Merry Christmas!

Alright, everybody it's finally here!

I'll be back with some posts on what my family did and a little more on DC, but in the mean time...

HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Let It Snow: My Final Weekend in D.C.

Hey there folks,

I am currently writing this post in the comfort of my warm and toasty living room. But the question was how did I get here? Well, sometimes I'm having trouble believing that I finally got here myself.

Let's go through my final weekend in D.C. and tell you about some of the things I did to cap off my amazing few months...

Friday was the last day of my internship. I helped to train our new intern and worked on some papers for school. It was a pretty quiet day. I made sure to take an extra-long lunch and stroll around the Capitol for a final time. The thing I miss most about my internship is getting an "all-access pass" to the building. It's really unbelievable--even the parts the public doesn't normally see.

Late in the afternoon, the Chief of Staff called a "staff meeting". I thought it was odd since it was Friday afternoon and a few people had decided to take the day off. Well, when I walked in I was greeted with a big sheet cake and a hearty yell of "Surprise!" Sure enough, the staff in the office had chipped in and thrown me a surprise party. They got me a card and a few gifts and we all ate cake and chatted for a good two hours. What a way to end my internship! I miss that place already! After work, I walked down to see the Capitol's Christmas tree.

I had planned to go home Saturday afternoon around 3pm, but when we heard of the impending forecast (a boatload of snow for both DC and CT) my parents and I decided to move it up to 1pm. Then, after even that looked ominous, we decided to postpone my train until Sunday morning. I had to be out of my apartment at noon Saturday, so I stayed with my cousin Eddie and his now fiance, Ashley.

But I woke up early on Saturday, because earlier in the week I bought tickets to the Washington Monument. I braved the foot and a half of snow that had already fell and trudged to the top. It was something I had never done before. The visability was obviously not the best, but it was cool just to go up there (especially at such a unique time)! I then walked all around the mall and got some GREAT pictures. It was totally deserted. It was really eerie. I ended with going up to the Capitol and grabbing some pictures of the snow.

the National Mall...deserted

I checked out of my apartment in the snow (here's the view from our balcony) and braved the snow to my cousin's house a few Metro stops away. No one had shoveled the sidewalks yet, so my busting-at-the seams suitcase acted as a shovel. You're welcome Arlington Public Works! Once there, we stayed in all day and had a little HBO marathon. From Shawshank Redemption, to Into the Wild, to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (one of my all-time favorites), and Marley and Me.

For the movie buffs out there, I'll give my grades:

Christmas Vacation - A++ (it's a holiday tradition)

Shawshank - A (really well done)

Into the Wild - B (cool movie, good cast but couldn't really get into the character- such a hippie!)

Marley and Me - C (ehh, coulda been better. they kept mixing the years up: small, modern cell phones with giant Windows 95-esque computers. What gives?!

But I digress...

Anyways, I woke up early on Sunday to head to the train station. The Metro was still a mess and cabs weren't running. All in all, we got about 26 inches of snow. Last year, they got about 1-2 inches all winter! Eddie drove me there and sure enough, my train was delayed. We waited for about 2 hours just to find out it was then canceled. I raced to the ticket counter to try and get on another train. I waited for an hour and a half in line, while my Dad was on the phone with Amtrak trying do the same. Finally got on a 4pm train, so I grabbed a bite to eat and caught up on some reading.

FINALLY, I boarded the train (just after the New York Giants got off it, oddly enough) and I was headed home to meet my parents. We got in to our house about midnight. It's good to be home.

Coming up: Just because I'm out of DC, doesn't mean it's gone forever: I'm still working on some cool little posts about the Capitol. Look for those around the start of the new year!

Take care everybody!

Christmastime Snapshots

Hey folks,

It's officially the Christmas season here in Washington. The past few weeks I've been putting the finishing touches on my semester here: doing some work for the Washington Center, visiting places I'd been meaning to go to, and saying goodbye to friends.

However, last Saturday we got our first snowfall here in the District. My room is next to a bay window that overlooks Arlington and I couldn't believe my eyes when I woke up that morning. I hurried down to the Capitol and met my friend Brenna. We walked around and took pictures in front of the things we had walked by all semester. I really tried hard not to take for granted being able to walk in and out of the Capitol building at my leisure. It really is something. I'll never forget it.

