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.

memorial day camping

This was a great memorial day in large part because DEREK'S HOME!!!!!!

Also, we went camping in Western Maryland at Rocky Gap State Park in Western Maryland. See the pictures below... I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day!

The beach at the lake.

Building a campfire

On one of two hikes. I really needed to get away from the city and get rid of some energy and these hikes did the trick. After one, I fell into a deep sleep I was so physically tired. I love that feeling.

Smores! There was a big flame... I promise!

Lunch! (Don't worry, this was for both of us).

At the lake. We did great people watching here.

Preparing dinner. Notice how beautiful the background is. The entire park looks like that. I hadn't see so much green in a long time (not counting the dying house plant I have in my apartment, of course).

Graduation Weekend

This weekend was the weekend I supposedly went from being a law student to being a lawyer. My family was in town for graduation and we had an amazing time. We spent most of Saturday walking around DC visiting the sites that my cousin Paul had never seen. Then we went to a reception thrown by the Dean of the Law School at the Air and Space museum and later to my friend Nate's graduation party. Sunday was the ceremony itself. It was a predictably long and boring three hours, but the keynote speaker, Senator Inouye, was inspiring. And to be honest, I was giddy the whole time at the thought of finally being done. Sunday night we all had dinner together for one last hoorah before my bar review classes started. To those of you who came, thanks so much! I really means a lot and I had a fantastic time.

My Dad and Joanne in front of the White House

Paul, Dad, Me, and Joanne in front of the George Washington statue at the law school.

Maman smelling the roses at the law school.

I took this picture so I could remember what the classrooms were like at school. I was in denial of the fact that I would have four hours of class a day in these rooms for 10 weeks at that point!!!

Paul checking out the huge Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial.

Paul at the Washington Monument.

All of us at the Dean's Reception. In the background is Apollo 13, I think. It was a surprisingly nice venue for the event.

More of the air and space museum fun...

After having walked around DC all day and seen lots of pictures get taken at this reception, we saw a lot of fake smiles. This is our attempt at a fake American smile. How do you like our teeth???

At Nate's graduation party. Nate dresses as a mariachi every year for Halloween so his wife surprised him with a band for his graduation and then had him play his trumpet with them!

Graduation Day!

With my parents.

A very happy graduate and a curious mother...

With one of my best friends from law school, Lauren.

The graduation dinner.
It was so good and so much fun I almost want to go back to school so I can graduate again....

MA Cocktail Party

Tonight there was a cocktail party in honor of this year's MA in International Affairs graduates. It was especially special for me because I'm not planning on going to graduation next Friday (it's on a weekday morning and no one will be around to see me graduate). I was a little worried I wouldn't know anyone because I started two years before this year's graduates (because of the joint degree program) but I knew a lot of people and we had a great time.

With Natalie - another French and American person. The thing sticking out of our heads is the Washington monument. We have a great view from the school.

With other friends. Lari, on the left, is on my soccer team.

Last night's fun

This is actually a photo I found on the internet but it was about the same yesterday. It was great being back on the water although I realized that there are so many more tasks per person on a dinghy (small boat) than on the big boats I'm used to racing. That made it much more fun for me and probably more scary for the boat's owner when I forgot stuff!

Enjoying Freedom - Day 1

How, you might ask, did I spend my first day as a non-student? Well, first I woke up at 8:30, saw the clock and almost jumped out of bed to get to work at which point I remembered I had no work to do! Not today, not tomorrow, and not any other weekend for the rest of my life if I play my cards right.

So I started enjoying my freedom by staying in bed and doing some pleasure reading - a rarity in law school. My first pick was "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich. Then I made breakfast and went to enjoy the beautiful weather at a pick-up soccer game. About 10 minutes into the game I remembered that I could play soccer all day if I wanted! Until.... about 20 minutes into the game when I was finally about the beat a guy I never beat to the ball. I got the ball but I landed on my ankle in the process and found my self almost passed out and ready to puke. Fortunately I was playing with two nurses and a doctor and on the roof of the Georgetown University Hospital so I had plenty of good advice and easy access to ice.

The most painful part was the drive home. My car's a stick shift and the stop signs every 100 meters combined with the seemingly millions of pedestrians crossing in front of my car created an endless series of hurdles keeping me from resting my foot. Eventually I got home was bound to my couch and ice pack for the rest of the day - not by choice but rather by a loving boyfriend who pampered me while strongly discouraging any attempt to leave the couch... Needless to say, I am extremely frustrated to be stuck in my "cave" again. Hopefully tomorrow will be better but in the meantime, I finished my book and I highly recommend it.

Waaaaahhh! I don't want to be bed-ridden on vacation!

School's Over!!!

Yes, I know I recently had a post with the same title but this time I really mean it! Not only are all my classes over but I just turned in my last exam of school ever (excluding the bar exam that I'm trying not to think about)! So how do I feel? Like an unhealthy blob emerging from her cave. The past few days have been another painful round of me, stuck in my apartment, trying to convince myself to work while another part of me tells me there are better things to do like watch tv, clean up, check blogs, or eat snacks. So how am I going to celebrate? By going for a run so I can reverse this trend!

Now I'm proud to say I'm joining a long tradition US judicial thought. I just hope I never stoop to the level of completely ignoring context and inventing loopholes as some in the profession are prone to do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T72vgAEX66M
For those of you who haven't spent the last three years of your life studying the law, this is an interview of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia explaining that torture is constitutional because, while it may be both cruel and unusual, it's not punishment! I hope he has a great mattress so that he can sleep at night.

Congratulations Sarah for finishing your first year of law school today!