Jimmer, Tornadoes, and Mafia- Just a Typical Week

Jimmer, Jimmer, Jimmer, Jimmer! Don't worry my dear friends in Provo. The fact that the Barlow Center is 2,096 miles away from the Marriot Center Ticket Office, does not mean we've been neglecting the basketball season over here. We watch every game we can, and yes, we know about the letter to the Daily Universe and the Facebook frenzy that followed. I bring this up now because the game against SDSU on Saturday was awesome, and it felt great coming into my internship today because guess who I work with? A bunch of Southern Californians! I feel like I should be conflicted about missing out on the sights of DC for basketball games, but I'm just not, and that's how it is.

 

Beyond basketball, I've been feeling a lot of Cougar pride this week because my sister Mariah got her BYU acceptance letter! I'm so excited for her to go to one of my favorite places! Yesterday, I went down to the basement to play the piano and have some alone time for a while (you have to make a major effort to be by yourself here), and I had a flood of random flashbacks to a ton of high school and college experiences from the past six years that made me so happy. I still keep in touch with some of my fellow RHS Rams, and can I just say that I've had incredible roommates at BYU? I have no idea how I've been so lucky, but the people in 233 Whitney Hall, Madison 8, and the Apt 340 have been some of the greatest blessings in my life, and I've learned so much from these wonderful girls! And then there are my 328 (class of death) buddies, the Yorktown 7 and 4 boys, BYU 84th Ward friends, and now my Barlow family. When I think of BYU, I think of my friends, and I love that, and when I'm not at school, I'm at home with the greatest siblings and parents I could have hoped for. So, with that said, it doesn't really make sense that I just started working on my mission papers this week.

 

I've been thinking about serving a mission for my church since last August, and I've been going back and forth on this decision on an almost daily basis. But after talking to my parents and some friends out here, I realized that the only way I was going to figure it out was if I took action and measured how I felt during the process. I met with my bishop two weeks ago, and I felt good about going, and on Friday night, I finally got access to the online system to start filling out papers. I still think it's a go. Assuming everything goes according to plan, I'll probably end up leaving to some unknown destination sometime this summer or early fall. So yeah, I'll keep everyone posted on that.

 

As much as I love running through my memories and speculating about my mission prospects, it's important to live in the present, right? So here's what's been going on in my D.C. life besides a lot of Jimmer love. Those who know me really well probably remember that natural disasters fascinate me, but I have never been in one myself. This means that I'm very excited right now because when I looked up the forecast on weather.com a few minutes ago, I saw that it is supposed to get up to 74 degrees today, with a 95 percent chance of severe thunderstorms, and a TORNADO WARNING!!!! It could be a very interesting day!

 

This week has been a little bit more low-key than usual, but it's been nice at the same time. I've had a lot of great conversations with friends at the Barlow Center. A few of us even managed to talk about the possibility of a government shutdown and the political upheaval in the Middle East for three hours on Tuesday night. (Honestly, who cares about going to bed?)

 

On Friday, we went on a tour of the Pentagon, and I talked to a member of the Honor Guard for almost thirty minutes. I'd heard about the Honor Guard in one of my classes before, so it was cool to meet one them in person and ask him questions about guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetary, the military, etc... Here's a link to info about this specific group: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/ceremonies/sentinelsotu.html. While we were at the Pentagon, we stopped by the 9/11 Memorial there. If you're like me,  when you think of September 11th, you automatically picture the Twin Towers in New York City, but there were 184 deaths at the Pentagon between the military personnel and the victims on flight American 77. That's kind of a big deal too, so when you remember the events of that day, keep the Pentagon in mind. In preparation for our tour, we had watched the movie Taking Chance on Thursday. It's about a Marine escort who takes a soldier's body back to his family. Watch it if you want a perspective check.

 

Friday night, I went on another walk to the Jefferson Memorial, and on the way back, my group stopped at a Thai Restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue. I was skeptical at first because I haven't really tried a lot of foreign foods, but oh my goodness, that was one of the best meals I've had since coming to D.C. I've been converted on that front.

