So this is it

I made it home safely after 27 hours of travel and only 2 hours of sleep, plus lots of running, stress, and sweating, and uncomfortable airplane seats, and nervous gum chewing, and packing, and good lord I hate travel.

But I really felt the Christmas spirit. The generosity of strangers blew me away.

Soooo I suppose the necessity for this blog is about up. Thanks for playing, kids, it's been real.

I liked writing in here, so I think I might make a new blog just for my thoughts and musings. I'll send out that URL once it's made and started.

DC was an amazing semester. I could not have predicted what fun I had, how much I learned, and how much it would change me. I miss everyone already.

<3

Grüße aus Deutschland

Greetings from Germany!

I've been here for a bit over a week now. I arrived an exhausted mess on Thursday morning, the 10th. I was fairly ill the first few days I was here with a prolonged cold, so I barely left the house. I spent most of my days curled up on a chair with my book, eating well, and sleeping (or trying to). During my slow recovery, I've been for walks in the woods, shopping downtown, and I saw a Christmas concert at a local church.

It snowed yesterday! A lot! I've been inexplicably referring to snow as "snizz" and I can't stop. Please help.

It was lovely walking in the woods with the snow. So peaceful and quiet...until it got windy near the end. But the cool winter air feels lovely as I'm regaining health. I took a lot of pictures, but those aren't yet on my computer.

It's still slowly hitting me that the semester is done. I'm finished with DC. Who knows when I'll be back and who knows when I'll see some of my closest friends again. That's a weird thought. DC and those people were my LIFE for four months.

Side note: time is a weird thing, very relative. I told Oma that the decade is coming to a close, and that a decade ago, I was 10 and she was 70. She said "oh, that's it? Just ten years? That's nothing." I said "Oma, that's half my life." I'm reminded of this when she tells stories from "just the other day, not long ago" and then I find out it's from when I was 6.

So yeah, four months is kind of a long time for me, as a young'n.

I'm super excited to get back to Claremont. I miss my friends there so much. Caety and I skyped for two HOURS yesterday, which was awesome because we're in the same time zone so there was no trying to figure out when someone had to go to sleep or whatever. I've had two dreams in the last week about Claremont. Nothing special, just being back at Scripps in familiar territory and walking around campus, etc.

I fly home on Monday. I have two days left in Germany. It's currently -15º celcius (5ºF). The lowest it got in DC was close to 32ºF/0ºC. Claremont is currently 75ºF/23ºC, so it's easy to understand why I miss it.

I've got to start packing up all my stuff and making sure I can fit it all. Thank goodness I'm gonna take a duffel from Oma - no worries about trying to jam everything into the one black suitcase I have. (Which, by the way, ended up weighing 68 pounds from DC-Germany.)

Off I go.

Thanks for the memories

Done? What do you mean I'm done?

It still hasn't hit me that I'm leaving. My super shuttle will be here in about 5 hours to take me to the airport. Maybe it will hit me when the shuttle comes. Or when I take my boxes to the UPS store. Or when I get on that plane to Germany...

Anyway, my last weekend or so was spent wonderfully with the girls I'm gonna miss the most. We went out to a club on Saturday night (my first night OUT in DC - kind of sad, but oh well)

Congressional 3 ladies: Pin, Amanda, Katie, Emily, Alana, Sam, and me.Alana, Sam, and me. LOVE these girls.


Then on Monday after all of us had finished finals, we visited the White House christmas tree.

Now I'm just finishing up my packing and shipping. I'm terrified I'm gonna run out of room. I don't have much left to put in my suitcase - really just my washbag and Teddy and Tree Stump - but it's already bursting. I'm crossing my fingers it's not over 50 pounds!

As for my boxes...let's not even talk about that. I'm only shipping three, but it might be a stretch. Some things might not make the cut. Like my pillows - those might have to go. But, as Mom said, they're just pillows.

I also have to get my laptop and external harddrive away. Ughh this is too difficult. I can't think anymore. Perhaps I'll write from Germany.

Peace out DC - it's been real.

These are my confessions

I'm going to Germany in less than a week.

Less. Than. A. Week.

Between now and then, I have a bit to get done. My final exam is on Monday at 1 (EST) and it's the same format as the miderm. Our professor sent out the questions earlier this week and we prepare for them. On the day of the final, he will roll a die and whatever number comes up is our final (each essay question has a number). I have my favourites, of course, but I plan to be well-prepared for all of them. I've outlined all but the last question.

