Episode 34 - June 2024
Looks like I've moved to Seattle! 🌲
We are back in business!
I finally got my shit together, got my laptop out, and started writing this monthly recap. The 5-day grace period was a great idea since I got a little sick this week and was mentally drained from work, so I’m happy that we’re finally here. Hooray!
So what happened this month?
Well, the main things that happened in June were that I finished up my junior year at UCLA, drove up to Seattle, and started my internship at BCG.
Let’s break it down.
I moved out of UCLA on Tuesday of Week 10, meaning that I was skipping a good portion of the last week of instruction and all of finals week.
Fortunately, all my lectures were recorded and I had no in-person exams during finals week, so this strange let’s-not-go-to-class strategy worked perfectly well! As a matter of fact, this whole let’s-not-go-to-class strategy has been working extremely well the last few quarters, and I’m excited to keep implementing some variation of this strategy during my senior year.
I packed up all my things into my car, said goodbye to UCLA, and had a great drive up to the world-famous town of Antioch.
Along the way, I stopped by Wallace Creek, which is a tourist attraction only if you like geology. Basically, it’s a creek that crosses the San Andreas Fault, the main fault that causes all the earthquakes in California, and over time, the fault has moved enough that the creek is now L-shaped.
Checking out the creek had been on my bucket list ever since I learned about it in my Intro Geology class, so I finally took the time to make the detour and saw it on the way home.
Definitely a cool place to see, but also not something I ever need to see again.
Back home in Antioch, I mostly spent my time hibernating and relaxing before my internship started the next week. Highlights were hanging out with the chickens and my family, the amazing espresso machine, and a birthday party for Maxim!
And just like that, it was time to drive up to Seattle already. I packed up all my things for the summer (especially my bike), somehow fit it all in the car, and just like that, it was time to go!
The first day, I drove from Antioch to Portland, ~600 miles, and took a lovely stop at Mt. Shasta for a nice hike. There was SO MUCH snow there, and once I got off the parking lot, the entire trail was completely covered in snow and my shoes were soaking wet immediately. I took the nice little stroll, then carried on with the rest of the drive.
The second of the drive was much more chill, and I basically hung out in Portland all morning, hiked a bit around Mt. St. Helens, and then drove the last 200 miles up to Seattle.
Portland also happens to be one of the nicest places in the world to grow roses, and so they have a massive rose garden at the top of a hill with great views of the city and Mt. Hood. There was also a lovely coffee shop nearby where I had a great breakfast.
Yum yum yum!
And before I knew it, I was in Seattle!
Following my housing crisis in Paris, I was very proactive about finding summer housing in Seattle, as I never want a repeat of that stress and anxiety ever again. I looked a lot on FaceBook Marketplace and secured myself a spot in a very interesting location.
The Sherwood Co-op.
Basically, Sherwood is a house that has 14 bedrooms, and as a result, 14 inhabitants. Most of these inhabitants are students at UW, the University of Washington. We all share a kitchen, bathrooms, and a living area, and it ends up being a communal, communist-utopia style of living where we all cook for each other, play board games, and have a great time.
There’s also the reality that since everyone lives here for at most 9 months, the house is in a constant state of almost falling apart because no one cares enough to make major fixes for a house they won’t be living in much longer.
It’s been such a blast living in Sherwood so far, mostly because it’s great to have people to talk to in the morning and when I get home from work, especially since I didn’t know anyone else in Seattle prior to moving in and would’ve been tremendously lonely if I lived by myself.
Notable folks that live in the house are Finch, the most chucklesome person I’ve ever met; Mads, a person full of interesting stories and also a rooster farmer; Jackson, an extremely well-traveled dude that’s worked at Trader Joes, several cafes, and a sheep farm in Ireland; Grace, who loves paintings and hates poor paint jobs; Priya, who balks at the thought of killing rats; and Caleb, who is an expert at installing and repairing doorknobs.
Needless to say, it’s a tremendously interesting group of people who all live under one roof.
Another tremendous advantage is that in addition to our rent, we pay $250 a month for food, so there’s always free food to eat and cook at any time. It’s called GUFF - General Unrestricted Free Food, and it might be the greatest thing on Earth.
My major summer project for Sherwood has been to redo the front yard since it was in shambles and completely falling apart. For context, here’s what the front yard looked like before I got involved:
And after a lot of time, energy, and effort, building three new planter boxes, and moving several dozen cubic feet of soil, here’s what it looks like now:
You right now, probably: Wow Dennis, that looks amazing!
Thanks!
So in summary, Sherwood is an amazing place to live :)
So now for the most anticipated part of the summer so far: my internship at BCG.
Coming into the summer, I’m not too sure what I expected, only that it would be super fancy and prestigious. Top internships at companies like BCG are worshipped by undergraduates (I definitely worshipped it too at some point in time), so I was tremendously excited to see what it was like to actually work in this industry.
And after a month of working there, here are my initial thoughts. I’m planning several blog posts around this topic later on, so these will just be the high-level overview so far:
Everyone who works there is extremely smart and driven. The other interns are super interesting and fun to talk to.
The work is 95% Excel, PowerPoint, and Googling information. No joke.
The rate is learning is higher than any other job I’ve ever had before.
Everyone seems to be in a constant state of being overworked, the work itself is extraordinarily mentally tiring, and I am exhausted every single day. On the weekends, the only thing I seem to want to do is rest and recover mentally.
I’m very curious to see how these last 6 weeks of the internship go, and I’m very excited to write full blog posts detailing how it went and what I learned. Stay tuned!
And so thanks everyone for getting this far. See you all next month!
Some more pictures:
