Hey All,
It’s coming up on a month since I’ve arrived in Salt Lake City and I wanted you all to know I’m really loving it here. That’s not to say that I don’t miss everyone terribly from time to time, but that’s the sort of thing that will make me very happy to fly home at Christmas to see as many of you as I can. Right now I’m really hoping to fall into a job where I’m interning and spend the next while living/working in Salt Lake. It looks like to become a full-fledged member of the community I’ll need to learn how to ski. At least that’s what everyone at work says. I guess that makes sense in a state where the license plates say “ski Utah”. I think kids here are practically born wearing skis.
My internship is wonderful. I do have moments where I feel less than useful, but that’s just because I spend a lot of time learning instead of doing. This week I will get to spend some time out at the Olympic oval while the speedskaters are training, and the US ski team will be performance testing in the lab. I’ve also met a bunch of fun kids/athletes working with the Acceleration program they have on sight at The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital. It’s a unique experience because I get to work with elite athletes as well as aspiring athletes as young as 9 or 10. They also have a rehab program specifically for those getting back after knee injuries (usually ACL) so I’m learning a bunch there too. Some exciting research projects will be starting up in the next few weeks now that they are settled in their new facility, so things should get increasingly more interesting. If anyone wants to know the specifics on the research end of things e-mail me 🙂 For everyone else I will spare the details since it will just be a lot of gibberish for anyone who doesn’t get excited about motion analysis, running economy, and a really cool force treadmill.
The weather is great. I hear those of you in WI are getting some last humid nasty weather while here it’s been nice and dry and a few degrees cooler than normal for the last few days. I’m liking the lack of humidity. I don’t miss that one bit. I’m also getting a break on gas prices since here I can still find it for under $2.70 last I checked.
I joined a gym and I’m oh so glad I didn’t get a second job. For the first time in as long as I can remember I’m working (only) 40 hours/week, working out regularly, eating well, sleeping well etc. It’s so nice having a set schedule that allows me to have all those things.
Things I miss. All of you for starters 🙂 It’s hard making friends here since I don’t know anyone to start with. I was invited to the Utah vs Utah State game last night with some friends from work, but unfortunatly that fell through. Maybe I’ll make it to the next one. I also miss living in a city where I know exactly where everything is, and even when sort of lost is 5 minutes from not being lost again. Here I live in a constant state of lost. I imagine that will get better with time once I’m feeling more adventurous. I miss custard 😉
So to make me stop missing hearing from you guys, I think you should let me know what you’re up to. I know mass emails are really impersonal, but I hope you’re not bored to death hearing what I’m up to. If I never hear back from you I promise I’ll eventually weed your name off the update list, until then there’s always the delete button. Just in case let me know if you don’t want that to happen 🙂
I hope everyone is well! I’ll try to e-mail lots more personal e-mails soon!
Steph~