Hey y’all! Hope everything is well, I can’t believe how quickly this semester is coming to an end! Here are my top ten favorite memories from this fall!
10. Going home for Thanksgiving. Last year I wasn’t able to make it home for Thanksgiving so I made sure to book my flights home for Thanksgiving this year! Usually it’s just my parents and me splitting a turkey, but this year we had my grandmother in town from New York and a few other relatives. I had a great time catching up with my cousins and really enjoyed spending time with my grandmother who I don’t get to see very often. Watching football, eating BBQ, hanging out with family – it doesn’t get much better than that.
Kiera, Sid and Tallulah
1 Labradoodle and 2 Goldendoodles for Thanksgiving!
9. Making the CMAA SPARKS Design Build Competition Team. I have learned a lot from all of our practices, dinner and learns and even my fellow members. Our team is comprised of civil engineers, architects and even a student in the Sol Price School of Policy, Planning and Development. It is a lot of applicable real world knowledge that I haven’t learned in the classroom setting.
8. Finishing my semester long CE 334L project. It’s been a really interesting project and I have learned a lot on the subject matter but it has also taken a very long time to complete. The CE Lab is practically my second home now haha. My group’s final project was to examine a strain gauges ability to detect damage. We will be presenting tomorrow and then we’re finished! Wish us luck!
My CE334L final project
7. Volunteering at the Westside German Shepherd Rescue. It was such a great stress reliever and it felt great to give back to the community! The dogs were such sweethearts and really reminded me of my puppies back home.
6. Austin City Limits – after a long week of midterms and class, I got to fly back home to Austin and see one of my favorite Austin traditions – ACL. My favorite bands were Vampire Weekend, Delta Rae, Shakey Graves and The Shouting Matches.
Beautiful ACL
5. Interviewing Professor Patrick Lynett for Meet the Faculty. Professor Lynett is currently my CE 309 Fluid Dynamics teacher. The Meet the Faculty webisode really gave me an opportunity to get to know him more and learn more about his research – it was fascinating! It is always nice to get to know your teachers better outside of the classroom setting.
4. Riding the rollercoaster at the Santa Monica Pier with my dad during his short visit to LA. I had a great time; it definitely brought me back to my child hood! I also got lunch with him at a great restaurant in Malibu and showed him my apartment and some of campus, which he hasn’t seen in over a year.
View from the roller coaster!
3. Going to the Zac Brown Band concert at the Hollywood Bowl & Jason Mraz showed up as the surprise guest! I just about died and went to heaven. Definitely one of the best concerts that I have ever been to!
2. Signing with Turner Construction Company for an internship in summer 2014. I get to work in LA for the summer although I haven’t been assigned to a project yet. I am incredibly excited to be working with Turner but also very happy to not have to worry about networking or hunting for an internship anymore!
Turner’s Holiday Gift Box
1. Rushing onto the field after the win against No. 4 ranked Stanford – simply unreal. Every football fan’s dream.
Rushing onto the field!
