thankfulness

yesterday in chapel, the main thing was learning to be thankful. i think. and realizing what we have to be thankful for. it was perfect for my week because tuesday was so overwhelming. i procrastinated over break (who wants to write a paper or study the history of modern english when you can be at a smithsonian instead?)


anyway. tuesday i had worked on a paper all morning. and all night. and was on my way to turn it in. while eating my lukewarm indian cuisine because i didn't have time to wait for it to warm up. i was walking through campus, definitely going to be late. and i ran into jeanine smith. who, although she is here once a week, i never see. typically i'm on the other campus all day, and i drive around instead of walk. 
she lovingly offered to give me a ride to class, and encouraged me the whole way.
i'm was so thankful to be blessed by those 5 (or 6 or 7) minutes with her. totally a god thing, and so wonderful.

jeanine and i- summer 2008!

adventure- day 7

day 7- friday
my last day in a city i quickly grew to love was spent in the rain. i hate rain. that's why i live in southern california. we don't even know what rain is. i hate rain, so i didn't take a jacket or umbrella to washington dc with me because i thought that if i wasn't prepared for it, it wouldn't come. i was so wrong.
it wasn't the rain that is a downpour for just a while. it was kind of like seattle rain, but worse because you aren't in seattle so you don't expect it.
anyway. because of the rain we stayed inside most of the day.
we had a tour of the capitol. i love government, so that was fun. i also learned that idaho has 2 representatives in the house and california has 53. love it!
then we took the underground tunnel to the library of congress. i fell in love. with the building, not a guy. (which i'm sure my mom would prefer.) it was absolutely stunning. the details in the library are ridiculous, but so beautiful. there was definitely no stone left unturned while they were making it. the actual library is really cool too. it has a copy of every book printed in the united states. and you can't check them out so you have to go in there and just read. ahhh, what a dream!
after that we went to the supreme court. somehow we managed to get ourselves into a tour that was going into the courtroom. also really amazing. everyone should visit that room. also, if you're in dc while they're in session, you can watch cases being done. first come first serve. definitely on my list of things to do for the next trip.
we attempted to go to the spy museum, but so did everyone else. so we went back to the natural history smithsonian and learned about the ocean, mammals, and gems/rocks/whatever that category is. smithsonians are great, really. i love them. but there is just so much information being thrown at you! we ended up just looking at the parts of the exhibit that had hands on things..like spin this for more information, or flip this to find the answer. kind of like elementary schoolers. 
all in all, another wonderful day in dc, despite the rain!


our adventure was amazing, i loved every minute of it and am so thankful for my lovely idaho/washington dc adoptive family for letting me spend my spring break with them.


and guys. just go to washington dc. do it.

adventure- days 5&6

day 5- wednesday
another earlyish morning in dc! we started the day with a trip to mount vernon. it was suuuuper cool. george washington was hardcore. i learned really cool things about him. like...
-he inherited mount vernon from his half brother when it was still a modest farmhouse. over the next 40 years he added onto it, and created what it is now.
-he loved gardening.
-he was super innovative and forward thinking.
i just loved standing at the edge of his grass, thinking about all the carriages and important people that had walked up his pathways, just a few hundred years ago.

the backside of mount vernon the part that faces the potomac.

also, it was a beautiful day. walking around was great! and we walked through the museum, which was really informative.

washington's rad view!

then we drove through andrews air force base. and saw some of the president's airplane fleet. that was cool. the base was cool. i liked seeing what it looked like. and i love airplanes.
after that we drove down to chesapeake bay for dinner. it was bomb. i loved seeing the atlantic ocean for the first time. and touching it. and i loved our fish and chips and crab cakes. 
elise went to bed at like 7:30. it was ridiculous. 


day 6-thursday
today was another katie and elise adventure day. we love those days! today we actually caught the bus at 9:12 like we were supposed to the other day. we made it downtown by like 10. got our starbs. and got in line at the national archives. 
after about 2 hours we made it in. seeing the declaration of independence, united states constitution, and bill of rights (that's what's in there, right?) was really cool. i thought all about everything mr.keith taught us in ap us history and realized how real it was. i kinda wish i would've been alive in the 1700's when all of this was going on. that would've been really insane!
and it was pretty freezing. so we went to urban and elise bought a new outfit that was much warmer. it was in chinatown, so we saw a little of that too.
then we had lunch at a restaurant we had passed like twenty times, 701. elise forgot to put her napkin on her lap so our waiter did it for her. because it was in his way when i went to set our appetizer plates down. it was hilarious. 
after lunch elise was on a mission to find the butterflies. except she didn't really know where to look. we tried the united states botanic gardens first. i kind of was wondering why we even have a botanic garden. but it was really pretty!

tulips!

after we realized their butterfly garden was not the one elise was thinking of, we moved on to the smithsonian museum of natural history. i think? the one with thousands of informative exhibits about the ocean and african animals. it was really cool. i think we're going back tomorrow.
we also went through the air and space museum again and did female pilots. aka me. love it!


now we're waiting for bones to come on while elise's dad runs to get us ice cream.


spring break is so good!