 

Saturday morning, I went back to Eastern Market in order to investigate whether or not the renowned buckwheat blueberry pancakes that everyone in the area raves about were as amazing as their reputation suggested. They were good, but I thought they were a bit overhyped. Case closed. Next to Eastern Market, we found the craziest old used-bookstore I've ever seen! There were seriously shelves and stacks of books everywhere- on the windowsills, in the bathroom...I was amazed, slightly claustrophobic, and I kept thinking, "what would happen here in an earthquake?" If you ever go to Eastern Market in D.C., make sure you stop by the little bookstore just to experience the sheer physical power of the written word.

That's about all I did in terms of sightseeing and exploring- I was really busy this week with work and school stuff. Saturday evening, after the basketball game, we stayed at the Barlow Center, watched the new edition of the Return of the Jedi, and then played three frustratingly good games of Mafia. I love my Barlow buddies!

Potomac Fever

Last Friday was an incredible day. First, it was 70 degrees and gorgeous. Second, I diagnosed myself and several of my Barlow buddies with the ailment that many D.C. newcomers experience after being in the city for several weeks. This is going to sound super picturesque, but this is honestly what it was like. As a bunch of us sat on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial, staring across the Potomac River at the Washington Monument and the White House, with a full moon rising and gentle music playing in the background, it dawned on us that we were getting infected with a strain of Potomac Fever. According to dictionary.infoplease.com, Potomac Fever is "the determination or fervor to share in the power and prestige of the U.S. government in Washington, D.C." This isn't exactly what we're experiencing. I enjoy my internship, but it's the city itself that's becoming addicting! 

After class on Friday afternoon, a few of us ended up going outside to enjoy the sunshine, and we literally just sat on a wall on the west side of the Capitol for a glorious hour. We chose to sit on the wall because I accidentally exposed my fear of squirrels after six successful weeks of keeping it a secret. As we made our way towards a bench on the Capitol grounds, I saw movement on a nearby tree trunk. Squirrel! I froze, and when someone asked me what was wrong, the best thing I could say was, "Oh, there are too many branches on that tree." Yes, I know. Pathetic Kels. And guess what? My friends saw the squirrel too and right through the ridiculous lie. It's okay though- I'm actually getting so much better with overcoming my fear. By the time I leave, I will love the evil little creatures.

For dinner that night, we ended up eating overly-priced, but delicious Obama Burgers. To work off the grease, we decided to walk two miles down to the Jefferson Memorial, and that was probably the best decision we could have made. If you ever come to D.C. you WILL go to Jefferson. It sits right on the bank of the river and is set outside of the city, so it's extremely peaceful and has a fantastic view! On the way back to the Barlow Center, we took a route that leads past the FDR memorial and the Lincoln memorial, and I've decided that this path is my favorite place in the city, hands down! Warm weather, a full moon, glowing monuments, and great company led to an awesome start to our Presidents' Day Weekend.

On the wall in front of the Capitol- Look! No Coats!
Left to right: Me, Hannah, Rachel, Nate, Megan, Alison, Peter

We're facing the Jefferson Memorial (WA Monument behind us)
Left to right: Alison's head, Wade, Josh, Megan, Rachel, DJ, Hannah, Nate, John, Me, Jesse

Jefferson Memorial view from my favorite path

On Saturday I experienced a different kind of fever...not an actual fever I guess, but I was kind of sick- mainly fatigue and headaches. So, the only thing I did that day was go to Eastern Market for the first time. Eastern Market is kind of like a small flea market with a lot of little stands set up everywhere. There were several produce stands there that had samples of apples, strawberries, tomatoes, berries, cucumbers, cantolope, and watermelon, and everything was delicious! Despite being sick, I did one of the most impractical things I could have done on Saturday night, meaning I stayed up super late with my Barlow friends, watching Star Wars and then talking and laughing for hours after that. I think I had a renewed sense of energy because that afternoon, Kim, one of my wonderful roommates from last semester, called to tell me that she was engaged! According to my friend Josh, I exhibited the "essence of a woman" because my enthusiastic response to Kim's announcement was heard throughout the entire Barlow Center. Oops. Since I love engagement stories, especially when they happen to my friends and roommates, I felt hyper and happy, and I was suddenly good to go! Luckily, by Sunday afternoon, I was completely back to normal health-wise, which was great because that day ended up being extremely busy.

