Other Activities:

Week One (June 23rd - June 29th): I went out with a bunch of other interns Saturday night, June 28th, and saw the movie Wanted. It was your typical ridiculous summer action flick. I found it entertaining, but the physics in the movie (perhaps I should say movie!physics) was so incredibly wrong.

Week Two (June 30th - July 6th): On Tuesday, July 1st, I was able to participate in the Venture low ropes program with other summer interns. It was a fun experience and one that I would gladly do again. We did three activities. The first one they had us do involved a bunch of two feet high stumps arranged in two circles, an inner one and an outer one. Everyone had to stand on top of a stump, and then we had to go around and touch every stump before returning back to our original stump. As you can imagine this got to be a little complicated since the stump was only large enough for one person.

The second activity there was a swing sitting over a little gully and we had to get the swing without going into the gully. There were also three baskets sitting in the gully. They gave us these little foam disks and said that each of us had to get at least one disk into a basket and each basket had to have at least one disk. We also had to get everyone to the other side of the gully.

The final activity was the actual low ropes course, which consisted of a wire about a foot off the ground and various ropes hanging from wires above or attached to poles. They initially gave us rules on who could touch what ropes, but it took us so long to get started that they nixed most of the rules.I didn't actually get to participate in this one because I was wearing slippers, but it looked like a lot of fun.

Later that evening about half of us went to go play laser tag. We played three games. The place was different from the one back in Hawaii, but I enjoyed myself. I would consider doing this again.

For July 4th we had planned a cookout, but due to bad weather this had to be canceled. Instead we went to go see Wall-E. It was actually a really good movie, probably my favorite Pixar movie. I had also read an article on SFGate.com about the sound clips that they collected for the film, so I made sure to pay attention to that stuff because it was a pretty interesting article.

Week Three (July 7th - July 13th): Nothing interesting happened this week. I played a few games of soccer with fellow interns, but aside from that there were no outings. Through my discussions with other interns I have come to the conclusion that I am a minority in more than just ethnicity. This is a first for me. I'm used to being in the majority or major minority at the very least. It's an awkward experience, and as much as I would like to speak up for myself I find that I can't for fear of upsetting the very people I am forced to rely on and interact with. I've been told to view this as an "eye opening and cultural experience".

Week Four (July 14th - July 20th): The beginning of this week started off pretty slow. The second half, however, was much better. I got to play a game of basketball with some of the other interns, something I haven't done in years. A large group of us also went to see the midnight premier of "The Dark Knight", which was a pretty awesome movie. Heath Ledger did an excellent job as The Joker, which is fortunate as this was his last movie. We also played a pretty intense game of soccer on Sunday night. I had fun, but it was still so hot and humid outside that everyone kind of gave up after we took a water break.

Week Five (July 21st - July 27th): I went to go see "Mamma Mia" with a couple of the other interns on Monday. It was a pretty decent show. I had to lol every time Pierce Brosnan sang though. The combination of him not being a terribly good singer and him as 007 just killed me every time. The rest of the cast was awesome though.

Tuesday a group of us went out to see "The Dark Knight" again. I have to say that the movie when you're not sitting in the third row.

Wednesday I participated in a navigation study that took me out on the back roads of Charlotte. They reminded me of the suburbs in Philadelphia. I also got to play basketball for a couple of hours with some of the other interns here. We all had a lot of fun.

Thursday I went out with a couple of the girls to downtown Charlotte for some fun and dancing at HOM. We got all dressed up and had a lot of fun.

Friday Dr. Barnes, one of the professors in the game lab, invited everyone to her house for a little get together party. We played Rock Band, Wii Sports, DDR, and Mind Trap. Pretty much all of the interns showed up for some length of time. A good time was had by all.

Week Six (July 28th - August 3rd): I ended up going out a lot this past week because most of the interns' last day was August 1st. It was sad seeing everyone pack up and leave on Friday, but some of them promised they'd drop by before school starts so I won't be completely bored during my down time. I got to play soccer again on Monday and because some of the injuries I sustained when I played basketball I actually ended up wearing shoes (instead of my normal slippers, or flip flops as mainlanders call them). I'm not sure if it was the shoes or if I was really on it that night, but I ended up scoring about five or six goals that night. It was awesome.

Tuesday a group of us went out to downtown Charlotte for more dancing and fun. We went to a different club this time around, and I got to ride a mechanical bull. It was surprisingly fun.

Wednesday I went to the South Park mall for some shopping with a couple of the other interns. We had hoped to go to The Cheesecake Factory because it was their anniversary and they were serving $1.50 cheesecakes, but it was way too crowded so we decided on California Pizza Kitchen instead. Katie, one of the interns and a housemate, bought these awesome purple suede shoes.

The rest of the week was spent helping people pack up and saying goodbye. I'm kind of surprised, but I'm going to miss all of the people I met this summer.

Week Seven (August 4th - August 10th): Slow week, hectic weekend. Since most of the interns left at the end of the previous week I was left to my own devices this week. I spent most of my time either running or relaxing in my apartment.

The weekend, however, was another matter entirely. I was under the impression that I'd be able to stay in Laurel Hall, the building my apartment was in, for the duration of my time at UNCC. Apparently this was not the case. The fun part was that this wasn't communicated to me or Dr. Payton. So basically the housing staff gave me twenty-four hours to up and move across campus with no boxes or way to efficiently move my belongings from one end of campus to the other. (They did eventually offer a ride across campus.) I ended up spending most of my weekend stressing out and packing up my stuff and my old housemate's stuff. (She goes to UNCC and I offered to let her keep her stuff in the apartment until she could move into her place on the 21st because I thought I wasn't going to move.)

Wonderful, no?

Week Eight (August 11th - August 17th): Moved into my new apartment on Monday. Other than that it's been a quiet week. Got to drive a stockcar on the 17th. That was an amazing experience.

Week Nine (August 18th - August 24th): Another slow week. Things picked up towards the end because the UNCC students moved back on campus, which means that the interns who go to UNCC came back. Got to hang out with a couple of them for dinner on Thursday and Friday. Quiet weekend.

Week Ten (August 25th - August 29th): Spent most of this week trying to finish up work stuff, so I didn't have much time for outside activities. I basically just ended up wrapping things up over here and packing up my belongings. I can't exactly say I'll miss Charlotte the city, but I'm glad I came here because I met some pretty cool people and had a decent enough experience.