Week 1 at GD NASSCO, San Diego

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          This is our first week at winter work! I arrived in San Diego on Saturday, and met Isa at the airport. Megan was kind enough to pick us up there and drop us off at our new apartment. This place is amazing! The complex is a 15-20 minute walk from the office building where we'll be working for most of the winter, and right across the street from a grocery store. It also has a full 24-hour gym, and a pool! (I'm very excited about the pool). The apartment itself is plenty big for the two of us; we each have our own room and bathroom, and the living space and kitchen are both pretty spacey. It's without a doubt the nicest housing I've had of all my internships. 

The pool at our apartment complex.
     We started work on Monday, obviously. The morning that day was spent getting our medical appointments finished and getting our ID badges made in the shipyard; we were with the freshmen for that. After lunch, Isa and I went back up to Mission Valley and met our respective departments. We are both under the same engineering department, but I will be working in structures and she will be working in hull performance. We were told that we may get moved around a bit later on, but I'm happy with where I am for now. All internships start out fairly slow, but the team here is doing a lot to make sure we hit the ground running. Isa got her computer access on Tuesday, and I should have full access to mine tomorrow, meaning we'll be able to do work already, and it's only the first week! 

     We can't really take pictures at work, but I've collected some pictures of the facilities and the work that NASSCO has been doing with the ESB or Expeditionary Sea Base for the US Navy. These are taken from the digital gallery on the NASSCO website. You can read more about the ESB there.

ESB Mid-Construction.
ESB Launched.
Cranes at NASSCO.
     Of our non-work related activities, we've been pretty much just hanging out. On Sunday night we went out to dinner with the freshmen, and three alumni (Megan, Kevin, and Nick, all of 2018). We went to this place called Indigo Grill in Little Italy that was phenomenal food. Here's a photo of all of us at dinner:


      Of course, it's not all been fun and games. I've also been working on thesis (I'm writing this so Prof. Scott knows, on the off chance that he reads these blogs.) I got my base hull model working in Star CCM+, which is very exciting, as I've been trying to do just that since mid-October. Check out this Kelvin wake pattern:


I hope that's right (it looks like it makes sense, but honestly, who knows). Anyways, so far this winter is off to a good start, and I'm looking forward to the rest of it.

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