News from the fish plant

Hi, Erica and I got to talk to Travis yesterday. It's been awhile since we've had much contact. He said that their shortest day since June 20th was 13.5 hours. And now the cannery is starting to work 24 hours, so they'll be going to the full two shifts much of the time. I believe that is 2 eight hours shifts a day.

It sounds like Amy has been working at the spot where they finish pulling the bones out of the fillets of salmon. She also has worked at putting stickers/ labels on the packages. That one was pretty boring.

For awhile now Travis has been working at the vacuum pack machine. It's a great big thing that seals 3 bags of fillets at a time. Travis lines up 3 packages while his work partner is using the vacuum, then the vacuum swings back over and Travis seals at his spot while the partner is lining up the next bags. Travis said that one day they, just Travis and his partner, packaged about 7000 salmon. No, wait, 7000 bags or fillets which would be 3500 salmon. He counted as he worked for 5 hours and then figured out the days' totals. It would be fun to watch their efficiency!

So, he hasn't been to the library lately to get much outside communication. They'd love letters if anyone wants to write.

Trident Seafoods
Travis Volz (or Amy Reavis)
Box 1040
Cordova, AK 99574

Brenda Volz

New Job

Travis called from Cordova, Alaska after a day of work. Travis and Amy checked in at the cannery about 6pm last night and they asked them if they were ready to start. So they worked until about 11:40 pm. Then they also worked today from 6:55am until about 5:30pm.

These first days they are sliming fish! It's only fair that they should have to do that at first. Right, all you cannery alumni?! He tried to explain to us the system. He worked part of the time pulling out the guts and another while cleaning the fish . . . using something like a spoon and a hose. At the end of the days they had some King Salmon to clean. I don't remember what kind the others were--it was red meat. We'll get more details later.

It's mostly cloudy and rainy. They did see the sun twice.
Have a good week everyone. Travis and Amy can check the internet when they get time to go to the library, so I'm sure they'll check comments here or wherever they usually get mail.
Travis' mom reporting.

Coming home

Well, I'm actually already home, but I just thought that I would write a little bit about what I did before I came home. Mostly I studied a lot and took some tests, but besides that, I also did some fun things with Amy. So, on the weekend before I left, there was this thing put on by the Georgetown Program Board that was like a big party. Georgetown Program Board is basically an organization that puts on events that are supposed to be alcohol free and are pretty fun. The movies that we go to for free are part of this program, along with Alumni lounge that has the ping pong table, pool table, and TV.



At this party, we came for the skating, because that was what was advertised, but there were many more things that were really cool. Life Water had a booth and were giving out free life water. There was also a candy booth that was advertising for a new candy shop, that had free chocolate covered pretzels, gobstoppers, tootsie rolls, and these really cool candy that I think was carbonated on the inside and fizzed into your mouth when you started to suck on them. Then, Amy and I noticed a bubble dance thing that looked fun, so we said we were going to do it, but by the time we were going to, it was really cold, so we didn't. It was a big (about 15'x20') area that was confined by inflatable walls, like the bounce things. Amy originally thought that the floor was bouncy, which would have been awesome, but it would have been too slippery, we later realized. The entire area was filled with 3 to 5 feet of bubbles, and they had fans in one spot to blow the bubbles in the air, which looked sweet when the strobe light shined on them. They had loud music going, but we didn't go. We did, however wait in line for a caricature! It was really fun to see how well the lady could draw each person. They were free, and must have been sponsored by the program board, but I'm not sure how much the drawer would make per hour... I would imagine a lot, since usually they are 10-15 dollars a piece, and she did 7 or 8 per hour. We waited in like with Amy's friend Beth, and it was fun to talk to her too. Her caricature turned out really well also. After waiting in line for an hour and a half, we finally had a sweet caricature, and then "needed" some ice cream, because they also had a place to make your own banana splits, although I just had some chocolate sauce on it.

WOOPS! So, the day before I head to Alaska, I realized that I did not post this post and that it has just been sitting here being useless.

My time in Montana has been fun, and I'm going to regret leaving a little bit, but I need some money to pay for college. The day I got home, I went to soccer practice and have been going every Monday Wednesday and Friday that I am available. It was really fun to play competitively again, although playing with Jeff was fun. The first weekend of games when I was home was not so great, because we played 2 teams that beat us badly. One of the teams was actually a league above us, but we held in there for the first 15 minutes or so. The next weekend in Havre was much more fun. We beat Havre, a team that had previously only lost to a Select team (we are "classic") and also beat Missoula in another close match. The games being in Havre just added to the greatness of the weekend as we went up the day before and stayed in a hotel with the team.

The rest of my time here was working and hanging out with my family, Amy, her family, and our friends. It has been a great time, but now, we're off to another adventure. I'm not sure if I'll have access to internet, but there will be cell phone service, so I'll call home, and my mom will update the blog several times. Good bye for now, loyal readers of this silly rambling blog of mine. Your support has been appreciated.

Family Trip here.

I have been fairly busy over the last several weeks, but one reason that I haven't posted anything is that I had asked my family to do some, since with my endless detail it would have taken me hours and hours to write about their trip to DC. I have also been working and studying for finals and I even went to a fun party at Georgetown with free caricatures and food and fun, anyway, I'm heading to my first of my final 2 finals, so I'll write more about everything later.

Good morning,
I look at Travis' blog, hoping to see more entries, but then I remember that some of us were going to write for him. Tues, May 3rd, is Travis' last two finals of the year, so he's been busy studying, as well as packing up to go home.

April 20th was the start of a fun family vacation. We flew to the Reagan airport and were met by Travis, Amy, Grandma, Grandpa and Josiah. Yay! Some of us had our first chance at the metro while we went into the city to get a rental car and the others headed out of town. We drove up towards Gettysburg and spent 2 nights with cousins (2nd cousins), Larry & Ruth Ann Wood. They have a beautiful and inviting home, and were so welcoming. They had even found enough mattresses for ALL of us. We had a great day touring Gettysburg on Thurs.

Maybe I'll just list the things we did. Then hopefully each of us will write a paragraph or so describing some favorite things.

Thursday
Gettysburg Visitor's Center / lunch from the trunks of the cars / car tour of the beautiful countryside / bedtime desserts at Wood's

Friday
Darcy goes to an early class with Travis / leave cars at Comm of Christ / lunch in Travis' school cafeteria / Capital tour / Library of Congress / retrieve & return rental car / card games

Saturday
Museum of Natural History / Art Museum / Eastern Market / birthday dinner at the Match Box / Air & Space Museum / IceBerry

Sunday
Easter Sunrise service at Arlington / walked past National Cathedral / Worship service at Community of Christ / walk thru Georgetown / another walk... to National Mall...Lincoln Memorial, Korean, WW1, WW2, Washington...

Monday
toured Georgetown U / frisbie on lawn / lunch again at American U / went to T's dorm room / went up in the Old Post Office Tower / Holocaust Museum / kids went to the Vietnam Wall on their walk home (some of us got on the closest metro)

Tuesday
pack & visit / Darcy & Brenda visited the International Justice Mission offices / then "hit the road" and "the skies"

Okay, family. You can tell I left out a few details! So maybe each of us could write a little to Travis (email or facebook or blog comments) and he could add them to the blog about the trip. Just think of something funny that happened or your favorite place or tell a couple stories. Thank you. I love you! Thank you, Travis and Amy for the wonderful vacation.
Brenda

Sue came to DC!

This week for the most part was a normal week, except during the week, I was buying more and more tickets for the Choir concert on Friday night, because more and more people kept wanting to come. The week consisted mostly of studying and the like, but on Friday, I went down to georgetown to meet Amy, and then we went to meet her mom at the Airport. The entire scooter ride down there, it was raining pretty hard, so I was completely drenched by the time I got there. I had noticed the large amounts of rain already, so I decided that it would be a good idea to bring some extra clothes to get out of the soon to be soaked ones. I brought some extra pants and changed when I got there.

We took a GUTS bus over to the Rosslyn metro station and from there I bought a little McDonalds food, since I hadn't eaten much before that. After that though, we got on the Metro and rode the 5 stops to the airport. We got a doughnut from Dunkin' Donuts and it was delicious! Her mom came, and they were sooo happy to see each other! It was nice to see Sue for me too. We then made our way back on the metro to her hotel near the Key Bridge, where we met Moira, Amy's cousin. (The one whose parents live in Charlottesville) We then all rode the metro back up to Tenleytown and they ate a a Thai restaurant, but I had to go get ready for my concert, so I scootered back and got my fancy suit on! This time, however, I had a bow tie, rather than a normal tie. I filled out the course evaluation and then waited for 45 minutes until our concert. It was a fun concert, and I think most people enjoyed it! Everyone said good job, but that isn't really a good measure, because they could just tell me that and the concert may have been bad, but I think the concert itself was good also! After that, they walked me back to my room, and I showed them my dorm room, but Wynn was sleeping (imagine that) and everyone had to be quiet. They gave me the leftover Thai food, which I gladly ate, and then they left.

On Saturday, I woke up early and finished some of my Physics readings and then met my business group to work on the project. This time though, Lenny was willing to work on everything earlier, so we met at 9:30 and then were done by 12:30. I rode my scooter down to M street to meet Amy and Sue, because they were walking around there. We then did a little shopping/looking around, and went to Urban Outfitters (the same store where I got my french fry wallet). I got a nice light weight sweater that was on sale, and almost got an extra small on accident, but it was a little too small. We then walked east on M even further until we got to a Metro stop and came to American. We got some drinks from the coffee shop here and sat in the School of International Service (SIS) building and read/talked for a while while waiting for dinner. TDR opens at 5 on the weekends rather than being open the whole time, so we were ready to eat by the time it was finally open. I swiped everyone in, and we had a nice dinner, with some ice cream to polish it off! After dinner, they left to go watch the play that Amy had tried out for earlier in the spring, while I went to my last concert of the year. I messed up several times this concert though:( I pronounced New Orleans like that instead of pronouncing it New Orlins, so I stuck out a little bit. I was trying to be a hot shot and not look at my music, which works for the notes and words, but the little notes in the scores are useless if I don't look at them. I worked on some more homework then and went to bed.

