Internship: Day 2

Oh Heavens we did a lot of walking today, I'm pretty sure it was around 5-10 miles. I'm going to have to invest in some new walking shoes because I just wanted a wheelchair by the end of the day.  The only times we sat down were at lunch and when I used the ladies room (I know, TMI).We spent the first half of the day with Phil, who was the Terminal Operations Specialist.  He showed us even more secret passages and hallways, including what they call the "Disneyland Hall" which had metal protective stuff all the way up the sides of the hall.  Why? because it is the hallway that is used for all of the food vendors to bring their garbage and other junk in and out.  The metal just shines and sparkles, thus the name "Disneyland Hall".
We got a tour of the Delta employee lounges, starting off in the pilots lounge which had a giant TV and huge lazy boy recliner chairs everywhere.  Then as you move down, going to the flight attendant lounge, which had a couple small couches and a smaller TV, and then finally the ramp agent lounge with a small TV and something slightly better than a folding chair with a little bit of padding.  It was quite fascinating to see the difference from the pilots to the ramp agent lounge.  I know where I want to be ;)
We also got to go up in the Delta Tower, which is the tower you can see on top of the airport.  That is where all the Delta flights are controlled once the Air Traffic Controllers are done with them.  Getting up to this tower, we also got to go on the roof of the airport which was pretty cool.
So not too long ago, the airport had a contest to make a poster that they could use for FOD, which is Foreign Object Debris.  There are signs all over the airport for those working the airfield for people to pick up anything they see lying around because FOD can be deadly to aircraft.  We had the opportunity to see the winning poster, made by a young boy, and boy oh boy was it funny.  The original headline on it "Who foded?"  "FOD stinks!" This boy is going places with his catchy phrase :)
When we go back behind the main terminal, back where they send all the luggage, there are tons of conveyor belts, and I can't help but think about Toy Story 2 every single time.  It also makes me want to jump on and take a ride...maybe someday...
So probably my favorite story of the day was when we had a mission to complete: Find an 80 year old man that had 2 carry-on bags, one of them being green, we had his name and were told he might be in the C concourse, maybe by the bathrooms...
It was highly entertaining, like trying to find Waldo in all those books.  We eventually found him.  The reason we were looking for him is because he got separated from his wife, he was in the sterile area of security and she was on the other, she went to gather their other bags and couldn't get back through security because he had the tickets and her ID and everything else.  They were an adorable old couple and we ended up helping them carry all of their stuff  and helped them get to where they needed to be.  During this entire process they were extremely confused about everything.  And sadly this happened at about 11 AM and their flight for Alaska didn't leave until 5 PM that evening...
I am surprised at the amount of medical emergencies that happen on a daily basis at the airport.  We responded to 2 of them.  One of them being a woman that we think she had taken some medication or drugs or something because she kept passing out, and then she was hysterically crying.  The other was a guy that we can only guess got stung by a bee and was having a slight reaction.  Sadly, being interns, we don't usually get the whole story.  We usually just respond to keep passengers and other on-lookers away from the scene.
By this time, we were ready for lunch, and by that I mean we were ready to sit down for the first time.  So backtracking a bit, I put my purse and lunch in a locker and one of the ladies in the office let me use her lock.  The problem?  After locking the lock, she realized she didn't have the key...
So it was time for lunch and Greg, the guy who was in his office told me he had the master key and he could help me out, turns out the master key was a giant pair of bolt cutters.  The lock was busted open and I could retrieve my pitiful little lunch.  I feel kinda bad, like I might have to buy a new lock to replace the one I caused the damage to.
After lunch we were passed off to another guy named Brian, he is a Terminal/Landside Operations Specialist too.  We continued to walk back and forth through all of the terminals.  We just so happened to be walking by Wendy's when their fire alarm went off.  After about a minute of it going off, Brian went in to tell the employees to evacuate...no offense but they weren't the brightest crayons in the box.  Hello, your fire alarm is going off, if you don't know why, wouldn't you want to get out of there?  Turns out no fire and business went back to normal.
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, just A LOT of walking around, Jordan and I were contemplating using the excuse that we had to go to the bathroom just so we could sit down for a minute.
I should point out that we have technically been on a sort of scavenger hunt since our first day.  There is an artist, Anton Rasmussen that has 3 paintings throughout the airport.  We have found 2 of them and we have been challenged to find the last one.  I swear it doesn't exist.  I think that some of the guys just tell us stuff as a joke because we are interns and we know nothing, it's actually quite funny.
They told us that we will have to bring them a yard of flight line, and a gallon of prop wash and things like that (probably only aviation people will think that's funny).  We are also on the hunt for Hiney Hiders (who the heck knows what that is).  Also, as part of our initiation, we are supposed to push a penny down the runway with our nose...the runway is 12,000 feet long...
So it's safe to say we have fun.  I am learning a whole lot and enjoying every bit of it. Holy cow, sorry for the long post but I don't want to forget the adventures I am having.  I feel bad for the lack of pictures this time around but hopefully I will make up for it later.  Thanks for enduring and reading :)

*peace out girl scout*