First post in July! I know I'm three days late, but it was the weekend!
This week I only had to work today and yesterday because tomorrow is the Fourth of July! It's my first time being in D.C. for Independence Day and I'm pretty excited. My roommate is in the parade in the morning, so I'll be watching that, and then there are fireworks at night! I'm thinking about going down to the Mall, but hesitant because let's face it, EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE ON THE MALL.
This week I really started getting into the Underwater Archaeology work. I'm creating a powerpoint about underwater excavation that will be used to educate kids. I have to talk about techniques and processes and some of the advantages and disadvantages of underwater excavation, as well as some alternatives. I also have to research some case studies, specific excavations done by the Naval Underwater Archaeology Branch, and include them. Which means as of Thursday, I will be in the Library of Congress. I've heard they have everything. We'll put that to the test!
And yes, I did get my reader's card. It took a LONG TIME. There were only two people in the office and for some reason there was a sudden influx of people who wanted to do research at the Library of Congress. This one guy was a professor in front of me in line and he kept worrying over as sign that said something like "This card is for RESEARCHERS ONLY". Well a researcher is anyone who needs to do...you know...RESEARCH. But he thought he had to have documentation from a university saying that he was an academic, blah, blah, blah. In the end, this guy threw down a neat little stack of papers and cards. The office lady plucked his driver's license off the top of the pile and told him he didn't need the rest of it. Haha! The guy actually looked a bit disappointed!
After filling out paperwork, I waited in line to get my picture taken. But it was a LONG LINE and there was only one desk open, so more waiting. By the time I finally got up there, I was just so tired that I kind of missed the whole "1, 2, 3, Smile!" So my photo is pretty bad. No I'm not putting it up here!
Today one of the volunteers who lives on base brought her dog into the office in the afternoon. Polly is a two year-old yellow lab and SO CUTE!! And she's a therapy dog working with veterans in the hospital. How nice is that? Polly has quite the personality. She was trained as a search-and-rescue dog. But when it came time to take her test, Polly decided she didn't want to do anything she was trained for...so she failed. She doesn't seem all that sad about it either. She likes playing with her tennis ball and can do a forward somersault, if she puts her mind to it. She's trained so that if someone says "Hello" to her, she lifts her paw and gives them a shake. Nifty!
This week I'll probably go to a few museums. I haven't been to the Holocaust Museum yet, though everyone I talk to tells me I should go. I'm kind of uncertain though, not because I don't think it would be interesting, but because I've been in a fairly good mood recently. I definitely want to go to the Museum of Natural History, and a visit to Air and Space might be in order, just because it's been AGES since I last went. I doesn't seem like I'll have any trouble filling my days off.

So this post will conclude my first week here in D.C. It's been a lesson in adaptation, that's for sure. This is the first time I've really been living in a large city for a length of time. I've dealt with ridiculously high prices, broken metro trains, and of course the seemingly endless supply of PEOPLE.
If there's one good thing about a city, it's that navigation is more simplified. I love city blocks. In my home town, and many towns like it, roads were tacked on as new housing developments were made. They are never straight and one road might look like it leads to the place you want to go, only to stop abruptly in a cul-de-sac only 100 feet away. But city streets, everything is nicely squared. The biggest thing you have to worry about is one-way streets, and for someone with no car, it's not really an issue. So I am honing the art of orienting myself to a point. Basically, I pick a spot (like the metro station) and keep that spot in my mind while I navigate vertically and horizontally. It might not be the straightest distance between two points, but I've yet to get lost! Always good when you're in a place you don't really know.
Food has been an ongoing issue. Prices are high in the city, and with a limited kitchen back at "home" (my residence here in D.C.) it's difficult to get good food. I mean, I could easily eat pizza and burgers every day, but I feel like that wouldn't be a good idea, health-wise in the long run. So I've been attempting to keep up my fruits and veges by finding places that use more raw ingredients. It costs a bit more, but it means that I don't have to worry about buying fresh stuff at the supermarket and then having it go bad because I don't eat it in time.
One such place that I have found is Roti Mediterranean Grill. What's great about this place is that you can get a hot meal with all the food groups and it's not ridiculously expensive. My favorite is the Chicken Roti wrap. For all those who are Avengers movie fans, it's Shawarma, people! It's nice because you get meat, fresh vegetables, all wrapped up in a wheat wrap. It's a full meal and it's $6. The meat is roasted on a big skewer and shaved off and you can choose between steak or chicken. Then you can take your pick of assorted sauces and toppings and all of them are fresh. The wrap is pretty filling. I wasn't able to finish it all, and this was at one o'clock in the afternoon, after I hadn't eaten anything. If you don't like the wrap, you can get a platter with three sides and rice. They also have salads and falafel. I went to the one in L'Enfant Plaza (during the lunch break unfortunately). It was one of the more popular options in the food court.
At the museum, things are about to go into flux. My two supervisors left yesterday for my main supervisor's wedding...in Scotland. I know, right??? They'll be gone for two weeks and we have some projects, but I'm uncertain if they are going to last the full two weeks. The nice thing is, we have off July 4th-6th. So I only work two days next week. More sightseeing!
Yesterday I went to the Library of Congress and looked at some pretty amazing architecture and really old books. Unfortunately you need to have a legitimate reason to be down in the main reading room, and you have to go through this whole check-in process to get permission. But they allow tourists up on the balcony and you can look down at the reading room. There was no photography in just about EVERY section of the library. I can understand it, of course. I know I wouldn't want a bunch of people taking my picture if I was trying to...solve world hunger or find the cure to cancer, whatever researchers do in the Library of Congress. I also went through this exhibit that was about books that shaped America. We're talking books from the 1700s, all the way up through 2000s. Let me just say, I LOVE OLD BOOKS! Seriously, they are so freaking cool to me. Not just the bindings but the paper the way the typeset sometimes leaves ink outside of the words. They just don't make books the same anymore. They had original copies of Franklin's "Almanack", "Uncle Tom's Cabin", Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", just everything you could think of and a lot of things you maybe didn't. It was really cool to look at the progression of books too. You can really see how publishing changed over the years in an exhibit like that.
I also went through Jefferson's Library, and then through an exhibit about Armenian books. That was interesting because most of the books in that exhibit were of the handwritten and illuminated variety. Most of them were some form of the Bible or prayer books. The exhibit talked about the formation of the Armenian alphabet and then worked its way through the years, up through World War II. I spent a bit more time with the older stuff. Sorry, archaeologist.
Another exhibit I went to that stood out in my mind was an exhibit on Bob Hope. For those who don't know, Bob Hope was like the Stephen Colbert of World War II. Interestingly enough, the exhibit was narrated by Stephen Colbert! Go figure! Hope went around to the battlefronts and gave variety shows to the troops. Sometimes he brought along girls (most of the time). He sang, he told jokes, I know I would've loved to see this guy in action. Looking at the exhibit, it was amazing just how much the guy did for the troops. He also did Radio, Film, and Broadway. He was declared the "first and only honorary veteran of the U.S. armed forces" by Congress in '96. Understandable, the guy appeared in and/or hosted almost 200 shows.
I didn't go to anything else yesterday, choosing to save some stuff for next week when I have time off. I still haven't been to Congress or the Supreme Court yet, but I've kind of been avoiding that last one, just because of all the stuff going on with ObamaCare. It's kind of a hot place at the moment.
Anyways, so that's my update.
Oh and by the way...

TRIUMPH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!