I have a couple weeks of updates, so here you go!Internship last week: I wrote stories about how the military chaplain scheduled a day of prayer concerning the high suicide rate among soldiers on the first day of Passover, which brought on criticism and accusations, especially because he's Southern Baptists, as well as a story on a woman who died after being poisoned years ago with coffee laced with arsenic by an upset member of the congregration.
Tuesday last week: After work Shanley and I met up at the Starbucks in Chinatown because we decided we needed to catch up on life. This Starbucks is so cool, by the way, and we drank our drinks (no coffee/tea for me -- Lent was still going on) on the charming second floor. I really like upstair coffee rooms =) Then we decided to find dinner somewhere around there. So we decided to ask a security guard where some good restaurants were. Our conversation went as follows:
Guard: Restaurants? What type of food?
Shanley: Ummm ... chick food?
Guard: Cheque food?!
Me: No, no -- chick food.
Guard: *laughing in disbelief* What the (heck) is CHICK food?!
*Me and Shanley look at each other*
Me: Ummm ... pretty food??
Needless to say, we ended up just searching on our own, and we went to the amazing Thai restaurant in Chinatown that I went to with Rachelle earlier in the year. We split the meal I had gotten before and pad thai, which was soooo good! We talked for a few hours about life and important issues, which was pretty darn refreshing. A really good evening.
Wednesday last week: My family got in! I went to Mom and Torie's hotel (Capital Hilton) after work and then we went to Bertucci's for dinner, and I got salmon and ate a bunch of Torie's tortellinis and split tiramisu for dessert-- yummy! Then I walked with them to the White House and all around it (it's really close to their hotel), and then my mom made me leave because it was getting late and she was nervous about me traveling home, haha.
Thursday last week: I was off of work, so I met up with my family (got to see Dad and Kelsie for the first time!) and did the monuments with them. Washington, Jefferson, FDR, Lincoln. They were exhausted from all the walking, which I've gotten quite used to, so we went and grabbed a late lunch/early dinner at a cute Italian place in Dupont. My spinach crepe was to die for! Then we went back to the hotel, and I accidentally fell asleep.
Then I stole Kelsie and took her back to my apartment to spend the night with me. Thursday night is Office night of course (duh!), but last week was weird and there were TWO episodes (one at 8, the other at 9), so we had to make a mad dash to the WJC classroom (to make matters worse, the big screen tv in the student lounge is broken), but we only missed a few minutes. Rachelle, Jason, Jeremy, Sarah, Phil, Coco, Kelsie and I watched the first Office episode, the first episode ever of Parks and Recreation (not that great ... going off of The Office much??) and then the second Office episode before Kelsie and I (like true Hamiltons) decided we needed a break from the tv. So we got her bed set up, which involved dragging a mattress down the stairs in Apartment 6 and up our stairs, and then talked for a few hours before hitting the hay.
Friday last week: My family and Rachelle and I went to The Old Siam for lunch! It's my favorite restaurant here, so of course I had to take my family there, and it was amazing as always! Then I took them to Georgetown and we walked around, were heartbroken by Baked and Wired's lack of cupcakes and finally settled for some eco-friendly fro yo place. Then my parents went to Arlington, and I took the exhausted girls back to the hotel and then to Fuddruckers. Then we went back to the hotel, and I accidentally fell asleep. Trend? Then my dad rode the metro with me and walked me back to my apartment because it was late, and he didn't want me walking by myself ... I see a pattern ... And then Rachelle and I stayed up really late talking.
Saturday: Rachelle and I slept in because we had stayed up so late talking. Then we went and met my family at the International Spy Museum!! Soooo cool! I especially liked the biographies of modern spies as well as information about women spies. And all the gadgets! And the WWII pidgeon made me laugh. Do you know pidgeons have won more medals of honor than any other animal?? Then we met up at the Air and Space Museum, but we were all kind of museumed out at that point, so we walked over to the Capital and people-watched for a long time.
Rachelle and Kelsie and I especially liked a young couple with a little toddler. The mom was taking pictures of the dad playing with the toddler, and the little girl kept grabbing the tulips on the lawn, and the dad kept stopping her to try and make her smell them for the pictures. We were like, "No! Let her touch the tulips! That's so cute!" And the mom agreed with us apparently because she eventually told her husband that. And then the little girl kept running around and the dad kind of followed her, and the whole scene was just so endearing ... I know, I'm such a girl, haha =)Then Rachelle and I went to Safeway to get groceries and to pick up potatoes for our mashed potato contribution to the WJC/ASP Sunday Easter dinner. I think we went to bed fairly early because the next morning ...
Sunday/EASTER!!: We got up early! Rachelle, Sarah, Andrea, Phil, John, Jason and I all met at 6:20 a.m. and caught a bus to the National Cathedral for the 8 a.m. service. We got there around 7:15, and got some pretty good seats. Jason, Rachelle and I explored for a little bit and laughed at how political the church was. Then we sat through the service, which was pretty much what I expected. Lots of ritualistic prayers, grand displays and incense, short sermon, more orthodox presentation of communion. But it was definitely an interesting experience. Then we wandered around the gorgeous building and grounds and even found the Darth Vader gargoyle.
