dc's the bomb.

i've gotten less stoic and more bieber-feverish in the last couple years since i started this blog. hence the title of this post.

I arrived in Baltimore around 9 p.m. Friday night and with the help of some fellow cougars, made it safely to the Super Shuttle which took me to my new home in downtown Washington DC. The first few hours of my residence here I was definitely honeymooning. I loved it.—even though it was dark and all I really saw were the trees lining the highway, a few highway exits to NASA and NSA (employees only), and the back of the Watergate. I got to chat with my shuttle-mates and talked a little with the shuttle driver.

The Barlow Center (where I live) is close to everything. It’s on Pennsylvania Avenue (the White House is on the same street, about 10 blocks away) and has the familiar carpeting and artwork of your regular LDS Church. We BYU students live on the 3^rd and 4^th floors of the church office building/institute. It’s quite roomy and actually quite nice. I like it.

On Saturday, first things first were to go grocery shopping for the essentials. Our nearest grocery store is a Trader Joes, just across the street. However, my roommate Natalie and I, along with Becky, made the trek down to Watergate Safeway. It’s in the Watergate. Weird slash cool, right? DC just passed a law in January that grocery stores must charge .05 cents for every plastic bag you use…as an incentive for people to bring their own reusable bags.

At the checkout I dropped my wallet. The cute woman checking me out was very adamant that I pick it up before I do anything else. I guess it was at that point I realized that crime was kind of a big deal in this city. I’m going to watch out a little more carefully.

The whole day was full of Georgetown—the cutest little shopping district I’ve ever seen. We ate a big, wet pizza for lunch in front of a jazz band (whose drummer was super mellow playing the drums, but we had just seen him in the pizza place 15 minutes before—completely bent out of shape because there was “cheese all over this pizza man!”).

By Saturday evening a lot more interns had arrived. We all went to Georgetown (again) to eat dinner and “bond”—both of which we did. After a savory crepe, Peter, Trevor, Mandy, Seth and I went to the waterfront. It was beautiful.

As Peter kept reminding me, I need a vista. In other words, I still don’t feel oriented and would like to find a high place to get a view of the city. I think air travel (airplanes, helicopters, hovercrafts, etc.) can be highly disorienting. I feel like I sat down in a seat, slept a little, read a little, and then I was in another place. But with no transition, there was not time for adjusting. And now I’m just here.

Today, getting to church was a journey. Once we got there, it seemed fun but overwhelming. After talking to my mom, reading a little, and taking a nap, Kailee, Russell, Peter and I went exploring. My first time to the Lincoln Memorial. It was incredible. I thought I would be disappointed because I always imagined my experience of the Lincoln Memorial to be tourist-less and peaceful. Obviously, this is unrealistic—which I realized when I got to DC. There are so many tourists! Although it wasn’t like I anticipated, it was meaningful and awesome, in the true sense of the word. I loved it.

We continued to the Vietnam memorial, World War II, Washington monument, and then to the capitol building. We found this great little nook just near the capitol that looked like it belonged in Lord of the Rings/Disneyland. Great combination. We rode the metro home, which I really love. I am slightly scared of it—anyone could fall right in there and get smashed to death by that thing. And also, what if it crashes?!—but I really love it.

So far the verdict is positive. I keep using the word overwhelmed, but I don’t think that’s right. I feel confident that I can do everything I want to and more in the next three months. I do feel inadequate. And I feel like I wish I had my friends with me. Shopping in Georgetown would have been so much more fun with Ariel and Lene (not to mention Sephora with Dani). And riding the metro would have been great had I been with someone to tease me about being scared. I would have liked my mom to be around when we passed the beautiful parks between 15^th and 25^th. I wish Audrey and Lynne and Ryan were here to show me around this big ol’ city. Or my sisters to enjoy a Georgetown Cupcake with.

Note to self: next time you go somewhere special, bring someone to share it with. But alas I ventured here on my own, and promise to make new friends to begin to enjoy this city with. Surely with time I will love the people I’m with now and love DC even more.