UMD College Park

The much awaited visit to College Park - UMD finally came! Friday after my new hair cut at Bang Salon in Chinatown (thanks Kristi!). Only a 45 minute Metro ride to College Park-UMD and a shuttle ride I arrived at Stamp Student Center to be greeted by my awesome friend, Marlena. A quick tour of the dorm and a meet-n-greet with her roommate/hallmates and we went off to the newest hookah bar. Tried the Jasmine, Rose combo that did taste exactly like a calming tea :)

Few hours later as the music changed from traditional Middle Eastern to 90s pop and current house, we met up with the crew and walked down the Route 1 strip to Plydo's diner. Plate of french fries and a black&white milkshake - that was too much to eat it all - we headed back to the dorm. We walked into the dorm lounge to find a whole hoard of people who lived on the floor. It was entertaining to say the least and thank you Marlena for the bios on everyone before I came. 

Late night snack at a Greek diner on Route 1 - UMD

Pucker up with Testudo

Saturday was a slow rising but happy day. I, being the early riser, woke up around 750am (gone to bed at 4am). Since I knew most college students don't wake up until midday or later. I decided to read up on my class book, be productive....for about 3 hours on the cement cold floor (stupid that I didn't think to put on my pants instead of wearing shorts). Once everyone was up we were off to the nearby dining hall (HUGE and they told me this wasn't the biggest one) for brunch. Three chocolate chip pancakes, syrup, a banana, and water....yummy well-balanced (not) breakfast. I took the shuttle back to the Metro and went back to the apartment. Went grocery shopping (a few necessary things) and let the rest of the day go by slowly. So not interested in doing anything other than veg.

At night I went with Kristi and what seemed like a huge group of TWC peeps to party it up at My Brother's Place by the Hill. Kristi had gone before and said she had a good time. She also though the drink special ($15 all you can drink from 8pm-1am) was pretty cheap. I agreed especially since I had a few rail drinks (the same one everytime, new one for me, Kristi's suggestion). The highlight of the night had to be....dancing on the bar. Yep, I did it like Coyote Ugly without the water or serious line dancing to 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia'. All in all a good night (both Friday and Saturday) partying with friends. 

Capitol Tour, Sushi, and A Beautiful Sunny Day

**Please post some comments. I'm feeling lonely...well not really but it'd be nice to here from some people and meet new people.**

What a beautiful spring-like day it was today! It was quite different in the early morning, however, it did get sunny and bright towards mid-day. Worried that my Elon Alum Society tour was cancelled since I didn't hear back from the coordinator I'm lucky I checked my email before I got ready. Turns out our coordinator sent a follow-up email at 230am this morning to tell us she was unable to make it. I called since my good friend Jay advise never to go somewhere in DC without calling beforehand. So I called our coordinator and got the skimmy directly from her. Of course she asked if I had a printer and I reluctantly said 'yes'. Anytime I try to help it ALWAYS turns out tougher and more of a pain than it I originally intended. I tried to print on our printer downstairs but of course the IT person changed the system and now its not SIMPLE. So I could not print out the group's reservation.

However, because I'm pretty much on top of....everything I had planned to leave early (945am) to get there with enough time to go through security, get passes, etc. I got there really early and went up to the desk for our group passes. Turns out that the woman at the desk could retrieve our passes through a search on their operating system YAY! AND to top it off everyone with the exception of a girl who overslept her plus one and someone else who registered came to the meeting spot. It was really nice meeting former Elon students (one from class of 07' and 94'). I was thoroughly impress by the short film in the beginning. Cheesy as it may sound it made be proud to be an American. LOL.

 Italian painters American masterpiece

Women suffragists

The rest of the tour we were guided by a very comical, down-to-earth and historian tour guide named Dave. My favorite parts were: in the atrium the story of the Italian painter's magnificent painting on the ceiling of the dome, John Quincy Adam's secret insider spot in the original meeting room for Congressmen, and the lucky star in the crypt. I highly recommend going on this tour and trying out the special Senator/Representative tour that takes place during the week (M-F). Check out the website for more information: visitthecapitol.gov

America in time sequence

Statue of Freedom

Afterward I took the Blue line Metro from South Capitol to Gallery Place (off of the Green/Yellow line). I walked up to H St. and 5th to a fairly new restaurant, Momiji (Check it out). It was pretty good and I think everyone was happy with their dishes. We all got different things which was a good indication that overall the food was decent. It was nice to finally catch up with two of my classmates, Sachiko and Sandra, and get to know their friend Liam (also a TWC student) and Sachiko's boyfriend from New York. Later I scouted this hip coffeehouse that I'll be going to Monday with another Elon Alum, Lianna. It was a perfect place and I FINALLY got the chance to drink french press....it will be extremely hard to drink anything else after that :) Luckily my mom gave me one for my birthday so I'll be bringing that to Elon.

**Please post some comments. I'm feeling lonely...well not really but it'd be nice to here from some people and meet new people.**