Adventuresome Grad Student Traverses USA to Work in Teeny Town!

This is my first post on my Blog/Vlog about my internship in Indiana.  My intrepid traveler of a BFF, Code Name "Route 66" (real name, Monica) and I will be driving, camping, photographing, and old-and-small-town-ing across the country to a wild new adventure for me (but not for 66. She drives out with me but flies right back out of Chicago, another exciting town we've never visited before).  I am a Master's Candidate in Historic Preservation at University of Southern California's Graduate School of Architecture. What a mouthful!  I should make an acronym for my self-introduction: M.C.H.P.U.S.C.G.S.A.?  Pronounced, "MoochPussCagsa..."  Nix.  That is really stupid.
Anyway, I have a BA in Japanese studies from UCLA and years of work experience in retail, real estate, and administration, but went back to school to work with historic architecture, about which I am rabidly passionate.  Most of the time when I tell people what I do, they say,"oh, that's wonderful...except, WHAT exactly do you do...?"  The 'Elevator Pitch', one-line description of my life's work: I try to save old buildings.  In the case of this internship, I'm going to learn more about the National Trust's "Main Street" approach to protecting and nurturing a small town's historic downtown core, and help the Wabash Marketplace organization in any way I can.  Me and 66 are taking Indiana by storm!