Fire in the RRB, popping balloons, and more fun in DC

It was an eventful week here in DC. Tuesday morning I woke up to the news that there was a fire in the Ronald Reagan Building, which is where most of the USAID offices are. A fire that started in the food court had spread in the ventilation system, so we couldn't get into the building until about noon. I spent the rest of Tuesday and all of Wednesday in a training course. There were a couple of fun activities in the training, including a game in which we had to pop balloons...I had some issues with my balloon popping ability, resulting in the photo below:

We could clearly count 13+ marks from my pen on the balloon where I attempted to pop it before I switched balloons with my neighbor, who created the lovely artwork.

Wednesday night I made cookies and brownies, which I shared with my DLI colleagues in my bureau on Thursday. Thursday was also the day that I realized that change is going to be a constant part of my life now when one of my cube-mates packed up his stuff to start language school in Arlington next week. It's only been a little over two months and already some of my classmates are off to language training, and a few are even beginning preparations to leave for their first posts. I'm wondering how I'll feel in 10 months or so when most of my classmates are (likely) gone and I'm still here in DC...it makes me motivated to work on my French as much as possible before I start class in April and I'm hoping I'll still be motivated enough to dedicate a lot of time outside of class to practicing. We'll see how I feel then.

I also got news on Thursday night that someone slashed all 4 tires on the Vue, which we had just listed for sale. Chris took care of the police report and getting the tires replaced on Friday, but it's frustrating that things like that happen. Luckily, Chris moved out of the city to South County and is now living with my sister, where hopefully there won't be any more problems like that.

It's a long weekend and I'm hoping to get out to explore the city a bit (if the weather stays nice)! I'll let you know how I decide to occupy my time...