Cherry blossoms make me like DC so much more.

So I pretty much hit my limits last weekend.

Friday was class like normal. Then afterwards Rachelle and I went to Pentagon City and went shopping, but Rachelle left early because she was feeling sick. Then I met up with a bunch of people at the Capital Hill Brewery because Chad's mom was in town and she was treating everyone to dinner. Then that night me, Christine, Danielle, Eli, Mandi, Chad and Aaron (one of Chad's housemates) went to vintage hip-hop night at the Black Cat.

It was definitely a different atmosphere than the '80s/techno dance night, haha. It felt kind of like the underground hip-hop scene. And it was actually vintage. Like, I maybe only recognized three of the songs all night! But it was still a blast, and me and Danielle and Christine definitely didn't let our lack of song knowledge slow down the dancing, haha.

We left around 1:30 because we thought the metro closed at 2. But we really wanted to get a bus because it was raining and raining, so we waited at the bus stop. And lots of buses came, but never the one we needed. So after 40 minutes of standing there, wet and freezing, we finally took the metro back. We then walked to Chad's house because it's way closer to a station than our apartments, and he borrowed his housemate's car to drive us home. Needless to say, I was absolutely DRENCHED by the time we got back around 3, haha. But way fun night for sure!

And then Saturday I crashed. That's when I hit my limits. I slept. And Rachelle and I finally went out to dinner that night at Capital Hill Brewery. Then we went to Dupont with Coco for cupcakes. And then a group of us crashed on the floor of the ASP classroom with blankets and pillows and watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is just one of the most amazing movies ever.

Sunday I crashed too. I went to National Community Church with Danielle and then spent most of the day around the apartment doing work. Nothing too exciting.

Monday I had class and then Coco and I went on a walk to the nearest park and took lots of pictures of the cherry blossoms -- they are SO pretty!! Honestly, if DC looked like this all the time I might be more inclined to want to stick around. It's beautiful right now, and it was a sunny, clear day too, which made it even better. We had family dinner that night and worship later too. In fact, it's been a week of dinners. Because Tuesday night my apartment and apartment 6 had dinner at Abigail's and then last night of course was progressive dinner and Jason Bongiovanni (our resident Italian) made an amaaaazing dinner!

This week I got to write some interesting pieces at my internship. I wrote about a woman in a cult in Baltimore who wouldn't plea guilty to starving her son to death until the prosecutors established a plea bargain that if her son were resurrected (i.e. rose from the dead like Jesus), all charges would be dropped. Crazy. I also took part in a teleconference yesterday for an hour for Mobilization for Poverty, an antipoverty movement that is urging Obama to focus his efforts on the poor. The House Whip was one of the many speakers, and I found it quite interesting, even though it was a looong phone call to listen in on.

The coolest thing I got to do, though, was attend an event on Tuesday. A group of evangelicals, including Leith Anderson (President of the National Association of Evangelicals) held a forum on reforming immigration policy in the United Methodist Building right next to the Capital. Anderson, along with the Vice President of World Relief and several other pastors, made clear the necessity for reform, and it was personally encouraging for me to hear Christians concerned about this particular issue.

The funniest thing happened though. The event was supposed to start at 5:30, but when I got there a few minutes early, it soon became clear that the reception started at 5:30, and the actual event wasn't until 6. So, starving this point after working a full day, I made a beeline to the dessert table and got a lemon bar, something chocolate chip and yummy, grapefruit, kiwi, etc and stood with my full plate when a woman came up to me, said she didn't know anyone, and began talking with me. A few minutes in she introduced herself, and it turned out she was Leith Anderson's -- the one man I needed to focus my article on -- wife! Out of all the people there!

She was so sweet and asked me about myself, my upbringing, home, work, etc. and then we talked to her about all of her travels (She's been everywhere ... not joking!) and her kids. Then Leith came up, and she introduced us, and when he found out I was from Biola, we launched into a discussion about Clyde Cook, who had been a personal friend of his. Then he asked me if I had ever been to Catalina Island before because they were going to be there in a few weeks and asked what I recommended doing, and I immediately asked if they liked kayaking. His response was that the last time he went kayaking was in NORWAY with THE Carters, complete with THE Carters' security ... somehow I don't think Catalina kayaking would compare, haha.

The three of us talked for maybe 10 minutes, and then his wife and I talked more -- we talked the entire 30 minutes before the forum began, and she was seriously the most encouraging woman. After it was over, I found her to tell her goodbye, and she gave me a huge hug and wished me luck with everything. So sweet!

Other cool thing of the evening: posing a question as a member of the media when the speakers had finished. So legit.

This weekend (Friday and Saturday) has been really fun! At Bible study we decided that we wanted to start our days Monday through Friday off by praying together and keeping each other accountable with devotions, so we got up Friday at 7 and did just that, which was wonderful. Then we were supposed to have Friday's edition of the Washington Post and the Examiner read, and I wanted to go running, so first Rachelle and I went to Jacob's to get the Post and Natalee and Shanley were already there. I decided that I would go running first and pick up copies of the Examiner on the way for everyone.

When I started running, it was just lightly raining, but after a mile it started pouring, which I looooooooved -- it's fabulous running in the rain! When I finally came to the corner where I could pick up the Examiner, though, there was still probably a little under half a mile left, and I knew that the paper would be dead by the time I got to Jacob's, so I stopped into a car mantainance place and got a huge black trash bag to stick them all in. And then I went sprinting the rest of the way through the pelting rain, carrying a huge black trash bag full of newspapers, feeling like an idiot, haha. But then I read the newspaper and had breakfast, so that was nice.

