Bit By Bit

So week two was definitely better! Today was a little rough to be honest, but I got a little more settled last week and feel like I know what I'm doing in my project. Now the question remains: can I do it well? Today was a little rough, and I have some meetings set up for tomorrow and little later this week that I am simultaneously excited and stressed for. I'm super beat after work everyday - who knew working full time would tire you out? I'm going to try to work on that whole self care thing, because right now whenever I leave my desk to go look at an exhibit I feel so guilty thinking about all the work I could be doing that I basically just have to go right back to the office. On the bright side I went to this orientation for an English Teaching volunteer program this weekend. It's for this organization that works with adult learners in the DC area, teaching ESL, prepping for citizenship exams, providing career services, that sort of thing. I met some nice people and I'm supposed to start this Saturday, though I have to reach out to my co-teacher because she wasn't at the orientation so I have no idea how the prepare. I really hope it works out though because the other people I met at the orientation were really nice! I'm almost positive I was the youngest one there (you have to be 20 to volunteer), but I met a girl who was working toward getting a TEFL certificate and I got the email of this other girl who just got back from teaching for a year in Daegu, Korea! I have no idea how next Saturday will go, but I will let you know next week I guess. I also went exploring a bit after the orientation in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. It was a really nice area, and I passed by a lot of embassies (mostly for a few African countries and then I saw Argentina). I decided my mission for the semester is going to be to try to take pictures of as many embassy flags as I can - I want to hit all of them, but someone did tell me that the Saudi Arabian embassy has armed guards so I might not try it there! I also made it out to a couple museums this weekend (Air and Space and the Hirshhorn) and i'm hoping to hit some more this weekend too! Unfortunately I don't have any pics to share of those museums but they were nice! Yesterday one of my students from Japan that I'm still in touch with asked me to send her pictures of DC, so then I looked at my pictures and realized the only ones I had taken were...well, like this:

Or this shot of a house with a wreath made of belts on the door:

So I'll try to take some better pictures for next time. Hope Monday has been treating you all well~ Also, I wasn't going to post about this because I don't really want to get political but I feel lik I need to say something...basically I just heard so much before coming to DC about all the big wigs and fat cats in this city, but I never expected for it to be so blatant. I was so shocked when I saw this guy up close and personal, I couldn't help myself from snapping a pic. Really shows how the 1% live, these political fat cats have lives I could never imagine.