On Sunday, I woke up at 8 instead of 7, and got ready to go down to meet Amy and her mom. I thought that I would leave American at 9 to get there at 10 when I planned, but I left at nine and ended up getting there at 9:30, which was a little too early, so texted Amy and waited for her and Sue to get ready. We then hung out in their room a while and then made our way to Dupont Circle to search for some breakfast. It was a little late though, so we were only able to find a place for lunch, which was good! We ate a Cosi, an interesting place where you order everything in different areas. I had a barbecue chicken pizza that was quite interesting, but delicious! We then made our way over to the Spy Museum. We signed up for this thing called Operation Spy, and it was really fun:) It was a simulated mission, where we had to attempt to get a nuclear detonator so we could save the country or something. Anyway, there were several parts, involving, searching, breaking into safes, decoding messages, using "security cameras" from a building, and riding in the back of a van. They had van noises, and then the thing moved like those simulators, so it felt like you were moving. THen we were compromised and had to run to the roof to be rescued by the helicopters. THe things that you did actually played on how the thing would end up. We got an overall score of 4/5, because we found the detonator, but just couldn't quite get it in time. After that, we toured through the actual museum part, which was also cool. We saw lots of hidden weapons, learned about the carrier pigeons, the progressively smaller size of listening bugs, and the arts of ninja. It was an interesting museum, but like most museums, we were getting tired and ready to leave by the time we had made it mostly through the exhibits. After that, we made our way over to the National Gallery of art to see a painting that they have in their house, except the original. It is one of a little girl holding a watering pail near some flowers. It is really cute, and it was neat to see one that I recognized. We then sat in there for about as long as we walked, because we were getting tired. After walking all around the gallery, we made our way to the metro and eventually found the one we needed to get back to the Hotel. The Subway has never felt so good, except for possibly after the "Rally to restore sanity," but it was definitely up there. We got out at the Rosslyn stop and walked a little more over to the hotel and then just sat in their room/read/relaxed, until dinner. We then walked across the Key bridge and then down along the river to this seafood place right by the river. We could look right over the Potomac for the sunset, and it was beautiful! We had some hot crab spread stuff for bread, and then I got some jumbo shrimp, Amy got stuffed shrimp, and Sue got a lobster. I tried some of each thing and everything was excellent! The stuffed shrimp had spinach and some creamy thing, possibly cream cheese, and also pieces of crab in it. We also had a show, because there was a family that had some youngish children that were playing on the boardwalk next to the dining place. The boy had on roller blades and also tried to use them on a scooter. It worked, but we were fearful for his safety, because that just seemed like too many wheels! He also tried sitting on it, and using the roller blades, so it was just an overall entertaining experience. After the wonderful dinner, we walked back to their hotel, and just chilled their for a while and watched America's best dance crew, then Amy had to go back to do some homework, so we had to say goodbye:( Then, Amy and I walked over to Georgetown and we sat outside and talked a little before I scootered home. It was cloudy all day, but a nice temperature, about 68 probably.

Today, I did a lot of homework, attempting to get ahead so I can have more free time when my family is here, and then went down to visit Amy a little in the evening, because I needed a break and some exercise. I rode down there in 15 minutes and we sat and talked for a while and then I rode home, and it took me 25 minutes, for a total of only being gone 1:25. and I got to see Amy:) Now I finished this up and am going to bed.

Cherry Blossom Festival... : 0

This past week has been a good and productive week, and I have completed most of the assignments for this coming up week already, with a few exceptions, but overall, the homework has been good:) In history, we have to read Candide, which is by Voltaire, and it is really sarcastic and funny, sometimes mocking other Enlightenment thinkers, but sometimes supporting them. It was one of the first really entertaining books that I have read in the European history class. The other books were also good, but I liked Candide the best. In Calculus, we are determining whether or not series are divergent (have a finite sum), and have been using various tests to do that. In Physics, we are now dealing with electricity and circuits and are just starting magnetism, which is also fun. The main thing in business, is now not so much the class, but more so just working on the project each weekend. I had my part done already, but we had to type it as a group so that it would sound consistent, so we met on Saturday morning at 10:30, because that is as early as one of the members wanted to get up, when personally I wanted to get going as fast as possible, so I could go see the Cherry blossoms with Amy and her friends.

Woops, I missed Friday. On Friday, Amy and I just worked at our own Universities for most of the afternoon, so we would have more time with less stress for the Cherry blossoms, and would be able to have more free time! Anyway, she did, however come up to American after 8, and she brought some Chinese takeout food from Kitchen No. 1. It only has takeout, so it is cheaper than other Chinese food restaurants, and it is super greasy and delicious. The fried rice has lots of meat in it (pork, chicken, shrimp, and possibly beef) and it is really good. Amy also got General Tso's chicken which was also excellent! We ate the food and listened to music and looked up music videos/facebook news and relaxed. Then, she went home, so she could hopefully get a lot of sleep, because she was lacking over the course of the week.

On Saturday, We met at 10:30 as I already described. Then it took a long long time to get typing at a good rate. It was very frustrating, but we eventually got 1 page done by 12:30 (single spaced) and then had some lunch, and finished the paper (2 more pages) in only 3 hours more. It should be pretty good, I think, but you never really know with this professor:S We will see when we meet with him to discuss it sometime this week. After that was finally over, I just rode my scooter down to Georgetown, because since it was raining and not nice outside, Amy and her friends didn't stay there very long. We then did some homework and then went to an Acapella concert! It had 3 different groups from Georgetown, one from American, one from Yale, "Baker's Dozen," and one from University of Rochester. They were all pretty good, except we couldn't hear the AU guys very well, since the lead singer used the center mic, which wasn't working. The Yale guys were amazing though. The Yale guys dedn't even really use the mics except for the soloist, they just lined up like in this video. There were only 13 there though, this must have had all the alternates too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJhmzUQNpXQ

Anyway, we then did some more homework and then I went home.

On Sunday, I got up fairly early and read a bit and then met Amy down at Georgetown to walk/scooter with to church (depending on the incline). The service was pretty short, and we had potluck afterwards that was really good, but as soon as choir practice after lunch was over, we went all the way down town to the CHerry blossom festival. It was pretty crowded since it was a nice day and its the peak of Cherry blossom time, so we had to walk after we got into the crowds enough. We were following a path next to the river, but we realized that we couldn't get to the right place that way, so after we had passed the Lincoln memorial, we had to go all the way back up around it and then down towards the Jefferson memorial where the trees are. We got there saw them. It was pretty cool to see so many trees flowering at once, but the really cool part for me was the smell of the millions of flowers. We walked around the very very crowded tidal basin and then made our way across the national mall and over to the National gallery of art. On our way, we passed this man playing buckets and barrels as a way to try to get some money. It was really cool. There always seems to be something like that going on down there. Amy is doing one of her term papers for history about how some artists in the 1800s were in reaction to the industrial revolution, and since the paintings were here in DC, we decided to take a look at them. We checked in our scooters, grabbed a map, and then found the right room. We found some pictures that would work, and then tried to interpret as much as we could from each of them. They are available online, but it is just more clear and large to see the actual ones that are probably 5 feet tall or so, and it is much cooler to see them in person. After that, we started our long scooter ride home. It is the same cross street as the Lady Gaga concert, way over in the middle of town, but it was a good scooter ride. We started at 7th NW and had to get to 37th NW. We were on E and had to eventually get up to M, but once on M, everything was familiar, because it is pretty close to Georgetown. Anyway, it was a really long ride, and we were very glad for the chairs when we got back to Georgetown! We ate some of the candy that Amy had picked up at a party thing the night before, and ever tried a monster energy drink. I think it has too much energy in it to be good for you, but anyway, that's that we did.

I then went home and worked on an outline for the essay I was doing for my History class.

For those that didn't see my facebook status, or don't use one, all in all, I scootered/walked 17.9 miles or 1,120,000 inches:)

Today, I have just been doing my homework, but think I will go sit outside for a while now, because it is 82 out there:) Spring is finally here, but I'm not sure how long it will stay this warm, because tomorrow it is supposed to be in the mid 50s again.

Thank you for reading.

Travis

Jeff's Birthday party/ intense student Travis (and Amy)...

So, on Saturday, Jeff was having a birthday party, starting at 2. He said, "meet to play soccer at to, and dinner at 7," so for some reason I thought that it was going to be the entire time from 2 til after dinner... Anyway, because of that, and the lack of homework Amy and I did on Friday, we studied quite a bit in the morning on Saturday. Amy had even more homework than I did, plus, she has classes Monday, so she was going to come up to American a little later, after she had gone to one of the Cupcake places in Georgetown, to get him one. They are a really popular thing out here. Georgetown Cupcake is the most popular, and they even have a TV show about them, so the lines are always super long there! Like a block or two long! Anyway, there is another one that just opened called Sprinkles, and a little older one that is even further from Georgetown called Baked and Wired (because they serve coffee too). Anyway, in anticipating the long day of hanging out with Jeffs friends, got a grab and go box from the lunch room and filled it with baked goods, so everyone could have some food before dinner. Jeff had mentioned something about hanging out in the Katzen Arts center after people were tired of playing soccer. At 2, I brought his soccer ball that is in my room, over to the Library to meet him. There were 4 other people there when I arrived, and we headed down to the Soccer field to see if anyone was there. There were people practicing, and technically it is only for Varsity sports, but Jeff still tries to go there. Anyway, we then walked over a ways down Massachusetts Avenue and went to this other field, but it was also being used. We then went to the Quad and found a rectangular patch of grass. Some more people met us there, and we had 3 on 4 most of the time. It was really fun, and I wished that I could play more, but I didn't even have my soccer shoes on. Eventually everyone got tired and left, except for Jeff and I, so we just kicked it around a bit. After that, my feet were sufficiently tired so I had to stop. I then met Amy not long after, just after everyone had left... She had a cupcake, and a little of her homework and was wearing her cowboy boots that she got from her Aunt. She looked mighty-fine, for all of you that care, but the boots had given her rub spots, since she didn't have long enough socks. We ate some cookies and scones in Ward, and then headed over to the library. I then went back to my room, grabbed some homework and socks, and dropped off the Catch Phrase that she had brought to play in Katzen with everyone. We studied for 2 hours, which seemed to fly by, and then got waited for the shuttle to go to dinner.

