Here I am

I arrived in McLean, VA yesterday around lunchtime. The drive from Asheville takes about 7 hours. McLean is about 6 miles from DC. I have hit the ground running it seems. As soon as I got here, I found out that I was going out to lunch with the founder of Polaris Project and a few others from Polaris. I was kind of road weary, but off I went. After lunch and a random piano concert performed by some child prodigy at a Catholic church in Georgetown, we finally went back to McLean. I went to my room, feeling quite overwhelmed. I'm a little homesick already. I keep telling myself that home will always be there, and that I won't be away forever. My dad is also visiting in about two weeks. I fell asleep last night around 8. Ha.

I got up early this morning to find Gene and Sophia (the people with whom I'm living for the time being) already up and about to go on a walk. I joined them, and we walked four miles along the Potomac River and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. It was lovely - a cool morning and gorgeous scenery. I couldn't believe I was in a metropolis. It turns out that the walkway (toepath) was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the landscape architect who designed Central Park in NYC. It was great. Getting outside did wonders for my mood, and I'm feeling optimistic about my time here in DC!

Here is a link to some pictures of where I went walking this morning. And another.

Tomorrow I will do a dry run of getting to work via the bus and metro. I don't want to get lost on my first day!