Kiss me, I'm Irish :)

Saturday, I, along with 8 other students, had the opportunity to volunteer for a wonderful organization called Martha's Table that provides food to DC area homeless people every day of the year. They take the food out in vans to certain drop off points around the city which the homeless people flock to. We didn't get the chance to help out with food prep or hand out which would have been cool; instead, we were on a "beautification" team. Our duty was to travel around in a big van for about an hour to pick up trash at various food drop off sites. 


While it wasn't the most glamorous of jobs, it was somewhat entertaining, occasionally terrifying, but overall, strangely satisfying. At one of the sites we ran into an older man who was walking around with an unwrapped four-leaf clover shaped lollipop. He would frequently walk up to random women and show them his sweet treat, and ask them repeatedly to kiss him "because he was Irish." This certainly brought a smile to our faces at first, although it became a lot more awkward once he started mentioning to these same women that they had the legal right to go without a bra because they lived in America. Just a little strange, let me tell you! 

The other stops were somewhat uneventful, it really was the bus-ride to and from Martha's Table that held the most interesting parts of the day. On the way there, about a twenty minute bus ride, we were serenaded by a man doing "east coast rap...for our listening pleasure." While I couldn't understand most of it, I did manage to catch the refrain/ chorus which went something like this. "Murder, murder was the case that he gave." I think we all were surprised to see that our musical entertainer was actually a white man wearing dockers, and sporting a brand-new backpack. I guess you could say it was a mini-lesson in how wrong stereotypes, whether visual or audio, can be. 


The bus ride on the way back leaned more toward the scary side of events. There was a very intimidating, highly drunk middle aged man who looked like he had just emerged from a bar room brawl was trying to intimidate a lady into getting off the bus. Although I missed the beginning of the argument, so I don't know who started it, I was present for the height of it. The F word was thrown around like a leaf on a fall day, and the intensity made me scared for my life even though I was several rows in front of the quarrel. Luckily, the woman got off the bus before it became physical, a sight I would not have wanted to witness. 

The day was tasty as well, in between time at Martha's Table and heading home, half of us stopped at a wonderful little DC eatery called Ben's Chili Bowl. (See the picture of Courtney and I with their famous bear above). Known mostly for its chili-half smoke hot dog, which I ordered, Ben's has been visited by many stars including Bill Cosby and President Obama. It has been a community staple for a long time and it was really cool for us to eat in such a historic locale that also provided amazingly and crazily messy food. To say it was delicious is a gross understatement. 

I never really returned to our home base at 8th street, instead I headed to Jacob's, our little corner coffee shop, for a couple hours to work on some reading for class. It was great to sit in the sun with my mocha among friends even if we were too absorbed in homework to chat much. I hopped back up to the apartment for a bit just to grab some dinner before heading out again, this time to an art exhibit opening. 


You can see how Grace, Kaitlin, and I rocked our nighttime looks accessorized with our modified 3-D glasses we got at Avatar earlier this semester. No worries, we removed our superbly fashionable eye-ware before shipping out in order to shield this hotness from the guys of DC. We decided there was no need to set them all in a tizy :) 


After a quick trip on the metro and a short little walk, we arrived at "The DC-ist exposed." The event was quite hopping, considering there was free alcohol for those folks who are over-21, (no worries Mom &  Dad, I was a good kid!) but the coolest part was all the artwork - of course.  The exhibit showed off the 52 "pictures of the week" shown on the DC-ist blog last year. They ranged from pictures of kids in swimsuits jumping into pools, to 

couples holding hands in the snow, either way, so cute! I managed to see most of the pictures, but the crowd was so overwhelming that we headed out before seeing them all. It was just too hot in there to really appreciate the artwork. 

Saturday night definitely ended with a bang, but the rest of the weekend was a little more low key for me. I had gone into my "spring break," aka friday off, with huge plans for what I would accomplish, and completed almost none of it as I was busy with RA duties a lot of the time. I did manage to do the required reading for class, due on Monday, I also did my laundry and a couple other small things like that. On the side of my RA duties I managed to plan and pull off a decent Oscar party for everyone here in addition to typical Green house trips to watch movies, and organizing a WJC movie night for class. 

Monday morning came all to soon for us all, and it was a bit terrifying at times. I had forgotten to purchase the book we needed to have read for class, but I borrowed a copy from a friend, took notes on it and felt prepared. Apparently that is a no-no in WJC etiquette; we all need our own copies. I was not the only person in that situation so I wasn't alone in the stress, but I think at one point my heart almost stopped when Terry momentarily freaked out. (This was before he realized that all of us without a copy had still managed to read the book.) I'm definitely going to avoid that path in the future! 


The day was not all bad though. I got the story folder that I turned in last Monday back, and I managed to get a B+ on both articles I turned in. My grades on story folders have been steadily increasing since my first one, and I feel quite satisfied; at least I know I'm improving somehow! Family night dinner was also a success tonight. James, Kiersten, and I managed to pull off what James calls our "most complicated meal," with barely any trouble. We had burritos with options of meat, refried beans, or a veggie stir-fry as a base and all the typical fixings (which take time to prepare, let me tell you!). We also had rice, salad, and grapes; quite a spread! 


As always, I'm looking forward to the week ahead and all the macro-economic adventures it will bring. I'll keep you updated!