I saw several of the people I recognized from soccer, and two more of Jeff's friends that are girls on the shuttle. We rode to Tenleytown and met up with everyone else. There were 10 of us in total, I think, and we all walked up Wisconsin Ave to a Japanese restaurant. There was a sushi happy hour, with sushi for only 1 dollar per piece, so many of them stocked up... I didn't however, and scavenged through the menu trying to find something that involved cooked meat. Amy and I shared some beef teriyaki, which was very excellent, but it seemed smaller that what everyone else had ordered... At least it was cooked! Anyway, our dish came about 10 minutes later than everyone else's, so Jeff and JT were having a not eating their food and waiting for us contest. Jeff won:) Anyway, it was a great meal overall, and they were some nice people to be around. Amy and I sat on the side of "Becky" and Yuan (pronounced UN as if slurred), both girls, and we enjoyed talking to them. It turns out that JT had family from Butte originally, so he had been there before. There was also Tory (not sure how its spelled) from Hawaii, but he spoke Japanese. It was a good dinner, and we even tried a bit of the native Japanese food, including some "sweet potato noodles" as UN called them. They did taste a little potato-y, but it might be different than ours. They were see-through and reminded me a little of lutefisk. He opened some of his presents and got several soccer things, a jersey and mini ball, and Amy's cupcake, and I gave him some magnets, but he didn't open them until he got home, so we couldn't watch. There is a tradition in China that on your birthday you are supposed to eat noodles for a "long" life:) Also egg, which symbolizes birth. After dinner, we took a long time figuring out the bill, and then walked back to the bus stop.

On Sunday, both Amy and I had things to do at Church. I read a scripture and Amy did a monologue. She did really good, and everyone was impressed. It was an adaption of the Lady at the well story and she was portraying the lady. I just read, which isn't special really, but I did get up there and do something. After church, we went to American and ate lunch and then I got read for my concert. I was supposed to be there at 2, so I got my Tux on at about 1:30. I dropped off my little video camera with Amy, and her ticket and then headed over to the Arts Center. We warmed up a little and then got off the stage so people could come in to the Recital hall. I found Amy just to tell her that I saw a sign that said no recording:( So, no one will be able to see me. It sounded really good in the recital hall, I think, but we really messed up on one song!

Afterwards, we went back to my room, I gave her my scooter, and she scootered home. We planned that we were going to be very on task, and she had to be, so that she could finish her book by Monday! I was thinking how nice it was to accomplish so much homework and I thought that I could be more productive more often, by not checking facebook just because my laptop is there, and not just browsing the internet. Anyway, both today and yesterday, I have gotten a Lot done. I have nearly finished all of my homework due before Friday, which is totally not fair, because Amy has much more homework than I, but still. I also got out of bed at 8 and went for a 2 mile run in the Fitness center and am getting up tomorrow to to the same, except at 7, because I have classes at 8:30.
That is all for now.

Another 2 weeks

Last week, I got home and then worked for a long time on all of my homework and music things. I started to study for my tests the following week, mostly making study guides for a long time. On Friday, I went down to Georgetown, and we watched Tron:Legacy. It was an interesting movie, and kinda funny. It had some parts like in the movie Gladiator, except it was digital, so when the people or "programs" died, they just shattered into pixels. It was kinda gun, but not a very complex movie. On Saturday, Amy came up to American in the evening, we studied for a while, and then went to eat dinner with Jeff, so they could meet. I swiped them all in to TDR, and we had a good dinner(I over ate as usual). We talked about movies and China/Japan, where he is from. We also talked about his birthday party that is coming up

At church on Sunday, Ed Gleazer gave a speech he had been preparing on aging. IT was pretty interesting sermon, and I liked it a lot. I even have an audio recording if anyone wants it, just send me an email at tv1076a@student.american.edu and I'll send it to you.

On Monday, I practiced my instrument more and did a lot of Homework/studying, and played soccer a bit.

On Tuesday, I took my Physics test (I think I did pretty well) and then studied for the Business one. After calculus and History, Amy texted me about the weather. She said it was really nice, but I insisted that it was cold. She was like< "You need to go out the other side of the building." I then reassured her that it was cold even in the sun, because I thought she thought I was in the shadows. Then, I went over to get a grab and go, and as I was almost back to my dorm, she jumped on my back. I didn't see it coming at all, but it was really nice to see her. Since it was a nice day and she was caught up with her work, she got some exercise and scootered up to American to see me for an hour before she had to go back to Georgetown for ASK at 4. Amy then went to this debate between the PETA president and the Georgetown Debate team about the question, is eating meat ethical. It sounded pretty interesting!

On Wednesday, I took a business test, read a bit for Physics, now we are covering electricity and current/voltage/resistance... etc, and then went to Calculus. I scootered down to Georgetown after that and went to Chi Alpha and something else that I'm forgetting...

On Thursday, I did some homework in the library and then went over to Jeff's apartment for lunch. Lab was canceled today, because we had a test this week. He had something on the stove boiling, and was talking to his mom on Skype. Then, I noticed a smell of smoke and went over to the stove, but by that time it was too late. He was making some spaghetti for us, but the noodles were too burnt! I cleaned out the pan for him with a lot of scrubbing, and he then made some of the dumplings his aunt had given him. He left them in some water after they were cooked and them poured some soup mix on top, or maybe it was just seasoning. It had some flavorings and some seaweed and some very tiny shrimp in it. They were so small, only about 1/8th of an inch thick, and about 3/8ths on an inch long. I have already gotten used to seaweed, so it tasted pretty good:) Then, we played soccer for a while. Oh, and my computer was not connecting to the internet, or getting updates, or allowing other programs such as google earth to access the internet, so I took it to the help place, and a nice old Japanese guy helped me. I could have done most of it it seemed if I had only known what to try, but anyway, he reinstalled the internet access program for American University and then I ran Malwarebytes and it finally got rid of the block, so I can use google earth, and download DirectX for Skype:) In the afternoon, I went to the Arts building and worked for the Choir manager to fulfill my hours required to get full credit for Choir. Then I practiced my french horn one last time before the concert, which is this Sunday.

Today, I went to my first two classes, and then took my last test for the week, a European History one, covering the Spanish/Portuguese exploration, and also the English religious reformation starting with Henry VIII and then all the way through Charles I. I then went down to Georgetown, and studied in the library, while I ate another grab and go that I had brought with me. Then, this janitor rolled up a trash barrel to right next to my chair, and Amy pointed to it, suggesting I should throw away the trash from my meal. I did. Then, a little later, a man wheeled it over to another one and threw out the trash I had put in there. A minute later, a woman retrieved a roll of toilet paper from the trash can. It was a janitor supply thing I guess:S We felt embarrassed. Later, we watched the first half of SPaceballs in the ICC and then went to an Indian dance. They tried to teach us, but we couldn't last for too long, because the large amounts of spinning made us quite dizzy. They had some really good appetizers that were potatoes with what-seemed-hot to-us-spices wrapped in a kind of pie crust type thing. It was really good. Amy also got a henna tattoo, but after we took off the die, it was very faint. A henna tattoo is one that they make by squeezing die from a tube onto your skin and then letting it dry. After it dries, you take off the build up and are left with died skin, but this die was a little less potent than some I guess. After the dance, we finished Spaceballs and then I came home, talking to the Nilsens and my family a bit on my scooter ride back.

Too late to think any more... Good night!

The Beach and more!

So, for fear of getting even further behind, I will do a quickish sum of the things that I haven't posted yet. Amy and I were woken up fairly early by children noises since I woke up and then the girls came in Spencer's room where I was, and then they wrestled with me on the bed, squealing and all and woke up Amy, who was in the living room. We then played with them a while and Spencer left for school at 9, so we watched the kids while Terra drove him to school. After Terra got home, she printed off some directions so we could drive to Virginia beach. Then she offered us her GPS, and we were on our way. IT was a lot easier to get there with the GPS, and on our way home, all we had to do was hit home, and it calculated the directions back to Terra's house. We found some parking and then walked a ways to get to the beach. It was a pretty nice beach, but was pretty cold, though not unbearable. There were hotels lining the ocean front for more than a mile, and we walked more than a half of a mile down the coast, near the water towards a dock. We went a tiny bit into the water, just enough to get our feet wet, and that was enough, since it was really cold water. The sand was nice and we saw some cool little black things and some shells. It was a great walk along the beach. We made a little sculpture in the sand and talked a long time. Once we finally got to the dock, we realized that it was only some tourist thing and was private property, so we couldn't even walk out on it. Oh well. We then had a nice long walk back towards the car. Then, we went over to the McDonalds and got a little food to go along with the oranges Terra gave us and my birthday candy I had brought. We read in the car, since we knew that there would be little time for it after we got back to the Drakes house. We then drove back and played with the Girls some more. We drew some more pictures on the Sidewalk and bounced on the trampoline some more. While the children were getting ready for bed, Zach flosses each of them. We thought this was interesting, but it made sense since he is a dentist after all. After the children had gone to sleep, Amy and I watched How to Train Your Dragon. It was a pretty good and interestingly animated movie, so we were glad that we watched it.

