The Ring

I'm posting this now, just so you all know. This is my dream engagement ring. The band will be thinner, though.
Just to avoid confusion in the comments: this is for when I get married, very, very, very far in the future.

The Clique.

We are officially the cool kids at the Barlow Center. Check us out!



Our little clique consists of Me, Genevieve, Ashley, Kate, Cameron, Tyson, and Adam. I don't really know how it worked out, and it's been kind of fascinating to watch the social structure around here form so fast. Nobody in the Barlow Center really knew anyone else, so we all started from scratch, and this little clique is how it has worked out for us, at least. It's weird, because we are a tangible group, but there's no reason why. Me and Genevieve discussed this in great length last night (well, until about 3 in the morning). It's like, this morning, without having made plans, we all randomly showed up in the lobby at precisely the same time to walk to church, so we walked together (and shared umbrellas because it was POURING outside. And so cold. Whoever said that bringing warm clothes out here was a bad idea, was much mistaken. I wish I had sweaters and warm fuzzy socks).
This picture perfectly describes the personality of the group. Let me explain. Tyson is the map king. He figures out where we need to go, and how long it'll take us to get there. Kate is the loud, but glamorous one, Cameron is the comic relief, Ashley is the photographer (and comedian), Adam is the tough guy, Genevieve is the one that lags behind cause she is looking at everything, and I am the one that smiles all the time (especially when I know that there is a camera out).

So yesterday, me, Genevieve, Cameron, and Tyson went to the Eastern Market for breakfast. Rachelle's sister, Andrea, showed me the spot last summer when I was in D.C. And it was the BEST BREAKFAST EVER. So I convinced my little clan that breakfast at the market was an excellent idea. I got French toast with pecans again, and it was SO WORTH the 7 bucks.

Anyway, after breakfast, we rode the metro back to Dupont Circle to catch a shuttle to the embassies! Yesterday was the annual embassy open house. Most, but not all, of the embassies opened their doors to the public and offered free food, cultural art, music, dancing, costumes, and so on. It was so great! Here is a list of the places we went (cause technically, when you're in an embassy, you are on that country's soil! I am now a world traveler!): The Bahamas, Bangladesh (where the best food was), Benin, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Serbia, Zambia, and Ghana. It was awesome!! There was a lot of African stuff going on! Lots of cool music. :) The open house closed at around 4, and we ended up just walking back to the Barlow Center. It was a long day of walking and expending energy. By the time we got home, it was about 5:30, and we were EXHAUSTED! So, we ordered pizza (one large each for all the boys, and one for every two girls), and watched Kung Fu Panda. We were still worn out after the first movie, so we decided to watch "Charade," with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. Unfortunately, the TV was stolen by people who wanted to watch the Bulls/Celtics game. BUT, never fear, we found a solution. We stole the projecter out of the conference room, tacked up a sheet in the boys' living room, and watched the movie there! It was super awesome, and I loved it.

Here are some more pictures from my day at the embassies!

The cool band in NigeriaFood from Nigeria. I actually ate most of it. Surprise surprise.The dancers in Thailand.

Anyway, it was a good weekend.

Diamonds and Upside down.

I'm too tired to summarize. I am just going to post pictures with their captions. :) But wait, here is a list of today: class until 3:00pm, The Natural History Museum, Chinatown for dinner, and a walk down the Mall to see the monuments AGAIN. I really need to branch out, but the group promised we would finally walk all the way to the Jefferson Memorial. But then, when we got there, nobody actually wanted to go, and we ended up just going home. LAME. I was mad. So, thanks, Rachelle, for making the hike out with me last year. Apparently it's like this huge sacrifice. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow.

Me and Genevieve and the Hope Diamond
Me and Tyson and the Utah dirt! (We're the two St. Georgies in the program)
Me laying on the bench looking up at the Washington Monument. You can kind of see it in the background.
Me and Genevieve, both being upside down. :)

Adios Amigos!

Edit: I forgot to add a moment of silence for Matt G's dismissal from American Idol. Ready, go, uuuuuummmmmmmmm. Okay. So now I'm switching sides, and I will be an ardent Adam supporter. GO ADAM! He totally deserves it. But I'm still sad about Matt, and I still love his rendition of "Let's Get It On." :)

Goal #8

Objective: Pretend to be a student at The George Washington University
Status: COMPLETE
For more details on the list of Washington DC goals, click here.

This morning, I walked to the GW gym facility, and got my pass! It was already prepared for me, with my name and everything. I can officially pretend that I go to GW. :) The End.
By the way, I covered up my face on purpose. I was nasty from the gym.

