In the event of spontaneous shopping for the first week of house living, the shoppers unknowingly (or perhaps knowingly) bought four bunches of celery. I just realized this. And also realized that, although we've already plowed through several bags of baby carrots, we've barely made it through one bunch of celery. So I guess I know what I'm going to be snacking on for the next few days.
I woke up at eight, like I have been for the past few days. Got ready like normal, wore a nice shirt and some jeans, and headed out the house toward the metro. As I was walking, I heard Marty's voice in my head, telling me to be open with my neighbors, and having an observation circle. So the entire, sunny, beautiful walk to the metro, I was seeing people and saying hello. Almost everyone says, "How are you?" with their "Good Morning," although it's rhetorical. I got one "Hey Beautiful." According to Corrie, who is working at the Rape and Crisis Center for Women, if it makes you feel good, it's not harrassment, but I do think that there is a line. Jasmine told me to introduce myself next time, be like, "It's Grace, but you were close!" and Jess told me to respond, "Hey Handsome." I've got a lot of tricks up my sleeve.
I got on the metro with no worry, and read "Animal, Vegetable, Mineral" until Tenleytown. It took a little longer than I expected (which I will remember for the future trips). Then I arrived, signed in, threw my coat and my bag through the security stuff, and got my name tag. Then I walked up the stairs and tried to locate room 207, and the first 207 I saw was an office, so I quickly resorted to asking an adult watching the hallways, and he pointed me in the right direction. Then I saw the class that I shadowed in earlier in the semester. Nobody really said anything to me, but I think they recognized me to a point. They had their school paper which they were reading, and I glanced through it, and enjoyed the articles--they were really well written. It was a better paper than Streetsboro's. And Streetsboro won awards.
The class didn't really do anything. They were ending their semester and so they did course evaluations, and then there were two girls that graduated but took a semester off came and spoke about their experiences during their time away from America. One girl went to India for three months and told about what she did there, learning yoga and mediation, going on a ten day trek on the Himalayas, and about the spicy food, and the sickness that the people she went with got. The irony is that she knows someone at EMU. They went to camp together.
The other girl talked about her experience in Peru with teaching English in a home for sexually assaulted teenagers and working at a Daycare which had no outside. It was good to hear her story and also to see that not everyone has their future planned out and are taking breaks from school.
Last night Lindsay reminded me that even though my internship is out of the box, there are still people who are going to want to hire me because I did an internship with Colman McCarthy. I'm happy with that thought, but I definitely want to be able to do things.
Because today was a shadowing experience, I wonder if the rest of the days are going to be like this. Maybe I can convince Colman to let me to a little teaching with some of the things that I am well-informed of, and see what these students think.
Today in class, while they were looking at the paper, there was a crossword puzzle with an answer that was Lady Gaga. One of the guys in the back row asked me what I thought of her, and I basically said that it was a love-hate relationship, I love the way she writes songs, and the originality and musicality, but I hate the costumes, and that her music is so sexual. Some of the guys were talking about how she was a hermaphrodite, which as far as I know is a rumor. I think she's a woman, just because she's bisexual doesn't mean she's a hermaphrodite. One of them asked me if I thought she was good looking, and I said that with out all the makeup and the costumes, I thought she was.
Anyway, it's really kind of awesome that even though we are in DC, there are still connections to people from EMU that I wouldn't expect, like Amanda, who went to India, knowing Amanda Grace from EMU. I rode the metro back, got to Brookland around 12:00, and walked back to the house with my observation circle expanding as I went. It's hilarious, but important at the same time. I can't be like a tourist who listens to their iPod everywhere and gets mugged because they weren't paying attention.
