Why are we running? Cause this is a marathon!!! It isn't a marathon, it's a race!

Summer is here - I am burnt already, tulips are up and blooming, grass and trees are super green and the heat is too hot.  This is going to be an interesting summer, but hopefully, and for once, I can actually get a tan and not be all pasty white and blind people.....

The Cherry Blossom festival was the first week in April and it was nice, but disappointing.  April 6th was supposed to be prime day for cherry blossom blooming but alas, since we had some "cool" weather before the weekend (and I use the term "cool" loosely) the blossoms were not bloomyfull.  There were two trees that people were congregating around to take pictures and it was pretty funny (reminded me of being at the zoo and everybody running to see the animal move).  The two trees were quite beautiful, but sadly, I wasn't able to head down to the Tidal Basin when they were all out in full bloom, so next year I will have to try and take more in.  So part of the Cherry Blossom festivities was paddleboating in the Tidal Basin and then catching the fireworks at night.  Paddleboating was quite fun - it was Kalyn's first time and luckily/unluckily she got stuck with paddling with me hahaha.  I have never been in a paddleboat that didn't have the ring for a steering wheel so I didn't even attempt to steer, and Kalyn tried to, but sadly, we couldn't figure it out.  Steph, oh captain my captain, was sitting in the backseat and did some steering for us.  She was the epitome of backseat driving hahaha.  For a bit there, we actually paddled backwards so that Steph could steer and not hit people.  When we were coming back to the dock, we had to pull some Mario Andretti moves as there was a traffic jam of paddleboats.  It was pretty fun overall.  Just sitting in the middle of the Tidal Basin and talking with the girls, gently floating and looking around at everything was so relaxing and serene and something we all needed.  After the paddleboating, it was food adventure.  I think we spent over an hour in line for pizza hahaha.  There were people everywhere and in each line and it was nuts.  It was reminiscent to Inauguration Day so I had a small PTSD moment hahaha. After foods, it was fireworks and they were amazing.  I love fireworks, and seeing them over the water was just beautiful.   A wonderful day overall with such wonderful company. 

Last weekend, and the weekend that gave me my sunburn, was the DC Challenge.  It is Amazing Race style - we got 12 clues (only had to do 11 of them) and figure out the fastest way to get to each clue and back.  For 6 people who have never lived in DC before, we found our way around pretty good (thank god for google maps hahaha).  The days leading up to the challenge we were talking about how we were going to run the whole thing, who was going to be on map duty, googling duty, etc etc and our plans worked out, for the most part - we did not run the entire thing suffice it to say.  There were over 415 teams there, so no clue on how many people were there in total and we placed 184th with a time of 2:42:53.  Our team's name was Reservoir-dire Dogs (yours truly was Ms. Blonde).  In the very beginning, we decided to run to the places where we had to do the clues, but after running to the first spot, we talked the rest of the way hahaha.  However, we did not take the metro once, except to get back to the finish line, so we were quite proud of ourselves when doing that.  When we were at one of the clues, there was a girl who wanted to take our picture.  Not sure if it was because she understood our theme or just wanted to take a picture of some crazy people.  Some of the clues/tasks were as follows:

• Find the bright red sculpture beside Cubi XXVI and pose like the sculpture in the photo (I think this was our most creative picture)
• Take a photo with anyone with a badge and convince them to act out Charlies Angels with our whole team
• find Lincoln's 1868 statute and act out a scene from his life
• hula hoop at the Capitol Reflecting Pool (FYI - I don't ever remember actually hula hooping when I was younger so I did not do well at this task - Meghan was freaking awesome at it!!!)
• snap a photo of team in a pirate battle (for some reason, I was the one getting attacked)
• find the wall of geyers
• take a picture with either a clown (no dice), a traditional barber pole, a person wearing overalls, a duck boat or a cast of triceratops' head (this is the one we did)

There were so many teams in costumes that were awesome - zombie presidents, minions, Disney princesses, superheros, gladiators.  I wonder what people thought around the city, seeing all of us taking silly pictures and in costumes.  I think we are going to make it a yearly thing and maybe as the years go on, we will get better as we will know where things are/how to get there faster. 

Life in DC has not been boring whatsoever - between the whitehouse getting taped off due to "water main break" (they need to come up with a different story) after the Boston bombing, a twitter hacking advising that Obama has been injured, bomb/drug sniffing dogs at the metro stations, a shooting at the metro station I get off at and an unattended item at the station this morning.  I love the excitement of living here, but kind of miss the safety of Canada hahaha.  Although, I almost went "American" on some chick as I went to Catholic U to work on my paper for school and some chick spilt her coffee on my laptop and fried it - the keyboard needed to be replaced and now apparently the