At this point, I would like to introduce the Sowby's. They are an LDS missionary couple responsible for running the Barlow Center, and they just arrived last week from... (you'll never guess)... Utah! :) Last Thursday, I had gone over to help them clean their apartment, and on Sunday afternoon they invited me and a few other Barlow friends over for a delicious dinner. When we were about to leave, Elder Sowby asked if we wanted to go with them to the D.C. Temple Visitor Center for a "Why I Believe" fireside. My friends, Chris and Alison, and I jumped at the opportunity to go since there are no good public transportation options for us to go on our own. The Sowby's took us in their van (it was so weird to be in a car again!) and we got to see the outside of the beautiful temple and hear some incredible speakers at the fireside. (For my non-LDS friends, firesides are basically supplementary church meetings for those interested in going, and here is a basic explanation about temples if you're curious: http://lds.org/church/temples/frequently-asked-questions?lang=eng.) Many of the speakers were new converts, and it was a great reminder for those of us who were there as to why we really believe what we believe, why I'm spending an hour and a half on the bus every Sunday to go to church, etc...It was awesome, and I actually ran into a guy from Puyallup, Kevin Danner, who is a missionary out here. Craziness!

Washington D.C. Temple

Me and Alison in front of the Christus statue in the Temple Visitor Center

Presidents' Day was great this year because I actually did something presidential. My friends and I have had our eyes on Mount Vernon for a while, and we were overjoyed when we discovered that the only day of the year when admission is free was a day we had off from work! So, at 11:30 a.m., we gathered in our typical meeting place (the lobby on the guy's floor), and then embarked on our metro/bus journey to Alexandria, Virginia. Mount Vernon is huge and beautiful, and we spent hours walking around the grounds and going through George Washington's mansion. We also saw the tomb where Washington lies. There was an incredible sense of reverence at that spot, I'm not even kidding! 

In front of Washington's mansion at Mount Vernon
Left to right: Me, Wade, Alison, Chris, Heather, Sarah, Megan

Outside of George and Martha Washington's tomb

That's my weekend in a rather large nutshell. As much fun as it is out here, there are also so many serious things going on in the world that I've become very aware of through my internship. The continuing resolution that just went through the House and is now up for debate in the Senate is a big deal, no matter how you feel about it. And the protests in the Middle East are turning a lot of heads in that direction. Luckily, I have a lot of "happy places" I can go to now, when things get crazy. Sometimes I still can't believe I'm here- I just love D.C., which is apparently my personal symptom of Potomac Fever.

Manners, Mormons, and Everything Else

Happy Valentines Day! I had forgotten that today was even a holiday until I opened my bedroom door this morning and saw the beautiful sight of paper and chocolate down the entire length of the hallway. The fourteen boys at the Barlow Center had written anonymous notes to each girl and secretly placed them by the appropriate doorways along with bags of candy. Talk about a major ego booster and an excellent start to the day!
Everyone, for the most part, is nice in D.C., and not just the Barlow boys. When you eat with a group, no one takes a bite until everyone has food. I regularly see people give up seats on the Metro, and men are always opening doors for the ladies. It’s not awkward or chauvinistic like some people would assume- it’s just the way it is. There’s a sense of general etiquette in this city that I haven’t really noticed to the same extent in other places I’ve lived. Then again, I’m not driving here (not a day has gone by that I haven’t heard sirens or honking horns). I’ve heard horror stories of east coast drivers, but at the same time, I received comfort in the words of a stranger while crossing the street the other day. Amused by the fact that I was running across the crosswalk, a man asked,
“Are you not from D.C.?”
“I’ve been here for a month,” I replied.
With raised eyebrows, he said, “Then you should know that the cars will stop for you!” 
I forgot that I’m not in Utah anymore!

