Today I woke up really sick! I had a sore throat yesterday but last night I could barely sleep and I woke up all sickly, like chills, mild fever, etc. I still went to classes though because I have a Journalism midterm on Wednesday and a Criminal Justice exam on thursday that counts for 1/3 of my grade. I also had a meeting today with my UW20 teacher to better understand the assignment for a paper due next month and he answered questions about the class, etc. After that I went home at 3 and napped until 6:30. I woke up, went to J Street (cafeteria) with Colin and I got Chik-fil-a for the first time this school year. Oh my god it was so good. Then I came back to my dorm and I've been working on homework pretty much since I got back. I'm sad because Michael Moore is coming tomorrow to speak and I can't see him because I have class grrr.

Wednesday was very busy! I had a nice lunch with Aunt Jill after class and we got Bertucci's and it was delicious and after that she came back and met my roommates and saw my dorm. That night I went to see Walter Mondale speak in the SMPA building. We watched an hour long documentary about his life and then he was interviewed on stage. I wanted to meet him after but the line was really long so I didn't get a chance to talk to him. On Thursday I got dinner with my friend from one of my honors classes and then we went to this Extra Credit sociology thing where we had to watch a video about Jackie Robinson and listen to a guest lecture about him. My sociology teacher loves Jackie Robinson so for extra credit we have to go to 3 of these lectures about him. Ugh. They're really boring but if you go to all 3 and write a 5 page paper about it you get a full letter grade up (like B+ to an A+) so it's definitely worth it. On Friday morning I stood in line for an hour to get Maroon 5 concert tickets because they're coming to our school in November and I'm going with Madilyn to see them. Then I went to Mana and Pa's house to pick up some clothes that my parents dropped off there for me a couple weeks ago so it was nice to see them. Then that night I went out with a group of friends which was fun. Saturday I went with a couple friends to the National Book Festival on the Mall but it was raining and there were tons of crowds so we didn't really do anything there, we left after like half an hour. Then I slept and did a bit of homework. Last night I watched "Juno" and "Knocked Up" with a lot of kids on my floor it was really fun. I woke up this morning at 12:45 ahh so late. Then I went with Leah to get Starbucks, did laundry, worked on some homework, and just ate cake because Geoff (our RA) made it for our floormate's birthday. Now I'm doing more homework of course.

Oh and this week I got a 98% on my first Science test and A- on my writing paper! Yayyy