On Wednesday, we got ready to leave and packed our things. We said good bye and drove the 3 hours back to Charlottesville. After we got home we just did some homework and went to bed early, since we were tired from getting up early 2 times with the children.

On Thursday, we went to Monticello, or most of the way anyway. First we looked up the directions on Google earth and loaded all of the necessary landscape and then brought the laptop just in case we got lost. It is in the mountains a little ways away, and the road getting up to it was pretty wine-dy, not windy, because that just looks like a weather term. We got up there and then went to the visitor center, because we didn't know what was going on. Apparently it costs $17 to get in, and we didn't really want to see it that badly, so we just did what you could for free. We watched the informational Video about Thomas Jefferson and Monticello, and then went to the museum. There were lots of cool models of his house, the first one, and then his second remodeled one. There were several neat contraptions that were in it, and there were some especially interesting double doors that were attached under the floor to each other in such a way that when you opened one door, the other would open also. IT was really cool and made me wish I had come up with something like that. After we had finished looking through the museum, we went back outside and noticed that it was raining really hard. We went under the overhang to as close as we could get to the parking lot, and then, after having forgot where the car was exactly and having been pointed in the right direction by Amy, I ran towards the parking lot. It was actually he wrong one, and I tried to open a car that looked similar, but realized the unlock button was doing nothing for it. Then I spotted the one with flashing lights in the parking lot above the one I was in. This whole ordeal probably only took about 15 seconds, but it was raining hard enough that that had gotten me sufficiently wet. I picked up Amy and then we drove home. The windy road seemed a lot worse on the way back, since the rain was coming down so hard that we could barely see even with the windshield wipers going their fastest. I was happy to see some real rain for a change, like the big storms in Michigan, so I liked it, though it was a bit scary to drive in. Anyway, we made it back to her Aunts house safely and watched another of the Horror movies that she had gotten for Christmas. IT was still pretty cheesy, but more scary than the last one. We did some homework too, as we tried to do every day and then went to bed.

On Friday, we did homework all morning, but then in the evening went on a Date to the Old Downtown Charlottesville. It is a cool pedestrian only mall and there was a good restaurant that she had eaten at with her family previously, so she wanted to take me to it. I forget the name of it exactly, but it had noodles and dumplings. They were relatively cheap and very delicious, so we had lots of the Dumplings. I also bought some hot and sour soup, but it actually was really gross and had tofu and weird flavors in it, but since it was cheap, I didn't feel too badly about throwing it away. Amy didn't like it either by the way. After dinner, we drove back home and watched the first Harry Potter movie. It was really good, but kinda funny to watch after having watched the most recent one recently. The children in the first movie were so small compared to the last movie. Anyway, it was really funny to watch Amy get all nostalgic about it, but it was very cute all the same. She had grown up reading the books and was about the same age as the main characters, so she was really into the books and movies. It brought back old memories for her, and quite often, she would quote something before it actually happened on the movie.

On Saturday, John got to Charlottesville for his spring break, so we all went into town to get him. We then went back to the downtown area and ate a Thai place. It was really good, but quite hot. I guess that was partially because I got 3 out of 5 for spiciness. IT was really good and had some good sauce over rice noodles with chicken and shrimp. Yummy! Sorry, it is getting late, and I just want to catch up and go to bed, so... We went home and went to bed after watching a Seinfeld episode in George and Mary's room with John. It was fun to be with John. He is going to NYU for acting by the way.

On sunday, we got up early and got ready to leave. We said good bye, got on the train, and were back in DC by 2. I played soccer with Jeff for a while, and them some more kids came down to the soccer field, so we scrimmaged with them a while, and that was fun! I can't wait for the soccer to start, but I'm already quite busy... What to do?

Goodnight!

Going to Norfolk

On Monday, I woke up at 7:10, and got ready. Amy and I had to get up earlyish, because we drove George into work on our way out of Charlottesville. He works in the rare books department of the University of Virginia, so he showed us some of the things that they have. He went into the vault to get some things to show us, because we were not allowed to go in the vault. He first showed us some religious text that was written before the invention of the printing press. It was published around 1450 and was all hand written on sheep or goat skin that had been pulled very tight and thin to dry, since they also didn't have paper where that text was published. There were light red lines marking the margins, and small clear text was displayed all over the pages. There were also very detailed pictures outside the margins. In some of the pictures, there was gold, thinly plastered in specific parts of the drawings/paintings. Then, he showed us one of the leafs of the original Guttenberg Bible. It was a huge page, so he said the Bible itself was also really big. I can't really remember the order of everything else he showed us, but he also showed us Shakespeare's play, King Lear, which was printed as a single work, as would have been used for a script, unlike the large collections usually printed. We also saw the original vote of succession for Virginia, it wasn't a blow out, by the way, 80 something to 50 something was the vote. Then he showed us some of Mark Twain's books. The Jumping Frog was one of them. So, apparently, Mark Twain really didn't like the French. They made a translation of his "The Jumping Frog," and then he retranslated it into English just to make fun of their crude translation. He then made a book which had the English and French versions side by side. The original text that was hand written, of the retranslated version was at the Library. They also had the only copy of Robert Frost's first publication. It was called Twilight. He had given one copy to his girl friend and had one for himself, but after a fight with his girlfriend, he ripped up his copy, so hers was the only remaining version. They also have many of Thomas Jefferson's architectural drawings and journals. He was the founder of the University, so many of his works were left to the University. We saw the architectural plans for the Rotunda, a large old building on campus. The graph paper was apparently hand made by some slaves or prisoners in Europe. We had a great time seeing all of the old things, but after he had to leave to a meeting, we left to drive to Norfolk.

The driving is a lot different where there are many cars. You just kind of get sucked with the flow, so I was speeding by 5 or 10 mph almost all the time, because everyone else was. Still though, I was only driving 75 or 80. At one point, I drove on a 6 laned interstate! We made it safely to Norfolk, after stopping at Taco Bell for my birthday:) It was a really delicious meal and I enjoyed it a lot! We then used google earth, which I had pre loaded on my computer, to get to their house. We unloaded our things and were greeted by Rachel and Anna. They are 5 year old twins and are very cute, along with everyone else in their family... We played Princess memory for a while, with the little flip over cards, and then played on the trampoline for a while. Also, when I arrived, they gave me a package that my mom had sent to their house, so I could have something to open on my Birthday. Monday was my birthday, by the way. Abigail and Adam woke up from their naps, and we played for a while outside drawing with sidewalk chalk. Abigail is 2, and can talk some, but seems pretty shy, and Adam is zero as his sisters said. Then, spencer got home from school, and we drew some more pictures on the sidewalk. Terra made me a cake, and I didn't see it until dinner, so the kids were keeping it a secret, what it was like. For dinner, we had some really good potato and bacon soup in bread bowls:) Afterwards, we did something they called Family Home Evening, where the children and Zach would lead different things and they would just be together. It was fun, and then, for one of the activities we had a birthday party for me:) We had some really delicious cake. There was a white cake with whip cream and strawberries and bananas in the three different layers. It was really good!

The Meal was Really good!

Ok, so after eating lots of cake and ice cream, I opened the box from my parents. I got some things to use with the children, like some more sidewalk chalk, and some candy and origami paper. I also got an "Are you smarter than a fifth grader" game book with an invisible ink pen and a BLUETOOTH HEADSET:) Now, I can talk while riding my scooter without a cord. I had been thinking of getting one of those for a while, so I was really glad when I got it:) After dinner, all of the little children got ready for bed, and I tried to do a little homework. Amy and I watched an NCIS episode with Terra and Zach on their computer after the kids had gone to bed. Then, I went to bed too.

Speaking of bed, I think I will head there now. I will finish my adventures tomorrow as a homework break:)

Catch Up!

So, as everyone knows, I have been quite busy and have not updated my blog in quite a while. Now, on spring break, I will catch up in as much time as it takes, so be prepared for a long post.

I left off on Sunday the 20th of February. The following day was Presidents day, so Amy didn't have school, and it was her birthday, so it was perfect! We did some homework in the morning at our universities, and then we met at the Safeway at Georgetown to buy some things for her birthday cake. We bought some chocolate cake and cream cheese frosting and then headed to Georgetown to study a while before meeting with some of her friends to make the cakes. We also bought some disposable cake pans, since we didn't know if there were any pans for sure at Georgetown that we could use. I gave her a coupon to go dancing again sometime, since it was recently and it would be better to plan it when she has less homework too. She also showed me the presents that she got in the mail. She got this really cool tea making set and a nice mug and some different kinds of tea. She also got some cool ear rings to wear to the Lady Gaga Concert and the tickets to the concert. She got a nice blue dress, and some baked goods also. They were little bars that seemed to have a lot of brown sugar in them and also almond Roca pieces on top. They were delicious. After attempting to get some homework done, we went over to Reynolds 8th floor to see Amy's friend Rachel. She lives on a Living well floor, so the people there don't drink or smoke, and they seem really nice. We then started to make the cake and got everything ready. We learned about K-Pop and J-Pop (Korean and Japanese Pop). Rachel is Korean, and she was getting into an argument with Joe, this other kid on their floor about which type of music was better. They showed us some funny music videos of the various types of music. We then cooled the cake a long time before frosting it and played Catch Phrase with some of the people that were in their common room. It was really fun! It was a bit fun to try to light the candles, because no one had a lighter, so I lit one on the coils in the oven. It melted the candle a lot too though, before if finally lit, but then we were able to light the other 18 candles for Amy's 19 years! We sang and then cut the cake and ate it while playing more catch phrase. It seemed like a really nice floor. We then dropped of a piece of off cake with another one of her friends that had transferred from the University of Montana. We then went to library and did homework until late, then I rode my scooter home.

