It's Cherry Blossom Season in DC!

       Visiting the Navy Yard Museum, eating fresh fish at the Wharf, slipping on sidewalk ice, joining a Civil Rights and Civil Liberties meeting, yoga class with my boss, getting lost on a run in my own neighborhood, checking out the Rock & Roll marathon fitness expo, spending a week with the wonderful women in my family… all events that have happened in the past couple of weeks.

Crime & Punishment Museum

       While Mom, Memaw, Aunt Rue and sister were visiting, we crammed every day with activities (after we slept in till noon, of course). We ventured out with some exotic foods: Salvadorian, Chinese, Indian. We got a considerable discount at the Indian restaurant after telling the waiter we were broke… which was very true. We had been paying for meals all week.
       We spent one day walking downtown to all the monument, we visited the Crime and Punishment Museum (gory but fun), we shopped at Tyson's Corner, and we had fun at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. With the historical tavern (where we feasted on lunch) and the immersive exhibits, the marine corps museum was the favorite.

Crime & Punishment Museum

       While my family was here, I realized that I've gotten comfortable with isolating myself. Lately, I crave alone time (and that's okay), but I'm only here for one more month! I'm still trying to balance rest and adventure. The longer I'm here, the less I want to get out and explore.
   
       On that note, Saturday afternoon I joined my fellow intern, Maria, and her friend, Kristine, to visit Eastern Market. After checking out the vendors, we walked down Barracks Row (a line of fun restaurants and shops by the Marine Barracks). There were a few marines standing outside the barracks so we asked about getting a little tour. It worked! One of the marines on duty got permission to walk us into the gates and give us a little history lesson.

Maria, myself, and Kristine at Navy Yard

      

     After that, we were off to the Navy Yard. It's cherry blossom season! So we spent the evening at the Wharf, blending in with the cherry blossom festivities. There was live music, food trucks, face painting, paddle-boating, craft making, and fireworks. A fireworks show on the Potomac… SO PATRIOTIC. 

paddle boats and cherry blossoms

       Easter Sunday was also wonderful with my adopted family at Waterfront Church. It has been a very contemplative lent season for me, making the day of Easter so much more exciting! Celebrating the risen Christ!
       My landlords invited me to their afternoon Easter party as well, and I had a blast. The grown-up egg hunt was hilarious. I loved watching the adults fight for easter eggs… and yes, I was fighting for them too. I even snuck out the back door to get a jump start on everyone else, but I still didn't the most eggs. I guess cheating to get ahead doesn't always work...
       Last week was a tough week on the hotline. One detainee, with whom I have talked many times, told me that I wouldn't make a good attorney because I didn't care. He was partially correct… I didn't care about what he had to say. He's a paranoid schizophrenic with no real purpose for calling the hotline, and I don't like having his crazy stories in my head. Nevertheless, I felt guilty after he called me out. I don't want to waste hotline time with certain calls, but I also want the detainees to know that I care about their situations. I had a couple more frustrating calls that week, but my supervisors (especially Karen) helped me through them. I'm still learning- even this late in the semester.
       Even with calls like these, the office has still become a really fun place to be. My supervisors keep the environment relaxed and educational. I've been super blessed with the knowledge I've acquired and the experience I've gained so far.

I have only a month left in DC! Gotta make it a good one.
  
     
     

     

Wasted Time and Time Well Spent

       Yesterday morning was horrible. I decided to drive to church. It was drizzling ice pellets outside, and the Sunday metro would have been miserable. Why not just stay home-- you may be asking. Well, because I hadn't been to church in two weeks. I was determined to make it to church and to make it there early (I've never been on time). I put the address in my GPS and hit the road. A.T. at 35 minutes.

Postal Museum

       It was when I passed Dulles airport that I began to question whether or not I was driving in the right direction. Well, I wasn't. I hadn't changed my GPS setting from Virginia to District of Columbia. 30 minutes in the wrong direction- falling snow, slick roads, salt trucks. I was pissed, and having to pay road tolls didn't help. This was similar to last week when I walked for hours looking for the Sewell-Belmont House (in vain), and settled for the National Postal Museum. Two hours of driving later, I made it to church, and of course I had missed most of the service. I was so upset that I just sat outside in the hallway eating a donut. This made me feel even worse about myself.
       As awful as the morning was, Sunday turned out to be a wonderful day. I was treated to an authentic Chinese meal for lunch by a member of the church, and I spent the afternoon with Craig and Stephanie Brock (my adopted parents for the semester). I also got in a 5 mile jog! I guess I could afford that donut after all.

