UTAH vs. BYU

Utah may have lost down at the LaVell Edwards Stadium, but here at the Van Ness UDC soccer feild, we rose triumphantly beating the BYU interns in an intense game of flag football the weekend prior to Thanksgivng. Thanks to Utah intern, Taylor Morgan, we held and hosted the first annual flag football game and hope to be able to continue this tradition in the semesters to come. BYU was a good sport and even though they lost, they still shared cookies and a few phone numbers with us after the game ;) Representing the Ute women were Randi, Erin, Emily and myself...boy did we get a lot of playing time. Randi was laid out by one of the interns and I collided with another, giving us major headaches for the remainder of the game... we still won :)

UTAH!

Thanks to my wonderful friend, Jules, I was able to fly home over Veteran's Day weekend to spend a few days with my cute mom and sisters. From left to right; Natalie, Aarika, Mom, Alise and ME! Boy did we have a good time! We also cooked a turkey Sunday night and celebrated an early Thanksgiving. Thanks Mom and Jules! (p.s. nothing beats the Utah mountains!)

Southern Virginia

This post is a little out of order, but I completely forgot to include it. My roommate Randi and I took a train down to Buena Vista (pronounced byoona vista by the locals) the tiniest college town where everybody knew everybody's business. Shea drove us through main st. the whole 100 yds of it and I couldn't help but notice the Welcome to Buena Vista sign Population 6000 and 3 drunks. I was definitely far from D.C. We came down to see Shea and Graham play in their homecoming football game and ended up having a blast! They won their game with two amazing touch downs by Shea and Graham...just for us :) Then later, we crashed their homecoming dance which gave me flashbacks of high school dances. Everyone we met was really nice and I almost grew envious of the small town life. Living in D.C. gets a bit too much for me. The photo below is in Panther Falls near Shea's house and at the game is Craig (Shea's awesome roommate) Me (Shea's awesome friend) Randi and Chelsea (two awesome girls ;) I hope you all find the humor in that. Anyhow, it was a really fun weekend! Thanks boys!

Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! This year I only spent $14 on a sheet and some paint to make up my Greek goddess costume, what a deal! Emily was a flapper girl, while Erin and Randi played comic characters- Batman and the black Spiderman. Georgetown was crazy! Not quite as creative as Halloween on Front St. in Lahaina (that is still my favorite) however, Blades of Glory was the all time greatest costume this year. I would have given them first place in the costume contest.

The Dalai Lama in DC

Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to see the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, receive the Congressional Gold Medal here at the Capitol Building. Although I wasn't able to attend the ceremony inside, I, along with thousands, gathered outside the west front of the Capitol Building to watch. Afterward he came out to greet the public and I found it to be one of the highlights of my internship thus far! I was so excited to see him! Another guest was Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner who spoke in behalf of the ceremony along with the President, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid. Later, Pretty Woman's one and only, Richard Gere, took a shot at introducing the Dalai Lama to the public. It was a gorgeous day which only added to the nostalgia of my experience here in D.C.

Colombus Day Weekend!

Sunday night, a group of us went to see the memorials lit up (in my opinion they are much more spectacular at night.) Aarika and Shea came up to visit this weekend and since this blog kind of runs backward, you'll see more of them on the following posts. It was such a fun weekend and it was full of spiritual nourishment as well being that it was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' General Conference weekend. We got to see three of the four sessions and boy, do I love this time of year! I love this church! The First picture is of Danny, Randi, Shea, Bryn, Me, Aarika, Jake and Erin in front of the Korean Memorial...kind of ironic to be smiling for a photo in front of this memorial...it was kind of sobering. The next photo is of my favorite memorial and President, Abraham Lincoln... I love this memorial! The last one is me in front of the Supreme Court.

More visitors!!

Those of you who have the opportunity to see the Bodies exhibit GO!! It's well worth the money! I was flabbergasted and almost grossed out ...but mostly fascinated. The human body is incredible.

Aarika came out to see me and we had a blast running around D.C. Eating out at Paparazi was probably the highlight, killer lasagna!!












































































This is my game face in front of ESPN hot zone...

Omar, the boss and I went to the T.H.A.N.K.S. USA gala wednesday night. Great food, great event!

Book Festival

Just thought I'd post another gorgeous picture of our nations capitol building. I am still shocked that I live here among so much history and the headquarters of our nation!

Today was the National Book Festival by the Library of Congress and Laura Bush. What a great festival!! The old man book signing is the one and only, Mercer Mayer! You may ask yourselves..."who is Mercer Mayer? and why am I was I so excited to see him??" Well, do you remember the little critter books? "Just a mess...Little critter sleeps over...Just a daydream Little critter..??" They happened to be some of my favorites as a kid and he is one of the first authors I became familliar with. So I was thrilled to have seen him in person! But I was bummed to find that you had to wait in line for almost 2 hours to get his book signed. That...and we got stuck on the metro for 45 minutes on our way here due to technical difficulties...just my luck! The man speaking is Michael Oren, an American-Israeli scholar, historian, and author best known for his best seller "Power, Faith and Fantasy." Michael spoke about the history of the relationship between our countries and how he had become affiliated and interested in the two countries. He was a very good speaker and I was fascinated with what he had to say. I intend to read his book next, but resisted seeing as I recently started 4 books and am currently reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Housini (excellent so far!) I highly recommend it.

