Did I say too much? Did I say enough?

I think the theme of this week has been realizing that it truly is possible to hate half of your life and love the other half.

The Nats game ended up being a ton of fun. They played horribly. We went away for like an hour and got food, and then they ended up winning!! it was kyle's two roommates and my roommate Sierra. Mostly it was just fun to sit there and talk and get to know everyone.

Thursday, the american art museum held an after hours event with jazz music and people could pay $40 and paint on an easel in the courtyard. Kyle and I had a great time just listening to the music, checking out the new exhibit at NPG, seeing the rest of the museum, and watching people paint.

Friday we went to dinner at a place called Matchbox which was super cute and had a brick wall and was really narrow (like a matchbox!) we got a thin crust pizza and then went to see Super 8! at the huge movie theater in Verizon Center, though the theater itself was pretty small.

Saturday we went to the National Museum of American History and the Holocaust Museum. Of course I loved them both. I couldve been in the American History museum for like three days, and the holocaust museum was very moving. It was very similar to the holocaust museum Catherine and I went to in Berlin. Kinda interesting trying to recognize different perspectives. They also had an exhibit that was just for kids which was kind of fun to go through.

In between the two museums we went to POV, which is a lounge/cafe on top of Hotel Washington. The hotel was super chic and modern. The terrace was very stylish and there were lots of pillows. The food was not very good, but we had a great time just sitting up there and enjoying the view. And speaking of the view, we could see the top of the White House!! We saw what we think was the switching of the sniper team on top of the white house. we could even see their huge guns. pretty exciting stuff.

Sunday, since it was supposed to rain (though it never did) we ended up going to the Hirshhorn which is modern art with a lot of sculpture. The building is shaped like a donut and we got through it way faster than we thought we were going to. So fast that we actually did the Freer and Sackler galleries (Asian art) before I had to leave for work!

My internship, it's a little difficult to say right now, but is going very well. What happens is I call all of these people and set up meetings with them. This upcoming week is going to be very exciting because I'm in meetings all day wednesday and thursday. But hopefully when all is said and done, i'll have created something superb for a whole bunch of people.

My rents are coming this weekend, got most of it planned, should be a lot of fun. I'm excited for good food and good museums and good company.

The past two nights have been movie nights in Amsterdam Hall 102. Last night was a french movie that's english title is Love Me If You Dare, and tonight we watched 500 Days of Summer (phoo-ee, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt...). Anyway, enjoying the roomie-ness.

Tomorrow, I have work in that horrible place, then im getting shots at that horrible place, and then kyle and i are going to see an IMAX at the Natural History Museum about monkeys and then we're making banana, chocolate chip, reeses peanut butter chip, and walnut pancakes.... FOR DINNER.

Becca

The Rat Race

(Yes, I know it's been over a week)

The other day on my way to Kyle's apartment I saw a HUGE rat, probably the size of shoebox for flats, run along the side of an office building. I jumped like ten feet in the air because it got within about a foot of me, but as I kept walking I realized the rats....mice...and rodents... in DC, make perfect sense.

People come here following the Pied Piper of the government and cool legit jobs, and next thing you know they're all a part of a huge rat race that may not actuallybe doing anything, and if it is, things are happening very, and I mean very, slowly. You start to realize that offices here don't run like a doctor's office, where everything is immediate, minus a half hour wait, but that's just because your dad is just slow with patients. Offices here are getting things done (at least from my personal experience they are), but very slowly. I've also heard from fellow interns that governmental buildings are particularly guilty... guilty of doing nothing.

I've found that there's a blog dedicated entirely to bashing interns. dcinterns.blogspot.com. Mostly it's about interns on Capitol Hill, but it's entirely written by staffers and supervisors. People who are supposed to be LEADING us, and giving us work to do. Interns come to Capitol Hill eager and seeking and ready to do ANYTHING to make a difference, to find something that interests them, to get a job, to be at the intersection of all of their interests, to live in theculmination of action. And there staffers turn around and write a blog making fun of how stupid they are and how they can't do anything right. Maybe you gave them something to do other than answer phones or get coffee (something they actually don't have college courses on), they would surprisingly know how to do it and would be successful doing it. The bio of the blog says something about how they hope interns will come here and read and learn how to not be the stereotypes that they are, but each story written just confirms that it's a stereotype that staffers have created and continue to uphold by writing in this blog.