With my friend Abby in my dorm

David Plouffe speaking

With Colin in front of the stage where David Plouffe was

David Plouffe

With Madilyn in front of a pretty fountain near campus

Ingrid Michaelson playing the ukelele at her concert

With Colleen outside of the 930 club

Hello everyone! Sorry that I haven't written in a week but I'm so busy that it's hard to find time. I'll try to summarize what I've been up to as best as I can. I don't remember a lot about Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday night I went with Stef, Colin, and Abby to this Political Mentors club where you help DC high school students with a political program and skills like debate, speechwriting, etc. We got free pizza there and the guy who started Students for Obama spoke, which was really cool. He was a really interesting guy who started when he was a GW freshman running this program and he eventually got to talk to Obama's advisors and was a huge part of his campaign. Then I went to a meeting of College Democrats and we had Freshman elections for representatives which is a big deal in the club. Thursday I went out to eat with some friends at a place called Froggy Bottom Pub which reminded me of Bill Bateman's in Severna Park, it's just like cheap burgers and sandwiches. Then I rushed home (I literally power walked) to watch the premiere of The Office and Survivor. I love television, what can I say. And I don't watch a lot in college so I feel like I can watch those shows. On Friday my only class was cancelled so I did homework in the morning. Then around 3 Colleen came to visit me, and I showed her all around campus and my dorm. We went out to eat dinner at Cosi (a sandwich shop near campus) then went to the 930 club to see Ingrid Michaelson perform. She's this folk-pop singer who is extremely talented and was so so good live. The show started at 6 and ended at 9 (she had an opening guitar player guy who was good) so after it was over I went with Colleen back to Catholic U where she goes and she showed me around her dorm and campus and I got to meet a lot of her friends there. Then I took a cab ride home, but it was $17 so I probably should have taken the chance of getting mugged on the metro to save money. But it was fun, and I haven't been in a car in almost a month which was weird to think about. On Saturday Madilyn came to visit and I did the campus tour and dorm tour with her and then we got Potbelly's Sandwiches for lunch (I eat a lot of sandwiches I know) and walked around DC and explored. Then I rode back with her to New Carrolton so we could hang out and talk on the metro ride and then I rode back right when we got there. That night I went out with Colin and Abby to explore Dupont Circle and that was fun. Sunday I didn't do much except work on a journalism paper that was due today and studied for my first quiz for Science. Today I turned in my paper, took my quiz which I think was pretty easy so hopefully I did well. Then I went to go study with Colin at University Yard (our little quad aka one block of grass) but it turned into people watching so I had to go back to the dorm to actually get work done. Then I went with Colin and my friend Krista to see David Plouffe speak in the School of Media and Public Affairs building. He was Obama's campaign advisor and was a really really interesting speaker. Then I came back around 9, talked on the phone with Anna until 11 and then just finished my homework for tomorrow.

Stef, Colin, Leah, Me, Jerome, and Abby (all live on our floor) during our "Friends" marathon

Me, Leah, and Stef before the Sean Kingston concert

Me and Leah during Fall Fest

So I did a lot of stuff this week, as always. college is so busy, i feel like i'm doing things 24/7. I went to a College Democrats meeting tuesday which was so exciting. there's like 500+ kids in the club, an entire ballroom was filled up with people. and they get the best speakers--hilary clinton and robert gates are coming next month, walter mondale is coming at the end of september, and howard dean and david plouffe are coming too. wednesday i met with my advisor to talk about classes, it wasn't really that helpful she just asked me how everything was going. that night i had a meeting for people in my department (School of Media and Public Affairs) which was actually really interesting. we were introduced to all of the faculty and a student who graduated from the school came to talk to us about the program.

Yesterday was Freshman Day of Service. our school started this community service day on 9/11 for freshman to help out in the DC area. yesterday my group went to anacostia watershed to help with the forest there. we had to weed out english ivy from the woods. it was hard work and i got 2 bee stings but it was still sort of fun i guess. it was a good bonding experience. then i got back and went to a bbq and community service org fair to learn more about volunteer work and a lot of the clubs here sound like fun so i definitely want to join some. i took a nap for 3 hours after that and then i woke up at 9. so then i hung out with my friends and then we went to a comedy show at midnight at my school. it was this improv troupe that wasn't very good but whatever. then we went to the washington monument which looks really cool at night and i've never been up close to it so that was a first for me. today i went shopping in georgetown with my friends and got a cute shirt for $10 so i was happy because i hate spending money. then i came back, got chinese food for dinner and ate that in my room with my roommates. then we got ice cream and ate that too (so healthy, i know). i just talked to Maddie on the phone for a while and now people are in my room watching a movie but i'm probably gonna study because i have a lot of work to do. i have a 5 page paper due tuesday for my writing class blehh.

Saturday my parents came to bring me my new cell phone and took me and all of my roommates out to lunch which was very yummy. That afternoon was my school's FallFest which was on our quad and there was free food and free posters. At 7 this rapper named Sean Kingston performed but he left early because people started throwing glowsticks at him. It was really lame. Then I got frozen yougurt with people and I came home and I was really worn out so I didn't really do anything that night. Sunday I did work all day, I didn't even leave my room until 6. Then I went to get stuff I need from CVS, and then went to get dinner crepes with people. It was delicious. Then we walked to Dupont Circle but got caught in the rain so we took the metro home. Then we came back and had a pajama party in my room with a bunch of people on our floor including our House Proctor (like an RA) who we love. He brought over Peach Cobbler and makes brownies and cookies for us so we love him. We had a "Friends" marathon with episodes from the first season. Today I went out with my friends to get Cosi which has really good sandwiches, I've never been before. Now I'm in my room doing homework.

