Beach!!!!!!!

I've FINALLY been to the ocean!!!

This past weekend, a group of about 30somthing college students and interns from my church went on a weekend retreat to Rehoboth Beach, DE. It was amazing!!!!!!! I'd never been to the ocean before, so I was totally freaked out of my mind!!

I WOULD FINALLY LEAVE THE RANKS OF "MIDWESTERNERS WHO'VE NEVER SEEN THE OCEAN!!!"

I've seen lakes, seas of grain, and oceans of cattle, but no natural body of water, and certainly no beaches. 

So the weekend started by leaving the church parking lot at around 10:15, then picking up students from GW and Georgetown and heading out on the open road!! We ate at Harris Crab House for lunch, which is amazing! It's right on the Chesapeke Bay, and everything served is caught fresh! NOTHING like the "seafood" we get in the midwest.

The drive from Harris Crab House to Rehoboth took about 3 hours, so we arrived at the beach houses around 3:30-4, relaxed a bit, explored, & started on the weekend!

We had group Bible challenges a few times a day, then some time in small groups of 4-5 to talk and reflect about what was talked about. All of the challenges were amazing. It was nice to get away from it all for a few days and have some quality time with the Lord and His followers. Realizing that you need to re-prioritize you life isn't a very easy thing to do, but when surrounded by other Christians, it becomes slightly less challenging. :)

During free time there were trips to the beach, 

exploring the town & the boardwalk,

AMAZING food, 

and the game "4 on a couch" was introduced to the group, as well as "psychiatrist" and "family," which quickly became the favorites. 

(if you are unfamiliar with these games, you are severely lacking in your life, and must be educated.) :-D 

 Saturday ushered in a VERY full day: Three challenges, group discussions & then personal time to just think about what was said in the challenges, a scavenger hunt that lasted most of the afternoon took up basically the entire day. The Scavenger Hunt was a RIOT! Everything from having strangers randomly point to the sky, taking a picture with a hermit crab, getting buried to your neck in sand (i did that!), jumping in the ocean (did that too!), doing the "Beatle's walk" across the street, and holding hands while crossing a crosswalk. haha Soo much fun!!!!

Mr. Crabs is a Hermit Crab! yay!

Sunday was the saddest day :( We had to leave! Nooo!!! But it was a good end to a good weekend. :) I got up early that morning to watch the rising sun on the beach, and ended up walking along the ocean for about an hour. It was gorgeous! 

I definitely want to stay here.

Rain, rain rain...

I don't mind umbrellas or Wellies. (I LOVE wearing Wellies, actually.) I don't even mind rain, but dreary days usually usher in a time of over-thinking, which is very inconvenient when you have a book review, experience project, packing, a mid-term, and additional reading to do all before Thursday. At least I was able to get in a fairly relaxing week beforehand!

The week of St. Patty's day was pretty cool. The Friday before, two friends from KC came to visit, Josiah & Caleb. Their welcome to DC experience consisted of the Capitol City Brewing Company for dinner, then a late night Grand Opening of "Dangerously Delicious Pies!", which opened a few blocks from the house. Saturday opened the door to rain again, but Saturdays are grocery days, so I took them to Eastern Market with me. There, they were able to experience DC's most famous farmer's market, craft fair, & flea market (the latter of the three weren't open due to the downpour). After we sucessfully hunted down fresh produce, the rain thankfully stopped.   The parade was on Sunday, a fairly chilly, dreary day, which warded off the usually crushing crowds, giving us a great view of the show! Then, after a bone-warming cup of soup at Cosi (think Panera Bread), Georgetown was calling for pedestrians, so I showed Josiah and Caleb around for a few hours.
Monday ushered in an adventure of a whole new level. My favorite band in the WOLRD (yes, no exaggeration) was playing at Jammin Java in Vienna, VA, a suburb of DC. In order to get to the concert, we had to take the orange line of the metro to its very last stop, and then take a taxi to the concert. We got there all right, and the concert was SLAMMIN!! (pics coming up next) So after the amazing concert, we stayed afterwards for about an hour so I could talk to the band. (The boys were soooo nice to wait while I was freaking out about meeting them again.) By the time we left, it was just 10:30, so we ended up missing that bus, but it runs every 30 minutes, so we were fine, right? HA wrong. We ran down the street to Giant Supermarket to grab a snack, successfully missing the 11pm bus as well. After catching the 11:30 bus back to the station, we were met by a disconcerting sight: the gates were closed.
NOOOO!!!!!
NOW how are we going to get home?? By taking 3 buses over 2 hours and walking from the Old Post Office Building and Museum to the house...about 2 miles at 2 am. That's how. Work the next morning at 5 am? haha. Oh boy were my coworkers amused :) (I love my bosses, my coworkers, my job, they're all amazing!!) So after getting home from work, going for a run, taking a nap and cooking dinner (spinach, parsley & goat cheese omelets, yum!) I walked the guys over to my church, Capitol Hill Baptist, and we all went bowling at Fort Meyer! :) FUN!! Josiah showed us all up, but who cares who wins when you've smuggled a gallon ziplock bag of homemade blueberry muffins, oreos, pringles, doritos, M&Ms, and twizzlers into the bowling alley? haha

