Well, my name isn't on it butttt

A paper I assisted in writing and creating the data for are now published on the NAM's website. Unfortunately, no names are attached to them so I can't write it down on my CV :( Oh well, such is the life of a lowly intern. But its awesome to see it up online and attached to such an important document! Here is the paper and also a graph I helped put together. If you want to read what all of this is associated with, visit the NAM's page on the National Export Initiative and read this document.

12 days until I'll be on Texas time!

2 weeks left in D.C.

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone! It seems like just yesterday I was flying into Reagan Airport, but in 13 days it will be time for me to fly back! I'm trying to experience everything that I have left on my list...but its hard when there is a 110 degree heat index!

Today, I got out of Crystal City and took the metro to Eastern Market. I had been wanting to revisit the market since I had visited it with Zane earlier this month. Although it was extremely hot, I was really excited to look at all of the vendors and hopefully pick up a souvenir or two! I strolled through flea market for about 2 hours, but unfortunately I could not find anything that I couldn't live without. If I was living in D.C. that would have been another story entirely! Again, there were some awesome pieces of art and furniture that I would have loved to have invested in, but unfortunately I can't fit an artsy trunk into my suitcase. After two hours of strolling in the sun, I began to look for shelter from the heat. I found refuge in the most awesome used book store, ever. There were literally books from floor to ceiling in every nook and cranny of this two story store. It was amazing. There, I picked up a copy of The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. No, I haven't finished my library book, yet, but I just HAD to get this one...you know for the plane ride.

Now I am back at my apartment watching a Bridezillas marathon on TV and contemplating writing my end of internship essay. Bridezillas has priority right now, but I'll probably work on my essay for a bit before I go to bed and get ready for my last 10 days of work!

Favorite Congressman

So, I attended a networking even this evening put on by the D.C. Aggie club. It was interesting, and I got to learn about what some former Aggies are doing in D.C. The best part, though, was meeting Congressman Louie Gohmert. There aren't any politicians (besides my Mom) that I would every really want to talk to in person, but this man was different. He was so funny and personable, and you could tell he actually cared about what he was doing...I mean most congressman care about what they do, especially what they will personally gain out of their position, but you could tell by just the way he spoke that he would do whatever it took to do the best job possible for his constituents. I got the chance to speak with him for a second, and I'd have to say it was the best few seconds I have gotten to spend with a politician.

Whew, this is a long one!

Well it has been a while since my last post! Geez, the days keep going by faster and faster…next thing you know August 7 is going to be here and I will be heading back home! Well, here is a recap of the last 5 days:

Last week our internship coordinators from PPIP came up to D.C. to visit the interns, our workplaces, and do some other business around town and in the apartment (including move out the 2 tables and 8 chairs in our dining room!) They came to visit me and my workplaces on Thursday, and I’d have to say it was a pretty exemplary visit. I loved getting to tell them what I was up to, and just what the next interns were going to get a chance to participate in. I was just so excited to hear from my supervisor’s mouths just how happy they were with the work I have been doing this summer. I mean, I know that I am giving it my all, but it is nice for them to stroke the ego a bit J. Anywho, it was an afternoon of running between Commerce and NAM, but I think all in all the meetings went well! After that, I got to talk to Breanne and Heather before they left me (physically, at least) for the rest of the summer. If you are reading this, Breanne, Heather, it was great talking with you and I will come visit when I get back into town! After work, I met up with my roommate and we took our long awaited trip to the library to get our library cards. Whenever we arrived one of the librarians asked us if we were sisters…it was kind of funny, I guess we are starting to spend too much time together! Anyway, after 8 weeks in D.C. I finally have a library card, which I used to check out Capote, by Geral Clarke. It is the biography about Truman Capote that was made into the movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is pretty good so far, my goal is to finish it by next Saturday…a pretty lofty goal considering my current reading history.

Friday was actually a fairly eventful day! It started out with the International Trade Forum at the NAM which, although interesting, continues to be the place where I make my to do lists for Friday through Monday. After the ITF I got back to work on my export analysis, and then I joined the rest of the Economic Affairs interns for lunch. We all ordered out from different places, but I went to this restaurant I hadn’t been to before called Devon and Blakely’s. It was absolutely delicious! They have so many soups and sandwiches and salads to choose from. All freshly made, and then ready for your vegetable additions. I ordered a HUGE chicken quesadilla, the tortilla’s diameter was about as long as my forearm…no joke. After we all got our food, then we went to sit outside in this plaza where free music is provided every day at lunch. Although the music was less than appealing, well it was more amateur beat poetry than music, the company was very nice and it was great to finally get outside for lunch.