My final research paper is also due next week. Originally it was due Monday at 9am, but my professor pushed it to Wednesday at 4, which is exactly when I'm checking out of my dorm. I pushed that out of my mind and am telling myself now that it's due Monday night. This is good because I was stressing about managing my time between studying and finishing the paper, but now I can concentrate all my efforts on this final until it's done, then work on the paper. It's only 20 pages now and needs to be 30, so we'll see how that goes.

I went to my last day of internship on Tuesday, which is insane - where did my semester go? The whole team took me out for lunch and gave me a gorgeous green notebook with silver studs. It's so me I can't even stand it. I'll miss them!

Having the family here for Thanksgiving was soo awesome. We ate ridiculously well and it was great having them able to see where I live, work, etc. We got some cute pics of the four of us too:



Neither of those is our Xmas card pic; I'm not gonna post it because many of you will be getting it in the mail anyhow. Plus, it's already on facebook.

I'm making lists of everything I have with me and whether I'm shipping it home, to Rachel at Scripps (thank you thank you!!!), or taking it with me to Germany. I'm hoping to fit everything I'm shipping in just two boxes, but it took me 4 to get here, so I'm...hesitant.

I can't believe I won't see some of these people again. Honestly, I'm a little sick of my classmates (some of them) because some of them are so thick and ask such dumb questions. Half of our class period is wasted on things like this:

Professor: So you have to write 4-5 pages by Monday and e-mail it to me.
-When's it due?
-Monday
-And it's how many pages? 3?
-4 to 5.
-So it's four to five pages on this?
-No, on that.
-And it's due when?
-Monday.
-Do we need a hard copy?
-No, just e-mail it to me.
-Okay, so should we print it?
-No.
-And how many pages is it?

I CAN'T TAKE IT!!!! I swear, if half the people in our class just shut up for five seconds and listened to him while he was explaining stuff instead of whispering (that drives me nuts and I actually yelled at two people who were whispering right in front of me) or actually READ the handouts he gives us on projects they wouldn't be so dumb.

Last night was fun because we had our end of the year class party. We were supposed to go ice skating, but apparently the rink's ice making machine was borked, so we went to ESPN zone instead and ate incredibly delicious greasy appetizers (spicy buffalo wings, tortilla chips and dip, quesadillas, etc.) then went downstairs and played arcade games for a few hours. I was playing mini-bowling with 7 guys then looked over and realized most of the girls in my class had either left or were wandering around talking to each other and getting all complainy. I wish some people could just let loose and have fun sometimes. One of the guys then told me that I was the only fun girl in the class, which was awesome. I've always thought of myself as pretty fun, especially with the guys. They're just so much more simple than girls sometimes.

So yeah, I'll miss those guys a lot, and some of my other classmates. I'm gonna miss the boys upstairs in 401 like crazy, especially considering the fact that I half live in their room. I fell asleep on their couch last night until they were like "go home and go to bed" around midnight. They adopted me as fourth roommate a while back because I am ALWAYS in there. I know I'll see them again, but probably not all three of them together, which makes me really sad. I'll also miss Alana to death - that girl has been such a good friend this semester, and I'm definitely visiting her in New York SOMETIME soon.

This is love. My class at the Newseum last month. Don't miss me - near the left side, doubled over laughing. I adore this picture.

Aaaah I'm excited to go to Germany and go home, but I'll miss these people! I don't want to think about it. Back to studying.

Everything is winding down

I have three big things left and I'm donezo. Number one is my crazy research paper, which is still only 20 pages, so I have to pull another 10 out of *somewhere*, but my advisor sent me an article he thinks will help, so hopefully with some recent developments I'll be able to add information to what I already have.

Number two is my SWOT Analysis. For you non-business savvies, that's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of a company. My group is doing Bank of America, and I am focusing on the weaknesses. With some recent developments in my research (i.e. an interview with an insider!!! very hush hush) I think it's gonna be a good paper, at least on my part.

Number three is my final exam on December 7th, but we're so not there yet.

My family will be here in one week!! I'm planning an epic itinerary for the weekend of sightseeing and touristy stuff, following by delicious (real! non-cafeteria!) food. Food that is not sandwiches. I seriously cannot wait. I don't think any of you understand - I've been literally LIVING OFF SANDWICHES. I AM NOT EXAGGERATING. I EAT ONE ALMOST EVERY DAY.

