This was my second week of being an intern for Wall Drug in South Dakota. Being in a place that I have been able to call my second home has turned out to be a place that I will never be able to forget, even though I've only been here working for a short time I can already say that these wonderful people I get to work with every day have become a part of my "family". I am so glad that I can get the chance to be a part of such a wonderful working and learning environment. I'm learning so much about this wonderful company but also much more about the state and all the other things that are important to our state's history. Everywhere I turn, I'm always learning something new about things I had grown up seeing thousands of times. This place is so different than what I was originally thinking, I love it.

Now that I have been here working for Wall Drug for the past week, things are finally starting to become routine and I don't have to be as nervous as I was in the past week. Being the only intern they have ever had at Wall Drug is kind of intimidating, not only because I have to do more work than the other seasonal employees but also because when first meeting other workers they would just look at me like I was crazy - they kept asking, "why would you be an intern at Wall Drug, Why not go big and head to New York?". Well my answer to all of them was and is - I've grown up coming to this place and it has more character and hands on learning experiences with smaller clothing buyers, I'm here for the experiences not just for the friendships. You meet so many different types of people every single day as they pass through the town, its remarkable to hear where they are traveling to and why they stopped by such a small town for some free ice water that's being handed out by the drug store.

Working in a place where thousands of people pass through on a daily basis, I knew that I would have a chance at most likely seeing other SEC fans, in the past week I have seen fans or other students from almost every single SEC school. When they asked me where I was from every time they were shocked when I would say I was a student at Auburn University. It's been so much fun working this past week and being able to have not Auburn moments - but SEC moments.With being an Apparel Merchandising student and starting to look at what my internship project is going to be has been rather tough in a place that already has such great systems in place. But I'm hoping that within this next week as I'm working and walking about the drug store that something would come to my attention in terms of things I could improve, I really want to leave something that would help them out, something they could use for years after I have moved on down the road. I want to be able to leave a piece behind at a place that has been an impact on my life.

The challenges I faced this week were kind of frustrating. With being one of the newest employees - of course I don't know where everything is in the warehouses. That's been such a task in itself to learn where everything is stocked and which sizes are where - if you didn't have help from the others, I'm pretty sure I would/could have been lost already in the warehouse of merchandise. My contributions were pretty much the same this week, and after being told that I get to sit in on the buyers meetings with the department heads and get the opportunity to pick the merchandise they are going to sell in stores Spring of 2013 is truly shocking to me, I can't wait to be a part of such an amazing opportunity.

Now, some of you may be asking.. why this name for your blog post? .. Well that comes from sitting outside in the wonderful sun for our 10 minute breaks during the long 8 hour work days.. not being able to go to the beach this summer.. its time to get the Wall Drug tan with my wonderful roommate Melanie. Of course we've got to find time to "tan" while we wait for the employee pool to open in the next few weeks. .. my blog for next week will make you all laugh im sure.. but im waiting a week to post.