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!