Internship: Day 4

Today was a pretty slow day for me.  The three of us were all split up into different areas.  I was sent with Gary, who is an Airport Operations Manager.  We started off the morning (once I found my way through the secret passages) by sitting in on an interview.  They let me look at all of the questions they ask during the process before the person being interviewed arrived.  Honestly, that relieved a lot of the anxiety I would probably feel if I happen to get an interview with them soon.  It's not too scary and they gave me some pointers to follow.
After that, Gary and I had a special assignment....ok not really too special, but it was still fun.  We had to supervise this group of people as they filmed a commercial/did a photo shoot inside the airport, near the A gates.  They pretty much filmed all day that I was there, from 11-3:30.  So we sat and watched and I'm pretty sure the back of my head will probably be in some of the shots so that could be exciting.
The company is called Goal Zero.  We got a sneak peek at a new product that they are about to release but you can check out their products here: http://www.goalzero.com/
Not too much to report, I was actually pretty grateful for the slow day.  Barely 3 miles were walked, lots of liquid consumed.
Surprisingly, I got cold.  Imagine that, its nearly 103 degrees outside and I was inside all day with goose bumps, not bad compared to Tuesday when I was outside most of the day, the ambient temperature was 107, and the surface temperature was around 125 degrees...that is TOO HOT!

*peace out girl scout*

Internship: Day 3 "The Eagle has Landed"

Today has been by far the most fascinating day.  I really just want to start by telling about the end of my day but I guess I will start at the very beginning...it's a very good place to start, or so they tell me.

We started out the day out in Airfield Operations.  Basically we just drove around inspecting the fences and picking up FOD (foreign object debris) with our tour guide of the day, Darwin.  One of the other Operations managers, Dave called up saying he needed some help putting up some signs up for the SIDA (Secure Identification Display Area) doors at the SkyWest hangar.  When he arrived he asked for me to help him out, I was a little excited, I got to go on a special assignment.  Ok not really, I was picked because I was the only one who had fingernails that were able to pull the plastic covering off of the giant stickers.  So I went with Dave and he asked if I had another job I was doing on top of this internship so I told him I work at a fabric store, and from then on, our little sticker outing was known as “Arts & Crafts time”.  I didn’t mind being used for my lovely fingernails, it was actually a good experience and I at least got to walk around (even though it was well over 100 degrees outside) instead of riding around in the car some more.  Dave and I went back inside to cool down and get a drink and I met a few more people while we were inside.  Dave even said “We need to get this girl a job here” (referring to me of course), so maybe there is hope?

Dave handed me off to Troy to take me back to the rest of the group and we got there just in time to do the daily runway inspection.  They close the runways one at a time for a few minutes so that the fleet of 3-4 vehicles can drive down the length of it to check for FOD or cracks or other damage that may have occurred.  It was pretty cool driving down the middle of a runway at about 50 mph.  No worries, we didn’t find anything, so we continued to the other side of the airport so that we could go to lunch.  As we were driving back I spotted some plastic tarp thing that could potentially cause some problems so I asked Darwin to stop and I would go get it.  I got out of the car and told him not to leave me and as I walked out and bent down to pick up the garbage, he drove off….only a little bit.  I figured, if they leave me out there, I won’t be stuck out there for long.  Surely someone will spot a random stranger walking around out at the end of the runway…that doesn’t look suspicious at all…  Darwin stopped and I walked back to the car and he was mostly surprised that I hadn’t flinched one bit when he drove off.

Lunch was uneventful.  We usually sit down in the terminal so that we can do some people watching while we eat, that is always a little bit entertaining.  Our “boss”, the other Dave walked by us and informed us that there is an actual break room that we could use.  Who knew? Haha he will be showing us where that is next time.

After lunch we called Darwin and he drove around to pick us up.  So earlier in the day we were informed that the Vice President would be flying in and that if we wanted to, we could help and observe.  Of course we wanted to.  The time between lunch and when we were switched over to the other Dave, the new shift manager for the evening’s events is a blur, other than we drove really close to the back of some planes and I got some cool pictures, that is what I remember.

So the time that the VP was to arrive was delayed an hour, then 2 hours, then back 30 minutes and it just kept going back and forth.  So we didn’t really know when to expect him but we decided to ride around the airport anyway to look for suspicious behavior in the area he was supposed to be in.  Dave told us when we first got in the car that when he finally did arrive that we shouldn’t make any sudden movements or get out of the vehicle and if there were lasers pointing at us that we were probably goners, that’s a happy thought.  Oh did I mention that by this point we had picked up the head Secret Service Agent and one of the head police officers and we were driving around the airport with them.  SO FREAKING COOL!!  The Secret Agent even had that cool little earpiece thing with the curly cord going down his neck into his dark suit coat and he had the little microphone hidden in his sleeve that he kept talking into, like this…

Courtesy of the wonderful Google

And the Police Officer was a big guy…and very attractive… I thought about snapping a picture of them from the very back seat of the Ford Explorer but I voted against that because I didn’t know if that would get me killed or worse, kicked out of the car.  The whole experience was very surreal.  I felt like I was in a movie with the VPresident arriving and the secret agents scattered around, and the police, highway patrol, bomb squad, and members of SWAT everywhere.  I’ll say it again, it was FREAKING COOL!

