The Plane Ride from Hell

OK so my trip back from Boston, MA was an absolute NIGHTMARE!!!!!
I get to the airport and it was quite ironic because I had just received a text from my friend telling me there was a bad storm in DC and I said jokingly hahaha I bet my flight will be delayed and I also told her I would not be happy if it was.

So of course I get to the airport and my flight is already delayed an hour and a half! And of course I got through security in 10 minutes so I had 3.5 hours to wait for the plane! But I kept telling myself that an hour and a half delay wasn't so bad plus my friends told me they would pick me up at the airport at 9pm when I got in so I wouldn't have to make my way home on public transit.

But then the plane that was supposed to take us to DC was coming from LA and got in later than 7:30 - it didn't get in until maybe 8 or 8:30 and then they had to deplane and clean it before we could board. Then as they were preparing the plane for us to get on they found out 2 out of 3 of the toilets were broken so they had to get maintenance in to fix it. This part was ridiculous because it is only an hour and a half flight to DC so we could manage with one toilet - and the pilot even told us later when we got on our plane to DC that he wanted to just have everyone use the restroom before boarding so we could just get to DC instead of waiting for maintenance but they wouldn't let him.

Also this whole time the people who worked at the desk were not giving us information about when the plane would be leaving so we couldn't leave the area to go get dinner! Then finally at 9pm they told us that they were going to be getting another plane for us because the maintenance was taking too long, so then we had to wait for another plane from San Diego which wouldn't be there for another half an hour! By this time every food place was closed and the only thing I could find was a newstand where I got bugles and gummy worms for dinner - this really made my mood so much better - NOT!

So finally after 30 minutes the flight lands from San Diego, they deplane and we end up boarding around 10:30pm finally - which was four and a half hours later than we were supposed to have left Boston! What makes the four and a half hour delay worse is it's only an hour and a half flight from Boston to DC, so it was awful waiting for such a long time for such a short flight! We finally got into DC at midnight and luckily my friends were nice enough to still come pick me up. When I was going to meet them though the floors were really slippery because they had just been mopped and I was wearing flip flops so I ended up crashing with my suitcase on the floor directly on my knees! So I have some nice scrapes and bruises from that!

At this point I was fed up with the whole day - it had been a LONG exhausting day, and I didn't even get to sleep until 1:45am and then had to get up at 6:30am for work...the morning at work was definitely a rough one!

So I am now really hoping that after that I have had my awful flying experience of the summer and that my plane does not get delayed coming home to Seattle!

Amy & Bob's Wedding - July 24, 2010

The beautiful location of their wedding

Me waiting around for the wedding to start

Amy gettting walked down the aisle by her dad - my Uncle Bruce

I think this was the vow part

Their first kiss as husband and wife

At the reception

View from where the reception was held

The tables - absolutely BEAUTIFUL

Cutting the cake

This past weekend I flew up to Massachusetts to go to my Cousin Amy's wedding. I flew to Boston on Friday where my dad picked me up and then we drove 4 or 5 hours to get to my grandparent's house in Williamstown, MA.

The one REALLY nice part about being in Massachusetts was that it was MUCH cooler - I could even go on a run outside which was absolutely lovely! I also was able to swim in the pool that was in my grandparent's condo place which was also nice since I haven't been in water ALL summer!

The wedding was at 4pm on a Saturday which is a bit of a scary time to do it for a summer wedding on the East Coast because that tends to be the time for thunderstorms. We woke up on Saturday morning and it was pouring down rain which was a HUGE problem since the wedding was supposed to be outside so everyone was pretty nervous and hoping that the rain would blow off. Finally at 3pm it miraculously cleared up in too a beautiful sunny 80 degree day! It was PERFECT!!! So thankfully they were able to have it outdoors and as you can see from the pictures it was in an absolutely beautiful location! The wedding was gorgeous - the colors were purple and green and Amy's dress was amazing. It was a halter that was beaded on the top and had a corset in the back and she looked so great! And the ceremony was very nice and went very smoothly!

Then afterwards we headed to a Masonic lodge, that Amy's brother and dad are members of, for the reception. It was a beautiful location and the place was great! We had a really yummy dinner and their cake was delicious and everyone all around had a great time! I even got to see Amy a few times which was nice and I got to see family I hadn't seen since I was 11 years old!

We headed home around 10:30 and got home around 11pm and then we were all pretty exhausted and went to bed!

I am SO glad I ended up on the East Coast this summer and I was able to go to the wedding and see everybody and also it was my first wedding so it was all quite exciting!

Intern Summit at the Dept of State

The special badge we got that we then weren't allowed to keep!

Our escort required badge - at this point I have now had
3 different colors of this badge from the 3 different time I have visited
the Dept of State and I have no idea what the colors mean cause the
badges always say the same thing


The room we were in for the speech and Q&A panel discussion
It's the diplomat receiving room of the State Dept

On Thursday I went to an Intern Summit at the Department of State which was pretty cool! One of the best parts was that I got to leave work early, pretty much right after lunch, because we had to be at the State Dept at 2:15pm to get cleared through security before 3pm.

