Banks & B-Town

The only event I really missed out on blogging about at the end of last week was our briefing at the Federal Reserve on Thursday. It was all about banks, obviously. I never knew there was so much to say about banks. I was more impressed with the building than with the lecture. We sat in the Governor's board room, which was beautiful; Chairman Ben Bernanke sits around that table... just saying. Anyway, Jessica and I spent a good portion of the lecture 'guess-timating' how much money they spent on the board room furniture alone. I'd say you could buy a house for the cost of the rug, chandelier, drapery and random furniture. It was insane.

This past weekend I went back to Bloomington to see all my friends and to celebrate Homecoming. I flew in early Friday morning and drove down with Katie and Christine. The drive on 37 made me miss fall in southern Indiana. Not that DC's not beautiful, but really.... nothing beats fall in Brown/Monroe County. I spent the beginning of my day at Smallwood with my favorites and mimosas in-hand. Followed by a nap (typical) and a cookout later at Mitch's. It was so good to see everyones' faces and banter and... everything. It's weird seeing everyone in their different places now that the 306ers have separated, but I also know that everyone is doing amazing things this semester and our senior year will be all the more special when we all reunite.

Saturday morning we woke up super early for tailgating, starting at Smallwood @ 8:30. I couldn't even tell you who we played--the game itself wasn't really a priority for me that day... needless to say we had a good time wandering around the tailgating fields, hanging out at Aj's place and cheering on the Hoosiers from afar. Arkansas! That's who they played. Aha. Anyway, it was a beautiful day--sweater weather!--and I had so much fun with everyone. I'm glad I made it back for at least one game. Scratch that... at least one tailgate. I actually usually enjoy the games themselves, so I'll be glad to get back to those next year, too. Then, Saturday night the Villa Boys had a Pajama-Rama Party, yet another 369 success! Christine got me dolled up in some of her mom's old flannels and flipflop slippers--they were fabulous. Major props and shout-outs to the boys; I miss every one of you.

Sunday I carved a pumpkin with Christine and Mitch! We were clueless as to how to carve an actual design, so we made a bunch of random geometric designs, hence the pumpkin's name, "GEO." Cute, right?... he lives outside Mitch's place. Then Sunday night we had a big group dinner at Mother Bears. YUM. I miss MOBEAR's pizza. Alex, Kelly and I got to talk a lot about next semester and our ideas for London since we're all planning on being there. (PS- Congratulations to K-Lang who got into her super competitive theatre program! Such a star!).

The entire weekend was exactly what I needed--I got to spend a lot of time with Alex and Amy and Kelly and Mitch and, well, everyone. It's always a tease, though, when you're there for such a short time, but already this semester is flying by. I'm already over half way done with my time in DC, and I have just over a month left in the program. Scary, I know. I'm trying to make time slow down a little bit and enjoy it as much as possible. The Jefferson House has already become home, Erin and Ian have already become my bests, and I definitely have a strong feeling of belonging in this city.

LOVE.

Fall Break Visitors!

Tasha and Meghan had fall break this weekend and came out to DC to visit! It was perfect timing--a much-needed visit from friends--and the weather was absolutely perfect for sight-seeing and exploring. Mrs. Sever had us stay at the New Renaissance Hotel in Dupont, which was perfectly located, making it easy to get to Georgetown, the Federal Triangle and the Hill. Friday night I met them at the airport, we settled in at the hotel and then went out for a late dinner at Circa in the circle. Afterwards we went out to Madhatter Bar in the same area.

Saturday we were up early to get ready for a full day of sightseeing (Mrs. Seev would have been proud; we had a set itinerary, and we kept with it!) I introduced them to Cosi--where we had squagels, which Tasha LOVED--and showed them my apartment; my roommates were still sleeping so they didn't get to meet them. Then we set out to get cultured! On the Hill we saw the Library of Congress, the Capitol Building and the Supreme Court. Then the both of them really wanted to see the Holocaust museum, and I had never been, so that was our first stop along the National Mall. I was shocked, but we actually spent over 2 hours there; they had some incredible artifacts, recreations, televised footage, etc., and we all really enjoyed it. It's the only Smithsonian Museum I've been to yet, so I really want to check some others off my list.

After that we took the GUTS BUS up to Georgetown so they could see campus. We watched a total of 5 minutes of the Hoya football game--they play on an umimpressive high school-sized field and their team isn't very good, so it was definitely a different experience than a Big 10 game; we weren't fans. We spent most of our time in the union's bookstore; Megh and I dressed up in Hoya fan gear while Tasha shopped. Typical. And I finally figured out what a 'Hoya' is!... apparently it's a Latin term for 'What Rocks,' which used to be a Georgetown athletic team name? (I still don't understand why they're called 'The Hoyas,' but then have a bulldog mascot? Beats me.)

Then that night we went out for dinner at The Melting Pot downtown. Lesson learned: fondue is fun. On Sunday we toured the monuments. I had done the Washington Monument and those things, but I hadn't been to the war memorials since I had been here last with Tasha and Meghan in high school ... so we walked around those and went to the White House. We all needed to be in bed early Sunday night, so we took it easy and went to China Town and saw a movie.

