#2 What I learned: There are Upper Midwesterners here!

Another fun surprise was that I meet tons of people from my home region. It may come as a surprise, but most people working in the state offices are actually from that state! It was great being able to say hello and chat about South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota. It was also great being able to say the word "bag" with a long "a" without getting some raised eyebrows! I never thought I had a Minnesota/rez accent until I got here. Apparently it was so bad that even the check-out clerks at stores would point it out! Oh well!

When I was boarding the plane from Fargo, ND, I was sad to leave my small community and join the big world of Dc. It turned out that DC is a small tight knit community of people. I thought I would be far from home, but there are so many friendly faces here. Networking is much easy because of this. You can easily walk into a room and find someone with a connection to your home state. 

Also, I little bird told me that there is a Minnesota State University Moorhead alumni floating around here somewhere! GO DRAGONS!

Heath in the Capital Building with South Dakota statue Joseph Ward