Howdy! I'm like a week late writing about this, but I've been kept busy with work and, well, just work. Frankly, it's been hard to make myself write this post because it will bring back that feeling of homesickness and make me miss all my friends and family even more. Mad respect to everyone else who has an internship far from home because I now understand just how challenging it can be. For now, let's talk about all the fun we had in Atlanta and hopefully I'll be able to write this without crying (again).
First and foremost, big shoutout to my boss for letting me leave early so I could get on the road without being dead tired. From Moultrie, it's about a 4 hour drive to Atlanta, so not too bad considering I'm used to drives like that in Texas. He tried to explain a faster way to get there, but my GPS wouldn't pick up that I was trying to go a different route, so I gave up and went with what my Australian Siri had to say. I ended up finding Luke Bryan and President Jimmy Carter's hometowns without even trying, so that was neat. Once I was back on the highways, it felt like the trip was going faster until I got close to Atlanta and hit traffic. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad and I arrived at the AirBNB at about 4:30/5:00 p.m. which gave me ample time to check out the house and sit around and read until my friends got there. (P.S. I keep saying "my friends" to respect their privacy and so no one stalks them). Once they did get there, we literally hugged for at least 5 minutes just crying and holding each other because it had been so long, at least it was for us. Being able to be myself around my people was the best feeling ever because here in Moultrie, I feel like I've got to hide my crazy just a little bit. Having my best friend there was so much fun and I could finally have high quality girl talk. Sure, I love talking with the friends I've made here, but it's hard to do so when we don't know any of the same people. I really only know people from work and a couple from the Speakeasy, that's it. Anyways, she and I stayed up later than we should have just talking about anything that came to our minds since we could sleep in the next day.
On Saturday, we visited the Georgia Aquarium because what else would college kids do on a weekend during summer. We had to wait a while to get in because they had set admission times which I think helped the line go faster because once we got in line, we were inside within 5 minutes. While we waited to go in, we decided to people watch on a park bench since it was a crowded area and we were bound to see something interesting. Let's just say, we weren't disappointed. Anyways, that's not as important as when we went inside. Just in the main hall area (idk what it's called), we knew right away that this was going to be one of the greatest experiences ever, until we got too stressed out with all the people. There was a guy with one of those jellyfish umbrella hats walking on stilts to take pictures with guests and you could tell this guy was experienced because the way he would move his arms to pose was so majestic. I don't think I've ever seen a person move like that in my entire life and I doubt I ever will. Somehow, this man became a jellyfish in human form. Maybe he's got some secret going on behind the scenes and he's secretly part jellyfish, or he can talk to them and learn their ways. More importantly, we saw so many fish and I learned that sharks actually look like they're pretty chill, but that may only be the case since they were in captivity and not in the wild. Regardless, it was so relaxing to just watch them swim around and just exist. I wish I could do that sometimes, but it's tough when you're a human adult who has school and work to worry about pretty much all the time.
After the shark display, we went around the rest of the aquarium, but I'll leave that out so I don't spoil the experience if anyone reading this wants to visit someday. We finished by sitting in this big room in the Ocean Voyager exhibit for about 30 minutes just taking a break and enjoying the view. Watching animals just do their own thing is so mesmerizing. I definitely understand why people work with wildlife like that, and I used to want to do the same when I was a kid. I've also come to the conclusion that I need to get certified to scuba so I can experience marine life one-on-one in the wild. For now, I'll focus on getting a degree before I do anything else. I could talk about this experience for days, but I think it's one of those things you just have to see for yourself. Alternatively, the Georgia Aquarium's website (https://www.georgiaaquarium.org/) is an excellent resource for anyone interested in visiting or learning about their establishment.
After leaving the aquarium, we decided we needed to find something to do to kill time that was free, or at least relatively cheap, that would allow us to kill a few hours before dinner. Ultimately, we drove around and stumbled upon one of my new favorite places, Ikea. I firmly believe that Ikea was gatekept from me on purpose because that was the greatest store ever. All I ask is that no one lets me go in there without a budget because knowing me, I'll walk out with the entire store. If you've never gone to Ikea, now is the time to go, don't wait any longer. Since we are broke college kids, my friends and I roleplayed in each of the displays because it felt like you were really in someone's house, apartment, or office. Like you weren't really in a giant furniture store. The store itself is filled with displays that look like rooms in someone's house, which sounds like pretty much any other furniture store, but they felt so real as we walked through, it was difficult to discern if we had secretly been transported to somewhere other than Ikea. Also, there's a whole restaurant in there??? I'd heard about the meatballs before, but I didn't expect to find an entire food court-esque area inside of the store. What about the kids? Oh, they're taken care of all right, by staff in the daycare area. Yes, there is a separate area for children so that parents and other guests can shop without being disturbed. As a former child, I know that my mom would get highly frustrated with my sister and me when she had to take us to run errands, so I can only imagine the relief she would have had if she could have just dropped me off to be someone else's problem. Thankfully, I like to think that I was raised right so I wasn't a big of a problem as some other kids were when taken out in public. I will admit that there were times when I tested my parents' patience because 1. I was a kid, 2. nobody's perfect, and 3. I'm a ginger, what'd you expect.
