Everything Comes to an End

Well this is the end. The last post I will have while in D.C. Wow, what an experience!! The past week has gone by so fast! Last week was the last work week with my co-intern from Texas A&M and I really missed him this week. I had so much stuff to do this week at work, but that made the week go by so fast. All week we, the interns, have been doing things that we wanted to do or eat before we left, one last time. We went to a huge dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill last Friday with about 10 of the roommates that hadn't left yet. It was great, it was our last get together with that many of the interns. Then after dinner we went to the White House Christmas Tree. That was a lot of fun! It was cool, but we were a little disappointed, the Capitol Christmas Tree is SO much better. It was so awesome, but we will get to that part. Then that weekend, two of my 3rd floor roommates left. That was so hard. Cassie and AJ, it was so terrible saying goodbye. I have made life long friends with them, and I can't wait to get back to Tech to see them again.  Then on Wednesday a lot of the roommates left from the 1st floor and that was also hard. It has basically been a constant string of goodbyes to everyone, it is so hard. Work all week was great though. I don't know if it was the fact that it was coming to an end, but it was great. This week on the 3rd floor we have only had four left. Me, Libbie, John and William the final four. We all had work but every night this week we went out to dinner and did all the final things. We went to the Capitol Christmas Tree and it was great!!!! It snowed all day that day and the National Mall was beautiful!! I am so happy that we got to see DC white with snow. I have plenty of pictures that I will share with all of you don't worry. Well, we went to the Christmas tree, took our pictures and then, of course, the snowball fight started. It was so much fun just playing around and throwing snow at each other. I think it took our minds off of leaving for a little bit, so it helped. It was so much fun! By the time we were home all of us were soaked and had snow all over us. We looked pretty rough walking home after that. Then the packing began, and is still going as we speak. We will see if I can get it all home. Hopefully I can. John, William and I are the only ones left. They are getting to see me cry the most. William leaves last so he will be the last person I see before I leave, hopefully I won't cry too hard. This experience has been one of the best of my life. I have made some lifelong friends and I can't imagine my life without them now. We have really become a family. I don't know what I am going to do without them. I am so thankful for everything and everyone that helped me get to where I am today. Without you I would never be here. DC is the most beautiful city and so amazing. I can not wait to come back and visit my friends that are staying up here to work. I will for sure be back soon. Again, this was an amazing experience and I am sad to see it ending. I leave tomorrow back to Texas. And there is an all new adventure ahead....GRADUATION!! May 14th be there!! Love you all!! Thanks for reading!

Thanksgiving.. DC intern style.

It’s CHRISTMAS TIME officially! Well Thanksgiving came and went at the Tech House just like it did everywhere else just a little different than normal. A lot of the Tech interns’ families came to town that week and there was only me and a couple left. We made due though we had a pot luck Thanksgiving lunch with some of our intern friends for the Hill and it ended up being a great day. We just enjoyed a ton of food and watched football. It was great! This week so far has been a busy week. There is a lot of stuff going on at the Hill with votes and ending the year. Also, today I got to go to lunch with Congressman Lucas. It was great to be able to sit down and talk to him for a while and enjoy wonderful food. I was very appreciative for the time he took to get to know us. It was great! I will tell you all about it in person when I get home.  We are still staying pretty busy in the office with being in session. And it is starting to hit that we only have a couple of weeks left here on the Hill. Some of the roommates are already starting to move out. The first one leaves on Friday. It is going to be so strange when we start leaving. I can’t believe it has gone by so fast. It is going to be hard to go back to Tech and get readjusted to the Tech college life and not the DC intern life. It will be great though. I would say that is next couple of weeks are going to be bittersweet. Sad leaving this experience behind, but I have learned so much that I will always have with me. Exciting to be finally going back to Texas and visit all my family just in time for Christmas. It will be weird actually staying in Texas instead of coming back. It will be strange. Well I will try to keep you more updated on these last couple of weeks. Since there are only a couple of weeks left. Until next time…

Parents in D.C.

