I Just Wanna Dance!

This weekend I finally went out on the town of DC! I was so excited! Friday night I went to the Hawk n' Dove, it's a bar down by the capitol, and it has dancing and what not and it's 18+ to get in which makes it nice! Anyway, I went with Kim and Leslie, and then Jennapher and her friend Angela met us there. It was definitely really crowded, and somehow we managed to run into Nate, and hang out with him too. I decided that those Mexican creepers from Borderline in TO, also exist in DC, and for some reason they all think they can come dance with me (see I am mexican, they sense it). Haha. Anyway, awkward as usual. So we were there from like 11 to 2:30am and then we left and headed back to our rooms because we were tired of creeper boys. I got back at 3am and went to sleep half an hour later after I knew Kim had made it back safely since we couldn't find her and left her with Nate.

The next day, Kim and I went to a two story target which was awesome, and I ended up discovering this other wonderful part of DC, or Columbia Heights if you will, it had lots of cute restaurants, I can't wait to go back and explore. Then I passed out for a few hours and woke up to a wonderful cooked meal made by Reshai! He is an amazing cook! Then Kim and I watched PS I love you the rest of the night while the 21 and older crew of our friends went out to bars.

Sunday was a much more mellow day, filled with sleep, and then going to Pentagon City to the mall! I was so excited to finally go! It's rather large, and has some cool stores, I will be going back soon! We also found a marshall's and a COSTCO!!!! YAY! OH and a CPK (a little bit of home)

IT SNOWED TODAY!!! (Tuesday) I woke up and it was not visible outside and I was like whats going o-- OHHH...haha there was snow all over my balcony! It was beautiful! ...then I realized I had to walk in it to work, not so much fun, I have never walked in dress clothes in snow! Crazy fun! ...and also not fun! But I really did enjoy it, I have never had the opportunity to watch it snow ALLLLL Damn day...but as night fell, it became a wintery mix of snow and ice....so odd. I didn't particularly like it when I went to meet my dad at his hotel for dinner! He took me to dinner, and it was wonderful, I had prime rib and a baked potato!

Post - Inauguration Adventures

So today was my first day of internship this week since we had Monday and Tuesday off and Wednesday's I always have off because of our field trips but we didn't have one this week so I was able to explore more of DC and the national mall. Anyway, Wednesday we woke up and headed to Cafe Asia just up the block from my apartment for lunch, it was really good but lots of food, so Reshai met us back at the apartments from his eye doctor appointment and we put our food away and left to the metro to the Smithsonian Center stop that drops you right in the middle of the national mall. You literally go up and there is grass. haha. Anyway it was interesting to see how wide the national mall was right there because then I was able to picture the millions of people that were at the inauguration. I didn't realize how wide the mall was until I was there the next day. Anyway so Val, Reshai and I walked towards the Washington Monument, finally I was getting to go touch it, and well we discussed how annoying the different colors of limestone were, and how tacky it was, but of course that's what happens with wars and movements haha. Anyway so we took pictures there being or modelistic selves and all. Then we headed towards the WWII memorial and the Lincoln Memorial so my cousin could see them and of course I had more time to take the pictures I wanted to take at the Lincoln and see the little museum type thing underneath it, as well as the dedication to MLK Jr that I didn't get to see before hand. We walked through the Vietnam War memorial then headed to fidn the metro on the opposite side from where we started, and well that was quite an adventure. We ended up stopping at CVS where Reshai bought Digiorno pizza's because they were on sale at that CVS and not the one next to us, and then the dumb girl that rang him up was texting while helping him, which was rude! She gave him the smalleset bag possible and the lady that helped us before with the metro was like, he'll need a bigger bag if he is getting on the metro and gave him the bigger bags, then we are walking and all of a sudden Reshai drops his SmartTrip Card (metro card) and my cousin steps on it because it fell underneath her food standing up it snapped in half, and Reshai shrieked like nothing I had ever heard! It was hilarious but sad. Anyway we finally get to the metro, and find a starbucks we had been looking for, and we order it, then Reshai proceeds to spill his Green Tea Latte on his jacket, needless to say, he was having a fantastic hour. We finally headed home and had a bit of a peaceful night, I watched LOST it was insane and I didnt go to sleep until 2 am and had to wake up 5.5 hours later for my internship.

