The interns piled into a 15-passenger van today for a tour of Seattle led by Dave Boardman, editor of The Seattle Times. A good time was had by all.

I heard a commotion on Sunday afternoon, and saw some people across the street all staring at the intersection a few houses down. In the middle of the street was a loud protest with yellow signs. I didn’t have a picture of the day yet, so I ran to my room, grabbed the camera and my keys, and proceeded to follow the protest for a few blocks for pictures. From what I could tell, it was the Vietnamese community from Seattle-Tacoma area protesting against China. when I got in, I took a look on Google and found out that it was planned in solidarity with rare protests happening in Hanoi. Wild, huh.

This is what I saw coming through the intersection near my house.

This guy spent much of his time shouting into the megaphone. I don’t know exactly what he was saying, but he was emphatic.

A lot of the participants were shielding their faces with their signs from the photographers/videographer.

SPD was there and was very helpful in keeping the protest safe from drivers. The intersections can be nasty in my neck of the woods.

My schedule is a little strange this week, since I am working on Saturday night (but not really working – we get to see the presses as part of the internship). So I joined my favorite Stephanie and her friend (and her friend’s son) on a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo. The weather was nice, and the zoo wasn’t too crowded. And the animals came out to play a bit! A very worth-it visit and day off adventure.

For size comparison, see here.

Um, Steph – that’s not a zoo animal. That’s the baby.

Something strange appeared when I looked through my photographs from the Georgetown Carnival on Saturday. Do you see it?

(this one is a stretch)

What a strange combination of punk, rock-n-roll, live music, antique vendors, food, kids, dogs and sunshine. It was rather enjoyable.

I found myself out and about much later tonight than any other night so far. I’ve now been here a week. Crazy, it feels like it’s been so long, yet it hasn’t been at all. This city is incredibly beautiful.

Alki beach

From the King County Water Taxi fishing pier

A week ago Thursday morning, I left for my summer internship at The Seattle Times. It was not an easy morning. But Seattle is beautiful. And three days in, the internship is off to a good start. So all is well. But I still miss home. And Scott.

Another themed collection of Project365 photos. I really liked the last set, so I thought I’d try it again. What’s funny is that I don’t really think about themes like this when shooting. I just see them as I’m posting and editing. I guess my sub-conscious is always looking for a theme.

1. I met the President and First Lady. There’s video here of my friends and I getting honored at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

2. I walked in graduation. I am steps (well, words) away from my master’s degree from the University of Missouri.

This is why I’m so far behind on posting my project365 photos.* And all the other photos I’ve taken lately. I have very bad habits about memory cards. I seem to think of them like film – if I clear them, I’m worried the photos will disappear forever. (Yes, I back them up on both my computer and our RAID system. I still get nervous.)

* There really are a number of reasons, but this is definitely one of the more frequent offenders.

During the last week of my internship with NPR, I got to photograph a story with Larry Abramson, NPR’s education correspondent. We spent the day with Fairfax County eighth graders participating in Junior Achievement’s Finance Park program as part of a series on financial literacy and young people. This was the first real story I got to cover for NPR, and it was an awesome experience.

My favorite photograph from the day made it into the story page, and to my surprise (and delight), on the homepage for a few hours. For those of you familiar with the impact of running a photograph above the fold on 1A in a print edition, having a photograph appear in the photo lede spot on NPR’s homepage holds the same weight. Coburn Dukehart, one of my coworkers at NPR, alerted me to the story’s position on the site and sent me this screenshot, which was good since my internet hadn’t been working all day.

And yes, I forwarded this directly to my mom. She was excited, to say the least.