When I got home, I received an invitation from one of the interns that I work with at Commerce to go out with some of his friends in Old Town Alexandria. Well, since Old Town is pretty much my new favorite spot, I couldn’t say no. So, I invited my roommate to join me in my excursion since she hadn’t been to Old Town yet. When we got there, my roomie and I ate at Hard Times Café (which you will remember as the awesome chili parlor from previous posts), and then went to check out a bluegrass bar before meeting my friend at a latin/middle eastern/salsa music bar. It was an interesting mix of cultures in that bar, but it produced a delightful atmosphere, plus the salsa music made me reminisce to the salsa dances back in College Station. Overall, it was a wonderful outing! Plus, it was nice to find out that he, and the rest of his friends live around the corner from me in Crystal City. Yay for new friends! Too, bad that this came 8 weeks too late!

On Saturday my roommate left me to attend a conference in Florida. Yes, she is getting paid to go to Florida for a WEEK! Totally jealous, but that is beside the point. So, I had to figure out what to do for the weekend. Well, first of all I got to work on my to do list that I so diligently wrote on Friday during the trade forum. I went to a coffee place to work on a scholarship application as well as the end of semester evaluation for my internship…I can’t believe that it is that time already! After that, my intern friend invited me to join him and his friends for sushi and then a movie. Sushi was delicious, and for the 5.50 I paid for my spicy tuna roll, I also got miso soup, some little chicken appetizer and a salad with my beloved peanut sauce. A great deal, if you ask me! After dinner, we went back to his place to watch Terminator: Salvation. Definitely a good movie, and it was fun watching it with people who share my humor of sarcastic commentary during movies…I mean sometimes the commentary is just necessary.

Sunday began as a very lazy day. I wanted to be ambitious and wake up at 8:30 to work out and then walk to the grocery store, but instead slept till 10:30, laid in bed till 11, lounged in my room until 12 and by then my intern friend invited me to hang out at the pool at his apartment. So, finally I got dressed…although in a bathing suit…and walked over to his pool, which was absolutely huge! Definitely the largest pool I have ever seen at an apartment complex. We hung out there for about 2 hours and then I made my leave so that I could be *gasp* productive. So, I got dressed in real clothes and made my way over to the grocery store for my LAST batch of groceries…hopefully. I’m thinking there may be one more batch…but if I ration it appropriately maybe not! The walk over there was delightful, however on the way back, carrying 30-40 pounds of groceries definitely took its toll on my arms. Oh well, at least it made up for me being too lazy to work out in the morning! After I got back to the apartment, and caught my breath, I started doing my LAST loads of laundry! Well, there might be one more vanity load, but that’s only if I absolutely MUST put together a particular outfit…which will most likely happen. I mean, I must go out with a stylistic bang on my last day! The rest of the evening was fairly productive, but I was sad to see it go by so fast. Only 2 more weekends here, and then I am gone!

Today turned out to be a long day and frustrating day, which I won’t get into details of, and it was the first time I felt like I just wanted to jump on a plane and fly home. Better now than 5 weeks ago! But, it will all be better, and hopefully more cooperative, tomorrow. After that long day at work, I went to the National Theater to watch My Girl Friday starring the wonderful Cary Grant! I hadn’t seen that movie all the way through until today, and it was wonderful! Although I was kind of disappointed at the ending because Cary Grant’s character did not seem to change from what he was at the beginning and he tricked the girl into falling in love with him again, it was still a very funny and very good movie. I guess things like that in the story line are little glimpses into the 1940’s way of looking at things. After the movie, I took a detour and took a nice long stroll to the metro station through the National Mall. I’ll only get to do that for three more weeks, better savor it while I can! Countdown: 18 days!

Something interesting did happen today....

This morning, I almost got crushed by the doors to a metro. Well, crushed would be an overstatement, but here is what happened:

I was making my transfer from the yellow to the blue line among the mob of other DC'ers trying to do the same thing. When I was on the escalator I could see a blue metro already at the platform. Knowing that I only had about 60 seconds to get on, I started shoving my way down the escalator to catch it. Unfortunately the doors closed just as I was about to hop on, but right after they closed they opened up again! I was delighted, however so were the 10 people right next to me. Next, there was a dash to make it in the car before the malfunctioning doors decided to close. I thought for sure I had made it, but when I began to squeeze into the car, the doors began closing on my arm! Now, these doors do NOT open when touched so I hopped out as fast as I could...but I still received a foot long black mark down my arm to remind me of the kind of almost not really near death situation that I had just experienced.

The Countdown is on...

Well, it is officially 25 days until I am back in Texas!! Woo Hoo!! To commemorate the occasion I have been listening to country music all day long. I even did a little two stepping in the hallways of the Department of Commerce...when no one was looking, of course.