Returning to my etiquette tirade, here’s one more little story.  Last week I got lost in one of the passageways in the Capitol while looking for an elevator. I found a “Members of Congress Only” elevator, but recognizing that this particular option was off limits, I turned around to find a different route. At this point, a Congressman had come up behind me, and sensing my confusion, he let me ride up the elevator with him. Not only was this nice, but he also let me walk out of the elevator first when we reached our floor. So yes, even people in the government have good manners!

Last week was awesome in terms of my internship. I feel like I’ve been fully integrated into the office ever since I successfully played a prank on one of the legislative assistants with the encouragement of my supervisor. Now I feel very comfortable when it comes to laughing during lunch break, or randomly talking to people if there’s ever downtime. On Thursday, the Mormon jokes officially began, ranging from Amish to alcohol, but it was all in fun, and I really enjoy the people I’m working with.

Here are a few highlights from the weekend:

-Within 24 hours I was in the Capitol, the D.C. Court of Appeals, and the White House. How’s that for all three branches of government in one day? Friday morning I gave a Capitol tour to some of my Dad’s interns who were in town. Then, that afternoon, I attended a briefing by an appeals justice in the actual courtroom for the D.C. circuit. Fabulous! The next morning, a large group of us went on a tour of the White House. It was fun to go bowling with Barak-never thought I would get to do that! (Just kidding). But hey, at least we got to walk out of the front doors of the President’s residence! Random observations: There was a ball sitting out on the south lawn, and once we got outside, we noticed a butterfly decal in one of the windows-maybe Sasha or Malia’s doing?

Some of our group in front of the White House
Left to Right: John, Alexis, Sarah, Jesse, Keshia, Peter, Me, DJ, Winnie, Chris, Alison, Nate

-A group of us went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and watched money being made-literally.

We don't love money- we're just kissing it goodbye!
Rachel and I at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing

-My friend Alison and I stopped by the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue. We’ve decided it is a secret treasure of D.C. There’s a great, relatively inexpensive food court inside, and then you can take an elevator up twelve floors to the top of the building’s bell tower. The view was incredible-even better than the view from the top of the Washington Monument in my opinion! And guess who forgot her camera? Yep-BIG oops!
-Several Barlow buddies and I went to a concert at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It’s a beautiful building, just west of the Lincoln Memorial, and while it hosts the National Symphony Orchestra and other performance groups, there are free concerts every evening at 6 pm for smaller groups! I can’t believe we haven’t been taking advantage of this, especially when these concerts are a four minute walk from the Barlow Center! When we went, we listened to a violin-cello-piano trio, and it was awesome, and extremely relaxing. It made me miss my violin sooooooooo much!

Part of our Kennedy Center Group
Left to right: Nate, DJ, Hannah, Robert, Me, Chris, Megan

-I also made another stop at the Natural History Museum (I've gone three other times). I looked at the dinosaur exhibit, and then my friends (Megan and Alison) and I went to the rocks/gems gift shop on a different floor. We’ve been there before, but oh how we love looking at the rocks!
-And then, Saturday night, after everyone was burnt out, we watched National Treasure 2 and freaked out every time we recognized a street or a landmark from D.C. (which happened often)!

I’m still having a blast! When I’m not interning, sightseeing, or doing school (believe it or not, I am taking twelve credits right now, and don’t get me started on how badly I procrastinated my last paper), my Barlow friends provide an ongoing source of entertainment, good conversation, and out of control laughter. When nothing is going on, I’m generally trying to keep up with five or six games of online Scrabble that I’m playing with some of the overly-intelligent people here (in other words, I keep losing all of my games). We’re already dreading the end of the semester, and we haven’t even reached the half-way point yet!

Explosion at the Capitol

Okay, so the explosion didn’t actually occur inside the Capitol building. It happened at one of the House Office Buildings next door. (FYI: members of House do most of their work in these buildings and only go to the Capitol to cast votes in person.) Here’s the story:

There was once a lovely intern who decided to be proactive by restocking the mini fridge in the backroom of her office with water, lemonade, and “soda” (people don’t say “pop” in D.C.).  A split second after the intern grabbed a can of lemonade out of its box on the top shelf, the rest of the cans decided to come crashing down, which of course created an embarrassingly loud sound. If that wasn’t bad enough, two of the cans received severe puncture wounds, and the lemonade sprayed all over the room.

