Welcome to Richland

We arrived in Richland on Monday afternoon and went right to look at our first house. It was a little ranch house, but with some interesting modifications. And the landlord was a little pushy. Then we checked into the PNNL (Pacific Northwest National Lab) guest house, which is very nice, and went to look at a different house. This one was almost exactly the same as the last one but didn't have as many alterations, so it had a more open floor plan which I liked better. And I liked the landlord better. I thought that would be my new house. The next morning we biked around Richland, down by the river, which has a beautiful walking path that runs the length of the river. For lunch we met with my new bosses, Emily and Kim, who I love and will be my mentors when I start as well. Talking to them made me so excited to start at my job. They are also going to help me start a CSA in the area (which they are both members of) and told me about a bunch of stuff to do around Richland for fun (like softball and ultimate Frisbee). That afternoon I met up with Wendi, the woman who had offered to help me find places here in Richland. She was very nice and had offered because all her properties were already rented. The first house we saw was not very nice, but the second house we went to was perfect. The owners had bought it a year and a half ago, done alot of work, and now were moving. They wanted to sell it, but then decided they weren't ready yet, and are renting it. I think I was the first person that saw it and the woman, Walker, and I got along great. She is an electrical engineer at Bonneville Power (the local utility) and we decided that I would rent it right then. I filed out the application and gave them $1000 deposit. It a two car garage, a little covered walkway between the garage and the house, a beautiful backyard and patio,
two little living rooms with fireplaces, a hall bathroom and one in the master bedroom, and a really nice kitchen. And it's yellow, I always knew I would live in a yellow house. Anyways, here are some pictures of it,

although it doesn't capture it, so come and visit and see for yourself. I'll be there starting September 30th.

The Last Days

We finished the presentations on Wednesday, which went well. Everybody did a great job and it was pretty well attended. All the presentations and the papers will be available on the website in about 2 or 3 weeks. www.wise-intern.org
We went to dinner after the presentations which was really fun, and delicious. It was at this restaurant called the Chophouse that had really good steaks and it was a good send-off. The next day we had our last WISE meeting and a meeting with senator Kaufman, which is the only senator who is an engineer. He replaced Biden and was really down-to-earth and obviously very smart.
That night a few of us went to Ben's Chili Bowl, a DC staple. It was really greasy, but really fun. We got the whole room we were sitting in to start singing 'My Girl'.

Friday I walked around Georgetown for the last time, packed, and went to the National's Game with Sarah A (who I worked with at the candy store in Seattle) and her boyfriend Joel (who was a chemistry major and I knew from class. They actually came from behind and won, which is a rare occurrence, and it was a really good game. Now I am getting ready to head back to MN and finally getting excited, now that there is nothing standing between me and the plane but some cleaning and a few hours.

But this has definitely been quite an experience. I have learned so much. I think I will probably blog one more time, as a reflection, once I get around to thinking about it. Thanks for reading, I like knowing people care about what I'm doing.

Friday I finally finished my three drafts. Yay! So I rewarded myself by going to the Anne Taylor store and picking out a new outfit. I don't have that many business clothes, so I am really sick of wearing the same things all summer. Then I went to the modern part of the National Museum of Art. I decided I really like modern art, I love the bright simplicity. I couldn't tell you why, it's just my aesthetic. Then I went home and went for a run. Then I went to dinner at this restaurant that I heard heard about and Kurt and I tried to go to but it was closed. It does all local, seasonal ingredients and has a tree in the middle of the restaurant. And the food was really yummy too. Then I went to a movie at the movie theater right next door. It was a very relaxing, fun night and it was nice to just hang out by myself for awhile, which I don't get to do very often here.
This morning I went to this screen printing workshop at the Corcoran Art Gallery.
We got a tour of the museum and then got to make a screen print. I made this tree. I stenciled leaves in the background and then screen printed the tree. Screen printing is alot harder than it seems, its hard to get the paint even.

Then I went for a bike ride. Saturday night I met up with some friends I met who also graduated from UW at this bar with a live piano player who played requests and everyone in the bar sang along, which was really fun.

