wash(bloom)ington

One of the strange things about my DC experience is that I see more IU friends this summer than when I was in Bloomington last summer. For example, one of my environmental science classmates is in the cubicle across from me at work now. My two roomates from last year and one who I'll be living with next year are all here for work or internships. Getting together with them especially adds to the feeling that we haven't moved- someone just dropped DC on top of us. And I get together with other people from my school now and then.

I finally had a non-IU outing today- our department's first intern social. We went to a Caribbean festival, actually a parade. But it was a far cry from the tame, marching band filled hometown parades I'm used to. It mainly featured huge trucks with the biggest sound systems (and biggest generators) I've seen on wheels, blasting Caribbean music. Following the truck, there was a crowd of people, mostly women, in shiny, colorful, skimpy outfits, dancing down the street. The crowd was also dancing and pushing further and further into the road, so it was hard to tell what was parade and what wasn't. It reminded me of a story someone told me about Carnaval in South America- but I'm sure it was a lot tamer than that. It was pretty fun, and an interesting experience to share with people you barely know.

The hot, humid DC summer I've heard such bad things about is starting, and I'm sleepy from being outside in it. So that's my update for now. Work is still fine, though research gets a little monotonous. I'm meeting more full-time people, who give us some potentially helpful career hints.