And here comes another school year
Hey everyone! Long time no see!
Sorry for the lack of entries the past 2 months, but I've been caught up with my co-op as well as my student groups prepping for the new school year!
It's hard to believe that I will soon be going into my 4th month of co-op in a few days! So far, it has been quite the mixed experience, but for the most part, it's been pretty positive. There were some days when I didn't really have much to do, but on other days, I am just swarmed with different tasks! The levels of difficulty were varied with some being quick fixes and some taking a little longer to grasp. I think that most of my time is spent actually just investigating how something works as opposed to actually writing code. I've definitely been learning a lot though from working extensively with JavaScript.
Socially, it's been nice getting to know my co-workers. They're all very different from each other, but we all get along pretty well. In late August, we had a company outing with TripAdvisor and FlipKey (we're all part of the TripAdvisor Media Group), and it was a lot of fun! We went to Kimball Farm in Westwood, MA where there were bumper boats, mini-golf, volleyball, an arcade, and most importantly, food!! Sometimes, I feel like I'm just really spoiled by my company because there are often treats! Who doesn't love free food right? Speaking of free food, this week, my team is in charge of getting snacks for the office on Friday! Every other week (when we don't get paid), a different team of the company is given a certain amount of money to spend on snacks for Friday afternoon, and usually they're themed. I don't think we have any ideas yet though. We only just realized it was our turn today. :)
Aside from all the positive things going on for me at work, there were definitely days when I feel really overwhelmed either by the amount of work I have to do or by how I can't seem to figure out the issue no matter where I look. It just gets really aggravating sometimes, especially when I would try asking for help only to not get an answer at all. In a way, I think that kind of makes me stronger as a learner, but it still doesn't take away the frustration. Eventually, I am able to find the solution and everything's okay again and I feel better about work. What also helped was talking to my team leader, Chris, one day. We just sat down and talked about how we each thought I was doing so far on co-op since I'm about half-way through. Luckily, everything we said was pretty positive and we each even shared a small negative, but basically, it was just really helpful to know how I was doing.
Other than work, I still do try to maintain at least somewhat of a social life even though I come home tired every day from work. Now that I have all of my roommates moved in and just more people on campus in general, the environment is a lot more fun and comfortable. My apartment definitely feels a lot more homely with more furniture and food and bodies. We often have friends over to hang out, watch some tv, play some games, etc. Good times, good times! :) At the same time, it's kind of interesting to come home seeing some of my roommates doing their homework at all different hours of the day/night while I can just relax -- most undoubtedly a perk of being on co-op!
Well, that's all I've got for now! I must take some time to prep for a pasta dinner that CISters is putting on tonight. I'm super excited for food!! Come back soon!