Well I am writing this a little late but I am updating you on my parents’ trip. It was fantastic. As soon as they got to town I met up with them and surprised my dad at their hotel. I had told my dad that I had to work all day that I would meet up with them after work, but I got off work at 12 that day to spend the afternoon with them. He was pretty happy to see me, and I had tried to surprise my mom as well, but she asked me the night before about eating lunch at the airport. I tried to convince her that there were plenty of places to eat around their hotel when they got here, but she was set on eating at the airport. So, I had to tell her that I was meeting them for lunch and Not to eat there. It was great thought at least I got to surprise one of them. From the hotel, I started their DC experience. I took them to

Pennsylvania Ave.

to eat at a little sandwich place and took them straight to the Capitol for a tour. They were really excited to see where I worked and hear everything that I had learned up here. The tour took a few hours and by then they were already getting pretty tired. All during the tour, they would see Congressman and Senators and would get excited to be walking by them. That night I took them to a wonderful dinner for their first night in DC and we were all worn out after that. The next days were followed by a TON of site seeing and a lot of catching up. I loved being able to show them around where I have been living.  My dad was even more excited because at their hotel lobby they ran into a Congressman from Oregon, and he asked my dad if he was one of the incoming freshmen, and that made his day. All in all it was a great trip and I really enjoyed having them up here. Now to update you on work. Work has been great! We are back in session and all the Congressman are around everywhere. I have run into more Congressman in the past couple of weeks than I have all semester. It has been really awesome. We are still doing the normal office things, but also starting to get ready to start packing for our new office. It has been wonderful so far! Until next time…

It has been a while…

Well it has been a while since my last post mostly because we didn’t have internet at the Tech house for about 3 and a half weeks, and I couldn’t do this at work. It has been a long month, and so much to catch you up on. Well when I left you I had just gone to the White House Garden for a tour. The last couple of weeks of October and recess were great just normal stuff on the Hill and getting excited and some nervous about the Elections on Nov. 2^nd. The Hill at that point was kind of in a stand still waiting to see what happened and no Congressman really wanted to stir up anything before elections. Then November 2^nd rolls around and the Tech House was interested to see what happen in the Elections. We watched the results at home that night till about 1:30am when the House was officially taken over by the Republicans. It was an exciting next day on the Hill, for the Republican Party, you could just tell everyone was in a good mood, besides the Democrats. To see the news all day about the Elections was really neat, because we were right in the middle of it. It was awesome to see the things on National Television that were happening right next door. Also, in my office it was a good day because we will officially be called the Majority Committee on Agriculture in Jan. It will be an exciting time and the staff will be switching offices. To bad I will be leaving as soon as we get the bigger office. It was still great to be here during the Elections though. Now starting this week we are back in session. All of the Congressman came back into town and have started the lame-duck session. It has been a good week so far, on Monday it was like the first day of school here. The freshman congress came into town for freshman orientation this week and it was fun to help direct potential hill employees and congressman around the capitol grounds and buildings. Also something that happened recently I have started having visitors in town. My friend came into town last weekend and my parents are coming into town this weekend. I am so excited to show them the town and finally see both of my parents. This will be the first time since I left that I get to see them. I am planning on giving them the grand tour of everything. Thanks to some of my fellow roommates I have planned everything out. I will have to upload some photos from this weekend soon. All in all I am still loving it up here and enjoying my last month up here on Capitol Hill. I miss everyone and can’t wait to be back in Texas. Until next time…

STAY OFF THE GRASS!!!!

I forgot to tell you about the White House Garden Tour that we went on today. I got tickets from another intern and me and 3 of my roommates went. It was beautiful outside and the perfect day to walk through the gardens at the white house. It was really cool we got to walk on the grounds and see all the trees that old Presidents have planted and we got to see the outside of the oval office and the West Wing. It was great! We got a ton of good pictures which I put one of them up on here, but the other will come soon. It was a great thing to do on a Sunday afternoon. We just could not step on the grass there were a ton of police officers and security everywhere and they would basically tackle you if you were on the grass, but don’t worry I took a  picture of my touching the grass before they tackled me. ;) Well I just wanted to update ya’ll on that before I forgot again. Tomorrow is back to work and back to just sitting and waiting basically! Until next time….

