Bad day. :(

Well, I didn't update last night because yesterday was a bad day, and my roomies and I stayed up late discussing things and helping me to feel better. I really have awesome roommates.

The day started before the sun was even up. I'm not a morning person. If the sun isn't up, I don't think the world should be up. It's not natural. But we finally rolled out of bed at about 7am, left here about 7:45 bound for the metro, and rode into the city. It was cold and dusk-like and sprinkling some freezing rain. But the metro was warm, at least.

Since my roomies are in a different program than I am, they got off a stop before mine. My directions turned out to be wrong, but I caught it quickly. Instead of turning left out of the station, I needed to turn right. It was a lot of walking and I wore my rain boots because it was supposed to get really bad. It turns out that rain boots are not for walking long distances, and when they say "a couple blocks" in Washington, it means more like 4-5 Birmingham blocks. Blocks are long here. So my feet ended up being sore, but I made it to the National Housing Center.

We were sent into the auditorium, where the first five rows were dedicated to Criminal Justice and Law students and the last rows were International Affairs (which I consistently refer to as "International Studies" and they have to correct me). Two of our advisors introduce themselves (including my own, Tomoko Shimizu) and we're split into groups of four and sent off to the Freer Gallery to do a scavenger hunt all morning. I was disappointed. I was prepared to listen to lectures and soak up information, but instead we're doing a scavenger hunt in a Smithsonian art gallery? Wow.

Well, one of the girls in my group was from Birmingham and her brother goes to UAB (I was wearing my hoodie) so I thought we would click right away. On the way to the metro, I figured out that that wasn't going to happen. These people liked to complain. A lot. They were not very happy about being sent on a scavenger hunt anyway, apparently because we're too old to be doing that (I've done at least two of these in art history courses) and because who cares about art history, we're political science majors. (I've discovered that I have a distaste for poli-sci majors, by the way.) Anyway, none of them had been here before, and I've been several times, so I offered to lead. But in order to lead, people have to willingly follow you, which these three did not. I consistently had to shout, "HEY!" to get them to come with me in the right direction. I was getting very annoyed.

We got to the Freer Gallery and they didn't even open for another half hour. So the caffeine addicts sought out directions to the nearest Starbucks and we went inside for a few minutes. They insisted on trying to look up the answers with our phones, which didn't really work because the kind of information you find in an art gallery doesn't work like that. I knew some of the answers already because quite a few of them dealt with Asian art and a couple just from knowing about Ancient Egypt. I was proclaimed weird for knowing these facts. Sigh.

We trekked back over to the art gallery and started on our scavenger hunt, these guys putting way more effort into trying to find someone who knew the answers than actually looking for them. After an hour, I just didn't care anymore. I felt like crying, because that's what I do when I feel intense emotions, whether it's frustration, anger, sadness, or happiness. I was definitely frustrated here because I thought all the students here would be serious about their studies and wanting to make this an awesome experience. These guys just wanted coffee and shopping and sleep. So basically we half-heartedly filled out the questionnaire (I have to admit that when asked how to handle a certain artifact and my group decided to write "very carefully" that that was pretty funny) and they set off for an early lunch. But I wanted to meet my advisor face-to-face and also wanted to eat with my parents because I couldn't take the group anymore.

I introduced myself to Tomoko and we chatted a bit. She said that she would send me an email of a bunch of Japan-oriented events and organizations around DC. Oh yeah. We've bonded.

I went to meet my parents at Dupont Circle and we decided on lunch at a place called Cosí. It's a sandwich place that makes its own bread. The bread itself was really good, but I ordered a pizza that was not so good. Of course, I was already upset and nearing a panic attack or breakdown, so my stomach was upset and I didn't feel like eating. But the regular bread was good. I dreaded leaving my parents again to go back to this stuff, but I figured the afternoon would be the lecture material that I had been prepared for in the morning and maybe we wouldn't have to split into groups again.

I made it back to the NAHB and sat by myself. They started shortly after that, going over some of the information, but then stopped and divided us back into our groups. We have a portfolio project to do this semester that is about 60 pages long, consisting of various things we have due over the next few months. They gave us a portfolio from the past semester that we could look through. I was not in possession of the portfolio, so I just had to twist around and look over the back of my chair as they hurriedly flipped through it and complained about all the work and how people kept asking stupid questions and how we were gonna be there all day and that they're leaving at 4pm, no matter what. I turned around quickly and just read through our syllabus by myself. Thankfully, that was the end of the group work for the day. We did a couple more activities, but I was really glad to be out of there at 4.

My parents were waiting in the lobby, so we just went to their hotel and I took about an hour and a half nap before we had dinner in the hotel restaurant. It was kind of funny, because we were the only ones there. The waiter/bartender was excellent, though. I got a steak, because I figured it would be the last time in a while that I would get to. It was really good.

I ended up getting back to the apartment after 9:30. My parents graciously drove me so that I didn't have to ride on the metro and walk the freezing three blocks back here because I was already sore from walking all over everywhere today. When it was time to say goodbye, I started crying. This is the first time that I will be separated from my parents for such a long time. I was separated from them in Japan, but that was only two weeks. I lived by myself for over a year in Birmingham, but they were half an hour away, and I had two cousins living across the parking lot. Family is just really important to me, and all the stress of the last couple days hit me, so...the tears came.

I came up to the apartment and Annie and Michelle immediately asked what had happened. I told them about my bad day and Annie gave me a hug and we just sat and chatted for a while until I calmed down. I felt better after like two minutes. Like I said earlier, I have great roommates. And Annie hates polisci majors just like I do now. :D

We talked a lot last night. We didn't end up going to bed until 1am. I feel a little sore this morning, but it's nothing I can't handle. Now I'm just waiting for the pancake breakfast we were promised to open. The rest of the day will be resting.