motherboard as well.  I was too busy trying to soak up the liquid to not yell at her, especially after all she did was pick up her coffee and walked away.  This is not a good time to be laptopless especially with all my papers and presentations and finals and trying to plan a Calgary trip and post blogs.....so suffice it to say, I have been living at the school to use their computers.  I can tell you this though - living with no laptop is both super relaxing and uber stressful - I have been able to have super long baths (the kind where you refill the tub with hot water), getting some books read, worked on my scrapbook, things like that.  It is pretty funny though that I have not touched my cross stitch this entire time being laptopless.  I am really hoping that I get my laptop back this week sometime, preferably tomorrow as I have two "take home" exams due Thursday.  However, this Thursday is the last day of classes for this semester and then it is all done!!  I have about a month off in May before my summer semester starts and it will be a busy month - my mom and sister are coming down here to view *my* city and then I am heading up to Calgary for a week to see friends and family as well.  I have been here for too long and need to get up home to get some Canadianness back into me, especially since some of my family members have been saying that I am starting to sound American.....not good.....not good at all hahaha. 

I have secured a practicum placement as well!!!!  It is at the Department of Corrections, which should be interesting.  I want to work with the prison population, but being there scared the living bejesus outta me hahaha.  I am going to have to change my entire demeanour when working there.  I will never forget my interview though as I went up to reception and said "Hi, I'm here to see Guy" "Who?" "Guy" "What guy?" "His name is Guy" "What is his name?" I was about to break out in a Who's on First or A Meewho and an Exactlywhat skit, but didn't think they would find the humour in that hahaha.  Thankfully I have a placement for September so that stress has been lifted woohoo!!!  Now hopefully the quiet, white Canadian can toughen up to work with the prison population hahaha. It is both exciting and scary all at the same time so I guess I will see what happens come September.  It isn't with the population that I initially wanted to work with, but it is a placement nonetheless and I will take what I can get, especially since I was running into walls being Canadian and having some sites tell me that I was not eligible because I wasn't American. 

 

Anywho, I should probably get to studying for the 3 exams I have this week.  I am in that end-of-the-semester-slump where I don't feel like doing anything anymore but just need to push through 3 more things and then this semester from hell can be over.  I miss and love you all!!

Nothing says Easter than watching girls beat each other and riding the metro to go pick up keys from a stripper......

Oh boy.....I can't remember what I have been doing these past couple of weeks so bare with me on this. Time seems to be going in both a blur and in slow motion, and it doesn't help to have a memory like mine.  And to make matters worse, my phone, even though it says to keep my appointments forever, every so often will delete my past calendar entries.... All I can say is this:  I have not done as much touristy stuff as I should/want to be, and that will not be changing in the near future as I am getting down to the grindstone for school which means I am going to turn into a stressful recluse.  However, we warned as this is fairly long posting as even though I haven't done any touristy things lately, the past week and Easter have been eventful. 

So, Riya being a sports lover like me, albeit soccer, she wonderfully told me that the LA Kings and LA Galaxy were making their appearance at the White House, so the the plan was set in motion - we would camp out at the front lawn a couple of hours before the whole shindig started to get a glimpse of them entering the White House.  However, there are two lawns - the North and South Lawn so we had a 50-50 chance of being at the right law.  Sadly, I think we picked the wrong lawn to wait at as eventually we had to double time it to the South lawn (the White House is pretty big so to get to the South lawn was about 4 - 5 blocks away hahaha).   We were able to get up to the gate though and get some pretty good pictures.  It was pretty funny though as every time we thought we saw a bus coming down the road, or heard a siren/escort, Riya would start to get all excited, thus making my excitement level escalated.  I mean, I was going to see some Canadian hockey players.....I was going to hold myself back somehow if we were going to be in arm's distance from them hahaha.  It was a pretty fun morning/afternoon though camping out.  I did learn that if the guard in front of the West Wing has white gloves on, it means that either the President or Vice President is in there.  But then we got to thinking - this doesn't make sense for public knowledge as it increases the potential risk for an attempt on the President or Vice President......so maybe it is just a ploy for people to think.  I also think that my conspiracy mind has increased as they give us way too much knowledge about where the President is, etc etc. 

As a stress relief from school, we have decided to start heading to trivia nights on Tuesday night after class.  It is reminiscent of me playing Name that Tune, Kalyn playing trivia and Stephanie having her book club - basically something that we can do weekly to get us out of school mode and have fun one night.  We have gone two times now (the start of something wonderful) and the nights were total opposites hahaha.  The first night, we learnt that we should not go when it is Easter as we know nothing about Easter (sadly I have repressed everything I learnt in elementary classes for religion), do not go when it is March Madness as none of us are basketball fans and that The Canadian (ie Me) is needed for the odd Canadian question.  The Canadian question you ask - what is the official sport of Canada.  Most everyone said hockey - silly Americans.....hahaha.  The second night we go, we learnt that we need to brush up on popular culture as one theme was Game of Thrones, which we don't watch, and of course, The Final Four for March Madness.  And a potential Canadian question did not bode well for me as I could not remember (and I apologize to Madame Fraser and Madame Venance) for not remembering what the accent is called to soften the 'c'.  We epically failed the second night we went, but it was still fun. 

