18 April 2010

Pe-Can Pie and Armadillos...




Only one week of classes left! That translates into 3 days of work, 3 days of class, and a final! Then I'll be on my way home -- where the night's are quiet and you can see the stars!


This weekend was a busy one! Saturday morning I went to do some community service hours at DC Food For All. This was a really efficient organization! So I spent my morning packing up boxes of food to be delivered to shut-ins in the DC area. Then it was off to the Washington Nationals - Milwaukee Brewers game. I got to see the Presidents' Race again, have a heart to heart with my seminar professor, and debate the pronunciation of pecan. Is it pe-can or pe-con?? All of this because one lone Nationals player has a country song play when he comes up to bat. Chicken Fried by the Zac Brown Band. Which is now Kathryn's and my song. All the others have hip-hop/rap songs. It was nice to see the Nats pick up a win for once! After the baseball game, we trekked out to RFK for the DC United - Chicago Fire game. We had pretty awesome seats in the crazy fan section, Barra Brava. We had to stand up to see and the bleachers were literally shaking! People were throwing their beers in the air, they set off smoke bombs, and they were constantly singing or chanting. It was an amazing atmosphere! And Chicago won!!


Then today, Kathryn and I returned to Crepes-a-go-go in Dupont Circle for our last weekend crepes. Crepes-a-go-go was a total find -- Nutella and Bananas -- you can't beat it! After breakfast we took the train up to Rockville to work at KEEN -- a sports camp for disabled kids. So I spent my afternoon chasing after kids, playing basketball, and playing duck duck goose. What a day! But the long walk there from the Metro gave us time to practice our swagger! Afterwards, I said that I could curl up in a ball and sleep forever -- like an armadillo. Although I've never seen a live armadillo, only dead ones on the side of the road in Texas.

17 days until Monmouth!

10 April 2010

(Lack of) Easter Break, Baseball, and "High Speed" Trains


April has brought me more visitors from Monmouth. I've known about one of the visits since January and it was the one thing I was using to mark the end of my semester here in Washington. I knew that if I could make it until they arrived, I could finish out the 20 odd days I would have left. Their questions really made me reflect on my time here. What have I learned? So much. Too much to tell a person in one sitting. And a lot of it doesn't have a thing to do with academia. I learned to live on my own. I learned to navigate a city. I gained independence and confidence. I became an adult...in a sense.


The Easter holiday (which we here at AU don't get off) brought a friend from Monmouth. Her visit was not expected at the beginning of the semester. In fact, she kind of came on a whim. But I was so glad to share my city with her -- even if it was the height of the cherry blossom pandemonium! We saw all the sites downtown -- monuments, museums, etc. I was excited that I finally made it to the Air and Space Museum to see my hero, Amelia Earhart. We also went to see the Washington Nationals play the Boston Red Sox. It was reassuring to know that there is a team in Major League Baseball that is actually worse than my beloved Cubs!


Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to go to New York City to do research -- on the 6 am Acela train. Note to self: Getting up at 4 am is not something one should do on a regular basis. Now, I am not a huge fan of NYC (I might be it's worst critic), but there was just something about being in the city doing historical research that I found exciting. Being in the archives yesterday just reaffirmed that I am headed down the right path with my plan to go to graduate school for public history and library science. All was well, until we were on our way home on this so-called "high speed train." Too bad there were electrical problems on the line outside of Baltimore and we sat still for close to an hour. We arrived back in DC close to 90 minutes later than expected. Needless to say, I'm feeling a little fatigued today -- but the light is at the end of the tunnel now! 20 more days and I'm on my way home!