I'm starting this blog for 7 reasons

1. I have nothing better to do tonight
2. I want Angie to have more than one follower, and I have to have a blog to follow someone I think
3. I am 1500 miles away from my friends and family, so this may help them to stay connected with me
4. Andrew Juntunen deleted his facebook and needs to know what's up in my life
5. I do a lot of cool things
6. Both of my sisters have a blog, so I should too
7. I'm not sure if many people will care enough to read my blog, but I know my grandma will, and that's enough for me

So as some of you may know, today is my 3rd day in North Dakota. I just bought my first car 3 weeks ago, and it is here with me. I packed my car full of all my belongings, because I am going straight to college after the summer here. I drove over 1,500 miles to get here (my first official roadtrip). 


The roadtrip consisted of 3 stops: Pittsburgh (Brandon), Danville IL (BOP), and Rochester MN (Random people that my parents went to college with). The trip was fun. I drove in NY, PA, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, and ND. I tried to take a picture at every state boarder welcome sign, but I missed PA and MN. The coolest one was Wisconsin. All the rest were boring. Impressions of each state: (And if you haven't noticed already, I love lists)

• Ohio-long and boring
• Indiana-the only cool part was seeing Indianapolis
• Illinois-REAL flat. Ridiculously high gas prices 
• Wisconsin-Too many billboards about cheese, cool rock formations though
• Minnesota- Crossing the Mississippi was the coolest looking place I have every seen, and then after that the state got real boring real fast. I did stop by the Mall of America though. Got lost walking around with out a map. And who knew they would have 10 roller coasters!?
• North Dakota- Flat, pretty sunsets, and A LOT of farms, and this is my home for the next 10 weeks

Okay, now we can get to the point of why I am here in this crazy boring state. I applied for this research internship at the University of North Dakota back in February. There are hundreds of REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) internships at various colleges across the country that are funded by the National Science Foundation. I was overwhelmed by the choices and had no idea how to narrow down the list of places to apply. Don't ask my why I chose this one, because I don't have an answer. I also applied for one in Boston. I had planned to apply for several others, just to up my chances, but I got lazy and figured I wasn't going to get one either way. Applications were due in March, so I figured I would hear back sometime in April. I didn't hear back from either school by the beginning of May, so I had given up hope. Well 3 days before heading home for the summer I received an acceptance letter from ND. I was in utter shock. Of course I jumped at the opportunity, and here I am. 

I have so much more to say, but I am going to save that for another day. Stay tuned for posts about the internship, the research that I am doing, the things I am learning, and the adventures I am having. Thanks for reading.