Us interns are excited. We're diligent. We're intelligent. We're focused. We're looking for anything but a menial summer job. We will work without pay and do anything you ask us to do. It's a strange situation, to have free labor that is so pumped to be a part of what you do, so I suggest that you take advantage of an opportunity for slavery that you might not otherwise have had.

Anyway, there's a dead mouse outside my apartment building, and as I slowly watch it decompose on the sidewalk each day that I walk by, I hope at least it's the one we saw in our kitchen. In other news, I saw the same woman going to work this morning as I did going home. I'm sure of it because I noticed how she was wearing a particularly cute skirt, but the top with it just didn't work at all. She was doing the same exact thing as me, going to work and going home from work. like I said, rat race.

However, unlike some of my fellow interns, my internship is incredible, and I don't have to ever be bored (unlike my menial summer job the other days of the week). My boss isgreat, but super busy (he is the Associate Director of Operations at the NPG after all). Anyway, for those besides the ones I've told, I'm planning these events called Portraits After 5, which areopportunities to get more people into the NPG after normal hours and have music, artists, food/drink, all focused around a specific current exhibition. Should be incredible, and boy do I have a lot of work to do! I can't wait to be there tomorrow! And I have a meeting with a potential collaborator so that should be good.

Do not ever work at a gym.

Friday night Kyle and I went and saw Tree of Life. Weird movie, but it sparked some intense discussion afterwards, which of course we both like. If you're a visual person, I definitely recommend this movie. The filmography was beautiful, and there was a ton of imagery, symbolism, etc. And all I can really say is that it is about Life. and Love. In pretty much the most abstract sense you can think of.

That night we also got dinner at a place called Zaytinya. It's owned by this guy Jose Andres, who owns five restaurants all over DC. Jaleo (which there are a few of), we've already been to, which is tapas style. Zaytinya is mediterranean, small plates, and we just about died over everything we ate. we got an asparagus salad, falafel, chicken, lamb, and dessert and loved every minute of it. I have a feeling we'll be hitting up the majority of his restaurants this summer. For anyone in DC, go to one of Jose Andres' places. You won't be disappointed.

Saturday we went and saw the Capitol building. You really only got to see a couple rooms, but we had an amazing time and learned a lot. Our tour guide was this woman probably in her late twenties or thirties, and she was hilarious and very smart. We got to see the room where the original house of representatives was before they were over 200 people and couldn't fit in that room anymore and had to expand. It had a really cool echo effect. Click The Whispering Spot. There were also a bunch of statues that each state chose a person to represent them. Florida chose the guy who invited air conditioning, go figure. My favorite statue was of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Susan B Anthony by a female sculptor Adelaide Johnson. Click Here to see the statue. It's cool because it is only their busts, sorta signifying the fight for women's equality. We may have gotten women the right to vote, but we're not all the way there yet. :) Our tour guide then said "76 cents to the dollar, am I right, ladies??" We had a really good time. There was also a cool video at the beginning.

I had never thought about how symbolic the Capitol building is. I know, dumb, but you can't really name a more symbolic location representing the people of the US. by the people, for the people, this is where laws are made that represent true democracy. Talk about US history!!!!! gah, pretty cool.

the capitol dome.

(sorry it's upside down) The place where John Quincy Adams sat.

After that we went to lunch at the Good Stuff Eatery, I'd mentioned it to Kyle. Now he wants to go back so I guess I might end up there again, but man it's delicious. Fried portobello mushroom sandwich, oh hey.

Then we went to the Library of Congress and just checked it out. You could overlook one of the reading rooms, and it was so cool. I was wondering if I had gone to GW and become a history major if I would've had to do any research in the Library of Congress. There were also some other cool things to see at the Library of Congress: There was a photographs miniatures exhibit from the Civil War, just a whole bunch of creepy tiny photographs in small gold boxes and lockets. Very cool, also kinda sad thinking about how that was really the only way that family members could remember each other. You could also see part of Thomas Jefferson's library, which he donated to the Library of Congress (though a lot of it burned down in a fire). Man he had a lot of books, and he probably read all of them, too. crazy. They were beautiful. It's weird how bookmaking actually using to be an art form. There was also an exhibit about building the nation and founding fathers and junk which was fun to go through, seeing as we did a play about it. We especially liked the part about the Election of 1800, and seeing the actual letter that Alexander Hamilton wrote to betray John Adams to get him replaced which sparked Kyle's line of "F***" in the play because the letter was published in the papers. hehehe. Pretty cool.

me in the Library of Congress

That night we went to the Kennedy Center which is the big performing arts center here. it's pretty big and very nice, got your general broadway shows going on (Wicked is up this summer. woohoo [sarcasm]), but the cool part is that they have live concerts every night at 6 pm. They can be anything from classical to decently popular bands. When we went it was a few violinists playing, and everyone just sorta sits around the lobby and listens to them (they don't play on the huge stage, but on a smaller stage in the lobby). OK Go and Pomplamoose are going to be here in a week and we got in the lottery for that to see if we can so that too, for free! so, crossing my fingers on that.

