Odometer: 2448

So far my DC adventure has been quite fulfilling. I've been able to spend lots of time with my little brother Ben and see a lot of cool things.

WEDNESDAY
I arrived on Tuesday night and then began being a tourist the next day, along with a million school children with bright coordinating t-shirts. I've now learned that the district is always filled with such groups. While Ben was at work I walked around the national mall and saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Monument, the WWII Monument, and a few others. Oh yes, this was also my first time using the metro to get around. I only messed up when I was going through the ticket gate thing for the first time. Good thing it wasn't busy at the time. I met up with my brother once he was out of work and saw the Capital Building and the White House. I guess you could say the first day was for seeing things that you don't really go inside, except for one museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, which has some cool modern art and an exhibit using light. We met up with my friend Linda for part of the evening as well and walked around the city.

The Washington Monument

Lincoln Monument

World War II Monument

This is what my grandpa did on the USS Indiana

The White House

US Capitol Building

 One thing which was kind of odd to me was the George Washington campus. I'm used to the spread-out campus at BYU so seeing high-rise apartments for dorms and similar city buildings as campus buildings kind of blew my mind a little bit.

THURSDAY

Thursday I moved into my new apartment in Alexandria. I'm renting a private room in a house for $525 a month! In Provo that is more than any university housing but here in the DC area it is a pretty inexpensive place to live. I was happily surprised by how cozy the neighborhood and house were. I got all my stuff into my room and situated and felt happy that I found a nice place to live. This would be a great family house. Perhaps if I ever move to the area I'll check if it is for sale. I met a few of my housemates that night and with time met the rest of them (it took till Sunday afternoon to meet all of them). We are seven bachelors in this house.

I never made it to the city but that night I went to a great place with my friend Linda. The Salsa Room! I have been going dancing for a couple years now but this was my first time going outside of Utah, unless you count the very first time I went in Spokane when I had no idea what the heck I was doing. I had a great time. First I got carded, which has only happened a few times in my life, and then I danced the night away. There are a lot of good dancers out here.

On the way home afterward, I had the pleasure of meeting my first Fairfax County police officer. Yes, I got pulled over. One of my headlights had burned out... So he went through the drill of where I was coming from and where I was going. He asked "how much have you had to drink tonight?" I answered, "none, actually I've never drank in my entire life." "Ok," he said. Then after a second he realized what I said. "You haven't drank in your entire life?!?" I guess they're not used to hearing that outside of Utah. He gave me a warning and let me on my merry way. Yes Dad, I got it fixed.

FRIDAY
Friday morning I thought I'd do a test run of my hour-long commute to make sure traffic wasn't going to be a problem. Traffic wasn't a problem at all! The problem was that I missed a turn or two, my GPS told me to turn where I couldn't, and I turned the wrong way down a one-way street! After I got off the beltway the drive was cake. I got down to my office and met the staff. Most offices have one financial advisor (FA) and one branch office administrator (BOA). This one, however, has two FA's and four BOA's. Jeff is my host FA and has three BOA's to keep up with all of his clients. The other FA will be using that office exclusively in a month and Jeff and his staff will be moving to a new office. I'm excited to start on Monday. Jeff has been in the top 300 FA's out of nearly 12,000 for the past 11 years. Their team made the top 50 recently as well.

On the drive back I made a few stops to get some more clothes to work and to take a peak and Chesapeake Bay. It is large.

SATURDAY
Saturday was museum walk weekend for some of the "off the mall" museums. Ben and I went to some of those and then back to the mall for some Smithsonian museums. Some of the highlights were the National Geographic Museum, the American Art Museum, and the Natural History Museum. The section of the Natural History Museum about man's predecessors was particularly fascinating. Also, walruses are much larger than I thought.

American Art

Video Game Exhibit

Light things

Later Saturday I helped Ben move into his new apartment in Bethesda and after that we went to see the Washington LDS temple which was close by. Like the other LDS temples, it was very pretty at night. 

 Not sure what happened here...

SUNDAY
Sunday I got to go to church for the first time in my new ward. The singles wards meet in an office building in Arlington which was converted into a church. I was surprised how well they did; it actually felt more like a church than my last building in Provo, which was a church. There were a lot of people there and the average age was a little higher than my previous congregation. It was still fun though and I met some cool people there and at a munch and mingle type of thing later that night.

TOMORROW
Tomorrow is my first day of work and I'm excited to be getting started! I hope everything goes well with the drive and whatever I'm asked to do!