Days Two and Three

Yesterday (Friday) we had CEA orientation from around 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.  One of the sections touched on research by Pascal Baudry that looked at French v. American culture.  It was really interesting and a great way to explain the differences!

After explaining some of Baudry's research, she said that Americans are less close to their families and country, making them have a solid inner shell, but are easier to talk to and friendly (and thus have Facebook friends in the 100s), a softer outer shell.  The French are much closer with their families and country, making them have a soft inner shell, but are a little harder to get to know (Facebook friends numbering less than 100), a harder outer shell.  Americans=peaches French=coconuts.  So she said if someone bumps into us and doesn't say sorry (as we bruise easily as peaches) or yells at us, to keep that difference in mind and not take it personally.

Cavalier Bleu: Crepe with nutella

Cavalier Bleu: Croque-monsieur

CEA took all of us to lunch at a restaurant down the street from the headquarters called Cavalier Bleu.  They ordered  croque-monsieur with fries for our main course and we had crepes after.  Yum!  I know my dad will probably love to see the food and others might too, so I'm snapping quick pictures (no flash) with my iTouch as I go.

Les Invalides: Napoleon's tomb

The Eiffel Tower at sunset

Last night my roommate and I walked around to check out our neighborhood, then decided to see if we could find Notre Dame.  We didn't find it (but can't say we were lost because we were just walking wherever we wanted without looking at a map!), but we did find Napoleon's tomb and a view of the Eiffel Tower at night!  And I learned a valuable lesson: DON'T leave the apartment without my DSLR!  It made me sick that my good camera and tripod were at the apartment when we ended up at the Eiffel Tower with such beautiful clouds in the sky.  But at least I had my point and shoot. 

Glittering Eiffel Tower

Today (Saturday, May 28) CEA had a bus tour lined up for us.  We rode around Paris and got to see the major monuments and get an idea for where they are in relation to each other.  Once that was over, my roommate and I walked around and looked at vendors along the Seine river, then went to dinner close to our apartment at Café Canon des Gobelins. While we were there, I said my first whole sentence in French (to our waiter, my first person who didn't start speaking in English after being around us for five seconds!): "Qu'est-ce que vous me recommandez?" or, "What do you recommend?"  See her answer below.  From what I could tell it was made up of eggs and ham in a pie crust.  Yum.

Café Canon des Gobelins: Tarte salée du jour

Here!

I made it!  I arrived in Paris yesterday (Thursday) morning around 10 (Paris is seven hours ahead of Texas).  When I got off of the plane, a CEA (Cultural Excursions Abroad) person was waiting for me.  After another student arrived, we loaded our luggage into a van and were driven into Paris.  I thought the airport was in Paris--not quite!  It took at least forty minutes for the driver to get us to the CEA headquarters.  When we got there, we had a short orientation and then were sent back to the car to be taken to our apartments.

I'm so glad I'm getting to live in an apartment.  We were able to pick between living in an apartment, dorm or Parisian home.  Since I can basically say I don't know ANY French, I figured the home was out of the question, so I went with the apartment.  Our apartment is in the 13th district.  We're on the top floor of the building and our apartment is two stories.  There are four of us in the apartment right now; two of the girls here just finished the spring semester here and they will move out tomorrow, so it's going to end up being just two of us for the whole month, so we'll each have our own rooms!  Very cool.  Pictures later.

After seeing the apartment and taking my stuff in, my new roommate and I went to find the nearest grocery store to get some food.  Oh gosh.  We got a little lost (by "lost" I mean that even though I was following my iTouch, I took us in the opposite direction because "Southwest" didn't mean anything to me!)  We eventually figured that out and got to where we were going, then we were just mentally a little lost in the store!  And they didn't have any macaroni and cheese in a box, I was sad.  You see, I'm not exactly gifted when it comes to cooking, so here I'm a completely lost cause.  Anyway, we got a few items, successfully bought them without the cashier talking to us and finding out we had no clue what we were doing, and completed our first adventure in Paris.