Anyhow, it'll be fun with Shawna staying in the dorm with me. I honestly think I might die of excitement when I see my family.

Three weeks from today, I will be in Germany! Five weeks from Saturday I will be in Sea Ranch!

It's still not sinking in that I might not see these people for...ever? My good friend from class who lives in Germany got an internship for next year, January through April, in...SHANGHAI! That's just so crazy to me.

Back to Thanksgiving, (sorry my thoughts tend to drift around) I was a little bummed that I might not get traditional fare. I actually had a nightmare a few nights ago that it was Thanksgiving and all I had on my plate was cranberry sauce and some mashed potatoes and I woke up crying because there was no stuffing to be found. ANYWAY, last night the cafe served a delicious T-giving feast! The green beans were oddly seasoned and pretty gross, but everything else (the mashed potatoes? gravy? STUFFING???) was delicious! Even the turkey was good! My friend Erin and I did a "dark meat" dance when we were serving ourselves. The caf was also showing a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which was awesome. Childhood!

I applied for two summer internships so far, and I'm researching more. I figure I need to do this now, because if I don't, time from the end of the semester until like the end of March is absolutely nuts. December is obviously packed (Germany until the 21st, then Xmas, then Sea Ranch 26th-January 2nd). In January, I have a bunch of stuff to get done (dentist, haircut, surgery???) then I'm back in Claremont on the 17th. I'll have to settle into my new classes and everything, then before I know it it'll be parents weekend and my 21st birthday! After that is midterm season, then spring break (aka VEGAS!) then suddenly it's the end of March and I'll only have a month and a half until summer. TOO LATE TO APPLY THEN. Ergo, I am doing so now.

Finalmente, I am a genius. Instead of shipping all my stuff home, then packing it in my tiny car and driving to Claremont, I'm going to ship one box of stuff (bedding, summer clothes, etc.) to Rachel and have her hang on to it at Scripps until I get back. This way, I have one less huge box to put in my car, which will already be packed with my trombone, fridge, and far too many clothes. We all know me and packing light - it doesn't happen.

No pictures this time, kids, sorry! Nothing notable has been going on. Actually, nothing at all has really been going on, honestly. But I'll post some after Thanksgiving! Get excited!!!

One thing that even study abroad can't change

This happens every semester you guys. Sometime between the end of midterms and the beginning of finals, usually about a month before the semester ends (aka now) I start burning out. I get completely unmotivated, don't want to do anything, don't want to really talk to anyone, and especially don't want to do work or study. It's probably a good thing that my professor assigned a group project for the end of the semester because we'd all feel way guiltier if we slacked off because we'd be screwing the grades of three other people. I had a meeting with my group this afternoon and we've all started already - and this paper isn't due until the 30th. Thing is, I started, and now I've lost all momentum and don't want to do any more. I have some research, but I don't even have an outline yet and I need this paper done before Thanksgiving because I do NOT want this hanging over my head when the fam-bam is here.

So, yes. Basically, even though I'm in a new exciting place with new exciting people and studying abroad and amazing opportunities blah blah blah, I'm bored. I'm done. I want to go home now.

DON'T GET MAD AT ME I KNOW I'M SUPER LUCKY TO BE HERE AND EVERYTHING but I'm also super HOMESICK, y'all! This is the longest I've been away from home by FAR and I still have another month+ til I'm back in California and DC weather sucks. Probably why I don't want to leave my room, so thank goodness most of my friends live on my floor or upstairs.

I need to push through this. I need to do some research and start writing. Goal for the weekend: get a SOLID outline done plus all sources read and cited. LET'S MAKE THIS HAPPEN. I can crash in a few weeks when everyone gets here. I really cannot wait for Thanksgiving. I'm just worried that when they leave on the 29th I'm gonna get super depressio, but luckily after that I have literally one week of classes left and my final. Ten days after the family leaves, I'll be on a plane to Germany. I'm starting to realize that this semester is ending, but somehow I still don't care, even though I know I may not see some of these people again.

Okay, confession: I've already started packing. Mom and Dad are taking a suitcase or two of my stuff home so I don't have to ship a million boxes back at the end of the semester, which is nice, but packing away my sundresses made me really sad because I HATE THE WEATHER HERE. One of my friends was like "Oh, California's not that warm anyway, it's been 60-65, I've had to wear jeans and a jacket." I responded "yeah, the high in DC is 45. I'M FREEZING." No wonder I keep getting sick.

