Wet, and Definitely not Wild
January 2, 2013 my roommate Sidney, and our friend Joshua set out to enjoy a night of tea, coffee, and poetry yet what we encountered was mostly a lot of rain and a lot of unnecessary poetic innuendos. After riding the D6 bus to 15th St. (I think...) We got out and started our .5 mile walk to 'Busboys and Poets', a restaurant named after Langston Hughes (He wrote lots of his poetry while he was a busboy...look it up if your interested...http://www.busboysandpoets.com/ ) While walking the treacherous sidewalks of DC's Chinatown, right as we turned the corner and found the restaurant, it started to pour. Buckets of water fell from the sky upon us, drenching our fancy business attire. Once we got inside the hostesses looked at us like we were crazy. They were justified since we looked like we had just walked through the Red Sea without it parting... Anyway, we went to the bathroom to dry off, and once we sat down our spirits were calmed. We ordered tea and Josh ordered a whole meal... The evening started out swell, and with some really good hot Berry Roobios Tea (that Josh paid for) in my system I was ready for some great poetry. To chronicle the poetry experience quickly I will state that it was an open mic night, and we were asked to get up and perform original poetry. Sid and I vehemently replied no to the hostess, meanwhile Josh wrote a poem on spot and performed it. Surprisingly he was good. Some other people got up and performed as well, some great and some not so great... The evening concluded with us getting back to our apartment as cold and wet as could be singing 'All I Ever Wanted' from DreamWorks Prince of Egypt with the famous line...
"This is my home!!!"
BEAUTIFUL STORIES
January 3, 2013, we met with South Dakota Senator John Thune, who is a Biola alum. After dealing with some quite rude security people at the door, Shonette and I fumbled our way to the Senator's office. We arrived and to our dismay were a few minutes late. After shaking hands and introducing ourselves, DBC asked Senator Thune if he had any words of advice. His words were so relevant I felt like recording it, but knowing that wouldn't be right so I just listened real closely. (I don't remember all of it, but heres the gist:) He discussed with us that vocation and calling, wherever it may lead you is unpredictable. We need to allow God to lead us, and when doors open, to just follow through and trust that God knows what he's doing. He also urged us to soak up as much information and insight of our Washington DC experience as possible.
After leaving the office, we met up with a close family friend of DBC, Dick Foth, who is literally like the grandfather we've never had. We ate lunch in Union Station while he told us of his life and travels. He also asked us if we had any questions, and once we got going we couldn't stop. This man is a great story teller!!! We discussed the issues of our generation and its lack of physiological contact with people, and also its advantages with obtaining information and education. Sitting in the train station listening to this man, I began to understood the purpose and goal of stories in a whole new light. We discussed how stories bind us all together, and also how telling stories allow for us to be fully human, and fully and completely connect with people. God made us relational. He made us to warm and love others by wrapping each other in beautifully intricate blankets of stories. Mr. Foth told us of his encounters with other people's stories which included the most beautiful and vivid imagery. These stories consisted of a woman who rode pigs, a WWII vet, conversions at The National Prayer Breakfast and more. After paying for our meal, he urged us to get to know others, and more importantly as journalists to respect, appreciate, and treat others' stories with complete care and love.
Future Leaders
After lunch was over we followed him over to Ebenezer's coffee shop where we sat in on a ministry/leadership conference filled with 25-30yr old looking people who were looking to go into or understand more about church leadership. This was also a fruitful experience, seeing as we are the future leaders of our generation.
ReMeMbEr the Children
Today a group of us went out in the flurries of DC to visit the Holocaust museum. On our journey there I was mentally preparing myself for what it could be like, and trying to figure out what to do if I suddenly burst into tears. Being the only one who snatched a map at the Information booth, and after going as a group to the bathroom like our mothers taught us to first, I led us all to the 4th floor. Working our way down we saw the Nazi conquest of certain cities, heard the desperate heartbreaking cries of Jewish children, and the horrible doctors of human experimentation. Needless to say we all left the museum with knots in our stomachs; partially from hunger, and partially from the emotional strain we experienced. On our ride from the museum on the subway something especially frightening happened, especially if you are someone who just left the Holocaust museum. We were all evacuated out of the Subway station for a reason that is yet to be discovered. Metro employees dressed in yellow highlighter colored vests lined the walkways up to the exit to lead us to the free shuttles that awaited us. Yet after we arrived at our Eastern Market stop and walked .5 miles back to the Dellenback center in the flurries, I am proud to say that my two roommates Shonette and Sidney cooked dinner for me. As the snow flurries sped up outside and formed into full snowflakes, we sat looking outside at the snow in our dinner nook (its really a breakfast nook) drinking our minestrone soup and munching on grilled cheese.
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