President Pierce was a hot drunk, US Marshalls are pretty damn attractive and a Prof wants to "humble" us

So I am writing this posting which is very long due past (seems like a recurring theme with my postings).  However, I felt the need to write this post more sooner rather than later as we are under a Hurricane Sandy warning where we may be powerless for a bit, technology will die when the juice runs out or the satellites get all wonky and in a lack of tea twitchy state.  So I am going back into the memory vault to see what I have been doing the past couple of weeks. 

After what seemed like a hiatus in the touristy aspect of my life, I decided to change that and go do something not school related.  So, it was off to a history day for me, and along for the ride was Riya (who loves the one president most of our day was geared towards), Kayln and her brother.  I figured who better to be around than Americans to learn about American History (note to people - I would make a horrible guide when doing something Canadian history like).  As well, I learnt that movies do lie (**shakes fist up at movies**).   So first stop, Ford's Theatre (http://www.fordstheatre.org/home/plan-your-visit) .

Now, for some of those who don't know what Ford's Theatre is, that is the place where President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth.  And plus, who does not like all the controversy surrounding his death and all who were involved with the planning (see the movie The Conspirator as it does not lie unlike some other movies *cough cough National Treasure: Book of Secrets*).  It was a nice day, in my books, and standing outside, waiting for our turn to get into the Theatre, I got quite a lot of 'she's crazy' looks; probably because I was wearing a tank top when everybody else was wearing long sleeved shirts and jackets....Riya said that I should be wearing a sign that said 'I'm not crazy, I am Canadian'. 

 

Anywho, we got inside the place and it was quite amazing to see all the history and information on Lincoln.  There was an area that was dedicated to all those who were known to be involved with his assassination.  To be able to look at the gun that shot President Lincoln was quite amazing as well as to see the actual balcony where it happened.  They have not touched the balcony since that night so to see it exactly as it was that night was quite a historical feeling.  We got a talk from a Ranger about the events around that night; at first his voice was quite the 'waaa waaa waaa' (the teacher's voice from Peanuts) but it gradually grew on you.  And, for future purposes sake, a line that apparently people just cracked up when they heard back in the day was "Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!" Saying that nowadays will give you crazy looks......wait, I get them anways, so might as well go around saying this line to peoples.....hahaha.  Oh, so one thing that I knew that the American's didn't know, and don't ask me how I knew this, is that a Civil War Union General Joesph Hooker popularized the term 'hooker' because of all the ladies that would fratnerize/follow Hooker's troops.  Or something along those lines.  Anywho, the purpose of this is to say that I knew something of American history that the American's didn't know.  Who would have thunk....hahaha. 

 

From Ford's theatre, we got to go see the Petersen House which is where President Lincoln actually died.  Now Lincoln was a pretty huge guy, standing past 6', and the bed that he was brought to seemed to be like a 5'5 bed, so imagining him laying on that bed just seemed off.  After the Peterson House was to the Center for Education and Leadership.  The best part of this was the 34-foot tower of books all about President Lincoln.  Also here was the Aftermath Gallery where we got to see his funeral travels from Washington, DC to Springfield, IL.   I can honestly tell you that people came from miles around to see his body and mourn their beloved President. 

 

After Ford's Theatre, we went to Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum.  The one in Washington (I went to the one in Las Vegas) has all the presidents as well as movie stars, sports people and news people.  It was fun to see all the presidents as I could probably recognize about 5 of them hahaha and learn some fun facts about them all.  Like, for example, President Howard Taft got stuck in a bathtub. One of them, President Pierce, was actually pretty hot for back in the day.  And me being me, I, of course, think that the drunk and a guy who ran over an old lady with his horse was the hottest President for back in the day.  I know how to pick them right?? hahaha.  And I can't forget about Johnny Depp - oh dear lord I was about to jump that statute right there and then it looked so much like Johnny....oh so hot......(http://www.madametussauds.com/washington/)

 



After that weekend, it was nose to the books for school - midterms, papers, presentations and a field trip was on the list for school.  The field trip was to St. Elizabeths Hospital - this is the state hospital for forensic patients.  Now, it was kind of saddening as it has been totally revamped and doesn't look like your imagined psychiatric hospital (I was thinking like Souris Valley) but not so much (old St. E's is top, new St. E's is the bottom).  The way it is set up is that the one side is for the transitional patients (the civilly committed folks) and the intensive patients (the forensically committed folks).  We were not able to go over to the intensive side, so that was saddening, but at least we got to walk around the place and see how it works and is set up.  I would have loved *loved* to have run into John Hinckley Jr. but we had no chance of that happening.  My goal is to still work there, so one day it will happen.  Our psychopathology professor works on the intensive side at St. E's and she always tells us stories about the patients she sees there and it just makes me want to work there all the more.  One day it will happen; one day. 