Then after class, Rachelle and I went out to the Jefferson and the FDR Memorials to take pictures of the cherry blossoms. It was sunny at this point, and Rachelle was worried it was going to start raining, but we decided to try our luck, and it was perfect and absolutely beautiful. We walked around taking pictures for quite a while and watched some of the sunset and the entire thing was just gorgeous. This is the stuff that I'm really going to miss when I leave.

After that we rushed to Chad's to watch Jurassic Park (and had an interesting stop on the way to get food ...) and we then watched both Jurassic Park and The Lost World with a group, which was way fun. Jurassic Park is seriously such a good movie -- I love how suspenseful it is, despite it being older.

I slept in this morning and then Rachelle and I decided that we needed to go out because it was such a beautiful day today. So we went out to the Smithsonian sculpture gardens and walked around, enjoying the art and being outside. And we took lots of pictures of our interpretations of the sculptures. Then we got lemonade and I got an ice cream sandwich and we lied down in the grass and talked for a while, which was so relaxing. But then the area closed and we went back to the apartment and made chicken marsala. Then we went up to the WJC lounge later this evening with Sarah, Christine and Alyssa and watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day and Friends. And then Rachelle and I played lots of speed. Always a good time.

Random means of relaxing as of late: Danielle, Coco and I spent a significant amount of time the other evening taking facebook quizzes. The things you learn about yourself on those things are amazing ...

Oh, and I got another story in USA Today! http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-04-02-poverty_N.htm

The night that never ended

I’ve been bad again at updating. So I’ll go with the quick recap of this past week and a half!

I spent most of last week at my internship working on the story about Obama’s proposal to lower tax deductions for charitable giving from 35 to 28 percent for families earning more than $200,000 annually. It was definitely one of my favorite articles I’ve had to research for, and it ended up on both USA Today and Christianity Today!

I also did a “10 Minutes with Al Meredith,” which is basically a Q&A that RNS runs on its Web site. Al Meredith is the pastor of a church that had a gunman enter the church during a youth service a decade ago and release 200 rounds of ammo, killing seven and injuring seven more. He went to the church several weekends ago that had its pastor shot and killed in the pulpit and gave a sermon, and it was so enlightening and encouraging talking to him. He had such solid, biblical advice to give while also being entirely honest and raw about the pain endured. It was a very sensitive interview and so heartbreaking for me to hear about his experiences, but by far my favorite interview I’ve done here – this is the type of journalism I would spend my life doing.

Last Monday (March 17) I went to Chad’s for a Saint Patrick’s Day party to watch Boondock Saints and eat pizza, and it ended up being a bunch of the guys and me and Yvette, haha. For some reason they thought we wouldn’t be able to handle the movie, but I actually really liked it. So it was definitely a fun, alternative (not getting smashed) way to celebrate the holiday!

Last Wednesday’s progressive dinner went well and concluded with all of us playing telephone pictionary, which is always a good time.

Thursday evening was our first Bible study. Sarah Breen and I had been talking the prior weekend about how great it would be to get a Bible study going and so we decided to make it happen and announced it during Monday night worship. At 8 p.m. it was just me and Sarah, which we were totally cool with because we figured that we would use the time talking and praying for each other anyways – numbers weren’t important to us – but by 8:30 Katie, Sharyna, Ryan and Jason had all joined. We just spent a lot of time talking about where we were all at spiritually and then ended up talking about spiritual warfare. It was so refreshing getting to do this! We then ended and decided to read Colossians for the next week (for tonight actually, haha). It went so well, and I definitely think God will use this in all our lives.

Friday is where things got fun.

So I had class like normal and after Ebenezar’s, a huge group of us girls and David went out to Georgetown to get some amazing cupcakes. The line took us 30 minutes to get through (yes, they are THAT popular, haha), and they were definitely good … I think Baked and Wired is still my favorite, but I definitely enjoyed mine! Then we met up with Cole, Chad and Brian (their friend from USC who was visiting for the week) and went to a sports bar to have dinner and watch March Madness. Rachelle, Micaela, David and I all shared some appetizers, which were pretty amazing.

After dinner Chad, Cole, Brian, Michaela, Danielle, Rachelle, Christine and I all decided to walk to the Georgetown University campus and explore. And it’s amazingly beautiful and ivy-leagueish. We walked around the halls, the graveyard (yes, they had a graveyard!), the chapel, and finally ended up in the student lounge to where my great joy we found a bunch of old school video games, including Ms. Pac Man! So I said that I was going to get change when a student informed me that they were all FREE. So we spent two full hours playing all the games. Yes, we are definitely easily amused, haha.

We finally took the metro back and got back to Eastern Market around 1 a.m … but a few of us decided that the night wasn’t over and that we wanted to go back out. So Chad, Cole, Brian, Christine and I took the metro nearly all the way to the end of the orange line to an IHop out in Virginia. We didn’t get there until around 2, which is when the metro closes, so we knew we’d have to find a different way back. So we all got stuff (well, Christine and I just stole Chad and Brian’s pancakes) and had some good talks over our 2 a.m. snack.

Then we began talking about what to do, at which point I suggested that we walk to the Lincoln Memorial and watch the sunrise since we were only a few hours away and it was something I’ve always wanted to do. Now I was 100 percent serious, but I doubted anyone would actually want to because I’m used to people shooting down my crazy suggestions. But they did! I love these people, haha. It definitely helped that it was Brian’s last night here, which obviously meant that it had to be amazing. He had an iphone so we looked up the distance from where we were to the Lincoln Memorial, and it was a direct line of a little less than 5 miles. Totally doable.

