Washington DC

Well I think that the last three days have been some of the most incredible of my whole entire life! I can't believe how much can change in just a few days. So, I flew out to DC on Friday to interview at George Washington University. Trista picked me up at the Baltimore Airport and we headed down to Virginia. Driving takes way too long out there, so we got to her house just in time to take a quick shower, change and head out for dinner. We had Afgan food for dinner which was delicious! Then we headed into the city to go to hear the National Symphony Orchestra play in the Kennedy Center for the performing arts. A very prestigious group in a very famous place- and I was so excited about it. I had good reason to be. It was a beautiful concert and a good way to spend my first evening in DC. We walked around the terrace of the building (only for a few minutes because it was darn cold!) and looked at the skyline. It was stunning.
Saturday morning I woke up (too early after being out so late at the concert) and headed into the city again for the interview. The interview at GW is not required for acceptance, but is encouraged so you can get to know the school, faculty, and find out about the program. It was as much of an orientation as an interview so I found out all kinds of helpful information.
After all of the group things were completed and we had a brief tour of campus, we had a one-on-one meeting with a faculty member. He first informed me that there was a note on my file indicating that I needed to meet with the program director, Dr. Plack. That made me pretty nervous because I had no clue why she would want to specifically speak with me, but so it goes. He reviewed my application to make sure that everything that needed to be turned in was complete and then he asked how my experience in DC had been and what I thought of coming out there now that I actually saw the school. I replied that the morning was a great experience, very helpful, and I am even more enthusiastic about coming to the school then I was before. The truth was that I didn't expect to love the school or the program, but as the morning progressed, I fell in love with the program, the school, and the city. While I didn't tell him all that- it is how the morning went! Then he asked me the funniest question- he asked if I had decided what I was going to do for housing or where I was going to live. I thought that was strange because to my knowledge looking for housing comes after being accepted and I wasn't accepted yet. My hopes of being accepted had also diminished through the morning as I interacted with about 30 very qualified applicants (the program is only 30 people and the people at this interview is not even close to everyone who applied). I told the professor that I hadn't looked into housing, left it at that, and then left his office.
I had to wait for a little while to meet with Dr. Plack so I waited with the other interviewees and we talked PT school. I asked the current students how long they thought it would be until we found out if were we accepted or declined- I had intended to ask this to the faculty member, but was feeling awkward after the housing questions, so I decided not to ask him. Our discussion continued until Dr. Plack was available. I went into her office and she asked how the morning went and whether I had any questions. I told her that I had a wonderful morning and said that I didn't have any questions at the present moment. She then said "you don't even want to know when you will find out if you got in?" I smiled and said that actually I would love to know that so she handed me an envelop and told me it was my acceptance letter, they were impressed with my application, and congratulations! I sputtered thank you and not much else and left the building in a complete daze. Yes, they just handed me an acceptance letter to a school that I loved and thought I had no chance of getting into. It made for a pretty awesome weekend.
The rest of the afternoon was down time. Trista and I dreamed about how cool it would be for me to come out there for school, we went to celebration lunch at Uno's Pizzeria and had dessert first and then crashed and watched a movie. I know- I flew all the way to DC and spent an afternoon watching a movie, but I was so exhausted and my brain had completely stopped functioning in any normal fashion so-yes vegging in front of a movie was called for.
Sunday was also awesome! We went to the National Cathedral and attended the late morning service and then walked around for a while and look at the building. It is beautiful! While we were walking around I realized that I had checked in to my flight on Trista's computer and then forgot to print the boarding pass. Blast! Our afternoon going to a few of the monuments turned into a drive back to Trista's house to get my boarding pass. Too bad, but I did have one more amazing meal of Thai food. Good curry, skewered chicken and fried tofu- good stuff. The rest of the night was traveling for me. I got home and was so exhausted that I didn't even try to unpack. In fact my camera is currently lost in my pile of stuff that needs to be put away (thus none of my pictures are posted)! So there you go, the latest news from the Wasatch front is that I got accepted to GWU! Its amazing. I have an interview in Denver this coming weekend so we will just have to see how it goes!!

p.s. If you made it all the way to the bottom of this thanks for reading the whole story! I know I have a lot to say, but I am still pretty excited about it!