We took a secret agent to the control tower so that he could observe from there.  We drove around and found some “suspicious looking vehicles” parked in random places.  You wouldn’t believe how quickly they left the premises once they were approached by the Secret Agent and the Police Officer.  Oh and funny little fact, when the Secret Agent goes to ask people to leave, he will only say, “We have a visitor coming and we need you to move” or something like that, but I find it funny that they don’t ever say exactly who is coming, just a visitor…not like he is the Vice President of the freaking United States or anything, no big deal.  We only have 50+ people here to protect him and we have a sniper on the roof but no big deal.

We waited and waited and took a break in TacAir where all the security people were waiting, I tried to snap a picture so that you could get an idea of exactly how many people with guns there were but it was a little frightening and intimidating and I didn’t want to get caught so please excuse the terrible picture.

Right before he arrived we had to inspect the runway and after we inspected it, nobody else could land or takeoff from it until he had landed.  So we drove down the runway like we did earlier that day and everything looked good to go.  I forgot to mention that by this time, I was the only intern left.  The other two had to leave and I just couldn’t keep myself away from this, I mean come on, how many times does something like this actually happen? I’ll answer that for you, it doesn’t happen often at all, and I was not going to miss it. 

Air Force 2 Landing

Deplaning

We inspected the runway and then we were forced to go back inside the building away from all of the excitement.  There were no regular civilians allowed outside in the area.  I said to Dave, “I knew I should have worn my Secret Agent suit today” It kind of sucked from inside, but I watched as Air Force 2 came in and touched down on the runway, it was beautiful.  We were supposed to stay inside until the motorcade left but we couldn’t actually see the motorcade which consisted of probably 10 vehicles.  Black Limos, Escalades, red Dodge Charger, Ambulance, Bomb Squad, and Police Cars, all sleek and shiny and newly inspected by the bomb dogs :)  So we got to sneak outside, with permission from the Chief Police Officer.  I’m sure at some point I saw Biden from a far, but we were too far away to see which one was actually him.  When the motorcade left, we drove a bit closer and I snapped a couple pictures of that big, beautiful plane.

What a fascinating, long day.  I got there at 8:30 AM and I didn’t leave until after 7 PM that evening.  That is a dedicated, unpaid intern my friends. This is one exhausted and hungry girl.  I bought a pedometer for the job because I was curious as to how much walking I do on the days I go up there.  The end count for my day at the airport is 4 miles.  Now I’m going to go put my blistered feet up and relax.

*peace out girl scout*

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*

Internship: Day 1

Ok so apparently I am TERRIBLE at remembering to blog...I am going to try to do better...  Anyway,  I started my new internship at Salt Lake International Airport today!  I am doing a 5-6 week long internship in Airport Operations.  What does that mean you ask?  Every Tuesday and Thursday for the next coming weeks I will be put into different areas of the airport to learn more and explore the options available for an Airport Management career.  I will be working in: Access Control Operations, Airport Control Center, Landside Operations, Airport Rescue Firefighting (ARFF), Airport Police, Airport Shuttle Operations, Emergency Program Management, General Aviation Management, and Human Resources. 
There are 3 interns, Jordan, Braden, and myself.  As we were given a "taste" of what we will be learning and doing in the next month, it was overwhelming how much there is to learn and I was left wondering how we will possibly be able to pack it all in in such a short amount of time!
We started out meeting in Dave's office, he is in a sense, our "boss", and we will report directly to him each day we meet.  We were given our parking passes, and then we went for a walk to learn where the employee lot was, and how to make it back to the terminal (there are a lot of what I would call secret doors and secret passages).  From there, we met Brian, and he was a supervisor for landside and terminal operations.  We sat in the first booth and watched as all of the traffic flowed into the airport, pick-ups, drop-offs, taxi's, busses, the works.  We also watched as a car was about to get towed and boy was that guy mad!  We went into the International terminal and saw where they do customs, we responded to an "emergency" call...there was a dog bite incident and when we arrived on the scene, there was no dog in sight, that was kind of disappointing haha.
After Brian and Jeremey finished showing us around, they sent us off to lunch! It was nice to be able to sit down for awhile and get something to drink.  Then we were off again, Dave had more meetings to attend to so he sent us off with another guy (we met SOOO many new people, I'm having a hard time remembering all of their names) and this other guy arranged for us to ride around the airport with the Landside/Grounds Manager (? I'm unsure of his exact title), anyway, he is the guy that drives around the airport and makes sure the fences and everything is secure.  His vehicle is basically his office.  We went to a couple of the firehouses (there are 3) and in the second one, the guy asked if we wanted to take the truck out for a spin....our response... "Ummm, YEAH!" that should have been a no-brainer.