Then I went to my family's hotel and fell asleep while they went to church ... with Obama and his family! Apparently he sat seven rows in front of them and they walked right next to him for communion! Maybe I should've done double church ... but then we got some food in their lobby 
and I said goodbye.
and I said goodbye.When I got back we had the massive Easter dinner (3 p.m.) with our program, and it was SO good! Everyone went way above the expectations -- John made a ham with pineapple and Phil made salmon! It was really cool getting to spend Easter with everyone this way. I think I'm going to miss the community a lot.
Then I had to do a bunch of homework, which wasn't so fun. And it just wasn't the greatest evening. But Easter day was really, really nice =)
Then I had to do a bunch of homework, which wasn't so fun. And it just wasn't the greatest evening. But Easter day was really, really nice =)
Monday: We had class and then ... FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS!! Chad and I saw them at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitutional Hall, and it was just fantastic. We picked up the tickets from will call, grabbed dinner at Cosi (kind of like Corner Bakery), and then went back and were surprised to find that our seats were pretty good! We weren't sure if there was going to be an opening act or anything, but who turned out to be the opening comedy act? Mel from the show -- She was hilarious! Neither of us had any clue she would be there. And then of course the guys were just great. It was really, really fun watching them live! They did a bunch of their older songs (My favorites were "I'm Not Crying," "Business Time," and "Hiphopopotamus") and a bunch from season 2, which were really funny. Such a great, hilarious concert!
Afterwards we made sure Chad got his Fotc shirt and then walked back. Only disappointment of the evening? That Bret wasn't wearing his owl jersey: We had agreed beforehand that if he was, Chad would take a dip in the reflecting pool .... they just have the best outfits =)
Tuesday: I got into work and checked my email only to find that Kevin had sent me an email the night before asking me to be at an event that day ... at 10 a.m. ... at the Iwo Jima memorial. Needless to say, I kicked into action. Adelle gave me money for a cab, and I jumped into one on the corner and chatted it up with the driver (he was a riot) all the way over there, meanwhile looking over the event info, and somehow got there 10 minutes early!
It was basically a protest. Two Sikh men who have been medically trained in the Army for years had been called to active duty for July but were also told they must shave their heads and remove their turbans to serve, which is majorly against their religion. They claimed they had been told by their recruiters this wouldn't be an issue and were beginning a lawsuit, asking the Army to allow Sikhs to serve because under this ordinance, none of them would be able to.
It was a pretty small gathering (and it was absolutely freezing!!), and I talked with the group advocate right away, listened to the talks, and then talked with the two men and their lawyer. They were really nice, and it was great not having to push my way through drones of people to talk to them, but they were pretty vague and avoided saying a lot of things for "legal reasons." After being there for about an hour, I left and took the metro back to the office and wrote up the brief.
After work I met Alyssa at Potbelly's because we had been talking earlier in the day and realized we hadn't had a good conversation in a while. So we divulged on life over sandwiches and milkshakes, and it was simply lovely. Then when we got back to the apartment, I was pretty much a bum for the rest of the evening.
Wednesday (yesterday): At my internship I mostly worked on setting up an interview with and then interviewing Robert Short, the man who wrote the bestseller "The Gospel According to Peanuts," like, 30 years ago for the "10 Minutes with ..." Q&A. His most recent book, which I talked to him about, is "The Parables of Dr. Seuss," in which he claims that Theodore Geisel's Christian theology permeates his books and actually parallels the New Testament. I'm personally a little skeptical on this kind of thing, but it was interesting talking to him. But he was definitely not as articulate as Al Meredith, which definitely made the process more difficult. Then Adelle and I went to the cafe next door and talked about my experience interning here ... I can't believe this is my last day ...
After work I called Erin and we finally reached each other. We talked for about 2 hours, and it was so nice to catch up. But then I began feeling really sick. It kind of put me out of commission for the rest of the evening. Oh, and it rained A LOT yesterday.
Thursday/Today: Chris and I left for work early so we could go to the National Press Club for the free breakfast that we never took advantage of. First of all, it's always so nice going there because the Press Club is seriously so classy, and then the breakfast was really good. I had yogurt and berries, pineapple, a cheese danish, a chocolate chip muffin and cranberry juice ... all for free! This is pretty much the college student's dream =) And then Alex showed up, so the three of us ate together and had some fun discussions.
At work I finished up the "10 Minutes with Robert Short" and then Kevin bought pizza since it was my and Chris' last day, and Kevin, Adelle, Claudia, Dave, Chris and I (Dan wasn't there) all had lunch together. It's kind of funny how the first time all of us in the office shared a meal and had full conversations that didn't center around work was on the last day. Our talks included Dave's suicidal dog, Claudia's cousin who is on MTV's newest reality show, being an only child, beer pong, Claudia's fear that her parents would love their dog more, and Dave's raccoon-scaring tactics. I'm bummed I didn't have more time to get to know everyone.
Thus concludes my internship with RNS. So bittersweet. I can't believe I won't be at this desk Tuesdays through Thursdays anymore ...
In other news, the morning prayer/Bible reading with Rachelle, Sarah and Jason has been really good. I wasn't able to make it today, but it's been absolutely wonderful beginning every day with God like that. Anyone want to do it with me next semester?? =)
