What I've been up to lately...

The past few weeks in DC have been great. I did some site seeing, went to Delaware, went to some museums. I've also had time to work on my newly acquired hobby, crochet, and have been reading quite a bit. Here is a little more about what I've been up to.


My roommate Erin and I went to Georgetown for a nice walk after work one day. Here we are standing by the Potomac.

I went to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's estate, with a group of U interns. Mt. Vernon is a huge property with a prime location looking over the Potomac. The estate consists of several gardens, a large farm, and a couple of buildings that make up George Washington's house.

Here is George Washington's main house.

There were several animals on the property including cows, pigs, sheep, horses, and donkeys!

I took a walk around Georgetown with Stanley a few weekends ago. We walked from Foggy Bottom metro all the way to the University and back. This picture along with the following two were taken by Stanley.

There is a canal that goes through Georgetown, it is pretty neat. Stanley and I walked along the path visible to the right. There are all sorts of bridges that cross over the canal and cool apartments and old buildings that look over it.

Here is one of the older buildings that make up Georgetown University.


Here I am near the Potomac. The bridge in the background is the Francis Scott Key bridge, i believe.


Last weekend my Dad met me at the New Carolton Metro station and we drove back to Delaware. It was a short trip but it was nice to spend time with the fam. The drive to Delaware, if traffic is good, should take about an hour and a half. In order to get there, you have to drive over a super long bridge near Annapolis, Maryland. It is so beautiful!

I went to the premier of the Dark Night the night before i went to Delaware, so I didn't get much sleep. I slept most of the way there and the rest of the night.

This is the only picture I could get of the bridge that shows a good portion of its length.


Delaware is a gorgeous state. It was such a nice break from the city. On the way to Dover after crossing the Bay Bridge, it is mostly farm country. There were numerous corn fields and other crops.

On Saturday morning my Dad and Uncle and I went to this beach, I forgot what it is called, on Delaware Bay. It was a lot less crowded than Rehoboth, the beach we went to my last trip. There were people fishing and crabbing off of the long pier, and only one person actually laying out on the sand.

After we went to the beach, we drove to Bombay Hook, a nature preserve. It was soo pretty. We saw all sorts of animals I had never seen before. Ibises, cranes, herons. It was great.


Here are some Ibises. There was also corn growing in Bombay Hook.

On Saturday night my dad's cousin from Canada came over to my Grandma's to visit with his family. They were touring around US history sites. It was nice to meet some really extended family, hopefully I'll see them again soon.

This weekend wasn't very eventful. I wasn't feeling too well so I spent a lot of time at home reading and crocheting. I did, however, make it out to see the Jim Henson exhibition at the Smithsonian International Gallery. It was probably one of the best exhibits I've ever been too. They didn't allow photography, but i snook this picture with my camera phone.

I made it a goal to read a book every two weeks, I've done ok so far, but I still have a few more I want to read before school begins. Here are some of the ones I've read this summer.

This book is mostly pictures, but I really liked it. It has a bunch of artwork and writings by Palestinians.
This is a great book about the history of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This book was quite tedious to read, however I recommend it to anyone interested in detainee treatment laws in Guantanamo Bay.
This is the best book I've read this summer. It is about how the world shifted after the fall of the Soviet Union and how the US chose to behave after becoming the world's sole superpower.

I finished this book this weekend, It was really good. I saw the movie in the Spring and really enjoyed it. As usual, the book gives a lot more details than the movie.


I've tried to pick up some hobbies while I've been in DC. The only one I've really been working on, however, is teaching myself how to crochet. I am still not very good, but I'm getting there! I've taught myself a few stitches and now I want to learn how to make a case for my ipod.



I found this book at Border's this weekend. It is the next hobby I'll be working on. The book instructs on creating stuffed animals from socks and gloves. The animals are really cute! I can't wait to get started!

Overall the last few weeks have been great. I have less than three weeks in DC! But I am ready to come home.

Wow, I am the worst Blogger ever

Wow, I've proven to be quite possibly the worst summer blogger in history. Things here in the district have been good, but quite busy. I've made it a goal for myself to read a book every two-weeks and am trying to teach myself how to crochet! Work is crazy, I can never get enough done. I have been staying after and coming in early quite often. Right now we are researching the reasons for anti-Americanism in the Arab world. I am also in the middle of writing a case-study on the agreement made between Hizbullah and the Prime Minister of Lebanon's party establishing a united government between the two parties.

A lot has happened in the last month-and-a-half. I went to Delaware to visit the my Grandma, Uncles, and Father who recently moved there. Stephen came to visit and we went up to New York, My old roommate, Megan, from the dorms at the U freshman year came to visit with her friend Mallory, and I celebrated the fourth here in the nation's capital!

Among other news, Barack Obama got the Democratic Party nomination! And I got a long overdue haircut, as you can tell from this picture. Haircuts cost a lot more here on the East Coast, I called around and looked around for a while before I decided on where to get my hair cut, and it still cost over 60$!


It was my fellow-intern Virinia's birthday so I went to a BBQ with her and the other Utah State interns at their apartment in Crystal City. This is a picture of me, Virinia, and Jake (the other Intern I work with from Weber.) As you can see, my hair looks a lot better here than in the pre-haircut picture.


