Quick summary of the trip so far. My sister refers to it as the "Mary and David Roadtrip of Joy." Started in SD on June 22, drove to Utah (BYU) to visit cousin, then to Yosemite (2 misdemeanors, funny story), then slept at a rest stop before visiting Jenny Wu in Minneapolis, then visited Taryn Okuma in Madison, then Tina Yang and uncle in Chicago, then saw Lisa Hsu in Ann Arbor, crossed through Canada (busted again), and arrived in Vermont, then drove to Boston, and trained here. It's been so much fun, though my sister became a little irritable on the last day.

Busted in Yosemite for illegally swimming in a hot spring called "boiling river" where nerve-destroying thermophilic amoeba live. They enter through the head, so we just had to keep head out of water. How we got busted by the rangers is a really funny story that I must share personally.

Crossed the border of Canada without a passport, and into sars country. Canadian border patrol were unhappy that we didn't have proper ID, so these swat team like officers searched our car in detail. We were really scared.

Now I'm in DC and on my own... pretending he's beside me... all alone, I walk with him 'til morning. :) All is well, and I'm meeting great people and having so much fun. Next steps are intense Foreign Service interview, breakfast with Feinstein, NY fun with Wes Che, and exploring Boston with some random family friends that I've never met before.

Writing from the Library of Congress in DC. This place is beautiful. It's been a dream of mine to just spend a week here studying in the Main Reading Room. It's breathtaking. Just arrived on a night train this morning from Boston.