ROADTRIP

As I said in my past few posts, I'm re-tracing the major events in my summer, since I haven't been very active on the blog in a while.  On to number three:

Three weekends ago was the long-awaited trip to Pittsburgh!  I know what you're thinking, "Pittsburgh?"  Yes!  My friend Hannah lives there, and she invited a few of us over for the weekend.  It was Jocelyn from Connecticut, Emily, also from downstate New York, and Amanda from Ohio.  Amanda lives about 2 hours from Pitt, so the trip was pretty easy for her.  For Jocelyn and the rest of us, though, it was quite a trip.  7-9 hours both ways, to be specific!  

So here's how it went down: Jocelyn set out from Connecticut bright and early at 7:00 AM on Friday, picked up Emily at about 8:30, then arrived at my house around 9:15.  From there, we set off on a voyage to remember.  Ipods were stocked with "Roadtrip" and "Summer Fun" and "PARTAY" playlists, and we got audiobooks from the library (they didn't go so well...)

We got there in 7-1/2 hours from my house, which really wasn't bad.  Us Northeasterners had no clue what to expect about Pitt, we had never been there or any Midwestern(ish) city before, so it was completely new to us.  And you know what?  I loved it!  We all did!  It was such a pretty city, and it was really interesting seeing this part of the country for the first time.  Did you know that Pittsburgh has more bridges than any other IN THE WORLD?  IN THE WORLD!!!  

Here are some shots I got:

This was along the road--IT WAS SO TEMPTING TO TAKE THAT EXIT!

But alas, we didn't.  And I guess I'll be back in DC soon enough.  I move in the 26th!  YAY!  It was so good to re-charge my GW battery by seeing my favorite girls.  (The Strong Girls, as we're commonly known.  Ya know, cause we lived in Strong Hall this past year.)  We all agreed that this mid-summer reunion enabled us to get through the rest of the summer without missing each other TOO much.  It'll still be hard, though!!!

Email me?  I'd love it!  Inflate my ego, puh-lease!  ShireenS@gwmail.gwu.edu

~~~Shireen

Concert Slash Upstate Blog

As promised, I'm filling you in on goings-on in my life over the past several weeks, as I've been criminally absent.  I started with the most recent, and I'm tracing back.  Here goes the second installment:
A week ago today, I went to a concert with a good friend of mine in Brooklyn.  We're concert buddies--like how I said Andrea was my museum buddy?  I just always go to concerts with this kid.  So I bought tickets way back in April or May for this concert at The Williamsburg Waterfront.  We were super excited.  It's this gorgeous park on the East River, you can see Manhattan really well from there, and it's just really pretty.  

Unfortunately, it got less pretty when storm clouds started rolling in, and even less pretty when there was lightning and thunder and I was terrified and the concert got cancelled!

We were supposed to be seeing a Modest Mouse concert, but instead we saw their opening act, "Morning Teleportation" (pretty good, actually) and about 4 Modest Mouse songs, before we were forced to evacuate the park.  It was devastating, and not just because I'm a scaredy cat and I hate storms!

There's a rescheduled date for September 14th, but I'll be back at school (WOOT!) and can't make it up to Brooklyn for a random Tuesday night at the beginning of the semester!  So I'm getting a refund, luckily.  But I wish I could have seen them!

View from the park:

___

And that's about all I got to say about that.  The weekend before that, I went upstate (upstate New York, that is) with a group of friends. One of my good buddies has a home up there with her family, and she takes us up sometimes to get a dose of country living.  I always love going up there, cause it's just so pretty, and we always have fun riding around on the quads and hiking and swimming in their pond.  A good time was had by all!

Below, some pictures, of course!

                      

My friends Annmarie, Rosemarie, Ricky, and me

Me, Ricky, and Annmarie's dog Rocci--our dream is to buy a house upstate together so our families can live country lives (on vacations and stuff, of course.  I'm a DC girl.)  But we called this the "family photo."  Cute, no?

Yay!  Keep emailing, keep reading, and keep checking back to our site!  We love thinking we're popular!  ShireenS@gwmail.gwu.edu

<3 Shireen

The Cloisters

Hey all!

Long time no talk, huh?  I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve become a bit lax about posting lately.  And I started the summer out pretty strong, too!  So I decided that starting NOW I’m going to catch you up on the biggest points in my summer so far.  I’ll start with the most recent:

The other day--Tuesday, to be exact, I went to the Cloisters Museum!  I had been promised to go there numerous times by high school teachers and family and friends, but circumstances always got in our way somehow.  So this summer, I made it a goal of mine to FINALLY go.  And I was NOT disappointed.  I absolutely adored it!  I really felt like I was at an old French monastery—the hoards of tourists (many Frenchies among them) helped that illusion!

I went with my best friend from elementary school, Andrea.  It’s a cute story, actually.  She moved away in second grade, and I didn’t see her until we both realized we were going to school in the DC area.  So last spring, we met at the National Archives and spent the day being touristy, and now we’re good buddies.  Museum buddies, specifically!  And we decided The Cloisters was perfect to add to our repertoire!

For the unacquainted, The Cloisters is a museum run by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (one of my favorite places on earth) that holds a load of art from the Middle Ages.  But what makes The Cloisters really interesting is that it contains cloisters—architectural structures—from five different Medieval French buildings.  It’s absolutely gorgeous and so beautifully done.  We marveled at all of the fantastic old architecture and the arts collections, and how the different pieces all flowed and came together so seamlessly (though you can tell the old architecture from the recreations.  But even if you’re not an art/history/art history nerd, it’s something to see, if only for the awesome views and great pictures you can get from it.

It’s a bit hard to get to—I certainly wouldn’t recommend going on a rainy day unless you take the bus straight there.  By subway, you have to get off the nearest stop, then walk about 10-15 minutes through this GORGEOUS park until you feel like you’re in southern France visiting an old castle.  It’s right on the Hudson River and has beautiful views of the cliffs and water.  Here are some snapshots I took from the trip:

Nice, right?  Yeah, to say the least…

I’ll be back with other updates soon!  No worries—I’m back, baby.

Email me!  Really!  I answer those more often than I post!  ShireenS@gwmail.gwu.edu

