Monday, July 9, 2018
By:
*Note: My apologies for this blog being later than usual, I’m finally getting over a virus I caught Thursday.
I want to start this post by crediting Stephanie Williams for my last blog post title. Stephanie is a passionate and intelligent person who, by simply basking in her presence, has made me a more informed individual. I very much appreciate the wealth of knowledge she brings to every lunch time and look forward to all the seemingly random facts she knows. Thank you Stephanie for being such an inspiration!
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It’s hot man. When I first came here I was enjoying the little bit of warmth, but it’s officially summer in every sense of the word. Most of this week was spent mentally and physically preparing myself to walk outside into the blazing, 90-something degree, and very humid weather.
Last weekend, however, turned out to be very fun! It started Friday with Brigette’s 20th birthday which I was honored to celebrate with her. The night went on pretty late and consisted of dancing and vibing to good music, intense games of “tiny uno”, and delicious brownies layered with oreos and cookie dough (baked by Stephanie).
The next day I went on a date with my one and only favorite roommate K-dubs (Krystina)!! We had some delicious raamen at a cute place called Daikaya. I got the spicy miso vegetable raamen and it was DELICIOUS. After one bite, I was instantly transported back in time 7 years to my very first meal when I moved to Okinawa, Japan. After the raamen we got some gelato at another small shop called Pitango Gelato. It was unlike any Gelato I’ve seen before. When the woman scooped it out for us, it stretched like a dough! I got a creamy custard flavor and chocolate hazelnut and Kryssi got pistachio and coconut. The gelato was so decadent, I felt like a fancy person just eating it.
After our food adventures we went to the African Art Museum. I couldn’t get over the fact that when we arrived, we had to take an elevator to go down into the lower levels. I also find it interesting that although they are described as art, these museums have so much history to tell. We saw things such as old arabic texts, golden jewelry, complex paintings, and overly bejeweled wine bottles. The art varied a lot depending one which country or region it had originated.
After the museum we walked around the gardens by the Smithsonian Castle and did a mini photo shoot. We must have looked like we were having a blast because people starting walking by asking us how the photoshoot was going. We also got the chance to sit down and relax and enjoy the beauty of being in nature.
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This past week at work has been mostly video editing, researching and 4th of July. When I first started this video project I saved a bunch of clips of pictures and videos that I thought would go nicely in my presentation. Now that I’ve put them all together, I noticed there are “holes” where there is nothing but a black screen, music, and my voice. That will definitely not do.
This week, I have been researching more images or video clips to fill in the spaces. It’s been a little tougher than I thought because I also want the images I include to make sense and be interesting. I’m also working to cut down the time on the video by possibly eliminating unnecessary repetitive portions and breaks in the audio. It’s getting close to crunch time now with the deadline to submit to the graphics team fast approaching. However, I am confident I can make it all work in time.
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At last, independence day in the capital was spectacular! It was definitely hot, crowded, and a little nerve-wracking but in the end I was happy to be there. Before making the trek to the capital, we enjoyed a nice lunch with Brad at (maybe ironically) a British pub called Elephant and Castle. It was an organic experience consisting of summer league basketball, not enough fries and debates about Hershey’s chocolate.
We said our goodbyes and from there some of us went to the capital. Although, we were two hours early it seemed we were a bit late. However we managed to find a decent spot among the vast sea of patriotic americans (and others lul) and settled down. After some games (or really just one long game) of Go Fish, finally the action started. From a jumbotron hanging from a crane and a nearby speaker we enjoyed performances from The Beach Boys, Jimmy Buffett, The Temptations, Pentatonix and more! After the concert the light up some awesome fireworks, including some that attempted to spell USA! All I could think of how lucky I (and the thousands of other people there) to be present for such a nice evening. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits and just having a good time.
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Looks like that concludes Week Five’s concise and long-awaited blog post (don’t kid yourself Elon)! I hope you enjoyed and you’ll stayed tuned for next week’s exciting post!
Elon Price