The group at PHILLY!

Me and Josh Duhamel and william.!! I have a better one but havent dowloaded it yet

The group eating philly cheesteak that was soooo good!

Transformers!!!!!!

Well the other day after I wrote that last post we went walking to the Abraham Lincoln Memorial where we heard that the Transformers 3 people would be filming that night. This was after I had been sitting in front of the Capitol for about an hour in front of trucks and buses waiting to see if they would start filming. But then me and a group went to Abe. There were a ton of people there and they were filming background images for a fight scene between the robots. It was really awesome getting to see the set up. AND the best part was that I got to see and take pictures with one of the main stars in the movie. JOSH DUHAMEL! It was awesome and we were so excited after that the 2 miles home was a breeze! After that nothing really too exciting has been going on at work or the Tech house. It has just kind of been a normal week. Everyone is just kind of getting prepared for the elections in a few weeks and waiting to see what happens.Until next time..

PHILLY!!! and work..

Well this past week and a half have really slowed down a lot. Besides a trip to Philadelphia which i will talk about at the end. Well since I last left you Congress has gone out of session and not many people are around. The Tech House did get the change to meet Congressman Thornberry and Congressman Neugebauer and took pictures with them in Statuary Hall. It was really nice! Also last week I got to help Congressman Thornberry's office where one of our other interns works with giving tours to about 150 veterans. It was great I loved being able to visit with them and they were so excited that I was from Texas Tech and was up here working. It was the highlight of my week for sure! This last weekend about 10 of my roommates and me went to Philadelphia for the long weekend. It was great definitely cool to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, but it definitely made me appreciate living in DC and Texas. The weekend was great though getting out of DC and to a new place. The next few weekends will be fun getting caught up on DC stuff though more museums and areas to go too. I am really excited because this weekend I found out that my parents are coming to DC to visit and my sister had her baby 3 weeks early!! Jonah Edward Bryant coming in at a whopping 7 lbs 4oz. He is doing fantastic and so is Alyssa. They got to go home today! It was great I was just getting back to the hotel when I got the phone call and was in the elevator with one of my roommates and immediately started crying when she told me she was on her way to the hospital and it was funny to see some of the people's reaction to me. I am so excited and can't wait to see him! Also this week the TRANSFORMERS 3 is filming in DC and around the National Mall Area! We are so excited and hopefully will get a peak at some of the actors. We have seen the trailers and everything coming in, but we are planning on going and checking it out tonight. I will let you know how it goes! I am still doing wonderful and feeling great! Until next time..

Busy, Busy, Busy...Receptions, Receptions, Receptions

Well this past week and a half have been CRAZY!! There have been so many receptions and events that I have had/wanted to go to it has been crazy. It all starts with the Tech vs. Texas game. Let’s not talk too much about that though. It was fun to go and watch the game with everyone at Molly Malone's, but unfortunately the outcome was bad. It was still crazy intense and all of us wanted to be back at home in Lubbock with the crowds. On Monday, a few of us went to the Astros vs. Nationals baseball game which was a lot of fun and definitely good to get out of the house and in the fresh air. Then we go into the week of receptions. There was a reception almost every night which is great because that means free food!! And that is always a positive for the Tech House. There was one reception during the day that had baby tigers there. Apparently there was a bill passed about conservation of tigers and they brought some in for people to see. It was great they were SOOOO cute! My favorite was the liger = half tiger/ half lion. It was so cute! Also this week I got to meet with the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. It was an honor to get to meet with him and share a few stories. He met with the 5 Committee on Agriculture interns for about 45 minutes. It was a great meeting! Then we had more receptions and I ended the week with my official tour training of the Capitol. It was very cool because now I can officially give a tour to constituents or family. And it was also pretty cool to learn things about the Capitol that not just everyone knows. Then this last weekend we didn't do much but on Sunday we had a Tech house picnic. This was great because we like to be outside as much as possible on weekends since we don't get out much during the week. We made a ton of food and played Frisbee in the park. Of course no picnic would be a picnic if the boys didn't climb trees, and it was pretty entertaining seeing them climb trees. It is funny how close we have all gotten with living together for a month in a tight area. We are now like brothers and sisters for sure. This week we have more receptions and events, and it is the last week for Congress to be in session until after the elections so it should be a pretty interesting week. I’ll keep you updated. Until next time...

