Sundries and Quandaries

I arrived in DC yesterday morning at approximately 8:58 a.m. I flew in on a red eye flight. If you've never done this, be it known that I don't recommend it for the sake of comfort, sanity, or convenience. That being said, for some inexplicable reason, I enjoy red eye flights. The biggest perk of this flight was that I had all day to pack, and yet I didn't finish packing until about 10:30 p.m. My flight left at 12:55 a.m., so I was pushing it a little... BUT both of my checked bags were underweight! *HUGE sigh of relief* I could have brought an extra 10 lbs worth of something... Probably shoes.

I took a shuttle from the airport to my building. I didn't want to look like a fool riding the metro with all of my luggage. Definitely a good decision. I got to my place with no incident at all, and got up to my room with little trouble. After being given a lovely tour of the building I'm living in (which took about 5 minutes because there aren't very many places students are allowed to go), I reached the following conclusions:

1. I could not be more excited about the free laundry machines. I might do a load of laundry tonight to get the weird smell (left by the laundry machine in my summer apartment) out of my towels, simply because I can do it for free.
2. I actually underestimated the amount of storage space I would have, so naturally I'm making a list of things for my mother to send to me.
3. If I don't like the people I'm living with, I'm doomed. The size of these quarters reminds me of Crime and Punishment and the guy's obsession with a square yard of space...

Having reached these conclusions, I promptly fell asleep. To be fair, I needed a nap due to my loss of two hours traveling, but I think I might have overdone it. Slightly. I slept for approximately
(wait for it)
6.5 hours. Yeah... I'm in the coolest city ever, right smack in the middle of it, and I slept away my first afternoon. Boo. It's alright though, no one else really arrived until around 6 p.m.

Here's a nice panoramic picture of the view from my bed, courtesy of my phone.

Last night after my long nap, I went to the Whole Foods Cafe with my roommate (for now I'll call her Tolly, which is short for Tolerable, because I know next to nothing about her so far, but she seems nice enough. I think we'll get along fine...) and a few other intern girls. It was delicious, and pretty affordable for a healthy meal in DC. I think. (As if I know all about the cost of living in DC...) I've been told it's reasonably priced.

After dinner we went to Trader Joe's to get a couple necessaries (i.e. milk so that I could have cereal for breakfast this morning). One of the girls was planning on picking up some shampoo, but decided she needed a more mainstream, less organic brand. Oh DC... The friendly clerk at the register asked if I had any good weekend plans and I told him I was just moving in. He asked if I was living around here, I replied yes, but didn't divulge any more information since one of the girls had just been saying at dinner how we have to be careful not to talk about where we live... He said that this was one of the more expensive parts of the city. I just had to chuckle.

On to this morning. I got up at nine-ish, thought it was much earlier, and got in the shower. Question: how in the world are you supposed to shave your legs in this shower?! I tried putting my foot on the soap shelf, it's too high for comfort and balance. I wish there was a more comfortably-placed ledge upon which I could rest my foot. I guess I'll just shave standing up straight, but if this is part of growing up, I plan to protest.

After my less-than-convenient shower, I ate breakfast and ventured to the metro station - going the very long way because it was daylight (when I figured out where it was last night it was not daylight, and therefore I was disoriented today) - to go to Target. Target probably just saved my budget. It's far away, so I didn't do all of my grocery shopping there, but I did get all of the sundries I needed to live like a first world human. So now we're in business. Also, Target has the most genius beverage ever, and I was so excited that I bought two boxes of it.

HERBAL CHAI TEA!!!! No actual tea leaves involved so I can drink it and be completely W.o.W. appropriate. I've never seen this anywhere before, but now I know - it's at Target. I love my life.

Anywho, I just thought I would let you all know that I'm here, alive and well. More interesting stories to come, I'm sure.

- The Rack