Welcome Back! {DC Day 1}

Welcome to my DC recap #1! I don't know how many posts this will be, but I will make it bearable 😉 I just want to dive right in, but before I do I have to tell you. I just found out all my Finish the Sentence Friday answers have not been showing up in my Friday Finisher posts for the last month. I always wondered why no one really said anything about my answers. (Why didn't you guys tell me there was nothing there!?). But I was really upset about last weeks. I had such a huge important answer announcing my GW decision. So I am re-posting it in this post and all the other finisher's are fixed with the answer showing as well, so make sure you go back and read them!

The best decision I ever made was the one I officially made on Wednesday. After seeing GW last June I knew it was my #1 school. I kept dreaming about it, not only the school, but DC as well. I was so sad for days and days after we came back home. I knew I needed to go back, I knew that was where I wanted to take my life next. Well low-and-behold I applied and was accepted to my dream school and just got to visit again this week. Nothing has changed and the moment we arrived in DC, still driving in the car, I was holding back tears. The happiness and joy that that city brings me is something I have never felt. I have only ever lived here in Jersey and I haven’t experienced many places, but there is something about DC that makes me know 100% that is where I want to be. So GW is the absolute perfect place for me. First, it’s in the heart of the greatest city, literally 1 or 2 blocks from the White House. It has the most amazing opportunities at the Elliot School of International Affairs for my intended major of International Affairs focusing on national security and Middle East studies (as well as economics!). The internships I could get are like no other, the professors and speakers…just pure magic and wisdom. Everything is at my finger tips, everything I want, everything I need! The opportunity to break away from every mundane routine I have been living by for years and to finally branch out full force in to something so crazy, new, unpredictable, and exciting! So on Wednesday (the last morning we were there before we left), I went to the admissions office and signed my life away official enrollment agreement. When the girl at the desk handed me the paper, my mom got her phone out to snap a picture and I was trying my best to hold back the flood of tears again. I still can’t believe it. It still hasn’t really hit me yet. But I can’t stop thinking about it either. So with a full heart, I am proud to say that I am and will be forevermore a Colonial! Raise High Class of 2018!

Okay, now that that is cleared up, on to the recap!

We left for DC at 4:45am on Monday morning, I barely slept that night because I was so pumped! We got down pretty quickly and right when we entered DC I started tearing up, haha! I felt the welcome back vibes right away. At the hotel we were able to get in to our rooms right when we got there at 9ish which was awesome. We stayed at the Washington Marriott which is the same hotel I stayed at last summer. They have such amazing service and are so accommodating!

We had no time to lose though, so my mom and I threw out stuff into our room and ran out the door to get down to GW for my Colonial Day! It felt so amazing to be walking the streets of DC again in less than a year! It is such a beautiful, safe, clean, amazing city. Once we got down to the main building that introductions were taking place in, it was already time to head off to your specific school for talks by the deans and students. I just grabbed my official GW lanyard and headed over to another building. There we listened to the assistant dean of the Elliot School, a current senior, and an academic adviser. Everything seemed so serial! Is all the stuff really going to pertain to me in a few months? Apparently yes it is, haha! I left that conference room totally on cloud 9 and then we headed over to see a dorm on Foggy Bottom (they actually are not bad, at least the ones I saw). We also finally took a bus over to the Mount Vernon campus. I had no idea it was that far from the center of the city! All the way past Georgetown. If that campus had been closer I would have considered living on it. Vern is the green grass, beautiful new dorms, traditional residential campus, but completely out of the way and that defeats the whole purpose of living in the city!

(This is the Mount Vernon Campus...wow!)

(This is one of the kitchens in one of the dorms on the Vern...it's bigger than m kitchen at home! Way bigger!)

Of course this self directed tour would not be complete without meeting with dining services. GW actually doesn't have a traditional dining hall, but a few halls that act like food courts. Plus you have special cards that work in the surrounds DC restaurants and places like Whole Foods. But I was able to meet with one of the head chefs in the main eating hall and he assured me I would not stare due to my dietary restrictions. Plus I am planning on applying for special consideration for housing so I end up in a dorm with a full kitchen. Fingers crossed it will all be okay! I also loaded up on GW gear! Tons of car magnets and stickers, a new lovely sweatshirt, shorts, the unofficial mascot hippo! (I actually won on a spinner game they had!), a GW mug (tea tastes so much better now!), pens, and my mom got a sweatshirt too. I still need to find goof sweatpants though...

(I didn't miss the Cherry Blossoms totally!)

We were exhausted from there and headed back to the hotel to relax before dinner. (I will recap all of our eats on Wednesday!) I was so tired, but I couldn't take a nap, I just wanted to get back out there and explore the city! So after rest and dinner, my mom and I headed back out to view DC at night! For some reason, last summer we didn't go out to see the monuments when they were all lit up at night, so I knew we had to this time. The White House is absolutely gorgeous when lite up! Que the tears and dreams again, haha 🙂

(Yes I did take a While House Selfie! Haha livin' it up. Everyone was doing it, even men all by themselves were taking selfies, so I had to do it too! Some man asked me to take one for him, haha so awkward!)

I did not want to head back to the hotel, but it was getting chilly and my legs were killing me. We decided that we wouldn't go to the American campus visit I had been signed up for the next day because at this point I was fully committed to be a Colonial. No turning back! So we had all of Tuesday to sight see all the things we didn't get to last time. I was so stoked even though it was going to be another cold and windy day, I would tough it out to enjoy this amazing city. To be continued...

And some other fun stuff from this weekend before I go. I finally was able to get back into a normal routine, no crazy traveling trips for awhile. We celebrated my brother Jimmy's birthday with his required ice cream cake (which neither my mom or I could eat, so it was all for him, haha! I also did some great yoga on Saturday night which I will be telling you all about on Thursday and you don't want to miss it. Plus I am officially the grilling master! Haha, well kind of. Remember how I said I have been craving grilled chicken and I wanted to try grilling chicken myself? well I took the plunge and grilled a simple chicken breast for myself for dinner. I just spiced the chicken, put it on a piece of oiled foil and placed the whole thing on the grill. I cooked it on one side for 12ish minutes and then the other side for about 8ish. I think I may have over cooked it a bit, but it is a work in progress, hey 😉 O and I also busted out a 3 page essay in an hour and a half Saturday night. Yea, I feel accomplished!

So Tell Me:

+ White House Selfie? I never take selfies but who could miss out on a chance with the big White House, haha!

+ What is you favorite city? Do you love exploring on your own, or going on guided tours? My grandparents had gotten Trolley tickets for the week so they didn't sight see with us. The trolley took them to different destinations where they could get off and explore and then catch the next one to the next location. It seemed like a good organized idea if you want to fit a lot in!

***Don’t forget to enter my Momentum Jewelry giveaway! You have until Thursday, so hop on over and enter!***

And since I didn't do a Power Monday post today, I think I will link-up with Katie for one damn Marvelous Monday instead!

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