Our first week in Irvine has been relatively low key. Last weekend, several of us went to Newport Beach for some sun and ocean time after watching the Euro Cup final at the Rockin' Baja Lobster, our lunch destination. I was only one of two people in our group hoping Italy would take the win, but no suck luck! Even my green tank top, red shorts, and blue toes didn't help.
The Pacific Ocean felt really cold, as is usual along the west coast, but after a few minutes, my legs went numb and it didn't feel so bad. After being chased up the beach a couple of times from the incoming tide, some of us went back to Irvine while some of us stayed to enjoy the Newport bar scene. It was quite the adventure, and there are quite the interesting people that frequent Newport. I did not get drunk, but I did have one drink: a Malibu and pineapple, I think it was called. I didn't want more than one of those because it didn't even taste alcoholic to me and it would have been bad to have more! We met an [a lot] older guy, Earl, who chatted me up for a few minutes at first (commenting on my lack of drink, of course) and then chatted Anna up for the rest of our time there. (I forget which bar we were at, but it's next to the Beach Ball bar.) We stood in line for about 20 or so minutes in front of another bar, which was clearly the bar to be at. Dinner was at a seafood place with a 30-minute wait...and the food wasn't even that good. All in all, a fun/crazy adventure at Newport Beach!
Monday, we started back into things. The BNBs each chose one paper to do a presentation on, which we gave earlier this morning. The papers are related to our final project topics. I chose the paper "Diurnal tracking of anthropogenic CO2 emissions in the Los Angeles basin megacity, spring 2010", by Newman et al. Others ranged from modeling emissions to sources of ozone emissions. Tuesday, we started learning how to do calibrations in Igor.
Wednesday the fourth, we had a second Skype meeting in the morning with Jimmy asking questions about the calibrations, and then most of the SARPians headed out to Huntington Beach for some Independence Day fun! The oceans group had to calibrate one of their instruments in the ocean, so it gave us a good excuse to stay out later to enjoy the fireworks. Huntington Beach was a madhouse, and it was not sunny or warm outside, but it was fun nonetheless. We were all cuddled under blankets watching the fireworks over the ocean! And then it took us about two hours to make a normally 20-minute drive back to Irvine.
Yesterday, we learned about even more calibrations to do. My brain is filled with a LOT of new information so I am very glad today is Friday! After my lunch break is over, it's time to finish up my calibrations (I am responsible for the Tuesday flights). Woo...
Can't wait for the weekend! :) Talk to you all later!
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