Above is a picture of me all buckled in in the firetruck, the thing is massive my friends, hopefully I will get another chance to take some pictures of it.  We went for a short drive and he fired the water out the front and it was pretty darn fantastic, probably one of my favorite parts of the day :)
Fact: This can shoot water like 80 feet! And, you can completely empty the water tank in 3 minutes when you fire it at the highest pressure.  These trucks aren't actually made to put fires out, just to secure the exits to the planes if they happen to be on fire, so that the passengers have some time to get out.
We visited the Wildlife Conservation place, basically the place where they are constantly working on new traps to catch the large amount of birds that are at the airport. 
Fact: they use gerbils, mice and pigeons as bait.  We said goodbye to a nice little pigeon that was about to be released as bait...
One of the last places we visited was the SkyWest maintenance hangar where we saw a lot of cool stuff, and a lot of really expensive engines.  There was a room full of them that were ready to go if needed, probably like 8 of them, checking in at about $3 million each.
We seriously never stopped moving.  Everything was so fast paced and constantly changing and it's hard to remember everything that we did.  I am so excited and happy for each day I get to spend up there, learning new things and living part of my dream.  Like I've said before, as long as I get to go to an airport every day, I will be happy :)
*peace out girl scout*

Washington D.C.: Day 1

Wednesday morning, June 1, I boarded the plane to go on my very first trip to D.C.! This was my first trip by myself to a place I was unfamiliar with. I had a map, and my phone has GPS so I was feeling pretty ok with the situation. I wasn't scared, I was excited! I was excited to be able to figure things out for myself. At first, my plane was delayed for about 30 minutes, it made me a little anxious because I was so so so excited to get out of Utah. Finally we were all boarded and ready to go! Four hours later, we were landing in the nations capital :) We landed and I got off the plane with a huge grin on my face, I probably looked silly because I seriously could not stop smiling. Now I hadn't really planned how I would get from the airport to the University of Maryland, where I was going to stay, I figured I would just 'wing it' and figure it out as I went. I did know that I would have to take the Metro (the subway) for part of the trip, but I didn't even know if there was a stop close to where I needed to go.

I stepped outside of the terminal and nearly died. It was 97 degrees and there was almost 100% humidity and I could not breathe. I stopped to catch my breath and then realized that I was already soaked in my own sweat...gross. I looked around at the craziness around me and tried to figure out how to buy my Metro pass, talk about confusing. I went over to the main desk thing and with a smile on my face I told the man, "I have no idea what I'm doing, I need to get to the University of Maryland and I need some help" He laughed at me, I laughed at myself. He explained to me how to find my route and how much money to put in the machine. He said, "Now go over there and buy your ticket and come back here and I will explain to you what to do". So I went over, bought the ticket and came back. The kind man explained to me what I needed to do next, which turned out to be extremely simple, and I was on my way, sweat, luggage, smile and all. :)

I rode the Metro, did everything I was told to do, followed all the stops along the way with my map. It came to my stop and I got off. I was thinking that I would walk off the Metro, go upstairs and BAM! the college would be right there!!!.....boy was I in for a surprise.

This is what I saw, not a college in sight. Not to mention, it had started to pour rain while I had been riding underground. I almost started laughing out loud, all the while I'm thinking to myself, "silly Heather, it's not going to be THAT easy" so I pulled the phone out, and put "Queen Anne's Park" into the map/GPS thing because I was pretty sure that is the place I needed to be to check in. I also told it that I would be walking because I figured it couldn't be too far away because the stop I got off at was named "College Park/University of Maryland"... HA! GPS answer: Walking Dstance 123.3 miles, Time: 1 Day 16 Hours. I'm sure you can all see my eyes bulge out at this point haha, surely this can't be right. My mind starts going through all of the scenarios of how I could possibly get to where I'm going, I surely could not afford a cab ride for that long, so I trekked back down the stairs to talk to another man at the help desk. He informed me that I just needed to go back up the stairs and catch the Shuttle Bus, and it would take me to the University. Thank goodness for the help desk men!! I thought for sure I had messed up on something. I boarded the right bus(at first I almost got on the wrong one) and off we went! As I was riding along, I realized I had no clue what stop to get off at, so I kept riding, waiting for a sign (from God). We passed through some gates that said "University of Maryland" so I figured any stop withing this vicinity would be close. I waited and when the bus stopped and a decent amount of people got off, I followed, hoping this was a good choice. I went in the nearest building to find out where the heck I was, I found a little convenience store and went inside to ask the guys in there how I could get to where I was going. I told them I needed help finding Queen Anne's Park, and with a puzzled look on their faces said "Queen Anne's Park? I've never even heard of that" REALLY!? I said, "let me find my paperwork and check but I'm pretty sure that's where I'm supposed to be" They pulled out a map of the campus and I pulled out my papers and said "Oh it's actually Queen Anne's Hall" "Ohhh, ok, that is just up the hill a little bit. Here it is, take this map" I'm thinking, SERIOUSLY? you couldn't connect the dots between Queen Anne's Park and Queen Anne's Hall? Oh well... at least I'm in the right spot. So I ventured back outside, back into the nasty hot humidity, away from the air conditioning :( I walked and walked, toting my rolling bag behind me, starting to feel a little lost with all the curvy roads and sidewalks, just when I think I'm in the wrong spot, I find this:

