It has been awhile since I last posted an update and there's a couple reasons for that. First, I've been a lot busier at work, which helps the days go by faster. I also have gotten out of the office to attend a couple events. One day I went to an Ag Communicators of DC meeting, where the discussion was about marketing transgenetic plants and how they differ from GMOs. Last Friday I also had a lunch with the interns at the Colombian Embassy which was a blast. They were quite a lively group and we had an engaging discussion about everything under the sun.
The second reason I haven't updated in awhile was because last weekend I ventured out of DC to the great state of Texas! My sister was competing at the American Junior Paint Horse World show so I decided to join the family for the extended weekend. I hadn't seen my dad or sister since April so it was nice to be able to do some family time. We even ventured off of the Fort Worth fairgrounds and saw the jewel of Fort Worth: The Stockyards. My dad even drove us to see the fireworks from the fairgrounds one night! The weather was what you expect Texas to be in July, but it was still a much needed getaway from the city. I was back in time to experience some of the 4th in DC, though. Every year PBS puts on a free concert outside of the Capitol building which ends with the fireworks show. Even though I waited in the rain for 2.5 hours before the concert started, it was still a wonderful once in lifetime opportunity to experience "A Capital Fourth"! The music was lively and fun and although it was pretty foggy, the fireworks that I did see seemed cool too. Between the Stockyards and the Capital City, I'd say I had a very iconic 4th of July.
This past weekend I decided I needed to be a tourist for a day. I found a great deal on a bus tour of DC on Groupon and jumped on the opportunity. Saturday I left my apartment at 9am and didn't get back until 5pm, so I would say I got my money's worth of my bus tours. I saw all the monuments, including the Jefferson Memorial which I had not seen yet, the Smithsonians, and Georgetown. I even ran into a high school classmate of mine and his mom twice, which is pretty rare for a city of this size! I got a little sun burnt, was exhausted by the end, but still saw and learned more about the city than if I had walked it all.
Yesterday, I had pre-ordered tickets to see the National Holocaust Museum, which, given that I am a HUGE WWII history nerd, was one of the top things I looked forward to all summer. It did not disappoint. They say most people stay in the museum for 1 hour, well I stayed for like 3. It was incredibly fascinating and humbling being able to see all the pain and struggles of millions of innocent people. The two times you really feel the pain and hate is when you walk through the Hall of Shoes which contains hundreds of shoes of victims from Auschwitz and when you walk through a tunnel of family pictures from a Jewish village in Lithunia that was wiped out during the war by the Nazis. When you take the tour of the museum, you get an ID card of a victim of the Holocaust that you read as you go through different floors of the exhibit. Mine was a girl in Poland. She was shot and killed trying to escape the Warsaw Ghetto. She was 19. This by far was my favorite museum in DC, and would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone visiting DC.
I still can't believe that I'm over halfway done with my summer adventures in DC! Although I'm enjoying myself I'm still pretty thankful that time is going by fairly quickly so I can be home soon.
The second reason I haven't updated in awhile was because last weekend I ventured out of DC to the great state of Texas! My sister was competing at the American Junior Paint Horse World show so I decided to join the family for the extended weekend. I hadn't seen my dad or sister since April so it was nice to be able to do some family time. We even ventured off of the Fort Worth fairgrounds and saw the jewel of Fort Worth: The Stockyards. My dad even drove us to see the fireworks from the fairgrounds one night! The weather was what you expect Texas to be in July, but it was still a much needed getaway from the city. I was back in time to experience some of the 4th in DC, though. Every year PBS puts on a free concert outside of the Capitol building which ends with the fireworks show. Even though I waited in the rain for 2.5 hours before the concert started, it was still a wonderful once in lifetime opportunity to experience "A Capital Fourth"! The music was lively and fun and although it was pretty foggy, the fireworks that I did see seemed cool too. Between the Stockyards and the Capital City, I'd say I had a very iconic 4th of July.
This past weekend I decided I needed to be a tourist for a day. I found a great deal on a bus tour of DC on Groupon and jumped on the opportunity. Saturday I left my apartment at 9am and didn't get back until 5pm, so I would say I got my money's worth of my bus tours. I saw all the monuments, including the Jefferson Memorial which I had not seen yet, the Smithsonians, and Georgetown. I even ran into a high school classmate of mine and his mom twice, which is pretty rare for a city of this size! I got a little sun burnt, was exhausted by the end, but still saw and learned more about the city than if I had walked it all.
Yesterday, I had pre-ordered tickets to see the National Holocaust Museum, which, given that I am a HUGE WWII history nerd, was one of the top things I looked forward to all summer. It did not disappoint. They say most people stay in the museum for 1 hour, well I stayed for like 3. It was incredibly fascinating and humbling being able to see all the pain and struggles of millions of innocent people. The two times you really feel the pain and hate is when you walk through the Hall of Shoes which contains hundreds of shoes of victims from Auschwitz and when you walk through a tunnel of family pictures from a Jewish village in Lithunia that was wiped out during the war by the Nazis. When you take the tour of the museum, you get an ID card of a victim of the Holocaust that you read as you go through different floors of the exhibit. Mine was a girl in Poland. She was shot and killed trying to escape the Warsaw Ghetto. She was 19. This by far was my favorite museum in DC, and would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone visiting DC.
I still can't believe that I'm over halfway done with my summer adventures in DC! Although I'm enjoying myself I'm still pretty thankful that time is going by fairly quickly so I can be home soon.