Visitors!

JULES!! Fun fun fun! Jules, one of my greatest friends in the whole world!) flew out on Saturday to spend the weekend here and boy do we know how to have fun! (in all reality, she flew out for the KINGS OF LEON concert Monday night...YEEEEHAW!!! We can't hardly wait!!!) But running around DC was definitely on the menu.

And running around, or riding around, is what we did!












KINGS OF LEON!!!!!!
This is us getting trashed before Kings of Leon Monday night....or um actually...is that VOSS water? Alright, we didn't get trashed, but we were treated to some excellent sushi at Mate' with Bryan and Danny! mmmm....I love sushi! Kings of Leon was the BEST concert I've been to! They pretty much rock my world and in fact, they sounded better live...either that or I was too stoked to care. WOW! What a night! I could have died a happy girl :) Those of you who don't know Kings of Leon, check them out! They are a sweet band. (but they didn't let us take cameras in and I am a little peeved about that.)


















Feelin Hot Hot Hot!! This is Shea Owens, my bestest friend from high school, me, his roomy- Graham, and Jules. Jules and I spent almost 2 hours getting to George Mason University Saturday night to see them play football against them. (George Mason.. stick to your basketball team!) SVU whipped some booty 40 -6!! YEEEHAW! After the game, we spent another hour and a half getting back to DC where we ate dinner and crashed at my place. Slumber party! Oh by the way, Shea is getting a head start on his mustache for the annual mustache party in Buena Vista... if you ask me, I think mustaches are of the devil and should be frowned upon.


The metro is so much fun, we loved riding it and getting stranded at random bus stops... The rest of the weekend was full of laughing and eating yummy food. Nothing beats good company!


Graham, me Jules and Shea

Go SVU!!!

BOSTON!

Hello BOston! So the only rainy day this week had to be the only day I had to tour Boston- the coolest city on the east coast! (in my opinion.) My greatest friend in the world, Rich Alley, flew out for a short business trip this week and I was able to fly up for the weekend to hang out with him. Boy was it good to see a face from home... I have to admit, I've been missing Utah a wee bit this week. So we started the day with the Freedom trail; a 2 1/2 mile walk about that passes through historical places througout the city. It was awesome even in the rain and thin slippers. By the end of the day we had almost worn through both our locals.

This was the bridge that crossed over to where bunker hill was. I love harbors and this was a highlight of the trail. When we got to the location of the battle of bunker hill, we tried to run up the obelesk- 294 stairs... I'm still sore from the attempt. I don't know why I didn't take pictures. The view was definitley worth the climb!

It doesn't get much more Boston than this! Rich and were following the red brick freedom trail when we came across a little tavern and got sucked in by two men, Frankie and Joey, the heart of Boston. If I ever imagined a Boston accent, this was it. These guys had us pinned for twenty minutes taking pictures with them and expounding upon Utah and Poligamy. We tried to explain that that wasn't in practice anymore with our religion...but that was a waste of hot air. They were awesome and definitely made the day genuine! Open air market, smelled like fish.

Who wants Bartley Burgers I DO I DO!! Talk about the sluttiest burger you've ever fantasized about...this was it! Bartley's is a nation wide favorite, famous for their burgers. We had to wait in line outside for almost 30 minutes at lunch time. I've neve had a burger that was an inch and a half thick. If I die this week, you'll know what it was from. Mad cow disease or something..

FENWAY PARK
Oh yeah did we ever! Rich got this bright idea to sneak into Fenway park, so we did. And you know what...it never pays to be sneaky! We totally got caught and rudely thrown out even after trying to bribe the little snot with $100. I think I have to change my status from a Red Sox fan to a Yankee fan...What a laugh though!
Instead, we got to ride a pedicab to the the other side of town and almost died! Our peddler was crazy! I was laughing the entire time and so was Rich.

The Internship..

Rayburn House Office Building
Just thought you'd like to see how gorgeous the building I worked in was. I am starting to really get the hang of everything here in D.C. I love my internship, I work with great people who like to have a good laugh and keep it real in the office. I really lucked out! Riding the Metro is definitely not my favorite mode of transportation and I swear the weirdest things happen to me. I saw a guy fall head first down the escalators and almost kill himself and two ladies pass out...public transportation...what can I say??

My roommate Becca invited me to a Latino magazine gala that noticed highly achieved Latino women. It was a neat function and of course, great food and entertainment as well.

Soccer!

D.C. United vs. REAL Salt Lake

Yes I know, I know, I betrayed my team by wearing that $5 United Shirt...but hey, it was 5 bucks! The game began outside of the stadium where we scored $2 hot dogs rather than pay $6. mmmm!! Jen I thought of you while I ate this one ;) Danny, Ben, Oddie, Bryan, Emily and I all went. Thanks for the tickets Bryan!