Rinse and repeat

Two days into this week and not much has happened. Yesterday, I went to work, came back, and went to class. Our class was combined with the other class because our professor was gone. We talked about lobbying, campaign finance reform, and Citizens United v. FEC. This is the second time one of my classes has covered this material this year. This time I actually understood it. We also watched part of a Bill Moyers Journal special on Citizens United. It was kind of long but I enjoyed it.

Today was mostly uneventful. My boss found a box of 11x14 black and white pictures. I get the fortunate job of figuring out if they are duplicates or new. It is basically the same thing as I have been doing but slightly different. Most of the pictures have ID numbers on the back. I have to look these up and then see if they are actually in the files. The repeats get sent away. I got pretty far today but I still have a large stack to go through and then I have the ones that need more research. In addition, I have to do some research from emails. The best part of my day was my boss thanking me for working like I'm "actually going to get paid." :) Despite how it sounds, I actually like seeing all the pictures and learning stuff about ships and the Navy.

For the foreseeable future, Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays are going to be like this, with exceptions in the evenings.

Cooking & Stuff

This weekend was mildly eventful. Saturday I went out to Target again with one of my friends. We ate at 5 guys:

I was happy. We have made plans to go to a different 5 guys every time we go.
On the way back we got a little turned around but no harm no foul.

This morning I made biscuits:

They were pretty good. One of my roommates said they were better than store bought. I would hope so...otherwise Betty would've let me down. They weren't as good as my mom makes but I have hope that next time they will be better.

I also browned some chicken and cut it up to put in my food this week. One part of it I made into lemon chicken:

It was actually pretty good :) I ate it with the rest of the biscuits from this morning:

In between all the cooking, I did laundry. Which was mostly uneventful except for trying to figure out how to work the machines... which was not as intuitive as you would think it would be.

The biggest event of the day was my computer eating a DVD. I was doing reading for my classes this week and wanted to watch Bones on my computer. I put the first disk of the 6th season in (brand spanking new) and my computer won't see it and starts making grinding noises interrupted every so often by the noise it makes when it is about to eject it...only it never does. After freaking out, calling my dad, and making a genius bar appointment, I looked up different fixes online. One involved shoving a thin piece of cardboard into the CD drive... probably not the best idea but it worked. My computer played the DVD and spit it out. Lesson learned: NEVER EVER put a new disk in your computer.

After the excitement of the day wanes, I eagerly anticipate sleeping and starting a new week!

Week 2

This week went by fast! I worked for 4 days and it was intense. Waking up early is brutal until I get to the Metro and the walk to the Navy Yard. After that, the morning alternates between slow and fast. The afternoon commute is actually my favorite because the weather has been so good it is almost unreal. This morning we had a thunderstorm and in the afternoon it was 65...basically spring in Minnesota but January. I know weather is not super important and I tend to talk about it a lot but it's kind of a big deal to walk around in a short-sleeved shirt.
Our field trip Wednesday was to the N Street Village--an outreach program for homeless and low income women. It was interesting but I probably won't do my community service there. Also on Wednesday, I slept in, did homework, and had my cinema class. I enjoy my cinema class, mostly because I have a reason to watch movies :)
I got a package from home: 

 

Inside:

Candy! and a blanket, which will be super helpful when its 60 degrees out. Also bubble wrap. Mail will always be exciting.

I have been using the stove more and on Sunday I plan to cook some food for the week and biscuits.

Winter in D.C.

My second week began chilly. Not cold, just chilly. Today, however, the weather was amazing--55 on my walk back. If the calender didn't read January, I would never suspect it was winter.

Enough of the weather though. My internship is pretty good. I'm doing the same thing as I was last week and probably will be doing it next week as well. The work is not exciting but it is interesting. I look at old pictures of people/things/ships/events all day... fascinating. It may seem a little dull but yesterday I filed a bunch of combat art from World War II, the Korean War, and an Antarctic exploration. I spent part of my day today researching/looking up Medal of Honor recipients and checking to see if new pictures would be duplicates, that in this case would be kept because of their subject.

My class on the Supreme Court seems like it will be fun but difficult, not an entirely new event. The reading isn't too bad yet but for next week there is a lot of it.

I have been listening to a German band, Die Prinzen, on my walks this week and started to translate one of the songs. This weekend, I will hopefully start reading a German book. Mein Deutsch wird noch sclimmer, wenn ich nicht macht ein Deutschkurs.

 Cereal with a fork. Our dishes were dirty. And yes, those are Fruity Pebbles. Attractive picture, I know. But no worries, our dishes are now clean and on their way to being dirty again. Closely related: gas stoves are super slow; it took forever to boil water for my noodles. So maybe the fork cereal eating will happen again.

