"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"- Kurt Vonnegut

So I found the above quote on the ONE time I went on Pinterest since I've been here. (Yeah, I realize how pathetic that just sounded). But anyways, this is me proclaiming to the world that I AM HAPPY!

Seriously. I love it here. I've only been here six days, but I already feel a love for it. I got here last Saturday and thankfully, a guy from my homeward, Jaren, and his girlfriend, picked me up from the airport. It was so nice and reduced the stress of having to figure out everything right away. My flight was awesome as I had an aisle seat in the 7th row. (7 being my lucky number, and the aisle being a favorite because of easy access to the restroom!) 

I moved in and got everything squared away and met my roommate Chelsea. The first night, we figured out she was the cousin of my bishop's daughter-in-law (confusing, sorry) so that was really cool. I already love her. People from our program think that we had already known each other. So that's good.

On Sunday, I experienced my first D.C. adventure: church. To get to church, we leave an hour early and bus for 40 minutes. It's only six miles away, but that's how long it takes to get there. You then get off the bus stop and walk up a hill (who knew there were hills here?) but the church is gorgeous. It was Fast Sunday, but a congressman donated cake so we could break our fast at church. Yeah, only in D.C. :) I think I'll really like the ward here!

After that, I grabbed two girls, Elyse and Miranda, and we did some touristy stuff. The Lincoln Memorial (and things like the Jefferson Memorial, the White House, Vietnam Memorial, etc.) are only 1.1 miles from our apartments, so we just walked. To say that I was excited to see the Lincoln Memorial would really downplay it. I was almost in tears. Embarrassing, but true. I have never actually checked off a travel bucket list item, and here I was! The memorial is just how I envisioned it: huge, peaceful and beautiful. We also had the opportunity to stand in the exact place where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, which was so cool! I took pictures of the Washington Monument from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Yeah, I just reread that sentence because I am feeling so awesome right now. 

We then meandered through the Vietnam Memorial, which was also very beautiful and moving as well. After walking through the park a bit, we walked to the White House. It's so much smaller than I was expecting it to be! This being said, it was still really cool to see and considering it's a house, it's still very grand! :) It's just that after walking downtown, all the buildings are MASSIVE and it was weird to see the White House after that. Being the adventurers we are, we took the Metro home. I like the Metro because it's underground and you don't have to worry about traffic, but it is rather noisy and crowded sometimes!

Monday was spent doing our final prep class and then we were assigned 2 other people to go find our internships. I went with two other people from the program, Emily and Jared, and we hit up their internships. I also had the opportunity to meet my supervisor, and I LOVE HER! She is seriously the best, but more on that later. We then had FHE here at the Barlow which involved introductions and pizza. It was actually really fun!

Tuesday was my first day of my internship and the whole day was crazy. I am not supposed to reveal where I work (whoops!) or identify anything I do, so I won't (which is so hard for me!) but I absolutely loved it there. I got on the Metro for only the 3rd time, and made it there plenty early even thought I have to transfer. For those who know me and my sense of directions, this was a minor miracle! I owe it to riding the bus in Provo freshman year. I work in the best department and have the best supervisor. She is definitely a words of affirmation person and I absolutely LOVE IT! As bad as it sounds, I am a gold star junkie and she is definitely willing to give them out. She is also one of the most positive people ever. The first day I was here, I made a minor error and apologized for it. She sent me back an email to just focus on what I did right and that my first job was incredible. She also sent me a list of websites to check out for free things. I think she may be still as excited about D.C. as I am! I like all of the other interns (4/8 of us are with the BYU program!) and a few of us even went to Chipotle (the first thing I saw after I got off the Metro!!!) which was really fun. 