So far, it has been a fairly good week. Yesterday, I attended a real live press conference at the head quarters of the US Postal Service. The press conference itself was not terribly interesting, although the Secretary for the Department of Commerce and the CEO of USPS were present so that was pretty cool. If you want to read about the event, you can go to the Commerce blog. After the press conference, we got to stick around for a reception. Let me tell you, the USPS sure had some gooood food! Although it was 10:30 in the morning, they had tons of little pastries, and coffee cakes, and fruit...for the health conscious. Overall, it was a nice event, and definitely it was some good publicity for our office! However, I was disappointed that I could not get a large flat rate box while I was there...lame.

Today was fairly uneventful, although work is becoming increasingly busy...I can't believe that in three and a half weeks that it will all be over with! I will be excited for my last day to get here, but at the same time I kind of don't want to give up the work that I am doing. Oh well, some good Tex-Mex will help me get over that feeling.

It has been raining a lot this week, but I'm hoping that it will clear up by Saturday. I really want to go back to the Eastern Market, as well as roam around some of the other neighborhoods. However if it is raining, I'm pretty sure I'll be staying inside. Maybe reading and making some headway on the 75 movies on my instant watch queue on Netflix. Gotta do it some time!

Things I've Noticed: Part 6

This is something I have noticed about myself, more than about D.C.: although I can survive using only 3 pairs of heels, life is certainly not as fun without the rest of my shoe collection.

Things I've Noticed: Part 5

I found out that someone I work with has never bought anything from, or stepped foot inside of a Wal Mart…mind boggling, isn’t it?

Vacation: Days 3, 4, and 5

Well, now I am back to work after my wonderful 5 day vacation. It was definitely hard to get up this morning, as I had gotten used to a) not using an alarm and b) waking up around 9:30 instead of 7. Oh well, back to the daily grind. I am officially one month (32 days) away from being back in Texas! I couldn’t be more excited! Not that I am not enjoying my time here, but I have found out a lot of things namely:

I do not enjoy living solely in the city. It is nice having everything so convenient, but I long for a nice long drive through the country and sitting outside without hearing cars honking at you.

I enjoy this line of work, but I’m not sure I would enjoy working in the government or in a D.C. caliber job. My internship isn’t necessarily stressful, but I can see how this type of career would definitely take its toll on me.

I miss Texas! I love the culture of this city, and all of the opportunities that it holds, but this trip has made me realize how much I love my state and how much I love being a Texan. Sorry non-Texans, this really is the best state in the U.S.

Now onto a rundown of the last three days of my vacation:

Day 3

Woohoo, my birthday! I want to thank everyone who wished me a happy birthday, it was an absolutely wonderful day! I started the day by waking up late and then Zane and I went out to lunch in old town Alexandria. We explored the shops and finally settled on eating at this place called Hard Times Café. Oh my goodness, favorite restaurant of all time! It was another chili bar, but so much better than Ben’s Chili Bowl. Not that Ben’s isn’t great in its own right and for being a historic site in D.C. that everyone should visit, but Hard Times was pure Texas. They had 4 styles of chili (which you could sample before you ordered), corn bread, Texas style sweet tea, Shiner beer (of which I did not partake since it was 11AM), and Texas style country music! The chili dog I had was absolutely delicious, and I can’t wait to go back there again!

Side note: why aren’t there chili parlors in Texas? I could see this place being a total hit! Below is a picture of the entrée, it may look just like a mound of chili, but that mound of chili is a mouthful of deliciousness.

After we went to the chili parlor, we hopped on the metro to visit the Eastern Market. If you are into arts and crafts, jewelry and décor as much as I am you would LOVE this place. There was handmade jewelry, trinkets and art pieces EVERYWHERE! It was so much fun to look around at everything at this market. There was even a guy selling hand strung pearls for $25! Granted, the pearls weren’t of superb quality, but they were beautiful and for $25 they were hard to pass up.I was thankful that I wasn’t carrying cash with me because I would have bought so many things.I would pass by the décor items and think, OOOh that would look beautiful in my apartment, ohh that would look nice next to my bed, ohhh that would make such a statement! As much as I want to get back to Texas, the Eastern Market is a BIG reason of why I will miss D.C.

After going to the eastern market, the day kind of wound down. Zane and I returned to Old Town Alexandria to explore and eat some more. Sadly, I did not get a birthday cake, but I am going to go to a cupcake shop in Dupont Circle called Hello Cupcakes to purchase a belated birthday cupcake.

