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!

Packing

I've started a list of what needs to be packed and where it's going. There are three choices: Carry-on (purse or laptop bag), Suitcase (two checked bags in the plane which'll run me $15 apiece. I miss Southwest already), or Ship (who knows how many boxes of mostly clothes I'll send to myself). So far almost everything I've listed is a toiletry, from toothbrush (suitcase) to q-tips (suitcase) to hairbrushes (main in purse, barrel brush will be shipped) to makeup (definitely in my purse - I'll need to freshen up after that stupid red-eye). I'm trying to decide which clothes I want to have with me on the plane (carry-on/wearing or suitcase) and which I'll ship. I'm hoping the boxes will get there before I do - AU takes them as early as Monday - but worst case, I need to be prepared to wait it out. Therefore, all my bedding is going in a suitcase. I'm not wasting space packing a sleeping bag I might use for three nights. Forget that.

Random tangent: I can label my posts? Well, be prepared for EVERY POST IN THIS BLOG to have a "sarcasm" tag. Or not. That might get old.

Another slightly random tangent. I'm still hunting for good boots. I want black ones, preferably leather, than zip up over my jeans to just under my knee. I found some gorgeous Cole Haans with mom, but they were riding boots. Oops. They were quite comfy though. I'll also eventually need a good warm coat, which Shawna tells me I will not find here. Too true.

I can't concentrate anymore. I'll finish this list tomorrow - I'd better, because tomorrow I need to pack, hardcore, and take stuff to the post office. Though that will more than likely be postponed until Friday. Typical.

And so we begin

This shall be my "semester 'abroad' " blog. I say "abroad" in quotes because everyone can be so anal about how DC is TECHNICALLY not abroad from Menlo Park. Whatever, fools! It's a completely different culture and it's not California, so I count it as abroad. Besides, I've done the whole live-in-Spain thing. I wanted something different. Anyway, I was gonna just update my xanga, but that has way too much baggage (aka ninth-grade angst) and I figured I should make a fresh start. Aaaand not send the link to my xanga to family and friends. Awkward town!

I need to pack. Desperately. This is not a surprise. I have two weeks until I leave, but last night I had a terrifying dream where I was getting on a plane to DC but I hadn't packed anything except my wallet and phone and gold nail polish. It was really scary. Scary enough to make me go dig through the basement for old boxes from the move. I also realized that my passport expires in October. Probably something I should look into, no?

Anyhow, look back to this thing come the 19th or so for photos and musings and stories of the East Coast. Enjoy!

L