From L-R, back-front: Uncle Jesse, Uncle Bob, Aunt Maggie, Aunt Karen,
Oma, Dad, Mom, Me, and Granny Kit.
Me, Shirin (frosh room mate), Abdul (frosh next door neighbor), Khileen (frosh neighbor)
My dear friend Jenny who is from Washington state and will probably never come back from India/the Middle East. :)
How American University really works. :p Love you Mom, and Dad! Thanks for all your support!
(Photos courtesy of Aunt Karen. Thanks, Aunt Karen! I love them!)
Kikue, my Japanese mother, and I in the Lincoln Memorial.
She came all the way to DC to spend four days with me!
On May 8th at 1 pm I officially graduated from American University with a BA in International Studies and a minor in Spanish, magna cum laude. Oma, Granny Kit, Uncle Bob, Aunt Maggie, Aunt Karen, Uncle Jesse, Mom and Dad were there as well as my friend Abdul who came all the way from Kuwait to see me and his other friends from AU graduate, and Khileen, my dear dear friend from Frosh and Sophomore year who switched schools and just came back from Cuba! It was so wonderful to see everyone and have them here to help me celebrate such a special moment in my life! The weather was beautiful, our speaker was good (the president of the Peace Corps), and everyone managed to find me in the sea of blue. 
She came all the way to DC to spend four days with me!
Four years really just flew by, especially this past few weeks! I had finals, the ending of my job on campus and internship, finals, the start of my new job working at a passport and visa expediting company (Inter-American Group), spending a weekend with Kikue, my Japanese mother, having my family come to visit, searching for summer housing, and moving out of the house I was living in for the past school year. All in all, I was a bit busy. But it was fun and exciting! I am finally being able to fully understand what being graduated means: I can read books again! No more tests, homework or late nights writing papers. When I leave the office, I don't have to go to my internship or class and then home to homework! It's wonderful!
I am currently living on a couch in the living room of Rachel and James, two of my ex-housemates. :) We spent ALL of last weekend moving out and cleaning up the house as the other three housemates had already left. It was definitely a challenge but we did it! I've been helping Rachel and James (they will get married next year) unpack and settle down in their first apartment together. James loves to cook and I love to clean and organize and they both seem to enjoy my company so it works out well! They also have two extremely ridiculous cats who are talented in getting into all sorts of trouble. :D
On Saturday I will be moving into a room in a house near the Friendship Heights metro. The house is owned by Mary, a woman with grandchildren in Mexico (and somewhere else) who has always rented out two of her rooms to students. Yay! She used to paint and seems very nice so I look forward to living with her. My address will be:
4415 Harrison St, NW
Washington, DC 20015
Thus far I am enjoying my job. I work at the Inter-American Group (IAG) which is a small (there are three owners and one other employee besides me), family-run business that specializes in assisting people obtain new or renewed passports and visas within 24 hours or up to two weeks. Because it is such a small business, I am learning a ton about small business, business in general, search engines (how google charges companies to be able to have their business pop up first in a search), marketing, websites, passports, and visas. I answer phones, translate (the president and vice-president are both from Colombia so we speak Spanish in the office), answer phones, prepare applications, assist in marketing and am also the Editor of the websites and all their pages (so forgive the grammar errors in visas portion of the link above -- haven't gotten there yet). IAG has three websites so I definitely have my work cut out for me! I am also helping them with ideas for improving their websites and marketing in general as business has been bad lately. Though it can be a bit hard to concentrate sometimes and a little busy as I juggle my multiple roles, it is definitely not boring and the people are very kind and interesting. Señora Sanchez, the VP was the Consulate General from Colombia here in DC for 10 years before seeking political asylum here with her family because of some of the warrants for arrest she signed as a Colombian judge and lawyer (apparently he was the Osama bin Laden of Colombia). So there is plenty to talk about!
The other excitement is that my professor finally posted the video of my group's dance performance. This was for my Dance and Society class where we compared Salsa dance to Martha Graham style modern dance. I had to learn to be the lead in Salsa which was really fun but challenging. Here is a link to the video if you are interested! We ended up getting a good grade on it, too! :D
As for future plans, I will be in DC until August 14th when I will fly back to Portland, Oregon to arrive at 11 pm or so at night. I will then be home for a month before I leave for Santiago, Chile on September 14th to find a job there and live for a bit until I figure out what I want to study in Grad School. I'm extremely excited and can hardly wait to start my Chilean adventures!
Though I am no longer attending AU, I will still try to keep updating my blog every once in a while. Please let me know if you need me to take you off my list! I will not be offended.
I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week. I hope to see many of you before I leave for Chile!
Love, Kaia (^_^)
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