Quatsch!: 2011

This weekend some friends and I took a little trip to see Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, or TJ, if you will. It was a beautiful fall day and Monticello, located in central Virgina, is surrounded by quiet farms and woods. The house, designed by Jefferson himself, is really beautiful and unique. It was interesting to learn about Jefferson - he was an incredibly intelligent, driven, and inquisitive man. As we were walking around the grounds, my friends and I were listing off things that Jefferson was/did: he was a farmer, a politician and leader, a scientist, an inventor, an architect, a business man, a writer, a philosopher, an academic, and so on. I would be happy to do half as much with my life as he did with his. Here are some photos from the trip:

I have been up to so many things, but haven't had any time to blog about them. The short version - school was tough, but the semester is over and I've already started a new semester; I love my roomies and we have totally been having so much fun together; and I finally knocked Savannah and Charleston off my list of places to visit. Also, I have gotten into e-audio books that I can download for free from my local library and I am now finally able to "read" all the books I have been wanting to but haven't had time for since school started. Books I recently read and recommend: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (thanks for the recommendation, Raquel!), and Three Cups of Tea.

I think the best way to update you all on what I've been up to is pictures. Get ready... this is gonna be a long one.

First: Easter Dinner - my roomies and I had a bunch of friends over and we had a great time. Krista and Krishna brought confetti eggs, so even though we are all grown up, we still got to hunt for Easter eggs... with a twist. I was really proud of the centerpiece I made for the table.

Next, Jessica and Amanda joined me for a little jaunt over to Annapolis, which is one of my favorite cities - quaint old buildings and men in uniform, what's not to love? We happened to be there on the same day as the two universities have their annual croquet match - this has been going on for like 50 years and the players all wear the old-timey letterman sweaters and the crowd wears summer dresses and light colored suits and has picnics. It was really fun to watch and we plan to go back next year all dressed up.

Crystal and I took advantage of our brief lull in school work to take a trip nearly two years in the making - Assateague Island. It is this beautiful barrier island off the Maryland/Virgina peninsula where formerly domesticated but now wild herds of horses roam. The mosquitoes weren't too bad, but I wouldn't recommend visiting later than early May. It was so nice to relax and spend time together and listen to the waves... and fly my treasured "Camp Rock" kite. We stumbled upon an awesome restaurant on the eastern shore called Serendipity - very lavish to say the least.

Then it was off to the south with my friend Amanda. Amanda has recently moved to the area and she is basically amazing! It sometimes blows my mind how much we have in common. She is in my ward and is also getting her master's degree from the same school/program as me. She loves Germany and speaks German, but also speaks Dutch and focuses her studies on the Netherlands. Both of us in particular focus on immigration and integration issues and together we are going to save the world... or at least Europe.

I had one free week between semesters and we both have been wanting to head to the south, so we packed up the car and took and awesome road trip to Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. It was AWESOME! We went to eat at Paula Deen's "Lady and Sons" restaurant in Savannah and it was so good - we had fried green tomatoes and chicken pot pie - yum! Most of our trip was just walking around, visiting beautiful old houses, checking out parks, visiting the beach, and eating great food. I was pretty much in love with every house I saw in Charleston and took pictures of them all. I'll just give you my favorites.

SAVANNAH

CHARLESTON

Once I was back in DC, I got back to the grind with school, but have still managed to have some fun. First of all, they finally built a Cafe Rio out here and even though it is a 45 minute drive from my house, I've been three times this month (for better or for worse).

My roommate Jessica and I had some $6 groupons for Madame Tussaud's wax museum that were about to expire, so we, along with our other roomie Kimberly and my friend Steve, went to check it out. It was a lot of fun to pose with the figures, but I wouldn't ever pay $20 to go there.

President Jenny in the Oval Office

Finally, my roommate Crystal organized an amazing murder mystery party which we hosted at our house and there was a great turn out. I was Miss Polly Darton, famous country western singer and, as it turns out, I was engaged to a murderer!! Let's just say I called that one off quickly! It was fun to get to wear copious amounts of makeup, tease my hair up as high as I could, and speak with a southern accent... it was almost like being back in Texas!