LET'S GO CAPS!

My first National hockey game ever! Washington Capitals vs Buffalo Sabers. We lost! :( But it was an intense last 20 seconds... woo hoo. Yay for Brynne getting $5 tickets!

The screaming crew: me, Jared, Brynne, and Jon

DC = place of magic and politics and chaos....

oh my! oh my!

Hehe, yea... I started a whip cream fight.... it's just too hard to resist.

Brynne sipping her latte at the all too cool BusBoys and Poets... my new addiction of a coffee shop.
Brynne and I at the Kennedy Center after a free jazz show on thanksgiving... it was INCREDIBLY cold and windy.

Rockin the night

"Surfing" on the Metro takes great skill and talent... hah... or it just takes being able to look like a fool as your fall down repeatedly. I wish i could post some videos... they're just ridiculous! Yes, we provided entertainment for the entire Metro...

Oh the HOTNESS.... and how amazing is public transportation... so much cooler than worrying about driving and traffic and parking and gas and such... oh but they do now own my bank account.

Gorging ourselves with thanksgiving

Our thanksgiving meal... yummy!

A white thanksgiving

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday touring the city...

The "friendship" plant

The Flower capitol

They're getting sucked into the shuttle......ahhhhhhh

Tuesday Night

Night Monument with friends...

The shadows in the night in front of the George.

The Lincoln

Genae, Brynne, Eric, Lorah, and me at the WWII Memorial with Lincoln peakign over our shoulders. How I love friends and DC!

Looking up in the rotunda

Studying in the Library of Congress this past weekend, I found the quotes written around the top of the rotunda under the different fields of study intriguing:

Under the slogan of philosophy:
"The inquiry knowledge and belief of truth is the sovereign good of human nature."

Under religion:
"What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God."

Under science:
"The heavens declare the glory of the God and the firmament showeth his handiwork."

Under history:
"One God, one Law, one element and one far off divine event to which the whole creation moves."

sunsets

The streets at night tell a thousand beautiful stories. I love living in a city just to be able to walk brick lined sidewalks in the dark. There are all colors of leaves on the ground as the air has become increasingly chilly. This tree shone bright orange in the night light as we walked home tonight from Union Station. P.S. I'm just generally obsessed with trees... whether they are green during the spring, orange, red and yellow during the fall or naked and bare during the summer. Each season is gorgeous in its own way and has its own feeling.


As I watched another episode of West Wing, it's become an obsession among many of the students here, I peaked out the window to see this sunset over the Capitol.

I immediately ran up to the roof to take picutres.... shortly followed by Janine and Jared (featured in the picture bellow).

fight club

So in college, people talk smack. Everyone says they can take down so and so. Well, after randomly attacking and almost pinning Tim a few night ago, we decided we needed to have a good whole fight club night. Friday night in dc? What else should we do other than have a wrestling match in the parlor displaying the messages of Shalom that we have heard all week in lectures? heh.

Round 1: Cari vs. Christina
Results: yea... i got her.


Round 2: Cari vs. Tyler
Results: well, his elbow won the match over my lip/teeth... so lets just say it was a draw.
(reenactment of the fight)

Man, I have a bloodly lip... but you know it sounds hardcore.