Finally we watched My Best Friend's Wedding that night. Remember that movie?? for some reason, we were somewhere, and I started singing "Wishin and hopin and thinkin and prayin'" and no one had any idea what I was talking about and so we watched that movie. Still cute, sooooo 90s though haha.

Sunday we went to the National Building museum, which is about exactly what it sounds like, buildings. We did four exhibits there: one on World Fairs which was pretty cool to look at all the different new and exciting inventions for each world fair, and then we did on building structures in DC. Then there was a lego exhibit that had a whole bunch of famous buildings made out of legos. that was fun (sears tower, one of the twin towers, empire state building, and a whole bunch of others from around the world). Finally we did one on mosaics done in American cathedrals that was based on one primary artist, which kyle really liked. Then I had to go to work and that was Sunday.

Hooray, we're all caught up! Tonight, Kyle, me, Sierra (one of my roommates), and potentially both of Kyle's roommates (Baruch and Zach) are going to a Nats game. I sorta had to convince everyone, and I'm pretty sure the girls are more excited about it than the boys, but it should still be fun. Apparently the Nats just got a brand new stadium and it's really nice. We'll see if it lives up to the Rays' indoor one!

Tomorrow I'm back at my internship for the rest of the week, minus a bit of gymming tomorrow, bleh. Thursday, I'm going to a jazz event held by the American Art Museum to get a feel for events at the Reynolds Center (houses both the NPG and the AAM). And then it's the weekend! this weekend we want to see Super 8 (kyle has a gift certificate to the movies), and do the Zoo, and do the Natural History Museum, I'm hoping to get in one more, hopefully the american history one. we'll see!

Over and out!

Becca

You's a Hobo (In DC this summer)

Things have been pretty eventful as of late which makes it a little difficult to blog more. I was super busy while in London and Florence as well and still managed to blog, but it is just much easier to call someone while in America haha.

We've been seeing some really great things though. We've also become quite the little chefs, trying to go out to eat only a couple times a week. I had leftover homemade pizza tonight that was delicious.

Saturday was kind of a lazy morning. I've started to realize that the fact that everything closes at 5 or 5:30 makes it difficult to actually get anything done in this city, especially weekdays. Nevertheless, we went to the National Museum of the American Indian Saturday, thinking we would only have time to do part of it and somehow managed to do the entire museum in like 1.5hrs. Overall, it was not one of our favorite museums, though we did love the architecture of the building. As for the information, it seemed poorly organized and just sorta tossed around (a hidden statement about native culture?) But we had a good time calling out CORN wherever we saw a cob used as decoration, and believe me, it was used as decoration a lot.

that's the building. After that, we took a lonnng metro ride out to UMD to see Idaliz and Zack. We all got dinner at a pretty crappy restaurant and went and saw the new x-men movie. I liked it a lot and the four of us had a really good time. Probably our last hoo-rah, since Zack is moving to Florida soon to be an adult with a real person job at a nuclear power plant. Super bitter sweet, thinking about him not being there in the fall, but I know he'll come visit.

Sunday I had work which was awful as usual, though 4 hour shifts are easier to bear than 6 hour shifts. The fourth roommate moved in, who again is very nice. I'm still somewhat surprised that I ended up with three roommates I really like, and am very secretly hoping that we become friends over the course of the summer.

1. Liz goes to one of the SUNYs but is actually finishing her degree in Brussels. She's interested in international relations and is interning at the state department this summer.

2. Willa was adopted from Nepal and is working at some company that has a long acronym (USCIS). She goes to Wooster.

3. Sierra goes to UT austin and is doing a short internship at the dept of the interior

Our apartment has a mouse. Liz saw it the other night crawl under the oven. Today, a pest control man came and set up a bunch of traps and said to call him if one of them catches it. Gross. Florida doesnt have mice problems. I'm not used the idea of living with a rodent. Fortunately we're all so exhausted though, we don't have time to think about it.