As a self-proclaimed "meat nerd," I made sure we stopped at a Kroger while we were out because the National Beef plant in Moultrie ships product to Kroger locations in Atlanta so I wanted to find something from our plant. Lucky for us, I was successful in that venture and my friends didn't think it was a cool as I did. Since I knew the establishment number for our plant, and which products we shipped out, I was quickly able to locate the meats that came from Moultrie. I thought it was neat getting to see a product in the store that I could have inspected when it was at the plant. I think only certain people will understand why that was so interesting, because I got a few funny looks when we went over to the meat section. We did end up getting a few snacks for later, so overall it was a great trip to Kroger.
After Kroger, we took a little break at the house we were staying in to mentally prepare ourselves for dinner at a rotating sushi restaurant. Now I've done a lot of things in my life that I would say are "cool," but this one is definitely in the top 10, or at least top 20. I have seen these places on TikTok before and always wanted to go because you get minimal human interaction. A paradise for introverts and people with anxiety that also happen to love sushi. So clearly, this was my type of place. Once we were seated, the hostess explained how it worked, but she talked really fast so we were a little confused. Luckily, with the brains of 3 Aggies put together, we managed to figure it out. The first thing we noticed that seemed very strange was the robot that brought our drinks. This thing was constantly playing music, could detect when a person was walking by, and knew exactly where the drinks were supposed to go. I'd say it was one of those things that was kind of creepy but kind of fascinating at the same time. As an animal science major, I don't think I'd be able to make something like that and have it work as well. Perhaps if it applied to livestock production then maybe I'd be more interested in learning more about it. Now that I'm done ranting about the robot, let's discuss the food. An absolute banger of a meal was had that day. The rolls were amazing and I liked watching all the tiny plates go by more than I liked eating the food off of them. I will definitely be trying to visit one of these places when I'm back in Texas, and maybe somebody will open one in College Station. Seriously, that would make so much money with all of the college kids. With as much as we ate, it was roughly $20 per person, so not too expensive considering the amount of sushi we went through. We also ordered some other things that cost extra, such as dessert. Ultimately, this place was worth it 100% and would be a smashing success in a college town.
Once we finished, it was time to return to the house, where we commenced our first ever PowerPoint Night. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to disclose the themes that each of us chose, so this part is getting skipped. Really I'm doing you a favor for not making anyone else have to hear how that night went. Don't get me wrong, it was fun, but it was our fun, and not meant to be shared. It's kind of hard to share that with someone who wasn't even there.
After that, we went to sleep like good children who had to drive a lot the next day. Just kidding. We stayed up late again, and slept in later than we should have, but it's whatever. Since I had not been to a Waffle House yet, we stopped for breakfast as our last meal together until August. This is another thing that I believe was gatekept from me because that food was delicious. I also blame my mother for this because she doesn't like it, so we never stopped there on road trips. Lucky for me, Moultrie has 3 Waffle House locations so I will be set for the rest of my time here. Of course, finishing this meal meant that they had to go back home and I had to return to a lonely hotel room. Special shoutout to the Buc-ee's that I unintentionally found since being there made me feel like I was in Texas again. It also allowed me an opportunity to utilize the facilities and refuel my body with caffeine so I could stay awake for the rest of the drive. After another 2 hours, I made it back safe so I could enjoy a relaxing Sunday afternoon.
Something I didn't consider is how hard it would be to come back to work when all I wanted to do was go back home to Texas with my friends. At first, I thought I was just tired and getting frustrated having on my hard hat, safety glasses, and ear muffs, but turns out I was overwhelmed thinking about how much I missed my friends back home. Another shoutout to the QA I was working with for picking up that something was wrong so she brought me back to the office and that's when I broke down crying. I think that's a great impression to leave as an intern, but I believe that they understood that it can be difficult to leave your friends and family to go 4 states away for an entire summer. Thankfully, I'm halfway through now and I will be back in early August! I'm pretty much counting down the days at this point until I can be with my people again, and my dog too. I know that Cash is having a great old time with his grandparents, so I'm not too worried about him since I know that he's in good hands. I will see y'all next time I post!
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