Today marks one week and one day since I have been living in College Park. Honestly, it feels like I have already been here a month. I miss home but I think once things start to pick up at work and I settle into a routine and it will be better.
The last time I checked in was on Monday after Abbi and I decided to go to Target. Monday night watching Band of Brothers with Abbi and Daniel I realized I was running a fever. I stayed at home sick on Tuesday and walked down the street to a local clinic that afternoon. Two things I have learned is I hate being sick away from home and if I get sick again I am defiantly not going back to that clinic. Even though they are across the country Estevan and Heather talked me through the day and kept my spirits high. I am thankful to be here with Abbi because she did an excellent job of nursing me back to health.
Thankfully I felt good enough to go to work Wednesday afternoon. We sat through a couple of training meetings at the FDA and met two other interns. Thursday we went to the main FDA campus in Silver Spring to get our badges. Wow, what a building I was kind of hoping to see the president walk by or someone equally as important. I feel pretty legit having an official FDA badge. We start working in the lab on Monday so Dr. Yancy gave us the rest of the week and weekend off.
Thursday we got up and went to the National Air and Space museum. I am surprised that it is the most popular museum in the world. It was pretty impressive, especially the 3 story missiles we saw.
Mom and Jerri came into town Friday about 6pm. Since we were off we slept in and decided to go for a quick lunch in a part of DC called Adams Morgan. Navigating the DC metro system is painless but learning what bus to get on in a real pain in the ass. It took us a few tries on 3 different buses to arrive on the edge of Adams Morgan. By that time we were famished we just went into a place called Amsterdam Falafel. Whatever I ate it sure looked and tasted like a hush puppy sandwich. We got home in one piece and collapsed until mom and Jerri arrived.
I was not having a bad week but having mom and Jerri here is just what I needed. Friday night we went out to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant right off the Union Station metro stop. It was amazing. Mom and Jerri have a similar place back home so they knew just what to order. 2 huge sampler plates a bowl of lamb steaks and some sort of fish all came to the table along with baskets of rolled up bread. We didn't use forks just tore off the bread and used it to scoop up some food. If anyone feels the urge to come visit us in Maryland, I will be taking them back there!!
We have to walk to take the bus to the grocery store so we can only buy what we can carry. Thank goodness there is an Einstein's bagels in front of our apartment because this first week we did not have much food. Mom and Jerri brought so many goodies from Kentucky because really needed so much stuff. On top of that since they drove to Maryland, they took us to Walmart and we loaded up the car with tons of groceries. Having a full pantry really makes me feel more at home. I could not be more grateful to mom and Jerri for really saving us this weekend.
Between getting sick and learning to use the bus system this week has really been a test. I am happy to be here but the overwhelming feeling of this huge city has not left me yet. Mom and Jerri really brought a piece of home with them this weekend that I will be holding on to until Abbi's mom arrives in a few weeks.
I know this was a long post and I haven't even told you about hanging out in the city with mom and Jerri. I will work on a more fun post in the next couple of days. Love to all and feel free to send prayers.
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