 

I finally started to do my volunteering with Survivors and Advocates For Empowerment with their Court Watch Program.   What this entails is that I go and sit in Domestic Violence Court and take stats about who the Respondent/Petitioner are, their sex, their race, if they got the Protection Order, if they didn't, yadda yadda yadda.  All the statitics then gets entered into a program and it will say if a particular judge is more lenient towards some people, rude towards others, and how to make the system better overall, so it is quite interesting.  I did learn that the US Marshalls (who are supposed to be in the courtroom for all the hearings) are quite hot, like very hot.  It must be a requirement to be hot to join the Marshalls, like Firefighters.  So sitting in the courtroom for 4 hours looking at a US Marshall is not a bad way to spend one's morning hahaha.  And also, there can be some Judge Judy like drama.  I saw a case where it was two roommates (which can be domestic violence fyi) arguing back and forth about rent and if one can go into the others' bedroom.  It got quite heated.  But on a better note, while I was heading towards the DC Superior Court, I stumbled upon the Canadian Embassy.  I should probably remember where this is just in case I ever need it......

 

So, back to school.  It is getting kind of stressful - lots of people getting tense and heated about the way classes are going, the feeling that classes are useless and papers due that we had no clue how to do.  The paper that we didn't know how to do was a Case Conceptualization (basically you take a client's behavior and justify it with a theorist - Freud, Adler, Erikson, Horney, etc etc) and this paper was a beast of a paper - mine turned out to be 22 pages long.  With no clue what I was doing.  So here comes the day to hand in the paper, and we all happily hand it in, just to be done with it.  The prof, as nice as she is, tells us that she will mark us more on the lenient side as we didn't have time to go through most of the theorists before this paper was due and had to basically muddle through the theorist ourselves to apply it to the behavior.  Oh wonderful - great news.  Especially since getting anything below a B- is considered a fail.....not a happy thought.  So yeah, she tells us that she will leniently mark us.  Then, in the same breathe, she tells us, however, that everyone needs to fail a paper to "humble" them, and if we fail this paper, consider it a gentle fail. Oh, okay, that doesn't sound nice at all anymore....hahaha.  So now I am in limbo waiting for this paper to get back to me seeing as we have another Case Conceptualization due the week of Thanksgiving.  Oys.  Gotta take the bad with the good when it comes to school I guess.  As such, I will leave you with this picture of a sculpture in a sculpture garden I stumbled upon a couple of weekends ago. I call it "The Alice in Wonderland version of The Thinking Man". 

 

So, with all this being said, sadly no touristy stuff is happening this weekend.  Hopefully next weekend will be something fun done.  Take care and I love and miss you all!!!  I will have a countdown going once I book my tickets for coming home for christmas!!!!! 

24 Hours, 5 Miles, 3 States and 2 Pizza's Later.....

So with midterms looming on the horizon and the stress of practicum already in the forefront of our minds, it was decided that a girls weekend was definitely what the doctor prescribed.  But let me backtrack a bit for you to help you appreciate how the weekend went down.

Our classes are quite tiny - for the most part there is a maximum of 15 people per class, which makes it wonderful for getting discussions going, asking questions and participating.  But with us having such small classes, we basically need to get along with the people as we will be stuck together for the next two years.  It wasn't that hard to do with this bunch of people as we are all in the same situation in that we are all here for school and without family.  People are from all over - Ohio, Tennessee, Alaska, New Jersey, South Carolina, Massachusetts and many more other states. So since we are all in the same boat, might as well get to know each other and have a family within ourselves.  That being said, there is about 5 of us who get along very well and spend time outside of school with each other. 

What I find amazing about all of this is that I have created more friendships just in this one month of living here than I did in the 7 years of living in Calgary.  Maybe it is because all of us don't have any family in the immediate vicinity, or maybe it is because I am like a 'pet' to them being Canadian and all, but whatever the case may be, these people are very welcoming and open.  I like it.  And all of our personalities seem to compliment each other and balance each other out - we have the 'mother' of the group, Steph, that makes sure we have foods for when we get together, makes sure that when we go out we are in pairs, those types of things.  Then we have the free-spirited, doesn't know the concept of an indoor voice gal, Colleen, that just makes one laugh and laugh.  Her stories about her experiences and the way she lives life is such a breathe of fresh air.  She is one crazy cookie.  Then we have another girl, Meghan, who says what she thinks and does what she wants.  Sometimes the things she says makes me shake my head and try to figure out what goes on in that head of hers.  And then we have the person who gives us an ethnic twist to everything as she is from India, Riya.  When she mimics her dad, it makes us all go into stitches from laughter and when she is joking around, her facial expressions are just priceless.  And she is a States girl through and through - she keeps asking me if we have certain things up in Canada as they do down here (example - what kind of music we listen to up there).  Just the best group of girls to spend the next two and maybe even more years with. 

