Well, in case y'all were wondering, I arrived safely in Washington. The trip, however, was adventurous and full of drama. I really, really hope this isn't going to be a common theme every time I head home. To offset my bad luck, here is an upbeat song for this posting, it is from the movie Pitch Perfect, a movie that Mom and I watched while I was home:
a good mashup of songs
My flight left Edmonton at 7am, meaning we had to be at the airport by 5am. My dad and stepmom truly loves me for waking up at 4am to get me there by 5 hahaha. I had thought that getting through security and customs at 5am would be easy peasy....how mistaken I was. Got to my area and approached the ticket agent. I get the comment, yet again, about how many flights I was taking that day (next time that will not be the case whatsoever). I get all my tickets, check my baggage and off to customs I go and holy schnikey the line up was massive for customs; turns out the airport is pretty busy at 5 am (but at least customs was open). Get in line for customs and wait, wait, wait some more, but thankfully the line up was moving pretty fast. I get up to the customs agent, hand him my passport, F1 paperwork and SEVIS. He asks me what all the paperwork is for and I tell him that I am on a student visa and they are my subsequent paperwork. He glances through the papers and asks me where my I94 form is. Now, when I first came down in August and cleared customs in Houston, Texas, I was told that things have changed and an I94 was no longer needed so they stamped my passport, stamped my F1 and let me go. That was Houston. Edmonton - totally different story. So, when Edmonton asks me for my I94 form, I tell him that when I flew through Houston, they didn't require one and let me through with my paperwork as is. Well he didn't like that answer. So I had to go get the form, fill it out, and then, thankfully he said this, I could go to the front of the line and see an agent. So I do that. I get up to the line and go see another customs agent. I get up to see him, give him my passport, F1 paperwork, SEVIS receipt and newly filled in I94. He looks at the I94 and asks me why it isn't stamped and I tell him that I just filled it out and proceeded to tell him the Houston story.
He didn't seem to agree or like the Houston story, scanned my passport and then told me that we had to go into the security area for him to verify that I am in the system and all that jazz. Get into the security area (had to go through 3 locked doors for this place) and I sit and wait for him to do whatever it is he is doing to make sure I can get on a plane. By this time, I am looking at my clock, seeing that I only have 45 minutes left to make my flight. Finally he calls me up and tells me that everything is good; he proceeds to lecture me about not losing my I94, at this point he is stapling said document into my passport to make sure I don't lose it. I thank him, tell him to have a wonderful day, and he answers "I shall try" (yeah, cause dealing with me was the most horriblest experience known to man and I clearly look like a national threat). I make it to my flight and we sit there, and sit there, and sit there while we are getting deiced (I think I listened to about 3 Meatloaf songs which gives you a rough guestimate as to how long we were waiting to be deiced/cleared for takeoff). While we are sitting there, about 4 vehicles with some sort of flashing lights pulls up to our plane - my imagination goes haywire, thinking that they were not going to allow me into the country and all this jazz. But as we all know, my imagination gets the better of me most times so this didn't actually happen, obviously. We get cleared to take off and we are up in the air. Chicago is the first pit stop.
Get to O'Hare and low and behold, we deboard the airplane while still on the tarmac. No red carpet or anything like that rolled out for us, but it still felt both exciting yet 'what the hell is this' at the same time. Get into the airport and I am quite happy that I do not have to go through security again or anything like that - finally an airport that I like. I get to my gate and my luck runs out - there is a sign saying that my flight, which was to leave around 1pm was delayed and wasn't getting in until 1:30pm. I instantly think of my flight in New York and how that was going to affect it, but I had about a 2 hour layover in New York so I should be okay. Go get a quick bite to eat since the morning flight didn't have any food and sit and wait for my flight to arrive. Waiting, waiting, waiting some more. Everytime I saw a plane arrive, I got happy, thinking it was my plane, but it wasn't. And they weren't because I was watching the wrong bloody gate hahaha. Eventually, closer to 2, we board the plane and get on our way to New York. Now it is quite funny, flying over New York, it looks like those 3D puzzles - very fake in a way but very awe-filling.