So Jess, Jas and I went running on the National mall. Which is your Capitol, Washington Monument, big lawn and pool (but not for swimming) area. Which is not a short distance. First, we ran to the Metro, at Jess' fast pace, which is not my fast pace. It is, in fact, my "bookin' it" pace. But I kept up pretty well to the Metro. We got off at Judiciary Square, which was about 3rd or 4th St NW, and ran to First, and started seeing recognizable things, like the Capitol, and so we ran to that. My pace was still a lot slower than the one that they chose, and I was realizing that not running over break was catching up with me, but I tried really hard to keep a pace that wasn't too far behind them, and not stop and walk for too long, or too many times. But inevitably, I was feeling exhausted, and my lungs were not very happy with me (and still aren't, I'm coughing up the gunk that has been building up from my lack of running days again), I told them I wanted to find a Metro to go back to the house. So Jess and Jas decided that we should run me to the Metro. Still at their pace, but I didn't stop to walk at all this time (there were just a lot of intersections that we had to wait to cross :). ) We found one--an Orange Line Smithsonian, and I was on my way. It was easy to find my way from there, but I felt a bit inadequate in a crowded car being sweaty, redfaced, and alone. When I got off at Brookland, I accidently stepped on someone's foot when I was leaning back to let another man pass through, and he rudely retorted, "Excuse you." Not my favorite D.C. resident. But maybe we'll someday be best friends. Ha. Ha. I was chilly so I ran back to the house from the Metro, at Grace fast pace, and stopped when I wanted to (right before I crossed the road to the house, but who is counting?). I told Sanjay when he let me in, and asked how my run was that I need to run more, and I know I'm not used to the hills and the sidewalks of D.C., but I also said that I need to run more. Corrie, our own Cross-Country champ, is training for a marathon at some point this spring, and likes to sprint up hills, and at the end of a run. Me, though, I run for fun, and I wasn't having any fun on the mall today, I just kept thinking about how I couldn't do it, and how out of shape my lungs were. Oh how I miss running with Ellie on the track at EMU at our own pace. It was so great to be able to get together with her over break though, even though we didn't run, we went to the zoo, which was a blastus.
So as probably only two people know, aka my parents, I have a Splenda addiction. Ever since I discovered it's awesome calorielessness when I started Weight-Watchers in 7th grade, I've been including it into my daily life--diet pop, no sugar added ice cream, in various recipes that I like to make, in my morning oatmeal, in my homemade hot chocolate--you know the drill. But partially because I'm trying to save money, and partially because I forgot it in the hurry of leaving for EMU last Friday, I decided to quit using it. Spending money on soft drinks is completely pointless, especially if there are wholesome beverages like milk, tea, coffee, juice (which for some reason I still shy away from even though the kind we have is 100% juice pulp included), and of course, water! (and most of these are free when you have a house budget that includes them!). So I'm quitting diet soda. (Yay me! I'm being mature and finding a balance with my drinking problems!) Nobody except Bryan (which is fine for Bryan) drinks it anyway, and he walks to the gas station for it. And I'm still having oatmeal in the morning, but sweetening it with fruit (when it's around, we eat fruit like it's the only thing in the house), and honey. And I had a cup of hot chocolate the first night we were here, but only a cup, 100% milk (sometimes I just use water for less calories... I have problems), with a tablespoon of cocoa powder, and a teaspoon of sugar was tasty enough. So today, I decided that I wanted to make a coffee frappiccino. Fail. I cheaply added only two teaspoons of sugar to it, a half cup of whole milk (The 1% was in the back of the fridge), four ice cubes, and like twelve ounces of coffee that was left in the pot from this morning (again, I'm not going to let someone pour it down the drain tomorrow when they make coffee in the morning.) The milk fluffed pretty well, but it was pretty un-frappiccino-like, and bitter to boot. But I still drank it. Because I'm stubborn, and I think that that much sugar should suffice. Obviously I'm not willing to put sugar into my body. My problem is that I know that if we had Splenda in the house, I would use it, and use it a lot. And I don't have a problem with drinking diet soda if I have the option. Zach has consistently tried to convince me that the artificial sweeteners can cause seizures and cancer, and other bad things, but of course I think I'm invincible and can't be beat... But I think that honey is better for you than cane sugar. And since I'm on this vegetarian kick maybe I'll just be healthy and cool.
But I think that the yogurt I included in my lunch had aspartame... like I said, if there's an option, I'll take it. I'll get better.
Lindsay and Andrew came back from registration at UDC with stories of issues and waiting forEVER for admitting and registering for classes. Talk about chaos. They gave them a pack of free stuff--with an expired calling card (which Lindsay would have given to me), some redeye reducer eyedrops, and condoms. So a discussion on whether EMU should have free condoms in the health center soon ensued.
The Vegetarian Chili and Cornbread for supper tonight, was AMAZING. We had it over rice. Ever done that? It made it even better! Never had it like that before.
We went to the Rec Center to play Volleyball with the locals tonight. I had a blast--and there were some people who came to play soccer afterward, and I asked them when their league would restart again--in March--so I have a chance to play! I'm really excited about that. Our volleyball games went well, despite my extreme suffering--I have the disease of overcompetitism... or over-aggression...
I have nothing to do tomorrow. Next week's internship work is Monday and Wednesday--almost nothing because the high schools are between semesters.
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