HALLELUJAH! I'm almost there. I finally found the famous Queen Anne's Hall and checked in and got my keys and found my room. Just as I was walking into my room, I get a panicked text from my mom "Are you ok?" She hadn't heard from me since I landed and she knew I had that "No Fear" attitude, and that I could possibly be very lost. The rest of the evening is relatively uneventful, other than a quick run to McDonalds before they closed to get some food because I hadn't eaten all day and they were the only thing open and close.
I met my roommate Carly, who is awesome! After we both showered the nastiness off, we both climbed into bed and fell asleep quickly, trying to get some sleep before the early morning adventures began....
To Be Continued



*peace out girl scout*

San Diego Trip

For Memorial Day weekend, I was able to go visit my dad in San Diego! I arrived early afternoon on Saturday, and as soon as we got some lunch to eat, we were off to the lake for a bike ride. It was such a beautiful day, we rode around the entire lake, which was about 5 miles. As much as I enjoyed the bike ride, my rear end didn't appreciate it that much. The next day was the big softball game. Guys vs. Girls. It was a lot of fun, I even hit the ball a couple of times, which was a big accomplishment :) Once again, the weather was beautiful (but then again, we were in San Diego, where everyday is beautiful, I was just happy that I didn't have to deal with the snow my family recieved while I was gone). Final score: 31 to 12...I will let you guess who won...

On Monday, the main events occurred. I woke up to this right outside the house:

A GIANT WATERSLIDE!!!!

This was pretty much my favorite thing ever! It was huge! I went down this slide more times than I can count, and the best part was, the weather was just right, not too hot, not too cold and I was able to spend the whole day in my swimming suit. I went forwards, backwards, on my stomach and screaming all the way down this slide. I want one of these... The rest of the days festivities were also enjoyable. There was a taco man with delicious street tacos and there was a live band which was fun.

I had a super funny video of a guy that came along with the band, I call him "The Groupie that nobody wanted" He stood in the middle of the culdesac the whole time and danced and played air guitar....by himself, he was certainly enjoying the band. (unfortunately the video wouldn't upload :( ) We ended the evening by sitting around the fire and making s'mores and enjoying each others company. It was such a good, fun, relaxing weekend and I was sad to leave the next morning but....I was leaving for DC in 2 days so my excitement continued to build. :)

Picture of the full view of the culdesac and all the craziness and people that were there.

*peace out girl scout*

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

I got the scholarship!!! I am so extremely excited to announce that I recieved a scholarship that will send me to the NCCWSL conference (National Conference for College Women Student Leaders). The conference is in Washington D.C. during June 2-4. I am flying out there on the 1st a day early so that I can have time to figure out the city. It will be my first time going to D.C. and it will be my first trip by myself, so it will be an adventure!! Don't worry, I'll take my knife ;) I was very shocked to get this scholarship. I had applied for it at the beginning of March and the winner would be announced at the end of March. I recieved an email at the end of March saying that they were unable to give me a scholarship at this time. So I thought nothing of it. I was still planning on going anyway, with or without the scholarship. My grandma really wanted me to go. On the 14th I decided to check my email because I hadn't checked it in a few days (which is routine, I only check it every 3-4 days). And BAM! first email there was one saying Congratulations! You have been rewarded with a scholarship to attend the conference! It also said I had to respond by the 15th at midnight with confirmation of my travel plans or they would give the scholarship to someone else. Talk about lucky! I am so so so so lucky and blessed to have recieved this scholarship. I'm excited for all of the young women and wonderful people I will get to meet! I'm also excited for the adventure I will have navigating myself around D.C.!!!
*peace out girl scout*