Arrival!

After a long train ride and a rather hectic experience with GW Housing yesterday, Kayleigh and I are settled in our apartment!

Our trip began with a delayed train due to trees falling on the track as a result of the storms on Thursday night in Georgia. We waited almost three hours before we finally boarded the train and got moving! The ride was about 14 hours long, and, since it was overnight, we didn't get to see that much scenery. I slept fairly well throughout the night, though, and saw all of Virginia on the way into DC.

Once we claimed our bags at Union Station, we decided that we would not be able to navigate the Metro with them, so we hailed a cab to take us to our dorm. We were assuming that there would be a lobby area where we could leave our bags while we went to get our keys and check in. We were wrong. Apparently an access card is required to even get into the building. So, we were left with no choice but to drag our suitcases the four blocks to the SIWJ main office where we could leave them while we checked in. We went across the street to get our GW ID cards made, which we were not thrilled about, since we had been on the train for 14 hours and looked terrible in the pictures. After that, we walked another couple of blocks and got our keys and access cards to the dorm. At this point, we were too exhausted to drag our bags anymore, and Kayleigh had extra boxes that she needed to bring from the office, so we got a cab for a total of 5 blocks to our dorm. After hauling our luggage out of the cab and watching it drive off, we both tried to swipe our access cards only to find out that they did not work. Just as we were beginning to get very frustrated, a custodian who worked in the building came by and let us in. Our  keys worked, so we were able to get up to the room and put our stuff up before trekking back to the office to get different access cards. Needless to say, we were starving and exhausted by this point. We walked to a restaurant we had spotted nearby and had dinner, then came back and went to the rooftop of the building, which has an excellent view of the city. Both of us were tired, sweaty and sore, so we took showers and went to bed early last night.

Today we woke up early and went to the Starbucks downstairs for coffee since we don't have a coffee maker in the apartment yet (another of our roommates is bringing it when she gets in tonight). After breakfast, we ventured onto the Metro to go to Target for some apartment items we didn't have. We have a CVS very close to the apartment, but we needed things like hangers and a bathroom trash can that we didn't think we could find there. Plus it was good experience to use the Metro! We don't have plates and bowls at the apartment yet, so we just grabbed salads from CVS (yes, they do have those!), and ate lunch at our apartment. Kayleigh's Senior Capstone professor Dr. Walker has a son named Luke living in DC, and he got Kayleigh in touch with him a few months back, so we met up with him and one of his friends after lunch. We met them at the White House (which is about 4 blocks from our apartment!), and from there we went past the Washington Monument to the WWII memorial, the Vietnam memorial and past the reflecting pool (which is currently under construction and has no water) to the Lincoln memorial and past the Korean War memorial on our way back. Since we covered all that today, we're looking at going to the Mall and Capital tomorrow.

So far, I'm having the time of my life! Boot camp starts at 10 a.m. (way later in the morning than we were afraid of!) on Tuesday, and we'll be getting the full schedule of the week's events tomorrow, which I'll post on here.

I don't have a memory card for my camera yet, and my iPhone is being funny about uploading photos to Facebook, but I've uploaded a few and will upload more as soon as I can.

Departure!

The much anticipated day has finally arrived! I leave for DC on an Amtrak train at 8:21 this evening. I've had a nagging feeling for the past few days that I've forgotten to pack something, but I can't figure out what it is (and neither can my mother), so I think I'm golden.

Today is a stressful day for my family in general. My parents and I will be leaving for Atlanta early so we can stop by the hospital where my 12-year-old cousin is having spinal surgery. She has the warning signs of scoliosis, so she's having surgery now to head it off. It is a fairly routine surgery, but it takes about 8 hours, and it got a late start today, so it'll be a long day of waiting. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers throughout today and throughout the summer when she'll be recovering.

Gene Mitchell joked that I mentioned Kayleigh Irby and not him in my last post, so I'd like to say how grateful I am for how supportive he's been of me. Gene, I'll miss you very much, but I'm very excited to go, and I know you're excited for me!

I'm starting to get a bit nervous now that it's actually here. The thing I'm most concerned about is navigating the metro. Anyone who has ever ridden in a car with me knows that I have virtually no sense of direction, and any map might as well be written in Greek. Luckily, Kayleigh does have a good sense of direction, and I'm sure with her help I'll be zipping around DC like a local by August.

Getting Ready

This time last year I was getting ready to go overseas for 4 weeks, and I would have thought that packing for that would have been more stressful than packing for DC. I was wrong! In Moldova it was acceptable to wear a T-Shirt and jeans every day, and I could get away with packing about five of those. Now I'm having to figure out how to pack work clothes, high heels, and furnish an apartment on top of that!

I'm absolutely giddy with excitement at this point - not even nervous at all. I'll be sharing a room with my dear friend Kayleigh Irby, who will be working as a public relations intern for the Georgetowner. We'll share the apartment with two other girls in the program, one from Oregon State and one from Auburn. I haven't confirmed this, but I believe one of my other roommates will be working with me at the Daily Caller. For those of you who don't know, the Daily Caller is a slightly right-of-center political website. I will be working with a team of two other interns to provide video for the site, and from what I understand, I'll get to do a lot of on-site reporting around the city. Although print is where my interest lies, I am excited to get a chance to work with video. In today's market, you really have to be able to do print, web and broadcast to be competitive for a job.

I want to give a big "thank you" to those who have helped me get this opportunity, especially Jay Black and my parents. Couldn't have done it without you!