Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

I had heard the Museum of the American Indian was pretty good, and I was excited to go, so when I heard my roommate and her friends from back home were going, I asked to tag along. Thankfully I did because I was so pleasantly surprised. Other museums in the Smithsonian collection are cool, but especially the Museum of American History seemed to be the same old American point of view. But as soon as we entered the first exhibit, we could tell it had an incredible amount of input from so many different Native American groups. This museum was so well done and so powerful, we all just marveled at the layout of the exhibits as you meandered through different displays and histories, at the beautiful sayings on the wall, and at the richness of these cultures. So many beautiful, peaceful peoples almost completely destroyed by greedy, warring peoples. Why do we still let this persist in our world? It was so great to finally see Native Americans telling their own story rather than the traditional story told about them by caucasians. Too bad we only were able to spend about an hour and a half there; we felt we could spend an entire day.

Random thoughts:
- I miss my comforter.
- Where's a racket stringer when I need one?
- I'm learning business lingo! Quite funny that "as is" and "to be" are used as nouns by my coworkers without a second thought...

The sayings are so beautiful, please click on the photos to read them and go to my Picasa album for more!

Rezina and her friends, then roomie photo!








Representation from Pine Ridge, where St. Luke does work!

Peace Corps Interns on the move

What could have easily turned into a debacle was actually an incredibly fun evening. So as part of my program, we're scheduled to not work on Fridays, but I was headed to work at 5pm on Friday afternoon and I was really excited because one of the Peace Corps interns sent out an email to all the interns at the Headquarters to go out to dinner and then perhaps Jazz in the Garden. Apparently "Jazz in the Garden" happens every Friday night in the garden by the array of Smithsonian museums, and it is immensely popular in the DC scene. So being a new Peace Corps intern, I was really looking forward to meeting other interns! And not having work, I had gone out to lunch at an adorable little cafe after class and then relaxed for a couple hours in Dupont Circle (as much as I could relax - my roommates and I were waiting to hear back from our Program Advisor about the possibility of moving apartments. About a week ago we discovered a mouse, and over the course of just a couple days there were scratching noises in the walls, nibble holes things strewn about the kitchen, and mice actually seen emerging from our stove burners. Normally I can handle the idea of mice, but this just seemed like a health hazard. Don't worry, we moved apartments this weekend!). It was fun to write in my journal and sneakily take photos of the men playing speed chess in the closest thing to a park in downtown DC.

Anyways, I arrived at the Peace Corps at about 4:50 to meet the other interns, but after showing my badge to the security officer, the officer at the security desk then asked, "Are you here for that intern thing?" After my affirmative reply he proceeded to hand me a pink note that said "Hey, Kathryn! All employees got sent home at 4, so we headed out but call this number if you want to meet up with us." Apparently everybody got to go home an hour early for the 4th of July weekend, but the intern I had met just a day earlier and is coincidentally in my program as well was so sweet in leaving a note for me! So I set off in search of the Peace Corps crew, and as they wandered unsure of what restaurant to go to, a couple metro switches and quite a few phone calls back and forth to pinpoint each other's location later, I finally found the interns heading into Ruby Tuesdays and graciously thanked my newfound friend Tschuna for all her help. It was great to hang out with the other interns, though only 5 others could make it, and they're all great people I can talk about serious matters but also be silly around as well. A pretty relaxed crew. Following the dinner escapade, the now notoriously indecisive group splintered off and I headed to Jazz in the Park with Brittney and Tschuna.

The Garden was completely packed! Tons of people had brought picnic blankets, others brought treats to share with friends, still others met their parties by the large wading pool seemingly not permitting wading.
Brittney and me, Tschuna and me


Common practice, though, was to submerge your feet into the pool to attempt to cool off as you listened to some fun music and watched people dance. People were actually dancing! Watching others salsa and chatting about hobbies with the girls really re-energized my love for dancing, and Tschuna even asked me to teach her how to salsa (sometime when we weren't around throngs of people)! Not like I know much, but it's incredibly fun.