Sunday I dropped my bike off at the bike store to send it home, then walked up to U St and 14th for this street fair that was supposed to be happening. On the way I passed by the Dupont Circle Farmer's Market and bought some of the best peaches I have ever had in my life. I ate 3 today. The street fair was a little underwhelming, but it was interesting to see a new neighborhood. Then I walked to the Newseum, which was really neat. All the exhibits were really interactive and had lots of different media (TV, sound recordings, text, pictures, artifacts, movies, etc) to portray each thing. They had pieces of the Berlin wall and from 9/11. My favorite exhibit was one about the first amendment. They also had a whole room of newspapers from famous events that you could look at, all the way back to the 1500's.
Then I walked to the Botanical Garden, which was nice, but not that impressive. Then I walked home. It got REALLY HOT this afternoon, so it was nice to take a shower and not feel so sweaty after I got home. It's about 90 with atleast 80% humidity everyday now, which is so sticky.
Now I might start packing or work on my presentation, or I might just wait til tomorrow :)

A break from policy

today was another awesome field trip. We went to NIST (National Institute of Standards and Testing) and it was awesome. We got to see alot of labs that had the most advanced measuring tools, some that I had only heard and read about. We got to talk to the researchers and ask them what they were researching and how the tool really works up close and personal. I won't get into all the different techniques, but it was nerdom at it's finest. It had a feel of getting paid to be in a well-funded grad school program for ever. Then they had a museum of Standards that had information about how they verify and set standards. Like this is a mole of Copper and a mole of liquid water. Exactly 6.o22 x 10^23 molecules. The next one is how they determine a second, exactly. It's based on the radiation cycles of a cesium 133 isotope at a specific temperature and pressure. The next one is a paper money durability tester. The white square under the metal tip is a dollar bill and they run it until the dollar wears through. Lastly, they did all the research following 9/11 and this twisted metal is all from the World Trade Centers. They had a piece inside of exactly where the plane hit. It was nice to think about real science again. Then it was back to policy in the afternoon, workout, and now I'm at home and will hopefully get a few more things done this evening before tomorrow.

Return to Boston

Dad arrived on Thursday. We met on the mall and went to see our Senator’s offices. Who were predictably not in. On Thursday night we went to dinner at a crab house in Bethesda with Kaitlin Perry. It was a very authentic crab house, with newspaper on the tables. Their resources were clearly dedicated to the food and not the interior décor. Or more specifically, the crabs.

There were only a few things on the menu; crab, corn, and coleslaw. We ordered 6 dozen and they were delicious. Thankfully Kaitlin showed us how to extract every morsel of meat.
On Friday dad hung around Georgetown and the monuments until I was done with work. He also had lunch at Old Ebbitt’s Grill, which is the oldest Restaurant in DC and right next to the white house. Barack was not in, but I’m sure some of his staffers were. We left that afternoon for Boston. Traffic was heavy getting past Philly. We stopped for dinner and had Philly cheese steaks. We decided we were going to sample characteristic foods along our “journey”. This one claimed to be the original, but whether or not it was, it was great. It was located right in historic Philly, we walked past Independence Hall to get there. Many cool restaurants and a very interesting place.

We got to New London and decided to stop for the night and drive the rest of the way in the AM. We arrived in Boston around 1pm, close to Andrew’s Square and experienced a little of South Boston. We took the T in to the city and headed first to Beacon Hill. We walked past 41 Revere and the neighborhood was really nice. We walked over the hill to the commons and then down Winter Street. We saw Locke Ober’s, but they were not open until 5pm. So on to the Union Oyster Bar, which is officially the oldest restaurant continuously serving in the nation, since 1826. We shared a lob roll and clam chowder at the bar. We got to see a lot of Boston on our foot tour, Quincy Market, Faniel Hall, where mom worked in the Financial District; I really got a flavor of downtown Boston. Then we headed across the bridge to MIT and went sailing at the Boat House. It was amazing, they just pulled dad’s sailing card out of one of the lower drawers and out we went. The wind was variable, but it was a beautiful day and really fun to be on the water. Then we walked the Infinite Corridor and saw some of the impressive architecture on the MIT campus.
Then we walked to the first home of Sarah Heilman Widder, 14 Ellsworth. After finding the street, which is characteristically only one block long, we located the house after consulting mom. But dad knew the house when he first walked by, even though it had changed a lot. We walked from there through Harvard Yard to Harvard Square, a much more upscale part of town.
We printed out tickets we had purchased that morning to the Red Sox game and sat and had a beer for a while. Then we took the bus over to Fenway. However, as we were approaching the stadium we realized the tickets were unfortunately for September 8th.

