Summer Break

Ahhh..11 days of vacation. If only I had the money to really appreciate it! Students get those nice built-in breaks, but we have no money to travel with it! Of course, I have some very lovely friends who help me do some traveling anyway. I went to Hyattsville, MD, Washington D.C. (I would have spit at the White House, but I only saw it while we were in the car and didn't roll my window down fast enough...besides, we really weren't close enough ;), and to Victoria, British Columbia!

For the first part of my trip, I visited my good friends in Hyattsville, and my sister Julie joined me! I hadn't seen her in over a year due to her recent teaching stint in Seoul, Korea. But now we are both looking for jobs, so we thought Discovery Communications in Silver Spring, MD would be a good place to start. yes, it's a bit far off for me, but it never hurts to make contacts. We were able to talk with one kind gentleman who asked to see some of Julie's graphic design work, and told me to get back in touch with him after I graduation (mostly for graphic work, but I have another contact there to help with the audio job search). Hooray!

Aside from job stuff, we also visited the Smithsonian (wouldn't mind having a job there!) Air & Space Museum, the Botanical Gardens, an outdoor sculpture garden (complete with Yoko Ono Wishing Tree...I liked the wishes for our president to be less of an idiot; no wishes related to this administration being good; and we added a wish for Obama to be the next President!), the USDA, the national Portrait Gallery, the Freer museum, and personal favorites like Olive Garden (we got a free lunch thanks to a sloooowww waitress), Target, and Panera! We also got to see our friend Jamie's house recently made over due to the show "Curb Appeal", and her new yorkie, Abner, and Anne & Kent's new dog, Shawnee! It was such a wonderful trip! I don't know where I'm going to end up with a job, but Jim Henson's former home (Hyattsville, look it up ;), isn't a bad idea. (Now I've got people in Illinois, Missouri, and Florida up in arms about that statement...don't worry...I'd love to live everywhere..I just need a job!)

I came back to Vancouver a few days early so I could do some sight seeing here, and yesterday I went to the island of Victoria with my neighbor. It's really pretty despite it being a bit of a trip to get there. We took a bus for an hour to get to the ferry. Then we took the ferry for an hour and a half to get to the islands. Then another bus to get to downtown Victoria! I'll have to post some pictures, but it really was a beautiful day. They have a lovely sea wall, lots of gardens, and tons of interesting buildings. I think it's funny that within a week, I was in front of the US Congress' building and then the government building of Victoria (and today, at Vancouver's city hall for parking permit annoyances). You can't get much further apart..I would say land-locked, but it is an island...close enough I guess.

We also went to the museum there, but just to see an IMAX movie..."Wild Safari". It was nice to see that a real safari in South Africa is quite similar to the safari at Walt Disney World. Or maybe that's crazy. Actually, I like it because I don't really want to go to Africa, but I've actually seen the animals. A video of the country is enough for me at this point. awww...baby elephants though! I wonder how Animal Kingdom's babies are doing. I remember they had Kianga and Tufani...I think I got those names right...but there were 3 baby elephants. Oh well.

There isn't too much to talk about from Victoria since we were trying not to spend too much money. The shops are cute, and there were tons of wild blackberries...i'm sorry I didn't pick any, but I didn't really have a way to save them. We did get some lovely waffle ice cream cones though...mmmm...and we got to put as many toppings on them as we wanted! It was just a nice leisurely way to celebrate summer break.

I'll have to post some pictures from DC and Victoria...but I'm being lazy at the moment. Not as lazy as my cat though. Aja is sleeping happily on my lap, but my leg is falling asleep so she's going to have to move. Poor kitty! =)