Day 4

Independence Day! Actually, this day was not very eventful at all. Considering the amount of tourists that were out and about, we made an executive decision to travel only where our feet could carry us. So, Zane took me on a tiny tour of some more of Crystal City. We eventually ended up at the Potomac Yard shopping center and had lunch at this restaurant called Hop’s, another new favorite restaurant. This place has a microbrewery inside of the restaurant and you can get a sampler of all 6 beers brewed there for only $4! As well as the beer, the food was spectacular! They give you complimentary croissants covered in what I assumed to be butter but tasted like icing. I ordered some delicious potato soup as well as a salad. I was stuffed by the end of the meal. Here are some pictures of the feast.

After that, we went to the movie theater where we paid $9 each to get in to a matinee…another reason why I can’t wait to get back to Texas. After the movie we walked back to the apartment and waited until “A Capitol Fourth” came on TV. I am slightly sorry that I did not attend the event in person, but then again, I didn’t have to deal with all of the tourists.

Day 5

The last day of my vacation! By Monday, I really had run out of things to do. I had seen all of the tourist destinations that I wanted to see, so Zane and I walked back to the Potomac yards to watch another movie. After the movie we stopped at this grocery store which was finally reminiscent of HEB. IT was not overpriced, the aisles were large, and I only spent $30 for 2 weeks worth of food. Way different than the premium prices that I had seen at Harris Teeter!Although no grocery store will ever compare to HEB, in my eyes, this one is certainly the best market that I have come across while in D.C. After our trek back to the apartment carrying about 30 pounds of groceries, it was time to rest a bit. I pretty much hung around the rest of the evening, with the exception of our excursion to a DELICIOUS Italian restaurant for a pizza. It was a wonderful evening, and an great ending to a fantastic 5 day vacation!

Now, back to work!

One of the best parts of my birthday was my present that Zane gave me! He made a western style belt for me, which I had wanted to add to my wardrobe for a long time. Here is a picture of it! He picked out the Conchos and everything, stained the belt and put it all together…however it is missing holes so I can’t actually put it on yet. Apparently, they do not allow belt hole puncher gadgets on planes! Oh well, another thing to look forward to when I get back to Texas!

Vacation: Day 2

Well, it is the middle of my second day of vacation, and it has been just delightful! Zane and I began this morning with a nice breakfast and then off we went to the National Gallery of Art. So, the Air and Space museum was cool, but this museum will have a special place in my heart. The architecture was absolutely beautiful, and it was so BIG!! There were rooms upon rooms of beautiful art from every period! Plus, there was an awesome impressionism/modernism gallery, where I took a picture of one of Degas' famous ballet dancer paintings...as well as Zane. It was absolutely wonderful.

After the art gallery, we made our way over to U-street where I FINALLY got to eat at Ben's Chili Bowl! It was amazing. The best chili dog + chili fries, I have ever had. I think this week with Zane will officially be remembered as "Calorie Fest - Summer 2010". But, considering after that we walked about a mile or so to China town, I don't really feel so bad.

This is a picture of me in front of Ben's Chili Bowl...too bad I couldn't keep my eyes open.

After Ben's, Zane and I walked to Chinatown. I was expecting it to be similar to the Chinatown in New York, but I was mistaken. However, I did get to take a picture of the Chinatown arches, which were beautiful.

Now we are back at the apartment, but we will be leaving soon to go to eat and then check out some live bands in Old Town Alexandria. We don't have many plans for tomorrow, but I do know we will be going to Eastern Market in the morning for some blueberry pancakes! Yum!

Vacation: Day 1

Well, my first 12 hours of vacation have been super awesome! Zane flew into D.C. around 10 last night, and after that we went to a sports bar to share some chips and salsa. Apparently, he is really acquainted with the restaurants in the area, so he is going to take me to some of his favorites while he is here, including one with a microbrewery! This morning, we headed out of Crystal City and went to the Air and Space Museum - by far the BEST museum I have seen in D.C. It was super cool, you should go there. Then we walked to lunch. We ate at this place that I had been previously, Harry's and Harriet's, after not being able to eat at Ollie's Trolley(apparently they only take cash.) But I couldn't complain, we had some great food! Then, we walked over to the tidal basin to partake in some paddle boating! That was so much fun! 10 bucks for an hour in the tidal basin, it was so worth it, especially because today was so beautiful! You could see the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument from our paddle boat (pictures below).

Now, we are back in Crystal City, making plans for tomorrow!

Other exciting news:

A package from the Limited arrived today with all of the super cute stuff I bought that was on super sale!

My mom and dad sent me beautiful flowers for my birthday!

I got a hilarious postcard from my friend Jamie Wheeler. It was so funny, that I just had to post it.