Ruth's ramblings (both the talkative and the leg-kind)

It was very nice to wake up today and remember I didn’t have to go to work! :) But I kind of sort of am wishing that I got up early anyway and exercised and washed my hair, because now I feel kind of bloated and grubby. :( Tomorrow, I definitely plan to get up early, start the day with exercise (unfortunately, the gym doesn’t open until 9 am, so I’ll be doing some other stuff until then), and take a nice long hair-shower. The good news is that some of us went as a group to the gym today and got our passes, and even took a look around. They have a rather puny track upstairs that’s small and almost in a “square” shape (there should be “Slow” signs at all the corners), so I guess I’ll either be running on the treadmill or outdoors. There is a nice soft sidewalk by the Washington monument, but it’s kinda far from the Barlow Center, so I doubt I’ll be running there regularly. On my little excursion to the Lincoln Memorial, I noticed a lot of people running there, too, so that’s another option. Except it’s soooo far and out of the way. So, meh, the treadmill it will be.

Back to my plans for tomorrow. I would like to do my laundry, prepare my first aid kit (I bought some of it today, but still have to get a sturdy bag (shoulda brought my backpack—I knew it!), flashlight, and soap) and have Maggie (the intern picked to be administrative assistant) check it off, clean our bathroom (Becky is impressed that I would want to clean it ONCE A WEEK! Seriously!!!), and go to 1. The Washington Monument, or 2. The Holocaust Museum, or 3. Both. It all depends on how much time I have.

Today, we had class at 9 am in the Great Room (it’s not really that great; I would call it the “All Right” room). I came a few minutes early so as to plug in my computer. The Internet reception was pretty poor, but I was able to use Microsoft Word to take notes, and that’s all I needed, really. Professor Bowen talked for just a little bit about what we would be doing in the class. It feels like a lot, but it’s actually much less in comparison with real classes at BYU. I mean, we only have class once a WEEK and we don’t have any, like, TESTS!? I should be jumping for joy here. What we do have to do is write two 4-5 page papers, two small papers about a service project we do, and a learning experience we have, and many quick, easy, 1 page write-ups about the speakers and topics we’ll be dealing with each week. As long as we do that fairly minimal amount of writing and come to class and participate, we get As! Good deal, huh?

The other class (PLSC 399R) will be a bit more difficult. It involves three short papers, one long paper, and an evaluation of our supervisor(s) in the internship. I want to get started on the first short paper either tomorrow or Monday, and start planning for the long research paper next week. Better to get things done as soon as possible, what ho!

After our short mini-introduction-class, Prof. Bowen turned the time over to Lou Hampton, our guest lecturer for the day. He is basically a speech writer and important person in public relations, and he talked for a long time and showed us some interesting video clips of speeches and gave us a nice sheet to help us craft and sell “messages,” which he defined as “a communication specifically crafted to get a desired result from a targeted audience.” He gave us an eight-step formula for putting together a message, and tips for job and T.V. interviews, and then he told us that we would be interviewed for Fox T.V. about why anyone would like to go to BYU, and we had to prep for it in groups. I’m guessing he was kidding, since what really happened was that he asked for three volunteers at the end of class, and then asked them a few on the spot questions and let them try to answer them using his formula.

We didn’t end class until about 12:30 pm, and then Sis. and Bro. Blanchard talked to us a little bit about what to do in case of an emergency or fire. We then went upstairs to quickly change before having a mock fire drill and walk to the shelter. The fire alarm was rather soft and pleasant (and accompanied by a voice that very calmly told you to “evacuate the building,”), not at all like the harsh blaring noise my own alarm makes when it goes off in the morning. :) While we were waiting for everyone to get out of the building, surprise, surprise, a fire truck came by and parked on the next street! Sis. Blanchard said Bro. Blanchard was supposed to call the fire department and tell them we would be doing a drill, but I wonder... Anyway, the lights weren’t flashing and they never got out, so I assume it was just a coincidence. But funny, all the same.