Easter just passed and us people who didn't have a home to go to decided to head over to Meg's for supper as she offered to cook us some dinner.  First, before Meg's, Kalyn and I decided to go check out some Rollerderby, cause nothing says Easter than girls beating the crap outta each other......It was pretty fun and exciting once we were able to see the scoreboard and actually watch the game (the people in front of us were enthusiastic fans).  We have decided that we want to try out next year, so first off we will need to find some roller skates as I have only ever rollerbladed.  Secondly, we need to find people who are willing to dress up like the Marshmallow Man who will try to stop us from passing them.  Thirdly, we will then skate around the Tidal Basin, trying to dodge the random passerbyers and not fall in......sounds infallible our plans.  Oh, finally, and in the process of all of this, we need to pick out epic names.  My role model's name is Stabigail Adams....how awesome is that!!!!  And then there is Vicious Von Doom, Ivana Tripabitch, the names are awesome.  We are definitely going back to watch more games. 

 

So now enter Easter Sunday.  Firstly, I decided to head to Sunday Mass as I figured I should keep up my tradition of Christmas and Easter mass and holy crow, it was an amazing experience.  Mass was at noon and I figured I would get there around 11:15 to get a good pew and whatnot, but sadly, there was a mass at 10:30 so I didn't get in right away.  It was like the running of the bulls when Mass was let out - people trying to get into the Basilica, people trying to get out, people taking pictures - mayhem at its finest.  Thankfully I was able to sneak in and find a good spot for the event; people were standing basically everywhere and packed in there.  The choir was amazing to listen to as they were singing in Latin (I thought I was in something like the Angels & Demons/DaVinci Code score as it was just awe inspiring to listen to) and the music was so powerful with the organs and french horns, trumpets, the whole works.  The Cardinal/Archbishop of Washington was there as well to give the homily.  I wonder what Christmas would be like as this was crazy insane and very powerful.  Leaving the Basilica, they had the bells going and I just stood outside, listening to them, thankful that I had the opportunity to experience something like this.  My pictures are a little blurry/fuzzy as I took them with my phone as I didn't think it would be appropriate to take pictures while there for a Mass.....apparently I was a minority in this thinking as lots of people had their cameras and were taking pictures through Mass hahaha. 

So now enter Easter Sunday supper at Meg's.  This is how it went down - I left my house for the 50ish minute metro ride.  I get a stop or two away from her stop and I get a text from her, saying to not leave the platform as we (Meg, Colleen and I) will be heading back to downtown.  I ask why.  This was the text I got (never prepared myself for this):  Get Colleen's keys from the male stripper.  Now you know the rest of the evening is going to be fun....hahaha.  At this time, I am getting close to starving as well as a headache from the metro ride.  So we go downtown, Colleen gets the keys from the stripper, and we wait for the next metro to arrive (20 minutes).  Now I am starving, Colleen is starving and Meg is feeling like death.  As it is Easter Sunday, the food court is closed, MacDonald's is closed, everything is closed.  And we have another 45 minuteish metro ride back to Meg's place.  So we get there and Kalyn shows up.  The ham is done, so that is course 1.  The herby buns are done, so that is course 2.  The brownies are done next, that is course 3.  Then the brussel sprouts shortly follow, that is course 4.  Then we have about an hour and 20 minutes wait for the potatoes to be done so we use that time to decorate the eggs....time well used.  We got to see Dewey (Colleen's dog) and Lars (Meg's hedgehog) meet each other.  It was a wonderfully, eventful Easter Sunday. 

So with the end of school arriving, means the panic of the teachers getting everything in and done.  On top of all of that, we have the practicum stress.  I am waiting to hear back on three places that I had an interview at (one of them I don't think will be good as the public transportation to get out to the site is the same bus that the inmates take.....sounds fun and not sketchy......right....) And at the other interview, that I am pretty sure I bombed, one of the round of questions was about scenario type of questions, which I hate, but one of them was:  if a client started masturbating in front of you, what would you do? Seriously.....what kind of question is that.  I would hope that with experience and training I would be able to answer that question but not when I have never been in contact with people in a psychological setting.  It feels like we are set up to fail right from the get go.  I dislike it all.  As it stands - I am interviewless, waiting to hear back from 3, and not having a positive, bright future with it all.  Things are looking swell hahaha.  But I keep thinking positive and wishing/hoping/knowing that I will be getting an offer from a placement before the next semester.  So lets hope that will be the case. 

 

Oh, one last thing - I started a grass league for volleyball this past Wednesday and I have learnt a couple of things: 1) don't try to put contacts in when it is windy; 2) don't dive on a grassy, hilly, rocky ground and 3) be prepared to get weird looks when I am the only person in a tank top when everybody else is in hoodies and jackets. It will be a fun league though so that will be good to curb the stressfulness of school. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with family and friends!!!  Regardless of the school piled up and stress mounting, I hope to get some touristy things in.  This weekend is the Cherry Blossom Festival so that should be fun and exciting.  I miss and love you all!!!!!