The rest of the week was spent trying to do homework while looking forward to the Lady Gaga concert on Thursday. We then got all dressed up on Thursday and I went over to Georgetown and we ate a Grab-and-go for dinner. It was really good, but I was still hungry, since I hadn't had much to eat before that. I had on my black slacks, a black long-sleeved button up shirt, and a black tie with small polka-dots. Amy had on a nice black and white dress and some black leggings. The style in DC, and possibly all around now, is to just wear leggings as pants. They are essentially footless tights. Anyway, they were meant to wear under dresses or skirts, and now, almost all the girls just wear them as pants, sometimes with longs shirts. Anyway, I think that style is ridiculous. Amy had a nice dress though, so they looked great! We left Georgetown at 6:30 and took the Circulator bus that takes us right over to the Verizon center, but the traffic was really bad, so it took a long time to get there, and we were afraid that we would be late for the show that started at 8, but since we already had tickets, it was really easy to get in after we were there. We walked a little way after we got off of the bus. We saw lots of people dressed up crazily and took some pictures. We found our seats, which were in the section 111, about at mid court, close to the floor. They were great seats and we had a good view of the show. We were there a little bit early, so I looked for the bathroom and walked about half way around the entire arena, because first, I passed a women's, and then they had converted a men's to a womens, then there was one more womens, before I finally found it. I think it would have been faster to just turn around after I was half way there and to just go the other way out of the section 11 seats. It seems like it is usually just worth it to go with your gut and keep going to save time, but it was a long way out of the way this time. Then, I finally made it back to my seat. The Scissor Sisters were the opening act and they performed for probably 25 minutes. They danced all around the stage and had quite interesting outfits, although nothing compared to Lady Gaga. Amy and I had looked up some of their songs before, when we heard they were opening, because it is more fun if you know the songs already. They were energetic and fun to watch, but there was a really long wait after their performance until she finally came out.

The Curtains went down and they played some music to keep everyone entertained somewhat. After about 20 minutes, following every song would be applause, because they were hoping that she would come out after that song, but nope. They eventually lowered this large white curtain over the rich blue one, similar in appearance to the type at the Mother Lode Theater. Then, they projected pictures onto it and had some crazy music/ bass noises to get the crowd pumped up. They then went into a count down on the screen and at 0, she appeared in an outline of purple. They had taken up the big blue curtain and then shined with a bright purple light behind her to cast her shadow on the large white curtain. She was up on a platform and everyone went crazy! She then opened with some song that no one had heard, since it was just like a part of the show. The show was somewhat along a story line and had her main songs spread throughout it. There were many back up dancers and they were all over the stage. She then opened up this car that was on the stage and it had a keyboard in the hood. That was the beginning to her first main song, and it was really cool! There were many costume changes and entire set changes, which were quite the feat! The stage was huge, so the entire set changes would take a lot of effort. To do this, they would lower the large white thing and project a video, or possibly have some other act performing on the platform outside of the curtain. The first set was a staircase on one side with huge syringes as the hand rail supports. On the other side was the car, and I'm sure there is much that I am forgetting, since there was so much going on. Then next set had a jungle gym with lights on each of the rungs so they had crazy patterns of lights going all they time, while people were climbing on it. Then she and the other dancers sang and danced.

I could tell you more specifics, but it would probably be boring, so I will just note some of the crazy instruments that they had. There was an electric harp, a normal harp, this bass guitar that was crazy, a flaming piano, and an electric violin. The bass thing had a bass guitar in down the middle and then it had a keyboard sticking off one side and a synthesizer thing off the other side. It stood on the floor like a normal bass would, but she played it like a guitar. The violin was really cool too, because it looked similar to an electric guitar that has an upside down v as the base, except it was a violin. The flaming piano was the coolest though, through my eyes anyway, because first of all, it had a row of flames for its whole length. Then, halfway through the song, a whirl wind of fire rose out of it and had varying heights for the rest of the song. It was really cool! Another interesting part of the concert was when she was dressed up in this huge white dress that had moving parts. The head dress moved and somewhat flapped, along with the back of the dress. Then, it seemed like it was going to be the last song, because I thought she was giving her closing remarks, and then they put the curtains down. I was a little disappointed, because she didn't do the main song that I really wanted to hear, Bad Romance. It just has a really epic beginning and I thought it would have been THE song to do at a concert. Then, they drew up the curtains again, and she was sitting in a ginormous gyroscope type ball. It was really cool. She then did one more song, one from her new album, which comes out in May. It is called Born this Way, and is a pretty cool song.

After the Concert, Amy and I walked out of the Verizon center and attempted to get on the Circulator bus since the Georgetown shuttles wouldn't be open this late. But, just our luck, that specific circulator route wasn't running so late on a Thursday night. So, We walked around looking for a cab. We did a loop around several blacks and then thought that we might as well walk towards Georgetown so it would save a little bit on the cab fare. Oh, I forgot to mention it was raining a bit and was chilly. Anyway, we had a nice walk in the rain for 8 blocks or so and finally found a cab on 14th street. We started walking at 7th street, and had to go to about 33rd street. We then were really hungry, since we hadn't had anything to eat for a long tine and had been wandering around in the rain for a half hour or so. We went to Johnny Rockets and shared a double bacon Cheeseburger. It was very delicious and had potent onions on it, so I still could taste them the next day, even though I brushed my teeth in at night and in the morning as usual. We had a nice late snack, and saw Beth, the one from UM there with her guy friend that is transferring to George Washington University next semester. We then walked the rest of the way to Georgetown, which was probably 5 blocks, and then I rode my scooter home.

The next different/ cool thing we did was to go to the Syracuse Georgetown basketball game. The game was sold out, but the Georgetown students with season passes got an email telling them there were extra tickets available, so Amy bought me one:) It was for seat M19 in the 400 something section which was 5 rows from the top of the stadium. It was not that good of a seat, but I still wanted to go to a game, and it was a big rivalry. The students tickets are first come first served, so many of the students were waiting at the stadium overnight to get really close seats. Amy left at 9:30 am to the game at 12 with some of her friends, and was still way in the 400s like me. I saw her way down there and then went over to see her, but there was an extra seat right next to her, so I sat there and it was a lot better seat. The game was really fun too, and it was much better to be close to people that I knew, Amy, and the other girls from Chi Alpha. The Georgetown Chimes, an Acapella group sang the National Anthem, and then they did the Syracuse lineups and all of the students turned around to show a lack of interest. Then, for the Georgetown lineups, they had spotlights and loud music and the crowd went wild. It was pretty much like a College basketball game that I would watch on TV, so it was really cool. They had lots of commercial breaks for the broadcast games, so they have many random sponsored events. We saw Bill Clinton, and the Geico Caveman, and saw Jack, the bulldog (Georgetown's mascot) rip up a box that had the Syracuse mascot all over it (an Orange). Georgetown lost the game, partly because one of their star players, Chris Wright, broke his hand the game before and wasn't playing. They held in there pretty well until the end, but couldn't pull it off. They also played a really cool video: http://www.georgetown.edu/video/1242667691460.html during halftime or one of the many other breaks. Chris Wright is number 4 here with the arm thing. After the game, the Circulator bus line was really full, and we waited and waited. It took probably 5 minutes to load, and then, all of our group except Leslie and I made it on the first bus. We got on the next one that came in a little bit. The traffic was pretty bad, but we made it back eventually and met up with Amy and then got some lunch.

Later that evening, we went to this thing called Pizza Theology, which doesn't discuss the theology of pizza, but rather we talked about the history of the Bible while eating pizza. IT was really interesting and we learned a history of the compilation of the Bible, and also about the other books that didn't make it in. We also talked about the time frames in each section of the Bible and I thought I learned quite a bit. It isn't something that is every week or anything, but they will do it one more time this semester. It was put on by the same people that do Chi Alpha. John led the discussion and had prepared a little class for us.

On Sunday, Amy didn't come to church, because she had too much homework, but I went for a while. Afterward, I talked with Brian, a deacon, for a while about science and such. He is an electrical engineer and originally had a degree in Math and a minor in Physics. He told me a lot about his work, and we talked for a long time. After church, someone there had an HP slate. I looked at it and thought that it was better than an Ipad. It is about the same size, but not quite as stylish. It has bigger processors and is essentially a netbook in a tablet form. After church, I was planning to go to dinner with Amy and Beth, because Beth was planning a Montanan brunch, but on Saturday night I found out it was only for Georgetown Montanans, so I couldn't go, but I think it was good, because it was just Girls that way. Amy and I met later in the evening at a park down by Safeway on Wisconsin Avenue. It is a nice park, and she had planned out a little date. We sat there and talked for a while, and it was really nice. The park is on a Hill and right next to a library. After that, we walked up to Safeway and bought a couple of doughnuts, which were excellent! They are pretty cheap too, so it is perfect.

On Monday, I signed up for soccer in the spring and also practiced my French Horn and choir stuff for a long time in the evening. Then, as I was practicing a difficult part, I though, "I really hope we go over this at sectionals... Oh Shoot! Sectionals are on Monday, and today is Monday, I hope I'm not late!" Then I hurried over to the room where it was held and I was only 5 minutes late and they hadn't started yet, phewf! My voice was already pretty tired from the practicing, but the rehearsal was fast, since the men know their parts mostly, and We were out of there by 9!

On Tuesday, I saw the American Idol recruiting bus in the Quad and they had a little booth. I didn't sign up, but I saw several people talking to the man that I heard ask, "So what do you do?" The other main thing I did on Tuesday besides all my classes was to go to the housing session in the early afternoon. There is a lottery and I had number 205 out of 2000, so I was pretty lucky and got my request in first. I looked up the floor plans of the buildings and found some large triple rooms in Roper Hall. I then got in line finally after waiting in the sunny hot room with lots of people, and he asked me where I wanted to live, and I said Roper room whatever, and he told me that was Freshman only housing... Dang! He told me that the only triple rooms for returning students were in McDowell, so I said I would go there. They then showed me where to go, and I talked to the people at a table about which room I would like. There was one triple on each McDowell floor, and most of them were taken except the terrace and the 6th and 7th floors. I choose the Terrace, since it has been pretty handy to not have to go up the elevator or stairs often. It turns out that my room is the biggest in the whole building at 203 square feet as opposed to the 185 that my current room is. I don't yet know who my roommates will be, but I will find out when they officially post the results of the housing.

