June 1st

I am officially an RUF intern! Today begins my job, and I am now on the payroll. Woot! This is a picture of a perfect strawberry, as discovered by one of the girls I met here. I must say, it is rather beautiful.

May 31st

I'm staying in a hotel for RUF orientation, and I noticed the elevator has an extra button that says "Emergency Elevator Power". I'm really curious what this button is for, and what it will do. In case of fire, you're told never to use the elevator. I don't know what other types of emergency this may mean. Perhaps it makes the elevator zoom super fast right to you, so if you are being chased by someone, you can jump in and be safe. It becomes a SUPER ELEVATOR!

May 29th

I stayed the night at Marcia's to break up my trip into manageable parts. She showed me this amazing mural by a man who actually changed his name to Blue Sky. It is completely two dimensional, but it sure looks like you could walk right into it. Marcia said the sun lights up at night. He also created this giant fire hydrant, which is actually surrounded by a fountain. So awesome. He created a lot of artwork scattered around Columbia, SC.

May 28th

I went to my cousin's house, where the whole family on my dad's side was gathered. My dad is the one on the right in the first picture, with his two brothers. The second picture is of my four cousins, the children of my uncle at the left side of the first picture. I had such an awesome time.

May 26th

Today we hung out around the resort. Our afternoon was spent by the pool, where there was a lady doing airbrush tattoos. Steph and I decided we should get tattoos that would be out of character for us. I got a dragon on my shoulder blade, and she got barbed wire around her arm. We looked fierce. Unfortunately, the very next day we accidentally put sunscreen on them and they rubbed off. But the pictures remain!

We also went geocaching! You can find a video of our adventure here.

May 25th

Jamestown! Once again, there was a huge gallery with way too much information to take in in one day. The first picture is of the fountains outside the welcome center, behind which every state flag is flying. There is also a recreation of the fort, and of the Powhatan village, as well as recreations of the three ships on which the first settlers arrived.

May 24th

Yorktown! At the victory center there is a gallery full of information about the battle, as well as a recreation of a campsite. This is a surgeon's tent. We also went to the battlefield and walked around, looking at the canons and embankments. There was also a grave site with a headstone of someone who died February 30th. How cool is that? Yes, there had to be three pictures today.