Don’t Mess with Texas, Day 1

After getting up at 2:45 in the morning (actually I didn’t bother to sleep at all), we drove for about 30 minutes to Baltimore Airport. We arrived in Houston early in the morning, just about ready to pass out. I couldn’t believe how tired I was, and the some of the guys in the group decided to sleep on the side of walls.

We finally got our vans, and started our day out to IHOP to get some breakfast. It was the first time I’ve been to IHOP because I don’t think there is one in Hawaii. After enjoying Oregon Blue Berry Pancakes with Bacon, Eggs, and Sausage, we headed over to the Galleria shopping mall, which to my surprise had a skating rink inside. There many stores within this mall, most of them that could be found in Hawaii. One store in particular was named Pink, and I dared my friend to walk in by himself. In the end, I decided it was just better to try and take a picture of myself in front of the store, which pretty much only had women shopping around for their personal goods.

Then we came upon a store that sold things only in Texas. I found a cowboy hat and thought it would be cool to be the first Chinese Cowboy of the United States. My good island bro Roberto from Puerto Rico and I decided to look like Island Cowboys.

We left the Galleria and headed over to Schilling Robotics. They are the creators of Remotely Operated Vehicles, as well as the creators of different robotics manipulators used for underwater research. After hearing about the business and the industry, we got to go outside into the garage and actually play with one of the robotic arms, dubbed the “Titan 4”. I was the first up to try this cool machine, and as I was controlling the arm, it felt like as if my arm had just transformed into titanium muscles, being able to maneuver around the field with great strength and flexibility. We tried building a house with the blocks of wood that were lying around, but in the end, one of the interns lost control of the arm and knocked the whole building down.

The simulation room was also quite a sight to see-we actually had full control over what the robot could do, and it felt so real too, as if we were really under water trying to unhook some locks from a submarine.

After the two demonstrations, we got some free t-shirts, and then headed off to dinner. It was a Mexican restaurant, one where I decided I would order my meal based on quality, and not price. In the end, I had no regrets, although the meal came out to $30. I decided to take a picture of the food, for memories sake (and for the fact that it was the most expensive dish on the menu). Then we headed off to the hotel, where I went online to register for orientation at MIT (after confirming with my parents that they wouldn’t be able to come for Parent Orientation L) Tomorrow is a full day at the Johnson Space Center; until then, take care, and dream about robots!