I live roughly 4 blocks away from the capitol, but I, for whatever reason, had never gone there. I am very happy that I finally went! It looks really neat from the outside, but the inside is absolutely gorgeous! There have been four different capitols over the time. The first one was in Philadelphia, which I went to when I was in Philly. The second was in Harrisburg, but burned down due to wood-fire places during the winter.They started creating another capitol in the midst of this one, but the governor did not approve, so they recreated to the current capitol. I have learned so much about it!
First of all, it is a lot like Iowa's capitol in the sense that there is gold-leaf EVERYWHERE! In the 1800's, it cost over 13 million dollars to create this capitol, today it does not even have a numerical value because some of the largest parts of it are considered priceless. They have a marble-like granite in the capitol that is from Greece and the only places to ever have this type is the PA capitol and the Wisconsin capitol, there is no other kind like it anywhere else in the world. The dome roof weighs roughly 15 million pounds and the chandeliers in the House of Representatives weigh 3 tons a piece. The paintings and gold-leaf have only been restored a couple times since the beginning. One of the artists was even a woman in a time where women weren't even allowed to walk in the halls of the capitol, which is pretty cool! The capitol is very extravagant and beautiful! The tour of the capitol was short and sweet, roughly 30 minutes and we were able to go everywhere except the courts because they were in session.
On Sunday, I experienced something pretty neat as well- the Governors Mansion! I attended Arts in the Governors Mansion, which was really gorgeous! It was very hot and I managed to sweat my body weight- I'm convinced. But I was able to see my mentor, Tina, paint a sculptor in the gardens in less than 3 hours! There were many different artists from around the area and Central PA that came in to paint and have people watch them. I was even able to walk around in the governors mansion. The current governor has decided not to live in it, but in the past, all of the governors have lived there. I was able to see the formal dining room, the not-so-formal dining room. The studies or offices (there were multiple), the formal sitting room, the foyer, and a couple den like rooms. There were two grand pianos, lots of chandeliers, MANY paintings and murals of past state governors and representatives and lots of exquisite china and woodwork.At work, I have finished the pesky tree. Just waiting for students' pictures to go in the frames, but it is all up and ready for pictures! I am pretty happy with how it turned out, I learned that I can do silhouettes of trees!
Work has been going slowly but surely. It is such a change from working with students every day to having no students around. I have been working with pre-orientation and finding places for students to volunteer during the day and working on promotional items to give away. We have decided on color-changing stadium cups, drawstring bags, and adhesive phone wallets that would hold a student ID or debit/credit card.It is starting to come to an end in Pennsylvania. I am looking at just over a month left, the time has gone by fast and slow all in one. I am starting to feel very ready for the next step in life- graduate school. I am ready to be back in classes and learn things that I truly want to learn about. As I have been attending pre-orientation meetings and working with different offices at Dickinson, it has become so apparent to me that Student Affairs is what I am really passionate about. I am excited to see where graduate school leads me! I am also very excited to see my family and friends and be back to the familiarity of the Midwest where I can watch Twins baseball everyday!