That was the explosion.

And yes, I was obviously the lovely intern. The best part about humiliating myself was when I proceeded to clean up the mess. I looked under the little sink in the back room and luckily found some Clorox Disinfecting Wipes just waiting for me. But wait, what was the scent of the wipes? LEMON. Life is just a little too ironic sometimes.

I really can’t say a ton about my wonderful internship online, but here’s one observation I am willing to share. Acronyms are everything here. What on earth is the Department of Defense? Oh wait! It’s the DoD. And apparently “Capitol Visitor Center” is simply too much to say in one breath, so we’ll call it the CVC. Then of course there’s the EPA, OGR, RHOB…

I guess we do this at BYU (Brigham Young University) too with the buildings on campus (HFAC, JFSB, SWKT)…Now that I think about it, I suppose it’s not entirely unique to have acronyms all over the place. So why do I even bring this up? Because one day, someone at work asked me if I could run over to the CPK with him so he could run inside while I sat in the car and prevented any lurking cops from giving him a ticket for parking illegally. What was the CPK? California Pizza Kitchen- the restaurant. And now I feel entirely ridiculous because I just Googled “CPK” out of curiosity, and “California Pizza Kitchen” was the first thing that came up on the screen. Apparently I’ve been oblivious to the whole acronym over-usage thing until starting my internship.

Speaking of my internship, I regularly walk home, and on one occasion, I took pictures on the way back. These are sights I get to see every day, and they still take my breath away!

Treasury Building

On a different note, this week has been great! I had good experiences every single day including excellent workouts, lectures, sight-seeing experiences, and excursions with friends!

Like my internship, I’m not technically supposed to say a lot about the speakers from my Friday class (what they say is “off the record”), but after one guy talked to us about the economy, I wanted to either live in a hut in the mountains with my own garden, or add a ton of money to my retirement account. A word of advice to everyone, including people my age: you need to start an IRA or 401-K account NOW. It will be worth whatever you need to sacrifice for a while to get it going.

 I also learned from a different speaker that if you want to join the FBI, you need a bachelor’s degree and have to apply between the ages of 23 and 34. Oh, and based off of another briefing, I’ve decided that being a natural disaster reporter sounds like the coolest job in the world!

After class on Friday, a group of my Barlow buddies and I went to Ford’s Theater, where Abraham Lincoln got shot. Below are pictures of the outside of the building and of the balcony where the tragedy occurred.

And this may be showing an extremely sick side of my sense of humor, but I just had to take a picture of this sign when I walked in the theater doors.

An interesting fact about this theater is that there are still performances that happen here on a regular basis.

After going to the theater, my friends and I did the only thing a group of BYU interns could possibly do on a Friday night: get on the metro and eat dinner…at Costco. It was so much fun!

Yesterday (Saturday), I spent some more time at the American History Museum and saw the First Ladies’ Dresses exhibit. The dresses below are the ones that Nancy Reagan and Michelle Obama wore at their husbands’ inaugurations. 

I also saw C-3P0 be standing in the hallway.

Once again, I wrote too much, and the frustrating thing is that there are so many other things I could go on and on about. But I won’t. This is enough. But before I forget, here is what the Washington Monument looked like yesterday! It was partially covered up by clouds!

D.C. in a Nutshell

A month ago I decided to start a blog about my semester here in Washington D.C., and guess what? I'm finally starting the blog. In my defense, I have been so busy meeting new people and crossing things off of my D.C. Bucket List that whenever I have downtime, I usually plant myself in one of the commons areas in the Barlow Center and talk with whoever is around. It's funny-I was so excited about coming out here that I didn't really foster any worries about uprooting myself until the night before I got on my plane. That's when I fully realized that I was leaving behind an incredible life at BYU (shout out to my friends and roommates in Provo!), and my comfort zone of being with my family in Puyallup. Ironically though, I have once again been blessed with incredible friends, and it's so weird to think that last month I didn't know most of the people that I spend all of my time with now.