The five of us at the Eiffel Tower with our dinner

Next, we had to drop our stuff off at home and then go back to the CEA headquarters using the metro.  Guess what?  We got lost again.  Oh well.  We made it eventually.  The people who work for the program are really friendly.  We found out that we will have an excursion (that's included in our trip) to Dijon and Beaune at the end of June!  Very cool.  There will be mustard, gingerbread, and wine tasting.

AMAZING garlic cheese!!!

After we were finished talking with the staff at CEA, the five of us students who went to the meet-and-greet walked over with one of the staff members to a bakery to buy baguettes then to a store to buy cheese to take to the Eiffel Tower to have a picnic.

I found Aggies in Paris!

 We had a great time.  On our way back to the metro (it was getting pretty cold so we left), I noticed a girl wearing an A&M sweatshirt!  I asked if she was from A&M then showed her my ring.  I found three other Aggies in Paris!  Crazy!  They were there with the A&M marketing study abroad program.  The girl in the sweatshirt is one of our Women's Basketball National Champions!

It's time!

Well it's finally here... I leave today!  I will arrive in Paris at 9:40 am (2:40 am our time, ouch!) tomorrow.

Globe Trotters

You usually know my horses because they're named after things to do with movies (much of the time Disney ones Pocahontas, Skywalker, Black Beauty, Evenstar), renaissance fairy tales (Arthur, Guinevere, Lady 'O Lake, Lady Elaine), or the latest string, anything to do with being an Aggie (Aggie Wrangler,Starr Boogie).  For this year they have taken on a new theme.

My first foal of the season was out of my mare Rosaline.  Rosaline was named after a character in Romeo and Juliet, the book I was reading in high school when she was born.  Rosaline had a baby this year and I named her Verona (last year she had Juliet) to follow the Romeo and Juliet theme but also tie into my trip!

Flower Girl, Lauren and Athena

Next, I had a Paris and then Olympia.  Well last night my last pregnant mare (Flower Girl, named when I was the flower girl in my sister's wedding) had her baby and I'm trying to figure out a name before I leave for the airport in an hour!  I think I'm going to go with Athena (Athens would sound too much like a colt).

Keep a lookout to see what her name ends up as: Little America Foals, she's the sorrel filly that was born this morning, dad had three mares that went into labor last night!

All Packed (?!)

My (packed!) luggage for the trip

I'm still in shock that I'm already all packed for Paris.  When I went to DC for a semester in 2009, I was up packing until almost 2 am the night before.  This time, thanks to my roommate Carrie, I packed all of my clothes last week before I left College Station.  Carrie went to Belgium for a study abroad the summer before we became roommates, so her guidance as I picked clothes was much appreciated!

They say you should take a picture of your luggage before leaving just in case (heaven forbid) it gets lost or stolen during travel.. so here is my luggage!  Beautiful and MAROON!  Whoop!

Five days!

Five days until I leave... yeesh!  Still a few more things to do!

The good news is that I've finally finished setting this thing up.  It was fun to brush up on my Illustrator and Photoshop skills to make the background!  I found the color scheme, "Bubblegum Black," through kuler.adobe.com.  I got the idea of using the texture for the background from this: http://designreviver.com/tutorials/create-convincing-watercolor-effects-using-photoshop/ while looking for a way to produce a watercolor look (my first plan which didn't end up going through).

It's not what I originally planned on, but I'm happy with it!  Once I was all finished, I uploaded it and thought it needed to have a kind of ripped-edge look to the side to blend into the blog.  This page helped with that: http://www.photoshoplab.com/ripped-and-torn-edges-and-stuff.html.  It's amazing what you can find by just doing a Google search for your question!  :)

DC Update 4

Howdy!

My last month in D.C. was filled with just as much excitement as the first three.. and I can't believe it's over!

