Wow, so today was like the busiest day of my life. Maybe not quite, but it sure felt like it. First of all I stayed up until 1am writing on my blog and showering and doing random crap. Also the airport lost my roommates bags, and they were supposed to deliver them to the hotel a like noon and one bag didn't come until like 1, and the other didn't come until 6:30 in the morning which also happens to be when I woke up (Ewww way too early).
Anyway, after breakfast, we set out for the Capitol building area, because we had meetings with our states' senators and representatives, and/or their assistants. There were 2 other people from Nevada besides me, Alethia and Ian, and we went to all the meetings together. Our first meeting was at 9:00 with a lady named Julie who worked for Harry Reid. We talked for a while about CBYX, and then we asked her questions about her job, and foreign policy (which was her main focus). We met actually in the capitol building (we were the only group who got to do that!) and we got special badges and felt all important and stuff. We talked with her for about 20 minutes, then walked to our next appointment which was at 10:00 in a building a couple blocks away. When we got there we were like 20 minutes early, and so we walked around and explored the building. We then went to our meeting with a Lauren Curry, Mark Amodei's assistant. She was really nice, and she actually was from Reno which was cool. You could tell she was legitimately excited for us even though she hadn't really heard of CBYX before. Then we had almost 2 hours until our next appointment, so we went down to the food court in the basement of one of the buildings by the capitol. Unfortunately, lunch wasn't available until 11, and we got there at like 10:30. So we just sat and chilled. When they started serving lunch I got a really delicious salad and it was a good time. Unfortunately, we weren't paying much attention to time, so at like 11:35 (our appointment was at 11:45) we started booking it to the next building. Of course, this building was the farthest away, and we had to walk about 10 blocks to get to it. It also didn't help that we struggled to find an exit to the food court building. Our last meeting was really cool because we actually got to meet Dean Heller. We made it to his office just a couple minutes late, and then we had to wait another 5 or so minutes until his assistant came and welcomed us in. We talked to her for about 10 minutes, and she was very nice and she actually studied abroad in Prague for a year, so that was cool. Then Dean Heller came in and he was a super cool guy. He talked to us about pranks he pulled on Exchange Students that his parents hosted. He said he had a friend who was a cop, and so he had the cop pull him over with the 2 German students in the back of the car and "arrest" him. Then he had his friend take him back to his house. The germans were freaking out and walked back to the house, and then were shocked when Dean Heller opened the door. He also talked about this time when he almost drowned an exchange student when they were tubing down the Carson River. It was really awesome to meet him.
After the appointments, we met back up with the rest of the group and then toured the Capitol building. It kinda sucked though because there was construction so we didn't get to see the rotunda, but it was still cool. After that we went to the smithsonian. I spent most of my time in the Native American Museum, but we did visit the Natural History one for a few minutes after. That was really cool, too, but we were all exhausted and our feet hurt. By the end of all of this, I was more than ready to go back to the hotel. We had to walk to the metro which seemed like the longest walk ever, and then the metro was super crowded too. We were packed in there like sardines. It was awful. Then we got Qdoba for dinner (yum!) and had to walk back to the hotel. I was literally limping because my feet hurt so bad, but it was worth it for such a crazy, fun day. After dinner, we had a meeting and talked about culture shock and homesickness and stuff.
Now I have to pack though, because tomorrow we're going to the State department to meet the government people who actually gave us this scholarship. Then we're going to see monuments and then we're going directly to the airport to go to GERMANY!! THIS IS CRAZINESS!!
Anyway, after breakfast, we set out for the Capitol building area, because we had meetings with our states' senators and representatives, and/or their assistants. There were 2 other people from Nevada besides me, Alethia and Ian, and we went to all the meetings together. Our first meeting was at 9:00 with a lady named Julie who worked for Harry Reid. We talked for a while about CBYX, and then we asked her questions about her job, and foreign policy (which was her main focus). We met actually in the capitol building (we were the only group who got to do that!) and we got special badges and felt all important and stuff. We talked with her for about 20 minutes, then walked to our next appointment which was at 10:00 in a building a couple blocks away. When we got there we were like 20 minutes early, and so we walked around and explored the building. We then went to our meeting with a Lauren Curry, Mark Amodei's assistant. She was really nice, and she actually was from Reno which was cool. You could tell she was legitimately excited for us even though she hadn't really heard of CBYX before. Then we had almost 2 hours until our next appointment, so we went down to the food court in the basement of one of the buildings by the capitol. Unfortunately, lunch wasn't available until 11, and we got there at like 10:30. So we just sat and chilled. When they started serving lunch I got a really delicious salad and it was a good time. Unfortunately, we weren't paying much attention to time, so at like 11:35 (our appointment was at 11:45) we started booking it to the next building. Of course, this building was the farthest away, and we had to walk about 10 blocks to get to it. It also didn't help that we struggled to find an exit to the food court building. Our last meeting was really cool because we actually got to meet Dean Heller. We made it to his office just a couple minutes late, and then we had to wait another 5 or so minutes until his assistant came and welcomed us in. We talked to her for about 10 minutes, and she was very nice and she actually studied abroad in Prague for a year, so that was cool. Then Dean Heller came in and he was a super cool guy. He talked to us about pranks he pulled on Exchange Students that his parents hosted. He said he had a friend who was a cop, and so he had the cop pull him over with the 2 German students in the back of the car and "arrest" him. Then he had his friend take him back to his house. The germans were freaking out and walked back to the house, and then were shocked when Dean Heller opened the door. He also talked about this time when he almost drowned an exchange student when they were tubing down the Carson River. It was really awesome to meet him.
After the appointments, we met back up with the rest of the group and then toured the Capitol building. It kinda sucked though because there was construction so we didn't get to see the rotunda, but it was still cool. After that we went to the smithsonian. I spent most of my time in the Native American Museum, but we did visit the Natural History one for a few minutes after. That was really cool, too, but we were all exhausted and our feet hurt. By the end of all of this, I was more than ready to go back to the hotel. We had to walk to the metro which seemed like the longest walk ever, and then the metro was super crowded too. We were packed in there like sardines. It was awful. Then we got Qdoba for dinner (yum!) and had to walk back to the hotel. I was literally limping because my feet hurt so bad, but it was worth it for such a crazy, fun day. After dinner, we had a meeting and talked about culture shock and homesickness and stuff.
Now I have to pack though, because tomorrow we're going to the State department to meet the government people who actually gave us this scholarship. Then we're going to see monuments and then we're going directly to the airport to go to GERMANY!! THIS IS CRAZINESS!!
Woot for Nevadans!!
Capitol building!!
Supreme court building!!
Native American Museum!!