As the jazz ended for the evening, something perhaps completely normal but entirely unexpected for us was people started running through the pool in pairs! Some couples, some friends, but it seemed like the object of the game was to be received by the crowd on the opposite side from where you started from and to avoid the park security circling the pool to escort you out of the supposedly forbidden water. The observers lived and died with each hop, skip, and trip of those who dared attempt the crossing!



After this absurd ritual, Brittney headed home, and Tschuna and I made the decision to stay downtown and wander around the Smithsonian area and the capitol at dusk. The lights were beautiful, the buildings majestic, and the conversation incredibly entertaining as we divulged some of our life stories and silly little personal quirks. And somehow all this wandering led to the perhaps impulsive decision to wander even further: we decided to walk back to Georgetown from the capitol! And meandering through the routes the monuments gave us an approximately three mile route we completed in about an hour and a half (without boredom or blisters!). My luckiness of schedule flexibility, a little built-up city directional intuition, and some new friends made for a great day.



We listened to the orchestra's rehearsal for their 4th of July concert!


World War 2 Memorial











Quotes and thoughts:
- "This is Georgetown University, one of the most expensive universities and they can't even take care of their freaking mice!"
- "I just feel dirty, I don't want to find mouse poo in my cereal, I don't want to eat mice for dinner or shower with mice." I find this reasonable...
- On a bus ride through what is termed "Embassy Row," I read the huge banner on the Finnish embassy saying it is now "green" and is the first LEED certified embassy in the US! It was strangely comforting to see such a modern-looking building with tons of beautiful glass windows with ivy coming down the sides of the building.
- Having had my Comparative Economics final Friday morning, I very well could be done with econ forever!
- The new apartment just feels so much cleaner. How much we rejoiced in the simple pleasure of having no navy colored mold above our showers.
- I love learning! I love learning about people, about things, about culture. And I am quite excited for Georgetown's take on US foreign policy this coming month.

State Department Site Briefing

Part of our program is the opportunity to go on site briefings - basically where a group of us get to go sit in an important government building and hear about what is going on. We all have to dress professionally, AKA dress or pantsuits for girls. So on Tuesday morning my roommates and I spent much more time than usual fretting about whether or not our outfits were appropriate or not, tossing our normal purse objects about our room based on what we could and couldn't bring in, and prepping our feet for more walking in heels.

Outside of the Department of State, where our huge group waited for a good half hour to go through metal detectors and send our things through xrays but it was cool once we got in!


They modeled the room after the UN - it's 2 stories and numerous rows of really comfy chairs that have little plugins to hear speeches translated! Not ours though, we just got a briefing, everything in English...


Bernice and me so excited! It just felt really cool to be in that giant room where people that have an actual influence on how some things in our world work. I actually met Bernice that day and she is a complete sweetheart. She is from Haiti and we ended up talking about our families, things we do for fun, foreign languages, and singing and acting for a really long time. It's so amazing when people from really different backgrounds find their personalities and interests converge!













Three spoke to us on the various subjects related to western hemispheric issues, and it was really cool to get the spiel on what some of our government personalities are working on. And even cooler to hear kids from our program ask each one questions related or only semi-related to their main topics and try to get to the heart of a lot of issues and current events. The first guy was from the Bureau of Western Hempispheric Affairs, directed a number of programs related to South America, and even volunteered in the Peace Corps! He spoke to us mostly on the importance of free market economics to increase prosperity especially for those in what are deemed third world nations. Then a woman from the Latin American office of the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs got pretty in depth about joint efforts between Mexico and the US to stem the flow of drug trafficking across our border, and I was pleasantly surprised with how much she clued us into her actual personal opinions - that is definitely not easy to do in that environment. The last speaker was Director of the Office of Mexican Affairs in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, and I'll give him credit for even though he didn't emphasize the humanitarian aspect as much as I would have expected with the arguments he was making, it definitely seemed like he was also stepping outside his political bounds to push freer immigration laws in our national interest. It was also a fun experience to go to work that afternoon and have my supervisor say, "Tell me all about it!"