The same teams were playing and this game was sold out, so the internet must have forwarded us to the next available game or something. At any rate, they very nicely refunded Dad’s tickets and we sat in a bar called Game On in the Fenway complex and watched the game.

We slept in Sunday morning, which was wonderful. That’s what you should do on vacation. We both deserved it.
We decided we had had enough of city and headed out to the Cape. We drove to the southernmost part of Cape Cod National Sea Shore, Nauset Beach. It was beautiful, just like White Fish Dunes. A little more crowded, but the beach just goes on forever.

I got to walk along the beach while dad did a postcard watercolor and made a commemorative sand sculpture for James’s 22nd year. It had 21 objects in a grid and then one “transitional” crab shell and a sun dial. We only had a few hours, but it was worth it. The beach is always so regenerative. Afterwards we went to the beach clam shack

and had a clam roll.
Then began the epic journey back, which was long and dark and rainy. We stopped at an Italian place in New Rochelle, NY for dinner to break it up, but didn’t get back until late. It was a wonderful trip and quite an adventure, but that just makes life all the more interesting! Now I am back in DC and getting back into the routine and trying to get myself motivated to go to work. I might go to the grocery store first, because that is more fun.

Pax River

Sorry, no pictures were allowed today. But it was a really fun day, a good break from working. We went to Pax River Naval Base and went to several different facilities to learn about the different technologies DOD was working on, from communications to unmanned spacecraft. We even got to fly in a flight simulator and see testing on the Firestorm, the navy's unmanned spacecraft. They also always had the managers or important people come to talk to us, so they could answer all our questions, which was cool. At the end of the day we got to see boats too, which I thought was the coolest part. They have boats that run on jet propulsion instead of props for the navy seals and we got to see them and ask questions about how they work. Then tonight I went to a UW alumni event with Sarah A (the girl from my work). There were lots of interesting people my age there, and even another 09 grad. Mostly soft science majors, although there was one EE guy who worked for DOD. It was fun to talk all of them and made me miss Seattle alot. But it does mean I didn't work at all today. just means I'll have to work hard tomorrow. Night!

life in the city

DC in the morning is full of people bustling, hurrying with their blackberry in one had and a Starbucks coffee in the other. Full of ideas and self importance. And I don't say that in a bad way, but DC is full of people who are rally smart and think they are right. Big decisions are made here and it's important to feel that way if you are going to make them.
These are all pictures from my walk to work. Notice the Caribou, at first I was so pleased when I saw one, but they are everywhere.

CVS is the other thing there is alot of, one on every street corner practically. They are a drug store sort of thing. Convenient, but a little much.
I didn't have to wear a suit today, which was nice. I wore khakis and a button down shirt, and felt dressed down. It's weird. I stopped at the cobbler to pick up some shoes on the way to work too. It's just such a city life.
The other cool thing about DC is that on the way to work I pass by all these cool places. Like everyday I pass by the IMF, or the World Bank. I never thought about those places actually existing before, that they were physical buildings. You can work there. I could work there. But I probably wont.
The rest of today. I just worked. I finished the first draft of my white paper, one of 3 documents I am writing while I am here. And I only have 2 weeks left to write, so I am definitely feeling the pressure now. But I'm trying not to take it too seriously. I left at like 6:30 and went for a long run to give my brain a break, which was great. I'll work a little but more tonight and then we are going on a feildtrip to Pax River tomorrow. I'll report when I get back, and maybe even take some pictures, if you're lucky. :)
Oh, and this last building is the building I work in, ACS.