ANYWAY sorry for all the boo-hoo talk. Seriously. Sorry. I'm homesick - so sue me. I'm gonna try to do something on Sunday, like go to Arlington, because it's gonna be nice-ish out (68 degrees! glory!) and because I've been holed up in my room since Halloween. Okay? Bye.

Quick Halloween update

Crazy night. Went to a concert with a group of friends, which ended around 12:15 then made our way to Union Station for a party at off-campus housing. Some of the guys I was with knew the girl who was throwing it. Ended up taking the metro home around 2:15 and going to bed by 3:30, which was actually 2:30...DST.

Anyhow, some quick pics of the costume for you all.


I was a cat. I wanted something easy, cheap, and comfortable for the concert. The ears and tail were $7 total, then I wore a black tank top, black skinny jeans, and black converse. It was clear what I was, but I was still comfortable jumping around at the show, unlike some people who wore masks / ridiculous shoes/ skirts / etc.

Did my own french manicure for it! The whiskers, by the way, are done with a 99 cent eyeliner pencil and are perfectly straight because I googled "how to draw whiskers on your own face" (no jokes) and read that it helps to use a credit card or something to make them straight. GENIUS.

This is the end of the night, just so you could see the tail, because I didn't have any other full shots of the costume.

Ummm...yeah.

The end! (For now.)

New York adventures

I've been a horrible updater, I know. I have a semi-legit excuse though. All my photos are stored on my external harddrive and I'm usually in my bed with my laptop - sans speakers, bluetooth mouse, or external harddrive. Soo whenever I feel like updating, it's either without pictures or it doesn't happen. I just made a point of bringing my laptop back to my desk and plugging it all in so I can show you pictures of my New York weekend!

First of all though, I did go to that Scripps event two weeks ago and it was AWESOME - what I saw of it anyway. I made the mistake of wearing jeans without knowing that it was at a swanky club with a strict dress code so I literally ran back to the metro then to campus to change and then all the way back downtown - all of which took 45 minutes, so I missed half the talk, but the new president is AWESOME. I cannot wait to see her again back on campus.

Okay so last week on Wednesday our class took a bus to New York, stayed in a hotel that night, and spent Thursday trawling the city. We got to see the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, visit the Fed (including the gold vaults, where I got serious claustrophobia), and go on a ferry ride to Staten Island and back.


Wall Street!
NYSE floor - not much action happening.
Lady Liberty herself.

Thursday night I had a subway adventure getting to Bob and Linda's, but I *did* make it. I spent the weekend in bliss, getting a manicure and massage, swimming in the lap pool, having my first sauna experience (the dry one was nice, but the steam room made me super claustrophobic too because I literally could not see one foot in front of me), and generally relaxing. I even baked brownies! Double dark chocolate Ghiradelli, to be specific. Linda naturally sent those back with me and, surprise, they're already gone. I just send the word out to three or four people and if they didn't come immediately, they dibsed one or two right away.

Anyhow, on Sunday we went for a walk in the park (not Central park) because though it was a bit windy, it was sunny and beautiful. View!

Autumn leaves on the East Coast are too gorgeous.The lake
More leaves
The building - we were on the 28th floor
View out one window of the living room
View out the other window of the living room
Dining room
Lincoln's room - where I stayed for the weekend
Linda and Dolley - I ADORE that dog. She is so sweet. She enjoys nuzzling, which looks like she's wiping something from her eye or nose on my pants, but it's adorable. And she loves having her behind scratched, so even though it looks like she's facing away from you or ignoring you, it means she wants you to pet her. Makes me miss my Solo.

Speaking of which, now that I'm more than halfway though, I'm starting to get really seriously homesick. This coming Tuesday I will have been away from my parents and my home longer than I ever have - and I still have another nearly two months til I'll be home again. I'll see the fam again for Thanksgiving, but that's still another month away. I know that in about five weeks I'm gonna start freaking out about how fast this semester has gone and about how much I'm going to miss my German friends and everyone I've met here who I probably won't see for a long time - if at all again. But as for now...I'm homesick. I miss California. I miss my house. I miss CLAREMONT, darnit! And I miss all my friends. And I REALLY miss my family. I would kill to be back at home again on the windowseat with a cup of tea, an almond cookie from the farmer's market, and no plans. But that won't come til almost Christmas.