After walking for about 8-9 min. to the shelter, which looked like a junky junior high school, we headed back. I was a little disoriented from traveling in strange territory, but stuck with some others (it was at this time that we found the gym and got our passes) and made it back to the Barlow Center okay. I then ate lunch from my store of supplies while some of the others went off to see Georgetown and have lunch at a restaurant. I had wanted to do some shopping and cleaning that afternoon, but decided I couldn’t miss the opportunity to see a museum or something on my free day, especially since I would have all of tomorrow to do cleaning and laundry (that is, after I exercise and shower and go to the Holocaust and the Washington Monument, heh heh heh... ). It was kind of late by then, almost 3:30, and I was afraid of wasting too much time—most museums close at 5:30 (!!@!)@!#$!&&!&! ~my reaction precisely)—by walking down to the Mall—it’s so FAAAAAAR!—so I, sigh, rode the Metro. Another thing to make me feel lazy...but it’s just so convenient, and so nice to take a break from all the street-walking techniques I’ve picked up on—i.e., scanning and re-scanning the area, adjusting stride so as to avoid certain people and catch up with certian others, adjusting belongings so as to keep prominent items from being seen, maintaining differential or authoritative scowl/look of disinterest/look of suspicion/look of great confidence on one’s face to dissuade any attempt to make contact (If I look mean and ugly, no one will bother me, right?), checking map to make sure of location while trying not to appear like an ignorant, vulnerable tourist, etc etc. It’s really rather complicated! I wish I could just get over my fear of strangers and enjoy walking around in D.C. I also wish I could get a couple of bodyguards... Probably not going to happen.

So I made it to the Federal Triangle Metro station, and took off in the wrong direction, but luckily discovered my error before I could go more than a block! So I went in the other direction, and the big last building, the only one that could POSSIBLY be the National Museum of American History, had some guy’s name listed in bold letters on the front. I nearly wept, but then I saw the very faint, almost indecipherable words Museum...American History below the guy’s name (which I don’t even recall). Huzzah! As I crossed the street, I got a nice view of the Washington Monument, which looks like a very tall, blocky white pencil. Its size and simpleness are its most impressive features, in my opinion (which ought to have some sort of a symbolic connection with the great president himself, I suppose!); I also quite adore the green field surrounding it—it’s so pastoral and picturesque, particularly with the geese flying around and the wind blowing.

For the next two hours, I walked through the National Museum of American History. The museum was kind of interesting; there were wide open spaces in the center, and then small, twisty, turny mazes with tons of information and exhibits and items around every corner. My favorite exhibit was probably the one on U.S. presidents. They had lots of interesting items collected from the presidents, and a very informative gallery describing all the different jobs of the president. At the end, there was an interactive (lots of the exhibits had interactive stuff, which is always more fun!) computer that let you vote for whichever president you thought was the most influential, and which job out of all the jobs the president had to do was most important. I voted “George Washington,” and “National Leader,” and wasn’t too surprised to see that the majority of people who had visited and voted agreed with me.

There is way more I could write about this, but it’s past midnight here and I really ought to get to bed, so I’ll see if I can finish tomorrow. For now, just know that I walked—no Metro! Horray for me!—to the Kennedy Center after the museum closed, saw the free concert (which, hands down, was my favorite thus far; absolutely fantastic! I stayed for the entire performance and was sad to see it end. I took videos, too, so look for some of them to be posted perhaps tomorrow), went shopping at Safeway (and got a cool inauguration pin, absolutely FREE - with a ten-dollar purchase...), walked home, ate dinner (note: the chicken vegetable soup is quite good and easy to fix; also note: Dad, how much would it cost you to send me all the rest of that stuff (minus the chocolate and milk mix thingies, that is)?), and watched a movie with a few other interns, just to, you know, have a social life. The movie, The Four Feathers, turned out to be rather disappointing. Stuff frequently happened without any good reason or, worse, any reason at all, and the characters and the quality of acting in general were rather shallow (excepting a strong performance from Heath Ledger in the lead role). It’s too bad we didn’t have a copy of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on hand. I would have enjoyed seeing it, as a one-week commemoration of our experience. Has it only been a week since I was sitting downstairs in our house in Utah watching it? Wow.

Well, more tomorrow. Good night to all, and to all a good Saturday.