Arlington/ Session started

Well last time I left you it was the middle of the week and we were just getting ready for the weekend and surviving the long week. Well Friday we went to a thing called Jazz in the Park which was at the Smithsonian sculpture garden. It was just a big picnic thing and we just sat around and listened to the jazz music. Saturday, which was also September 11th, a couple of us went to Arlington Cemetery. It was such a beautiful day and it was very inspiring and was the perfect thing to do on 9/11. I couldn't think of anything better to do on that day then pay respect to the troops that have fallen. It was so moving! Then also Saturday was our football game against New Mexico. It was great we went to meet with the alumni and the DC Techsans to watch the game. We won 52-17 so it was a good game. Then Sunday we all just lounged around and caught up on things at home. It was all nasty and rainy outside all day so it was the perfect day to stay in and watch movies. This week has been great so far the Congressman have all come back now and session started tonight with the first vote. Tomorrow is the first day that I have to wear a full suit so I am excited to finally be in session. I am eager to see what is in store for the rest of the week. Also today I went to my first briefing for NCBA which was great and we have 2 receptions tomorrow to go too. It is a busy week ahead and I will try to keep you updated. Till next time…

ANNAPOLIS and Labor Day

Labor day weekend was a great and relaxing weekend. We ended up going to Annapolis for the day on Saturday, and it was so much fun! We had a great day just roaming around town and enjoying the beautiful day, and being outdoors away from the city. It is funny how much you miss the site of trees and grass. It was great we ate amazing seafood, went on a boat tour of the bay, and ended the day with shopping. The naval academy was really an awesome sight to see, the buildings and campus were beautiful! We were so tired by the end of the day we were not sure we were going to make it home, we thought we were going to fall asleep on the metro. Then on Sunday it was game time!!!! The first Tech football game! All the Tech House, alumni and Red Raiders in the area met at a local place and watched the game together. It was great to be around a lot of Red Raiders so far away from home. It made us all a little homesick to not be able to be at the game. It did help that we had somewhere to go to watch it though. Then on Monday (Labor Day) we got the day off from work so we all rested up and a few of us went around town to some of the places we hadn't made it to yet. All in all it was a great weekend full of laughter and fun with the roommates. This week will be pretty slow, but next week Congress is back in session so it will be a lot different next week. We will actually get to break out all our suits and dress clothes next week. This week we are going to Arlington Cemetery and around town I will try to update this weekend. Till next time....

Lights out.. or maybe not

Well the power didn't go out the other night. We were all geared up and prepared to be sitting in the dark all night and we came home from dinner and magically the lights and power were still all working. We haven't had internet or cable for the past few days for some reason so I didn't get to post the blog until late. It has been an adventure with no tv we have been listening to a lot of music and watching a lot of movies. I am still working on getting pictures up sorry it is taking me so long! Work is going great so far my intern coordinator is out this week so me and the other intern have been answering the phones and taking care of the front office, which again is still pretty quiet with the recess of Congress. I have been reading and listening to the news all day every day so I feel very well informed on what is going on in the US. Today, I had one of those moments where you think wow I am really in DC, when you watch the news all day everyday and see what is going on in the White House or on Capitol Hill and I just thought to myself that I am within walking distance of everything that you see on TV. Also, there is a hurricane that is near us right now, but for everyone that is worrying don't worry. The hurricane should sweep right past us. We are all doing great and it was sunny all day today. It is supposed to rain tomorrow but should be good weather the rest of the weekend. (hopefully) We were planning a trip to Annapolis this weekend but that got cancelled because of the weather so we will just be roaming around town this weekend. I will update soon and let you know how the weekend goes. Until next time...

