Week 5: Sunsets, Cliffs, and Freshies

February 08, 2021

Week 5: Sunsets, Cliffs, and Freshies

Monday, February 1-Sunday, February 7

Winter work internships are an opportunity unique to Webb Institute. In addition to all the available free time--which is a rare luxury at Webb--there are numerous more aspects that make winter work a wonderful experience. This week's edition of the blog will list a short overview of just three of the elements that make winter work so special.

1. Winter work provides you with a chance to try out different working environments and disciplines within the naval architecture and marine engineering (NAME) field and determine what works best for you. General Dynamics NASSCO is a large, steel shipyard, thus its company culture is very different from other companies and design firms. Throughout our internship we have been given several opportunities to work in the shipyard (see our Week 2 post for more information about our participation in the launch of USNS John Lewis). Furthermore, much of NASSCO's work is made up of government contracts--thus most new build projects develop in close collaboration with NAVSEA personnel.

The office culture at NASSCO is very relaxed (or "California-casual" as Dan puts it). The different departments within the office are highly collaborative and our coworkers have done their best to incorporate us into the social fabric of the company despite COVID.

This week, all three of us have been involved in very distinct projects. Daniel has continued working on the Liaison Event Disposition (LED). He also visited the shipyard to investigate the aftermath of a panel which blew up following an electrical test performed on a winch. Dillon communicated across different departments to determine which secondary structural analyses are needed for the T-AO. He also completed a check on the T-AO's general arrangement. I published my first ECN for production support. I also began working on the preliminary general arrangement for a new ship concept NASSCO is working on.

2. Winter work allows you develop friendships with alumni and other Webbie interns.

On Thursday, we were invited to the freshmen's house to celebrate Tsimafei Lazouski's birthday. We showed up with sweets and candies eager for a reason to celebrate. However, upon our arrival, we were surprised to discover Tsimafei was just as as astonished as we were that he was to be turning twenty-one. His classmate, Margo Bourn, had pranked all of us. Alas, the night did not go to waste. We ordered pizza from Pizzeria Luigi and enjoyed a quiet night in with some tiramisu.

On Friday, we were invited by Nick Ratinaud '18 to Happy Hour with some coworkers. We enjoyed an assortment of local ciders and appetizers at Working Class.

Working Class Chili, Meatballs, and Common Blackberry Sangria Cider

After enjoying happy hour, we headed back to the Airbnb and prepared to welcome some young alumni with Daniel and Dillon's famous chicken parmesan.

An action shot of the duo hard at work

3. Winter work is an unparalleled opportunity to explore new cities, states, and countries.

Webbies find work around the world--and winter work is no different. If you enjoy traveling and exploring different cultures and landscapes, winter internships are the best opportunity to fulfill your traveling needs.

On Saturday, the boys and I headed to make Italian meat sauce with Isa Hill '20 and Chris Bal '20. After a morning of chopping, dicing, and simmering, the trio and Isa headed to Sunset Cliffs to meet three of the freshmen for some midday exploring.

These magnificent cliffs, which border the Pacific Ocean, provide an exhilarating adventure at low tide. I will allow the pictures to speak for themselves (credit to Isa Hill and her magical camera--a Nikon D80--for a majority of these high-quality images).

Dillon doing a slow-motion walk

After a brief intermission for some much-needed showers, we returned to Isa and Bal's to enjoy Daniel's sauce in some soupy lasagna. We then headed for an invigorating walk of nearly five miles of San Diego's highlights: the Gaslamp District, Convention Center, Harbor View Drive at night, and Little Italy.