That’s right. Bears and their offspring tend to hang out in the national parks here. As I discovered halfway down a mountain in Yosemite.

But first, the internship. Working at National Semiconductor is going well. I’m in a great department, who are friendly and really great about explaining the acronyms and databases. After a lot of reading and learning I’m beginning to get to grips with the complex systems here. It’s amazing to think that until last week I had no awareness of what happens inside computer a chip – only how to use it in a circuit, and now I know about wafers, die, manufacturing processes. It’s a pretty intricate industry.

The main question that I am researching is to do with improving the reliability of products shipped to the customer, and it’s unclear what the best solution is – I’m hoping to be the one to find that out!

The company has a large sprawling compound in Silicon Valley, at the centre of which is a huge beautiful green garden with a café and seating area. There is also a small park and gym next door for the use of National Semiconductor employees. If you look around outside, it’s hard to believe you’re in a large computer-chip manufacturing business…

I spent my Sunday climbing up and down the mountains in Yosemite, arguably the most famous of America’s National Parks. Camping here on weekends is booked out almost a year in advance. The view is incredible, the size is just indescribable, I have never been somewhere so enormous or felt so small. The cliff faces are huge, craggy and gorgeous. Reaching the top was (to borrow an Americanism) awesome.

Anyway, about 2 hours down from the top (with another three to go), we meet some hikers on their way up, who inform us that there’s now a mother bear with two cubs sitting on the path about a hundred metres further down. Right. It’s the end of the afternoon. Can we get up and back down before darkness falls? Probably not. I need to get to work tomorrow!!

I start thinking about the safety presentation SF will be giving next year: “And be careful in National Parks, because last year we actually lost an intern to a bear….”

If it wasn’t for my incredible 14 year old cousin’s encyclopedic memory (and all-American education), happening to call at the perfect moment, we may have been stuck there quite a bit longer, figuring out what to do. He informed us that when you see a bear in a National Park you need to group together and make a lot of noise, so that the bear thinks that you too are a big, scary animal.

And that is what we did. We all stood together, and started to sing, and clap. Then we started to walk down the mountain. The winding path means that you can only see up to the next bend in the road and my heart skipped a beat each time a large rock or fallen tree came into view that might have been a crouching bear, but as we progressed the path was clear.

It turns out that whilst it’s not common to see a bear, there a quite a few of them around, and the standard procedure is to make sure all your food is packed away and to be loud enough that they leave you alone. So I say to you all: Beware of bears in national parks.

Otherwise, enjoy! It’s great hearing about all your adventures, and hope you all have a great weekend :)