The Cherry Blossom festival was the first week in April and it was nice, but disappointing. April 6th was supposed to be prime day for cherry blossom blooming but alas, since we had some "cool" weather before the weekend (and I use the term "cool" loosely) the blossoms were not bloomyfull. There were two trees that people were congregating around to take pictures and it was pretty funny (reminded me of being at the zoo and everybody running to see the animal move). The two trees were quite beautiful, but sadly, I wasn't able to head down to the Tidal Basin when they were all out in full bloom, so next year I will have to try and take more in. So part of the Cherry Blossom festivities was paddleboating in the Tidal Basin and then catching the fireworks at night. Paddleboating was quite fun - it was Kalyn's first time and luckily/unluckily she got stuck with paddling with me hahaha. I have never been in a paddleboat that didn't have the ring for a steering wheel so I didn't even attempt to steer, and Kalyn tried to, but sadly, we couldn't figure it out. Steph, oh captain my captain, was sitting in the backseat and did some steering for us. 
She was the epitome of backseat driving hahaha. For a bit there, we actually paddled backwards so that Steph could steer and not hit people. When we were coming back to the dock, we had to pull some Mario Andretti moves as there was a traffic jam of paddleboats. It was pretty fun overall. Just sitting in the middle of the Tidal Basin and talking with the girls, gently floating and looking around at everything was so relaxing and serene and something we all needed. After the paddleboating, it was food adventure. I think we spent over an hour in line for pizza hahaha. There were people everywhere and in each line and it was nuts. It was reminiscent to Inauguration Day so I had a small PTSD moment hahaha. After foods, it was fireworks and they were amazing. I love fireworks, and seeing them over the water was just beautiful. A wonderful day overall with such wonderful company. 
Last weekend, and the weekend that gave me my sunburn, was the DC Challenge. It is Amazing Race style - we got 12 clues (only had to do 11 of them) and figure out the fastest way to get to each clue and back. For 6 people who have never lived in DC before, we found our way around pretty good (thank god for google maps hahaha). The days leading up to the challenge we were talking about how we were going to run the whole thing, who was going to be on map duty, googling duty, etc etc and our plans worked out, for the most part - we did not run the entire thing suffice it to say. There were over 415 teams there, so no clue on how many people were there in total and we placed 184th with a time of 2:42:53. Our team's name was Reservoir-dire Dogs (yours truly was Ms. Blonde). In the very beginning, we decided to run to the places where we had to do the clues, but after running to the first spot, we talked the rest of the way hahaha. However, we did not take the metro once, except to get back to the finish line, so we were quite proud of ourselves when doing that. When we were at one of the clues, there was a girl who wanted to take our picture. Not sure if it was because she understood our theme or just wanted to take a picture of some crazy people. Some of the clues/tasks were as follows:- Find the bright red sculpture beside Cubi XXVI and pose like the sculpture in the photo (I think this was our most creative picture)
- Take a photo with anyone with a badge and convince them to act out Charlies Angels with our whole team
- find Lincoln's 1868 statute and act out a scene from his life
- hula hoop at the Capitol Reflecting Pool (FYI - I don't ever remember actually hula hooping when I was younger so I did not do well at this task - Meghan was freaking awesome at it!!!)
- snap a photo of team in a pirate battle (for some reason, I was the one getting attacked)
- find the wall of geyers
- take a picture with either a clown (no dice), a traditional barber pole, a person wearing overalls, a duck boat or a cast of triceratops' head (this is the one we did)
There were so many teams in costumes that were awesome - zombie presidents, minions, Disney princesses, superheros, gladiators. I wonder what people thought around the city, seeing all of us taking silly pictures and in costumes. I think we are going to make it a yearly thing and maybe as the years go on, we will get better as we will know where things are/how to get there faster.
Life in DC has not been boring whatsoever - between the whitehouse getting taped off due to "water main break" (they need to come up with a different story) after the Boston bombing, a twitter hacking advising that Obama has been injured, bomb/drug sniffing dogs at the metro stations, a shooting at the metro station I get off at and an unattended item at the station this morning. I love the excitement of living here, but kind of miss the safety of Canada hahaha. Although, I almost went "American" on some chick as I went to Catholic U to work on my paper for school and some chick spilt her coffee on my laptop and fried it - the keyboard needed to be replaced and now apparently the
motherboard as well. I was too busy trying to soak up the liquid to not yell at her, especially after all she did was pick up her coffee and walked away. This is not a good time to be laptopless especially with all my papers and presentations and finals and trying to plan a Calgary trip and post blogs.....so suffice it to say, I have been living at the school to use their computers. I can tell you this though - living with no laptop is both super relaxing and uber stressful - I have been able to have super long baths (the kind where you refill the tub with hot water), getting some books read, worked on my scrapbook, things like that. It is pretty funny though that I have not touched my cross stitch this entire time being laptopless. I am really hoping that I get my laptop back this week sometime, preferably tomorrow as I have two "take home" exams due Thursday. However, this Thursday is the last day of classes for this semester and then it is all done!! I have about a month off in May before my summer semester starts and it will be a busy month - my mom and sister are coming down here to view *my* city and then I am heading up to Calgary for a week to see friends and family as well. I have been here for too long and need to get up home to get some Canadianness back into me, especially since some of my family members have been saying that I am starting to sound American.....not good.....not good at all hahaha. 
I have secured a practicum placement as well!!!! It is at the Department of Corrections, which should be interesting. I want to work with the prison population, but being there scared the living bejesus outta me hahaha. I am going to have to change my entire demeanour when working there. I will never forget my interview though as I went up to reception and said "Hi, I'm here to see Guy" "Who?" "Guy" "What guy?" "His name is Guy" "What is his name?" I was about to break out in a Who's on First or A Meewho and an Exactlywhat skit, but didn't think they would find the humour in that hahaha. Thankfully I have a placement for September so that stress has been lifted woohoo!!! Now hopefully the quiet, white Canadian can toughen up to work with the prison population hahaha. It is both exciting and scary all at the same time so I guess I will see what happens come September. It isn't with the population that I initially wanted to work with, but it is a placement nonetheless and I will take what I can get, especially since I was running into walls being Canadian and having some sites tell me that I was not eligible because I wasn't American.
Anywho, I should probably get to studying for the 3 exams I have this week. I am in that end-of-the-semester-slump where I don't feel like doing anything anymore but just need to push through 3 more things and then this semester from hell can be over. I miss and love you all!!
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