On Wednesday, I went to Georgetown to study and to go to Chi Alpha. We ate a grab and go and had some delicious oranges! They were especially good, so Amy got several of them. We studied for a long time and then got a pepperoni and meatball sub sandwich from Subway before we went to Chi Alpha.

Thursday was rather uneventful for me, but I met with Jeff in the afternoon, and we worked for a long time. I helped him with his homework, since he had a final and paper that he was working on for a long time all week. I ate lunch with him and his friend Becky after our lab in the morning. We talked about politics/government in China and Japan, and we talked about the currency/ exchange rates, since I am thinking about going to China with him next summer. The exchange rate as of now is in my favor, since food costs about $2.5 on average for a meal, and all of the subway costs are less than a dollar wherever you go. The plane ticket is really expensive though.

On Friday, I worked on homework and packed for the short time that I was there. I also got a package from Home for my birthday, and they sent a lot of baked goods which are very delicious. Also a couple of presents, one of which was some spices, so I can cook better in the dorm:) After class, I hurried and got on the shuttle to go to Union Station to catch the train to Charlottesville. Amy was there when I got there, but we were early, so we waited in the food court and ate some of the cookies my family sent and also some delicious and unhealthy french fries with cheese, sour cream, bacon, and green onions on them. We then waited in the designated area until our train arrived, and then we went out and got on. The train was pretty dirty, but it was cool none the less. The seats were comfy and they had power outlets next to each seat. We arrived just on time at 7:20 and found Mary and George who came into town to get us. We then went to a restaurant that had somewhat unique yet very excellent food. I had Chicken Dumplings that were in a Dutch Oven, and Amy had Toads in a Hole, which were eggs cooked into a hole in some toast. We then had some very good ice cream sandwiches that were made with home made ice cream and cookies. One was a cranberry cookie similar to oatmeal raisin cookies, and it was filled with black raspberry ice cream! So delicious! Another fun part about the restaurant were the people. Our waiter had long gray hair in a pony tail and a big mustache. He had quite a charismatic attitude and was always joking with us. There was also a man behind the scenes that we would have been scared to meet. He let out a big yell of, "Up!" whenever the next order was ready, and the waiters always hurried back there as fast as they could to get the food and bring it to the customers. We then rode back to their house and listened to the last part of the Whitehall basketball game. They lost to the best team, but they put up a good fight. Then we went to bed early for the first time in about 2 months.

On Saturday, I woke up pretty early, but it didn't matter since I went to bed at 10:30:) We went into Charlottesville with Mary and she dropped us off at the Hair Cuttery while she went to some meetings. Apparently my "scalp is severely inflamed and that is why I have acne. I should really buy their shampoo, because it helps to sooth the scalp, and... it is 4 dollars or so cheaper than if I went down the road to buy it." Don't worry, I didn't give in, and I only got the haircut. Amy and I then walked around the shopping area and went to GAP. I had never been to that store before, but it was cool, since I learned about that a little in International Business, because they are one of the main competitors of Benetton in the US. Amy bought a pretty dark blue shirt with tiny flowers all over it and I bought a plain T-shirt for an undershirt. After that Mary picked us up and we went to Duo's a new and used women's clothes store near the University of Virginia. Amy had fun shopping with her aunt while I read some of an article for Global Business.

The University of Virginia was founded and designed by Thomas Jefferson. He had this idea of an academical village. There was a large courtyard with dorms and professor housing on the sides with a large rotunda on one end. It had class rooms and larger lecture halls in it too. The whole campus is quite beautiful and very large. Lots of the buildings are old brick ones, while there are some newer ones also. We also visited a large chapel with very elaborate stained glass windows. We went to lunch at a place called Little Johns that was fairly cheap and delicious. They had flatbread sandwiches and subs and salads.

We then went to a make up/shampoo/perfume/all things beautifying. You really spend a lot of money on appearance if you wanted to! Back at the Risers, we watched a horror film from the 50s called Bride of the Gorilla. It wasn't really scary at all, but it might have been back in the day. Amy had received a 40 horror film pack from the 50s for Christmas, so we finally watched one of them. For dinner, we had pork chops, mashed potatoes, glazed apples, green beans, and salad. It was a very good home made meal! We then just sat around, worked on homework and listened to a bit of the Whitehall basketball game on the internet. They won, so they will be going to State:) Everyone went to bed early again, and it was wonderful to get so much sleep.

Today, wow, am finally saying today, it has been so long! Today, I woke up at 7:40, and got ready and read some more of the article for global business called, Chiquita Brands International, a case study. I worked on this for an hour or so after reading, and then we went to the movie, King's Speech, with Mary and Amy. It was a really good movie about King George VI in the 1930s. We first ate pizza at a place called Christian's which has lots of different kinds of pizza and you just choose a slice. They add cheese to it and then stick it in the oven before they give it to you. OK, we then went home and I wrote on this until now. There are 4,317 words total!

Thanks to all of those who made it to the end of this monstrous post, and I hope you have enjoyed it.

So much has happened yet so little blogging time

So, Starting on the 17th where I left off, Amy and I have done many things.

That Friday, we went to Alpha, which is something that is somewhat an offshoot of Chi Alpha, except it is for people that are just interested in Christianity. We got there a little late, but then stayed until the end and had some good international food and also played Guesstures, which is really funny with international students that are maybe not up on their English, or that have a different way of describing things. So the word was Monkey and he tried to act out like a little monkey with cymbals and a hat, where people from the US would mostly do the gorilla under the armpit thing. Anyway, that was fun, but then we also went over to some to some of our friends from Chi Alpha's house, which was even more fun, because we began to realize that we do in fact have friends. We ate some cookies that they made and then hung out for a while. We then all walked up to the ICC (Intercultural center) and watched Rapunzel. We thought it was a really good movie, much better than I had been expecting!

On Saturday, we stayed at our respective colleges until the evening. I planned to take her on a date to this swing dancing place in Maryland. I also had a plan of not going out to eat as I usually would have done,but I instead made some food. I was going to get some shrimp like she wanted for Valentines Day, but at Whole Foods, they only had organic big shrimp with legs, and not the little ones with dipping sauce. I Instead got some Turkey, but I needed something to cook it with, because plain Turkey breast wouldn't be that good I didn't think. I then thought to get some type of spice that would be a cover all spice, so I got some Mrs. Dash. I also got a bottle of Orange Mango juice. I then had some sharp white cheddar samples and was convinced to buy the smallest pack they had. It was still a decent sized piece. So, I prepared the food, and we had turkey, some noodles that I had previously had, some ritz crackers(from Christmas) and cheese, and some fruit that I cut up. I put each dish in a separate container and then packed them all up in a box, so we could go to eat somewhere not in my crammed dorm room. We went to the art center. I brought my bowls too so I could put the meat and the noodles in them so it would look better:) Then, we hurried down to the dorms, which are on the far side of campus, so I could put the dishes away before we went to the dance. We got on the Metro and rode up one stop and then waited for the Bus that would take us to Glenn Echo park. It is a cool place www.glenechopark.org/. Then we waited and waited and finally one came. It wasn't a Metro bus, but rather on that was run by that county in Maryland. We rode for about 20 minutes and then got there a little late, and it was really busy. We waited in line for a while and it was cold, but I was just standing with Amy, so I hardly noticed the cold:P We finally got our tickets and went into this huge "Spanish Ballroom." There were two big rings of guys, and girls. We got in and learned how to do the this eastern swing dancing, which is different from what I have done before. The rings moved around though, so I had to leave Amy:( Then I was paired up with all sorts of ladies: big ones, little ones, old ones, and young ones. I was so relieved when Amy's part of the Circle ran out of men, so she came over to get me. It was just awkward with all of those other random people. I think that it can be quite the social event, because there were lots of singles, and when I was getting a drink, this old man even hit on Amy! Then she told him that she was only in college, and I got back. Anyway, We danced for a long time until we got tired and then we took a break and watched the Jive Aces, the band that was there. They are a top swing band from England and they wore bright yellow Suits! It was really cool and they were fun to watch. Also, several times they had the really good people have a dance off, and they did the crazy, swing the girls all over moves. We danced again for quite a while and got good at the moves that we learned, but those moves didn't work well with most of the songs, and since I'm not all that original with dancing, it was a little awkward, but very fun! I would Love to go back there sometime. We then left, but had to find some way to get home, since that bus only ran until 9, and the dance got over at 12. It was pretty cold, and when we tried to call the Cab companies, they were busy, except one, which couldn't figure out where we were for some reason. We eventually just gave up on them and waited out there and saw one. We waved and yelled like crazy and chased him and he stopped in a parking lot about an eighth of a mile up the road. We got in and were so relieved! We got dropped off at American, and I walked her home halfway, and then she took my scooter the rest.

The next day, in the shower, I was trying the dance moves with my eyes closed and I was a little disoriented. I almost fell out of the shower by leaning on the curtain. It was funny, but a little scary as my eyes were closed. Amy and I met at Church and then went to a dinner at the Johnson's house afterward to celebrate Scott Akers passing his Boards architecture tests, so now he is licensed. They have a really nice, huge house, and it was really fun to see it. We also went to the Wallaces with their grand daughter from Spain, and her friend, so Amy had fun practicing Spanish with them.

The next week of Amy's Birthday, Lady Gaga, The Syracuse vs. Georgetown game, and, Pizza Theology will have to be in my next post.