Random thoughts from today:
- Were politicians and civil servants in high places at some point passionate about what they're doing? Is there still a passion lying beneath the government politically correct speech that channels what they think the government wants us to hear?
- Who knew all these bureaus and departments even within the State Department even existed?
- Why do so many guys here wander around in preppy polo shirts and khakis?
- Every day I am re-reminded of why I switched to a Mac before starting college. I love the fact that I get a laptop at work, but it seems that not even the IT people realize there is something better out there than waiting around for your silly PC to catch up to you.
- Today I was also reminded that the Peace Corps is, albeit independent, a government agency. There was quite a stir up here on the sixth floor when somebody spotted a bunch of Homeland Security trucks and motorcycles parked in front of our doors downstairs. Thankfully they were just here to train our security guards.
- I had never heard anyone say "It's whatever" before coming out here. And I've heard it from both west-coasters and east-coasters! Perhaps the Midwest is just slow in general (not hard to believe as much as I love Minneapolis), but I'm kind of thankful it has not yet picked up on this colloquialism.
- DC has an amazing abundance of crepe restaurants. Thus I had been craving a crepe since I got here, and was finally able to fulfill that quest today as my intern buddy Rebecca and I chose the around-the-corner Crepeaway for today's lunch exploration destination. Twas amazing.

Friday wanderings

So the deal with my internship program is that we have internships 9-5 Monday-Thursday, classes Monday-Wednesday nights, a class Friday morning and then we're free for the weekend. But having just started my internship Thursday, I offered to come in on Friday afternoons, to which my supervisor replied by saying she wanted me to be able to experience all DC has to offer while I'm here! I'm so lucky to have such an encouraging work environment (I know I've only been there a day and a half, but everybody I work with seems great and it's been fun to get to know some of the other interns a little bit too!). But yesterday was one of the few Fridays I actually had to come in because newbies have to do IT training. So after class ended at noon I scarfed down some lunch with my roommates, stood in line for the bus with about 30 other people in about 95 degrees, felt my stomach turn over as we got stuck in traffic for an unacceptably worrisome amount of time, speedwalked my five blocks (more so than usual... I may have been called out on walking annoyingly fast in general before), and luckily ran into my fellow intern a block away from the Peace Corps so we could hustle to find the IT training room in the insane layout of the Peace Corps headquarters before 1pm.

Thankfully we arrived on time and survived the two hour training. Rebecca got to go home because she's done at 3 every day, but I got to do a little work for my supervisor before heading out. I came into this internship expecting to know nothing about how to do anything, so it's quite rewarding to get tasks and figure out how to do them! Also hilarious that everybody in the office has been commenting on how amazing it was they squeezed my mini cube in between two others and also that they're all so jealous of the fact that my cube's little overhead cabinet has a fabric covering while everybody else's are plain! I even have a phone and a computer at work (one I will probably not use; the other will be utilized quite heavily) - I'm like a real employee! Small delights. My next task is to print out some pictures and find a couple other decorations for my little office home, for which I am quite excited.

After I was sent home to enjoy my Friday, I just got to hang out around downtown DC for a little while as I waited to hear from my roommate to make a plan for our afternoon. It was really nice to just walk my route back to Dupont Circle rather slowly rather than in the rush with which I usually make that trek. There are so many cute little eateries and other businesses around, and it was nice to just do my own little errands to see what was around. Kind of not knowing what to do with myself while I waited to hear back from Rezina, I just wandered. I took care of a craving for something sweet and cold with a mango Green Tea Tango smoothie from Smoothie King, and I discovered there is a post office about a block from my work (for which I was in dire need considering we can receive mail at Georgetown but have to find someplace off campus to actually send anything out!). I also stopped at an adorable secondhand bookstore that was having a sidewalk sale and found a couple of entertaining books. My question is how does a book to learn to cook Chinese food ever go out of style? For $2, I'm definitely in.