I'm not going to go on a billion-paged rampage of everything I've been up to, but here are the highlights and general observations of my first month here. I promise my future updates will be more experience and event-based!

Where I Live: The Barlow Center:

BYU owns this building, and it serves as housing for about forty Washington Seminar students. There are four main floors- the first floor is where the "Great Hall" is located. We have class in this room on Fridays, and then FHE and institute are both held here on week nights. The second floor is home to several church offices, and there is also a small library for us to use. The third and fourth floors are identical, but the third floor is designated for the boys, and the fourth floor is for the girls. Each floor has a commons area consisting of chairs, couches, a TV, and a kitchen. We spend most of our time hanging out in these areas. There is also a game room in the basement that holds ping pong, air hockey, and pool tables, a piano, and another TV. The bedrooms are fairly large- two people live in each one. We share a fridge and microwave, and we have our own desks and closets. There is also a bathroom for each set of roommates. It's so much fun at the Barlow Center- it's kind of like having thirty-five roommates because I see these people every day! We've established three different dinner groups, and this has been amazing because we get to eat good food almost every night! With that said, here's a random side note: I've been strangely obsessed with peanut butter lately, and I doubt I've ever eaten so many loaves of bread in three weeks before!

Here's a plug for visiting D.C.: All of these things are FREE

Places I've been:

Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, and the outside of the White House: We knocked these out on the first night

Capitol Building: Gorgeous, symbolic, and I CAN GIVE TOURS!
Library of Congress: There are actually three different buildings (Madison, Jefferson, and Adams-go figure), and I got to go into the beautiful huge reading room featured in National Treasure.

Natural History Museum: Just imagine dinosaur fossils, diamond exhibits, a forensics lab, and MUCH more!

Air and Space Museum: Incredible pictures of space, and lots of famous airplanes and pieces of spaceships

American History Museum: An in-depth War Exhibit, Lincoln's top hat, Dorothy's ruby slippers- I still have a lot to see here

National Gallery of Art: Lots of original paintings from all over the world-I'm not even an art person, and I loved it!

Botanical Gardens: AKA the Modern Garden of Eden in my opinion

Jefferson Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

Holocaust Museum: Really sad, but incredibly educational. Everyone should go here.

National Geographic Museum: Lots of cool pictures from all over the world.

National Archives: The original Declaration of Independence (I'm going to steal it!) and the Constitution. The Declaration is actually extremely faded out and super hard to read. I asked a security guard why there was such a difference in the preservation of this document versus the Constitution, and apparently it was exposed to too much sunlight throughout its life.

National Cathedral: Amazing architecture, both inside and out. The acoustics are great, and the stained-glass windows are breathtaking!

Transportation:

Metro, bus, and excessive walking

Let me just say, I am an expert metro-customer now. The nearest stop to the Barlow Center is a 4-minute walk away. It's such a cool system! There are five different lines, all color-coordinated. I knew I no longer looked like a tourist when a random person on the street asked me where the nearest metro station was. I take it to work every morning, and then occasionally on the weekends whenever we're going somewhere out of the way, or we're simply too tired to walk anymore.

So far, I've only taken the bus to get to church. Speaking of which, it takes FORTY MINUTES to get to and from church every Sunday, which is SO different from any other place I've lived! I'm definitely not in Utah anymore, but I actually like putting more effort into practicing my religion, so take that for what it's worth.

And yes, I walk everywhere too. On the weekends we usually trek over to the National Mall to see the museums, and lately I've been walking home from work every day too (unless I'm making food for my dinner group, or a blizzard is going on outside).

Stores (for grocery purposes):

I usually just go to Safeway and Trader Joes. Target is actually one of the most inexpensive places to get food, but it's kind of a long metro ride to get there. I always walk to the other stores. Oh, and apparently CVS Pharmacy has taken over the world- it's an east coast version of Walgreens, and it's everywhere!

That is more than enough for one blog entry- I'm sure I find this way more interesting than anyone else, but hey, this is my life! With the background information out of the way, I won't have any qualms about including the funny, random stories that I'm experiencing all of the time, so stay tuned!