Get to La Guardia, and I am going to say this now - I am never, ever, ever going to fly through La Guardia ever again. I would highly suggest you avoid the same thing. It is not a fun airport to make your way through at all. Especially when one is trying to make a connecting flight without missing it. Also, when you fly into a terminal in Gate C15, and you fly out of gate C27, they are not necessarily in the same terminal, much to my dismay. So I get to my terminal, go through security (at which point in time I ask the guy to scan my luggage receipt to see if my luggage is at La Guardia/on the plane and he tells me that he doesn't do that - okay), glance at the time, grab my boots and whatnot from the xray and run, in my sock feet, to my gate to get there in time. Yep. I ran through La Guardia in my socks. Probably not the first time they have seen that and won't be my last time of doing that (except for in La Guardia as I am never flying through there again).
I get to my gate and ask the agent to scan my luggage receipt to see if my luggage is on the flight/at the airport as I had this sinking feeling that my luggage isn't going to go with me to Washington. She tells me that my luggage will arrive at my final destination - I then try to tell her that I started in Edmonton, stopped over in Chicago and New York was my final flight to Washington, my final destination. She tells me again, kind of snarkily, that my luggage will arrive at my final destination. I guess to her credit, she never did tell me when my luggage would have arrived, just that it would have arrived at my final destination. I get on my final plane, hoping that my luggage is with me.
Arrive in Washington - woohoo!!!! Make my way down to the luggage carousel area and watch and wait for my luggage. People start grabbing theirs, seeing loved ones, leaving the airport; I am still there. I give it time, wait, and finally decide to go see the luggage agents. I tell them my travelling day and she scans my luggage receipt. Scans it again. Manually enters the numbers in. She says 'your luggage isn't even logged into our system'. Oh, wonderful. Okay then. What does that mean? She asks was airline I flew with before getting to New York and I tell her so she phones down to them to see if, for some reason, they have my luggage. I don't know what was said on the phone but the gist of what I was getting was it was a blaming war - airline 1 blaming airline 2 for not transferring my luggage over or something like that. Not sure. I don't care. Just get me my damn luggage. So I fill out the paperwork needed for them to bring me my luggage and all that jazz. So, yet again, I fly into a city without my luggage in tow. If there was a way for me to have gone a month and a bit on just a carryon luggage, that will be my next travelling mode. I arrive home and promptly crash.
So the biggest thing that I have done since being back is the 57th Presidential Inauguration. My original plans were to hit both the Swearing-In Ceremony and the Parade, but that totally didn't pan out. The swearing-in was scheduled to happen at 11:30am; I left my place around 9am and yep, it is a good thing I did. I had scoped out the entire map and plan before leaving to make sure I knew what I should be doing - that all went out the window. I got into line to clear through security for the parade/mall - I stand in line for about half an hour and suddenly people start getting out of the line. Whispers were saying that the line was now only for parade route only people and that for the National Mall, we had to go to the 17th street security station. I was on 12th - 5 blocks - easy peasy. Wrong again. Because of the parade route, they had closed basically everything off. A 5 block walk turned into a 45 minute hike to get to the Mall, but I finally did. I found a good spot in front of one of the jumbo trons and prepared myself for the wait, the brisk air and the people. This was the first time I have ever actually watched a swearing-in (in person and on tv) and being in that environment was amazing.
The people were so proud to be American and cheered and booed and just, it was amazing. I will say that I felt a little patriotic at some points during the speech hahaha. If you want a full reading of Obama's speech, here it is:
Obama's 2013 Inauguration Speech He was such an amazing speaker; classy, eloquent and hit home with people. And I realized that even though it wasn't as big as his first Inauguration, this is the last time a black president will be in office until who knows how long, so it is still something for the ages. He was smiling and just loved it. Same as Biden. I like him. He seems like a good character. I know nothing about him - but I like his face......hahaha.
After the speech, I met up with Colleen and Anthony; I had wanted to stay for the parade, but then when we started walking towards the security checkpoint for the parade, they had closed it down and were telling people to go to another one. We decided to kybosh the parade then and decided to meet up with Stephanie. We get to Federal Triangle metro station, and the line up to get into the station was probably over an hours wait. No dice. There was a pizza restaurant right around there so we thought to go get some food and then the metro line will die down and we can get on. 3 hours wait for a table in the restaurant. No dice. So then we decide to walk to L'Enfant Station as it is huge and should be no problem getting onto a train (we couldn't walk to Stephanie as we were on opposite sides of the parade route so metro-ing it was our only feasible option).