I was in my own little world walking towards Dupont Circle when I stopped at a crosswalk because the little orange hand told me I had to. But the woman across the street started crossing because there were no cars coming, but I kind of spaced out and started crossing after a cute little perhaps 60-year-old man on my side started going. He joked with me saying, "What, you wait until I start going, see if I get hit by a car, and then decide it's safe?" So we started chatting as we walked the same direction for a couple blocks, and he asked if I was planning on watching the World Cup game with the US versus Ghana. I said I hoped to, and he replied saying he was from Ghana, that they took the US out a couple years ago, and that he hoped they'd do the same thing because the US is just too much talk. Hilarious and so true. We laughed about American arrogance for a few and we both wished the best of luck to both teams. I'll probably never see him again in my life, but it's funny the people you meet in the city, and I enjoy the smallest personal interactions like that.

A quick conversation with Rezina resulted in hopping on the red line from Dupont Circle, switching to the blue/orange at Metro Station, meeting Rezina at the Rosslyn station, chatting our way back on the GUTS bus to Georgetown, and making our way to M Street. I still don't exactly like shopping, but I like exploring, and I like even better exploring with friends. And I learned that H&M really is awesome. Tons of cute clothes with even cuter prices (definitely appreciate that), and we both came away with some great deals for a couple of nice items for work. After some successful deal finding, we meandered our way through the uneven brick streets lined with the adorable blocks of multicolored housing back to the Georgetown campus for some fridge raiding and a go-with-the-flow Friday evening.

First day of work!

Finally got my government clearance a couple of days ago and started my internship at the Peace Corps today! It is an awesome feeling being able to take care of myself in a large city, figure out my way around, and take public transportation and walk everywhere. Even if it's already so hot at 8:30am that you're trying to avoid dripping, I love the fact that I can take a free Georgetown bus to Dupont Circle and walk like an actual young professional decked out (aside for the flip flops for actually making it to work - thankfully it's socially acceptable for women to wear comfy shoes to get themselves to the office and then switch to heels!) for 5 city blocks. And my boss's boss sent another intern and me on an errand today and asked, "Wait, are you ok with the city? Can you figure out how to get there?" And the other intern and I were both able to look at each other with the same amount of assurance that we can figure out the grid without a hassle - she comfortable with the city as an American University student, and I with usually infamously poor directional skills but at least an ability to figure out a grid from attempting to figure out Minneapolis the last couple of years. My work environment is so supportive and kind so far, everybody was so nice in meeting me, and people even commented, "We've heard a lot about you and we're so glad you're here!" That's scary to try to live up to! But I'll do my best!

And yes, like the good daughter I am, I took pictures for my parentals from my first day of work experience.

In the apartment, ready to head out on the 8:15 bus with two of my suitemates.



Alison and Ania on the bus, Ania still finishing her breakfast...


I really am lucky that I tend to adjust well to new situations - I love taking the bus to work!

Mt. Vernon excursion

The task for today was to explore Mount Vernon, the estate of George and Martha Washington. For the hour drive from DC my suitemate Alison and I drifted in and out of consciousness as one of Sinbad's comedy shows played on the bus's mini screens. Once we woke up haha it was definitely a fun time! A little toasty outside (about 95), but nevertheless a good experience. Here are some photos of the day's wanderings:

Plaque for the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway to welcome us.


The group from TFAS waiting for our tickets - we filled 3 coach buses to get there!


In front of the Washingtons' mansion.



Long line to get into the mansion, but standing outside for almost an hour was worth it because the grounds were so beautiful!


Unfortunately we couldn't take photos inside, but in order to keep the lines moving the guide in each room had their spiel down pat and allowed us to marvel at the lovely decor while listening to some fun facts about each room. The mansion tour was really well organized - I was impressed.I'm actually a big fan of GW's style! As opposed to European mansions and palaces gleaming of jewels and precious metals, his home was characterized by quaint woodwork and bright blue and green painted walls!




Further wandering of the grounds led suitemate Alison and me down to the wharf on the Potomac where we had a little picnic of the lunches we had packed. What a beautiful view!




