OK, where did I leave off. Last time I spoke, I had just taken the ICND exam to complete my attempt to become a CCNA. I passed with a 900 out of 1000, and that combined with my 914 out of 1000 on the INTRO exam means I had achieved my goal of becoming a Cisco Certified Network Associate.
Now, during most of the training camp I did nothing except go to class and study in my room. There were 12 people attending this camp in Austin, TX and I met quite a few intelligent and cool people. After our ICND exam, I went out with two guys for a quick night on the town. Before leaving for Texas a friend of mine from work was giving me advice on where to spend my time in Austin. Evidently, the place to go in downtown Austin is 6th Street. So, we left off to eat and see what the big deal was about 6th. On a recommendation from our instructor we tried the Iron Works BBQ. The food there was excellent, as evidenced by the fact that the beef briskett could be cut with a plastic fork. From there we walked out to 6th Street and we stopped into a local pool hall. I can't remember the name, but this was a nice place to shoot pool. They had plenty of tables for billiards, as well as dart boards, foosball tables and shuffleboard tables. And let's not forget a good amount of beer on tap. We shot a couple rounds of pool, then headed back to the hotel because it would be back to work tomorrow.
Saturday we spent the entire day studying for the second certification offered in this course, the Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA). Our teacher pretty much admitted it was a joke that we were only taking one day to study for this exam, since we studied 5-6 days for the CCNA and the CCDA contained quite a bit of material itself. I honestly did not care too much about this certification. I mainly did this bootcamp to get the CCNA, so if I could get the CCDA on top of that then great. So, we worked through the material all day and then that evening I went out with two others to go to Chuy's. It's a Tex-Mex restaurant that was recommended to me and it did not disappoint. Really good food and service, and it was a good ending to my trip. We didn't go out on the town that evening, since most of us had to take our test in the morning and then we were all leaving to go home.
Woke up Sunday, grabbed some breakfast and met the others in the classroom. Took the CCDA exam at about 10:30. Only got a 600 out of 1000, but again I wasn't too interested in this certification so I wasn't too disappointed. Thanked the instructor, said goodbye to the people I met, and then headed for the airport. Had a bit of time to wait until my flight left for Houston, then once I arrived in Houston I had a slight layover until my second flight left for Tampa. I finally arrived home at about 23:15 EST. Got home, dumped my baggage on the floor and pretty much went to bed since I had work the next morning. But I got my CCNA, so it was a great trip and experience.
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