So around 3:30 we left, got energy drinks and began our journey after asking a lady at the gas station for directions who made sure we knew how far we were going to have to walk and told us it would get “kind of hairy” trying to cross the Potomac and two freeways. It was absolutely freezing, so I’m glad we were moving the whole time, but we had a great walk over there, complete with lots of fun conversation and a few “adventures,” haha. We got to the memorial around 6 a.m., which was perfect because we had about 30 minutes to spare. So we walked to the Vietnam War Memorial and talked to one of the guys cleaning it up and then sprinted back to the Lincoln.

The sunrise was AMAZING. One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen! From the steps of the Lincoln we watched the sky behind the Washington Monument turn brilliant hues and illuminate the Reflecting Pool, slowly bringing day to all of DC. Gorgeous. Breathtaking. Extremely surreal. We took lots of pictures, and I’m so glad we did so we can remember it, but no picture could have ever done it justice. It was beautiful.

At that point we figured that after walking all of that way it would’ve been totally lame to do anything but walk the rest of the way back, so we did. The marathon was going on that day, so we walked the opposite way of them, actually running into two ASPers who were doing it, and finally crossed over and made our way to Union Station. We got breakfast at Au Bon Pairs (or something like that, haha) and were absolutely dead – I’m sure we looked absolutely downtrodden and I’m sure our conversation reflected that, haha. We got back to the apartments at 9 a.m., which was perfect because Brian had to be out of there at 10:30 to catch his plane home.

I fell asleep right away and woke up a little before 2 p.m. I told the story to my roommates who all thought I was crazy, made myself lunch, ate it, and then fell back asleep from 4 to 6. Then I got up, did my chores, showered and got ready to go dancing! Christine, Rachelle, Danielle and I all left for The Black Cat (the same place where we went ‘80s dancing) around 10:30 and danced the night away until 1:30. So fun! I was absolutely dead, though, and my feet were killing me. My bed was especially wonderful that night.

Sunday the four of us went to National Community Church and then to an Asian restaurant in Union Station. At some point that day Danielle, Natalie, Alyssa and I went back to Union Station to get milkshakes at Johnny Rockets. And then Danielle and I attempted to get homework done with a nice, little incentive program … which worked somewhat, haha.

Now onto Monday, as in only three days ago! We had class, family dinner, I did some work, and then that night Alyssa and I ordered in Chinese food and watched a movie.

Tuesday after work I decided that I wanted to go running, and I decided that I wanted to do a different route than normal. On the run I decided that I wanted to try to make it to the Washington Monument, which is pretty far away, and I told myself that I could just walk some of it. So I ran to the Capital, onto the Mall, and all the way to and around the Washington and then all the way back – I ran the whole way, which for me is SO much more than I normally do! I kept a pretty slow place for some of it, especially that nasty uphill part on the back of the Capital, but I didn’t walk any of it. And it was so nice – such a scenic, relaxing run! I knew it was pretty darn far, but someone yesterday told me that it was a 6 mile run … 6 miles! I usually only run two or three, haha. So that was definitely enjoyable.

Wednesday (yesterday) after work was progressive dinner. We had rolls in our apartment, went to the girls’ for taco salad, and then came back to our apartment for cherry cheesecake cupcakes that John had made. Cole dared me to stick two into my mouth at once. So I did. And it was messy. But they were delicious. Then we had story time with John, which was hilarious. Best story teller ever. And then a bunch of people stuck around, and Rachelle, Christine, Cole, Geoff and I talked for a few hours. It was a great progressive dinner.

Today it’s been really rainy, and I am SO cozy right now – right after I got back from work I changed into jeans, slippers and a huge sweatshirt, which is just lovely. Oh, and I got pupusas at a Salvadorian restaurant for lunch, and they were really good. That was nice, especially since I didn’t wake up until 9 this morning, which was when I was supposed to BE at work … my alarm didn’t go off for whatever reason, so I was over an hour late to work, haha. Not so cool. But the pupusas were amazing. And now Rachelle and I are going to make a chicken dinner, then there’s Bible study, and Rachelle and I might watch Casablanca later tonight – after The Office of course.

Vintage hip-hop dancing tomorrow!!!!

Sorry, honey, I can't tonight ... I'm on deadline!

So I felt like a little bit of a journalism nerd today.

WJC went to the Newseum today for an all-day field trip. I won’t lie, I was a little skeptical, and I think I expected it to be a little hoaky just because of the name. A museum about newspapers? Really? But hey, it beat being in class, right?

But I honestly think it might be my most favorite museum I’ve ever been to. We got there at 10 a.m., and we were allowed to leave at 3, but I stayed until it closed at 5.

I started out on the first floor going through a room with all the Pulitzer Prize winning photos, complete with background information about the photo. Oh. My. Gosh. It was uplifting and inspiring as well as heartbreaking and utterly gut-wrenching. So many of the photos were of horrific war scenes or poverty. I cried multiple times in that one room. We also watched a documentary featuring some of the photographers who shared their experiences, and it made me gain even more respect for photojournalism, especially in international, war-torn regions. Those people sacrifice a lot of their safety and emotional sanity (viewing those scenes day-after-day would be devastating) to show what is really going on.

Some of the photos were graphic, like one of a body hung from a tree with a man beating it with a stick as a mob cheered him on. Or the photo of a mother and child in the air falling from a burning building (the mother died, the child miraculously didn’t.). The one that probably stuck with me the most was of a young African girl huddled on the ground, emaciated with her ribs pointing through her skin, as a buzzard behind her was watching for her to die. The description said that after the photo ran, the photographer was bombarded with angry letters asking him why he didn’t pick up the girl and save her, and he said that he wish he had. He later shot himself.

