I'm blogging to you, live, from my room!

Step four: Find a place to live.
Clearly, you know I have a place to live because I'm in it right now. I found a place through the NIH listserv, which turns out is a very resourceful tool. At the moment I'm living with medical and science folk, but they will soon be leaving to return to school in the fall. Their replacements are TBA to me, but I believe they are all in a medical-related field - after all, my house is right across the street from the Suburban Hospital. Convenient in case another car hits me, and the way these Maryland drivers drive, I wouldn't be surprised...

Step five: Discover that Californians aren't the worst drivers in the country.
Say what you want about southern California traffic, nothing is as bad as rush hour in the DMV (District-Maryland-Virgina) area during rush hour. Especially when the sporadic thunderstorms begin and rain is dumped on unsuspecting commuters. You'd think that with 55mph speed limits on the freeways (yep, 55), people would be more conscientious. Definitely not true. Oh, and Maryland drivers seem to think that the suicide and turn lanes are regular lanes. Or maybe that's how they actually work here?

Step six: Be charmed by bricks.
Almost all of the buildings in Bethesda are made of bricks. The sidewalks are too. It feels so old and historic. Downtown Bethesda is amazing and I'm already captivated by the area, much in the same way I was instantly charmed by Portland. There are pubs and restaurants (so many!) and thrift stores everywhere. Though there is only one Starbucks (at least, that I saw), there are other coffee locales that I hope are lovely enough to frequent. A free circulator bus drives around downtown every 10 minutes and the metro station is located right in the heart of the area. A Trader Joe's recently opened up downtown too--yay! (Tomorrow will be my day of exploring, now that I'm unpacked...)

Step seven: Be a DC tourist.
"I can be ridiculous because I don't go to school here," Katie once said to Cortney, Al and me as we waffled around Sac State, embarrassing Cortney as she headed to a meeting. The same philosophy holds true for me currently. I'm technically working in Maryland, so I might as well be a typical tourist in DC while my parents are visiting. There are literally millions of things to do in DC all the time, and most of it is free. Everything is historic and everything is grand and awe-inspiring. I have a list of things I want to go back and see on my own time, and I already feel like I need more time! The great thing about the metro system (despite its many flaws) is that it takes you everywhere in the area you'd want to go. The public transportation system in the east coast is brilliant and definitely wins over the west coast on this one.

Step eight: Observe the locals.
Hipsters everywhere.

This is an incredibly lackluster blog entry, but I'm exhausted and it's past midnight. I'm off to bed to prepare for tomorrow's (rainy) exploration...