Today was interesting at the office, I didn't do much but read for the Koch Foundation (the seminar I will be attending on Tuesdays about Market based management), and do some filing but then the rest of hte interns came to ask me if I wanted to come with them to lunch around 11 and head to the March for Life at the National Mall (anti-abortion). Today was the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and well there were protests and demonstrations everywhere! We ended up staying out to lunch for 2.5 hours ...haha oops, then proceeded back to work. Where I had three hours left and then left for class. Thursday's I have Violence and Values, from 6-8:30, it's my longest class cuz this guy talks forever and is ridiculously boring, I hate it. It's not like anything I thought it would be but whatever, I am sure it will get more interesting though hopefully! Reshai and I got out of class then picked up my cousin and we headed down to safeway, where we spent an hour and a half with Reshai while he spent 126 dollars on groceries. HAHAHAHA. it was ridiculous and hilarious all at the same time, it's definitely like Reshai said "a memory that will be with us forever, together". Now one of my roommates came back really drunk and while it's quite hilarious I am tired and ready for bed, and finally she has quieted down. Well I am off to bed, long day tomorrow that I am not looking forward to! Except finally getting to hit the nightclub scene this weekend! WOO TGIF AS OF NOW!!!

Love,
A-Ram

Inauguration Day

Oh man where do I even start?! I am writing this of course at midnight after the inauguration due to the fact I passed out for a few hours when I got home and now I am trying to fall asleep again, still exhausted. I will be posting pictures on my facebook and myspace soon, and emailing them to those that have neither. So I woke up at 4:30 thanks to my mom calling me when she woke up in the middle of the night. I started making pancakes and then woke up Val, she she was a little sick the day before so I was letting her sleep. Anyway, I made pancakes and then ate and got ready and we left for the metro at like 5:50 and caught one at six. It was taking forever to get to our destination, the train in front of us was holding things up so it was stop and go for a while. Finally we got to Metro Center and caught the Red line to Union Station where it was nuts! We had to find the line for our yellow gate tickets and then we had to find the END of the line, haha that took a LONG time. I swear the line was longer than any line at disneyland I have been in. I was freezing!! It was definitely like 18 degrees when we were out there, and the sun wasn't out yet. There was just so many people I was getting kind of scared, I also felt like I was the only person in the line that didn't vote for our new president, but hey, I have respect for him so it was a great experience. Anyway, so we were in line for about an hour and a half before the gates opened at 8am. Line was moving fairly quickly once it was 8am, then when I got to the screening point, I saw why haha. There were probably 30+ screening entrances it was insane, there was definitely more metal detectors there than in any airport haha. Anyway, so we get through security and we start walking towards our section, and the guy told us to go to the right so we did, and then we just walked into this standing area, but then we noticed that there were seats that said section 15 and our tickets said section 11, and so we went to see if we had seats, and sure enough we did! It was so cool! We sat next to some people from San Diego and they were really nice. As we were all trying to stay warm people were doing the electric slide, to running up and down the walk way. Then the celebrity sighting started. Common was sitting behind me, and so was Val Kilmer. Halle Berry and Jamie Foxx was definitely an area that was very hard to get to haha. Obviously Oprah was there but she is overrated in my opinion. Anyway the most amazing view was definitely behind me the millions of people backed all the way passed the Washington Monument, was simply amazing. It was beautiful especially to see so many of them with flags waving them all at once it was very pretty, my camera could only zoom so far but it was definitely a breath taking moment. Finally the procession of senate and congress began their entrance, and the special seating of the last presidents and what not. I was a little upset with the lack of respect that people had for some of the members. They booed Joe Lieberman, and John McCain (he already lost, chill out), and Bush. I was particularly angry with them booing Bush because he deserves a little bit of respect, no one could have done a better job with the situations he had to go through, let's get real. I don't agree with some of his ideals but I still have respect for a man courageous enough to take on a role such as leading such a large nation. (They also sang the song, Na Na Na Na, hey hey hey, good bye). Aretha Franklin didn't sound as good as I had hoped, I was a little disappointed there, but other than that it was a great ceremony and much shorter than it seems on tv. All in all, the wait, the hunger, and the cold were all well worth experiencing the most historical inauguration yet. It was a very emotional time for many, and a day where for once, everyone in America was connected. I do give Obama credit on his ability to bring peace and tranquility among the people of our nation. He has talent and I hope only to see brilliant ideals from him. I will give him a shot of course. Anyway, I'm off to bed finally, I am exhausted. Good night and I will post pictures soon!
Love
A-Ram