It was really such a nice weekend--and I'm so grateful to Mrs. Sever for flying them out! Now it's back to work and school until Friday!

Hoosier Nostalgia

I bought a plane ticket to Bloomington today. Yup, I'm Indiana-bound next weekend to reunite with my favorite Hoosiers. I had previously convinced myself to stick it out in DC without any visits, but I miss my faves far too much to wait. Plus, it's Homecoming--and I'm not about to go an entire fall semester without a tailgate and a football game. The countdown begins. 8 days.....

Alright, in an effort to catch up, here's my weekend wrap-up (last weekend, that is). Friday was my roommate Jessica's birthday. She had two friends visit from Chicago, and a group of us went out for a fabulous dinner downtown at a restaurant called Central. BONUS: her mom flew in from California with her best friend and surprised Jessica at the restaurant with a private room, balloons and champagne for everyone to celebrate. We had an assortment of seafood appetizer platters that were so yummm.... I'd eat there every weekend if I didn't have a limited budget; it was sooo good. Then we had a lot of the TFASers over to our apartment to celebrate before we went out in Dupont. I should not have stayed out late because that was the onset of me getting sick... I'm actually surprised it took this long--the weather's been rainy and cool, and I definitely haven't been getting enough sleep. But, it was fun nonetheless. Lets just say I stayed in Saturday night with my sweat pants, tea and soup. It was much needed.

On Monday we volunteered at the DC Central Kitchen from 9-12. The guy who started the kitchen had the genius idea to use only leftover food from various restaurants and stores from the DC area, so the kitchen receives trucks of food daily from different locations across the city; they prepare nearly 4,500 meals daily to be sent out to various agencies and organizations that provide them to those in need, so they don't actually serve the hungry directly--but they did say that their partnered organizations ensure that the food goes to those who need it most. There are regular chefs that work there, and they instructed us and made sure things ran smoothly--my chef, Eduardo, was so sweet. I peeled potatoes, cut chicken, stirred pasta, and made a disgusting amount of chili-macaroni (the macaroni filled a big plastic storage bin that you would use for sweaters and stuff. HUGE. so by disgusting I mean the amount of food, not the actual food itself--which smelled pretty good:). And we weren't the only volunteers--I'm pretty sure we had some ex-convicts and court-ordered community service workers with us. No big deal.

Yesterday I got to leave work early to go with the journalism students to USA Today with our professor; he worked there for years and still has close ties with everyone. We got to meet and talk to the Washington Bureau Chief, whose husband (another journalist) actually spoke in our class a couple weeks ago. She talked about how we're at an advantage being in college now with this new media era--we're lucky enough to still have the chance to be educated with multimedia and social networking sites and such--all the stuff we hear everyday @ Ernie Pyle in B-Town, right Al? But she was very nice and really insightful, and she went to Northwestern so I naturally loved her. I expected the actual newsroom to be insane, but most reporters were out on the Hill covering stories, so it was fairly quiet. They also had a bunch of free books and let us go through them and take what ever we wanted--apparently they get them all the time from editors and publishing companies that want to get a piece written about them. I took one called 'Seeds of Terror' and started reading it last night; if I ever have time to finish it I'll let you know how it is. So far, so good.

Then last night after class we had the TFAS Alumni Round Table Dinner at the TFAS building. They had TFASers that were in the program only 2 or 3 years ago and now live and work in the city. At our table we had 2 journalists that were in our shoes in the summer program of 2007; one of them, Nick, interned with CNN when he was here and is now a video journalist with Cybercast News Service--he does a lot of interviews with members of Congress and even gets political opinions from various celebrity visitors when they come to DC. He talked about interviews with Kim Kardashian, Pierce Brosnan, Jessica Alba... he was very outgoing and he had so many stories/experiences to share with us. The other was Brittany, who does niche writing for some policy organization--I forget which one. She was nice, too--we may have coffee:) She clearly prefers writing for a small niche organization doing more aggregated work and that's definitely not the path I'm going down, but she's still a good resource to have; they both are. The rest were public policy alum--I think there were like 20 total?--all working with various groups/businesses/organizations. One was the chief legislative council for some congressman, some worked for law firms, others worked in international affairs. It was pretty cool. Plus, they had Buca di Beppo catered for us... it was yum.

ON A SUPER HAPPY NOTE, Meghan and Tasha come tomorrow night! We're staying at a hotel in Dupont and it's going to be fabulous. Actually, the rest of my stay here in Washington is going to be action-packed with visitors. Tasha and Meghan this weekend; Mitch and Nanette & Michael over Halloween weekend, Jess and Amy (& hopefully Christine) the first weekend in November, and Ali the weekend of the 11th! I can't wait!

AHH--and for those who haven't heard, I got accepted into my study abroad program in London! And yes, if I can figure out the finances, I'm going! Let the planning begin....

xoxo