This semester is flying by...

Not too much has happened since my last post, but several things of interest have occurred. First, last week on Friday and Saturday, Amy went on this thing called ESCAPE, which is a group of Georgetown freshman that go to a campgrounds in Maryland to get away from campus for a bit. So anyway, it sounded like a lot of fun, but I just did my homework. After she got back though, we went to a Cooking/game party that the people from Chi alpha had come up with the previous Wednesday. One of the girl's host families were going to be gone, so she invited everyone over to have a cooking party. Since the bus Amy was on was a little slow getting back, we were late getting there, but got there just as the food was all ready. IT was a competition between the guys who made Chinese food, and the Girls, who make Mexican food. Amy, Win, this one other girl, and I were all late, and walked over there at the same time, so we got to be the judges and got to eat first! The food was pretty delicious, but it was mostly fun just to hang out with everyone. Amy helped me make the dessert for the guys. It was Smore pizza! We started with Chocolate chip cookie dough and then cooked it for a while. THen we broke up graham crackers and put chocolate chips and mini marshmallows on it. It was super delicious, but the girls had made Ice Cream balls, which were really good too. THey were just big chunks of Ice Cream, but had corn Flakes that had been cooked in butter and cinnamon/sugar! Then they put this honey/ cinnamon sauce on it. It was delicious! We played apples to apples for a long time and then jumped on the Love sack that had been in the basement/ kids play area. The house had 4 floors!

That was fun, and then the next day, we went to church and then worked on homework for a while at AMerican afterward.

On Monday, I went down to Georgetown after having gone to Safeway to get some things for dinner. On Valentine's Day in the morning, it had been about 60 degrees, but then by the time we were having our little picnic down by the river, it was windy and cold! We exchanged cards and then escaped the weather in a Coffee house called Dean and Deluca's. It was great, and we opened the present from Carla! Thank You a lot, by the way, the Chocolate was really good:) The little magnetic bookmarks are also neat! We talked a bit and then walked back to Georgetown and worked on some homework for a while.

Also last week, I took 3 tests. I got a 94 on My calculus test, a 94 on my International Business test, which I was pretty proud of, because he seems like a tough grader, and I'm not sure what I got on my physics test, but I will find out tomorrow morning. Now, in Physics we are working on Charge. Anyway, Also on Saturday, I went to Jeff's apartment and had lunch with him. We had these things that looked almost like tamale's except they were smaller and had seaweed looking wraps instead of corn husks. I had no clue what it was, but he said it was better than plain rice, so I was eager to try it. Then, as he unwrapped it, I lost a bit of my appetite, although when I tried it it wasn't that bad at all. I actually liked it, but it was hard to eat, since it was so sticky. It was really sticky rice with some sauce throughout it and it surrounded some pork pieces. It was nice to see his place though and to go somewhere besides the TDR.

Then, this Monday, I ate with him and his friends in the TDR. They were Asian looking too, so I felt a little odd, but they were nice, and it was good to have some company. Anyway, I have to go practice my French horn for a while so I don't make a fool of myself next week.

Yet another week.

This past week was pretty busy, but the weekend was fun although crowded.

On Friday, Amy and I went on a Date to Dupont Circle. I bought her a flower, and the only place I found close to Dupont that was an actual store closed at 5, and we were meeting at 7, so I waited around there for a long time in the Books A Million. I had a sample of some delicious cookies and also walked around the store a bit. They had a bunch of Day calenders that were only 3 dollars, so I looked at them, almost contemplating getting one, but I didn't get one. They had a "You might be a redneck..." one, and also several trivia ones and such. For the majority of the time, however, I tried to study. I have my history readings on my zune, so I listened to that for probably an hour and a half. Then I met Amy at the GUTS bus stop, and she looked mighty fine! She had a dress, which she later told me was on sale at Urban Outfitters. Then, she also had some very uncomfortable looking heels that made her about as tall as me, so her feet were sore by the time we got to Meiwah. I had forgotten that she might wear heels, so when I chose a restaurant, I chose on that was about .4 miles a way, and we definitely needed the place to sit down when we arrived. It was an interesting place, since the people outside were sparse, but when we got there, it was quite the happening place. We went upstairs and then ordered our food. I ordered General Tso's Chicken, and she had some beef fried rice. Then, when our food arrived, she said, "Here's your general Tso's tofu" in a strong asian accent, so I couldn't quite understand her for sure. I was hoping that I had misheard her, but they were in squares, so I thought it was Tofu... Then, I tried a little piece and decided that I would have to be one of those obnoxious people that send plates back:( There were 3 different people attending to our table though, so it was understandable, yet strange to have so many. Anyway, she gave me a tie that she had found from Urban Outfitters. It is a really nice black tie with little white polka dots on it. PS I had learned a few different ways to tie a tie from the internet, because before I only knew how to do one that was a little off center. Here it is if you want to check it out:

http://www.neckties.com/content/howtotieatie.html

We then walked to the metro and then sat in my room for a while and listened to music. It was good not to worry about homework for once! Then, we walked down nebraska to find a cab for her to get home. She had heels, so I couldn't walk her home as I would have.

Saturday was a huge day of Studying for both of us, and then I rode my scooter down to Georgetown in the evening to play ping pong and to watch the free movie that they had there. It was pretty good, and was called It's kind of a funny Story.

On Sunday, we went to Church and then went to Lillian and Wendell Wallace's house afterward. We were going there to watch the superbowl, but the day before discovered that they would be taking their grand daughter who was visiting from Spain to some of the Museums after church. So, we got a ride to their house from the Old couple who's last name escapes me. Anyway, he is really old, and still is fairly active and walks 2 miles each day. He is 96 I think. IT is the man that was the President of Graceland many many years ago. Lillian had made us some food and it was in the fridge, so we heated it up. It was really nice of her. We then watched TV and watched Michigan State get crushed by Wisconsin:( We worked on homework for a while too. Then, we went over to their neighbors house for a party. THere were a bunch of older people, so the conversation was much different than the usual Superbowl parties I had gone to. One of the people was from Egypt, so that was a pretty emotional topic for her. There was lots of good food, and soup and cookies and everything I would have wanted for a party. IT was really fun, and we were glad to meet those people.

Anyway, I have to get back to work. Today has been studying and there is still some to be done.

A whole week has passed!!

A lot has happened since last week, but most of it was just school. One cool thing that we did in Physics was called a Ruben's Tube. It uses the principles of standing sound waves (the same thing that allows low humming noises in showers to be so loud) to created increases in pressure inside a tube. Propane is then allowed to flow through the tube and then the areas of higher pressure (compression) exert more gas and the flame goes higher. It looks really cool! They play different frequencies through the tube so that multiples of one half wavelength fit in the tube, creating a neat pattern. We also listened to music through the tube, and it was somewhat like those equalizers on Window's Media player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpCquUWqaYw

During the week, I went to band, which is pretty fun although I'm not good at te music yet, so I sound like a fool, not knowing what to do. I have practiced 2 times since last Tuesday though, so hopefully this weeks will go better. Choir is awesome and really fun. We have a great professor and she is really fun! Also, unlike our choir in Whitehall, no offense to anyone in it, everyone can sing great! It was really fun to listen to everyone, because they seem almost as good as me:P

Also, There was a huge snow storm last Wednesday, and I was already at Georgetown, so I got stuck, but it was OK, because my only class the following day was postponed. The roads were really terrible, so the bus that Amy was on to go to the Basketball game got stuck in traffic and she walked a ways back to be with me at Georgetown before Chi Alpha:) It started as slush in the morning, and then gave way to some snow in the afternoon/evening.

Our weekend was pretty full, because we did Friday food again and then went back to Georgetown to watch a movie. The Alumni Lounge was having a grand reopening, so they had food and prizes, so we went over there before Friday Food. The food was delicious and they even had some new ping pong balls, which was good, because I accidentally stepped on one as we were playing:S We also played pool, and Amy did really well! She hit 5 of her balls in on her first turn! Anyway, then we went and prepared the lunches for Friday food, and we went to Dupont Circle to give them out. We met this interesting guy on the street and his name was Tim. We asked him if he was cold, and he said, "Cold is a state of mind." He seemed pretty intelligent and had been around more than some of the homeless that we had come across. We talked to him quite a while and watched him play this game with people. He would sing and just try to catch people's attention to make them smile. It worked on most of the people. He would say, "Where's that smile?" He was a very cheery and pleasant guy.

Saturday was also a little busy, since we studied for a while at American and then went to the Basketball game vs. Lafayette. We got off to a great start and had 17 points in the first 5 minutes with 5 3-pointers. Had it not been for the great start, it would have been a close game, since we scored evenly for most of it. This was a big game, since it was part of the "Phil Bender World Tour," which showcases one game from each sport. There was lots of free pizza and brownies. Amy and I had a good time, and then studied for a couple of hours more. Anya, this girl from Chi Alpha invited Amy to dinner, and she said I could come too. We met them in Adams Morgan at The Diner. THere were 11 girls and them me. I felt a little strange, but they were fun to be around and it wasn't that awkward since I knew most of them from CHi Alpha. Anyway, the dinner was pretty late, and the Georgetown shuttle only runs til 11:45, so they had to get home a different way than usual, I think they just took a Metrobus or Circulator bus. I just went back to American and went to bed.

On Sunday, we did homework at Georgetown and then I went home, because Amy had the last part of her training for her job. She is going to be a mentor for a kid that had a little trouble with the law. They pick them up from the court and then eat dinner with them at the Georgetown Dining room and then help them with their homework and teach them a "life skill." It sounds really fun, and Amy is really looking forward to it.

Today, I did homework. I also ran a while on the treadmill in the fitness center. Amy and I are both trying to get in shape, but so far, she has been exercising more than me, because I'm not motivated enough to get up before class, since the shades are nice and dark. Yes, I could just open the shades, but in the evening they are usually shut since they light reflects of them, so it keeps it lighter in here. Anyway, that is all I have to say for now.

