so... there are much more interesting things than what i'm about to write about, but i like doing this chronologically, so there are some things i need to write about before i get to the really good stuff.

between june 22 and 24th, i was in st. louis for a conference this bureau was putting on. they're the ones that my work project is funded through. my main task there was to take notes during my coworker erin's presentation on language revitalization. i ended up having not much time at all to myself, though, because i was sort of required to be at all the breakfast/lunch/supper meetings that my boss went to, and all of them lasted between two and four hours. ugh. it was really nice to talk so much about something that i am so interested in, but... i definitely realized that that was NOT the kind of life that i want. in the little bit of time that i had to myself, i managed to sneak over to the gateway arch to check out the museum of westward expansion and the mississippi river. those are all pretty big (as in important, but also as in size) things. first of all, the gateway arch (that's a different link than the previous one): it's this giant steel arch, created to be a monument to westward expansion. (my coworkers and i thought it was pretty ironic that the bureau would choose to host its conference in the city that celebrates non-native people pushing into the west.) they offer rides in these scary little pods that take people up to the top, so you can see a view of the city. (and of course i did it. the view was mediocre, but the technology was neat.) at the bottom of the arch is the museum of westward expansion, which i thought would be way worse than it was. they did an okay job with the content, but i was really impressed with their layout. the museum was set up in a semi-circle, with visitors starting from the centre of the circle. from there, visitors could make their way around various circumferences of the circle, which each represented different decades, or could move outward from the centre, following one specific theme at a time. it was probably the best layout for a museum that i've ever seen. mmm, finally... i saw the mississippi. it was super flooded. i hope to spend some more time with it in the future.

anyway... the next day, my friend/former intern crush enrique texted me to say he was free. we hadn't really hung out at all since i got to DC this time, partially, i think, because things were a little awkward when i left, and partially because he has recently acquired a new girlfriend who didn’t feel good about him hanging out with me. i was a little nervous, because the last time we hung out, it left me feeling really deflated, but when he showed up at the museum to meet me, he gave me two giant hugs, which made me feel better about everything. we biked around downtown and he took me to amsterdam falafelshop in adams-morgan for my first-ever falafel. it was incredible! how have i been missing out this long? after that, we biked back to the mall (i.e., the national mall) to pick up his truck because it had to be moved, and we threw our bikes in the back so we could drive over to georgetown. he had never been there before, so i showed him around M street and took him to the aqueduct bridge, which would have made for a really romantic night if we were still into each other. haha. but it was nice to have the company anyway. as we were biking back to his truck in georgetown, we came across a car that was completely upside down on a super narrow street. apparently some 15-year-old girl was “drunk as a skunk” (to use the EMT’s words) and had crashed the car. good lord. it’s pretty lucky that we weren’t biking that street just a few minutes earlier. anyway, enrique offered to drive me home, which wasn’t necessary but was nice because it was late and i had to get up early the next morning, and my ride from georgetown to home usually takes about an hour.

the next morning, i woke up at 7:00 so that i could eat, get ready, and bike down to the mall for 10:00 for my volunteer shift at the smithsonian’s folklife festival. this year, they were featuring mexico, asian pacific americans, and the smithsonian itself. i was put on “recycling/sustainability,” which meant that i spent the entire day going through garbages with my bare hands to pull out recyclable pop bottles. yeesh. it wouldn’t have been so bad, except that there was no running water and soap on the mall, so any time i wanted to eat or use my hands, i had to walk over to one of the museums and stand in the bathroom line. blah. i left early and biked home for a shower and a nap. later on, enrique texted to invite me out to some bars in adams morgan with him and some of his friends from his hometown. since i had heard a lot about them, i went, and ended up staying out until 2:00, which is pretty much unheard of for me. it was pretty fun, and i really liked enrique’s friends, but man, i sure do hate bars and being around people who are drinking. i biked home and got back around 3:00, only to find that the front screen door – which is usually not locked – was locked. i didn’t want to wake anybody up, so i hoisted myself up over the back fence and crawled in to the backyard. it made me realize that i really, really like scrambling/climbing things, and wished that i did it more often.

blah, this is getting long and i am losing interest. okay. a few more things:
-i’ve been doing a lot of editing for civil engineering doctoral students. it has sort of been a pain in the ass, but it pays well.
-i went for twilight canoe tours on the potomac two separate times: once with my edmontonian friends brianna and julie; and once with my coworkers erin and sandra, and erin’s husband mike. i like canoeing. i especially like canoeing in the dark.
-i watched “don’t tell mom the babysitter’s dead” with brianna and julie at the outdoor rosslyn film festival. fun.
-i volunteered a second time at the smithsonian folklife festival – this time, counting people coming in to one particular entrance. i used the day to write letters and take advantage of the free food the smithsonian offered its volunteers. oh, and there was also this pretty amazing dance group from mexico, who performed one of the most joyful dances i’ve ever seen. here’s a video that totally doesn’t do it justice. apparently, the dance was started when indigenous people started to stand up to the spanish in mexico by dressing up like them and dancing a silly dance with their hips. cute.
-canada day: my favourite day of the year. i had to work, and i couldn’t be with any canadians i loved, so i biked down to the canadian embassy to hang out with the spirit of haida gwaii.
-4^th of july: i watched the fireworks with brianna and julie from the key bridge, and picked up a falafel on my way home. falafels on my way home quickly became a pretty integral part of my DC experience.