Washington's tomb:













Slave memorial - click on the photo to read the inscription.













Mount Vernon's cows and sheep took refuge in the shade too.











Just a few flowers from the lovely gardens. I'll put the rest in my Picasa album, especially for my momma!




Fun fact:
People back then thought bathing was scary. Ben Franklin, though, was rather fond of it.

Quote of the day:
"It's not polite to eat other aminals!"
- A little ringlet-curled 3 year old girl to her dad after seeing turkeys hanging upside down outside the mansion kitchen


It was definitely a fun little trip, and we enjoyed the few hours exploring and learning more about the people who played such a large part of our country's history. The tricky thing, though, is to try and remember the people we don't hear about so much that were just as vital to our history as the big names. Within this context, I have learned a ton here and especially from my roommate Rezina because she is so passionate about race issues. These cities were founded through the dehumanization and segregation of peoples that still exist today - and particularly in our nation's capital! Especially through the sentiments I discovered yesterday, we all just need a little more love as human beings.

"Beginning of new beginnings"

Today was insanely long but amazing on all accounts. We played the "hurry up and wait" routine rather well as my suitemates and I speedwalked to board the bus to our respective Service Saturday projects before the ripe old time of 8am, only to sit around as the rest of our program's volunteers gathered and some were even sent home to change into close-toed shoes and long pants. Even though we received numerous emails on the subject... Whatever. I ended up in the same project with two of my suitemates, and with the two of them snoozing on the bus, we were on our way to clean up a portion of Marvin Gaye Park.

Upon our arrival, from the Washington Parks and People organization we learned the history of this park, which was named for the African American singing legend but became unfortunately a bit run-down and what I'm assuming the vast majority of the TFAS kids would not consider an ideal spot for a nice walk as it took on the role of the local drug trafficking venue. But the past few years the community along with a whole host of volunteers has really taken it upon themselves to remake it into a lovely, enjoyable place for the community.

Following the background info spiel, we all showed up and took on our respective tasks to spruce up a section of the park, as some hopped into giant yellow waterproof boots armed with a claw to grab trash out of the river, others hauled four-by-fours. My suitemates and I joined the ranks of weedwacking down by the riverside. A hot, labor-intensive job with seemingly no end in sight. Our group uncovered a stash of hypodermic needles in the ground as we attempted to rid the riverbanks of the weeds from their roots, but it really did seem like the park as a whole was a lot better than it could have been.

I was actually kind of having fun for a while, taking a crack at irritating plants and ripping them out of the ground. But as we were all dripping from sweat after not even 20 minutes had crawled by, we stared down the riverbank and all attempted to process the next few hours into our brains. We were not talking the "Why do we have to do this?!" kind of complaining. But the "Gosh it's hot. These weeds suck, I just want a five minute break. My shoulder hurts," etc. kind of complaining. After we took a little water and snack break, one of the guys rightfully trying to get the most out of the volunteers came over to the three of us and asked if we wanted to water the sod. Sounded like something that had an end goal, something with an incentive rather than endless weed chopping! So we set up a pulley system, as Alison hopped into the river, filled up the bucket on a rope, and Rezina pulled the bucket up a couple stories. I emptied that bucket into my own, carted it up the hill and watered each strip of new sod in between each of the rows for what was to become a lovely little amphitheater. Repeat x 30. Needless to say, I was quite thankful for the little bit of muscle leftover from tennis.

Unsure of what project would fill the last chunk of our time, we headed to the Washington Parks and People office for a bathroom break. Only in between us and the bathroom, a good chunk of the community was just having a gathering! Haircuts on the sidewalk, dads and kids throwing a ball around, kids jumping and screaming in one of those blow-up plastic castle things. I felt like kind of an intruder on their special community time, and I didn't want to seem like the high and mighty outsider who just comes in for a few hours, gets her hands a little dirty, feels good for doing volunteer work, and leaves. But as people spotted our bright blue TFAS shirts, tons of people we walked past simply wanted to talk to us! Some asked about our program, others praised us for being in college. But most said simply "thank you," and "God bless you," and the most loving things that I was really not expecting at all. One man pulled us aside and practically force-fed us watermelon! They had a whole barbecue spread out, and from him we learned that this was a group from a Baptist church not too far away, and it sounded like they come every Saturday to have free food and haircuts for the community and try and teach people about how God's love has made a difference in their lives. He asked a little bit about us, and then he put his arms around us and prayed for us! He encouraged us to get more food, but I truly felt we were undeserving because they were the ones truly doing the good work.