After we got our fill of the Capitol, we walked along Pennsylvania Avenue and took in the sights and sounds. We stopped at the National Botanical Garden for a bit. We had heard that they had a special Christmas exhibit but we weren't sure exactly what it was. When we walked in, we found the main foyer decked out in Christmas decorations with famous DC buildings adorning the room, made from acorns.

They were very intricately made, right down to many small details, as you can see. Another cool touch was that they were laid out in the room, as they are in the city itself. (Supreme court north of the Capitol, Jefferson Memorial west of the Lincoln Memorial and so on...)

After our time in the NBG, we walked to National Christmas Tree behind the White House. The tree was translplanted there in 1977 and has been there ever since. Along the tree are fifty smaller tree adorned with ornaments from all fifty states. Unfortunately, we got there a little early and the tree wasn't lit yet, but it was still great to see it.

Later in the week, I got to meet Andy Card, former President Bush's Chief of Staff from 2001-2006. I had met him once before--about two years ago--when he visited Stonehill. Card has close Stonehill ties. He was a visiting professor in the mid-90's, a member of the Board of Trustees, and the Commemencement speaker in 2003 (while he was Chief of Staff).

Sidenote: another great thing about the season...Christmas parties! Free food, free drink, and the chance to meet people...it really can't get better. It seems like most days have a reception or party after work that I'm more than happy to go to. My intern budget is pretty tight, so free food is always welcome.

That's it for me tonight. Today was pretty hectic and so I'm hitting the sack relatively early. Get ready though. I have a few special posts coming up talking about a little art history within the Capitol rotunda. Stay tuned. Thanks for the checking out the Gorm-zone. Until next time, take care!

Thanksgiving Traditions in T-Town

Hey folks,

Hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving! We're in the homestretch here in DC. I can't believe it! I go home in just a few short weeks. Speaking of home however, I want to share with you my time spent at home last weekend for Thanksgiving.

I left via train on Wednesday afternoon. I had never experienced holiday travel before, and while it wasn't awful, I was stressed to the max. This is pretty rare for me since I love to travel. I'm a big believer in the whole "half the fun is getting there" mantra. Once onboard, I reclined my chair, whipped out my iPod, and read my Washington Post and before I knew it I was back in CT. It was really great to see my parents again and when I got into the car, the entire backseat was full of food and candy to nourish me after my long journey (they know me too well).

On Thanksgiving morning, we all woke up early and took part in a little tradition for our family: the Manchester Road Race. It's a 5 mile road race in my Dad's hometown of Manchester that usually gets about 14,000 particpants. I've run it five times now and I love it! It's a great atmosphere: people cheering on the side of the road, bands playing on the side of the road, and--this year--great weather!
My aunt and two of my uncles joined us this year. While I ran, they went into a pub across the street from the finish line and took advantage of their morning menu of fried dough and coffee. After I showered and peeled the UnderArmour off me, we all headed to my other aunt's for Thanksgiving dinner. It was great to see everybody again. I hadn't seen most of them in quite a few months. Since I ran quite well earlier in the day, I decided to give myself an extra helping of apple pie!

The next day my Mom and I took part in another Thanksgiving weekend tradition: the Black Friday wake-up call. We really don't have anything to get, we just to it to see what's going on and maybe a little people watching. This year's alarm rang at 4:30am and we were out the door at 4:45. Our first stop was JCPenney to grab our free snowglobes, as we do every year. We then headed to Walmart and Target. Walmart was an absolute madhouse. They had gates--like those you'd see used to keep cattle contained--used to form lines outside the store. Once inside, it was practically chaos. People were lugging TVs out like they going out of style. I also counted 5 police officers on duty, as well as private security. It was ridiculous.

We returned home at 6:15am and after some more sleep, I met up with Deanna, an old friend from high school. We usually meet up at a restaurant called Fuji (it's the kind where they make the food in front of you) and this time was no different. We hadn't seen each other since the spring and it was great to catch up. We also compared stories from our early morning shopping excursions.

