I can't believe another week has passed!

"bingo games" (page 155)

Random, you say? Not really. The women where I work LOVE Tuesdays because Tuesday means BINGO DAY! It's so great to see how happy it makes them. The other day we got a huge donation and they all rushed in--Were they rushing in to try and grab the donation bags first? Nope! They were trying to decide which ones would make the best bingo prizes so each person could win them fairly. All of these things really give me a new appreciation for bingo games. Man, I love my internship location :-)

Well I legit can't believe another week has passed. What a whirlwind! Unfortunately on Monday my mentor cancelled on me for breakfast, but I used the time to study for the

midterm that I had on Tuesday. Tuesday morning, Lindsey, Chelsea, and I took off for the Capitol on a pre-arragned trip where we got to sit on the House Floor and listen to a Rep from Nebraska (I think) give us a short speech and Q & A session. Wednesday was Lindsey's 21ST BIRTHDAY, which was great, although drinking on a work night here is NOT a good idea, we all found out.

As we were all dying from hangovers on Thursday, we were sad to say goodbye to Chelsea's boyfriend, Ryan, who's been staying here all week and he's kind of become a family member! Thursday night was a girl's night for the first time in a long time and all 5 of us roommates piled onto the couch and watched "How I Met Your Mother" (TV show), which was fun. I also cooked up a storm all night, which was great! I'm really loving cooking. Friday night Lindsey had some people over as did I (Megan, Megan's roommate, and Dani, as per usual), but most of the roomies ended up staying in and chatting because we were exhausted from the week. Saturday was the World Cup qualifying game, so myself, Katie, Kate, and Lindsey took off and met Megan and Dani and a bunch of people Megan knew down at a sports bar in Arlington to watch. Too bad U.S.A. lost :-( But Sara, another Belizean baby, came into town and met up with us which was GREAT! After the game, Kate and I went to the free BBQ our program put on, which was fun. I met up with Karla, the girl I work with, and her son and nanny, which was really fun. Then I spent the night hanging with my Belizean babies and then watching The Time Traveler's Wife with Katie. What a depressing, but great movie. Now it's the wee hours of Sunday morning (just 10 minutes in), and I'm doing a little homework and updating this before I sleep.

Tomorrow I need to study ALL day (I have a final Tuesday and a paper due within the week, as well as a journal assignment and a ton of readings. Oh dear.) and hopefully get in a littl grocery shopping. And then this upcoming weekend is the 4th of July...And when DILLON comes! It is CRAZY how fast these weeks pass, although they drag on forever while they're going on....Only 35 more days! I really like it here and I love all my roommates, but I really miss Vermont and am excited to return home :-)

Well, THAT was quite the week....

"mental alertness" (page 89)

Not only does this make me happy, but it's something that I would love to possess throughout this week. Although with this sleep level, that doesn't necessarily seem possible. I know they tell you to get 8 hours of sleep a night, but have they met the life of someone in this Georgetown program?!

Well lovelies, I haven't written in a week. Whoops! Although that's not entirely my fault. I haven't had much time to breath or sleep, much less right! This week was busy busy, but as my Dad says, at least it keeps me out of trouble! We had our usual interning and classes, as well as an all-institute debate and project meeting, on top of the fact that I was supposed to have a midterm Thursday (it got postponed at the last minute) so I spent an absurd amount of time stressing about that. Also, my family was in town, so I had dinner with them at my grandfather's throughout the week. Whoo!

Despite the insanity, I have managed to have some great times :-) My internship supervisor

signed myself and Karla, the other girl I intern with, up for some free classes at the Foundation Center, a local nonprofit that,

among other things, educates those in the nonprofit world. That was a nice break from the usual work week. On Wednesday, we went out to lunch at MOE'S (thank God) and ended up happening by the White House. There was this crazy man in a wizard hat, as you can see in the picture to the left, who was yelling at this reporter about being threatened, as well as the two women who accompanied him, sporting a fish hat and a bird hat. Interesting. The police were standing by incase anything came of it, but even they were laughing!

Wednesday night I had a lovely night with the roomies and then Friday I had my last dinner with the fam for awhile. It was great--Jon was in town too so I got to see two of my siblings as well as my Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Uncle. I brought Dani and Sherrald with me to Papa's on Friday and we had a great night drinking wine and eating pizza with my family. Afterwards, we the three of us ladies came back to Georgetown and had a fun night on the town with my roommates and hung out at the apartment with a whole assortment of people!