Three photos really stood out to me for reasons other than shock value, however. The first was of a soldier returning from combat with his family running out to meet him. Their expressions were amazing, and the daughter was leaping into him, arms outstretched, both feet off the ground. Another photo was of an African baby being passed back and forth between relatives across a fence dividing camps. The juxtaposition of the innocence of the child and the harshness and division of war was stunning and so moving. But my favorite photo by far is the 1958 winning photo of a police officer saying hi to a young boy looking up into his face. The boy’s expression is so innocent and full of awe, and I get choked up just looking at it … I don’t ever think I’ve seen such an expression captured so fully in photography.

After that I went up to the sixth floor (yes, there are six floors!) and looked through archives of newspapers. They were displaying newspapers of either media or historical significance all the way from the 1500s until the present, which were SO amazing to see. First of all, I was struck by how published media has evolved over the years. Secondly, I was fascinated by the history overview of 500 years, and it was so so so interesting to see how the media (rather than history books) covered things. Thirdly, I was struck by the role that minorities and women played in the media. As far back as the 1800s minorities and women were producing their own newspapers, which is absolutely amazing to me since they had virtually no rights. They did that entirely of their own ambition, and I look up to that so very much.

I also saw displays on radio, convergence, journalists who have died while on the field, the Berlin Wall (with a huge piece of the actual Wall!!) and 9/11, which was an amazing display, but the footage made me a mess. It’s amazing how now, 8 years later, I’m finally beginning to understand more of what that day meant for our nation and the degree of devastation from it. My heart breaks for those people. But this museum was absolutely amazing, and unlike the Smithsonians, it does cost money, but it’s entirely worth it. Such an amazing museum!! And there was a really fun trivia game that Rachelle and I played at least six times. It’s amazing how much we remembered from our Mass Media Law and Ethics class.

Then Andrea, Rachelle and I took the bus back and after a few minutes an older black man got on who appeared to be homeless and have some kind of disability with his arm. He sat down next to where I was standing and asked me to sit next to him and help him with something, so of course I asked him what it was. He pulled out a huge wad of crumpled up $1 bills and asked me if I could count it for him. So I sat there and smoothed them out and counted them one-by-one until I had counted $34.

He was really appreciative and asked me some questions about myself, so I told him I was a student from Southern California. Then I asked him if he had grown up in DC, and he said yes except for two years he spent in Asia. I pieced it together, but then he proceeded to confirm that he had been drafted into the Vietnam War in ’67 (maybe that was where his arm injury came from). I didn’t want to pry of course, so I just said that that must have been a difficult experience, and he told me that he still had bad dreams all the time. I asked him if he had any family in the area, and he said he had a 34-year-old daughter in Florida and that his mom was 89 and still lived in DC but has Parkinson’s.

We talked for a little bit about the like, but the conversation ended earlier than I would have liked when we reached my stop. It was such a humbling experience and reminded me how there are a lot of homeless veterans in DC, which is such a tragedy. And I won’t lie, I’ve definitely had some creepier/weirder encounters with homeless men on the bus, but this guy wasn’t like that at all. He was so appreciative for the help and very respectful and friendly. He just seemed very genuine, and I wish I could’ve talked with him longer. The whole concept of fighting for one’s country to return to the states and endure extreme poverty and homelessness breaks my heart. Now obviously I know there are more factors than that, but my heart really goes out to those people.

We had family dinner and then worship night. Which was much needed. I’m fighting to keep the right perspectives in place. Oh, and sometime tonight Rachelle and I had a massive speed round =) Peace!

The Continuation

PART 2

Sorry I’m so behind on updates!!! Okay, continuing the story …

So last Saturday (as in March 7 … I know, I’m behind!), we were invited to the concert and went straight to Pentagon City from Arlington to meet Chad, Eli and her friend. We got food at the food court and then explored the mall. The high light was by far the FAO Schwartz store … Jason had seen it on the directory and we were all super excited about seeing the gigantic toy store! But then it ended up just being a corner of Macy’s, haha. But we still surprisingly had an amazing time running around with the stuffed animals, guys included =)

We then went to the bus stop to wait and stood around for about 20 minutes before checking the schedule and realizing we had another 20 minutes before the bus came. So all, like, 12 of us ran over to the park across the street and played on the playground! Between the toy store and the playground we were just having an amazing time!! Then we finally caught the bus and took it to the Pentagon where we had to transfer … and we had to wait another half an hour for that bus! But it was okay because Christine taught us dance moves.

Finally we got to Alexandria, which is a really tiny town in Virginia and we walked around before finding the building that the concert was in. It looked like a little rural church from the outside, but inside it had the coffee shop/concert set up. We had missed the first band, but we got there just in time for Will Grey. He was an R&B singer (amazing voice!!) with a banjo, a cello and an acoustic guitar for his background. Hip hop and acoustic??? Yes please! It was sooooo good! I absolutely loved it!

When the concert was over we walked back to the bus stop and waited. Theme of the night, right? After a bit, though, Rachelle and I recalled that the we had seen a sign that said that the buses stopped running in that area at 10, and by that point it was 10:30 or 11. This was suburban Virginia after all, not DC. A group of people decided to take a cab to the nearest metro station, but Rachelle, Jason, Chad, Christine, Mark, Zack and I decided to tough it out.

So we walked out of the neighborhood and after a while found a gas station. Chad asked for directions and we found out that there was a metro station 2 miles down King Street. So we walked. It was actually kind of nice because we got to see the area. But it wasn’t like we hadn’t walked everywhere earlier that day. Or like I had gone on a run that morning. Needless to say, when we finally found the station I was more than happy to sit down! But we made it safe and sound! A really fun, random, amazing day!