Me, Leah, and Stef (I had just gotten back from the gym, hence my sweaty face/ugly outfit)

Wednesday I have the same schedule as Monday so I went to those classes. I had lunch with this girl from my honors class so I was happy that I didn't have to eat alone in the cafeteria. I got Subway for dinner, went to the library to work on my paper, and came back to type up my paper, and just hung out with Leah because everyone else was at Target buying stuff (GW does this late night Target shopping trip at the beginning of the year but I didn't really need anything).

Yesterday I woke up early to read for Criminal Justice, then I ate lunch in the cafeteria with Leah, then I had class from 12:45-3:35. After class I came back, took a nap for an hour, then I went to Chiptole (it's like a Subway but for Mexican food) with Stef and some other girls. It was delicious but really filling. Then I came back and hung out with Leah, Stef, and Colin who lives across the hall from us (I call him our 5th roommate because he's always in our room). So anyways that was all fun. We also hung out with our House Proctor who is really cool. He has an oven in his room so he made cookies and we ate those so that was exciting.

Today my only class got cancelled so all I had to do was get up at 9 to go to an Honors Advising session. They had so much food there so I got pastries for later, it's great. Now I'm catching up on all my reading and homework.

Monday was my first day of classes. I woke up at 7 am to get ready for my 8am journalism class. my roommate is also in that class with me so hopefully we'll be able to motivate each other to get up early. That class is actually my favorite so far, which i'm happy about because otherwise it would be really really hard to pay attention so early in the morning. there's only 30 kids in it. My honors science class is nice because none of the kids in it (theres only 20) are science/math/engineering majors. my teacher even said that it's a really easy science class and all you have to do is pay attention. we spent time in class making nametags and playing get to know you games so i don't think it will be too hard. then i had my sociology class which was more intimidating because there's 90 people in it and there's more upperclassmen. plus our grades are only based on 3 tests. but the teacher seems fair and you can get extra credit very easily so hopefully it won't be too bad. after class on monday i went to the gym with leah and stef and then we went out to eat dinner with some of our friends at Potbelly's which has delicious sandwiches. after that i tried studying but people kept filtering in and out of room which got to be sort of annoying. so now all of us agree to keep our door shut after class unless we're not working.

today i had my lab this morning for my science class. i hate science labs so i thought it would be hard but a TA teaches it who's a junior at GW and he's really nice and funny and we spent most of class learning to do excel spreadsheets which i learned in like sophomore year of high school. and we got out of class 20 minutes early. then i had lunch with leah and our friend oscar. after that i had criminal justice which looks promising because our professor showed us clips from The Daily Show. there's 140 kids in the class though. after that i went with oscar to go get this extra sociology book but it was really embarrassing because when we were coming out of the bookstore i tripped and fell on the sidewalk on I street which is in the business section so all these people in suits were staring at me. and i banged up my knees really badly and now they hurt. so that was not fun. after that i went to my honors writing class which has only 15 kids but it seems really intense; i have to read some book/article thing by plato and write a paper on it by thursday ahh. however my prof did say that most fridays we won't have class so i'll usually have a 3-day weekend! so after that class i went to subway and me and leah got $5 footlongs but mine was somehow $6.50....i dont know how that happened. and i was gonna save half for tomorrow but i ate it all. oops. then i just stayed in my room doing homework and reading but i've been procrastinating somewhat by calling my friends from home (i talked to erin and jarrett on the phone for half an hour each). but i'll get it all done. i'm living off of citrus green tea bottles for caffiene i've had 3 today and i might break out another one to get through my reading. i need sleep this weekend. i love college but i don't like studying.