Monday-Wed.

After the concerts we needed to get back to work and get organized due to the fact that Nick would be leaving wednesday. We met up with Nick and Matt (the English students that are working with us) and got to work cutting the rest of the tensile strength test specimens out of the snowboard base material. I was worried that I wouldn't have enough to cut out samples with the grain aligned in 3 different directions, but it worked out in the end.

We went out with some friends on Tuesday night to a bowling alley a few blocks from our apartment (they call it a flat in the UK). The bowling alley was expensive, like everything, but once you sit down at your lane, it is full service with waiters and waitresses in suits, which is pretty funny. Afterwards we headed over to a local pub called the Pear to meet some friends from work. The Pear was probably the best place we've been so far, it has a much more laid back atmosphere and a much younger crowd than other places in the area.

Nick left early in the morning on wednesday to catch his 8:45am flight from Birmingham International. Frank was sad to see him go and it will definitely be a little different around work now that I am flying solo. Nick and Matt are there so its still a lot of fun and a really good learning experience. Being a Mechanical and Aerospace student at home, I am definitely a bit out of my element working in the Materials Engineering dept. but it makes it that much easier to learn. I still know very little about polymers or even materials in general, but compared to what I knew before I came I'm doing well.

I had originally planned on making it an early night, but went over to hang out with Rob, Diana, and some other dude I didn't know at their new apartment down the street.