Last Sunday (as in a week ago) we went to the 11:30 service at National Community Church at Union Station, and then that afternoon Yvette, Ren, Rachelle and I walked to the Capital and took pictures! But it was amazing, amazing weather that day and that evening a huge group of us decided to walk to a bunch of the monuments. It was probably 10, but I went out in jeans, a tank top and my Rainbows and was totally fine – beautiful!! We went to the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, walked in the Reflecting Pool (it was drained, haha) and went to the Lincoln. And then remembered that the metro closed at midnight. So once again, we walked all the way back home. Chad told us later that it was a 7-mile walk, so we definitely got our walking in last weekend!

Monday we had class, a guest speaker in the afternoon and family dinner. But I don’t really remember the details of those anymore, haha. But that evening I went with Michaela, Kate and Jenny to Ebenezar’s, which was fun because I got to get to know those girls a bit better. We all took books to get some reading done, but we just ended up talking until the coffee shop closed. I really enjoyed our talks! Then I got back and Rachelle, Christine, Jeff and Jason were watching my Disney Robin Hood movie in the lounge! And of course I had to join them since it was my favorite Disney movie!

Tuesday at RNS I got to go to an event! A Methodist Church that was about a 20 minute walk from the offices was hosting an event of people rallying together to push for Obama to give more funding to public transit, especially in poorer areas with minorities and to provide more jobs for minorities. There were some pastors and representatives from religious organizations, but there were also just a lot of secular activist groups. The room was packed with at least 100 people from all over the country – the woman I sat next to was actually from Ventura. I sat through a few talks and then during the lunch break talked to some of the key speakers. It was so funny how importantly I was treated by all the people there. I’m really, really glad they didn’t know I was only 20, haha.

Then I went back and wrote the story. That part wasn’t as fun. When I got back to the apartment I had a headache, so I decided to skip Bible study and just take a run instead to clear my head and then take it easy before heading to bed early. So I did just that!

Wednesday I wrote a brief on how an Arkansas lawmaker is trying to bring back a proposal to allow concealed guns in churches, as a result of the shooting that occurred in a church near St. Louis in which a man shot and the killed the preacher during the message in front of the entire congregation. I also began researching for a story on how Obama’s proposal to reduce the tax deduction for charitable giving from 35 percent to 28 percent for couples who earn more than $250,000 annually would affect religious charities. That night we had progressive dinner: chips from the girls, tacos from the guys, and Jason and John made African donuts. Fun as always!

Thursday I wrote most of the article on the reduced tax deduction. It was probably the most interesting article I’ve written, and I really enjoyed it! If any of you happen to be interested in the topic, I would love to talk to you about it and what I learned. Then when I came back Alyssa and I went to Union Station and met up with Chad. We got dinner at Johnny Rockets and then went to the theater to get tickets for Fanboys, but it wasn’t playing anymore. So we went back to Chad’s house and watched Role Models and then threw in The Office and Flight of the Conchords – good stuff =)

Friday we had class in the morning and then guest speakers on the issues of being a woman in the workplace. I think it’s such an interesting topic, and I was really glad that the two women brought in were so different and provided different insight. But some of it was kind of frustrating. But it was definitely a good dialogue to start at least. Then we went to Ebenezar’s for our typical Friday deal. Then we came back, and got ready for the Libertarian event. There was going to be a showing of the 20/20 with some speakers and such at Release, a venue at Dupont. It’s one of the first underage events I could get into, so naturally Rachelle and Alyssa and I decided we needed to, and we got all dressed up for it. It ended up being really crowded and fairly boring. We talked to some people for a little while, but left after about an hour and went to Larry’s Homemade Ice Cream for ice cream and cupcakes. Then we went to Chad’s and watched a movie.

Saturday (yesterday – I’m finally catching up!) I slept in, talked to Aliayh for a few hours, went for a run in the rain (loved it!), and then showered and got ready for girls’ night! We went all the way out to Alexandria, Virginia to go to this karaoke bar … but it ended up being a 21 and up place. So we went to Tex Mex instead, haha. I got the Hangover Burger: cheeseburger with chile, jalepenos, bacon, and a fried egg. I know. So not a Karin meal. But it was quite the experience! When we got back Christine and I decided that Extreme Days was a must – we both loooooooove that movie, haha! She’s the first person (other than my sister) who I met who likes it as much as me! So Christine and Rachelle and I watched it in the lounge with a few guys who just made fun of us for it … but it was wonderful!

Today a group of us went to Capital Hill Baptist and the intern lunch. And then Rachelle and Christine and I went to Safeway to do grocery shopping. We got a lot. And then it was raining and we barely missed the bus. And we had quite the ordeal with the shopping cart. And ended up getting a ride with a “courtesy driver” back. A little sketch. But we made it, haha. And Mandi’s parents are visiting and they were really sweet and made dinner for a bunch of us. Then a group of us just sat around and talked for a while. And tonight my apartment’s been having a massive makeover. We put up artistic pig pictures on our entry wall. And a height chart with all of us marked on it. And our names with descriptive words. And sheets with what we want to report about and what superpower we would want. And a quote sheet – Danielle and I made the first one!

So yeah. Sorry for the longest update EVER.

Episode 1 of an eclectic spring break

SPRING BREAK PART 1

So gear in for a really, really long update. A lot’s happened in the last week, and I definitely want to try to be more consistent with this blog in the future.

