My name is Georgina Weatherill and I am in the fourth year at Ripley St Thomas high school in Lancaster. From the 2nd to the 12th of May, every year10 pupil goes on work experience at a place of their choice. You can do this through school, which is when you get told where you are going, or, you can do your own self –placement. This is what I chose to do because I knew there wouldn’t be very many places concerning Meteorology, (I have an ambition to become a Meteorologist, hopefully working somewhere more exciting than England e.g. America) I don’t know how I managed to find out about the E.S department but I did (obviously) and I got in touch with Beverley Whitaker, Rob Mackenzie’s Secretary. And, it just went from there.

Looking back now on the last two weeks I have learnt far more than I ever imagined I would, and I have gained a lot of confidence through meeting new people*, everyone I have met up here are really nice, they have definitely renewed my faith in the Human race. *( And in myself because, looking at some of the students on campus I am not half as weird as I thought I was in comparison.)

My computer skills have definitely improved as I have been working on two computers, one of which is Windows 3.1 and the other is a ‘Sun work station’. The latter isn’t that bad because it has got the Internet but, although I am quite familiar with 3.1 anyway, it was a nightmare trying to understand Matlab. (I can safely say I am now fluent in Matlab language)

What have I done? Well, my time has been divided between working on Matlab, i.e. analysing data, plotting graphs with data (this data came from the Hazelrigg weather station and some of the graphs I have done can be seen in the Hazelrigg homepage), Or observing the weather up at Hazelrigg and using the results for my graphs.

I have also been down to the lab and worked with some first year students on a practical (which was interesting……..) and I have briefly worked with Bev ( showing me what it was like working in a research office). Everything I have done here has definitely helped my understanding of Meteorology and I am even more enthusiastic about coming to Lancaster University. And although it was hard at first trying to get in touch with someone here it was definitely worth all the waiting (and walking, I have been walking it from the Boot and Shoe every morning. I think all together I have done about 10 and a half miles,…………Don’t ask me why………)

Anyway, I would like to say a big thankyou to Rob, Bev, Martin, Katherine (and everyone in the office, sorry, I have forgotten your names, but that is just me, it’s nothing personal!!!!!!!) for making me feel welcome and helping me out.