So there is a tiny background for you guys to know who exactly will be under one roof for one evening and together for a full 24 hours.  The plan was to have a slumber party at Colleen's place as she is best set up for company.  Best part (not so much) is that she lives in Virginia.  So Steph and I hop on the metro and meet at the station for Colleen to pick us up (Colleen also has a vehicle - very important).  We have time to kill before picking up Meghan so we go to Walmart for munchies and booze (it still feels weird that booze can be bought in random grocery stores), to Target to get plaid shirts so that we are all matchy matchy at the Pumpkin Patch and then to Meghan's.  Pick Meghan up and finally get to Colleen's place.  We sit around the table and bullshit away, drinking and laughing.  We decided on pizza to order, and holy canoly, what a rigmarole that was.  Steph was in such a hankering mood for a Marguerite pizza (never heard of it before) and so found a place that delivered one. Perfect!!! Not so much.  It comes and to Steph's chagrin, there is no tomatoes on it.  Apparently there should have been tomatoes.  So she phones the pizza company back and explains to them that she ordered the pizza because she wanted a Marguerite pizza, which has tomatoes, so they appease her by sending another pizza.  Crisis averted.  Not so much.  Second pizza arrives, and while she is walking up the stairs, we hear in a very loud, very annoyed voice "THERE ARE NO TOMATOES".  So us being Master students and whatnot, we decide to do some research to see if this pizza company screwed up our pizza not just once, but twice.  Low and behold, on the ingredients listed online, it does not mention tomatoes.  Whoops....

Now it is the next morning, where I will have to say I slept wonderfully as it was more on the chillier side at Colleen's place, so I was in heaven.  Waking up, I found that most of the girls had slept in sweaters and long pants....I don't think they would survive in Alberta winters hahaha.  I will have to say, for getting ready to head to the pumpkin patch and have 5 girls shower, we did it quite efficiently.  So, once we were all in our plaid, we pile into Colleen's car - a Vibe.  Not a every big car, and there was 5 of us.  Kind of packed and since it is a small car, you feel everything.  I was gracious enough to take the middle back seat, and wow - I was smushing everyone in the back seat.  The Pumpkin Patch was all the way in Maryland so we bypassed DC and got there (we got a little detoured taking a scenic route of different highways).  When we got there, we instantly realized that a) we were a little over dressed and b) we were about 15 years older than the average person there....hahaha.  But we carried on as this was the plan for the day. 

First up was a hay wide which was pretty awesome.  And then, da da daaaaaa the corn maze.  At first glance (since we didn't really look at the map) and with Steph holding our flag proudly, we decide to venture forth.  One of the rules of the maze - not using profanity - was broken a couple of times by yours truly......I don't know how long we were in the maze but we found ourselves back at the front.  Okay, in we go again to try this again - I mean, there is 5 of us, master students at that, we should be able to figure this thing out......not so much.  So we walk and walk and walk and suddenly I say 'we have been here before', wheren I get a snarky remark 'the corn all looks the same'.  So we keep walking, and find ourselves at the beginning again.  So then we decide to call it quits.  A good thing as when we went to get foods, one of the workers there said it took her 4 hours to get through.  Cripes almighty I would have broken that profanity rule a lot more.....Next up was the pumpkin chunkin.  I thought that we would be able to slingshot uber huge pumpkins, but not so much.  Tiny ass suckers, but fun nonetheless to slingshot.  There is a technique that is involved - I was actually quite efficient at making mine go pretty far.  And then lastly the girls went to the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin to carve for halloween.  Once the pumpkins were found and loved by all, back into the clown car we go to head to DC to prepare for the Out of the Darkness Walk. 

We got to the Walk (after getting lost in DC for parking) and I was astounded at the amount of people that were there.  There were 605 people walking for the cause, which is amazing.  It took some time for the event to get started as people kept coming in to register.  We were all given battery style candles that we could light for the walk and were giving out beads in different colors representing the person you had lost to suicide.  So candle and beads in tow, we start the 5 mile walk around the Tidal Basin - we walked past the Jefferson Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial and FDR Memorial.  With the sun setting low and a nice night out, the walk was amazing.  I definitely need to go back and do that walk on my own time so that I can actually stop and appreciate/take in the memorials and get some pictures.   It felt quite amazing to be part of something like that; a cause that many people know about but doesn't get the recognition it needs to save so many lives.  I am glad that I decided to partake in it.  The mental pictures I have of people walking, holding signs of their loved ones they lost and seeing the trail of candles is a powerful image. 

Finally, the walk is over, we pile back for the last time into the clown car and head back to Virginia were we get something quick to eat (FYI - avoid ordering calamari at a diner.....probably won't be that great) and then off to our respectful homes.  I think I got home around 10ish and I was quite happy to be on hardwood ground and in my four walls.  Don't get me wrong - spending 24 hours with the gals was wonderful, but I needed my space hahaha. 

This is a fairly long posting as it has taken me about 2 weeks to write it.  It is Thanksgiving at home today, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!  Midterms and papers are becoming due, so I don't know how much touristy stuff will be happening, but I will keep you entertained with my life adventures anyways, so never fear. 

I miss you all very very much and hope you are all doing wonderful.  Thank you for reading my posts and following along with me - it makes me smile knowing that you are with me in this journey.