Another young man also stopped us to talk, and he told turned his life around from what he himself confessed was of selfishness, greed, and unconscionable deeds spoke of trust, love, God's love, and God as your conscience. One comment that struck me was when he said something like, "Just a couple years ago, I would have never thought to feed others. I would have gotten my food and told you to get your own too," and he attributed his transformation to someone speaking the word to him. He was so inspired and so passionate, and it was just amazing to me to see this community try to pick itself up and spread love. I was just in awe, and I'm definitely thankful for the full experience of that bathroom break! As our whole group was leaving the site, the whole community called us to circle up and join hands with them, and they sent us off in prayer, for which I felt truly undeserving. We were merely changing landscape; they were changing lives. However you define and think of the force that inspires you and calls you to love other people and love this world shouldn't matter - what is needed in this world is simply more love and understanding.

Mental debriefing was quite necessary. Then after a couple hours of lunching, semi-relaxing, and errands, one of my suitemates and I then set out to canvass M Street, Georgetown's main shopping and entertainment district. Shopping is definitely not usually my thing, but I'm always open for going exploring with a friend and hoping to find some good deals in the process. Dashing in and out of whatever businesses intrigued us (mostly ones that had clothing sales, souvenirs, or snacks to relieve us from the heat), we wandered for a good three hours and realized only when we got home that there was still a good chunk of it that was beyond where we turned around to come back home! A wide variety of cute little cafes to nice restaurants of who knows how many different types of cuisine, stores that range from sweet little secondhand clothes to price ranges way beyond conception for my bank account, knick knacks and gadgets, the list goes on and on. Apparently on weekend nights, M St. is the place to be in Washington, DC if you're looking to get out on the town - you can usually find what you're looking for, but be prepared for there to be a lot of people looking for whatever they're looking for too!


Our treat: the famed Georgetown Cupcake!











Things I've learned from DC so far:
- Cockroaches are easier to smash than you'd expect.
- The heat accompanied by humidity is frightening (along with the frizz they induce), but if it doesn't turn into a random little ten-minute afternoon shower, there's at least always a hint of an amazingly refreshing cool breeze.
- Carleton's intro macroeconomics is a heck of a lot harder than econ 257 here (so far at least...).
- SE DC is a perhaps paradoxical place with more rundown neighborhoods but at least one church every block.
- I don't get homesick but I miss people and get lonely sometimes.
- It's quite enjoyable to dance and sing to Disney tunes in the campus grocery store at 9pm on a Friday night and come away with a receipt for mango sorbet and morsels totaling $14.14.
- The majority of people I've run into here are at least passionate about something, which is cool even if I don't particularly agree with their convictions or personalities.
- The ability to listen is even more of a necessity when you're strong in your convictions because humanity will never learn if people continue to just speak their minds with no regard for others.

Net gains from today:
- A couple new items of clothing and jewelry in my closet from fun sales on M Street.
- Sleepy eyes.
- Re-energized and renewed commitment to love people.

Part of our section of the park once we were done working.


The neighborhood turned out on a Saturday morning!


Spontaneous prayer circles were popping up all over the place.



The incredible people who showed us all so much love and kindness.



Our group joined the prayer circle.








Hopefully the rest of the volunteers realized how much the little bit of work we did meant and how every little bit we and the community can do can help those small children in the center stay kids as long as they can. A hard life forces kids to grow up pretty fast, so it was really cool to see these kids being able to just be kids. The man speaking rightly said that this is "the beginning of new beginnings."