My Dad and three of us kids

Sherrald, myself, and Dani: Even friends in the U.S. of A :-P

Saturday myself, Lindsey, and Kate had to get up wicked early (which was ROUGH) to go do

our service projects we signed up for. I worked for the first half of the day at a local hospice and longterm care center, The Washington Home and Community Hospices. It was amazing. Even though it was brutal functioning on three hours of sleep (whoops), the work was really great. I got to meet some amazing people and it was incredible to hear their life stories. It was really touching to see how much they appreciated us coming and helping out. When we all got home we mowed the free pizza and then took some major naps. Lindsey and I went shopping after that (I came home with two dresses from Urban Outfitters...an uncharacteristic of Chelsea splurge!) and got ice cream at Ice Berry (the BEST!). Then Lindsey, Chelsea, Chelsea's boyfriend,

Chelsea's boyfriend's cousin (confusing), and myself all went to the cousin's apartment in Columbia Heights to hang out and got some AMAZING Mexican/Salvadorian food. It was SO weird--On the way there I came across a Pollo Campero, A.K.A the fast food restaurant that dominated Guatemala, and at the restaurant they had pupusas, the breakfast food I got basically every weekend at the Saturday market in Belize. WEIRD! Study abroad REMIXXXXX! It was a really fun night, minus the difficulty of getting a cab home. I really did luck out with some great roommates!

Today, Sunday, I slept in until almost 1:00PM. It was seriously needed. After eating some leftovers and calling my Dad--HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!--I was about to start studying and then the fire alarm starting going off nonstop. It does that a lot. Annoying! Now I need to get a couple of random to-do list items done and then I've gotta study for the rest of the day (well, I guess evening by then--it's already 3 in the afternoon! How did that happen?). It's going to be a crazy week--I've got a mentor breakfast tomorrow morning and a briefing at the Capitol on Tuesday. It'll be great, but I'm already looking forward to next weekend!

Whatta weekend!

"Timbuktu" (page 100)

Random you think? I understand where she's coming from. When I was younger, I'd say around age 4, I thought it was hilarious to say, "Where do you go?" And people would be like, "What?" or "Where?" And I'd say, "Yugoslavia!" Wow. I thought that one was funny. What's upsetting is that Yugoslavia no longer exists and kids these days have no idea what that "joke" would mean. Crap. I'm getting old. So anywho, Timbuktu reminded me of that, thus making me happy. Not to mention it's mentioned in that great song (Princess Pat...Girl Scout camp, anyone?) and I feel like it's randomosity just lends it a hilarity that can't be explained.

ANYWAY, this weekend was lovely. Friday at work was great--I watched part of a movie, baked

a cake, and helped slice bagels/organize an assortment of baked goods that were donated for the upcoming week. Friday night the roommates and I (sans Chelsea who flew back to Chicago for a couple days) hung out with Dani, Megan, and Megan's roommate, Juliana. We ended up chillin' with the boys across the hall for a bit and just hanging at home, but it was nice to have the night off. You can see Juliana giving Dani a lovely stylization up in the left corner....Should give an indication of a nice night.

Yesterday we all slept in (FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE WE GOT HERE. It was AMAZING) and then Lindsey and I went downtown and shopped with Meg, Dani, and Juliana. I got some MORE work clothes and we saw (Meg says she's sure...I can't confirm or deny) Lee Norris ("Mouth" from One Tree Hill) in H&M, which was pretty cool. Then, after taking a little nap, Lindsey, Katie, Kate, and I all headed over to the little cafe on campus and grabbed some dinner, and then while Lindsey got ready, the rest of us went to Ice Berry, a little cafe that serves frozen yogurt--But like, literally, yogurt that is frozen. SO GOOD. We ended up having Megan and Juliana over again and all of us went out for a night on the town and met up with some of Katie's friends. It was GREAT. We danced the night away at a local club that was SO packed. After Belize and Vermont, these crowds are something to get used to!

Today we all slept in again and have been having SUCH a lazy day. We all feel a little guilty because it's a free Sunday in Georgetown, but this last week has just killed us. Kate and I just walked down to Georgetown Cupcake (It's famous--TLC is airing a TV show about them starting July 16 at 10PM....take a looksie!) and got some AMAZING cupcakes. Definitely worth the $2.75 they are. My family gets in tonight, but not until super late, so I probably won't get to see them until tomorrow. I'm going to go try and finish all my homework (....not so sure that's going to happen) so I can spend as much time with the fam as possible in between my crazy hours!!

Whoops!

I just realized that I made an egregious error. I didn't post anything for you to be happy about in my last entry! SO, I will post TWO things this time around. I think these two things are RATHER obvious and applicable to my life at the current moment:

"Heinz tomato ketchup" (page 7)

"eight hours of sleep" (page 4)

Well, the first is pretty obvious--I'm obsessed with ketchup and put it on basically everything that I eat. So clearly that is one of the things that makes me happiest in the world--Who doesn't want ketchup on their sub rolls and white rice? You've got me. The second one is because I am completely and totally sleep deprived and I am DREAMING (but not literally because I don't sleep) of getting 8 hours of sleep....That would make me super happy. I hope that these two things make you as happy as they make me!