That night, my Mom and I started our Christmas baking. Our family hosts Christmas Eve and there has many traditions that come with it. We have a traditional Slovak supper and everything is made from scratch. My grandma passed the recipes down to my mom and she is passing them down to me. I've gotten to be a pretty good baker in the last few years have taken some dishes on myself. But more on this in another post...

On Saturday, a few of my cousins came down. My cousin Dave and his wife had a kid about a year ago: Jack. My cousin Steph and her husband also had a son in August: Chase. It was great to see them again.

Jack is growing like a weed, I remember when he was only a few days old. Jack is crawling all over the place and I volunteered to watch him while Mom and Dad took a break. He kept me moving throughout because he loves opening doors. He bounced from room to room opening and closing doors, then playing with the little door-stop connected to the wall.

That night, I met up with some old high school friends and got home relatively early because we had to decorate the Christmas tree our family had picked out earlier in the day. We had incredible luck this year. Where it would normally take a whole day (and a whole lot of arguing) to pick out a tree...this year it took us one stop and about 20 minutes!

But we got ours in the end: apparently a tree is supposed to be able to "stand up on it's own"?! Pshh, who knew! After it fell for the 3rd time, we thought we were doomed but it is still (fingers crossed) standing as I write.

Before I knew it, the weekend was over and I was on a train back to DC Sunday afternoon. I knew it wouldn't be too long before I was back home for good. But until then, I'm ready to make these last few weeks in Washington an absolute blast!

Take care!

A Saturday in the Senate

Hey folks,

Just wanted to fill you all in a very interesting Saturday I had lately. My friend Brenna had a few family friends come down to visit her and she asked me if I could give them a tour of the Capitol. Having nothing better to do on a Saturday (as well as being huge nerd), I said yes.

I got up around noon and headed down to the Capitol to meet them at 1pm. I showed them all the in's and out's of the Capitol as well as some neat little things you normally don't get to see on tours. Here I am with a statue of Joe Martin, namesake of the Martin Institute at Stonehill, on display near the Majority Leader's office in the Capitol.

I knew that the Senate was debating whether or not to take up the health care bill or not, so I decided to head to the gallery and check it out. I got a seat in the front row around 2:30pm. I was pretty interested and the hours moved pretty quickly. Before I knew it, I was about 5pm and I was ready to go. Just then, Senator John McCain (a favorite of mine) came out to give a speech. He ended around 6pm. Since they were voting at 8pm, I decided just to stick it out and watch. At around 8pm, the gallery became more and more filled around me and all the Senators came to the floor and took their seats at their desks.

In this age of C-SPAN and 24 hour media, it is very rare to have more than just a few Senators on the floor at once...let alone 99 of them. (Where were you George Voinovich??) It was also very rare to see Senator Robert Byrd on the floor. Senator Byrd is 92 years old and is the longest serving member of Congress ever. He took office on January 3, 1959! He is quite frail nowadays and makes appearances on the Senate floor only sparingly, so this was a treat.

I watched them each rise from their desk when their name was called and register either an "AYE" or "NAY" vote. Unlike the House--which votes via electronic device--the Senate votes through a roll call. It was about 8:30pm when I got out of the chamber.

I looked like a zombie: eyes red, feet asleep, stomach growling. Now, they are pretty strict in the gallery. You obviously are not allowed to eat, drink, or take pictures, but you're also not allowed to have any electronics inside. Also, if you leave your seat, it is up for grabs. So I had not eaten anything all day (since I only anticipated going to the Capitol for about an hour or so).

I then stopped to call my parents from the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building. On a hunch, I told them to turn on FOX News, which was doing a live shot from just in front of me. I walked in and out of the shot on my cellphone, looking away and trying to make it seem like I had no idea that the camera caught me. But sure enough, my mom saw me! haha!

On the way out of the Capitol, I met Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. I stopped and chatted with him for a few minutes and he couldn't have been nicer. He is pretty big guy, much taller than me. After I was done with him, he was swallowed up my a news station.Quite a Saturday.

I love this town.

Take care!