Sunday night, Kyle and I took a walk around DC to see ALL of the memorials. And I mean all. Order:

Vietnam

Lincoln

Korean

FDR

George Mason

Jefferson

WWII

Top that! It was tons of fun, since they're lit up at night and we got to work off our dinner and ice cream while at it. I remembered all the memorials pretty well, except everything was smaller than I remembered it (Kyle claims it's not only that I'm bigger now, but that I'm used to how tall he is, haha). The soldiers at the korean memorial were especially smaller than I remember. And for some reason, I thought there was like a whole field of them, and there were really only like 10-15 in a small triangle.

The other cool ones were George Mason, because no one goes to see his memorial, and the WWII one because it wasn't here the last time I was in the city!! and it was a really neat memorial. Controversial (though they all seem to be), because they say the neo-classical design makes it look "as if Hitler won." but really it is just gorgeous. There's a wreath for every state and US territory and the memorial is split between the Atlantic side and the Pacific Side. There was a whole bunch of yellow stars in a fountain representing 100 dead each. It was beautiful.

My fave is probably the FDR memorial, just because it seems so interactive. And I like how you trace through all of his terms, and the fountains are all really cool.

picturessss:

Someone taller than Kyle!

Korean

Fala, us, and Franklin

Ellie and myself, acting stately.

George Mason!

As for the job front... I don't even wanna think or talk about it tonight. I start at the NPG on Wednesday. I canNOT wait.

Love,

Becca

Life on H Street

I am so sorry it has been so long since I blogged. Adjusting to DC may not be exactly like adjusting to Florence, Italy, but it sure has been a crazy week!

I got a job at a gym as a floor manager. It has great hours and decent pay ($9/hr). The only problem with it: I don't have anything to do, and what I do have to do takes about five minutes every hour. It'd be nice if I could read a book or play on my computer... but I actually have to act like I'm doing something for my four or six hour shift each day... with no lunch break! It's pretty awful. I also got a job at a ice cream place called Mr. Yogato, which I would personally rather work at... but they're only offering two shifts a week. :(

Besides all that business, I've been more or less figuring out a pattern to get into around here. Kyle and I have cooked a bunch which has been fun (spaghetti, fajitas and tonight pizza!), and we have a list of things to cook. He likes his internship a lot, but starting at 8 am is really taking a toll on him. He has to go to bed at 10 pm! Ugh!

We went and saw a play with our friend Julian on Memorial Day. It was a ton of fun, and we only paid $5! We also ate at a really yummy restaurant called Jaleo. The chef owns a bunch of restaurants around DC, and I think we're going to try to hit up a few more this summer.

We've officially gone through 3/4 of the NPG and American Art Museums (they're split between one building) over the course of two visits! I'll probably try to go back sometime before wednesday when my internship officially starts. I LOVE the museum though. The architecture is incredible, and I like most of the art, too! I loved the presidents gallery. It was really fun for kyle and I to walk around and see how much we knew or remembered about each president. Then the top floor of the american art museum is full of all this really weird but really awesome stuff. Most of the time I don't really like the weird stuff, but we both thought all of it was really cool and interesting. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone in the DC area!

Up this weekend: monuments, zoo, and a couple museums. and work on sunday.

I took my first gmat today. considering i didn't really put too much effort it, I thought I did okay. It's very similar to the sat, though shorter which I'm thankful for, except for these math questions that just ask you if you have enough information to answer the question, which I'm going to have to figure out how to do. I knew the rest of the math, and as usual, my verbal was pretty poor in comparison. surprise! not.

I had a dream last night that Liberty of the Seas was going for $149 a person in march 2012 and I was dying trying to get ahold of everyone to book spring break. I would really love to go on another one next year...

I feel like I've been in a transition mode for about a month now, giving my living situation and then finding a job situation and then not starting my internship until june 8th situation. Meh.

DC is nice, though already not my favorite city. The metro is clean, but that's about all that the metro can say about itself. It's definitely a working city, unlike any other city I've seen. the city goes to sleep at about 10 pm, and you only every see people in business attire or bums. And that's it.

Oh! I made of list of things to do this summer... It's 48 numbers long. We'll see how many I get around to doing! Knocking out a whole bunch of memorials tonight! At least most of it is free.

That's all for now. I'll probably write again this weekend or early next week.

Ciao!

Becca