good friends and a new roommate!

The past two weekends have been filled with visits from out of town. Last weekend Deena was visiting so four USC girls made dinner with the help of a few non-South Carolinian guys and even one guy from Clemson. No we didn't make grits.... Then my Maman was in town with my little "brother" / new roommate Max. He's staying with me for the summer while our mom is in Ecuador. This weekend I saw a high school friend I hadn't seen in about 12 years! Fortunately she'll be in DC for 6 months so we have plenty of time to catch up. And yesdterday, Spain won the Eurocup. Ole! ole ole ole....

With Luna

Sarah and Barney - Come live in DC with us!!!

Deena, Luna, Sarah, me

Enjoying the summer weather with Deena, Sarah and Barney

Barney, me, Julia (my HS friend), and Sarah

Welcome to DC Max!!! Now that he's a city dog he likes to dress up a bit ;-)
Actually I read that putting a tight t-shirt on a dog helps calm them during thunderstorms but I think it was more comic relief for me than therapeutic for Max... I'm accepting any suggestions from dog owners or vet students on the issue.

Derek's Back!

This weekend Derek was in DC. It was the first time I'd seen him since September and it was so nice catching up after so long. Here's the weekend in pictures:

Finally! Together again...

On Friday, before Derek arrived, we went out with Sohail's and my good friends from childhood (different ones obviously).

Alicia, a friend from law school and Sarah, a friend from USC.
Sarah and Barney have been in DC all summer for internships and sadly haven't made it on the blog yet. But that's not because I haven't loved having them here or seeing them regularly. Maybe I was just saving the best for last....

Sohail's friends from elementary school

On Saturday, after Derek arrived, we surprised him with a fun event. He had to guess what it was... It didn't take him long so I'll let you guess as well. Here are Derek, Sohail, Sarah and Barney at the start of the event.

Barney and Sarita
And different they were...

The three of us waiting for the next float to arrive.

If you haven't guessed yet, it was a gay pride parade. It was fantastic. In typical DC fashion, the first 10 or so floats / participants were political candidates running for reelection including our mayor and "representative" in Congress. They were followed by about as many church groups and family groups. Then came floats like this one with dancers and the like. It rained on our parade (literally) but it was still a blast!

Sunday, Derek and I visited museums and the National Aquarium. Here he is feeding a duck. By the end of this feeding session we were surrounded by about 20 birds of all different types and one ate out of Derek's hand...

The aquarium. They even have a man fish on display...

One of the best exhibits we saw was of "hidden treasures" from the national museum in Kabul, Afghanistan: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/afghanistaninfo.shtm
Click here for a video: We also saw the Imaginary Invalid at the Shakespeare Theater. It was hilarious: http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/plays/details.aspx?id=117&source=l

I highly recommend both to anyone in DC.

The three Ss...

What have I been up to the past few weeks... mostly Studying, Swimming, and also Soccer. I've also been doing a few other things but they don't start with S...

Some of my teammates from my GW alumni team

My other teammates beating U Penn or maybe it was Penn State...
In any case, the field is on the tip of an island in the middle of the Potomac river so we have a beautiful view of water and sailboats on all sides!

Dinner with good friends from Charleston.

This is where I've started studying. Not so bad....

The view from my roof. In the background is the national cathedral. I love spending time here in the summer.