Another pretty crap day.

Well, today was not so good, as you can tell by the subject. I've tweaked my hours at work to Tues-Fri 8-5. It's tiring working that extra hour, and I have no idea why. It's not proportionately tiring. It's way more so. Odd.

Anyway, I ran out of work this morning and opened my big mouth to my supervisor about it, who told me to tell her and she would always find me something to do. I started doing the sudoku puzzle in my Express newspaper (free, daily) and she came by.

"Hi! How are you doing?"
":P I'm so bored."
"Come with me."

It scares me that she's always so efficient like that, and always has this grin like "you asked for it." The Japanese. They are an efficiently scary people.

She ended up loaning me to another department, since mine won't need me until next week. The department is Global Services. I'm not sure exactly what they do, but it involves more databases and spreadsheets. And a headache that's been going on for a while.

See, their old system was...well, old. They were moving to a new system with the apps from this year, and had all the scholars fill out the online apps directly into this new system. But now the new system is broken. So the apps have to be moved back to the old system. BY HAND. Like HAND-TYPING. That's where I come in. Because I am an intern and no one in their right mind who was getting paid for this would do it. But me? I do it for free. :D

The apps are about 24 pages long. It took me about 2 and a half hours to do four of them. I thought that was it. Nope! Global Services Manager Anneke comes by my desk that afternoon when I'm finished with the first four.

"Were you okay with the apps?"
"Oh, yeah, I was fine, no problem."
"Okay, I'm gonna give you more to do."

By "more" she meant "a helluva lot more." I got two done and was working on the third before the system hiccupped on me, I lost all the data, and only have fifteen minutes left. So instead of breaking down to cry, I left for the day. Seemed progressive at the time.

On the way home on the metro, I started feeling ill. I read about halfway, then had to put my book away and just breathe and concentrate on not throwing up on the lovely shiny shoes of the businessman standing next to me. I made it out of the station feeling much better, but still craptastic. I got to the apartment and got an email from my dad asking if I'd picked up the laptop case he shipped to me. I tracked it on FedEx and it had indeed been delivered. I stole my roommate's shoes to go downstairs and pick it up. In my pajamas. Because I just don't care after a long day's work.

I got down there and the attendant was someone I didn't know and hadn't seen before. I've made a point to make friends with the attendants. I told her my apartment number and my name and she said the package had already been signed for.

...What?

I said that I had picked something up a couple of days ago. She said, "Oh, maybe it hasn't been logged yet." And disappeared behind the desk. She came back a few minutes later saying that she didn't see it and then showed me the log where it had been signed. All I could see were a bunch of strange loopies that looked nothing like letters, much less my name, and much much less my signature. I told her so and she looked panicked, kind of like she didn't know what to do. "Oh...um...oh my god...Okay, I'll leave a note here for Caroline in the morning." She wrote down a strange, short-hand synopsis on the situation on a post-it. I explained that I would ask my roommates if they'd picked something up for me. She said okay. I knew none of my roommates had done that. They're all Asian. They have gorgeous, neat lettering and don't know cursive or whatever that language was that was supposed to represent my "signature."

So I've had a package stolen. It was a macbook case from Speck, so it wasn't anything really expensive. I'm disappointed because 1) it seems like Fate has decided I should not have this case because it was supposed to be a xmas present and has been backordered these last three months only to now disappear and 2) I love Fenestra and the security and the apartments and location and everything. I don't want to have to fight with them over paying for this if it was, indeed, stolen. It's their fault. They will pay for it. I just don't want it to get ugly.

And now I've stayed up way past the time I planned to go to bed. I'm looking forward to tomorrow being Friday, even though Saturday I have a field trip with my class to the Freer/Sackler galleries and then to Chinatown for some chow. At least I don't have to leave until 11.

Wow, long time no see...

I haven't updated in a while, pretty much because nothing big has been going on. We were snowed in for a whole week, with no metro or bus service, and there was a cabin fever epidemic. Thankfully, there were a couple of places in the town square open, and our RAs put on a Valentine's Day card-making party last Thursday for us to make cards for the residents of a nursing home. They also had free cookies and candy and drinks. Yay!

Our vacuum cleaner doesn't suck. Which sucks. (I love that joke.) We told our RA, Ann, about it and she's put in an order for a new one. Yay, we get a new vacuum cleaner!

We went to the Sichuan Pavilion across the street one night. It is really authentic Chinese food. Since we had Alice and Michelle with us, we ordered in Mandarin and everything. They had these pork buns that were the most flavorful thing I've ever put in my mouth. Definitely my favorite Chinese food, followed by the frozen mini-buns we got at Maxim, the Chinese supermarket (not as juicy).

Friday, the government was actually open, but the metro was not serving our area, so we couldn't go into work. I had to take a personal day. :( I guess that's okay, because I get five and I was wondering what I would do with them. They're expecting more snow tonight, but just a little, so tomorrow should be a work day. I hope so. I had just learned to navigate that office and now I'm going to be lost all over again. But the first time we got the big snow, they only predicted 2-4 inches. I don't really trust meteorologists anyway. I think they work for the bread and milk companies.

We did go to this restaurant called Bobby's Crab Cakes. It was...strange. We went there Saturday night, we made reservations for six (even though only five of us went). Their food prices are pretty high, so we were expecting a sort of upscale restaurant. Nope. It was one step up from a bar. We waited forever for our food, too, and it's not like they had tons of orders. There were maybe six tables in the entire place. It was just a strange experience. The food, when it finally came, was delicious, but...because of everything else, I don't know that I'd want to go back.

Oh! I also signed up for some volunteer shifts at the Cherry Blossom Festival. I think I'm working three weekends, so far. Should be fun! If you're in the area, come see me!

Today, I need to finish revising my Individual Development Plan, and write my second reflection, both of which are due tomorrow. Alice and I are planning to cook dumplings for lunch, and then all three of my roomies have a makeup class tonight, so I'll have the apartment to myself again. Will probably go to Five Guys for dinner...

Snowed-in Craziness.

I haven't updated in forever because we've been hit by Snowmageddon. Yesterday was the first and only day in the past five days that metro has been running, and it was at half speed and for only a few hours. But for those few hours, I went out and got more supplies because this snow is never going to end.

Since we haven't been able to eat out, we've been cooking a lot of Chinese food. Tonight we're cooking dumplings, which we've cooked before, and pork buns, which we have not cooked before. Should be interesting!

Anyway, I wanted to update this little snippet of fun that happened just a few minutes ago.

Me: So what's your favorite English word?
Alice: "Cookie."
Michelle: "Ice cream!"
Me: No, not your favorite food, your favorite word!
Alice and Michelle: "JENNIE!"

They're so silly.

CIES = AWESOME!

Hello, all! Sorry for not writing last night, but updates may get sparse anyway. Basically we went to more orientation yesterday morning. A sergeant with the DC Metro police talked to us, gave us his work email, personal email, and phone number with instructions to call him at ANY time. This is an awesome example of community policing. I can't imagine the B'ham police doing anything like that. I found it very impressive and inspiring. We also listened to the best speaker I've ever heard--Josh Sundquist. He was so hilarious, and also had moments where he was very inspiring. The auditorium was roaring with laughter and then completely quiet. He really has a gift.

After that, we ate lunch at this little diner. It was freaky weather yesterday, too, because it got up into the 60s. So we sat outside (there was NO room in the diner) and ate. The diner had tons of different foods. I got a pizza. I was starving, so it was good. Not sure if it would have been otherwise. The others seemed to like their food okay, though. I don't know.

After lunch, we were all terribly uncomfortable from having to dress in business dress for the meetings, so we came back to Rockville and changed. We decided to go shopping because Annie needed some dress shirts for work. We went to White Flint Mall, which is a couple stops down on the metro. They have several stores in there, but it's not nearly as big as the Galleria. I'm spoiled. Anyway, I bought a few things. At H&M, I got a black scarf and crocheted beret. At Nine West, they were having a huge sale/clearance, and I found some flat boots for $40. Couldn't pass those up! There was also a Cheesecake Factory in there, so we ate there for dinner and trudged back to the apartments being dead-tired and fat and happy.

This morning, there was a fatal crash on the red line at Rockville Station. This is the station that I use. I had no idea about it, so I went down there and they said that there were shuttles to the next station. This added on 30 minutes to my morning, so I'm glad that I left early. I feel bad, though, because I just wanted to know when the metro would be back up. I got a text from Annie that said a fatal crash was the reason the station was closed. They have everything back up and running now, but people at the office were saying that it's happening all the time now. I hope they get to the bottom of whatever's going on.

Anyway, I got to the Intelsat Building, where the CIES offices are located, at maybe 9:04am. No big deal. But security in that place is tight! I had to wait in the tiny lobby for someone to come get me and escort me to the conference room. They had heard about the crash, so they were all really understanding and didn't hold my tardiness against me.

To the conference room we went, where we were able to pick off of a small breakfast buffet they had set up for us, which included fruits and pastries and different things to drink. Sweet. We had meetings with the two people who hired us, Tanya and Jeff, telling us all about CIES and giving us info and different things like that. Apparently, we get a travel stipend for traveling to the office. $10/day, given to us at the end of the semester. Cool beans! Oh, we also have 5 personal days. Double cool beans!

We took a tour of the office. Interestingly, the Asia region people mostly speak Spanish. Huh? I know, I was like that, too. I asked if anyone spoke Japanese, and an older guy looked at me and said, "Nihongo o dekimasu" (I can do Japanese). I was so excited! I shrieked and we had a little conversation in Japanese while everyone around us kind of stared. It was awesome. Also on this tour, we met Taeko, my supervisor, who is Japanese. So I greeted her with "Ohayoo gozaimasu!" (Good morning!) And she greeted me back. I love working with people who can speak Japanese! (Note: I later found out that the older guy was married to a Japanese woman, hence his fluency.)

I met with Taeko and we went over my schedule and goals and whatnot. I didn't really know how to put my goals into words. I'm basically just trying to find my career path right now. I'm not sure what TWC is looking for, in terms of that. Anyway, I explained to her that we have TWC programming on Monday and the times vary. She said that she was told I would be working Monday-Thursday, so we just switched my days to Tuesday-Friday. Sweet! Three day weekends rock! Well, it won't exactly be a three-day weekend. Monday is still packed for me, it just starts a little later.

After this, she handed me off to the guy I'm working with to lighten his load. His name is Kareem and he's so awesome and funny. Basically, CIES is moving to an online application process where the info is directly put into the databases. Previously, they had to type all of it in by hand. There are 800 chosen applicants. This is a lot. So they're still tweaking some stuff, and this is what I'm helping Kareem with. There's an Iraq program which has a deadline in a couple of weeks, so that's on our agenda first, then to the regular applicants. But I think what we're doing is printing out the applications and making files for them. That's what I was doing this afternoon, anyway.

The interns all met for lunch in the cafeteria. I am so glad that they have a cafeteria, because I didn't really see many places to eat around the office. And the cafeteria is really impressive. They had potato and leek soup today! Wow! So I got a bowl of that and some vanilla pudding and water. All of that was over $5. Pricey! I'll have to pay attention to that next time.

After lunch, we got our ID badges so we no longer have to be escorted around. We also had more training time or whatever to do, so I worked on the stuff Kareem gave me. I sent him an email that I would be by his desk at 3pm for him to give me whatever work, and I was over there exactly at 3pm. He goes, "Oh...you're...here?" And I was like, "...Yes?" And he goes, "That's...so weird. I mean, you're actually here when your email said you would be." It was so funny. So basically, I just printed out applications the rest of the afternoon and put them into folders. I should be getting my own printer tomorrow and then I'm going to print out labels for them. Kareem checked up on me at 4:30pm and was impressed with how much I was getting done. He also said, "I'm tired of being here, so I'm leaving. I hope you will, too." And I said, "Oh, far be it from me to dash your hopes." And he goes, "Well, I can't tell you to leave. But I encourage you to do so." I ended up staying so that another intern and I could walk to the metro together, but still. It's nice that I'll get to leave early.

So I get along with everyone fabulously. They're so fun-loving and relaxed about everything. It's a great office.

It did take me an hour to get home. That was a bummer. And it got super-cold outside. Friday it's supposed to snow. It's going to be cold for this little Alabamian.

I have other stuff to catch up on, so...until next time!