I got to go to the Supreme Court on April 22 to hear an oral argument for Ricci v. DeStefano.  It was one of the more popular cases chosen so the place was PACKED and there were several TV stations filming outside!  There was a waiting line to get in just to be able to sit for 3 minutes and listen.  Once I finally got in, I was allowed to stay for the last 30 minutes since I was an intern on Capitol Hill!

The next week, several of us got to go meet Congressman Edwards.  He set up a time for the Aggie interns to come to his office so he could talk to us about our internships.  It was really neat to get to meet him and hear how he became a Congressman.

In my last two weeks, I got to meet and take pictures with Senator Hutchison and Senator Cornyn at events they have each week to meet constituents.  I also got to go on a tour of the capitol dome with one of our staff members!  He was taking a group and invited me to come along.

Here are some pictures!

Week 15: The view of the Lincoln and World War II Memorials from the Washington Monument.  This same day I got a ticket to go through the White House Grounds and Gardens.

Week 15: Arlington National Cemetery for Aggie Muster wreath laying.

Week 15: One of the groups I took on a tour.  They were all members of embassies in D.C.  Two were from Canada, then one from Germany, Korea, Belgium, Estonia, Montenegro, Chile and Algeria.

Week 15: I went back to the Vietnam Memorial one last time.

Week 15: I visited Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown.  It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen!  The gardens just went on forever.

Week 15: My roommate Jenna and I rented a car and drove to Monticello.  Of all the houses I saw during my internship, it was my favorite by far.  It was VERY unique inside and out!

Week 16: The view of my building, Cannon House Office Building from the top of the capitol during the dome tour I went on.

Week 16: The National Cathedral the third time I visited for "Flower Mart."  I went on a tower climb during this visit!

Week 17: My sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece got to visit right before I left!  My nephew and I flew a kite in front of the Washington Monument.  The next day we went on a boat ride (pulled by mules!) up and down the C&O Canal and got cupcakes at famous "Georgetown Cupcakes" for his fourth birthday.

Week 17: Old capitol columns at the National Arboretum.

Week 18: On our last night in D.C., my roommate Amanda and I took her sister's car into town around midnight to see the monuments one last time.  It was absolutely beautiful.  There was hardly anyone out.  At one point, I was the only person in the Lincoln Memorial.

Week 18: I left for the airport at 10:30 Eastern, my flight left at 1:40, and I had a three-hour layover in Denver.  I finally arrived in Austin a little after 10 Central for a total of 13 hours in airports and on planes!  By my travel still wasn't done!  I called my parents when my plane landed, and one of our mares was in labor so they hadn't left for the airport!  My dad ended up having to take the mare to the vet for a caesarean section, so my mom had to come get me by herself.

Where I've been since my last update:

Washington Monument (inside)

White House Garden Tour

National Geographic Society

Cathedral of St. Matthew The Apostle

Charles Sumner School

Einstein Monument at The National Academy of Sciences

DAR Headquarters (toured)

Department of the Interior Museum

Heurich House Museum (outside)

National Trust for Historic Preservation (outside)

Wadsworth House (outside)

Washington Club (outside)

Anderson House (outside)

Woodrow Wilson House (toured)

Textile Museum

Embassy Row

D.C. WWI Veterans Memorial

Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site (inside)

Dumbarton House (tour)

Oak Hill Cemetery

Mount Zion Cemetery

Tudor Place (tour)

Dumbarton Oaks (toured gardens)

Old Stone House (outside)

Montpelier (tour)

Monticello (tour)

U.S. Capitol Dome (tour)

Old Stone House (inside)

C&O Canal

Washington Harbor

Blues Alley

Dean & Deluca (inside)

Forrest-Marbury House (outside)

Halcyon House (outside)

Worthington House (outside)

Prospect House (outside)

Georgetown University (outside)

Cox’s Row

St. John’s House (outside)

Berry House (outside)

Laird-Dunlop House (outside)

Library of Congress Reading Room

Department of State Diplomatic Reception Rooms (toured)

U.S. National Arboretum

With John Cornyn

With Kay Bailey Hutchison

Me with Congressman Carter on the steps of the house side of the capitol

       So after four months in Washington, D.C., sorting 5144 faxes and 20968 digital and physical pieces of mail, giving 23 tours to a total of 98 people, and about 13 hours of airports and planes on the way back, I write from home, sweet home in Buda, Texas.