This statue is one of many Uncle Sam statues by the Crystal City metro stop. I thought it was way cute!
It was so nice to be in Delaware with my Dad, Grandma, and Uncles. We made the most of our time visiting the Air force Museum, Rehoboth Beach, Brecknock Park, and the Puncheon Run behind my Grandma's house. Rehoboth Beach is a picturesque East-Coast beach city. There is a long boardwalk lined with cute little stores that sell salt-water taffy, greasy fries, Philly cheese stakes, and homemade ice cream.

This picture was taken at Brecknock Park. I visited this same spot when I was in Delaware in December when everything was brown and there were no leaves on the trees. Things have really greened-up since then.

In Washington I spend at least an hour underground each day commuting to and from work. It is something I am not use to, and quite honestly, it is hard for me to deal with at times. The streets here are always busy and the city is so developed. Being in Delaware was a nice break for me. I spent quite a bit of time outdoors. We saw a bunch of animals while we were out-and-about--including painted turtles, cardinals, bull-frogs, bunny rabbits, squirrels, and a snake! I am making another trip to Delaware next weekend, and hopefully one more after that before I go back to Utah.


Stephen came into town the day after I came back from Delaware for a week. It was nice to go around DC with him. We went to all the major site-seeing spots in the District and then went up to New York for the weekend with a group of Interns from the U.

Stanley, an intern from the U is working in Jim Matheson's office and was able to give Stephen and I a tour of the capital building. He was a great tour guide!

This is a beautiful painting in the rotunda of the Capital Building. I believe it is called the Apotheosis of George Washington. In it you can see at the center 13 women representing the 13 original colonies, along with George Washington being consulted to by Greek Goddesses. And on the outer rim Greek Gods including the God of War are giving consultation as well.

This is my favorite painting in the Capital Building. It is George Washington giving the power to declare war to Congress. This painting has great significance because it is the first and last time a president has given power back to congress. In light of recent events, specifically the neglect of the War Powers Resolution and the abuse of presidential power that has occurred during this administration, I think this moment in history is definitely one that should be remembered and should be looked back to in precedence.

This is one of two statues submitted by the State of Utah inside the capital building. The other one is the guy who invented the TV, who is not actually from Utah.

Stephen and I had Dim Sum at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.

I had to work two of the days Stephen was here, so we did some of the sight-seeing at night. It also rained quite a bit during the week he was here so we got caught in the rain a few times. Here is a picture of the Jefferson, it is my favorite monument.

Fireflies come out at night during the summer, they pulsate green light every few seconds, it is way cool. It is really beautiful to see them around the monuments and throughout the city.


It is really affordable to go between New York City and DC. There are several bus services that travel non-stop between the two cities for around $40 round trip! Stephen and I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in New York doing the basic touristy things. We went to Central Park, rode the Staten Island Ferry, Saw the Empire State Building, Flat Iron building (picture above), Times Square, the Manhattan Temple, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Radio City Music Hall, and walked around Fifth Ave and SoHo. We also went to the MOMA and Met. It rained quite a bit while we were in New York, but we did our best to keep ourselves entertained indoors while it rained.

Here is Moroni sticking up among the tall buildings in Manhattan.

Here we are at Times Square. Not the best picture of me... but Stephen looks good!
The Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry.

We found this statue of Hello Kitty so I asked some near-by Japanese tourists to take a picture for us!

My Grandma worked as a Secretary at Radio City Music Hall back in the times of Roger and Hammerstein.
The Guggenheim was under renovation when we went there. The entire outside was covered in scaffolding and once we got inside we discovered that most of the paintings had been removed. But nevertheless, it was still nice to go inside and check it out.

Central Park is humongous and really pretty! We didn't see everything there is to see there, but we walked around for a while and went to a few of the main attractions. My favorite was by far the turtle pond (pictured above.) There were soooo many turtles swimming around in it, it was way cool!

Here we are at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The New York Subway system is so gross compared to DC's. I thought DC's was pretty gross compared to what I was use to in Singapore, but New Yorks.... it is really bad! It is stinky, poorly ventilated, dirty, and there are a lot of sketchy people. Stephen and I got caught in the exit of this subway station for a long time! Finally we got brave enough to exit it and go sit at a restaurant near by. We had a great view of the Empire State Building and Flat Iron building from the restaurant, but were really happy once it finally cleared up.
Two of my roommates and I had a girls night and went to a Nationals game and then to Larry's for ice cream. Larry's has great ice cream, but the owner, Larry, is the soup Nazi of ice cream. It

A group of us interns went to Alexandria for seafood and a historic ghost tour. It was fun, but really kinda spooky.

Megan came and visited me for a few days. I felt bad because I couldn't get any work off while she was here, but we hung out at night. We did some sigh-seeing and ate at a few good restaurants. It was nice to see her again!

It rained a bunch while she was here. Here I am with Mallory in the rain!

Some of the girls upstairs who are interns from the U had a cake party on July 3rd. Here I am with my roommate Erin and the cake I made.


The morning of the Fourth of July the Hinkley interns had breakfast at one of the apartments on the top floor of the building. It was sooo good. Then afterwards we went down to the parade. It was a looooooong parade, but really good. My favorite float was definitely the Hello Kitty one, although it is not at all patriotic.

We got hena tatoos at the Indian Festivil down on the mall.

After the parade we went to the capital building for a concert and fireworks. It was so crowded! We got there way early so we had a really good spot. A bunch of supposedly famous people played, but the only person I was really impressed with was Jerry Lee Lewis and the National Symphony Orchestra.
The fireworks were so beautiful!



The last month-and-a-half has been great, hopefully my next post will come a lot sooner though.