So last Thursday I was technically on spring break! We only got Thursday and Friday off, but I was so beyond happy to have a four-day weekend that I really didn’t care that spring break is usually a full week. I slept in Thursday morning and then met Rachelle in Dupont for lunch at Chipotle. It was an absolutely beautiful day – and I’m talking beautiful as in clear and 70! – so we walked around the town a little bit and then took the metro over to the Air and Space Museum … and then we spent 3 ½ hours perusing only half of the top floor of the museum … we had to read and see everything, haha. Some of the exhibits were really interesting, especially one on the Wright Brothers. It was a really fun afternoon with the exception of getting hit on by teen boys, haha.

After that we came back and bummed around until the evening. Friday was Chad’s 21st birthday (He’s the one who got dismissed from the program, but we still hang out with him, only outside of the apartments), and he wanted to go to the midnight showing of Watchmen, and probably about a dozen of us went. It was really fun just talking and hanging out and playing cards with everyone while we were waiting. The movie was a little much for me. Graphic, graphic violence and sex. Like, disgusting. And it was confusing. I probably would’ve liked it more if I had read the book. The guys who read the book all liked the movie, but those of us who hadn’t tended to not. But it was still a really fun night. Even though we had to walk back from Chinatown at 3 a.m.

Friday Rachelle and I slept in late and then went to Target for groceries. And we each bought two packs of playing cards. So now we can play Nertz and Speed =) In fact, Rachelle and I have played Speed twice in the past few nights, which has been fun since it’s been a while for me and that game’s amazing! And I clobbered her the last time too ;) But anyways, after Target we came back and got ready for the evening because Chad had invited us to his birthday dinner.

He had decided on the ESPN Zone since some of us going were underage, and it ended up being me and Rachelle and then a bunch of the guys. Chad, Cole, David, John, Jason, Jeremy, Mark, Zack and us. SO fun when it’s ESPN Zone! We played games for 2 hours while waiting for our table. I bought a few credits, but then Chad was nice and let us use a bunch of his. I owned at basketball and car racing, haha. And we also played air hockey and this really cool, intense foosball-like game. Really, really fun!

And then we all had dinner and that was fun too. And Chad got to actually drink something since he isn’t on covenant anymore, which was cool for him. I’m just glad my birthday’s over the summer! After that a group of us walked back and then went over to Chad’s house for a while. We were going to play Wii but some of his roommates were on it, so we just sat in the family room and talked and laughed about random stuff for a while. I think we finally left around 1 or 2 a.m.

Rachelle and I had agreed that we were going to go somewhere cool Saturday afternoon so we wanted to be up and ready at a decent hour. And I had kept trying to fit running into the past few days (to no avail), so I decided to suck it up and get up at an earlier time to take a run. 10:30 a.m. On a Saturday. That’s right. Haha. I took a path that Jason had recommended that went down 8th, down East Capital to the actual Capital, to Union and then back to the apartments that was 2 miles, which is a perfect length for me. I’ve used it a few times since, and I really like it. And I like how there are so many joggers in DC. I feel awkward running on the sidewalk in Laguna Hills, but it’s so commonplace here.

Then after I came back and showered and got ready, Rachelle and I decided to go to Arlington Cemetery and invite the girls next door … but then it turned into a really big thing, haha. Andrea, Christine, Mandi, Zack, Mark, Jeremy, Jason, Chad and Cole all ended up coming too, so we had a really big group! We got all the way out there and spent several hours on the grounds. We saw an exhibit on Fly Girls, the tomb of the unknown soldier, JFK’s grave and Iwo Jima. It was obviously a more solemn trip but still really neat.

Then Mandi told us that Eli and a friend were going out to Alexandria, Virginia for a concert and invited all of us ...

The adventure continues soon. I know you’re all anxious to find out what happens!

I like chasing snow flurries.

The last few days have been lovely! I won’t lie, I have been missing Southern California more than ever (I just need a weekend on the beach and then I would be golden!!), but I’ve had lots of little fun moments.

For example, after I went running Sunday, I came back and had a skype date with my girls, which was amazing, and then Rachelle and I made chicken marsala. And as we were making it, it began snowing! Like, really snowing! The type of snow that sticks! So Rachelle and Coco and I, as proud California representatives, ran up to the deck and played in the snow for a while. For the rest of the evening it was just so beautiful watching the snow get whipped around by the wind. Then I watched some Arrested Development with Danielle, Jason and Rachelle like the good fan that I am.

When I woke up Monday, the ground was absolutely covered in snow, and it was still snowing! We had our morning session of class and then Coco, Rachelle and I went on the roof again and took some pictures … yes, we know that we’re really living up to our stereotype! Then after the afternoon session, the three of us walked out to the National Mall, frolicking through as much snow as possible and then chasing snow flurries out on the mall. It was amazing. And suddenly the Capital didn’t look so white …

We had corned beef and cabbage for family dinner, which was only the second time I’ve had it, and then Rachelle, Danielle and I had a paint-your-toenails/Arrested Development party. Beautiful. We had worship at 9, which was great as always, and then I stayed in the parlor and talked with people there for several hours. I got to talk with a few people in the ASP program who I didn’t know so well, so that was nice, and then I got to be horribly jealous as Alyssa told me about how her grandparents were flying her out to Palm Springs for the rest of the week … I would do anything for warm weather right about now!! Then Mark and I perused music on Alyssa’s laptop, which is always fun.

Yesterday I wrote three 300-word briefs at work! I wrote one on the man who will most likely be the next president and general minister of the United Church of Christ, one on religious groups supporting the investigation of the United States’ use of torture, and one on a psychotic police officer who lost his gun and badge after he reported that he saw a demon in the police department offices and is now trying to sue to get his position back. I had a lot of momentum going, so I was able to whip them all out. And I got lunch at the organic coffee shop/café next door, which was amazing! A shrimp, mango salsa and avocado herb wrap that came with a salad and pita chips – mmmmm!

