The Sunshine State

Here I go! Last Saturday (Jan 2) I headed to Fort Myers, Florida for co-op. As many of you know, I've never been to FL before. Needless to say I was excited and uncertain on what to expect. It was definitely tricky to pack this time around. Everybody kept telling me it was going to be really warm, so I trusted them and packed light clothes. And here I am now in Fort Myers under a freeze warning. Just my luck? I will say that it's rather amusing to hear all of these Floridians complain about it being frigid at 50 degrees. I'd love to see what would happen to them up North for a few months ;)

In case you're out of the loop, I'm working for Soma Intimates . Soma is apart of Chico's and White House Black Market. I am working on the apparel side of Soma (lounge, sleep, active wear). Though it's only been a few days, I'm finding myself to like this job a lot. The team I work with is wonderful. Everybody has been so helpful and genuinely enthusiastic about having the other intern (my roommate) and myself there.

I'm going to backtrack to Saturday real quick. I flew out of Dayton and got to Fort Myers around 10am. My roommate Nancy and her boyfriend came and picked me up from the airport. I had briefly met Nancy earlier in the week, but other than that she was a new face. She goes to UC for Fashion Design as well, but she's in her 3rd year. After they picked me up, we headed to our apartment/ condo to drop off my bags. The condo is a typical beach condo consisting of dolphin statues, sailboats, and a lovely pastel color palette. ;) We also have a really nice view of two ponds on the golf course. I really can't complain about this place. I'm so grateful for how easy the housing situation has been this time around. In case you forgot about my NYC experience, feel free to read my older posts to refresh your memory (enter at own risk).

I got a bit off track. After we stopped back at the condo, we headed to the Everglades. HOW AMAZING! It was a quick 2 hr car ride, seeing as I napped it away. Our intentions were to rent a canoe and paddle through the mangroves. But we got there a bit too late for the canoe rentals. Instead, we took a water tour. We didn't see any alligators (they were apart of the mangrove tour we missed) and we didn't see any manatees (feeding time). With that said, it was an amazing experience. We did see several beautiful birds and dolphins that swam close to the boat.

I have always wanted to go to the Everglades and I'm so excited that I was able to go there on my very first day in FL. The perfect end to the day consisted of us driving back to Fort Myers while I watched the sunset behind rows and rows of palm trees. How blessed am I?

Here are a few pics from the Everglades :)

Work has been wonderful. I haven't been able to do too much so far because I can't connect to the network. Once that gets going I'll be able to do flat sketches. My team is wonderful and I'm so excited to work with them.

Well, that pretty much brings you all up to date. I'm going to try my best to keep updating this once a week. Sorry this post was kinda scatterbrained and choppy. I wrote it in sections J_

If you miss me, come and visit...I have an extra bed and it's gonna be in the 70's next week ;)

x0x0