The Intern Summit had a few different parts. After we got cleared through security we were escorted in groups of 10 to what they called a Bureau Information Fair which was where several Bureau's from the State Dept + the Peace Corps + USAID (which I guess is technically a bureau of the State Dept) + a few of the fellowships were there! Unfortunately they did not have a Pickering Fellowship table so I could not go and talk to them about it, but I still learned a lot from visiting the other bureaus. The one bureau I am most interested in right now is the Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration because it is all about helping countries deal with the inflow of refugees and trying to work with the country so they won't send them back, and also help the communities be able to afford to take them in. I think the mission of the bureau is great and what they do is so important! I also learned a bit more about USAID and the Peace Corps and also got some handouts on all of that and on the Foreign Service!

After being at the Bureau Information Fair for about an hour we were escorted into the Loy Henderson Auditorium to listen to our keynote speaker and also our panel participants.

Our keynote speaker was Jacob J. Lew who is the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources and they call him Secretary Clinton's alter ego. It was actually pretty neat that he came to talk to us because he just was nominated for a new position as the Director of the United States Office for Management and Budget which is pretty major. It is an office he previously held under Bill Clinton where he operated at a surplus for 3 years so he is definitely the right person for the job! Anyway apparently his staff told him that he needed to start deleting things from his schedule because he didn't have time for everything, and they asked him if it was really that important to come and speak to the interns, and he said that there was no way he was going to delete this speaking engagement from his schedule! I thought that was really cool that he felt talking to us was so important!

He talked to us a lot about the importance of serving in the Federal Government and public service in general. It was a really good speech and it was cool to meet another person who is pretty high up in DC!

Then we also had a panel of speakers - we had one from the State Dept who was in the foreign service, one who from the State Dept who was in the civil service, one from USAID, one from the Peace Corps, and one Presidential fellow (a fellowship for grad students).

It was nice to hear from people representing all aspects of what we could do and I learned a lot from their speeches and also people's questions.

Then we had a reception and then finally headed home about 7pm! And then I had to pack for the wedding because I had a flight the next day around 12:30pm, but I had to leave my apartment at 8:30am to take a metro, and a bus to the airport.

Paddle Boating in the Tidal Basin next to the Jefferson Memorial

The paddle boats

Perfect picture op with the life jacket and Jefferson
Memorial in the background

Washington Monument view from the Tidal Basin

Jefferson Memorial

Today we fortunately were able to go and do some sightseeing because our afternoon class was cancelled, and we were let out of our morning class early which meant that we were done at 10:40am which was GREAT!

So we decided to go paddle boating at the Jefferson Memorial. I had seen this one of the first weeks I was here and had wanted to do it ever since and we finally had time to go and do it - and it was also finally a cool enough day - in the high 80s - to go!

It was so much fun and it allows you to get pretty close to the front of the monument and you can paddle around to all sides. It is also an AMAZING workout - it's basically like riding a bike but with LOTS of resistance! Paul and I were the ones paddling and we also had to compete against the wind so by the time we got back our legs felt like jelly - but it was totally worth it! It's kind of one of those things that you need to do in DC just to say you've done it! So there is one more thing to check off the list!

Georgetown Cupcake

In front of Georgetown Cupcake

Inside Georgetown Cupcake

I want this painting for my room - it's so colorful!

All the boxes that they wrap the cupcakes in

The finished cupcake with the pretty flowers on each table

Kim and I decided that this week we need to take advantage of time after work to go explore the city instead of just going home. It's getting near the end of our time here and there is still SO much we want to see! That is honestly how much there is to do in DC, you can be here for two and a half months and still not see everything there is to see - it's pretty amazing!

So we began this new plan of ours on Monday and headed to Georgetown after work! It was an interesting place to go first because neither of us really knew how to get there since the Metro does not go straight to Georgetown. Luckily one of our roomates had been to Georgetown and told me which metro stop to get off at, and then from there I had to walk about a mile to meet Kim - who took a bus - at Georgetown cupcake!

We really wanted to go to Georgetown cupcake because they are making a TV show out of it that will be on TLC on fridays beginning in August - so it's pretty famous and a MUST DO in DC! Also what is better than a cupcake to cheer you up after a Monday at work!

I got a mint chocolate chip cupcake and Kim got two - one chocolate3 cupcake and one vanilla birthday cupcake. They were SO good and it was well worth the mile walk to get one!

After we were done eating cupcakes and taking lots of pictures like the good tourists we are, we began the hike back to the metro to go home. Luckily Monday was not too hot, though we did get rained on during our walk, but at this point if it is not in the high 90s I am quite happy. We also luckily ran into a Trader Joes on our walk back and were able to stop and get some groceries!

We returned home feeling very productive and felt much better than if we had just come home straight after work like normal!