Just Livin' the Life

So today (Sunday), was the big inaugural concert and what not but I just listened from my room and stuff, cuz I was not about to brave the cold and the 1 million people. haha. The last couple of days have been fun. Saturday night the roomies and I had some people over for a little fun and taboo. Then I spent all day being lazy watching movies and talking with friends. Tonight I was at Kevin's room with some other girls from west 1013, Leslie, Kim and Jennapher, they are the greatest and I love them so much, they live in the porno penthouse cuz there are mirrors everywhere. i finally got to see it for myself it is pretty creepy haha. They are just everywhere! Anyway so I met up with them in their room, and then we headed over to North to Kevin, Eric, Steve, and Tyler's room to hang out with everyone. I just got back, I also talked on the phone with Jessica, Madre, and Samantha Watson! I can't wait for Jessica to come visit! So tonight at Kevin's we all decided to go to Hawk and Dove tomorrow night. (Monday night). We just realized we have class but whatever, we get done at 7:30pm, I hope my cousin will be down to go, because I really want to! Anyway, Val gets here tomorrow night for the inauguration and it's going to be saweeeeet. It is supposed to snow tomorrow, we will see if it happens, I don't know what I am going to do if it does haha. Anyway, I am not school sick anymore because I finally have some people I can hang out with now and not be stuck in my room all the time. I'm really excited for the inauguration to pass so that way I can explore DC without all these tourist around. (I don't count as a tourist because I am living here). Hehe. I think it's funny that everyone keeps saying they feel sorry for me that I am not 21 because I don't really need to drink to have fun, and most the places are 18+ and that's fine with me. Well, I think I am off to bed soon, I need to do some homework before class tomorrow and go to get my smart trip card.
Love,
A-Ram

2009

Since I will be studying abroad for the 2009 year I thought I would just document everything in a blog for everyone to read and keep in touch since I won't be able to tell everyone everything all the time because that's a lot of repeated stories. Anyway, so this Spring Semester I am in Washington, D.C for Lutheran College Washington Semester. I live in a little neighborhood next to D.C in Virginia called Rosslyn. The metro is five minutes away and it's really cute. We live in "Penthouses" on the Sky Terrace. I have a huge balcony that is the size of a dance floor where you could fit like 150 people. I have a nice view of Rosslyn, and a little bit of DC. Anyways, I go to internship four days a week in DC. I work at the American Legislative Exchange Council as the Membership intern, I also play an active part in one of their task forces, the Public Safety and Elections task force (formally the Criminal Justice and Homeland Security Task force). I have my own office, phone with voicemail (which I need to record), email address (ask for it), business cards, and they pay for my transportation and lunch, which helps a lot. Anyway little about where I work.

It's called ALEC, and it's a non profit, non partisan, legislative group. So basically there are two sectors public and private, the public sector are all the state legislators, they pay like 50 bucks a year to be a member and collaborate with other state legislators on model legislation test it within in ALEC to see if it passes and then they continue to take it on to their state legislature. The private sector are other companies that want to be able to talk to their state legislators about laws that affect them and also other fortune 500 companies, non profits, and foundations. They pay a donation to become a part of the organization anywhere from 7k-50k. So for example, Ebay is a member because there has been talk of the internet being taxed, and they want to talk to legislators about how it affects their business and tell them to think about it blah blah etc.

Anyway I work with the membership department so people that want to join and what not and I also do research and write articles on the main issues for the Public Safety and Elections task force for the year of 2009. It's cool.

So far DC has been interesting I havent really done much because of the inauguration craziness, but I will definitely be there for the inauguration. I got my tickets and I will have to wake up at the crack down to get there and stuff. Anyway that's all for now. I'll keep everyone updated.

Love,
A-Ram

P.S - I miss you CLU! Also Molly, Megan, Lizzy, Kate, Katie Colorado, The Bode, Meghan, etc.
(and Emily of course, who is on the ship!)

If you want to mail me stuff my address is:

1111 Arlington Blvd
Apt. #1010
Arlington, VA 22209