I don't really care about the Super Bowl...

... so I've decided to say hello here, after having spent yet another day working with the lovely members of Peace and Conflict Resolution. Honestly, I see so much of some of these folks that we joke about how we'll despise each other by mid-March - and that's before we spend those three weeks traveling with each other. (Mind you, we're willingly spending our time together - every waking second.)

But it's been fun. As much as I talk about being tired and busy, I have gotten to have fun here, too. For example, yesterday, a few friends and I went to Georgetown (the neighborhood, not the university campus), which is absolutely adorable. When Dad and I were in Washington a few years ago, we spent some time there, and it was such a neat area of DC that it made me a little sad not to have applied to the university back in high school. Ah well, I've made it to Washington regardless. We made the obligatory stop at Georgetown Cupcake - yes, I'm waited in line in the rain for a cupcake (see Stuff White People Like for why that makes me an uber white person: trendy food and waiting in lines). Then we shopped a little, despite the fact that Georgetown is filled with wealthy, preppy people who can afford to buy things that I cannot. But at the very least, we were able to snag samples from Dean and Deluca.

Speaking of Georgetown, I don't know if I ever mentioned a while ago, when I was able to get dinner with Katie from Salamanca. She's originally from the DC area, so before she went back to UVA, we made plans to get dinner in Georgetown. However, we didn't realize just how epic the reunion would be, as we stumbled upon none other than a tapas bar and Spanish restaurant! We just about freaked out right there on the street as soon as we saw the Spanish flag in the window. Of course, we couldn't refuse the promise of paella, so we  ate there. The paella may have been somewhat disappointing, but we were both still really happy, reminiscing of our Spanish lives that we had and discussing the differences of being back in the US for less than a month.

KB in DC!

I haven't had that difficult a transition from Spain, but I definitely talk about it all the time, unfortunately for my friends here. But that's okay because there are a few students who have studied abroad as well, so I'm not the only annoying one.

Of course, being in DC, we're trying to take advantage of all the opportunities here, particularly the free things! So, we've walked around downtown a fair amount and gone to a few museums. In the Museum of American History, I literally ran into one of my good childhood friends. Turns out that Kency is also studying in DC at the moment, and I had forgotten that fact, so it was a nice surprise to see somebody from Auburn so far from home.

The Capitol was a lot more visible and impressive here in real life, but I
guess you can still kind of see it...

People here are starting to learn about my photography demands...

There have been lots of other random things that we've done (such as visiting the monuments at night - a very cold idea and a scavenger hunt around the city), but my camera has been spazzing out on me, so my photographic evidence is limited. But as soon as I can steal some of my friends' photos, I'll post more. Recently, as in the rest of the country, Egypt has been in focus a lot here, but what I love about DC is seeing people act on it. A week ago Saturday, there was a protest at the Egyptian Embassy that a few of my friends and I decided to attend. Rather than protest, we were going more as supportive observers - I'd feel like a false supporter if I were in the middle of the crowd - but I was looking to learn more about the issue.

The embassy was an easy walk from campus, but even still, we showed up a little too late. Despite the hundreds of people who had responded to the Facebook event invitation, only about five protesters remained by the time we arrived (which, granted, was two hours after the protest had begun, but it was supposed to last for at least another hour).

One of the last remaining protesters outside the embassy

After that, my camera died, so my photos end there, but our journey did not. We wandered around Embassy Row for a while. The placement of the embassies seemed to make sense except for the fact that randomly, the embassies of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Nigeria are right next to the ... Austrian Embassy. With an entire free afternoon still remaining, we decided to head downtown and spontaneously get off the Metro at a random stop. We ended up near the National Mall, so we did the touristy thing and went to take pictures at the White House.

Well, appropriately enough, when we got there, we found the missing Egyptian protesters. Maybe 200 (I'm terrible at estimations) were already there, and then at least 300 more showed up while we were walking around. The demonstration was loud but peaceful, and it was fascinating to watch. One of their chants was, "Obama, keep your word. Mubarak's fighting with your sword." People were definitely visibly angry about what's going on, and this all occurred before the violence began. I'm glad to have been there and witnessed it for myself. Some of my friends actually got pictures of this part of the protest, so I'll try to post some eventually.

In other news, I just found out that I didn't get into a summer program that I had applied to. Sigh. It would have been really nice to get accepted, since it was all expenses paid and would have helped me figure out my future a little more. But on the bright side, the chances of my being in California for the summer are much, much higher now, and having been gone so long, I'm happy about that. Now I just have to find work. A paid job would be preferable, as would a job that really interests me. And judging from what I've seen thus far, there don't seem to be too many options for international relations internships in the bay area. At least I've got some time to figure it all out, though.