OUR FIRST SNOW DAY!! (Friday, the 8th of January 2010)
It was so exciting!! It snowed all night Thursday, and then on Friday I had to go with a seminar group to the upper NW. We decided that for our project we would do a presentation on the National Zoo. Best. Experience. Ever.
My first time that I can ever remember seeing pandas, and at such a close distance!! The Zoo was deserted because it had just snowed the night before, which we were told was completely unusual. It almost seemed as if the animals knew no one was there…so they gave us special attention (and special pictures). My favorite was the “red panda” which is the animal that looks like a combination of a fox and cat…the zoo keepers had a name for her but I forgot what it was. Apparently, she’s a real character and was such a HAM for us the entire time we were trying to take pictures. She came right up to us…literally separated by 2 inches of space (and glass) and paced right and left in front of us. She even stopped to stare at us when we baby-talked her J SO ADORABLE. The Zoo was such an amazing experience, they even had an 80 degree room called “Amazonia” which held numerous species – without cages or separate rooms. It was crazy watching monkeys swing on the branches above our heads! Unfortunately it was so hot in there that my camera fogged up because it was 20 degrees outside (haha). There’s a picture of a once extremely endangered golden lion tamarin (I believe) doing artwork which I thought was so cute, so I took a picture of it. Perhaps what I loved most about the zoo was the fact that it’s a conservation foundation – they reintroduce species that almost became extinct back into the wild. It seemed to be a purpose that everyone working there embodied, and they showed it in their excitement for the animals and for us to be interested in becoming more educated about the animals. Almost everywhere we went in that zoo, someone had really interesting information to tell us about the animals.

After we visited the Zoo, Michelle and I moved on to the National Mall where we met up with my Australian friend Christian, who had previously been an exchange student at UC Riverside. We went to my favorite museum (Natural History woohoo!!!) and then the National Portrait Gallery. At night the girls and I went out to McFadden’s which was a bar off of Foggy Bottom. It was intense! I guess Washington DC people party hard cause they work so hard…or so we think haha.

On Saturday the girls and I visited the Air and Space Museum briefly, and then went to the Lincoln Memorial at night to see how it looked lit up. It was beautiful! Sunny and I got a little emotional when we entered the gallery below the monument and read all the little picture captions and watched the videos. It’s strange being here at 21 years old, versus even a couple years ago. I feel like I connect more to the events that happened in this amazing place years ago.

Sunday was the trip around the corner to RENT – the musical. It was a tiny theatre, but the quality of the actors and their voices was astounding. I was pleasantly surprised.

Will be traveling again soon this weekend J

The pictures are in a strange order because the site updates them strangely, the zoo is at the bottom and the Lincoln Memorial at the top.

Until then, love you all

Jamie

PS: I had to write up a brief statement about my internship for a class; I decided to post it here as well.

In my work at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto so far, I've discovered much about the structure of the firm and the relationships between those involved in the work there. The biggest tax evasion case in United States history is being handled there right now, so I get to see the daily information load that the lawyers work with. In addition to managing the case as best as they can, the lawyers are also involved in maintaining many websites (including international ones) that promote whistleblower protections. Currently the press is a large part of the work at KKC because the media not only wants the correct information and quotes from the lawyers, but the lawyers want to spread the message of the Brad Burkenfeld case as much as possible. Perhaps what I find most interesting is the fact that these people are willing to work so hard on the cases. They spend all their time creating action alerts, writing articles online, and promoting a better quality of life for whistleblowers who do the right thing but end up suffering unfair consequences.