, roles, buildings, places, and the list goes on and on.

My project looks to be an interesting one, but something that I can handle and work with. I'll give more details as time goes on.

Two quick stories:
As shown in the title of this post, I have now discovered what HSU stands for. Hills and Stairs University (as my supervisor so eloquently pointed out on my brief tour of campus). They are EVERYWHERE, but they connect to all of the quads and such all over campus, at some point I will venture around with my camera to give a better idea, but for right now, there are tons of hills, and where there are hills, there are stairs.

Two, for lunch we went to a local place called Japhy's which was quite the experience. A very unique place with a unique sense of food. Much of our discussion at lunch revolved around something that I hit upon in my last post and that is how there are hardly any "chains" in Arcata. Everything is a Mom-and-Pop Shop, and there are very few chain shops here. 2 stores and a subway. That's it. It's just a very different way of life -- but that is Arcata. Even with the chains here, most people don't frequent them. It's very interesting....

Imagine living your life without:
Wal-Mart
Starbucks
Jimmy John's
McDonald's
Target
etc. etc.


That's not to say that there are replacements -- there are, and they are awesome -- ESPECIALLY the coffee. OH, the coffee. LOVE the coffee.

Quite the place that would be right?? That is where I live.



I'll continue to update later this week with more pictures of campus hopefully and other random fun stuff.

Peace,
-M