~~~Shireen

Starting Your College Search

Welcome to all of those newly rising seniors!  This is an exciting time in your high school career.  Most of you have completed your standardized tests and have your college lists forming.  I wanted to pass along some advice from my experience searching for colleges.  I know it was 4 years ago, scary yes, but I still remember some great tips that helped me.

I used great sites like College Board, ACT, and US World and News Report to help me find different schools that I may not have heard of before.  On all of these sites there are different ways to search, by location, size, program, price, extra curricular activities, and many other criteria.  This is how I found Depauw University, one of the greatest college radio stations in the country.  You are also able to side-by-side compare schools in many cases.

Another tip: use your counselor/guidance office as a resource!  These men and women are trained to help you make a decision, and many of them were once involved in the college admissions process themselves.  Spend sometime flipping through brochures and talking to the different representatives that come to your school.  Sign up for mailings and information of schools that you have any sort of interest in.  You can always throw extra materials away, but sometimes the mailers are different from what you find on the school's website.

You can also start looking at scholarships through fastweb.com or other similar sites.  A lot of these scholarships are small amounts but every little bit can help, trust me.

I hope all of these tips help steer you in the right direction!  If I can be of any more help please let me know by emailing me at kwollner@gwu.edu or leave a comment with your personal tips!

Good luck!

Longevity Has It’s Place

To graduate from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, every student has to take at least one performing arts class as part of the general curriculum requirements (although these requirements have changed significantly since I was a freshman, more here: http://columbian.gwu.edu/newsevents/spotlight/newgeneralcurriculumrequirementsannounced). To fulfill multiple requirements at one time, I choose a class that worked for the Columbian College as well as my major in political communications. The only class that fit this description was digital media production.

Although, I didn’t have much experience with filming and I never even tried editing, the course proved to be a perfect introduction to a skill that I hope to develop. In the class, I learned techniques on shooting and editing film as well as helpful hints on lighting and where to place the camera. GW has a top-notch computer center in the School for Media and Public Affairs as well as numerous professional cameras that can be loaned out.

I have always been interested in documentaries and I love to watch movies like “Bowling for Columbine” or anything made by Ken Burns. This summer I have decided to embark on an adventure through history with my grandparents tentatively titled “Longevity Has It’s Place.” I am really lucky to have all four grandparents and one great-grand parent alive, so I wanted to capture some of their memories and experiences on film. This project should be a great opportunity to spend time with them and learn about transformations they have seen in their lifetimes.

Hope Your Having a Great Summer!
-Paul
ps: feel free to email me if you have questions, pwaters@gwmail.gwu.edu

Summer Progress

It has been a busy few weeks!  The Fourth of July was crazy with two parades and a fireworks show, the campaign was able to reach a lot of people in the district.  It was a lot of fun to have everyone on the campaign come together and walk in the parades handing out literature, candy, stickers, and other information.  We came out in our orange to support Jeff! I definitely got my work out in running up and down the route making sure I hit as many people as possible! (the tan was also a nice added bonus.)

After the busy weekend, I headed up to New York City to meet my family on vacation!  I came into DC to catch a bus in the middle of the night to arrive in NYC around 5 AM.  There are a lot of bus companies that have numerous daily services to NY/Philly such as MegaBus, Bolt Bus, and the China Town buses.  A lot of these have a gradual fare so the first ticket is as low as $1.  It is super easy to get up the NY to visit family, friends, or to just go hang out!

It was great to spend some time in New York.  I was able to go to Ground Zero where they have started building the new buildings to replace the World Trade Center.  I also did plenty of shopping in the fashion district expanding my wardrobe :)  However, the best part was Broadway!  We went to see the revival of West Side Story and it was amazing!  We also stuck around the theater to get autographs from the actors at the stage door so we got to meet some of the most talented people I have ever seen! Despite breaking heat records (it reached 103 degrees in Central Park) I think it was a great trip!

Our next stop was back in Herndon.  After the play we piled into the car and made the trip back down to Virginia.  It was great to have my parents see where I am living/working.  We also made a trip into DC to see the Washington Nationals.  As I have said before, the stadium is beautiful and cheap!  You can get tickets for as low as $5 (and right now if you have a non-winning DC lottery tickets you can get them for free!)  So hopefully I will be able to make it to the Cubs v. Nationals game at the end of August!

Things are gearing up for the beginning of the Fall semester!  With CI over GW is super excited to see everyone back for the school year!  I am already getting emails about the Student Association and Housing and the Political Science Department.

I am so excited to be back on campus!

Remember, if you have any questions please feel free to email me!  I have received a few emails this summer and I am happy to response!