Well I've been living here in D.C. for 3 weeks now, so I thought I'd give an update of what I've been up to.
I work Monday through Friday at a physical therapy clinic. I love working there-- the physical therapists there are great, my patients are awesome, and I feel like I do a good job and I feel like I am well liked. I feel a lot more competent at this internship than I did during my internship in Alaska last summer. Sometimes I am a tad bit bitter that I am not getting paid and am paying tuition, but hey what can you do? The only other downside is that I have to wake up at 5 A.M.!!!!!!!!! I am not a big fan of that and wouldn't do it voluntarily, but since I have to, there are some cool things about it. When I leave to walk to the bus stop, the air still has that crisp morning feel and the past few days there has been a layer of fog rising up from the trees and it is very beautiful.
Over Memorial Day weekend, I had the chance to go to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for Duck Beach. BEST WEEKEND EVER!!!! I seriously could not imagine a more perfect weekend. My best friend Red flew out for it, and we drove down with my friends Melissa and Kari (about a 5 hour drive). We stayed in a beach house with about 25 guys and gals. It was dirt cheap AND food was included-- the girl who put the house together made us dinner every night too. I didn't have to bust out my wallet once on the trip. We spent all day Saturday at the beach playing in the ocean, playing soccer and football and hanging out with people. Oh I forgot to mention that Duck Beach is an annual event for single LDS people (it has been going on for 20 years). People from all over the country fly in for it and people just rent out giant beach houses and then just spend the whole weekend having fun. There were probably 600 Mormons there. So we had tons of people to play with on the beach and get to know. That night there were parties to go to and even just hanging out with everyone at our beach house was fun. Sunday we didn't do much besides reading scriptures and conference talks and hanging out, but it was perfect. It was very relaxing and refreshing. That night we went to one of the beach houses where they were having an acoustic night/party and that was a blast. Monday we spent the whole day at the beach. We had so much fun playing soccer on the beach and throwing a football around. I can't even describe how perfect this weekend was. The atmosphere was amazing, I made a lot of new friends, I laughed a lot, I felt like myself the whole time-- didn't feel self-conscious or lame or whatever--. It wasn't the kind of beach trip where you just go to meet guys and wear super nice clothes and try to be popular. It was just a ton of awesome people gathering to have fun. I loved it.
Oh, my sister was in town (D.C.) for Memorial Day weekend. I, sadly, was not so I didn't get to spend much time with her, but we did squeeze an hour or so in after work and before I left for North Carolina. I met her and her friends at one of the Smithsonians, then we went and wandered around Georgetown and then went to one of the cupcake shops they have here. It must be an East Coast thing, but they have tons of shops that just sell cupcakes. That was a lot of fun and the cupcakes were heavenly. We each got one and then shared.
Then this weekend, I had a blast going to the Herndon Fair with Melissa. It was exactly what you would imagine a hick fair to be. There was live bands, fireworks, a carnival, fair-type food, and a crazy assortment of people. There were the gangstas with their doo'rags and bling pushing strollers with their babies in em and talking about riding the merry go round. There were high school guys and gals dressed in their little summer outfits trying to impress each other. There were your typical hicks with their wife-beater tees and cigarette in hand. You could find just about every type of person there. Melissa and I loved it.
We waited in line for AN HOUR for funnel cakes and played a camera game to help pass the time. We would say an expression and then quickly snap a picture, so the other person had to react very quickly and act out that expression.
pensive
confused
angry
surprised
We were the very last people to get funnel cakes-- all the people in line behind us who had been waiting 45+ minutes were out of luck.
This upcoming weekend I am going to Chesapeake Bay with the Relief Society in my ward and we are having a little slumber party and then going sailing on Saturday. I'm really excited!
Other than that, I've just been getting to know the D.C. area. I've been able to do quite a bit of exploring, despite my lack of car. :( I am now an expert of the public transportation here (bus, metro, etc). It has been a lot of fun so far!
