Non-Profit Love

... Or How I Become a Envelope Sealing Expert

Thursday I went back to Habitat after the break for the holidays. Therefore I'm finishing/posting an old post about my dear non-profit-job. The grown-up-ish of my current two jobs is working part-time at Habitat for Humanity MoCo as the person who organizes all the Faith Team Builds and whatnot. It's fun.  Plus I get to sit at a desk = both fun-ish and grown-up. 

In addition to sending out copious amounts of emails, I also man a table at volunteer fairs and help at events. I've wrapped presents at a Barnes and Noble, bar-tended at the 30 anniversary event, attended college volunteer fairs, and gone to a children's mitzvah fair. A few weeks back I spent a couple of days working on a mailing with my boss and volunteers from Riderwood. [Riderwood is a retiree's utopia: huge campus of building with every level of assisted living, any club you could imagine, groups out the wazoo, shuttles to stores, and pretty much anything cool you could think up.]

War And Peace Marathon

Back in November I spent a day watching a marathon screening of War and Peace at the Russian Embassy. I spent the whole entire day because this was a screening of a four-part eight-hour Russian version. As a reward for sitting through all the way till the end we each received a pin, I've never been so proud.

Yes, I may have been more excited to get this button than my college degree, it was hard earned.  

Annie, Bernadette, and Bilbo

I went to see The Hobbit with my childhood neighbors and awesomesauce friends Annie and Bernedette last weekend. Super duper exciting. 

 

'56 Hungarian Revolution

... the flag with a hole in it

October 23rd is the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian revolution, so today I'm going to indulge my history-major-side. Junior year I did an Oral History project interviewing a man who fought in the 1956 uprising as a 15 years old. Part of why I find the Hungarian revolution so fascinating is I spent a summer with brilliant Hungarians, I adore Budapest, and my grandma's side of the family is Hungarian. But it's also fascinating because they were my age and even younger, because those two and a half weeks were epic, and because it's the type of story you hope will end well --even when you know the ending.

I hope it's more like a story and less like a term-paper,
because these people were amazing

In October 1956 Polish workers went on strike, an incredibly risky thing to do under a strict communist government. This inspired students at the Technological University of Budapest, they organized a simple protest walking along the Danube down to a statue of Bam - a Polish native and Hungarian hero who had fought in the 1848 revolution. The students created a list of 16 demands and as their protest grew and attracted more and more students and then workers and people from all over the city they went to the radio station to broadcast them.

Their demands were first off the removal of all Soviet troops from Hungary. Soviet forces had liberated Budapest and Hungary from Nazi forces at the end of World War Two. While it is a huge relief when someone gets rid of Nazis, it becomes worrisome when they immediately set up their own secret police in the same office building and people continue to disappear to the dungeons and death, with no sign that the troops have any plans on leaving it is not as acceptable.

The student's 16 demands listed free and legitimate elections open to all parties.

For the Love of Funny Alphabets

 This fall I'm taking Russian 101. Just for fun because I enjoy studying languages and have a slight obsession with funny alphabets. To be honest this is probably due to the fact that my real desire when-I-grow-up is to be Mara and overthrow evil-ancient-egyptian-pharaohesses by acting as a-double-spy-translator-bad-ass-chick-who-runs-around-bare-foot. Since these dreams of being an blue-eyed-ancient-egpytian-bi-lingual-secret-rebel will most likely never be a reality, I have to settle for attempting to be bi-lingual . . . or more actually jump at any chance to study a language that has a funny alphabet. Although I am miles away from fluent in anything but English, I very much enjoy my kindergarten-level-of-skill at sounding-letters-out-painfully-slow-to-attempt-to-read-words, because the fact that those foreign squiggles mean anything intelligible to me makes me happy.

Day of the Brave

The United Nations made October 11th international Day of the Girl, which is particularly fitting as the recent attacks on Malala has brought a more attention to the issues she has been writing about and fighting for since she was eleven. Because this girl so-freaking-amazing-awesome that she has been standing up to the taliban since she was barely double-digits-old. I pray and hope she and her classmate fully recover. It is impressive to see how powerful the ideas of this young lady are, that they're seen as a threat to the taliban. Malala is an epic example of what a dis-proportional-positive-effect educating girls provides for their community.

Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani blogger fighting for girls to be able to go to school 

the play is just a can of soup

... the audience is really the art

Last weekend we went to a see The Government Inspector at the Shakespeare Theatre Company (Not Shakespeare but really good anyway). This play-going all began when I needed to see a couple different productions for THET 101 at HCC. At one point in that theater class my professor mentioned that I should check out Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe when I was looking for a  monologue. I Googled it and loved the part of the play I found. Although I intend to, I've never actually read/ seen the whole play, but the portion I came across that someone posted is pretty great. Since it pops into my head at plays I looked it up again and decided to share it here too. [Googled it again actually and despite what Blogger might try to tell me that is in fact a word]

Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans

Out of Gas

A few weeks ago my best-ever-big-bro ran out of gas and I came to his rescue then made a bit of fun of him. As is my right as a lil-sister. However, it appears the gas-tank-karma-gods thought it would be funny to use this as a learning opportunity.

French the Llama

* Point of reference John Green has a YouTube
 channel with his brother Hank: Vlogbrothers
 lots of fans: Nerdfighters, and books: Looking for
Alaska, Papertowns, Will Garyson, Abundance
of Katherines, and The Fault in Our Stars = All very much awesome.

John Green was at the National Book Festival in DC last weekend. There were dozens of other authors, plenty of books and a couple of my oldest-dearest-friends there was well. But let's be honest, I switched work-shifts, changed plans with my brothers, and may have even sat-in-the-heat-for-nearly-three-hours, because John Green was there. As a nerdy-great-author-youtuber-fan-girl it was completly worth it.

John Green read the author's note and first few pages of Fault in Our Stars then spoke and took questions. Brilliant and fascinating as always. Here are some bits and pieces that I can remeber/ attempt to explain. He said it better than I do, so pretend that this is all coming from a professional-good-with-words-guy:

Lessons from Wildflowers

The field at camp = guns, bows and arrows, slingshots, tomahawks, campfire, flag, and games.
This field at night = tons and tons of stars, shooting stars, and the milky way.                                                         Photo Credit: L.A.Birdie

Being on staff at camp you learn a lot. Ten years of staff teaches you a whole-lotta-stuff. I can organize super-exciting games, or wash a few dozen dishes before the soundtrack to Prince of Egypt finishes, and I'm decent with a range of random weapons (though I still suck at tomahawk). With only a few prompts I could sing roughly 2gillion-hours of silly songs for campfires or van rides (to say nothing of the hymns). I've also got a good repertoire of skits involving good morals and/or dog pee. This summer's DaddyAndDaughter camp taught true fatherly love is expressed when wearing a lopsidedly-bedazzled-cowboy-hat. And every summer Mss. Posie/Cheif instills some of her wisdom and staff-isms in us, concepts like: "Hard fun" and "The night is a whole 'nother day" and "John-boy --What a man!"

Here (in no particular order) are some lessons of a summer-camp-staff-girl:

Showers are not entirely necessary. At a certain point you are coated in enough sweat, soot, sap, and dirt that being one with the earth simply ceases to phase you. Around that point you may be serenaded with "Little black things" more often, but right up until you really really smell bad (or rather smell worse than everyone else) showering is not entirely needed. Especially since jumping in a salty/chemically Pool/Ool is a nearly equivalent to bathing, right?  It rinses off poison ivy and leaves you less dirty, that counts for something.

To follow that up though, showering is a wonderful, blessed, exciting, rewarding thing to do every now and then. You never take a hot shower for granted at camp and any shower over 3 minutes is particularly gratitude-worthy. (As is an extra 7 minutes of sleep). Showers are few and far between, and the chance to shave your legs even more so, but that makes it one of the most amazing feelings when you can finally have smooth-non-tarzan-legs for a few days. Everything is more exciting at camp, even the everyday: hot showers, cold drinks, sleep, food, clean clothes, all those rare wonders we happy-dance for at camp. Real life could use a little more of that gratitude and excitement.