Spring has sprung!!

Well, spring has at least poked its head out of the ground.Saturday was the first day that reached above 50 degrees! The Eastern Market & DC's Flea Market was thriving! Twice as many dogs, babies :D, vendors, people just out walking around, or sitting on the curb chatting... Yes, I just said curb-sitters were awesome. in fact, my roommates & I joined them after getting FABULOUS coffee at Perigrine Espresso down the street. (This committed coffeeshop didn't close during the Snowpocalypse! The employees just walked to work! wow. talk about work ethics!!)
So far, the weather's been holding to the "Spring-is-almost-around-the-corner" standard, for which I am thankful. Goodbye Snow! Goodbye Biting wind that takes feeling out of fingers and toes! Hello Sun and flip-flops! (or flippy-floppies, whichever you prefer). Hello Japanese Cherry Blossoms! (you can be sure that I'll have a proliferous amount of pictures during the Cherry Blossom Festival) Hopefully the festival will happen on time this year. The uncharacteristically hard winter DC had has damaged about 4 of the Japanese cherry trees rooted around the Tidal Basin. Luckily, most of the others are fine, but the budding might be delayed. However, the rest of DC seems to be bouncing back quite nicely!
Coming home from work yesterday, I passed by this guy wearing one of the coolest tshirts I've ever seen! (ps-i want one. haha) It was all black, and in white lettering, there were the words,

"iSurvived 

Snowmageddon

Washington, DC 2010"

I most definitely am googling the shirt to see where I can get one! haha (after being under weather induced house arrest for a week...at least everyone in 510 C NEEDS one!) What brave soul DOESN'T need this?

And now for something completely different...

Usually, I'm absolutely PSYCHED about the weekend, but this week, I get to fill out a truckload of paperwork in order to start the "paid" part of my internship...oh boy... haha.

On the bright side, THERE'S NO SNOW!!! Other than the snow that is still sitting around from the Snowpocalypse, we aren't getting any more! We still have wind, and cold (as shown by my previous post...) but there isn't any new snow!

...maybe it's a sign that Spring is just around the corner?

all right, Spring may be a few blocks up and just around the corner, but none the less...

This past week was REALLY busy, but my first full week at work went great! (Last week we had off for President's Day.) I'm able to take a shuttle from Archives 1 (downtown DC) to my job at Archives 2 (College Park, MD) every morning and evening, so it's FREE as opposed to spending $7 a day on the metro. (and as much as I love the metro system, they're raising their prices again...yuck)

This weekend marks the 4th week I've been in DC! The past month has gone by so fast! I can hardly believe I've been living in DC for that long! (on a sadder note, it also means that I'm a month closer to ending the term. :( sad face) 

...BUT, my boss at NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) wants me to see if I can stay over the summer, extending my time in DC by three months! Now to find an apartment...this will be difficult in a city where $1500/month is cheap. eek! (hello apartment listing magazines, you're my best friends)