Sunday, June 4, 2023
By:
Hello!
I would first like to introduce myself briefly. My name is Clayton Markech, or Clay for short. I am one of the NIST research interns working with Dr. Martin Sohn. I am ecstatic to participate in this internship program, and I hail from Carthage College in Kenosha, WI.
One week into my 10-week adventure to DC and the East Coast. Exactly one week ago, I hopped on a 6 am flight for move-in, and the week since has been nothing short of action-packed. My first adventure in this city was on Memorial Day when two people I had never met and I strolled down to watch the parade.
We had yet to check the weather very closely because shortly after we got to the parade, it started pouring all the while we were there and on the walk back. The first full day ended with a dinner with a dozen more people I’d never met. It turns out that is not as bad of an idea as it may sound; they were all great people, and they just so happened to be the other SPS interns here for the summer.
The following day was the first day of the internship, albeit orientation day. The entire group of interns, most of which had not ridden the metro in DC before, got on, hoping to end up in the right place. Luckily, a few people with experience got us to orientation on time. The orientation itself flew by. It included talks from people like the director of SPS, Brad, and one of the founders of the internship program, Jack, and others who gave us tips on the internship and our future endeavors. It was a great day. We even built towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows for an icebreaker, as I’m sure many of you have for school. A group of us ended the day by watching the sunset overlooking the Potomac's banks and the Arlington skyline, pictured below.
The next three days of the week were relatively uneventful. They were my first few days at my job site, the National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST. It was my first few days there, and I did not have my ID yet. That meant I couldn’t go anywhere without having my mentor in my back pocket, even though I wanted to explore the NIST campus. Nothing exhilarating happened in the first few days at NIST. Still, the highlights of my first three days include rereading articles at least half a dozen times, watching a few YouTube videos on the research topic, and a bunch of safety training I need before using any equipment. What I thought was cool and something I’ve never experienced, nor did I think I was going to experience during this internship, was the fact that I have my own office and my own phone number extension.
On the other hand, the social elements with the other interns in the evenings were full of activities. Wednesday, we walked to the National Mall, where we played Spikeball, some got ice cream, and we sat and talked. Thursday evening, we went to dinner then I was introduced to a new board game, Azul. I thought it was fun even though I didn’t-fully understand it; Friday, we all hung out in someone’s room for the night, playing games and discussing our weeks.
This weekend has flown by. I slept in Saturday morning because I had been waking up by 6:30 every morning to get ready for work. When I was fully awake, we were about to leave for the movie theater. We walked for at least a half hour for the scenic views of the White House and downtown DC. We saw the new Spider-Man movie, which was extremely good and had a well-written story. Not much else happened other than late-night crepes yesterday.
Today I did my first big grocery shop of the summer, which took me to multiple stores, although I did get to explore a little more. That brings us to as I’m writing this blog where I’m sitting on the backside of the Lincoln Memorial watching the sunset; I’ll be back in a week for the second installment. That’s all, folks.
Clayton Markech
Clayton Markech