Day 1: Adventre Awaits

It is only a little after 9 PM and I'm about to fall asleep while typing this. Today was exhausting and energizing all at the same time.

I'm officially a metro expert. Okay, so not quite an expert, but I can navigate my way around DC. Martin dropped me off at the metro station after telling me what rails to take and showing me a super useful app that shows metro routes. Being from a suburban area, public transportation is scary and just not used, so having the metro as my daily commute is exciting. Judging from the coffee chugging, half asleep people on the train, I think I was the only person excited to be on the metro this morning. I easily found the office building after getting off at the Union Station stop. I had some time to kill, so I sat in a small cafe on the bottom floor of the the office building and I drank coffee before I decided to take the trek up to the 7th floor.

After going over a lot of intro and orientation kind of things, I was sent to work on research. Now research is not my favorite, but looking up what congressmen have supported and help get enacted is really cool. It ranged from human rights resolutions to the initiation of American Cowboy day.

I considered going back to the cafe for lunch, but knew that there was just too much that I wanted to see. I decided to buy lunch from a street vendor and eat while walking around and exploring. I waded through the middle school kids in their matching bright red shirts, checked out what the street vendors had to offer and even saved a basketball from being demolished by a bus and all in high heels. 

I'm still processing all that I learned and took in today and can't exactly organize it into a coherent readable format. I promise more details will come later. I'm already loving DC and can't wait to see all the museums and American history that I miss out on in Kentucky. I'm just down the street from the capitol and may or may not have snapped this picture while crossing the street.

I have so much more I want to see and do. This is definitely going to be a fun 5 weeks.

Warm Welcomes

Today was a long day of driving though rain, mountains and worst of all ... West Virginia. I don't know what it is about West Virginia, but it's a scary place. I decided to drive straight through it rather than taking the interstate. It was beautiful, but I drove past places like "Possom Hollar Farm". Now you see why I tried not to stop?

I finally made it to the wonderful Weckerlein home. I was greeted by the sweet smiling faces of the Weckerlein girls who welcomed me home like a long lost friend. Miss C showed me her one and only onion that she is growing and so proud of as well as plucked  a baby pear off the backyard pear tree for me. She is very bright and thoughtful. She offered to wake me up with a whistle tomorrow morning. I thanked her, but said I have an alarm clock so it wouldn't be necessary. Baby Jaz is super cute and has a smile that will melt a girl's heart.

Lola is a girl after my own heart. She is the epitome of me 18 years ago. She is into everything, always on an adventure and a dare devil. She called me her best friend and asked to say goodnight to me before she went to bed. We're definitely going to be good friends.

I officially start my internship tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. I'm nervous, but God has certainly given me a sense of peace through prayer and staying with such a hospitable family. Check out the Weckerlein blog HERE. 

All Things Work Together for My Good (Part 2)

In Janruary I wrote a post about the great opportunity I had to serve in France this summer as an internship to fulfill my international internship requirement. Then in April I wrote an update about going to the Pentagon for an internship as well as Honduras for another. Well, things have changed......again.

Some things didn't come together for the Pentagon and although I'm bummed that I will not be interning there, I still have a great opportunity in DC. My friend Chad heard about my predicament and told me that the Government Communiations Department at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom had an open communications intern position. In fear that the Pentagon might fall through, I decided to apply for the position. After emailing my resume and two phone interviews later, I was offered the position and accepted it.

I'm not exactly sure what all I will be doing, but I know they are wanting me to begin more of an online presence for them, especially in social media. Being the nerd that I am, this is something that my friend Jane and I talk about often.

Once again, God has worked out everything for his glory and for my good. It definitely wasn't the way I had planned my summer or the way I thought it would work out, but I know he has great things planned for me in DC and I'm excited to see what they will be. Don't worry, I'll be blogging while in DC.  

Job Searching

I realize that I still have another year of college before I graduate, but I'm already starting to freak out. I'm glad I didn't decide to graduate early, because the imminent beginning of starting a career would be even closer, plus, I love college life. As a planner and having a slightly type A personality, I've already started job searching, reading blogs and networking in hopes someone will want to offer me a job in a year or so.

Today, I was part of a live chat that MSNBC's Today, hosted with Alexandra Levit "a business and workplace author, speaker and consultant." People sent in their questions about entering the work force as a recent college grad.  I asked her what is a reasonable salary to except in an entry level job. She suggested that I check out salary.com, payscale.com and glassdoor.com to see what to expect for different areas of work. They are great resources and have a lot more info than just salary data.

People asked great questions and she had great answers. The picture below takes you to the Today Money site with the transcript at the bottom. The site has a lot of money saving tips as well.




I'm still debating between grad school and getting a job once I graduate. I always have the fear that I'll work retail until I can find a job, but I'll never really find one and forever sell lotion, mint smelling foot scrubs and will have to deal with middle schoolers who try to steal mini hand sanitizers. I know this is ridiculous, because the Lord already knows what he has planned for me and it will certainly be satisfying.

Bubble Tea

There are many things to admire about summer, like laying out by the pool, going to the beach, watching baseball, warm starry nights etc, but by far one of my favorite things about summer is that it's bubble tea season.

I discovered bubble tea a few years ago when a local Vietnamese restaurant set up shop in Nicholasville and the owner began attending the church I go to. He invited my family to his restaurant after church one Sunday and served us all bubble tea. Sadly, the restaurant has closed, but if you've never had bubble tea, you have to try it. I found this niffty little diagram to explain what it is:



Via

I know, the combination sounds weird, but mango is my favorite. My favorite coffee shop in Lexington, Coffee Times Coffee House, has bubble tea in the summer and Saturday I had my first savory sip since last summer in Nashville. I may or may not have been back since Saturday. I hope I can find a place in DC that has bubble tea.

Schools out for the Summer

Wednesday, May 2 at 7:04 P.M. I successfully emailed my last final and paper that was due at 9 P.M. that evening. I should minor in procrastination.


Since then, it has officially been summer time for me. So far I've packed up my dorm room, said goodbye to my friends, moved all my stuff home, left everything sitting in my room and started working at AirMart again. Doesn't sound like a very exciting summer thus far, but I have some things I'm looking forward to, like yard sales with Zach, Brian, Laura and Sharayah, internship at the Pentagon, going to Honduras and hopefully flying a plane or two.


What are your plans for the summer?