I know, I know, I need to enjoy and appreciate the time I have here. I am. I'm super grateful for this experience, but I'm allowed to have my mopey moments. Give me that!

It probably doesn't help that I've been sick for the past few days. Sometime in my New York weekend, I started feeling congested. By the time I got home on Sunday night, I was a sneezy wreck. I didn't go to work on Monday or yesterday, and went to the health center. They told me it's NOT pneumonia (thank goodness, because I was afraid it was) and my lungs sound find. It's also not flu (I could have told you that - I have no flu symptoms). It's just a prolonged bad cold. They gave me a stronger decongestant than what I've been using and told me if I'm not better in a few days - not just better, but like 100% better - to come back because then it's more serious. Honestly, I'm feeling much better today, but still not 100%, so I skipped class this afternoon, even though I went in the morning. I had a headache the whole time and just wanted my bed, so that's my next destination, as soon as I finish my laundry.

Hope this was a satisfactory update for everyone! Apologies apologies for not updating more. Again, blame the harddrive and the extreme comfiness that is my bed. It looks like this when it is perfectly made:
You have my permission to be impressed. (Just ignore the mess under and around it.)

Halfway already???

WHAT THE HECK Y'ALL! My midterm is on Thursday. Mom was like "wow, that's early" and I realized that it's not actually - this is a sixteen week program and we're entering week eight. I'll be on a flight to Germany in just over 8 weeks. I can't even start to think that far ahead though. This midterm is killing me slowly, plus I have a draft of my 30-40 page research paper due on the 26th, and oh hey, I haven't started writing. But I do have a pretty detailed outline and I've done pretty much all my research. I'll just hole myself up with my laptop and Mark Knopfler and write that mess out. It's just a first draft, so it doesn't have to be perfect. After that, November will be GLORY. Just two short papers for my seminar (4-5 pages each) and a reflection paper for my internship class.

In other news, the Dalai Lama spoke at AU yesterday but tickets sold out in about two seconds. Plus I was studying all day anyhow. It would have been amazing to see him speak, or even be in the same room, but for now I'll have to settle for same town.

There's a Scripps event soon! I just found out that the new President is touring the country meeting alums and she'll be in DC on Tuesday. Now, that's an internship day for me, but I mapped out the place and it's about 6 blocks from my office. I am SO there.

I was in New York last weekend, which is weird, because that seems like ages ago already. I took one picture. Sorry sorry! I'll be back in two weeks and I promise more pictures then. I'll spend Thursday the 22nd wandering Wall Street with my class - we get to go on the FLOOR of the NYSE (stock exchange) and tour the New York Fed too. That will be an adventure for sure. After we split, I'll take the subway or a cab or something to Bob and Linda's again.

Anyhow, my trip to New York was awesome. I got in pretty late on Friday night (thanks, Baltimore traffic!) but spent Saturday afternoon trawling Macy's for sales. I got a coat for over $100 less than it was priced (sales+coupons+Macy's card = glory), a cute metallic wristlet, and a great black cinching belt for my sweater dress. Linda is the best shopping buddy. I also bought a pair of boots that I fell in love with online. They should be here tomorrow or Tuesday. WANT!

I've fallen into a pretty nice routine here. I'm glad about that, because I was worried about having class at a different time every day. I need routine in order to stay sane. I work Mondays and Tuesdays, I work out Wednesday and Friday mornings, and I have class Wed-Fri. It's a nice set-up and it works for me.

Back to work! I seriously cannot believe I'm basically halfway through my semester here. I haven't done enough exploring yet!

She's going rogue!!

No pictures today, and I'm "going rogue" because I'm updating from work. Sssh...

Just a few new pieces of info. Numero uno: I'm teaching myself to write with my left hand. My friend Jason could not believe I did not know how to use a lighter (not even a zippo or anything, like your basic BIC) so he tried to teach me and I just could not make it happen. He bought me a lighter so I could practice and after my right thumb got sore, I switched hands and boom. It worked every time. Sometimes I forget I'm left-hand dominant. I was supposed to be left-handed, but my dear sister always took the pen/crayon/whatever out of my left hand and put it in my right when I first started picking them up. But my piano playing was always off because my left hand would naturally be louder than my right, and I still sometimes reach for things with my left hand. So I figured it only makes sense to teach myself left-handed writing. I'm seriously tempted to go buy one of those books for 5 year olds that teach you how to write by tracing letters and stuff, but do it with my left hand. Should I?