DACA paperwork (& coffee!)

       On Saturday, I volunteered at a DACA clinic hosted by the non-profit organization, Casa. DACA stands for "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" so it's for people (children) who were brought to the US before 2007. If you qualify for DACA, you're basically cleared for employment.
There has been an expansion of DACA to qualify children who came to the US before 2010 so these clinics help people fill out paperwork to apply for the first time and to renew their DACA. There may be an expansion of DAPA (Deferred Action for Parental Arrivals) in May, but you can do some research to see what's going on with that... It involves a very strong-willed Texas judge.
       Most of us volunteers were matched with a youth, and we walked them through the forms and necessary documents. The first person I worked with was a 19-year-old from Mexico. He's enrolled in community college and wants to be a restaurant manager. The second person was a 21-year-old from Chile. This was the best way I have ever spent a Saturday. After taking notes during working group conference calls about notario fraud and about DACA, I needed to see the people who are affected by these things. Playing a part and getting in the mix helped everything I've been listening to make sense. I have a great respect for what non-profit organizations, like Casa, are doing to help immigrants and also for the working groups and attorneys who serve these organizations pro bono.

Portrait Gallery

Portrait Gallery

       On Friday, I checked out the National Portrait Gallery. It was pretty cool-- there's nothing like looking at paintings and sculptures of naked bodies everywhere. I got reprimanded by a guard for sitting on the window sill (guards were everywhere). It was the biggest "window sill" I'd ever seen. I actually told the guard, "It looks like a seat." She didn't seem to care what I thought about it. After leaving the very exciting gallery of portraits, I hit up China Town for some boba tea. I realized after the woman had made my tea, however, that I was missing my debit card (I later discovered that the card had been in my wallet the whole time). She very kindly let me take the tea anyway.

       The Supreme Court was having oral arguments last week, and it's kind of my dream to see one of these in person. Wednesday morning I let my boss know that I would be trying to get a seat, and I spent 4 hours (6:30 am to about 10:30 am) standing in a line outside in the freezing cold. I knew by about 7:30 that I wouldn't get a seat for the whole argument, but I held out to see 5 minutes of the thing. I still don't know if that whole morning was worth it. I had never been so miserably cold in my life for such a long period of time. One day I'll get there early enough to see a whole argument. Or maybe I'll bring a case to the Court as an attorney! Or maybe, just maybe, I'll be behind the bench. Anything is possible, right?

I'm Not a Spy (Or Am I?)

So I think I'd make a pretty decent spy. I'm not the best at remembering things and I'm not very sneaky, but there may be other aspects of spy-dom that would highlight my strengths. I learned at the Spy Museum today that spies must live in isolation (I definitely have that down right now), and they must be able to keep secrets (I can also do that very well). In the event of an interrogation, however, I may be more willing to offer up secrets. 

Watching "The Imitation Game" last month introduced me to the WWII story of Alan Turing and the German enigma. Because I watched the film, I was able to appreciate the Spy Museum's WWII spy exhibit. There was an actual enigma machine on display! They also had a room set up to resemble the cabins at Bletchley Park, which is where the movie takes place (and where all the enigma decoding happened during WWII.)  

Enigma Machine

Bletchley Park room

lipstick pistol

cyber war exhibit

The most interesting artifacts displayed, in my opinion, were the spy weapons. You could follow the development of spy weapons over the decades, but they were so advanced even in the early 1900s. Many of the weapons seemed fictional, and I couldn't believe that they were actually used. For example, a lipstick pistol was on display. A pistol. Lipstick. A pistol that looked like a tube of lipstick. I mean, how clever is that? Many of the weapons seemed small and harmless. But I guess any poisonous bullet would kill you, no matter its size. You could get shot/stabbed/poked/shocked by any of those hidden spy weapons, and you'd have no idea what hit you. That stuff in the movies… yeah, that's inspired by real life-- not the other way around. The museum highlighted how writers in American history have been used as spies. Edgar Allan Poe was apparently very talented at deciphering codes, and Ian Flemming used his experiences as a naval intelligence officer for a series of spy novels. You may have heard of them-- They're about an agent named James Bond.

hidden spy weapons

There was one spy story that captivated me (maybe because it involved an immigrant). A German man immigrated to the the US and obtained citizenship in the 1940s. Germany found out about his citizenship and threatened him into becoming a German spy. The German man told the US government about his situation, and he became a double agent. The information he leaked allowed the US to find and remove multiple German agents who were spying behind our lines. How cool is that? Just a regular Joe, or Josef (He was German), working as a double agent by chance.

Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle

St. Matthew's

Whelp, this week was the start of the Lenten season! I decided to attend an Ash Wednesday mass (since cathedrals are everywhere in DC). Mass services were happening all day long so I wandered into the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. Actually, I didn't wander. I followed the directions on my horrible google maps until I spotted the cathedral. At that point, I rushed in to find a seat, which was not easy. The cathedral was obviously beautiful. I couldn't see any of the speakers or singers, but I tried to experience grace in a new way. I'm excited about this new journey with Jesus through Lent! I didn't know any of the rituals during the service, but I never felt out of place. I tried to contemplate and reflect, but I need more discipline in that area.

This week also marked the start of the Chinese New Year! I was really really craving some steamed rolls (baozi) and some milk tea (very Chinese). Noor also loves boba tea so she and I headed to China Town Thursday night in search of these treats. I got THE LAST red bean baozi in some obscure sandwich place. It was so good! And the boba milk tea really made me miss my friends in China. I may have a regular "Baozi and Boba Thursday" or something-- like my own "Margarita Tuesday." Wow, that makes me sound really lame. 

Chinese baozi and boba tea

I also kind of learned how to shovel snow this week! That's what everyone does up here when work gets cancelled-- they shovel snow. And it was a splendid time. My landlady asked if I wanted to shovel on Friday morning, and I said, "Sure! I do take payments in coffee." She brewed me some Jamaican Me Crazy in the Keurig, and I was a happy girl. And thanks to the melting and the re-freezing, I'll be slipping around everywhere outside until it warms up. Yay!

Whatever You Do, Do it Well

       It's Sunday. This morning I woke up (praise the Lord), did some tabata, dressed for church, ate a bowl of cereal, and braved the cold and windy19 degree weather to go to church. When I got on the blue line to Largo, I discovered that there were no trains running between Van Dorn St. and King St. There were free shuttles taking people from Van Dorn to Eisenhower Ave, where we could get back on the metro. I was already running behind for church, but hey I've never been on time anyway. 

       The shuttle dropped us off, and we waited. And waited. And waited. After 10 minutes, I was in so much pain from the cold. I was sure that my ears were frost-bitten and falling off my head. 20 minutes went by. I couldn't feel my feet or my hands. It was time for me to quit. I walked off the platform, took the free shuttle back to to Van Dorn, the metro back to Springfield, and the car back to the house.  

       You know those times when you get super creative or inspired to do something but you're not sure what to do with yourself? That was me when I got back home. I listened to "Coffee with Chris," which is Christine Caine's weekly podcast, played guitar, reviewed memory verses, and brainstormed for potential tattoo designs while listening to to Bethel worship. 

       One memory verse struck me in a new way. It was Ecclesiastes 9:10, and it said, "Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom." I wanted to read more. I wanted to know just how I could do whatever I'm doing "well." As some of you may know, Ecclesiastes is not the most encouraging book of the Bible. A wise man, the teacher, goes on and on about the injustices, the ironies, the uncertainties, and the futilities of life. Ecclesiastes 9:11 hit me hard:

"I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time."

       Chance. Really? That's comforting. Am I not an exception to this? I know that the Lord has told me to go to law school. My law school career… my LIFE, for goodness sake... surely can't just be left up to chance. Why do I want a law degree? Is it even my passion? Wait, does passion matter? What if I can't do it? I've never really had to fight for anything in my life. Failure has usually been a sign for me  to pursue something else. But this calling to go to law school is different. If I fail, I can't just walk off the platform and go back home. If I fail, I'll actually have to keep trying. 

       I'll admit it. At this point, I'm crying. I'm just so afraid. I'm afraid that I won't succeed the first time. I'm afraid that I'll have to keep trying. I'm afraid that I'll have to fight. A person can't just give up on something that the Creator, the Master, the King has asked them to do. I can't just quit. 

       God graciously and patiently answered some of my questions this afternoon. You want a law degree because you want to serve me. The passion that matters is your passion to use your gifts and abilities for my glorify. If you can't do it, I'm still faithful. I won't lead you to destruction.  

       Leaving life up to "chance" means knowing that God will put you in the right place at the right time. He knows our decisions before we make them and the paths of our lives before we take them. He works all things together for the good of those who love him. In rain or shine, death or life, scarcity or abundance, a life abandoned to the Lord is no waste. Whatever I do, I'll do it well-- not just out of obedience but out of love. Love for the God who sees me. Love for the God who knows me better than I know myself. Love for the God who gave his son so that all the world could know him. 