First Weekend

Yesterday, Saturday, was good. The weather was perfect (as every Minnesotan knows, the most important thing to mention), it was in the mid-30s and partly cloudy... not bad for January! I went to Columbia Heights with my roommates so we could see the Target. After lunch at Potbelly, we walked around the block, just to see what was there, and encountered one sketchy corner. At Target, we were amazed by the escalator-type lift for carts. It was pretty sweet. After that we made our way back to Rosslyn. We ended up spending more time on the Metro than in Columbia Heights but for a first weekend adventure, we did pretty well.
Today I went grocery shopping with one of my roommates in the morning and in the afternoon, we went to a protest. It was a mini-protest before the March for Life tomorrow. Overall, an interesting experience. On the way there, I was the one navigating and we got a bit turned around, twice. After we made it to Lafayette Park, we had to wade through a different demonstration for, we think, the death of Muhammad's son, it was slightly confusing.
I just finished writing a rough draft of my paper on the protest and I will finish it later this week.
Other firsts: Using a gas oven (not the stove part yet) and eating cereal out of a glass with a fork.
On deck this week: 4 days of work, both classes, a tour of the N Street Village, State of the Union viewing party, and possibly/hopefully/actually attending a Congressional committee meeting.

Week 1

The Supreme Court building from Wednesday:

 

The last two days of work were pretty good. I enjoy my work, which at the moment is basically filing photos but I get to look at some really cool stuff. Yesterday I worked on a box of admirals and today I worked on art work, mostly photos of drawings of the USS Boxer and other random events from the Korean War and such. I have to learn were all the photos are kept but I have to re-file some cards so learning isn’t that bad.

The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is my sleeping hours. The past few nights I’ve gone to bed at 9:30 and fallen asleep before 10 and woke up at 5:45 (for those of you in the CST that’s 8:30, 9, and 4:45). It’s dark when I leave my apartment and only moderately light when I emerge from the metro. The metro ride back in the afternoon is definitely better—fewer people and no rush. The happy part is that I have an extra hour of free time.

On my ride back today, I became one of those people who runs to catch a train, except I wasn’t running only walking quickly. It was strange to be like “Hey! Train…GO!” but in reality, it makes sense when the next train isn’t for 10 minutes.

This week went fast and its still kind of hard to believe I’m not in South Dakota freezing my butt off! The weather has been mostly nice; it rained Tuesday and this weekend is supposed to be icky but not too cold. Most people here would disagree. They are all wearing winter coats, hats, earmuffs, and gloves. I wear my raincoat and walk fast so the wind doesn’t kill my hair. The security guard at the entrance to the Navy Yard I go in saw my driver’s license and said, “this weather doesn’t mean nothing to you does it?” and I was like “nope!” It’s basically amazing.

This weekend is basically exploring and hanging out, with a little bit of homework.

Days 2 & 3

Yesterday was my first internship day. Overall, it was good and I think I am going to like working there. It was a little rough because there was some miscommunication on all sides but the guy I work with/for was OK with it because yesterday was not the first time it had happened. I got to look around and familiarize myself with the area and I got to do a little research. It was a short day and tomorrow I have to stay for 7.5 hours but I will have time for a nap :).

Today we toured the Capital and had a lecture on the Supreme Court (in the actual building and courtroom). The Capital tour was good but a little boring—this was my trip time through. The Supreme Court thing would have been better except the lecture was basically what we did in class on Monday. Seeing the room where cases are actually heard was pretty cool.

I ate with some new people at We the Pizza and then walked around a bit. The pizza was good and the row houses were adorable. I look forward to going back to that neighborhood.

My cinema class is fun. We watched “Duck Amuck” and talked about meta-cinema. It seems like it will be interesting too, which is always a plus. We are watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (I now have a copy), The Exorcist, Strangers on a Train, JFK, Nixon, and A Few Good Men. As I said, interesting.

Tomorrow is my first real day of work and I have to get up at 5:45 so my night is not going to be very long but at least most of my afternoons will be free-ish—after the commute back, a snack, possibly a short nap, homework, and eating.

Day 1

Today was orientation. And then class at 6--we'll see how that goes.
Orientation was good but there was so much info that it's hard to keep track of all of it. Most of it seemed pretty straight-forward and we got a folder full of handouts.
One thing is for sure: I am going to be super busy for the next 3 months! Between working, class, and dean's requirements, I'm going to have to schedule fun.
It will be totally worth it and I can relax in May when everybody else in school.

Time Flies

In 2 weeks I will begin my second day of my internship. I move in a week from Saturday and my first class is a week from Monday. It seems like yesterday I was getting accepted and working on finding an internship. Now I'm working on final details.

While I am extremely excited, I am also very nervous. I go between freaking out that I have no idea what I'm doing and freaking out that next semester is going to be so much fun. I am also thrown off by not being in Sioux Falls taking a J-term class.

I have a lot to do in not much time!