These pictures at the top are of my brand new family member A.K.A my fish! He even took a Metro ride with me to get back to our dorm :-) He's pretty cute, ain't he? That second picture on the right is of him looking into his reflection in the "accent stones" that are mixed in with his gravel. He sees himself in there and since beta are pretty aggressive, he attacks his own face thinking it's another male fish and he'll just keep running into the stones. It's pretty funny. I'm still really stuck on a name. By the end of this weekend, I'm going to have to make the call between Millard Fillmore and Calvin Coolidge.

I finally got around to taking pictures of my room and apartment at the Georgetown dorms. Take a look below to see where I'm staying!

My room! Note the tapestry, fish tank, and abundance of pictures.

Ah, yes, professional clothes.

The bathroom! It has 2 showers.

The staircase to get downstairs--My room is that door on the right. The bathroom is right next to it and the other 2 rooms go down the hall.

Ze kitchen.

Nice, big common room! With my bike in it because there have been a lot of thefts on campus, even for those people with their bikes locked up :-(

The courtyard that our room looks out onto.

Well, I spose my goal for the next week is SURVIVING. Thank GOD tomorrow is Friday. I'm averaging less than 6 hours of sleep a night and have 12 hour days between work, class, and homework. Yikes! But I can't wait to spend a fun weekend with my roomies, Dani & Sherrald, and seeing my parents and little sister next week!

Good God. Busy-ness!

Life is legitimately insane here. I have no idea if I've ever been this busy in my life. And if I have, Belize made me forget about it. So here I sit, it's almost midnight, I'm running on 3 hours of sleep and I've been going nonstop since before 7:00AM. WHOA.

So on Monday I had a bunch of orientation stuff in the morning, and then one of my roommates (it's a 5 person suite), Kate, and I decided to explore the Metro world (it's been a year, I needed a refresher), so we went to TARGET (to appreciate it's beauty and get school supplies) and PETCO to make me a new fish mommy. It was an excellent day, including an enjoyable stint of taking my new child on the Metro. After I got my fishy set up I went to my first class. I have ethics this month. For the firs time in my life, I'm enjoying a philosophy class! After class finished, myself and 2 of my roommates went to dinner at the little cafe on campus and I got my sushi fix. Megan (SHERRALD! From Belize) and her roommate came over to hang out later and we got ice cream. Later that night I put the finishing touches on my room (really, pictures will come soon).

Yesterday, Tuesday seems like it lasted multiple weeks. We had more orientation stuff in the morning and then I grabbed lunch before heading to this alcohol training thing. You have to register parties here--As in, Georgetown is cool with you having a keg in the dorm as long as they know about it so they can make sure you're not being too dumb. Crazy! I think this is better than UVM's idea of a dry campus because kids aren't hiding from the RAs and chugging alcohol in secret...Take notes UVM! I didn't get a fun tee shirt though, which was a bummer. After that I took the Georgetown University Transportation Service (I think that's what GUTS stands for) to Dupont Circle and attempted to find my internship site...Which resulted in me getting lost for over an hour. Good Lord. I never actually found it! I ended up coming home before that because I had a 3 hour class. After class, my in-my-room roommate, Katie (she's from UGA!), and I went to the grocery store because eating out here is SO expensive. We got so many groceries we had to take a cab home! Since we didn't get home till after 9:30PM, dinner was a bowl of cereal while I talked to Dill on the phone. I tried to get some sleep, but I was anxious for my internship so I only slept about 3 hours!

Today was my first day at my internship. Finding it ended up not actually being that complicated (at all), but it was raining all day which was kind of a bummer. I'm super excited for my job--the internship advisor is really into us getting what we want out the experience (e.g., she signed us up for these really cool professional classes at a local nonprofit so we can further learn how to fundraise and stuff), we're getting to do 2 days of direct service (actually working with clients) and 3 days of office work per week, and I really like the other girl who is interning with me via the Georgetown program. Today we just set up what will constitute the rest of the internship and helped serve lunch to the women. We got out a little early, so I finally got to a post office (lots of birthday mailings!) and then came home and did some homework while eating ice cream. Then I had over 3 hours of class--Well, one class that was an hour and a half and then after a 15 minute break, a lecture that was over an hour. Then I came back, made an epic salad with tuna on top, and have been reading and hanging out with my roommates since then. Katie and I watched some Friend's bloopers on YouTube to procrastinate--I highly recommend it if you need a laugh!

I'm still stuck between names for my fish baby. It's between Millard Fillmore (nickname would be Phil....Well, I guess Fill) and Calvin Coolidge (nickname would be Cal)....I think he's a Calvin, but I'm just not sure!

