Monday, June 22nd, 2009

As I’m writing this Kaitlyn and I are watching As Good As It Gets on our super old TV. She went to a used bookstore and bought us a bunch of vhs tapes for .97 cents each! This weekend was a good, lazy one involving a lot of hiking, reading, and Panera/Starbucks. This morning at work we went out searching for a cemetery that we didn’t have on our records and also to find a terra cotta well that needed to be capped. After being given the wrong GPS coordinates we finally found the two sites after wandering around the woods for a while and I even got to use the GPS unit to navigate back to our car! Oh and I saw a fox today while I was hiking behind our cabin!

First Daughters Sighting!

This weekend I went home with my roommate Kaitlyn, who is from just outside of D.C. After we got off of work Friday, we packed the car with laundry and empty grocery bags and headed towards Fairfax County. It takes about 50 minutes to get there, so once we got in we had dinner and then figured out what we wanted to do in D.C. for the day on Saturday. Kaitlyn’s dad’s company got us free parking in a garage in the city, so we drove down on Saturday morning and stayed until around 4 pm. We hit up all the major monuments, went by the back of the White House (where we could not even get semi-close because we could see Sasha and Malia playing in their bathing suits in the backyard) and went to Eastern Market, this really awesome food/flea market behind the Capitol (it reminded me so much of my Saturdays spent at the markets in London!) The rest of the weekend we just spent relaxing, watching movies, and shopping at Kaitlyn’s house. We got our groceries at Wegman’s which is a store just like Central Market back home, so obviously I was obsessed and will be going to the one near the park every weekend to get my groceries! Tomorrow we start our new schedule at work so that we can get every other Friday off, but that means we have to get up earlier, so I’m off to read and go to bed!

Also, please patronize Panera in my honor as a thank you for all the free internet they are giving me! And, if you think about it send me pictures because I didn't remember to bring any to put up in my room!

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Today my boss was in Maryland for a meeting so I spent pretty much the whole day reading up on the accession and cataloguing processes for the National Park Service and then got to look at all kinds of stuff in the curatorial building. Today our first group arrived to use the rest of the Cabin Camp*, and from what we can gather it might be a family reunion? Of hippies? We aren’t really sure but they’ve been nice and quiet so far, but I’m going home with my roommate for the weekend and we’re going to DC on Saturday so we probably won’t see much of these people! Tonight I went hiking on a little (it is actually 18 miles in total but I didn’t go that far!) trail that leads right off of our area and it was beautiful, I’m going to go out and take some pictures to post soon!

*So the park has five “Cabin Camps” which house up to 250 people each, I think. Four of the five are on the national registry of historic sites because the CCC built them in the 1930’s and they remain true to their original form, even in renovations for the most part (they are VERY rustic—the guy interns live in one). My Cabin Camp is the only one not on the registry because of how much work they have done to all the buildings here. Each Cabin Camp has a mess hall, kitchen, community bathrooms, craft house, and then buildings for sleeping, so groups can rent the camps out during the summer, normally over the weekends. Our cabin however is not included in the rental and has three bedrooms, a bathroom, and kitchen, so we don’t have to share anything! Except for the coke machine that is outside the mess hall that has been tempting me.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today was a great birthday, very different from last year (when us and our flatmates stayed out past when the tube was running and tried for two hours to navigate the bus system home), but good nonetheless. My boss and I were out in the field all morning with some regional archaeologists for the park service who were checking on some prehistoric and historic sites to make sure that people/roads/weather/etc. were not harming them. They were hilarious and so knowledgeable and cursed like sailors and tried to convince me to move to D.C. to manage nonprofits after I go to grad school—all I know is that whatever I end up doing I want to be as enthusiastic about it as they are about their jobs! At lunch Paul surprised me with a delicious cake and ice cream that was shared by not only our office but also the archaeologists and GIS specialist that we went out with and the four researchers who were with natural resources today! Needless to say it was a big NPS party. We then headed back out to hike the rest of the sites with the archaeologists for the rest of the afternoon and then it was time to head home! Got home, took a little birthday run, showered and then Kaitlyn and I went to a celebratory dinner and then to use internet at Panera for the night. Caught up on my emails and talked to a lot of people wishing me happy birthday and now I’m home for the night, about to watch a movie and head to bed, it was a long day! Also, NEWS FLASH: the interns just changed around our schedule and we are now going to come in a little early every day so that we can have every other Friday off…aka I have plenty of time for weekend visitors and/or trips if anyone is interested. And if you’re not, then mail us some VHS tapes and DVDs to watch…we’ve been craving a little Mamma Mia! if anyone wants to lend it out for a few months!

Pally Out!