Nexttt...I went to an Oktoberfest party with my German friends last Thursday night, but that turned out to be a total bust. The only thing Oktoberfest-y about it was the giant glass mugs. There were no huge tables, no German music, no German decorations, and the beer wasn't even that good. It was more of a networking event for business people. Seriously, people were passing out business cards and shaking hands and whatever.We felt awkward being there as students, so we didn't stay long. But it was fun to just go out with my friends. It's kind of funny that I'm here in DC but studying with a lot of international kids (at least eleven Germans in my class, almost as many French, a Danish girl, a Chinese girl, three kids from South Korea, three girls from Colombia, two girls from Africa, three U.S. kids, and I think I might be forgetting some) but some of my friends from Scripps/home who are studying abroad are there with a bunch of American kids. Who's getting the real international experience? Maybe none of us.

Another fun thing is that I reconnected with the Forans last week (yay!) and I'm going to New York this weekend to spend a few nights with them (YAY!!!) I'm really excited about that, except for the small fact that it's supposed to rain all weekend. Oh well, I can happily experience New York from their apartment, honestly. And Penn Station.

The other night, I had a dream I was eating pumpkin pizza. I think it's time for fall.

I'm getting tired of wearing business casual clothes almost every day. I'm such a jeans, sweatshirt, and flip-flops kind of girl. I should get my black jeans up here, then life would be easier. I'm also kind of sick of all my tops. I didn't bring a whole lot, seeing as I had to ship everything, but my office is dangerously located next door to an Ann Taylor and a Gap. Every time I walk by I want to try on everything in the window. I smell a post-work shopping excursion in my future - but next month, after this month's ridiculous credit card statement has gone through. Daily metro rides and eating out almost every day is killing me...and my bank account.

I've been swimming on Wednesday and Friday mornings. I wake up at 6am and eat a banana or granola bar, then walk ten minutes to main campus (last week it was raining, so that was fun) before the sun even comes up to swim for about an hour. The bus starts running at 7 so I can bus back and shower before class. It's glory. The pool has retarded hours here - 6-8am on Wed/Fri mornings, and then various times in the afternoon/evening the rest of the week. I've heard that it's normally PACKED; one of my friends had to share a lane with five other people once. When I go at 7am, I get a lane to myself. I live for that. I sometimes forget why I ever stop swimming, and I still kick myself for not swimming every day this summer. Next summer, assuming I'm home, I'm gonna try to go daily again. It just changes my whole day, it wakes me up.

On the other hand, I've been taking afternoon naps almost every day I don't work (aka Wed-Sun) Just one short hour in the afternoon does wonders. It doesn't help, though, that I've been sniffly and sneezy because pollen counts are ridiculously high. Stupid allergies.

No other news for now, but I'll probably post something when I'm back from New York. This will be my first time back in almost five years. I cannot wait!

Sorry about the delay

Blogger was being weird and not letting me log in for some reason...but it's all good now! And I have many many updates.

okay so last time I was talking about internship stuff, so I'll let you all know that I'm working at the American Iron and Steel Institute as the Communications Intern. I've already been in three times and I love it! My first day was pretty clerical, but that's because I didn't have a computer, so what else was I supposed to do? Last week I audited the website (omfg thank you Core III!!!) and fixed a number of broken links. Our website won an award. I like to think I was a part of that. I also wrote a survey for Hill staffers about where they get online info and what they think of our website. We want to win the award again next year, so we're revamping it to make it as user-friendly as possible, and catering it towards the people who matter, obviously. I also wrote fact sheets on steel sustainability, the transportation crisis, and other stuff. Those are gonna be up on the website soon! Check it out.

So I have a few weekends to catch up on too. On the Sunday of Labor Day weekend there was a free symphony concert on the Capitol lawn, so we went to that. It got rained out after the first set, but I got some gorgeous pics of el Cap at sundown.

The stage as we got to the lawn
A few hours later
Gorgeous!