Week one on the Hill

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while it has been a whirlwind. I am really enjoying DC and really enjoying the people I am here with, Tech has some good interns up here. I am so blessed to have this opportunity and am so happy I am doing this. Work has been slow this past week, but I am happy that I got my first week out of the way and am getting adapted to the life on the hill. Congress is in recess till Sept. 14th so it will be pretty uneventful until they get back, but none the less things are still happening. I am manning the front desk with the other intern at work and me and one of my roommates went for a run the other night and went past the Capitol, the Washington Monument, Reflecting Pool, and the White House. It was amazing to be able to see all of the sites after dark, and surprisingly there were still a lot of tourists out there. The buildings are so pretty all lit up. It is also awesome to think that we live within running/walking distance of all of those. We are all trying to plan sometime to go sight seeing after dark to take pictures. Hopefully, I will be able to put some of those up soon. Another thing we do a lot of is watch a ton of movies we probably watch one every night. It is relaxing just to hang out and do nothing with all the roommates on the couch. Tonight, the Tech house will be out of power from 9pm to 6am, they are working on something, so it should be a fun night in the dark. We are hopefully going to at least have some candles, but 17 people with no form of entertainment (besides candles or walking around), no hot showers, and no air-condition could be interesting. I will let you know how that goes!  I miss everyone at home and at Tech but I am having a blast up here in DC. I will try to update more often, but until next time…

Authorized Personnel

Well today was the second day of work and it went great. I have made friends with the security guards at the entrance to my building, and kind of gotten my bearings on work. It takes me a total of about 5 whole minutes to get from my front door to the front door of the office. It is great!! My office decided that today I needed to get acquainted with the Capitol and all the buildings so they sent me walking all morning. It was so much fun being able to just roam wherever I wanted and see all the sites. I was so excited when there were a bunch of tourists around and I got to walk in to the authorized personnel only door. I went all over the Capitol, Senate and the House Buildings. We are all getting acclimated with living in the city and working so far, but it will drastically change once we are back in session. It is recess right now so all the Representatives and Senators are back in their home districts and states visiting constituents. So it is pretty slow around the Hill right now. It feels like we have been here forever and we have only been here a few days I can’t believe what it is going to feel like when we leave. Tonight we went to Chinatown and went out to eat just for something different. The fun part of the evening was getting yelled at by the metro driver through the loud speaker about all walking in through one door on the metro. It was a little creepy because it was definitely directed towards us. He said that it would be better if we walked through separate doors that we were all going to the same place. It was kind of funny though there was about 10 of us. We all really enjoyed Chinatown and we are for sure planning a trip back to it soon to go shopping again. Now we are all enjoying laying on the couch after a long day of being an intern on Capitol Hill. Till next time….

The Beginning

It has OFFICIALLY started!!!! I am so excited to be here in Washington DC and started with my internship finally. I got here on Friday and it has been a whirlwind ever since. So I will start at the beginning. FRIDAY- I woke up at 2 am and was going till like 12 am it was so much fun my flight went great and I got a taxi to the Tech House. Which was an adventure in itself because I had all my luggage with me. But I got there safe and sound with now glitches. Then me and a couple other interns went to the tex-mex restaurant called Tortilla Coast and it was surprisingly good for being a tex-mex in DC. Then more interns arrived and we all went walking around our new home "Capitol Hill". Our offices are really basically right across the street from our house and it takes my like 5 minutes to get to work. SATURDAY-We were all tired from Fridays traveling but we were all raring to go early and went to the Eastern Market which is a huge flea/farmers market was so much fun to get to go and get fresh fruit and vegetables and see a little of how DC works. Then we went walking more and then went to the Natural History Museum and then came home and watched National Treasure, because we thought it was exciting because we were in DC where it was filmed…sort of. Then Sunday we were all worn out and ended up sleeping till like 10 and then we went exploring even more in our backyard "capitol hill" and then went to lunch and just hung around the house for the rest of the day and researched and slept getting ready for work. MONDAY (FIRST DAY AT WORK) - Well the first day went great! I walked to work with a few interns and we got there really early so I ended up hiding in the bathroom for 30 minutes. The rest of the day was great and went by pretty quick and they let me off work early and went to run errands. I am so excited for this opportunity and so happy to share it with everyone so I will try to keep y’all updated as much as possible. Till next time.....