Tuesday, June 9th (posted today because I have internet)

So today was my second day on the job. This morning my boss showed me the curatorial building, where we try not to spend too much time because it has to be kept so cold! After lunch we were supposed to watch what they call a Tel (I think), which can be broadcasted live from the offices of all the different National Park Regions to the actual parks. And the Tel for today was about Bigfoot in National Parks! I may have happened to mention my extreme interest in cryptozoology, which may have earned me the name of Sasquatch Sally when we were naming everyone in my office. Unfortunately our system was down because of a big storm last night, so we couldn’t watch it live and ask questions, but we did get a recording of it and will probably watch it tomorrow. Instead we watched a video about saving streams (did I mention we drink spring water that we collect ourselves and bring back to the office in big jugs? It is delicious!)--then comes the highlight of the day. The four interns and a volunteer all got dropped off by Paul (our main boss) with a GPS backpack unit, four compasses (I didn’t get issued one because I won’t really need it and the other four will since they will be out in the field a lot), a map of the park and a task: to find one of the many family cemeteries* in the park and find our way back to our building with the names of the five people buried there. We were given 2 hours and we made it back in 1 and half! I volunteered to be the intern to lay on one of the graves for picture purposes which I think in combination with the Sasquatch stuff has already established me as the office wildcard. But let’s be real I’ve never been bothered by that before, so I don’t mind it here either. Tomorrow I am going out in the field with my boss and the park archaeologist (if we have power tomorrow**)! Sorry this is really long!

P.S. My tick count is zero! Even after I laid on top of a grave in the woods. I really shouldn’t have a problem except that my roommate is a natural resource intern and will be bringing them into our cabin and our cars that we carpool in.

*More to come on the history of Prince William Forest Park but it was established in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps with FDR’s New Deal and was focused on providing recreation opportunities to people, especially poor people, in the DC area.

**Also, the power just went out here after a woman came and knocked on our door to let us know there was a FIRE on the entrance road to our camp from a tree that had fallen on a powerline. Me and Kaitlyn and Maggie (another intern who is about to leave) just drove down to look at it and called my boss who then called LE (law enforcement) to let them know what is happening! Now we are going to cook over a Coleman camping stove and then go hang out at some more park housing where staff lives down the road. We could go in to Panera, but we decided we are too legit for that. Also, we just got back from getting ice to keep our food good and the power is back on.

Hello from TEXAS!

Well, after nearly 24 hours of travel time, we finally made it back home to Texas. Our last week in London was wonderful! The highlights include a picnic in regent's park with nikki and kyla, buckingham palace, dinner and West Side Story with Nisa and Ayumi, our last festival performances, lunch at Chutney's (our favorite Indian restaurant) one last time, and a final trip to Young's pub. We had a wonderful summer, but it is nice to get to be home and relax for a little while.

Like many of you know, we came home to a new house today! We love it and are a little upset we really won't ever get to actually live in it for more than a few weeks at a time. That is, unless Mom and Dad are looking to hire a full time housekeeper/cook with a bachelor's degree in arts management come may 2009...but I doubt it! If anyone is ever in Sherman, be sure and stop by 2615 Silverado Trail! Until next time, y'all!


Cassie and Sally

Last London Weekend

Our days left in London are already in the single digits- 5! Our flat mates start leaving tomorrow. It is so weird that everyone is starting to pack up and head out in all different directions. Aviva will fly home to Montreal tomorrow, Sarah back to Brooklyn, and Kayla to Paris with her parents. Nikki is here until Thursday and then off to Turkey, then we leave Friday, followed by Kyla heading home to Indiana and Ayumi off to Barcelona next weekend. Goodbyes are never fun!

Today we all went to tea together at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens and then walked around Hyde Park. The highest temperatures here have still only been in the 80s since we have been here, but you really notice the complete lack of air conditioning everywhere in these temperatures, especially on the cram-packed tube or when you are trying to go to sleep at night! Texas may be hot, but we do have air-conditioning at least.

Leaving here is bittersweet. Sall and I both agreed that if we didn't have exciting things like living in our brand new house (that we haven't seen completed, yet!) or getting to see all of our friends and family, we would be much more sad about leaving. We still have 5 more festival performances to get through though! On Tuesday, Buckingham Palace opens for tours, so we are heading there after work, and then meeting Ayumi and our boss Nisa for dinner and then going to see West Side Story as a final goodbye. On Friday, we have to bring all of our luggage to work (we take the overground though, so it won't be too difficult despite the amount stuff we have with us) will set up for our final festival performance, and then Mark and David Hannah (the same guy that picked us up at the airport) are taking us to Paddington station to get on the Heathrow Express. After an almost 9 hour overnight layover at JFK in New York, we will be back in Dallas by 11am this Saturday, fingers crossed. See y'all there, right??

Things we are looking forward to about being back in the USA:

- unlimited refills of diet coke and iced tea with plenty of ice
- air conditioning
- being able to understand everyone's accents (and everyone being able to understand ours!)
- seeing our new house (and grandma's)
- seeing our friends and family and phoebe (our dog!)
- SNOW CONES, cool whip, and normal peanut butter
- text messaging, phone calls; means of communication other than skype and email, basically!
- target

Well, I will post again to let everyone know we made it safe and sound back home, but until then- CHEERS!