Well here's another post.
I don't really have anything interesting to tell you guys because I've been off of work for the last week. My bosses are in Scotland, we already have off on Fridays, so they just said "hey, take Thursday after Fourth of July too!"
For the Fourth of July, I walked around a bit. I went to the Museum of Natural History which was fun to go back to. They had this interesting anthropology and forensics exhibit upstairs. Basically it looked at some of the early American settlers and showed people how much we could find out from their remains. We could figure out if they were sick, how they died, even if they broke their finger at some time during their lives. It was really quite fascinating, in a morbid sort of archaeological way. You know us...
For Fourth of July I went down to the Lincoln Memorial. It was PACKED. But then what else would you expect. It was still one of the best views of the fireworks at the Washington Memorial, hands down. We even got to hear the music to go with it because they piped it through to the memorial. The walk home was an insane crush of people all headed for the metro. THAT was a nightmare. I'm really not that fond of crowds.
After that it was pretty much boring. Did some work on the STEM program I told you about last post, or maybe two posts ago...It's an on going thing.
I go back to work tomorrow. Yay!
And that be about it. See, short post. Not much going on. I did spend some time with my co-worker Claire over Fourth of July but it was otherwise uneventful.
Right now it's raining. Well, thunderstorming. It's been on and off but I'm not complaining. I want to say goodbye to 100+ days and I think everybody in DC and the surrounding area would AGREE with me. You step outside your door and completely lose all will to go anywhere. Probably why I didn't really do many cool things during my work break. I'm hoping for a good storm maybe. I like thunderstorms =]

First full day in D.C!
I got in yesterday, but I don't start my internship until tomorrow. So I thought I'd do a dry-run of my morning commute and then take in the sights. A solid plan, right???
Haha! So here's the dealio.
I take the metro from my residence to the Navy Yard stop. That was easy. When I got off, I decided to use my phone to navigate to the museum. Solid. But here's the rub...
Google Maps pays no attention to whether or not you need an ID. They tell you the nearest gate and expect you to go through it. But since I'm an intern, I don't have an ID yet. FISH BUCKETS! So I asked a very nice gentleman coming out of the Navy Yard to direct me and ended up heading to the 6th street main entrance. But because I was technically a visitor (again, no ID) I had to walk all the way around to the 11th street entrance. So, in short, I walked almost the entire perimeter of the Navy Yard. It's quite big and the red brick wall has cameras every few hundred feet. I'm sure the security guards were getting a laugh.
After finally making it in, I managed to catch my supervisor just before she went out to lunch. HALLELUJAH, A BREAK!!! From there I found out that I get to dress casually every day and I don't have to report until "9ish". Booyah!
So after taking the scenic route my future place of work, I decided to play tourist. And what do you do when you play tourist, you walk A LOT. I had already walked quite a lot that day, but the last time I was in D.C. I was in middle school and many of the monuments were closed because it was fairly recently after 9-11. So what was a bit more walking to see iconic American monuments???
I got off at Smithsonian and hiked it on down to the Washington Monument. Looks nothing like the guy, I'm just saying... Along the way, a bunch of cop cars were racing by. If you've ever lived in a city, you'd know that there are constantly sirens going off. Police, Fire, Ambulance, whatever. Well apparently a family of tourists didn't know that because as I passed the mother was screaming at her boys (who were a few feet in front of her) that they needed to stay close because she thought there was some sort of threat to national security... Oo, ah, overreacting.
After the Washington Monument I walked down to the Lincoln Memorial, stopping at the World War II memorial along the way. The Reflection Pool was reflecting workmen and cleaning equipment today. I know I wouldn't want that job. Out in the middle of this big white ditch with no shade and hundreds of summer camp groups and families on vacation staring at you...good luck my man!
I paid a visit to Uncle Abe, asked him about his vampire hunting technique. He was suspiciously tight-lipped on the subject and one of the number one signs that someone is lying is purposeful eye contact. Don't trust someone who doesn't blink!
After my visit with Abe, I decided I would go wave hello to Barack. I went to the South Lawn first and joined the throng of people clamoring at the gates. While I was there, someone came out onto the second floor porch. I was much too far away to see if it was anyone noteworthy, but it prompted a large group of teenagers to start shouting in unison "OBAMA!". Mhmm...
Just to be thorough, I hiked around to the North lawn and then began my return journey to my temporary residence. But not before I decided it would be an okay idea to carry a 24-pack case of water five and a half blocks from CVS. Not my brightest idea, I'll admit, but I won't have to do it again because now I have water galore!
So all in all, today was a very informative day! And now I know what NOT to do and have a plan for tomorrow when I officially begin my internship. HOOYAH!