So, You can see from Jenn's posts that our move has been an adventure and that everything has been going pretty well so far. She neglected to mention that Weston helped a lot getting the apartment finished and we had a lot of other people helping us along the way. The trip was great and we have enjoyed the time we have spent in Massachusetts so far and look forward to doing some exploring in the future.

I started work the Monday after we got here. I was introduced to many new people and an industry that I knew almost nothing about. The Dow campus here in Marlborough is an advanced (or specialty) materials site. That means that instead of producing huge quantities of commodity chemicals, usually sold at a low cost and high volumes, we produce a smaller volume of expensive products sold in more of a niche industry. This particular site produces electronics materials used in the Photolithography process in microelectronics fabrication. Most of that made very little sense for to me 2 weeks ago and I still have a long ways to go before I really understand what goes into it.

The team I am working with tests the products we make to ensure they meet the specifications required by the customers (IBM, Samsung, Micron, etc). I get to run tests in the lab and in a fab where I get to wear an awesome bunny suit (as seen above). It takes some getting used to but it is really not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Everyone at work seems really nice and I have learned a lot. There have been a lot of opportunities to get to know my co-workers better and some of them have really taken me under their wings to teach me about the industry.

From the Mississippi to the Atlantic

We drove into Chicago without any real plans, we just thought we'd drive through and see what we could find. As we wandered, we saw a pier and thought that it looked fun, so we just went there. Somehow, after parking, we would up in a stained glass museum. It was a little strange, but it did have some really cool stuff. Then we found some sort of children's festival, that had some little rides and big inflatables, but we liked it for all the Christmas trees. This one was huge! Turned out there wasn't the much else to do on a pier in the winter... who knew? But it did look like it was a pretty hopping place in the summer time.The only bad thing about Chicago was the driving itself. Once you get into the city, the lanes aren't marked on the road anymore so you can't every tell how many lanes there are supposed to be. And the drivers were crazy, not to mention all of the taxi cabs. Let's just say I'm glad it was Adam driving and not me.
That day we drove to a super cute little lake town called Port Clinton, and stayed had a hotel that had a back patio right on Lake Erie. It was so pretty out there! And man those lakes are big. There wasn't much to do in such a small town, but it was definitely one of the more enjoyable places we stayed, plus they had a really good Thai place where we ate dinner. The next day was our most eventful, however, because we were able to stop in Cleveland, Kirtland, and Niagara Falls. The drive was also getting better as we headed east, because we weren't driving through just flat fields and plains anymore, but next to the lake and through bigger cities where there was more to look at. Plus we were getting really into our book, The Lightning Thief, that I was reading to Adam, so that was helpful. In Cleveland we stopped at a museum, and then in Kirtland we went to the temple, the visitors' center and the Newell K. Whitney store. This stop was quite a bit more exciting than Winter Quarters, and had a lot of the original buildings and infrastructure of the town. That factor was especially cool because we got to see places where many church founders actually lived.
That night we made it to Niagara, which was so awesome to see. The only bad part was that we couldn't go over to the Canadian side, because that's where the good view and all the fun stuff is. Our side had one casino and some hotels, mixed with closed-up building, but their side looked like Las Vegas. Adam joked that the Canadian side was like the great and spacious building, just laughing and mocking the pathetic U.S. side. We did get to gamble for the first time though (after convincing them that my driver's license was NOT a fake I.D.) and spend a good amount of time freezing while we looked at the falls. The funniest thing that happened out there was that we walked over to the island so we could see the other falls, and Adam noticed a possum. He was so excited to see his first possum that we had to chase it until it ran into the bushes, so we didn't get a picture of it.
By the last day we didn't have too much of a drive left to get here, and the views were pretty good. Everything turned into wooded hills and lakes, and everything turned so green. I can't wait to see what it all looks like in the spring when things really start to green up again. We finally made it here that afternoon, and have finally gotten everything moved in. We made it!

Repacking, Remodeling, and Sleeping on Strange Beds

As everyone knows by now, Adam and I recently moved to Massachusetts for an internship. When my dad (also known as landlord) found out we were moving, he decided that would be the perfect opportunity to get some re-modeling done on our apartment. As soon as we finished with finals, Adam started tearing down walls and I began packing. Adam ended up tearing out a closet, turning a doorway into a wall, and replacing some ceilings, among other things. I, on the other hand, had to figure out how to fit everything we needed into our car. Normal packing is bad enough, but going through everything and deciding what was important enough to bring with us and small enough to fit into the car was really hard. After I finally got everything separated and packed, we realized that there was no way we could fit it all into the car. Solution? Space Bags! So we sucked everything we could into bags, got rid of a couple more things, and somehow got everything in. It took us until two days before we were leaving to get everything finished, but we got everything done in time. Goodbye three-plex!
Before we knew it we were saying goodbye and heading on our way. After sleeping on air mattresses, and trundles and living in construction zone and my parents' den, we were excited to get to our new apartment. For the time though, all we got was strange hotel rooms. The first day we drove from Mapleton to North Platte, NE. It was definitely a boring drive, but on the way there we went through Vail, CO and it was gorgeous. The ski runs were right next to the freeway, so we could see everyone skiing down the mountains. And all the condos there are huge and amazing. North Platte, on the other hand, not so amazing. There were a bunch of hotels there, but for some reason there were only like five restaurants, and between the time change and getting checked into the hotel, it was eight o' clock by the time we left the hotel for dinner, and all the restaurants were closed, so we had to go through a drive-thru. The one redeeming quality about Nebraska and it's flatness, however, is the great sunrise. The next day we drove to Romeoville, IL, but all we saw was flat fields and windmills. We did stop at Winter Quarters on the way, but it wasn't quite as exciting as we'd hoped. I'm pretty sure we made that poor sister missionary's day though. We were obviously the only ones there, and I don't think they were expecting anybody to stop by. Though it was smaller than expected, it was still nice to have a reminder of our pioneer heritage and what those saints were willing to go through for their the church with only faith and their own testimonies of the gospel. The drive up to that point was pretty nice, but after Romeoville came the fun stuff. Next stop, Chicago!