a day in the life of a washington intern aka today

7:20 - the alarm goes off, i wander downstairs to eat breakfast and clean it up for everyone. My roommate and I share breakfast duties, so she sets it up and I clean it up.
7:45 - 8:00 - sleep again
8:00 - annoyance of alarm
8:25 - run to catch the bus as i see driving up to the stop next to my apartment complex. As I jump on the bus and scramble through my bag, I realize I have left my buscard (a credit card thing that you put money on for the bus/metro) in my coat pocket. Do I have a $1.25? no. only a $1, so now, considering I'm already on the bus during rush hour traffic I must ask the driver if that's ok that I rip of the Distict by 23 cents. Thankfully she was nice.
9:00 - Start the craziness of the office.
9:01 am - 2:01 pm - answer phones, research how many engineering majors are at specific Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), research plane tickets for various coworkers, research various information on minority healthcare, fax various items, answer more phones, research other random info, help rearrange office furniture, etc.
1:15 pm - president of company keeps true to our almost daily arrangement for me to go get him lunch if he also pays for me... it's a good situation. win win. heh. i think i get ahead.
2:15 - quickly catch the Metro to Israel Embassy for a briefing on the Israel-Palestine conflict for my class. However, considering i still don't have my Metrocard, I have to repurchase a ticket to ride the Metro. Yes, all of my money goes to the Metro in this town... they own me. Interesting and added new information to the growing amount of research
4:30 - march in the now unexpected freezing cold weather back to the metro station with my parade of a class.
4:35-4:45 - attempting to "surf" while on the metro. highly recommended if you want to make a fool of yourself and laugh a lot. Point and purpose of game: try to stand without holding on to anything and with your feet together while the train comes to a stop and go at each station. heh. i'm a dork, but heck, i looked "professional" while doing it
4:50 - Twenty-five students wander around Dupont Circle multiple times while trying to find the random Middle Eastern resturant. pretty sure we looked like that "target" that we were told not to be... hmm... starts pouring rain
5:15 - arrive, drenched, to the resturant to enjoy our group International dinner out for this unit of the semester.
5:30-6:45 - stuff my face with far too much food as is reasonibly healthy, but it tasted so good. yummy. Lamb, humus, chicken, etc. three courses.
6:45 - dash out the door with one of my roommates to attend a dinner reception that my internship had invited me to and the Congressman was MCing. get soaked as we walk back to metro.
7:00 - run off metro to find hotel. As I walked into one of the top 5 hotels in DC, I suddenly felt out of place. Megan and I attempt to clean ourselves up the wet-sloppy-intern look... hah... sometimes its just funny. As we walk down the hallway frightenedly trying to find the reception room, we realize that there are secret service everywhere in the hallway and a metal detector for a black tie event... oh... it's some Foundation award party in which Vice President Cheney is attending...
Suddenly, I have horrible thoughts about whether the dinner I am attending is a black-tie event... what if I'm under dressed? Then again, I realize I don't even know what the event is... I just know I'm full from the already enhaled dinner.
7:15 - Then, across the hall from Cheney's event, we find our room. As Megan and I walk in, we feel very out of place; everyone else has the presence of being "important" and over the age of 45. Yes, this is when I am supposed to be chatty and friendly and know how to shmooze.... which I hate all of. Want to feel intimated, just got to one of these crazy dinners.
7:30 - sit at table to start the first course of our second meal.... at this time wanting to not look at food ever again.
7:35-8:00 - various people speak about their views of politics, yes this is DC, politics. Senator Thune (R-SD) makes a brief speach. He's a Biola alum, so I obviously want to talk to him, but then again... I'm the intern in the midst of the other 30-40 people in the room. However, right before he ran out the door, I did manage to introduce myself and grab the typical politician picture. He asked if I had classed with Dr. Peters, which automatically shocked me (and made me laugh) because that means Dr. Peters has taught in the Biola PolySci department far too long. However, I'm not a Politcal science major, I'm PR. Speaking of, a few days ago someone randomly asked me why I even bothered coming to DC if I wasn't into politics. hah. ridiculous.
9:00 pm - Realizing that neither Megan or I still had any idea what the company that organized/sponsored the event did other than that they were Republican, we headed home. more ran. more cold. more metro rides and a mile walk back with incredibly stuffed stomachs to the lovely apartments.
9:30 - Google the company's name to find out what they do and google the names of the people we met to find out who they are... yay for the internet. yay for being unknown interns who don't know anything. :)

craziest bookstore of all time

A book lover's dream come true. Books of all kind piled as high as the ceiling and even into the bathroom and up the stairs. Chaos. Excitment. Overwhelming.

Organization... well, there are little white notes that say what section you are in and then have fun finding what you want. It's surprisingly organized among the piles and stacks of disorganization. Tim and I walked out utterly stunned from the experience.

Falling in love with colors

Joe, Erica (Vanessa's brother and sister-in-law) and I at the National Zoo. For being free, it was a good zoo, however, nothing really compares now after seeing lions and tigers up close in South Africa. The zoo was kinda depressing with all the animals in tiny cages, still had a good time though.

I've never seen trees this color... they are gorgeous. This is what I walk through everyday coming home from work. Just in case God doesn't paint enough colors in the sunset everyday, He gives us seasons that show the rainbow too. Continually impressed.

We got them!

The TRIUMPHANT few.
I was #100 in line.

Here we come, Pageant of Peace.

Waiting for the tickets...

Nine of us camped out over night by the White House to get tickets for the National Christmas Tree lighting with the President. It was a fun night living on the sidewalks of DC.

This was the morning shot we woke up to with the Tree and Washington Monument.
We slept... well kind of. Yay for body warmth.

Ashley and I trying to stay warm.

Within 6 days, I managed to spend about 14 hours in line waiting for free events in DC... first Rosa then Christmas lighting. Go me. :) Good times. Long wait but well worth it.

This is why I live in DC

We, the human race, let apathy rule us

We watch the six oclock news to see what is happening in the world so that we can then walk out to pay $4 for a cup of coffee and sit around to discuss the trivialities of the day. Just a little over ten years ago we watched Rwanda suffer from the brutal murders of genocide, yet we, the human race, did nothing. Humans killing fellow humans. We watch movies like Hotel Rwanda and talk about how awful it is that things like that used to happen... but we fail to realize that it happens now, yes, even as I type this in my comfortable DC life where my concerns are getting papers in on time.

Are these atrocities in our past but not now?
BBC speaks differently:
Darfur SLA rebels get new leader
The biggest rebel movement in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region has chosen Minni Minnawi as their new leader.
More violence in Ethiopia capital
Three more people have been killed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in a third day of clashes between opposition supporters and the police.
Palestinian boy shot in West Bank
A Palestinian boy has been transferred to an Israeli hospital after being shot by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.

Automatically, I want to become angry at the governments of the Western countries for their failure to act and stand up for human dignity. However, I must also realize that it is the people in these countries doing these acts that I should blame. Is it any one person or institution? NO.
The blame rests on everyone, from the highest to lowest.

Now, in response to this, is effective to change situations around the world by going on the ground with the UN or Red Cross? Or is it more effective to be some political figure changing the policy from the top?

Sunday

The National Cathedral. We actually got asked to take the sacraments for the communion up to the priests at the alter while we were there. Beautiful building (basically looks like it should be Europe, not US). They had a gorgeous garden that I fell in love with. This is at the beginning of a very long night... 6 and half hours later we finally walked into the Capitol Rotunda to pay our respects to Rosa Parks. The line was officially insane with people from everywhere of every background. The first woman to lay in State and only the second African-American.