In the words of the Carpenters, rainy days and Mondays always get me down.  It’s been gloomy for the past couple of days and I’m starting to miss the heat of Louisiana more than ever.  My office overlooks the Yaquina Bay Bridge and on sunny days it’s lovely, but today it just looks bleh.  But the work must go on!

This past week has been plenty of networking (as usual) and getting started on the outline for my final document.  Initially I felt a little overwhelmed by the thought of composing a document to be published for use by anybody, but with a little guidance I feel I’ll be able to get on the right track to finish by August.  I was finally able to schedule all of my Portland and Tillamook contacts for the last week of July, meaning that I’ll be going on a bit of a road trip soon!  Finding contacts at the Port of Seattle has posed the biggest challenge so far, but I hope that I can get that squared away this week so I can hit Washington on my trip as well.  I had a great phone interview with someone at the Port of Portland who spoke to me about how they secure flights with carriers and the challenges Portland has faced in creating and keeping demand for those flights.  It explains why Seattle and Canada tend to do the largest portion of shipping, especially of live commodities, for Oregon seafood producers.  While I’ve never liked talking on the phone, I have become a lot more accustomed to calling people (especially people I don’t know) and being able to have a productive conversation.  I feel like that’s something that will benefit me throughout my career.

On Friday we had our midsummer check-in, which was great.  We got to learn about what all the other interns are doing and had a conversation about jobs and grad school.  I feel confident that I’ll be able to find something to do once I’m done here this summer, especially with all of the great contacts I’ve made so far.  We volunteered at DaVinci Days on Saturday, which was nice because I got to interact with the public and describe the mission of Sea Grant as well as my own project.  I felt encouraged by the interest the booth produced, as well as the people who came by and listened to us talk about all these different aspects of the organization.  On one or two occasions people even told us that we definitely had great careers ahead of us, which of course made me feel even more confident about landing a job!

This week is all about tying up loose ends and figuring out my Seattle contacts.  I’ll be going to Tillamook on Friday to meet with the owner of a large oyster hatchery, as well as my other adviser.  I hope that by then I’ll have a definitely time schedule for the coming week, making my trip a little less nerve wracking.  And here’s hoping the weather gets a little better!!