 Later on that night, a group of us went to DC Cupcakes so we could celebrate our first days as interns. They were so good, and only about a half mile from our house... So I burned off the calories, right? :) We also had our first institute and it was on... you got it: how to find a perfect wife. But I actually really enjoyed it. The class is taught by the senior couple missionaries and they even printed off a pamphlet on some really different ways to tell if you should marry someone. I'll have to figure out how to put part of it on here because I actually really appreciated it. Their honesty and experience really enriched the class. I also really appreciated the orange rolls Sister Brown made! :)

Wednesday was also really good, in fact one of the best days I've ever had. With all the training done, my job actually started. Most of the stuff I am doing is so cool and I am so privileged to be working on! It is also helpful that several of the things I do involve skills I learned at the MBA office. After talking to other interns, who spent their day answering phones and emails, I KNOW I made the right choice. My supervisor (and everyone on my team) really care about making the internship a quality one with awesome skills. Two awesome things about my job that I am fairly certain I can tell you: 1. I get to have a Library of Congress Readership Card which allows me to research there and 2. I get to sit in on a oral hearing at the Supreme Court! All of the things I am doing here are like a pre-law student's dream! I LOVE IT HERE!

On Wednesday night, Chels and I (it is pretty precious that we are Chelsea and Kelsey) walked to Serendipity. I discovered that DC had one while on the bus to church (and about had an aneurysm  People probably thought I was crazy). Again, I am not used to actually doing things on my bucket list and this was pretty much at the top! It was just how it ought to be. I loved the cute little menus and the sign on the door and all the cute people. We ordered their famous frozen double hot chocolate for two... and discovered how huge that actually was. I have to say, I am glad that I had never had one before so that this could be my first experience with frozen hot chocolate. I LOVED IT! It was just exactly how I thought it would taste and it was probably one of my favorite moments ever. If I ever have a bad day here, that's where I am going.

Today was also really awesome. My supervisor and her boss asked me to lunch so we walked over to a Japanese restaurant. It was really cool talking to them about all of their different experiences. The boss boss's wife works in the Supreme Court building so he has had a LOT of really neat experiences. I also get to work on writing an article for federal bankruptcy judges!!!!!! So it was a good day at work!

I came home just in time for Tracy's birthday celebration... aka eating at a place called BTS which stands for Burgers, Taps, Shakes. It was delicious! We then all headed out to Sprinkles Cupcakes where we consumed free cupcakes! They had a special promotion where all you had to do was say "1600 Penn" (ironically not because of our location, but because it's a new TV show) and then you got a free cupcake. Chelsea and I then read all 115 pages of our reading assignment because we have our first class tomorrow! It's only 2/12 hours and then we can do some awesome touristy stuff!

So just to recap all the places I've eaten out:

• Subway (conveniently located ACROSS THE STREET from where I live!)
• Chipotle
• Serendipity
• DC Cupcakes
• Kyoto Japanese
• Sprinkles
• BTS

So yeah, I am gaining weight! And going broke! Good thing I found out that my building at work HAS A GYM WITH ZUMBA CLASSES! Yeah. And it's only $25/month. 

Below are some pictures of some of my adventures recently: 

My half of the room!

First day outside the Barlow Center!

The awesome picture of the Lincoln memorial that I took!

Outside of the Lincoln Memorial!

Probably one of my favorite things I've seen thus far!

The White House!

Outside of the building I am interning at

My cute little work space!

So official!

First day of work!

DC Cupcakes with some girls here!

Chels (my new roommate) and I at Serendipity!

The view from the top of Lincoln Memorial!

Our cute little church building!

BEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE!

BUT REALLY!

Lincoln Memorial. I almost started crying because I was so excited to see it!

Sprinkles Cupcakes! Today it was one of our students birthdays so we went to celebrate AND we got free cupcakes just for saying 1600 Penn. LOVE IT!

I told my mom that I was surprised that I hadn't gotten nervous. I think it's because I know 100% for sure that this is what I am supposed to be doing and this was even evidenced in little things throughout the week, like the fact that Subway is across the street from where I live.

I just want to take a moment and thank everyone who was supportive of this because I couldn't have done it without you! I'll keep you posted on how class goes and all the other touristy things I do this weekend. I LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!