When I got back to the apartment, I hurried to throw on normal clothes and eat my lunch leftovers because then I needed to go right back out that door. Tuesday night Bible study was actually a bowling night, so David, Mark and I walked to the Capital Baptist parking lot to meet everyone, and then we all carpooled (first time on a freeway since being here!) over to the military base in Virginia – yes, we went bowling on a military base. We had to have photo ID and let the car get searched, all for bowling, haha.

We had a really large group, and I ended up bowling in a lane with David and Mark, as well as a really nice girl from Georgia named Meghan and a guy named Tex. (I can’t remember his real name … but his last name is Walker, hence the nickname.) I haven’t been bowling in so long, and I was absolutely awful! I won’t even put my scores on here .... But it was really, really fun, and a few of the guys were nice and trying to teach me bowling technique … which helped some of the time, haha. Hey, after some instruction from David, I actually got a strike! I didn’t feel so bad, though, because Meghan was in the same boat as me. It was really fun, though, and so nice to talk to people in the Bible study and hang out outside of the church setting. Like I’ve said before, the people in this study are SO nice, and I would totally want to get to know them better.

When we got back to the apartments last night Mark and I were walking up the stairs when Rachelle yelled to me from Zack’s apartment. So we went up there and Rachelle, Zack, Mark, Chris and I talked for a while about lots of random stuff. Then Rachelle left to call her family, and the rest of us kept talking.

And then we took note of the mysterious package in their apartment containing a copy of the Constitution and a cookbook by an Italian named Julia who looks like Mark’s mom … as well as hundreds of those packing foam peanuts. Somehow Zack, Mark and I got into an hour-long war with the foam peanuts. I’m not exaggerating. The first 30 minutes we were keeping up our conversation as we threw them, but we got serious for the last 30 minutes. All is fair in war, right? We were very, very amused, and it got even funnier the later it got. I seriously need a better outlet for this sort of thing … like paintballing! Even nerf guns would suffice. But it was highly amusing nonetheless.

Today hasn’t been horribly eventful yet, as I’ve only been at work, but I wrote a brief on the division created among religious groups concerning the lawsuit to abolish DOMA, which would make the federal government recognize same-sex marriages and give federal benefits (tax deductions, health insurance, etc.) to same-sex couples.

Buuuuuuut, starting tomorrow I’m on spring break! Woooohoooo! I only get Thursday and Friday off, but I’m pretty darn excited!

Sex, Crepes and Alcoholic Roy Rogers

Did my title catch your attention? That was the purpose. So I have a few stories.

Wednesday night after work I was given an interesting proposition, and despite still recovering from being sick, I decided I couldn't miss out on it. This past week was Sex Positivity Week at Georgetown, a very well known liberal school. Tuesday night there had been a forum debating the nature of pornography (it sounded as though the conclusion was that it was a valid form of sexual and artistic expression), and I had really, really wanted to attend but was obviously fairly sick.

On Wednesday Shanley sent around a text asking if anyone wanted to go to the forum that evening with her because she was covering Sex Positivity Week for United Press International. For those of you who don't know, I am fascinated by the integration of sexuality, individuality and spirituality. I took a human sexuality class last semester that was by far one of the most personally challenging and growing experiences I've had at Biola, and I am also a huge proponent of the issues discussed and the questions raised by the book Sex God by Rob Bell. Needless to say, it didn't take much to talk me into going, so Shanley, Rachelle and I set out for Georgetown.

Random necessary statement: Georgetown's campus is beautiful. I felt scholarly just being there, and I'm sure my IQ went up 10 points with each hour I stayed on campus.

So the topic of the evening was abstinence and chastity, and I was assuming the event to be a fairly large lecture. Instead, we ended up in a classroom with maybe 25 other students sitting in a circle, and the several hours consisted of a forum discussing sexual orientations and experiences that had led to the convictions each person held concerning sex and its context in various relationships. I was surprised by how open and vulnerable everyone was concerning their own personal experiences with sex, both positive and negative. So many people had experienced pain and abuse and many seemed to be confused and searching for sexual fulfillment.

And all types of people with all ranges of experience were there. Quite a few people had at least experimented with gay or bi lifestyles and many definitely had a much more liberal outlook on with whom/when they wanted to engage in sex than I do, but there were also several virgins who spoke up. Regardless of what people's personal lifestyles were, though, everyone was generally very accepting of others' views, including those who were virgins. I didn't offer anything to the discussion (I had decided in the beginning that I was going to strictly be an observer), but I found the entire thing so interesting. I would go more into detail, but that probably wouldn't be appropriate for this blog post. If you ask, though, I would love to talk about it in person.

I know some of you might be surprised that I attended an event like this. The three of us spent a good deal of time discussing everything, both on the way to the forum and afterwards, and we kept coming back to the same thing. Jesus would have associated with and invested in the sexually broken, confused and sinful individuals. Those are the people He would have talked to. He would have listened to their accounts, as wrong and sometimes as graphic as they were, and hurt with them over their pain. He would have offered a solution of hope and peace and forgiveness. He would have been clear about righteousness and truth, but not to the extent of being condemning and harsh. Love would have gone hand-in-hand with the truth.

That's the outlook I want to have on all of my interactions. I have absolutely no problem with attending events like this and listening to an audience that I will primarily disagree with. In fact, as a Christian and with the passions and gifts I have been bestowed with, I believe I almost have an obligation to. How else would Christ's love ever reach people? And I believe this is desparately needed in a world in which many of these people are scorned by Christians and consequently turned off from Christ.