adventure- days 1,2,3&4

we're finally on spring break. just getting to it was an adventure full of late nights (all nights), libraries, paper formatting, and frustration. 
for the week of break, elise and i flew to washington dc to hang out with her dad and spend time in a city i've never been to.
saturday- day 1
we got to lax with so much time to people watch. it was great, we loved it. our flight was to nashville, we had a quick little layover, and on to dc. reagan, not dulles. love it. i couldn't handle dulles again, as much as i loved the africa trip. 
anyway. everything went perfectly until we got off our plane in nashville and noticed we had a 3 hour delay. it was actually great because we had time to get dinner. 
but after a few hours, starbucks, and a cookie, we were ready to get on. and they cancelled our flight.
so, we did what everyone does when they have a cancelled flight. we called our dads! love them. we ended up taking a shuttle to a hotel. it was kinda fun! we had a night in nashville. something unexpected!

our balcony view!

sunday-day 2 
we got off no problem in the morning.

waiting for our plane...again!

our flight was fast. we were in washington dc in no time! and we were greeted right outside the gates by elise's dad. so, so lovely to be welcomed so warmly even though i was across the country from home! he had a full day of activities scheduled for us and didn't let the late start stop him from getting them all done. before lunch we had a crash course of washington dc. i was instantly enthralled with the city. it's beautiful, historic, and bustling!
we had a delicious lunch after our quick tour, then went to old town alexandria. precious. my mom would seriously love it. beautiful row houses, all done in brick. love it. we took a boat ferry from alexandria to georgetown, which i think is my biggest love of dc. it's so fun, has such great shopping, and has delicious restaurants. including georgetown cupcakes, where dc cupcakes (of tlc) is filmed..

georgetown cupcakes' door.

we also got drinks and sat on the edge of the potomac. 

life doesn't get much better than this!

on our way home we walked through george washington's church. so legit! i wish you could do this kind of thing in california.

kinda hard to see. but so cool!

monday-day 3
another day full of washington dc highlights! 
we started the morning at arlington national cemetery. it was really cool (i guess?) to see the thousands of graves. i didn't really like when they had their little babies buried with them. it made me sad they died so young. elise really loved watching the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

there were rows and rows of these!

it was a day full of walking, which made me feel less touristy. we walked across a bridge (maybe an important one?) and visited most important things. the washington monument, the lincoln monument, the korean war monument, the world war II monument. i might have forgotten one. but it was really good to see all of the important things in real life, as opposed to pictures or movies. i loved it. 

oh abe. thank you!

way too tall for all of this to fit in one picture!

then we went to the holocaust museum. that was rough. there's one in la, so i kind of knew what i was getting myself into. but this one was much more in depth. at least than what i remembered. we've been learning a little about the holocaust in one of my classes, and it was nice to have background, and put pictures to events we've been talking about. 
to end our day, we went through the smithsonian's air and space museum. loved it so much. i'm convinced i'm going to be a pilot. maybe a sniper pilot. but mr.aebischer loved talking with me about airplanes. and bones. so that was fun. and i'm serious about flying.

my new mode of transportation.

tuesday- day 4
elise and i were out on our own today. it was hilarious. after having a rough time catching the bus, we finally got it together and bussed/metroed downtown. we walked around. a lot. we went to ford's theatre, and saw the outside of where president lincoln was shot. then we walked past the national archive place, but the line was way, way too long. then we went to the white house and played where's waldo, but with snipers. so fun! 
we kept walking, saw lots of important buildings, and ended at the smithsonian american history museum. we loved the wing of first ladies. some of their dresses for inaugural balls were seriously out of control. 

dorthy's shoes!

tonight we went to a coffee shop in old town alexandria (i think) called buzz. so legit. they even had gluten free cupcakes. perfect!


thats that. the beginning of our adventure. i'm loving every minute!

theological library.

i'm sitting in the theological library. i've been here for over an hour. we came in to make copies of books for our papers. my books don't actually exist. they're either checked out or lost somewhere in the abyss of not-yet-reshelved and somewhere in someone else's stack books. which makes our paper writing experience a frustrating one, to say the least.
but there's something about this library. it's always the quietest. you can seriously hear a pin drop in here. usually it's relatively empty, but not now. tonight it's so full. there are people lining the walkways. that's how you know it's all almost over. people packing the libraries until they close in the middle of the night. reshelving carts overflowing with books everyone is looking to use. long lines for the copy machine and study rooms. 
everyone in here is thinking the same thing. "if i can just make it to friday."
actually, "if i can just make it through tomorrow then i'll worry about making it to friday."


i'm thankful for the theological library. and all the important information it has for us to learn about our faith. and write ridiculously long exegetical papers about passages we will never want to read again once we've finished. because it's what makes the apu experience one that is uniquely apu. 


and the books are old so they smell good!

shoes.

as you may or may not know, today is "toms a day without shoes" day. i love toms. i love shoes. i love supporting people who don't have shoes. 

which i do regularly, by purchasing toms. (hah! retail therapy with no guilt!)

helpful shoes for all occasions!

in typical apu fashion, there are people who are insanely opinionated about this day. although it is normal for people to be walking between campuses without shoes, today it happens in abundance. 

some people think it's dumb to raise awareness for people without shoes by spending one day without shoes. they think it doesn't do much. i understand their thought process. 

here's my however...

however. although we aren't doing something for them directly, we are helping people be aware that it is a serious problem. we are helping ourselves develop sympathy and empathy for these people. i know that walking around barefoot today isn't going to solve anything. i'm aware that it may be unsafe, and kinda gross. but it is so, so worth it to me. 

so, i'm walking around shoeless today. for the beautiful children i met in south africa and swaziland this summer, who do it every day.

for this precious little girl who traverses through trash full of dangerous things to her little feet every time she leaves home.

on a completely different note.. have you noticed that each of my titles is one simple word (usually a noun)? typical katie. sticking to a pattern.