INTERNET

So i FINALLY got my internet fixed in my room!! My room mates both had internet access from day 1, but mine wasnt working for some reason...and it was SOOO frustrating.. i have a few stories to write about...but before i do so, let me just say OMG CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS, THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS!!!

The first thing i did online was go on lakersnation.com and watch the video of the lakers being presented with the WCF Trophy after their game 5 win. And is it really weird that it almost made me cry?? Like, seriously, i was watching it and i could notttt stop smiling. I have never been so attached to a sports team in my life..and i guess this is what it feels like to be a true fan :)

btw: Keith, if ur reading this, i am SOOO jealous that u went to the game..ughhhh

Anywayssss, lets start with day one of Washington: I didnt sleep the night before b/c i was super sad and having anxiety attacks. So i woke up at like 4:30am, and my dad dropped me off at the airport...ughh, it was SOOO hard to say goodbye to my family.. Well anyways, i had a stop in Minneapolis..and i finally got to DC at 5pm. My aunt, khala seema, picked me up. We went to an Afghan Restaurant for dinner and she dropped me off at my dorm. Both Lizelle and Nicole were already there. Let me tell ya, i was a bit dissapointed when i saw the room...Lizelle had mentioned that it was small, but she didnt say anyhing about it looking like a prison cell! Honestly, its not terrible, but im not very accustomed to a room like this. All 3 of our beds are in the same room..we have a full bathroom on the right, with a closet... and then in another room, we have a big living room/dining room. its totally empty, except for 3 desks for studing. Also, we have a kitchen. im excited about that cuz i love to cook. and this other room also has another full bathroom and another 2 closets. And what we decided was that Lizelle and i would be sharing the bathroom closest to our beds, and Nicole would use the other bathroom b/c its right next to her closet. Here are some pix:

My bed is the one with the yellow sheets. If you are wondering why there are so many carts in our living room, there is a story for that, which i will explain later.. lol. Ok, so after checking in and settling a bit, the 3 of us decided to go out and look for a Target so we can buy little things for our room...WELL, i was like half asleep on the metro and not paying attention to where we were going..and Nicole and Lizelle kept asking random strangers where the closest Target is.. and after many many stops on the metro, we finally got off.. We had no idea where we were, but we saw the target and hurried to get inside b/c it was almost 9:30pm. We filled up an entire cart with stuff and left the store a bit after 10. We were carrying like 8 bags of stuff, looking for a place to eat. We stopped at a Ruby Tuesday's pretty close to Target, and i was excited b/c the Lakers game was on... we hung out there, talked, ate, watched the game (and stole the restaurants salt and pepper shakers for our dorm), and when there was about 5 minutes left in the Lakers game and it was like 11:45pm, we started talking about how funny it would be if we missed the metro..we asked a few people sitting at the bar if they knew what time it closed (we assumed it ran all night) and we freaked out when we learned it closed at 12! We grabbed all our bags and RAN back to the metro. We were running down the long steps to catch our train to get home... (we were VERY far north of our dorm) When we got there, we were the only people waiting and the sign said NEXT TRAIN: 7 minutes. So we were releived..until an announcement came that there would be no other train coming for the night. This is when we started to panic... So we have no reception on our phone, we are alone in the metro station with a bunch of shopping bags, and we are all too scared to go back to the top of the station and try to call someone. Here's a pic of the metro escalators:

Well, we see a cop walking from afar..and we flag him down. We tell the cop about our problem and tell him that we are stuck and need to go back to GWU.. So after like 15 mins of making phone calls, the cop tracks down a train for us. OMG we were sooo releived! We got on and it was completely empty. And then we were told to transfer onto another metro train. Well, there was two trains STOPPED, FILLED with people..and when we got on, everyone was giving us a dirty look. So basically, they stopped the metro for us and everyone hated us. Anyways, we finally got home, drenched in sweat from carrying our bags, and soooo happy to have gotten back (but i missed the last couple mins of the lakers game, ughhhhh...THANKS to zayd for sending me up to the minute texts)

DAY 2: We were supposed to be at a meeting by noon, but slept in a bit. When we finally got there, we sat in the back and listened to guest speakers for 4 hours.. kinda sucked but w/e. Here are some pix from outside the meeting:

After the meeting, we put on our flats and decided to go to Target again for a few other supplies.. ughhh, bad idea!! Target has been a bad experience for us so far lol lol...So after a few metros and 2 buses, we finally got there and bought our stuff. Took forever to get home, but we made it. And by this time, we were starving!! We had no food in our fridge so we decided to go to Trader Joe's. Supposedly, it was just down the street..but it was like 10 blocks away. We were sooo hungry that we bought like everything in the store lol...Lizelle brought along a little silver cart that she had bought to put our groceries in..but we had bought too much to carry..SO i made an executive decision to steal the little red trader joe's shopping cart :) lol lol. So that is the story of how the shopping cart ended up in our living room. Later that night, my cousins Nader and Nezam picked me up. We went to a little hookah cafe in VA. SOOO good to see them. it was nice being with family..and we went to a diner afterwards to eat.

DAY 3: My aunt Soraya picked me up at like 2 and we went to the National Gallery of Arts Museum. They had an exhibit on Afghanistan so we definitely wanted to see that. i'm an idiot and totally forgot my camera.. BTW, it was pouring rain all morning. The exhibit was really cool and had art that i would have never imagined was from Afghanistan. Afterwards, we went to the Pentagon Mall and had burgers. She bought me some cool Tourist DC books and guides. And helped me run some errands. We also drove around GWU to see what was close by... After being dropped off back at my dorm, the girls and i decided to go out. We met up with one of Nicole's old high school friends and went to a cool bar that had awesome music. Pretty fun. Here are some pix:

Day 4: Stayed in my room for most of the day... relaxed and organized my stuff. But later on, khala seema came and picked me up. Took me to Georgetown which is totally awesome! SOOO many little shops and restaurants. We went to this amazinggggg Turkish Restaurant. and OMG it was the best food ever!! We ordered hummus to start with. yumm.. and she ordered something like a mantu (little raviolis stuffed with ground beef and yogurt sauce on top). I ordered a chicken dish that had homemade bread on the bottom of the plate, covered in yogurt sauce, with chicken on top. wow it was delicious... and for dessert, chocolate mousse. Such a great meal :) :) Khala Seema dropped off a HUGE plate of Afghan food so my room mates were pretty happy..and she gave me a cart to carry it upstairs. SOOO that is how the 3rd cart ended up in our living room lol Day 5: First Day of Work... basically, my internship is pretty awesome. SOOO laid back. Its in a little buliding, in a small office, with one boss and 3 interns. Our boss is really cool, totally crazy, and super hyper. She told me i can come in anytime between 9-10am lol. I took the bus so it took a while to get there today. And its really casual, so i can wear like whatever i want. HUGE Hillary supporters. So i love it. And im gonna get to do a lot of cool stuff this summer. So far, i really like it :)

So ya, i finally got to blog after getting here and i wrote a freakin novel lol. Enjoy!!