We get close to L'Enfant Station and it seriously felt like we were walking into a riot crowd, a mob of some sort, who knows. People freaking everywhere. Everywhere. No matter where you turned you saw people. And the crowds in front of the metro stations were enormous. By this time we were starving, sick of people and tired. There was one point where we were standing in the middle of an intersection, just looking around, and I was about to curl into the fetal position until we got some help or something because it was just so overwhelming the amount of people and the fact that we were stuck. We stood about an hour in line for a hotdog as that was our only choice/chance for food. While waiting in line, I get the tweets about L'Enfant Station, Federal Center Station, Foggy Bottom Station and Metro Center Stations all being closed due to a broken down train.
Well that makes sense then about the herds of people standing outside the stations. By the time we got our hot dogs, the stations were open. We finally meet up with Steph, get some drinks and food and head home. What an experience, one that I never have to do again hahaha. I was slightly sad that I didn't stay for the parade, but by the time the parade actually started (it was an hour late getting started), I probably would have been the grumpiest person around. But I am happy to have gone.
School has started and these classes are going to be a tad more intense than last semester. Ethics, Objective Methods in Personality Assessment, Research Methods and Forensic Documentation, Report Writing and Testifying are my classes. Some more interesting than others, but overall, a good mix of everything. I also started playing volleyball on a city league which should be pretty fun and something to get back into. I bought myself a waterproof case for my ipod so swimming should be getting more routine (but as of today, I haven't swam once since I have been back hahaha). But I tell you this, being away from my routine for over a month makes it hard to get back into. Next up on the adventure list is going to the Museum of Crime and Punishment as well as a Washington Wizards basketball game!!!! The fun never ends. Love you all!!!
First up is our trip to the Crime and Punishment Museum. Sadly, this is a museum that you actually have to pay for (all the other ones I have gone to and will go are free) but we got our tickets through Groupon so they were cheaper than usual, which rocks. This was probably by far one of my favorite museums so far as it just rocked. The exhibits, the information, the hands on things, so much fun. And I mean, its crime and punishment - how much more fascinating can you get. Especially when one makes a fool out of themselves like I did. Surprise surprise there hahaha. So when you first get to the museum, there is this really creepy looking wax figurine of a guy being held up by shackles and whatnot. Now, if you know me, my imagination goes bonkers, especially around things like this because I imagine a hand moving, a head turning, something on that wax figurine moving and scaring the living bejesus outta me. 
Thankfully, this wax dude did not move, but it still played on my mind. The first part of the museum is old school punishment, like the Shrew's Violin, Finger screws, head cage, things like that. I would not have lasted back in those days oh my goodness. There was one sign that said "in most colonies it was against the law to swear, be caught in a state of public drunkenness, not attend church services, inappropriate behavior on the Sabbath, and unacceptable conduct between members of the opposite sex". Well I am fucked. Hahaha. And you did not want a person who had no concept of paying attention dishing out some of the punishments with things like the Baker's Baptism, which happened when the baker's bread did not weigh enough - the baker would be dunked in the central fountain in a cage-type device until the punishment administer thought that the baker was out of breath. There was no standard amount of time - it was left up to the person operating the device. That sucks. I wonder if they could interview potential punishment administers...... 
So then after the old school punishment, we move onto the Wild West. Things like Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The good stuff. Lots of guns. Oh, watching Riya and Kalyn shoot the guns at the old west saloon was pretty funny - they need to come out to the farm and practice on some gophers hahaha. There was a picture of a real hanging where the guy's head like snapped off from the force of the hanging - how cool is that??? I just kept thinking back to the movies like Tombstone, Young Guns, American Outlaws. I still think I was born in the wrong era - to be one of the saloon girls would have been a kick ass job - I wouldn't have minded wearing the dresses they wore as they were quite sexy and purty. And then when they break out into an occasional song and dance number, how can that be topped (ie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas style). If you don't know what I am talking about, check out this clip: how could life get any better than this?? I think this is where I make a fool out of myself (no, not by showing you that clip, but at the museum). So we are standing around, looking at things from the era of Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Ma Barker, the likes of them folks, and we are talking about the show The Following, telling Riya how much it was pretty good and that it didn't scare me so she should be able to watch it. Well, at that moment, I just turn to look beside me and there is this guy standing there, reading something, but looking awfully still, like wax figurine still, and he seemed to appear out of nowhere. What do I do? I scream and jump. Have a heart attack. Laugh till I cry. Those types of things. 
