Leaving the District

It's hard to believe, but the semester is done! The last few days were a lot of fun-getting in last minute adventures and talking with people-but we also had projects to finish and packing to do. One afternoon a few of us went to ride paddle boats on the tidal basin at the Jefferson Memorial. We also had our final progressive dinner on our floor which ended with improvisational competitive rapping by some people on my floor. Thursday night we had a banquet to celebrate the end of our semester. We dressed up, ate great food, and each took a turn being verbally affirmed by the others in the program. There was also a talent/entertainment portion of the evening including a guitar trio, an entertaining but not highly convincing magic show, and a movie I made about how our apartment had secretly stolen and held for ransom our friend John's life size cardboard cut out of Hillary Clinton (ask me for more details). We might be biased but we thought our video was probably the highlight of the night.


Yesterday morning it all concluded. The flight Eli and I were taking left at 9 am and we decided to have a cab pick us up at 7:00. Unfortunately, Eli's alarm didn't go off and I woke her up at 6:40-an hour and a half later than she wanted-and she had to get ready and finish her packing. The cab also came early and the driver seemed frustrated (possibly about the amount of luggage we had). Needless to say it was a little stressful! But once we got to the airport everything went smoothly, and by early afternoon we had landed in Omaha again.

It's been good being home so far, but I have already been noticing little things that I enjoyed about the city that Iowa doesn't offer. I'm sure it will take some adjusting. I've talked with several people so far who want to know about my semester, and it's definitely hard to describe in short. I have learned so much, experienced so much, and I think grown a lot too! I guess this signals the end of my blog-thanks for reading, and thanks for your prayers and support during the past four months!

It's hard to believe that this is my last week in DC. I've been trying to take advantage of the extra time we have now that internships have concluded and have crossed a few things off my DC to-do list. Last week I went to the National Aquarium with some friends. We had heard it wasn't too great, but thought we'd check it out anyway. The reviews were pretty accurate. We paid $7 and our most exciting moment was staring at the big snake trying to determine whether it was real or fake. Saturday we took a trip to the Smithsonian National Zoo. It was 90 degrees outside and the zoo was filled with children. The zoo is known for its pandas, which I didn't see. But we did see plenty of other animals.











Today has been a long day thus far. I woke up at 4:45 to go with two friends to see the sunrise from the Lincoln Memorial. The weather again was beautiful and we had a good time (that is after the bus we wanted was late and we ended up sprinting the last mile to make sure we got there before the sun came up). The view was beautiful! On the way back I stopped by the Supreme Court building to see if I could get into watch an hour long oral argument. I waited from 7:30 until 10am and found out there were no hour long seats left. I opted to stay in line a little longer for a chance to sit in the back for 5 minutes. It was a pretty neat experience and I saw all the judges sitting at the bench. Afterwards, I headed to the Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center to do a service project. If you recall we did these at the beginning of the semester, and now we are wrapping up the semester by going back. Interestingly enough, we had to do the same type of work on a mailing as we did the first time-folding, stuffing, addressing envelopes, etc. I am currently working on a final paper for the semester. We have a few meetings and activities to attend this week before we begin our farewells Friday and Saturday. I am very excited to be returning home. Somewhere along the semester I have come to love DC, but don't really think it's a place to call home. I am not sure how much blogging I will have a chance to do this week, but I hope to write a few more times before wrapping this up!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

We took advantage of the nice weather yesterday to attend a Washington Nationals game against the Florida Marlins. The stadium was fairly easy to get to-a 10 minute walk and a 5 minute bus ride. We bought $5 grandstand tickets-we were sitting 4 rows from the back. I guess you get what you pay for! Although the Nationals have a terrible record, we had high hopes for an exciting game after the Nats took a big league with a grand slam in the first inning. That's really about as exciting as it got. A couple of the guys and I decided to leave at the top of the 9th because the Nats were still up. Of course by the time we got down to the ground level the Marlins had somehow tied it up. We stayed for the remainder of the inning but left before the game went to 11 innings ending in a loss for the hometeam.

At night I crossed off an activity on my list of things I wanted to do in DC. I went to the see the monuments at night. They are all lit up and look pretty cool. We checked out the Washington, Lincoln, WW2, Vietnam, and Korean memorials before deciding to call it quits. Unfortunately, the metro we had taken to get to the area closed by the time we got back to it and we ended up walking all the way back-about 3 miles.

This weekend Eli and I also had to get our pictures taken for potential use in a Northwestern publication. The forecast was rain and we fought off a few raindrops for the first part of the "shoot," but fortunately the rain stopped and we only had to deal with some wind. I had my picture taken on the steps of the Supreme Court and Eli had hers by the Capitol. We almost had to stop the shoot before we started because a Supreme Court police officer told the photographer he had to have special permission to take pictures if it was going to be for a college magazine. So he had to stand on the sidewalk to take the pictures of me. Some creepy guy game up to Eli while we were there and gave her this paper doll to hold while he took a picture of her. It was a very interesting couple of hours. We're hoping photoshop will be able to do wonders with us!