BYE.

Ice Skating at the Sculpture gardens

Saturday was a fairly average Saturday for Amy and I, as we studied, ate some breakfast (I actually just had a bagel that she smuggled out of her lunch room for me), and then Studied some more. We even took a break at 3 and played ping pong in the Alumni Lounge. It is the place where, on the second Friday of Amy's classes, I went to Georgetown and we played Taboo with some people. That was more of a special thing, but the room is often open for activities as you rent out the equipment. They have a pool table, a ping pong table, a foosball table, a big screen TV, a wii, and X box, and some tables for studying or board games. The way to play the things is you give them your ID, then you can rent the equipment, such as pool sticks, pool balls, ping pong things, or board games. It is a really fun place, though the heater is always too much. The ping pong table is really sturdy, and the balls really curvy, and there isn't much padding on the paddles, so it seems much different from playing at home, but it is really fun. Amy and I are both getting better I think. Amy is getting really good now, and can beat me at a single game, though I usually win 2 out of 3. The scores are close.

After playing ping pong, we went to the Leavy Center and got a Subway Sandwich... It was Delicious! We then studied some more in the BUsiness center before meeting to go Ice Skating. We met the rest of the CHi Alpha gang and then rode in a large van over to the Sculpture Gardens. We went a really strange way that was much longer than needed, but it was fun to hang out with those people. Several of the people had never been Ice Skating before, so it was new and it took a while to catch on. We waited in line for a while in the cold and then finally got our stickers. You put the sticker somewhere that is always visible, and then you just skate. There are different colored stickers, so for every hour there can be 2 colors of stickers on the ice. You buy a pass for 2 hours, starting on the hour, so your pass will be good while 2 other sets of colors will be with you. One for the first hour, and then a new batch for the second hour. Before we skated, the Zamboni redid the ice, so it was really smooth as we skated at first. Then it got more and more scuffed up and eventually there was about 3/16ths of an inch of snow like material on the Ice. It was pretty fun, although it was organized. Everyone had to just go in circles. It was really great to Ice Skate again though, since it had been several years since I had done it.

After skating, we went into the building that was nearby. It had expensive food for sale and very delicious brownies! They were very good! Very chocolatey and gooey and wonderful! Anyway, I bought one of them after having tried someone's brownie. We sat in there for a while waiting for the last of the people that were on the ice and also just to get warm. It was about 20 degrees with 50% humidity, so it was pretty cold. We then rode back to Georgetown taking a faster route, and then Amy and I studied some more before I caught the Circulator bus to go to Du Pont Circle.

It was a very good day, and it was fun to Skate with Amy:)

Today, I woke up, got ready, and walked to Church with my French Horn. There are 2 trumpet players in the congregation as well, and we played some songs that were arranged for us. It sounded really awesome, and I was glad to play with them! We even sounded good... according to the around 8 people that talked to me after the service. Amy and I then waited around for a ride and are now studying in the Library. I finished all the work that I can do now, so I got distracted and will now have to get some more calculus to work on.

Week number 2

I'm sorry for the very long delay in writing this blog, but this week was a fairly busy one, although good. On Monday, Amy and I went to the Arlington National Cemetery and saw the thousands of graves and the Tomb of the unknowns. We watched them change guard which was quite interesting. We also saw General Robert E. Lee's house which is in the Cemetery. We then went to the mall to look around, because it is an awesome mall and I went there for that mall assignment for my sociology class. I just wanted to show her. Anyway, we walked and walked all day and were pretty tired by the end of the day. It started raining on my scooter ride home, and it eventually turned to snow/sleet.

Because of the previous day's weather, everyone received an email telling them that everything on campus was canceled until 11 in the Morning, because of the ice. When I went outside to my first class, now at 11:20, I noticed the large amount of ice. There was about a quarter of an inch on everything including the trees and bicycles... Anything that was exposed to the weather. The rest of my classes were alright that day, and then, for the first time I had band and choir. I went to band first and discovered that I was first chair!!! But, I don't think it made the best of relationships between me and the former first chair, especially since I couldn't sight read the music given to us very well. I have lots of rests... After that, I went to Choir, which was AWESOME! We are singing Shenandoah and some other songs, and everyone in there can sing very well, so it is really fun. There are even some community members there, which were part of the Tenor 2's like me. THe music is really fun for the most part, but it also goes really high! I can't sing a G, but it frequently goes up there. We'll see how that goes.

The rest of my week was normal also, until on Friday, I went down to Georgetown. They have something called Friday Food, where we make lunches and then go to Du Ponte Circle to hand them out. There were only 6 of us this time, and since it was really cold, we didn't make as many as the usually do, because fewer homeless people would likely be out. We went there, and it took us quite a while to find anyone. We found one that looked like he was possibly homeless, so we followed him for a ways. He was just walking, possibly to stay warm, but when I finally asked him if he wanted some food, he said, "No Food," and kept on walking. The main point of the program is to get out there and show them that someone cares. They can get food other places if they want, but we were mainly supposed to talk to them. Since he was on the move, it didn't really work. Amy found this one guy that was asking for money on the sidewalk, and gave him the food and tried to tlak, but it was just awkward and didn't last for that long. It was really cold, so we were trying to find people to give the food to, so I gave mine to a guy selling "Street Cents" newspaper, one made by the homeless for the homeless. I didn't think it would work for me to talk much, since he was working at his job of selling papers, but I did give him some food.

Anyway, we studied some more and then had some Macaroni and cheese with beef pieces in it, and then watched Grease. The food was good, and it was really nice to get back inside. Now, I'm going to go to Georgetown and we are going to do lots more homework! I'll try to write again sooner than this time.

Travis

The weekend/ scooter fun!

So far, classes have been good, and on Friday, I realized that the History class won't be as boring as I had originally thought. I found it pretty interesting, and took notes like crazy on my laptop. I typed over 1500 words during class! Just on notes. I do, however, take notes in complete sentences for the most part, which would increase the word output, but I find that if I don't I just get too confused. Anyway, after classes on Friday, I walked down to Georgetown again. I met Amy in her dorm and we studied a while before going to her Auditions! She was super nervous, but did well, I imagine:) She even thought she did well, so I bet it was excellent! Spoiler... Anyway, she did get call backs for one of the plays, but she wasn't called back for the play she really wanted:( Tonight, Sunday, she has her call back for Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams. Anyway, we did a bit of homework, since there was some time between the auditions and the Movie.

We were going to go to the Movie, Social Network, at 7:30, but it was canceled due to technology problems. It was the movie this week at Georgetown and was free:) The movie itself was really good and was about the creation of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg. He was cast in a pretty bad light in the movie, so I looked it up and found out that much of it was exaggerated. We were ready to watch it at 7:30, but since it wasn't available, we just waited in the building in which it was to be held, and worked on homework for a while. Some of the girls from Chi Alpha were leaving the building, so we talked to them for a little while. It was nice to see some people we knew. Anyway, Brooke told us about a funny video to watch called Ellen Degeneres Here and Now. It is really funny, but we only watched part of it.

We had been taking turns riding Amy's scooter around, since she had had it shipped here. It is pretty fun to ride. The reason I said that was that I then used it to ride home after the movie which got over late! It was a lot faster than walking, or even running, but it gets your legs really tired. I had also received a a text earlier that day saying that my scooter had come in! So, after I was really tired and sweaty from the ride back, I quickly unpacked my box as soon as I could get it to my room. It was tricky to get it there however, since I was carrying Amy's scooter in one hand and the huge 4x1.5x1 in the other. I also had my back pack, so I looked pretty awkward! So I realized that it was pretty awesome as soon as I unpacked it, and was excited to ride it to georgetown the following morning.

On Saturday, I woke up as early as I could, given that I went to bed fairly late, and then went to the Ace Hardware at Tenleytown. It is in the basement by THE CONTAINER STORE parking garage. The reason for my visit to the hardware store was to get some Allen Wrenches to adjust the scooter. So, basically, I had to ride all the way up to Tenleytown, then all the way down Wisconsin and onto 37th to go to Georgetown. It was a good first ride though. I met Amy at the Library and gave her her scooter that I had carried awkwardly in my backpack, and then we studied for a while. We then checked the Drama building several times for the call back postings mentioned earlier and then studied there a while when we found them no where in sight. That whole day, we must have looked quite silly riding around on our scooters all over campus. It isn't at all common to see them around, especially two of them. We got several compliments, but more chucklings as we whizzed by them. I think deep down they were just jealous that they couldn't get around as fast as we could:P So, after finally learning of the call back information, we went to the Leavey Center and watched the rest of Here and Now on Youtube. I then rode My scooter home and it was 22 minutes from the time I left Georgetown to the time I was back at my dorm... 7.8 mph! And it is mostly uphill to get back to American! I was pretty tired, but It was definitely worth it to get the scooter, as it is good exercise and greatly reduces the amount of time to a destination.

Today, I rode my scooter to Church and Amy rode hers, then we rode back to American and studied for a while, I mainly working on my mastering Physics and she reading history. We had some Ritz and Tuna and a can of fruit for lunch and then went to eat at my dining hall for dinner. I just realized how much good food they always have there! There was fried Chicken, and then soup. Also, they just have pizza too, and always something that I like. There was a baked potato bar too, but by the time I saw it, my plate was full, and I knew my stomach would be also. We had a good dinner and then Amy took her scooter and rode back to Georgetown. Her audition is at 8, so from 6:30 until 8, she gets to practice her southern drawl:)

We have been working hard on our homework on Saturday and Sunday, so we can have a fun day on Amy's day off. American has MLK day off as well, but I don't have classes on Monday, so it doesn't do me any added good. We are going to the Arlington National Cemetery, and the Pentagon City mall. We may also see the National Cathedral, but I'm not sure yet.