That was pretty much the highlight of the weekend. My friend Quinn has a house in Friendship Heights, about a 15 minute walk from campus, and he threw a party that Saturday. Last weekend I went to a march for Health Care. I'm sure most of you have heard about it in the news and stuff, but if you haven't, there were two rallies. Saturday was the Tea Bagger march and they had thousands of people. On Sunday was ours - we were only a couple of hundred strong, but it was still really exciting, and very DC. I even made a "honk for health care" sign and stood on a street corner for about half an hour. We got a couple of rude people, but most people who walked by were super supportive, and we got a good number of honks. I've ALWAYS wanted to do that! My friend Lauren has pictures of that, so I'll post them when I get them from her.

Then this past Thursday was pretty much the most exciting thing ever. I got to see OBAMA speak! [I don't have pictures, but I'm going to get some from my friends who brought cameras.] My professor canceled classes when we told him about it. 16 of us woke up at 3:30 in the morning to take three cabs at 4:15 to the University of Maryland (the metro didn't start running until 5:30 - too late for us!). We got there just after 5am, which is when we were allowed to start making a line. The doors opened a bit before 9, but not until after we all got rained on. We finally got inside and got seats, but we all got split up. There was also virtually no food there, which was awful because I had a granola bar and yogurt when I woke up, but some of us hadn't eaten at all. There were some speakers at 11, right on time, but Obama didn't come out until almost noon, by which time we were all almost dead, but I was so excited I almost cried. He rallied for health care and catered to his audience (primarily college students) beautifully. And he was hilarious!!! We eventually made it back to Tenleytown close to 3pm, at which point we all devoured McDonald's. How appropriate after a health care rally.

The sights!

I've been downtown more times this week than I care to count and my feet are KILLING me. I actually just turned down the chance to go to the capital to see Ted Kennedy's motorcade because I'm having issues standing for more than 15 minutes at a time.

But!! I have pictures from the past week. Get ready for a picture-palooza.

On Tuesday, Jessie decided she wanted to see the sights at night because she'd heard everything was lit up and gorgeous. Okay. So at 8pm a bunch of us climbed onto the metro and spent the next four hours wandering around and exploring.

The World War II Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background. El Mon has two red lights at the top which blink at night - makes it look like it has angry eyes.
This is basically the coolest picture ever. Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial.
It really was cooler at night.
The White House at night - unoccupied, sadly, because the Obamas are in Martha's Vineyard.

Wednesday was my first seminar class, and I really like my professor. The general set-up is that we'll have readings over the weekend, then a seminar on Wednesday morning to talk about the reading and the week to come. Then, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning we'll go places and/or have speakers, etc. Friday afternoon we have a final seminar to debrief. It's a good setup.

Mondays and Tuesdays are reserved for internships. I've interviewed at a couple of places and been offered one position. I'm debating taking it, but I don't want to commit until I hear from another place. It's kind of complicated.

Anyhow, on Thursday we got to tour the Capitol, which was awesome. So many statues! So many important rooms! So much history! It was fabulous. Then we got to "tour" the White House, which was kind of lame, because we only got to see a few of the upstairs parlour rooms that were used in the 1800s. No Oval Office, no West Wing, nothing cool. We were in line for security longer than we were actually in the building. But all was not lost. We chatted up some cute secret service guys and spotted a window with butterfly stickers - Sasha or Malia's room, perhaps?

On Friday we planned to take a walking tour of the mall, but we were rained out early. It ended up working out well, though. We started off with the things I hadn't seen, then by the time the rain hit, we were going to see Lincoln, WWII, Vietnam, and Korean memorials. I saw all of those on Tuesday, so I didn't feel like I missed anything.

Here's Jefferson's memorial from across the river. It looked like something out of Star Wars. Anyone?

A waterfall from Roosevelt's memorial.
The leaves were just starting to change. I'm so excited for autumn!
The geese were at least enjoying the rain, because they could eat all the worms outside the Washington Monument.

Now I have a ton of reading to do. I need to take advantage of having the room to myself for the afternoon!

If nothing else, I have friends now.

Hell-O all. So on Thursday morning, Kyndra and I sat at a random table for breakfast where there were two other girls, and two more joined us soon after. We all became buddies and are basically inseparable now. It's so great having 5 friends so if someone isn't available for dinner, I have fallback plans.

On Saturday, we decided to have an adventure and take the metro to Downtown. We got out and got our pictures taken, tourist-status in front of the Capitol
and the Washington Monument.
We just had to turn around. It was pretty funny, actually. In the second picture, that's Kyndra, Rachel, me, Katie, and Ashley. Madeline didn't come because she was in Connecticut for the weekend at her boyfriend's sister's wedding.

