Things have been very busy in the office since the election is fast approaching and the first debate is this week! I cannot wait to see how each of the candidates do. It should be pretty interesting!

Our TCU J-school's namesake, Bob Schieffer, will be moderating the debate on October 22nd in Boca Raton, Florida. I am especially excited to watch that one! My friends and I are planning to have a little dinner party for the first debate. I could not have asked to be in Washington, D.C. at a better time. With the campaign, debates and election the news is jam packed with politics, politics, politics. One of my many responsibilities at work is logging Obama's speeches (such as his speech in Ohio and Virginia last week). It is very interesting to see how the speeches differ from campaign event to campaign event. This week I also helped one of the producers find some elements for an upcoming interview. I got to go through the archives and pull some old tape and home videos of the Kennedy family. They are so iconic; it was such an extraodinary experience being able to see all of them together with all the kids. The family tree is a little bit confusing to say the least, but the footage of the family together is priceless.

[Our election countdown in the newsroom!]

A Beautiful Day at the Zoo!

After getting settled into a routine and work it was finally time for a day at the National Zoo! Unfortunately, we were a little too late to see the baby panda. :( Sunday my friends and I went to brunch at a place called Open City. It is right by the Woodley Park stop (where you get off for the zoo) and they serve brunch all day on Sundays! The breakfast food was delicious; they had everything from omelets, to chicken & waffles and chorizo! After brunch we made a stop for coffee and continued on to the zoo. We went through the bird house, got to see the elephant (one of my favorites), the leopard and of course - the panda! She was adorable and just kept eating her bamboo while we all went crazy over her.

[Isn't she cute?! I can't imagine how adorable the baby panda was!]

[My friends - Haley & Emma - and I at the National zoo.]

After the zoo we made another trip to Georgetown which is always a fun day. The line for Georgetown Cupcakes was outrageously long so we decided to try a different place that we heard was pretty good. The place is called Baked & Wired - cupcakes and coffee! It is in a less crowded part of Georgetown and it sits next to this little creek; it is very serene. It was a nice little break and the area is a great place to study or read. I definitely am going to make it back over there to do homework or study. I still have not figured out exactly why cupcakes are such a craze here but they are delicious and my sweet tooth is enjoying every second of it!

Lesson Learned

I forgot to mention this in my past blog entries, but some words of advice for the metro - like I explained before, the public transportation system in D.C. is so nice and convenient! However, rush hour in the morning is out of this world. I tried catching the red line train towards Shady Grove one morning (during the week) around eight thirty and it was ridiculously packed. I was terrified when that train rolled through and suddenly came to a stop. People were packed in like sardines! The doors opened and you could feel the cloud of body heat rush out the door. I had to make this train if I wanted to be on time to work so I put aside my fears of being crammed in a small space and went on my first rush hour metro ride. What an experience! Ok... so it isn't that bad, but after that day I decided I would never try to fight the rush hour metro. It is nice not feeling rushed in the morning so I leave the RAF around eight and hop on the metro. It is also great getting to the office early and getting the day started!