Day 1 of Oh So Many...

Yesterday, Monday, started my first day of work at Abbott Laboratories. It started off pretty exciting at 7 AM (yes, Dad, that's 7 in the morning) when I was picked up from my hotel by a white limo. I got to stare out of the window at the towns passing by as I went from Des Plaines up to Lake County. There's a bunch of trees here -- way more than in California, at least off of the highway.

I spent from 8 am to 1 pm in orientation at headquarters. During orientation, we got an overview of the company, met some other interns, and got some sweet Abbott swag. I left with a duffel bag with "Abbott" stitched on it, and an Abbott water bottle. I also got my badge, which opens up doors for me :D literally.  There were about 30 of us there, and I would have to say that 25 people were from De Paul or Northwestern -- both schools in this area, so I guess that makes sense. There was 4 of us from California -- 3 from CP SLO, and 1 from UCLA. I met some cool kids, except I was the only one who is based at Des Plaines, so I won't see them too much.

After orientation and lunch, I was picked up by my manager and driven down to Des Plaines so that I could meet people and find my way around and start actually working! I swear, the Des Plaines office is SO COMPLETELY CONFUSING! It's a giant square with a lot of hallways that are all of the same colors, so I have gotten lost so many times, it's not even funny. I spent the rest of the day meeting people, finding a desk (which I am moving from in a week when that person leaves, so I get to move again!), getting a computer (again, will change when I move), and just generally figuring stuff out. I found out that I will be doing Manufacturing Engineering, which is definitely not what I thought I would be doing, but I have high hopes for it...I think it will be exciting.

Later in the evening, I met Andy and Keith, two of the other interns who work at Des Plaines with me but in different divisions. There's 7 of us interns on site, and only 5 of us live in Abbott housing.

Today was my first real day of actual work, and I spent most of it reading manuals about manufacturing and risk analysis. I'm sure I will be doing stuff with quality assurance and all of that fun stuff as soon as I get all of the basics down. Amanda, the girl who's desk I will be taking over when she transfers in a week, took us interns to lunch at Culvers, which apparently is big in Wisconsin and just moved to Chicago. Their claim to fame is their custard, which I tried and must say is very delicious.

Geez, real work is tiring! I have been super tired the last two days, and so I hope to get a lot of sleep tonight. I've just been hanging out in my room tonight while it rained, and there was thunder and lightning. It's so weird when it rains here, because it's still really warm, unlike in California. It's suppose to get all nice and nasty and hot in the next few days, which will be really awesome when I head into the city this weekend for lots of fun in Chicago. I went for a run on the treadmill in the tiny gym here -- I still haven't found a pool to swim in, I'm hoping to find one soon. If not, I'll just do a lot of stationary bike and weight lifting.

I'm looking forward to getting into the nitty gritty of work -- I'm sure in a few weeks I will be begging for the days when I had nothing to do! I just feel weird when I don't have any work to do because it looks like I am not working at all!

For now, I'm off. It's 9 pm here, and I am honestly ready to go to sleep.

Lesley