Link
My LINK Internship blog about my adventures, experiences and forthcomings in Chicago, IL working for EGSL. The picture to the left was the view from my apartment overlooking the tallest building in the US and the gorgeous night skyline.
Well after a long day yesterday and not as much of an early start, I spend today working in the office learning more about AutoCAD and finishing some drawings up of sites that I will visit over the next two weeks, reading reports and making sure i'm all up to speed on how the job will be completed and anything I should know about the building or surrounding buildings, or the area that we are drilling.
0 Comments
With my second day out in the field, having woken up at 3:45 AM and getting ready to work in the negative temperatures, you could definitely say that today was one of the most challenging days of the internship yet. The GeoProbe was having mechanical issues due to the cold, and work was challenging, but the sun was shining! Today's work consisted of inserting ground water testing wells in 5 different locations around the property that we worked on the previous day. The wells were much easier to learn how to do and in my personal opinion it was a fantastic experience having some difficulties today because thats what the real world is, work can be extremely difficult and I felt that it taught me a lot of patience and I gained a whole new respect for construction workers who work all winter long in the cold. Throughout the day, despite the tough conditions and the rough weather, I had a great day and so far, am really enjoying this experience!
With my first day of drilling and the general synopsis of how testing, collecting and drilling soil samples works using the GeoProbe. The site that we were working on was an old Dominick's distribution plant that was abandoned and in the process of being demolished. Working in the negative wind chill and the 5 degree air all day was definitely an experience, which I ended the day with a big smile on my face and a hot shower and definitely learned a lot of lessons about what its like to be an actual construction worker. Collecting the samples was really interesting to me and I really enjoyed learning about everything related to Phase 2 work for these large construction sites.
Well today was sure interesting, our original plan was to start my very first drilling job today, but due to the -25 degree wind chill and the gusts up to 40 mph we decided itd be best (for the machines of course) that we postponed it to tomorrow. Lets see what tomorrow brings!
With my first whole day working for EGSL coming to an end, I can safely say that environmental science is extremely interesting, and definitely something that I want to pursue as a career. Also, it being my first day, alone, 26 stories up in downtown Chicago, living on my own is rather a big adventure. Reflecting on the day, with having gotten the basics of what EGSL does on a day to day basis, I think that this whole adventure is going to turn out to be a lot of fun. I got the opportunity to go out on a job with one of the workers and go into a highrise and test for mold, it was a really cool process, learning how air and other samples are collected and the basics of getting good data to test for hazardous chemicals and materials. The rest of the day was spent doing work on the computer, basic things like reading a Phase 1 (Preliminary) report on a drill site that I will be visiting Wednesday and Thursday, and creating the first map using CAD (Computer Aided Design) of the site that will be submitted eventually in a report to the EPA. This whole internship really opened my eyes as to how it is being an adult and especially living in the city, the opportunity to do this is just incredible, and this first day I believe will be the first of many more memorable days.
|