Weekend with Grandma and Lukas

The Holocaust Museum

Family Picture with Washington Monument in background


Gate to Chinatown

Lukas at WWII Memorial - one of the only smiling pictures

WWII Memorial

Me at the Lincoln Memorial

It was a very busy Saturday with Grandma and Lukas. We started off by waking up around 7:15am to meet for breakfast and then go to the Holocaust Museum. My roomate Hope's fried Ariel came with us as well. I had just met her the previous wednesday, and she is here nannying for the people I babysat for earlier on in the summer. Saturday was her first day off so she wanted to come and see the city with us!

So we got to the Holocaust Museum a little before 10am after nightmares on the metro where

three different lines were all having repairs on the same weekend - probably the worst planning on the part of DC Metro. So instead of taking 10 minutes or less for a metro to come, it would take 20 minutes or more. This problem became even worse on Sunday, where we had to wait even longer for the metro to come. I feel like I am going to have a lot of trouble coming back to Seattle where buses run every 30 minutes, because I am spoiled here with a metro coming normally every 3-5 minutes on the weekday, and every 8-10 minutes on the weekend.

But once we finally arrived at the Holocaust Museum we got in a very long line to get our ticket for the permanent exhibit and ended up getting a 10:30am spot which was perfect! It meant that we could see the other smaller exhibits in the museum and then go up to see the permanent exhibit. So we went to go see an exhibit I hadn't seen the last time I went to the Holocaust museum - it was an exhibit on other genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, and Bosnia. It was horrific, but it was also really interesting to learn about the genocides that I don't really know a whole lot about. Also at the end of that exhibit there was footage of the Nuremburg trials where they tried the high up Nazi officers in court to convict them of crimes against humanity. It was shocking how these people did not think they had done anything wrong! And it was also interesting to see the way that they used evidence in those trials.

After that exhibit we went into the permanent exhibit which I won't talk much about since I have already written on it - the only thing that was tragic this time is my person died, instead of survived. I was gased in an extermination camp and was from Poland which was where some of the greatest devastation happened. Grandma also had a person that died, but both Ariel and Lukas survived.

After completing the permanent exhibit we went to lunch in Chinatown which was really fun! We all ordered different dishes and shared - we had orange chicken, sesame chicken, chicken lo mein, and brocoli beef. It was DELICIOUS!

Then I had to get home because I was picking up Annie - a friend from church who was staying with me one night before starting a program at Georgetown University - from Ronald Reagan Airport at around 4pm.

After I picked up Annie we headed back to my apt for a little bit, grabbed some dinner, and then at around 9pm we went out and did the night monument walk so that Annie and Lukas could see all the monuments at night! It was pretty fun but I took a lot less pictures since I had seen it before! Also, if anything, it's amazing exercise, because it is pretty much walking for 3 hours!

So Saturday was an extremely full day, and I took it easy on Sunday and did laundry and ran some errands to get ready for the week! But I did have dinner with Grandma and Lukas before they left to head back to Seattle on Monday evening! It was so nice having family here and being able to show them the city and all that I have seen since I have been here! It also made me feel like a DC resident because I could explain a lot about the city and where they needed to go and such!

The White House/Ford Theater

Ford Theater (The box where Lincoln was assasinated)

Today was my day off which is always nice, but it was especially nice because Grandma and Lukas were here too. So we started off the day with a 9 am tour at the White House, which meant I got up around 6am - not the funnest part of my day off but it was worth it!

The White House tour was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. It was a self-guided tour which meant you could take your time walking through it, and we were able to see most of the East Wing which is where a lot of the entertaining rooms are. It has the big state dinner dining room, and also some sitting rooms, and a few other rooms. It was pretty neat, and it is also just cool to say you've been into the White House.

The only bummer of the tour was that we were not allowed to take pictures so I uploaded some photos of the things I saw even though I did not take them since I was without a camera all day!

After that we met a cousin of Grandma's and her 1 year old daughter and went up the old post office tower where you can see all of DC, it is pretty much as good as going up the Washington Monument but without the long lines! I really wish I had a camera for that one because you can see everything and I could have taken some really great pictures!

After that we went out to lunch to an amazing restaurant and I had the best Arnold Palmer I have ever had! I also had this amazing tuscan chicken pasta too!

Then we went to the Ford Theater which was AMAZING! I had tried to go 8 years ago when I was here but the lines were too long, and so I was so happy to finally get to go! They had just re-done the museum and it was really nice and I learned a lot more about Lincoln's Presidency. And then we went into the theater where a representative from the National Park Service was giving a presentation and basically talked us through what happened on the day Lincoln was assasinated. And then afterwards I went and was able to see the box where Lincoln was assasinated! Obviously it was horrible to think that a president was assasinated there, but it was also really cool to see that it was left exactly the same as that day. Also when you exit the museum you can see the house where they took Lincoln after he was shot and where he ended up dying.

There is just so much history in this city and the best part is how much of it was left for us to see 150 years or more later, and how well intact it all still is!