I'll definitely post pics ASAP. The rest of the week is filled with interning, classes, and even planning for my fundraising committee (I'm helping put on a carwash). This weekend, we finally get some down time and Dani (another Belizean buddy) is going to come up to campus from Bethesda (where she's staying for the summer) and hang out with Sherrald, myself, and our roommates! My Mom, Dad, little sister, and her friend arrive Sunday night to hang out with a bunch of our family here, so it'll be great to see them too :-)

D.C. appears to have welcomed me with open arms

"It's better to ask twice than lose your way once" (page 9)

Well this is for sure and I feel like it's going to dictate my trip for the next 2 months. This city is HUGE! I know I used to live in suburbia of here and Atlanta, but man, after living in Vermont for 6 years, one forgets what it's like to live somewhere so....big. I like this saying and it does make me happy--I hate it when people won't ask for directions! It's so much easier to simply ask and find your way. And that's what I'll be doing now as I explore the city. In fact, I'm about to take off on my first Metro adventure of the summer!

My last day in Vermont was filled with last minute packing, of course, and a nice night in Putney with Dillon that involved some delicious brownies. He knows me so well. The next morning Dill made me a hearty breakfast and sent me off with some seriously great food for the road, and I took off! The drive was relatively uneventful, minus the crazy drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike. I finally broke my coffee absence of 6 months and had to have a cup because I was drifting off behind the wheel!

I spent the night in Arlington at my grandpa and uncle's house. It was REALLY nice catching up. It was funny being back in the area where I spent so much of my childhood, but actually driving now. It's amazing how much I kind of remember when it comes to getting myself around!

Yesterday morning no one but DANI LUKENS came and picked me up and with the help of SHERRALD (Megan) FITZGERALD we moved me in :-D I love that my Belize friends are everywhere! It'll be a great summer of hanging out with them. I live in a nice 5 person apartment (all 4 girls are really great) and am rooming with a girl from UGA. Campus is huge and we've already been to a couple orientation sessions. I'm doing the "Institute on Philanthropy and Voluntary Service, so it's nice to be around a bunch of like-minded people who are out there to do some good in the world (there's about 65 people in my program). Last night I was up till 3AM putting my room together! I'll take pictures soon and post them. Life has been quite a whirlwind!

Now I am off to TARGET (yesss!) and then Petco to get my FISH BABY! I am SO excited. One of my roommates and I are going to go explore the Metro system. My to-do list is about 5 miles long, so when I get back later I get to deal with all that. Tonight I need to go grocery shopping and I have my first ethics class, so we'll see how that all goes. It appears I won't be getting a lot of sleep for the next 8 weeks....But hopefully the program will end up being great!

And off we go!

"yankee ingenuity" (page 3)

Well, this one is a bit hard for me to agree with one-sided, because I think we should appreciate Southerner's ingenuity as well. However, as I head south (not actually into the South, but that direction) I figure that I might as well give some kudos to the people that have/still do make up the area where I've spent the last 6 years of my life. After all, people such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, John F Kennedy, Paul Revere, Emily Dickinson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne hail from the New England area and they were all "pretty cool" people :-) Not to mention I've seen the way people problem solve in the snow and it never ceases to amaze me.

As my last week in Burlington until August, this has been quite a wonderful week! On Tuesday, I finally began moving back into my room. It felt amazing! I've done some re-ordering of furniture, but it's no where near finished. I, of course, spent the week with people instead of unpacking so there are still boxes everywhere. Oh well! I went over to Margaret's later in the afternoon, and after assembling her bed and gorging on chocolate from her Mom's candy store, we had a little get together with some Belize peeps :-) It was FANTASTIC to see them. My gosh, I LOVE those people.

Haylley, one of my really good friends that is subletting for Marian, returned Tuesday as well and on Wednesday I continued packing attempts, bought a rug on Craigslist, said goodbye to Margaret, and then Haylley, Sarah, and I had a cooking fest and Haylley made some amazing fajitas for us with stuff she brought back from Texas (where she's from)!

Thursday, I woke up and biked on over to Winter's new place and helped she and her roommates move in. Unfortunately my camera died (a horrible thing for a photo addict), so I didn't get to document the hilarity of the day, but trust me, hilarity was to be had. But the house looks great!....And all electrical problems have been solved (good thing Win didn't get electrically-a-cuted....).

Today I'm finishing up last minute packing (which is kind of my M.O.) and desperately trying to get out the door at a reasonable hour to drive to Putney to see Dill one last night. I think burrito making is in my future, which clearly makes me one happy camper. Then tomorrow, I take off in the morning for Virginia to spend the night with Uncle Bob and Papa. I can't believe the day has already arrived! Then Sunday I move into Georgetown....Let the insanity begin!