PROGRESS REPORT: DAY 3 IN DC

Assalamu'alaikum....

It's close to 3 pm right now, and my brain is slightly out of whack right now. I just had a huge cup of vanilla capuccino to keep me awake, but alas my lunch today cost $9.25, so I'm in a bit of a shock. I mean, I've had dinner that cost me more than that, but lunch??? I need to pay at a different counter the next time, yesterday the cashier was kind enough to waive the 25% price increase for non-LoC employees because I'm an intern. Today I wasn't so lucky. Darn. Oh well, no use harping about it, I guess what I can do is buy something near my hotel tonight and just heat it up in the office tomorrow. Seems like a good enough plan, heheh.

Linda, Andy and I walked to the LoC today. Took us freakin' 30 minutes again. I'm not exactly happy about coming in to work at 9am because that means I have to leave at 6pm (if I have a one-hour lunch). Technically I wasn't late, because we can come in anytime between 8.30am and 9.30am, but I'd rather come early and leave early so that I can see more of DC. So instead of taking my usual one hour lunch break, I cut it back to about 40 minutes, not an easy feat considering that the cafeteria is in another building and it takes 10 minutes to walk there. Somehow I managed, heheh. However, the walk to work was really nice, 'cause we got to see more of the Capitol Hill area, which is very pretty. Linda and I are gonna walk home in a couple of hours so that we can take pictures near the US Capitol. Hopefully we'll have more time later tonight to go and see The Mall as well as visit the Smithsonian.

There's so many things that I want to see while I'm here, 5 days really isn't enough to go around DC especially when you're working normal 8-hour days. I love going on the Metro and navigating through the streets of DC, I think I would be really happy if I get to intern here again for the summer (if they have any openings). Last night Linda had to go to an alumni meeting, so me, Tonia, Paul and Woo Yong went to Penang for a nice Malaysian dinner. I had Paul try the roti canai, while the rest of us traded entrees of koay teow, mee goreng and nasi lemak. Yumm... However, I have to say the DC Penang is somewhat dissapointing, the service wasn't that great and it didn't feel anything like eating in a Malaysian restaurant. The ambience just wasn't there. However, there's a Malaysian Kopitiam next door, so since Linda hasn't tried any Malaysian food yet, we might go there tonight.

I'm loving my time in DC, I guess the fact that our hotel is smack dab in the middle of everything plays a huge part in why I'm loving this trip so much. Yes, the food is expensive but considering I'm only paying 5 dollars per night in a $85/per night hotel, I would say it's well worth the food cost. And I love the work I'm doing at the LoC.

Okay, off to work again! :) ... Maybe I'll have time to pen in again tomorrow

Wassalam.....