Yesterday me and the other girls who haven't started their internships yet went to a couple local art galleries. Rebecca found them in the newspaper. One was in downtown Georgetown in this old building that we had to push a button and call up to get the door unlocked. We were such city folk! It was kind of like a movie. The guy who owned the gallery was French. His name was Jean Louis. There was an exhibit of photographs set up. The theme had something to do with graffiti, but I don't remember what it was called exactly. Really cool, though. Next, we went to Alexandria, VA on the metro to see another gallery. We rode a free trolley to the harbor and docks (there were lots of cool boats!), and found the gallery. This exhibit was called, "black, white, and a little bit of color." It was actually a print-making gallery, and one of the artists was there and told us all about what she does. It was super great! Except, it was really cold yesterday, and it rained a lot. I was pretty miserable a lot of the time for no particular reason. Well, I was cold, hungry, tired, and wet. Not a good combination. The exhibits were cool, though, and I really liked Alexandria. It was adorable. On the way back, the metro broke down, and they kicked us all off. I was pretty ticked. Like I said, I wasn't in the best of moods. We got home about 2 hours later than originally planned, and I was EXHAUSTED! We still partied when I got back, though, and me, my roommate Genevieve, and two girls down the hall, Kate and Ashley, raided the building library and started a book club! We were trying to have our first meeting, but the boys kept interrupting. We'll have to officially start today. :) The four of us also didn't go to institute. I got back late, like I said, and still wanted to eat, and I think the others just forgot. So, we snuck down at the end of the class to take advantage of the refreshments. We got all the perks, and we didn't have to sit through 2 hours of class! We are the smartest people ever. Yahoo!

This is the only picture that I took yesterday. I am loving all the random signs in D.C. They are so funny. I have NO IDEA what this is supposed to mean. Oh well. It's funny. The picture features Rebecca, Sisi, and Amanda. I took the picture. :) So anyway, I'm super excited to have my gym pass, and I'm mad that the weather is crappy outside. It's all rainy and cloudy still. Not good. Not happy weather. And it's supposed to rain ALL WEEKEND.

This is me and my roommmate, Genevieve. She is totally awesome. We make each other laugh.

TT!

I am officially the coolest person you know.

I am now the owner of a READER'S CARD AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS!!!! Do you understand the significance of this??? It's the fulfillment of a life-long goal! I now have access to EVERY BOOK IN THE COUNTRY!!!! I can't check anything out, of course, only members of congress have that privilege, but I can read them!! YAY ME!!!
Do you see my picture on that card?? And my name???!!! Life is complete.

So, I had all day to do whatever I wanted because everyone else started their internships today, but I don't start until May 12th. So, I went shopping in Georgetown, then went to get my card! I just walked right in to the front desk and said, "I would like a reader's card, please." The lady said, "Well, are you doing research?" So I said, "Why yes. I am an intern here for the summer, and I have to do a research project." But honestly, what I wanted to say was, HECK YES I'm doing research! I can read these books and learn everything. I'm doing research for my WHOLE LIFE!" So, the lady sent me to the other building of the library, I filled out the papers, and they took my picture and printed out my card. I left fulfilled and victorious. Best thing ever!

Then, I went down the Mall past the Capitol building and to the National Gallery of Art. I only went in the East building, and I looked at a whole bunch of really cool medieval and 19th century French Art. It was super cool. I was getting pretty tired and really hot by this time, so I just went to the Smithsonian castle and looked around. Pretty sweet. But what I really love about Washington, though, is that there are really cool statues and memorials all around! I love it. Until tomorrow. :)

The one place they told us not to go...

Rock Creek Park. It was an accident. Promise.

Backup, honeys. I forgot to post about this before.

The last couple days of the semester were stressful, very sad, but very fun. It was really hard to drive away on that last day, because I feel like I've lived in my little, perfect, BYU, fairy tale bubble for the last two years, and once I drove away, I knew it was over. I can't ever live with all those girls again. I am very upset about that. I actually try not to think about it. Never mind, I'm not going to talk about it anymore.

But anyway, those last three days were mostly packing, cleaning, and studying days, because, after all, we still had finals to take. But, we did some fun stuff too. On Tuesday night I convinced Meghan and Rachelle to go on a little adventure with me. Rachelle ran, Meghan biked, and I rode my roller blades. It was seriously a blast from the past. I looked exactly like the 90s. We rode around for a while, and then went to visit our friend Jake, which is always a pleasure. The second thing we did was draw with chalk. Me and Meg did this just minutes before I had to leave. My car was already packed. We traced ourselves on the ground and everything. I love sidewalk chalk.

And that is the end. Literally. It's all over. I'm out of Provo, and I won't be living there for a long while. Adios.

Also, don't forget to read the post below this one. It's all about Washington!!!