Camp is for the campers is practically a motto of staff. We hear and say it all the time as a reminder. It's simple, it's obvious, but it's also important. I've been a part of other ministries where this guiding principle seems to have been forgotten, where those they are suppose to serve were not the top priority, instead of being there for those they were aiming to serve the organization itself took center stage, or the staff, or a concept like "God's will". (And while I fully support God's will being central, you are not running a ministry for it, you are ministering to those who need your ministry.  If you forget that camp is for the camper, or your group is for the students, or your organization for those in need, it never turns out as well as it could.

"God Does Things" is painted above the door in the dinning hall at camp, three words to sum up why the staff subject ourselves to blood-sucking-bugs, nearly no sleep, very few showers, and endless piggy-back-rides when our backs and bodies would honestly just prefer a nap. Because at camp it is so much easier to see God do things. I've seen him do things the rest of the year too, but everything is more intense in the wilderness. Everything gets louder and you have more time to marvel at all that God does. The same God who lead the Israelites on dry land across the Red Sea and keeps campers safe playing in the creek, He provides comfort, healing, strength and courage, sends rain and rainbows. He does things.

Gopher Guts

 I got home from camp a week ago, so I've enjoyed a whole seven days of air-conditioning, internet, car, cell phone signal, regular showers, and not-waking-up-before-6:30am. Being home is quite snazzy, but there is a ton to miss about the land of mountains, creeks, french-braids, giggles fits, campfires, and campers
Every week of camp has tons of memorable, precious, exclamation-point-worthy-moments. Here are a few of the highlights from this summer. Ask me for more and I'll talk your ear off.

Adventure Course has pretty much always been my favorite rotations and now I'm one of the over-eighteens so I'm certified for the zip-Line. While I was in the crow's nest, one camper in particular was frightened to tears being so high. Talking her over the edge was incredible. Lots of deep breaths and each small step taken one at a time. Despite her nerves she held on to the tether tight and rode the zip-line. You could see her smile the whole way down. When I saw her afterwards she ran over and gave me a huge hug, she was beaming with excitement and pride. She was gushing, "Even my mom didn't think I would do that, cause I'm scared of heights! But I did it! I was so frightened but I did it anyways!" I love that camp is full of those moments when you learn you can do the impossible and that makes you mighty.

Tuesday in Turin

Friday in Florence

Non-zoomed-in-photo of the red roofs of Florence 

big brother's b-day

Happy Birthday to the bestest big brother ever!

He's got brilliant taste in women as well :)

It's my big bro's birthday and since he is super amazing so here are a few reasons why my brother is so cool. Since he's turning 27 (so old!) I've made a list of seven things, they're are in no order besides what I typed them up in:
--> Comic Nights! Wednesdays we have yummy food and new comic books released that week.  It's one to the things I miss about home, because it is so fun.
--> Shakespeare Plays! My senior year in high school we went to see Love Labor's Lost at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC. Since season subscriptions for young-people-who-don't-have-gray-hair are significantly cheaper we get to see lots and lots of plays (and we've even recruited more playgoers now ^_^) Recently  we even managed to skip the whole finish-eating-delicious-food-and-run-through-dc-to-the-theater-minutes-before-the-curtain-raises-thing. Although there was a certain charm to that as well.
--> Star Wars! I could practically recite all of the original (a.k.a. good) Star Wars films since they were to my brothers what LOTR was to me (a.k.a. a slight obsession when young). A foundation of lightsabers, spaceships, and the force is a good nerdy thing to have.
--> Ren Fest! Continuing the nerdy theme, my big brother (as well as most of his marvelous friends) not only go the Renaissance Festival, but also dress in impressive outfits. He owns not one, but two kilts now -cause he's just that cool. (Or perhaps the kilt salesman is just that persuasive)
--> Ireland! Continuing that kilt note, he is so fantastic that he not only invited me, but he also convinced our parents to allow me to fly out to Ireland and meet up with him to travel when I was only 15 and he was 19. It was very very grand. We saw a ton, had lots of fun, and only had one candy-bars-and-pop-from-a-train-station-vending-machine-dinner. Biking around Galway was one of my favorite days (Galway clearly made a great impression on me.)
--> Japan! A few years after Ireland, our little brother Aj joined us as well on a trip to Japan. At the airport and such they would ask if we were meeting our parents there or something, "Nope it's just the three of us" And the three of us had a super great time. Even with the uncanny ability of every landmark to be wrapped in scaffolding before we arrived, we found amazing things like a mountain with monkeys with our "Let's check out the interesting shapes on the map we can't read" strategy of exploring.