       When law school (or life) gets tough, I'm deciding to do exactly what I did last summer after a long and frustrating day of studying for the LSAT. I'm going to crawl into the driver seat of my car, turn my key in the ignition, lift up my hands, close my eyes, and say to the King, "I don't know what you're doing, but I'm choosing to obey. I know you've called me to this so I'm giving it all I've got. The rest is all You."

At the Mercy of the Yellow Line

Museum of Natural History

       Life has really started to pick up! Thanks to the wonderful Zack and Autumn Randles, I've been working childcare for Waterfront Church. I think I have found my church home for the spring at Waterfront. I remember deciding that I wanted to be a part a church plant while I was in DC, and it just so happens that Waterfront is a church plant. The generous members have taken me under their wing, and I've been able to meet and connect with cool peeps who are just like me! I joined them in visiting the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History last week and in eating some killer Chinese food.

Hope Diamond, Smithsonian

       This has been the most exciting week at the ABA so far. I came in to the office on Tuesday and had gotten an email about joining a conference call to take notes. This was my first conference call ever, and I had no idea what I was doing. But just like everything else, I jumped in and figured it out. The call was a working group meeting about fighting notario fraud. There were influential people from Maryland, DC, and Virginia working together to educate consumers and stop the fraud. I was especially interested in the investigative part of their work. How cool would it be to visit a fraudulent business undercover?

Wok and Roll

       I encourage you to do some research on notario fraud when you get a chance. Scammers are basically posing at attorneys (called "notarios" in Mexico and other Latin American countries) and charging immigrants for legal services that they can't even give. For all those in Texas-- HRBlock of Texas has actually been engaging in something similar to this. Organizations in the working group identify these types of businesses, seek out victims of fraud, prosecute the offenders to compensate victims, educate consumers, and push legislation to protect immigrants. Hopefully, I'll be able to attend the next meeting in person and match faces to the voices.

China Town

       I took a call in Spanish last week! Well, kind of. There was not a Spanish-speaker available to take the call for me and I didn't want to ask the detainee to call us back. So I bucked up and did my best to understand. Someone started talking to me in English half-way through the call. He finished the call for the first man and requested some information for himself. I've started asking the Spanish-speaking detainees if they have a friend who could interpret for them over the phone, and they usually do. Is that cheating? Maybe.

       My supervisor likes to gather the ABA interns for lunch on Wednesdays so that we can engage with each other and branch out of our own sections. This week, he told us to bring a poem that means something to us. My friend, Noor, did some of her spoken word, Joey recited a poem in Chinese, Ashleigh read a poem in Spanish, one girl talked about her favorite operetta, another shared a quote, and I read Psalm 51. This group of ABA interns is so diverse. I've already learned so much about society and about myself from spending time with them.

       I mentioned Noor's spoken word. Tuesday night she invited me to join her for open mic night at Busboys and Poets. I came home after work, got my ticket online, squeezed in a nap, and headed out for a night on the town. I loved the atmosphere of Busboys and Poets, and Noor's poem, called "Barcodes" was a challenging poem that addressed the expectations of young women in our society. When we left Busboys, we hit up the famous Ben's Chili Bowl, where a nice man paid for our meal!

 

       The next morning I overslept, of course, and the funniest thing happened at the metro station in Springfield. The blue line pulled into the station, and I boarded with a group of people. We waited about 5 minutes for the train to pull out. Right before the doors started to close, we heard the driver say, "This is the yellow line train to Greenbelt. Doors closing." There was a big collective gasp of "Oh no!" The train had switched from blue line to yellow line without any warning. People rushed to get off the train before the doors sealed, but most of us were trapped at the mercy of the yellow line. There was a mixture of amusement and frustration felt throughout the car as it pulled out of the station. "I swear they do that on purpose," one woman said. 

       On days when I don't oversleep, I hit up the gym in the ABA building before my internship. Tuesday morning I braved the cold for a run outside, and I can't even articulate how cool it was. I went down by the Lincoln Memorial, the WWII Memorial, the Washington Monument and back to the office (only because I ran out of time). I could have kept running just to see the whole of DC. When I was down by the Lincoln Memorial, I kept getting passed by these men with NAVY on their backs. Turns out I was running in the path of some Navy group's morning workout! I didn't mind that at all. 

