Like this:

But my life isn’t all work! Just 40 hours a week of it, plus all the time I spend napping (read: watching Entourage on my computer) afterwards since my job requires me to get up at 7:30 (read: ish) five days a week and is totally exhausting (since I sit in desk chair all day, but sometimes have to walk down the hall to a meeting, in high heels).

But when I do get out, I have been doing some exploring. Here is a list:

Adam’s Morgan

Apologies for the long wait until this post, I have had guests for the last few weeks, including my friend Sarah from IHouse, who has since returned to the only place on earth where they actually eat Vegimite not as a dare, and my parents and brother, who are currently living my mother’s childhood dream of seeing “Stormy” and “Dreamy” or whatever, the horses from children’s novels, in Chinquatigue.

But my life isn’t all work! Just 40 hours a week of it, plus all the time I spend napping (read: watching Entourage on my computer) afterwards since my job requires me to get up at 7:30 (read: ish) five days a week and is totally exhausting (since I sit in desk chair all day, but sometimes have to walk down the hall to a meeting, in high heels).

But when I do get out, I have been doing some exploring. Here is a list.

Adams Morgan

Adams Morgan is the nightlife area of DC, full of restaurants and bars. It is about a 30-45min trek away from the UC Center. I enjoyed walking through there, during daylight hours.

Embassy Row

A few spots on Embassy Row: Go on DPE, name the flags.

Embassy Row for me is like a Star Trek convention for people who really, really like Star Trek. Do you follow this analogy? What I am trying to say is that, being that I study international relations, walking down Embassy Row is very exciting. It’s pretty interesting to see just the size of the embassies- Iraq is tiny in comparison to Greece, for example. France is huge, as is Canada, and Great Britain (though I haven’t seen it). Sometimes I will walk past an embassy of a country of which I barely recognize the existence- Mauritius, for example. I am still trying to gather up the courage to walk in to the Chilean embassy and ask them for travel information, but I will be angry at myself if I don’t do it in Spanish, and I’m too afraid to do so, so I remain woefully uninformed.

Other Places and Things: PHOTO DUMP

Arlington Cemetery

Sarah and Rachel: Not fans of the IMF

The Pentagon and Pentagon Memorial (symbolic somehow)

Jazz in the Sculpture Garden: featuring every person under 30 in the DC metro area, Fridays at 5:30

Some sort of exciting White House event: proles keep back 300 yards

Tourist-watching: one of the best things about "living" in DC. These particular specimens are scoping out the White House from behind a high-security fence.

Aaron makes an Aaron face.

My place of work- or at least one small part of it. The EPA complex is HUGE, taking up all four sides of one block, and that doesn't include offices in Virginia and North Carolina or the regional offices.

Georgetown: RICH.

So I’ve been doing a lot of walking. To Georgetown, et cetera. My motivation for exploration has been partially helped by the fact that I have had visitors who want to go see things, but I have very much enjoyed myself thus far. On commute home (I take the Metro to work in the morning because it allows me 20 more minutes of sleep), I pass the White House, the Executive Offices, the Department of Commerce, the IRS, the American History Museum, the Washington Monument, the National Geographic headquarters, and, depending on my route, various other unions, non-profits, or governmental offices. Myimmediate  neighbors include Human Rights Campaign and the Australian and Philippino embassies. I’ve had my commute redirected by Secret Service agents in front of the White House. I’ve been stopped from crossing the street to allow a motorcade into the White House parking lot.  Thus my experience so far has been rather surreal.  These are things that I pass every day; that’s a lot of power in such a compact town.

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