There are multiple ways to handle this. One way my friends and I have chosen to do it includes using Google Calendar. The calendar allows you to post your schedule and then add contacts that are allowed to view it. My schedule has a handful of different schedules all color-coded which allows me to see who is free during the day.

This has allowed us to set up a weekly lunch where almost everyone can make it to stay in touch. It also helps for impromtu gatherings and the occasional bit of humor; all of which makes the dreary winter quarter less discouraging and more fun!

Well, it's happened, I finally made it back. After the first few weeks of classes with mid-term exams looming, it seems as if I never left. While it was nice having a job and not having to worry about doing homework, I am enjoying being a student again. While at times there is more stress involved with long hours of homework, the schedule is more of a pace I was looking for.

The majority of my time is spent going to class and working on homework. It is very rewarding finishing homework assignments and projects for classes. The social atmosphere is more comfortable as well. The friends I left six months ago are still here and haven't missed a beat. I've begun to realize that I feel home in Athens, concluding that the re-adjusting that I thought I was going to have to do, turned out to be as simple as unpacking.

I started at Ariel Corporation in Mount Vernon, Ohio in June of this year; one week after spring quarter was over. Ariel's business is primarily natural gas compression, but they also make compressors for other applications. The range their compressors fall into is 85-10,000 horsepower, which is the horsepower it takes to drive them.

My current position is Field Service Engineering Co-op. In the field service department, there is a large amount of customer interaction. When an operating unit goes down or starts to show problems, a field service engineer is assigned to deal with the problem. Often times then they make a trip to the field, where ever the unit is, to deal with the problem.

Now back to what I was doing in North Dakota. I was on a trip with one of the full-time engineers at Ariel. We spent ten days repairing a unit that had a bearing failure that misaligned the frame. With the help of mechanics from the packaging company, we put in a new frame and crankshaft to get it up and running.

On the way home, we flew out of Rapid City, South Dakota, which happens to be were Mount Rushmore is found. Since we were already there, it seemed silly not to visit the monument!