Monuments, Statues, Museums...oh my!

Today was a good day. I got to sleep in...9:15. That is much later than I usually sleep. I have my clock set for 8am every morning, even though I don't have class until 11. I just like to get up early and get the day started off right...take a shower, check my email and the weather, do the Sodoku in the Bristol paper...I have a routine.

Anyways, I woke up at 9:15. Dad, Poppaw, and I decided we were going to go into the district today since it was supposed to be warmer. We left here around 11. We went downtown and Poppaw dropped us off at the World War II memorial. I hadn't been in downtown DC since the memorial had been built. It is really nice. Me and Dad walked around there until Poppaw found a parking space. We met up with him then walked to the Vietnam War memorial. My dad had a couple he wanted to find on the wall. After we found the names, we walked up to the Lincoln Memorial. It was nice. We then walked to the Korean War memorial (I know...I visited every war memorial in one day). We did a lot of walking.

After we left the Korean War memorial, we walked to Pennsylvania Avenue and saw the White House. We then got in the van to go to Union Station to get lunch. My grandpa drives a huge Dodge conversion van that is really tall. He went to pull in the parking garage and the bar that warns about vehicle height hit the top of the vehicle. He being 75 and hard of hearing didn't hear the bar hit the top of the van. Me and my dad had to tell him to stop and go out of the parking garage. So, we had to turn around and find a spot on the street. It was confusing...well, my grandpa got confused. We ate lunch then left Union Station.

I had been watching planes all day. I can't remember if I've told you before, but I'm obsessed with airplanes. It's an interest of mine that I have aquired since taking my first plane ride freshman year. If the plane is low enough, I can tell you rather quickly what airline the plane is from and what kind of plane it is (Beoing, Airbus, MD, etc.) All day I had been watching planes flying over DC getting ready to land at Reagan National Airport. They were low and I was rattling off the airlines and plane types, testing my own knowledge to impress only myself. There is a park at the end of a runway called Gravelly Point. It is one of the best plane-watching locations in the country...if you're on the ground and not in a plane. I had been looking forward to going to Gravelly Point at the end of the day to watch a bunch of planes land and take off. My grandpa doesn't go into the city very often and they have changed the roads a lot. He got confused again and couldn't find Gravelly Point. I was disappointed but, oh well. I still had a good day in the city. I may drive to Gravelly Point tomorrow before I leave and watch some planes if the weather is good.

I don't have my cord to put pictures on my computer. As soon as I do, I will put them on here. I hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

"I Go Commando"

Yes...I'm sure the title of my post may throw you off. Here is the reason for the title: I am currently sitting in my grandpa's living room outside of Washington, DC, and we are watching the Maury Povich show. There is a lady who is blaming her husband for cheating on her because she found a pair of panties in his back seat. She said, "I know they ain't my panties because for one, they're two sizes two small, and two, I go commando!" I thought it was quite funny.

Me and my dad left Emory around 11:30 yesterday to head up here to Washington, DC. We had a good trip up. The wind was outrageous. It was hard at times to keep the truck in the lane on the interstate because the wind was blowing so badly. We hit some traffic going around Washington and finally got here around 5:15.

We didn't d0 anything yesterday evening. We got dinner from a little carry-out place down the road and just hung out and talked. It was good times. This morning we got up and watched a family reunion tape. After that we got ready and went and ate a buffet. I haven't eaten at a big buffet in a long time. They are interesting. One of my favorite things to do is to sit and watch people and I have come to the conclusion that giant buffets are the best place to do this. I think you actually find more of a variety of people to watch at a buffet than you do at Wal-Mart, which could possibly be one of the best places on earth to people watch. If you need any recommendations for where to people watch, let me know. I have a list of good places to recommend.

After we ate at the buffet we stopped and bought some raw oysters (disgusting, I know) and then came back here to Poppaw's. It is nice to skip class today. I needed a break and I needed away from Emory for a few days. We are going into the district (Washington, DC) tomorrow and going around for a while. I haven't been into the district in a few years. I'd like to hit up the Holocaust Museum while we are down there. I will take pictures, and they will be up shortly.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

All in All It's Just Another Day Now

The past week of my life has been relatively uneventful. I suppose that I can pull a couple of good stories out of somewhere.

I am the president of the Residence Hall Association here at Emory & Henry. Basically, for those of you who aren't familiar, RHA serves as an organization to improve life in the residence halls here at the college. We will do little things to improve the halls (buy dishes, fix volleyball courts, buy dry erase boards, etc.) and we also do programs on campus (The Roommate Game, Indoor Soccer, etc.). Each year, there is a state wide RHA conference for all RHAs across the state of Virginia. This year, I was quite excited because the conference was at UVa-Wise, which is in my neck of the woods. These conferences are always a ton of fun because everyone that attends them is borderline insane (including me I guess!) We had fun at the conference though. Below is a picture of the people who went with us.

All of my classes are going well. I had my first test of the year on Friday! It was in Urban Geography. I really like that class because all we do is talk about different cities. It is very interesting. Hopefully, I pulled off a 1oo on the test. I think I did pretty darn good. I don't want to get my hopes up and jynx myself though!

I've been on duty all weekend here at Emory. Basically, that entails being required to sit around and do nothing. Even though I don't mind being on duty for my RA job, I do wish more stuff would happen so it would give me something to do. Especially on the weekends. Weekend duty can be rather boring.

I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about what I'm going to do after graduation. Even though I still have over a year before I graduate from college, I need to go ahead and start planning. I've spent a lot of my time looking into the Peace Corps. I think it would be a life changing experience. From what I've read, I have all the qualifications necessary to enter. It is recommended that one apply 9-12 months in advance. That means that I should apply this summer. I could go ahead and fill out an application now, but I feel like I should wait until I return from Ecuador. If I wait until then, I will have a lot more experiences that I will be able to talk about in my application.

I need to write papers. I've spent a lot of my time lately thinking about this summer. Less than three months until I leave for Ecuador! That is hard to believe. My time here at Emory is flying by. Before I know it, I will no longer be here at Emory but somewhere else in the world enjoying myself. Goodnight, everyone. I'll leave you with a beautiful sunset picture I took in Wise last Saturday. I like Appalachian sunsets. I will miss them while I'm gone.

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.

Busy Week!

Hey everyone...or at least the few who read this.  This past week has been ok, just very busy.  It always seems that my Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are the most hectic days of the week.  When Wednesday night rolls around, I am always worn out and excited about Thursday, mostly because I have one class and nothing else to do on Thursday.

All of my classes are still going well.  I am taking an independent study class on Rural Health Care Policy.  I am working on a very big project for that class.  Me, along with 8 other students, are gonig to be going door-to-door in some low-income housing complexes and taking surveys on health care needs.  It is going to be interesting, yet stressful at the same time.  The deadline for the grant is the end of March so we are aiming to get all the information gathered and analyzed by Spring Break, which only gives us a month to work with!

This past weekend my grandpa's girlfriend of many years, Kitty, passed away.  Her services were yesterday but I didn't get to go up to Washington, DC because of my classes.  So, in two weeks, I am taking a road trip by myself up to visit my grandpa.  It will be good.  I haven't been up there in quite a while so I am really looking forward to the trip.

I hope everyone has a good week.  I have a little bit of reading to do before my class at 11 so I need to run.  I'm off to UVa-Wise this afternoon for a conference all weekend!  I'm excited!

Until next time, Zach will leave it at that.