Freaking Leslie Knope

       I'm considering buying a fake engagement ring to wear around the office and other places where I would like to deter male interest. A middle-aged man in facilities asked me to join him for happy hour this Friday. I was polite and went along but (between you and me) I don't go into the office on that day. There were also some nice men in a truck the other morning who stopped to watch me walk across the street, giving me a friendly wink. Maybe I could flash a ring at them next time instead of my middle finger (I didn't actually do that, but I definitely thought about it).
       There have been a lot of fun things happening at the ABA. I attended a discussion panel on Tuesday night about clerking, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. "Have a passion for the law, not for the clerkship" and "Be who you are." These are a couple of quotes that I took away from the evening. I had never considered applying for a clerkship after law school, but it seems like a great investment in a legal career-- low in pay and exhausting, but still a good investment. Who knows? Maybe I'll be clerking for a US Supreme Court judge one day.

"A Conversation on Clerking" program at the ABA

       Yesterday, the ABA interns were introduced to all the different sections of the ABA and their directors. The director of Communications and Media Relations talked about her section's role in the ABA, and I was so intrigued. I have more experience in public relations and communications than I do in law, which is what I shared with her later. I look forward to learning more about that section of the ABA and meeting the people involved! There is always a need for attorneys who can interpret legal jargon into layman's terms for publications.
       My supervisor with the Commission on Immigration also likes to host "brown bags," where the interns can eat lunch and meet other ABA employees. The brown bag conversations have opened my eyes to the virtually limitless field of law. There are so many different careers in the legal profession, and you don't have to choose just one for the rest of your life. I love it! Brown bags also give us opportunities to meet visitors. Yesterday, we met an attorney from Russia who is visiting the ABA for a week or so to learn about the ABA and to build connections. Russia is currently in the process of adding the submission of amicus curiae briefs to their court system, which we have the states, so she talked a bit about that. Of course, I had to google amicus curaie briefs because I had no idea what they were. It was fun listening to the ABA attorneys ask the Russian attorney questions about their system and vice versa. Everyone was learning from each other, expanding on the weak points of their legal systems but also appropriately conveying a level of national pride.
       On a much more serious note, so many things in the office remind me of Parks and Recreation. There is an episode where Leslie Knope, a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana, visits DC. At one point in the episode, Leslie feels overshadowed by the tall, powerful women of DC. I could empathize with Leslie Knope this morning. On the elevator I noticed that I was at least one foot shorter than every other "powerful" woman making their way up the floors. But I have learned from this character that there is no task too great. When Leslie sets her mind to something, she will do everything within her power (and even beyond her power) to accomplish it. She may be intimidated but she's freaking Leslie Knope.

Leslie's published book about Pawnee

  

The Air and (lack of) Space Museum

       I've gotten better at standing on the metro. Sometimes it's easy to stabilize and other times it's almost impossible-- it really depends on the driver. It was last Wednesday when I just about fell over on the train coming home from the city. It was really embarrassing and I laughed out loud at myself. I told a lady facing me that I was from Texas (as my excuse for not being able to balance well), but she totally didn't care.

       My site-seeing this week consisted of visiting the Smithsonian Castle and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The Castle is a great building to hit up as an introduction to the Smithsonian museums. It gives you a history of the Smithsonian's establishment and an introduction into all the other museums. Also displayed in the Castle are what they call "souvenirs," which are different from artifacts. They are objects (peculiar and spectacular) that had been collected by certain people in history, like things that marked important times in their lives. One souvenir that really caught my eye was a man's collection of American Presidents' hair. It was kind of creepy but also really cool. I stood there staring at the pieces of hair for a while, trying to picture what it looked like on that president's head.

       The Air and Space Museum was overwhelming and crowded. It was probably one of my favorite museums so far but I wish I could have enjoyed it more. I felt rushed because there were people everywhere, and I had trouble reading from all the noisy children. At one point, a goofy teenaged girl walked (though it felt like she ran) right into the back of me. Her friends were just laughing at her as she said sorry. I wasn't laughing.

       I visited FBC Alexandria this Sunday and met some really great young adults! They have events coming up and opportunities to build community throughout the week. One of those events is a Super Bowl party, and they are having a little worship service during half-time. That will be interesting.
       I'm at a really weird place right now. I'm not sure if it's loneliness, boredom, stress, or what. I think I just need friends up here. I emotionally recharge by hanging out with people that I enjoy, and I can only recharge so much around strangers and acquaintances. But I know that I am not alone. The Lord has led me to DC, and he is on this journey with me. He is always with me.