I don't know what it was that made me so scared of seeing him but I just thought he was fake and came outta nowhere. The funny thing is that he didn't even acknowledge it so I wonder if it happens to him a lot.........Riya and Kalyn were laughing their heads off about it every time they saw the guy though. Glad I can amuse them. It would have also been pretty cool to live back in the era with Bugsy Siegal and the Flapper Girls. I would have made a kick ass flapper girl, except they were so classy looking. I don't have that classy look to me. More saloon type of a look for me I think. I don't think flapper girls were as chesty as I am. 
Then we get to the good part - the serial killers part, the assassinations, things like that. The likes of Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, The Unibomber. Sadly, that part of the museum wasn't as big as the other exhibits, but it was still exciting to see. I would have loved to be one of the people who were around us when we were in that part of the museum as we would talk about the different killing methods or what each person did, their signature, etc etc. I can tell you this though - John Wayne Gacy's fascination with clowns, that should have been an indicator right then and there for people. Clowns are creepy, end of discussion. 
We get to the booking process part of the museum and now that I think about it, I shouldn't have been "booked" for criminal mischief as it was probably a ploy on the governments part to get our fingerprint (you scan a fingerprint and it prints off a "fingerprint record" of what one supposably gets booked for). I scanned as criminal mischief. Riya got prostitution. Kalyn got kidnapper. I got the boring one. But I will say this - the mug shot of Frank Sinatra.....ohhhh weeee he was a looker. Even in his mug shot. Saw a representation of Al Capone's jail cell - that guy lived in style, both in and out of prison. And, if anybody wants to know, I got the procedures on how to properly hang a person, participate in a firing squad, pull the switch on the electric chair, subject someone to the gas chamber and lethally inject a person. Oh the knowledge one gains from the museum!!!! Learnt that I cannot make the police force as I cannot do 2 pullups (pathetic, I know, but I blame the weight of the boobs). But Riya and I did participate in a swat training exercise - I took down two perps (thats the short term for perpetrators in case you didn't know). 
The CSI lab was pretty cool but it was almost too sciency for my likings, but I kicked ass at fingerprint analysis, comparing bullets as well as dental comparisons. The final part was the set of America's Most Wanted and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which I learnt that none of us were part of. Which is a good thing since a) I never grew up in the States so I shouldn't have been there and b) if I was in that database, one would have thought that going through customs something should have showed up, saying I was missing or exploited......but no, they were more worried about me going to school down here.....hahaha. Overall, the museum was kick ass. I would definitely go back in a heartbeat as there is so much stuff to read and take in for everything that is there. 
After the Museum, we headed off to a Washington Wizards v. Chicago Bulls game: Michael Jordan's acting debut....... None of us who went were hardcore basketball fans; I had a very short lived basketball career - I hated the unfair calls and kept getting fouled out and whatnot but watching the game made me remember playing it and hating it hahaha. I am pretty sure my teammates liked it when I decided to quit halfway through the season (more like the coach basically said that the sport was not for me). Who knew I disliked unfair calls and had a predisposition of getting back at people...... If it rained, we would have been the first to know as our backs were against the wall and our heads were hitting the roof. They were still pretty decent seats though in the long run. And cheap. Even better. Riya was hilarious as the only thing she could think of was Harry Potter, seeing as he was a wizard, the Washington team is called the Wizards....you see the connection. So every time something exciting happened (which, in basketball means really nothing), she would shout out a characters name from Harry Potter. The one time she yelled out Hermonie Granger......I told her that calling the players a girls name, not a good thing hahaha. 
During halftime we got to watch the chinese version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The sad thing is that Kalyn and I were singing along with the theme song.....The Wizards ended up winning the game (woohoo) but I don't know what that means in the grand scheme of things for them hahaha. I can now knock off going to an NBA game off the to-do list, although I don't think it was ever really on the list to begin with. Not sure what is next on the to-see list, but stay tuned for it. 