DC Update: Muster

Howdy!

 The National Capital Texas A&M Club honored fallen Aggies today by laying a wreath in Arlington Cemetery at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  The wreath was placed by Congressman Louie Gohmert ('75), Lieutenant General John Sylvester ('67, the club's Muster speaker), and two members of the club.  I wanted to share some pictures from the ceremony with the Aggies/honorary Aggies on my DC update mailing list...

DC Update 3

Howdy!

I can't believe another month has flown by.  Spring is in full swing here now and the scenery has become breathtaking.  The cherry blossoms were incredible while they lasted.  This past month I continued my regular job duties, survived probably the roughest phone call I'll ever encounter, and got to go to a fundraiser for Congressman Carter!

A work-related highlight of the month was the Republican National Conference Committee’s March dinner.  Congressman Carter is the Conference Secretary and he had a few extra tickets so the office was kind enough to let me go.  It was held in the National Building Museum and was absolutely gorgeous!  I sat at a table with our staff assistant, Victoria, and several other people.  We got to hear Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal speak.

I went to New York again to visit my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and niece, and got to see an absolutely amazing musical called Wicked on Broadway, and a play called The Unseen that my brother-in-law was working for.

Spring Break for Texas was a busy week for our office!  We had several tours scheduled every day, so I have now given 14 tours to a total of 67 people.  One of the tours I gave was to a family originally from Sri Lanka.  They gave me a Sri Lanka flag pin at the end of the tour.

A very new experience I had was campaigning for a candidate in the New York special election for the vacant seat in the House of Representatives.  I don't know how many phone calls I made, but most people didn't answer so I just left messages for them.  The neat thing is that the election ended up being so close that at one point the difference of votes could have easily been the number of calls I made.  They still don't know who won!

My parents got to come up to DC for a trip with the Texas Farm Bureau at the end of March.  I took one day off of work to take them around sightseeing and the other days they had meetings to attend.  It was great to get to show them around and then go to the events Farm Bureau had planned for them!  I got to sit in on their group meeting with Congressman Carter, took photographs with my Congressman, Lloyd Doggett, went on a night tour of the capitol with Congressman Louie Gohmert, and on a night tour of the monuments.

Week Nine: Dinner with Dr. Elliot head of the Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications department at A&M

Week 10:  At the circus in Verizon Center with some of the other interns

Week 10: The Washington Monument

Week 10: Part of the Korean War Memorial

Week 11: RNCC dinner at the National Building Museum

Week 11: Some of the A&M interns before our tour of the Pentagon

Week 11: Beautiful Saucer Magnolia tree outside of the Smithsonian Castle

Week 12: Congressman Lloyd Doggett, me and my parents

Week 12: The view of the National Mall from the Speaker's balcony.

Week 12: Dr. Murano with some of the interns after a hearing she was in town to testify for.

Week 12: President of Texas A&M, Dr. Murano and me

Week 12: The White House, statue in President's park, and beautiful tulips

Where I've been since my last update:

Senate gallery

Senate floor

The Pentagon (tour)

The Speaker’s balcony

Prayer chapel in the Capitol

Eastern Market

National Postal Museum

Sewall-Belmont House (tour)

Union Station

National Museum of American History

Vietnam Women’s Memorial

Korean War Veteran’s Memorial

Tidal Basin

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

George Mason Memorial Garden

US Holocaust Memorial Museum

National Aquarium

Decatur House (tour)

Blair House (outside)

Renwick Gallery

The Octagon (outside)

DAR Headquarters

Organization of American States (outside)

Verizon Center

National Building Museum

Carnegie Library (Historical Society of Washington)

US Navy Memorial and Naval Heritage Center