Well, this has by far been the coolest but longest week of my entire life. Goodness. When I'm at home, I'm always complaining about how bored I am, that there's nothing to do, blah blah blah. Here, I'm like OH MY GOSH I DON'T HAVE TIME TO GO TO ALL OF THESE PLACES BUT I WANT TO GO! It's a rough life; if there were 27 hours in a day, I would probably be so much happier.
The good news is that I got accepted into the WINS program and I am seriously so pumped. The bad news? Well, it's not really bad but I'll be taking classes at American university while I'm here. As cool as it is that I'll be attending one of the best schools in the nation for the summer, it's also going to be tough writing papers and working 40 or more hours a week. That's alright though, a little extra work never killed anyone, right?
Continuing into my awesome week though, I met so many people and it rocked. Seriously, everyone at state is legitimately a rock star. There's not even a better word to describe it. I met DAS Luis Arreaga this past Friday and he is easily one of the nicest men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, along with the new chargé de affaires of Bolivia. What a nice way to end my work week, huh?! Not to mention, I finally had the chance to sit down for a courtesy call with our deputy director at INL and he is quite possibly one of the most interesting people I have ever gotten to speak with, as well as everyone else on my team.
The East Coast is a funny thing though. The first time I got into a taxi, my driver was like oh my goodness you have been so nice to me and you are the nicest person I have EVER had in my taxi, blah blah. And all I did was have a casual conversation with the guy...it has happened three times since then. Next, I got on the metro on Friday and it was pretty packed but there was an empty seat next to this lady, so I asked her if I could sit next to her and she was like "Yeah, sure! You must not be from around here...no one here ever asks if they can sit down, they just do it." The weekend has been a blast though, I've been exploring and getting out more with my friends from OU and meeting new people. Saturday was my favorite by far; I got to meet up with one of my mom's favorite people in Vienna, who allowed me to become a part of the family for the night and hosted an awesome cookout. As good as the food was, the family feeling was so much better.
Got back from there yesterday though and went out, only to have the opportunity presented to me to go see the National Mall AT NIGHT. It was probably one of the prettiest things I have ever seen, the monuments were all lit up and I really just fall deeper and deeper in love with this place every day.
Sorry for how long that post was, I'm just so happy to be here and it seems like each day that passes gets better than the previous one. The only thing I miss about home is my family and how nice everyone always is. SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY IS A REAL THING AND NO, IT DOES NOT EXIST UP HERE.
Thank y'all for keeping up with me, I hope I'm not overwhelming you too entirely much. So once again, here's some more pictures and a quote to end the night--family dinner with all my OU homies in like thirty minutes.
Life is not about getting and having, it is about giving and being.
-Kevin Kruse
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