almost over....

In less than a week the bar will be over. In the meantime, I've been studying a lot and playing a little. Here's the last week in photos:

If only I could remember all the information on these flashcards!!!

Last weekend my co-ed GW team was in the quarter finals of our league. We won! Hopefully they'll win again this weekend so I can play in the final when I get back from the bar. Here I am running.

And here I am not running. This is the norm...

Max had a great time rolling in the sand at a baseball field. I couldn't wash him for a few days because he had medicine on his back so I had an orange dog for a weekend. Several people told me they'd never seen a dog of that coloring... I guess that's better than saying they'd never seen a dog that dirty...

Finally a bath! I love wet puppies. Puppy likes wet puppies slightly less.

Sit

Be cute

Smile for the camera

a diversion from bar studying

The bar review has basically taken over my life.... But last weekend I got a few great breaks. First there was a wine tasting a Sarah and Barney's and then a wonderful Persian lunch. I also played a soccer game so I guess I can't complain too much but there were way too many flash cards for my taste.

Sohail and Sarah discussing wine... hey, that's not wine!

Barney - host and excellent chef

Boston - host and taste tester

Yes, we posed...

Sohail made this Persian lunch (a celery and mint stew) to keep me going through my review.
It was delicious.

Mad Max!

Although I've spent lots of time with Max at my Mom's house, I never realized how different the world is when you live in a city with a dog. In just one week I've gotten into more random conversations than in a year of living here sans Max. These people include:

• several eight-year-old kids
• a woman who is my education representative in DC, who coaches soccer and who is trying to get a new turf soccer field put in by my house
  
• a little old Russian lady who just moved to the US and is looking for a place to live
  
• lots of fancy pants Georgetown women at the dog park in the morning
• lots of young hip couples having cocktails at the dog park in the afternoon
  
• some basketball playing teenagers who told me I had a "sick" dog (Maman - don't worry, that's a compliment...)
  
• and the list goes on...

Plus, most of the people who used to walk past me without even noticing me now smile at me (actually they're smiling at Max but I just pretend they're smiling at me). It's like everyone's happy in DC all of a sudden. And we've run together every day since Max got here. At first we had a little disagreement about how many bushes were were going to stop running in order to sniff them but we sorted that out (in my favor) and now the runs are wonderful (Maman, again don't worry - it was actually a compromise; on our way to the dog park we stop at every bush to sniff it). Hopefully Max is having as much fun as I am...

This is Max extremely annoyed that, after waiting at least 20 minutes for me to get ready to go to the dog park, we came back to the apartment to get the camera...

Looking for playmates at the park. He eventually found lots of doggies.

Napping while I study

Checking on me to see how the flash cards are coming. Today I was working on my flash cards for trusts and Max was relieved to learn that anyone can create a trust for a pet so if you want to leave your pet lots of money but don't trust him/her to spend it wisely, you can leave it with a trustee to manage it for them (yes, that's really true)!

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....