After the forum, Shanely, Rachelle and I decided to actually walk into Georgetown to catch us bus ... and then we came upon a crepes restaurant ... the rest is history. Even though it was 11 p.m., we had to stop, and I am so glad we did. My moulin rouge crepe (peaches and chocolate) was to die for. A sweet ending to an insightful evening.

Thursday at work I about died. I was given two briefs to write, and I didn't have a ton of motivation, but I did have a massive headache. Enough said. Choosing to walk to the Dupont station and take the metro home instead of the bus helped. Making chicken and tossing it into pasta helped too. Talking with Rachelle and Alyssa for a while was also nice, and then Rachelle and I watched When Harry Met Sally. I had never seen it before, but I absolutely loved it. The dialgoue and banter was so witty, and I love the developments in their relationship. So funny.

Friday we had class and Ebenezar's as always. Then Rachelle, Alyssa, Natalee, Zack, Chris and I all went to the National Press Club for taco night. As I mentioned before, taco night is free for members when you purchase a drink. I felt like spicing things up a bit (while staying within the covenant, of course) and asked the waiter if they had pina coladas, which they didn't. So I ordered a Roy Rogers. Rachelle decided that sounded good and ordered one too. The waiter brought our drinks over a few minutes later, and everyone else was given their sodas in tall glasses, while Rachelle and I had short and squat ones. And the liquid was much lighter than that of a typical Roy Rogers. A sip definitely confirmed that we had been given alcohol. Obviously, we remedied that one quickly, but I still keep coming back to the same question:

Since when is a Roy Rogers an alcoholic beverage?!?!?!?!?!

People on the East Coast tend to not know what Roy Rogers are. (It's coke and grenadine for those of you who are still confused.) But if in doubt about a drink, serving customers (especially underage ones) alcohol probably isn't the best method for trying to shield your ignorance.

But taco night was really fun (and sober ... let me clarify that!!), and when we finished, we decided that the night was way too early to conclude. The night was surprisingly comfortable weather-wise, so Rachelle, Natalee, Zack and I set out to see some of the nearby monuments. We spent a good deal of time lying in the grass looking up at the Washington Monument and then attempting to scale the side of it like Spiderman (we failed miserably). We also sat in front of the pool behind the Capital for quite some time. Then we decided to just complete the walk back to the apartments instead of spending money on the metro, which is fairly easy to do when the Capital is in view. So we started walking toward it, and our joy and excitement was manifested in our running through the grass and jumping over little walls and fences to make our journey as easy, as well as just more fun, as possible.

So we were behind the Capital on a walkway fairly close to the actual building when we started looking around and realized that maybe we weren't exactly supposed to be there and that maybe we had leaped over one (or two) fences too many. And then we noticed a security guard walking toward us (just as Zack jumped over another wall -- good timing, Zack), and we proceeded to apologize to the annoyed guard who told us to go back over the fences we had come from. As we were leaving, we could hear him on his walkie talkie calling off the back-up. So we unknowingly breached security. Exhilerating.

Then I got a text from Mark asking me if any of us wanted to meet him at the Union Station theater to see Taken in 15 minutes, so Zack, Rachelle and I headed on over. If you've seen the movie and would like to talk about it, I would love to discuss it. In a nutshell, I thought the gravity of the issue of sex trafficking was entirely overshadowed by the need to see Liam Neeson kick butt. This bothered me a little. We walked back to the apartments in the drizzle, and then I talked to Juliette for an hour and then Aliayh for three ... I didn't go to bed until 5:30 a.m.

Which is why I didn't wake up until 2 p.m. yesterday (Saturday). I got ready for the day, enjoyed talks with both Cherise and my dad, and then hung out with Christina. She was back for just the day to get her stuff before going back home, and she came up to our apartment and talked with me and Rachelle for a while before we all headed to The Old Siam (the best Thai restaurant ever!!) with Zack, Mark and Chris. My chicken was actually genuinely spicy, and our conversation was enjoyable, so overall it was a wonderful dinner. Then Christina took a taxi back to her hotel and the rest of us went back.

We decided we wanted to all watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so Rachelle and I headed to 7-Eleven to get ice cream, and then we got the tv downstairs. But yesterday was Jason's birthday and he wasn't too keen on our selected movie, so we let him pick a different one, and we proceeded to watch 3:10 to Yuma, another fantastic movie. We had an intermission in the middle or cake and to sing him happy birthday, but then we finished up the movie. And it was late, but when Rachelle and I went up to our apartment Danielle was watching my season 1 of Arrested Development. So of course we had to join her for a few. Then we went to bed.

This morning we went to Capital Hill Baptist again with David, Yvette, Mark, Zack and Chris to hear the actual pastor who was finally back. He gave a sermon on requirements for a godly church, and it was one of the most solid sermons I've heard in a while. Although style-wise the church is vastly more traditional than what I'm used to, I'm so impressed by the substance of the messages. Then we went to the college/intern lunch, which was good, and once again the pastor came down to answer people's questions about anything. An obviously intelligent guy, who identified himself as a naturalist, asked about how one could validate the Bible, and the pastor gave an amazing, solid, in-depth response (he used to be an agnostic), and then set up a lunch with the guy to talk more about it. I really respect that.

Now I'm back at the apartment for the rest of the afternoon! I think I might go running in a little bit, and then Rachelle and I have a skype date with Erin and Juliette in a little bit. We just found out that we most likely have the house for next year -- the amazingly large and adorable and amazing one that Rachelle and I have been wanting since our sophomore year!! -- so we're going to talk about that.

I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL.