In honor of Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday- I will be eating as much as possible today! Happy Fat Tuesday!!!!

So other than one of my fav days (any excuse to eat) things have been very busy. At my internship everything has really kicked into high gear. We have a lot of work to do for the meeting with not a lot of time left. The days here in D.C. are absolutely flying by. It is hard to believe that it is already mid- February!

The most exciting part of my internship so far was attending a Death Penalty Hearing in Annapolis, Maryland. The hearing was to convince the state senators of Maryland to introduce the abolition of the death penalty bill to the senate floor. It was a really facinating process. Other than being 4 and a half hours long there were also about 95 witness’ who wanted to testify both for and agianst the abolition of the death penalty. Parts of the hearing were extremely sad, especially when family members of victims of violent crimes testified that they were agianst the death penalty. It was really cool to see the whole process needed to introduce a bill to the Senate.  I was even on MSNBC! I was standing behind Governor O’Mally (the governor of Maryland who was testifying for the abolition of the death penalty) and they took pictures of him and I just happened to be in a few. Woot Woot I’m famous!

Aside from my fifteen minutes of fame, I am very excited for this weekend because two of my best friends from highschool will be coming in to visit me! Very exciting stuff!

A three day weekend is the time when you should get caught up with all the things you need to do. But of course instead of that I have been sleeping… a lot.

Other then an excessive amount of sleep this week has been pretty great.  I have been doing a lot of work at my internship lately mostly having to do with the volunteering aspect of the annual general meeting. Amnesty International allows students and group members to volunteer at the meeting for five hours as a way to wave their registration fees for the meeting. I have also been making a lot of phone calls to members who have general questions about the meeting. I feel like my job in the admissions office has prepared me for all the work that I am doing for my internship. Especially when it comes to interacting with members. I also think my job in admissions has helped prepare me for working in an office setting.

This weekend has been pretty quiet.  I have been just hanging out watching movies with my friends. For valentines day we made a big dinner and ate a lot of chocolate, which is totally acceptable on valentines day.

I’m sitting in my living room in Virginia admiring the sunset. It was an absolutely beautiful day which inspired me to go for a run outside. As much as I miss Buffalo, I do not miss the weather there. This whole no snow on the ground situation makes me smile!

This week was pretty quiet as usual. I was really busy at my internship. A lot the fine detail are being ironed out for the AGM including catering menus, room assignments and small program trainings. A lot of time was spent filling out logistics charts so my internship supervisor could put the final touches on everything.  Friday during my seminar course we visited the State Department. We got a special tour of the State Departments reception rooms. The rooms had furniture, dishes, rugs, and portraits from as early as the 1600’s. Much of the furniture and dishes were owned by famous people in American history.  I was hoping I would run into Hillary Clinton but there was no such luck.

I have come to love public transportation here in D.C. Not only does the metro get me where I want to go, its also one of my favorite times to rock out to my iPod (or just take a little before work nap) The metro here is so awesome and I wish that the metro here is Washington could be moved to Buffalo. It would make life 10000000 times easier, especially in the winter time when cleaning your car off becomes necessary.  The nice thing though is that UB has its own public transportation (the UB stampede) which makes my life great. I never have to drive to South Campus and if I am too lazy to walk I can even take a bus from the spine to Ellicott (sometimes I have a lazy moment or two) It will be weird to get back to Buffalo and drive everywhere.

Well I have to go, the Cavs vs Lakers game is on. Go Lebron!!!

I watched the super bowl last night and was pleasently suprised at how exciting the game was. Good job Steelers. Well played.

Aside from that, life has been busy as usual. The work week was very long and very busy. The highlight of my work week last week was meeting Larry Cox the executive director of Amnesty International. I feel like most of my day is spent commuting back and fourth. Living all the way out in Virgina is difficult when everything is happening in D.C. itself.

This weekend was a lot of fun. Obviously Sunday evening was focused on the super bowl and eating chicken wings and pizza until I exploded. Earlier in the morning a bunch of friends and I went to China Town where they had the Chinese New Years parade. It was a lot of fun and there was a ton of people there.

This week is going to be very busy. A lot of the key elements to the Annual General Meeting are being put together this week so work is going to hectic.  Very exciting stuff.