This week I tried to be a little better in posting. At least it's the middle of the week instead of the end!

JFK portrait

To start off with Sunday, Mariah and I went back to Gallery Place to the National Portrait Gallery. I have to say it was nice being able to use the free shuttles to get down there while the red line was closed. But we spent at least two hours in the Portrait Gallery, and barely got to half of the things, so we'll definitely be going back at some point. If you have a chance to go, do it! At first it seems very old, but some of the things they have are really cool, such as the original manuscript of Francis Scott Key's poem "Defence of Fort McHenry," with the first verse being best known to us as our national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner." There are also a lot of other really cool exhibits, especially one about the presidents.

And Sunday night, of course, for any Whovians who might be reading this (a.k.a. Dad) I watched the latest episode "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" on iTunes!

cupcake before...

... and cupcake after

On Monday we had our first day of programming for TWC (The Washington Center) down by Farragut North and National Geographic. We had that until 11:00, then Mariah and I went to Georgetown to shop and get some great Georgetown Cupcakes!! I had the Teal Velvet, which was just red velvet, but the proceeds supported the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. I found a blazer at H&M, we both got really comfortable PURPLE shirts at American Apparel (on sale!), then we made our way to the cupcakes. We also managed to have Qdoba Mexican Grill for lunch. It's not quite Chipotle, but it was still good. Chipotle's rice and spicier chicken just make their burritos a little more flavorful! But then on our way home we stopped by a gift shop in Union Station and got mugs for our tea. The ones that came with the apartment are espresso-sized, and definitely not the size for tea!

Monday night we had our first class of the semester also. Once we found where the AP headquarters was, the class was really good. It seems like it'll be really interesting, and we'll learn a lot. I was a little apprehensive mainly because I wasn't taking Law and Ethics with Chip Stewart, but I think it'll still be a really good class. Supposedly we're using the same syllabus and material as Professor Stewart uses at TCU.

Tuesday was the first day of the second week of my internship. It was a pretty good day! We had a meeting to look at pictures for different issues. Some of the pictures the National Geographic photographers are able to get are incredible! Besides that Dory and I did a lot of database work, and got pretty far.

Today (Wednesday) we started with a meeting to run through the proofs for the December 2012 issue. It was so interesting because a lot of what they said and did is what we were doing at the Daily Skiff. Four or five people look at the proofs and make any corrections they think need correcting, and this meeting is where all of those are brought to the table to discuss whether the changes need to be made or if things can stay the way they are. Some of the things the editors picked out showed how skilled they are at doing what they do. I don't think I would have found half of the things they did. Then we did some more database work and sorting of pictures for the photography contest. Then we had another meeting, which we have every week. After the meeting Dory and I were put on a different assignment. We now get to research roller coasters and come up with an angle for a story they will be doing! It's really amazing how much they are allowing us to be involved. I was never expecting to be allowed to attend all of these meetings, but we are encouraged to be at as many as we can.