We continued walking down the block on our adventure, but then it started drizzling. We wandered into the sculpture garden, and then it started POURING. Katie took charge and got us all into the National Gallery because it was FREE. We then proceeded to act like children and pose like the statues. I'm so glad I found friends who are as crazy as I am.


(Someone please tell me how to rotate pictures on blogger!)

Anyway, after a few hours there, we got hungry, but it was still pouring. We used my iPhone to find a Quiznos down the street, but got impatient and ducked into an Au Bon Pan, where it was approximately 80 degrees, for real. After eating, we found the nearest metro and booked it back to the dorm for sweatpants joy. We met up in Ashley and Rachel's room later for card games and late night Dominoes.

On Sunday, we took it easy and had a homework day. We all felt like idiots, though, because it was gorgeous out. Then last night everyone came to our room for some terrible tv. New Sunday night tradition!

This morning was the internship bazaar. I handed out 8 resumes, not including the 7 or so I e-mailed out over the past few days. I've already heard back from a few to set up interviews. I'm just debating what would be best for me. A company with a known name? Something small? Something in finance, or marketing, or international relations? Something feminist-related? I'm just going to interview a bunch and see what feels right. And take tons of advice from my parents.

I just finished some 40 pages of reading for seminar on Wednesday, so I think I deserve some brain-mush time now.

I made it!

I arrived you guys!!! The red-eye was HARSH. There was a screaming baby a few seats back and a child kicking my seat for five hours, but what to do. I put on my eyemask and noise-cancelling headphones and dealt. I managed to sleep for maybe two hours total. We landed right on time and I went straight to the bathroom to get my contacts in and makeup on and just to generally get freshened up. Then I found a Starbucks (sweet heaven!!!) right next to the baggage claim. By the time I had my chai frapp in hand, my bags were pretty much the only ones left on the carousel. I paid $3 (highway robbery!!!) for a cart, loaded it up, and hit the taxi stand. I got a "namaste" from the guy who was organizing stuff there. I really don't understand why people feel compelled to say that to me. It makes me want to strangle them.

Anyhow, long story short, I was on campus by 7:45. Move in wasn't til 9. I made my way to my dorm and the RA behind the desk (who had apparently been there since 5AM, bless his soul) graciously gave me my keys and told me to get settled. So I dragged everything to the elevator up to the third floor, threw it all down and took some pictures. View!

The shelf and closets, with my stuff dumped on it for the time being.
This would eventually become my side of the room.
This is Kyndra's side now.

This is the view from the doorway.

I wandered the dorm for a bit, but there was nothing going on, and I couldn't pick up my ID or packet until 10. So I set up camp by the window and watched cars trickle in filled with stuff. It was kind of amusing. Kyndra finally got here and I helped her and her parents unload their car. We picked sides of the room and started making our beds and unloading stuff. I finished unpacking way before her because I just had two suitcases and my laptop and purse. So I tracked my packages. Lo and behold, they were in Maryland, out for delivery! After making some serious headway on unpacking, Kyndra's parents took us to Target for some necessary things (Cheerios, light bulbs, velcro for hanging the mirror, etc.) and to Chipotle because I hadn't eaten anything but that frappuccino and a granola bar all day. It was around 4pm by this time.

After Kyndra's parents left, we checked my e-mail and sure enough, I had four packages waiting for me downstairs. Now, here at AU, they deliver packages to the room. This is amazing. However, I had nothing to do and virtually no stuff, so I wanted those boxes pronto so I could unpack, shower, and go to bed. After harassing the RA for a bit (not really, he was totally understanding) we managed to maneuver the four boxes into the elevator, and then down the hall to our room. I unpacked them all in about twenty minutes. Now our room is all done and pretty and SETTLED. Check out the difference!

View from the door.
My bed!
My desk and closet.
Our shelf with totes and Kyndra's new tv, plus my closet on the side.

So yes, I'm all settled and off to my first meeting with my professor. We have tons to do today, but nothing scheduled tomorrow or all weekend. Kyndra and I are planning on buying books at the main campus bookstore and some more necessaries at CVS tomorrow, then jumping on the metro and exploring during the weekend. Expect lots of adventure stories!