Easter in the District

Even though I was away from home for Easter, I really had a pretty sweet weekend. I checked out some museums and sights but mostly spent time hanging out with some others who hadn't gone anywhere either. On Saturday night we had an impromptu supper on the roof, and watched the sunset. We had anticipated going to see the fireworks that signaled the end of the Cherry Blossom Festival, but decided to see if we could see them from the roof. Unfortunately we didn't take into account the large hospital that's across the street from us that blocked 95% of the fireworks.

Sunday morning some of my friends and I decided to go to the National Cathedral. The cathedral is in a very different part of the city and we had to wake up at 5:45 in order to catch a bus at 6:40 that would get us there in good time for the 8:00 service. Somehow it's never really hard to get up on Easter morning though. We got pretty good seats near to the front. I loved hearing a choir sing and it was interesting to see all the banners being carried and the clergy processing in. It was definitely a cool experience. However, when we first got their the first thing I noticed was a large American Flag in front of it...civil religion anyone?

By the time we got back from church it was around 11:30, and we were all pretty tired. I took a nap for awhile then many of us met up for an Easter Dinner for whoever was around. We each made some food to bring and we tried to make a semi formal dinner. There were probably about 25 people there and we had a really good time, and got extremely full! So it has been a long weekend, and I'm still trying to catch up on sleep!

And the Law School Winner is....

Creighton!

This week I decided I will be moving to Omaha this fall and attending Creighton School of Law. If I'm being honest, the decision was more of a pain in the butt than something that really stressed me out. Michigan State had a lot to offer and no matter how many pros and cons lists I made and how I tried to create scales and give the two schools numerical ratings it kept coming out even.

It's hard to say exactly what the deciding factors were, but they include quality of academics, great community I've heard about, and it's location. I have a friend to live with there and I am excited to live waters unchartered by Breens-living in the state of Nebraska.

As it stands right now, I am still on the wait list at the University of Iowa, and I really don't know what stress could attack me if I am offered a spot there, but I'll cross that bridge if I get to it. Thank you all for your prayers-this is probably the biggest decision I have had to make in my little life. I'm not sure how I feel about having to make adult decision like this!

Adventures in Anacostia

Yesterday instead of coming into my normal office, I went with an attorney to another location of our office in the SE (poorer) area of the city. I went because our NW location where I usually am is not taking any new clients this week. Thus traffic has been heavier in the SE and they needed some extra help making things work smoothly. My duties were to conduct the first part of the interviews with potential clients. If you remember, last week I sat in on some of these interviews so I had a handle on how they went. I took all the information down for people, collected their documents and got a handle on their legal problems before sending them into an attorney. Essentially I was the nurse before the doctor comes in. I am amazed at how much I understand now, compared to when I first came.

One problem was that I kept getting pushed out of rooms. Legal Aid just uses whatever rooms are available at the suite we rent space from in the Southeast. Twice I had to do interviews in the tiny computer control room which was about 85 degrees and where one person had to get out of the room before the other one could get up. I also made a new friend who "works" there and has come kind of cognitive disabilities but is very friendly and personally escorted me everywhere and took care of everything I need. He, and another kid-probably 13, seemed to take a shining to me. I'm not sure what that conveys...

Alex Trebek, Indian Dancers & FDR

Last weekend we had great weather to get out and enjoy more Cherry Blossom Festival Activities. On Saturday morning went to the parade. Alex Trebek was the Grand Marshall-so pretty much he sat in this car and waved. There were some pretty fun bands and groups to watch come through, but I wasn't really sure how they could have a parade without the streets being scrubbed first. And no one threw candy.

After the parade we had a picnic on the mall and flew a kite for a little while. Then we decided to make our way over to the Jefferson Memorial where the large tidal basin is surrounded by 1000 cherry trees. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones who had that idea. They had a stage set up at the memorial where different performances were being held all day. We saw a school of dancers performing Indian/Arabian music which was very fun.



Since none of us had been to the FDR memorial we thought it would be fun to check it out. I personally think it was the best of the memorials I have seen because it's like a park you walk through and there are plenty of fun statues to take pictures with. Someone threw out the idea of walking to the Iwo Jima memorial because it didn't seem too far away. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We had to walk back to the Lincoln memorial, over Memorial Bridge into Virgina and go around Arlington Cemetary-which for most you means nothing-but it more familar terms it means a long way...probably a couple miles. But depsite my tired feet and my severe and awkward sunburn lines, I really had a great day. The festival continues all this week and ends with fireworks on Saturday.