--> Europe! After my semester aboard in Rome, he flew out and met up with me in Paris. We had an epic trip stopping in France, Spain, Austria and Italy. Our adventures included lots of jazz clubs, yummy food, great sites, a Euro Cup celebration, and of course a good deal of scaffolding.   

Happy Birthday! I look forward to many more adventures this year! ^_^

Books I've Read

This year/since I arrived here I have read a handful of books. Which I wanted to keep track of along with a bit of what I thought of 'em. This is one of those things I want a record of for myself as much--if not more than-- I believe you will be interested/fascinated by what I'm posting, but nonetheless enjoy:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Such an amazingly beautiful, if significantly sad book. I've loved all of the John Green books that I've read so far (as in I own multiple copies of more than one of them so I can lend them to everyone I meet who hasn't read them yet.)   He manages to pull off a girl's perspective of the narrator impressively well for never having been a sixteen-year-old girl himself. I didn't mind that the characters are a little overly-witty-and-wise for their age, mostly because I enjoyed their wit and wisdom I think. Plus there are very few books that flow easily between using mathematical concepts and poetry. It's awesome.

 "Some infinities are bigger than other infinities."
This is one of very few books to have made me cry (repeatedly). Yet I fully plan on rereading it as soon as I get home to my sloppily signed paper copy. Added bonus here's John Green reading the first chapter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_vFvbfn9Fs


The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight By Jennifer
When John Green suggests books written by Nerdfighters I almost always go and get them on my Kindle then very mush enjoy them. This is one of those books and I did indeed every much enjoy it. I feel like this would be a perfect book for a long flight, because it was a fun fast read and largely because it centers on a couple who meet at the airport and get to know each other on the plane ride. Along the way to falling in love, they have some witty conversations and make clever observations and all. The narrator's point of view was slightly odd - maybe because I had just finished a string of books written first-person, but I kept getting a bit distracted when I realized it wasn't from her point of view. It wasn't that bad or anything, just lots of little wait-she?-aren't-I-already-in-her-brain?-oh-yeah-nope-not-in-this-book-moments.  In a lot of ways it felt almost like reading a movie, in that it was a very contained story - all taking place over the course of one of those can't-remember-the-last-time-you-slept-long travel days which overseas flights result in.  Although it's not classic lit or anything I would recommend it, especially to pass time in an airport.

The Paris Wife By Paula McLain
I was looking for something to read on my Kindle at the same time as I was planning my Paris trip so the title jumped out at me. Then I saw it was about Hemingway and his first wife, very exciting, because I'm trying to get my hand on A Movable Feast -- Hemingway's memoir about Paris (and still not having much luck on that front so far). I downloaded and started it the week before I headed to Paris at the beginning of the month.
It's one of those books where you start off knowing what's going to happen, as happy and in love as they both seem in the beginning, you know that Hemingway is not a guy famous for his long happy stable marriage. But it was well written and engrossing even if you know what's coming. McLain captures the artist-infested-wonderfulness of 1920s Paris, and Hemingway before he wrote anything of note, and the flappers who were "Decorative and unfathomable and all made of silver". I read it quickly and I really liked it, plus it made my trip to Paris even more exciting.



There's No Place Like Here  By Ceiclia Ahern
I've read Ceiclia Ahern's P.S. I Love You and Love, Rosie before and enjoyed both. Although she makes me feel like an under-achiever since she is not that much older than me and has published lots and lots of books including one that's been made into movie with very wonderful Scotish-pretending-to-be-Irish-men (not that we've watched P.S. I Love You multiple times since arriving here or anything, no that would be ridiculous, we wouldn't do that.)  I used the Amazon-Prime-Kindle-book-lending-deal-thingy to borrow There's No Place Like Here. It was fun to read a book set in Ireland right after arriving here. The geography of the cities and the late night trips to Super Macs were things I was becoming familiar with myself.  While the other books I read by her were firmly rooted in reality (and coincidentally also in letter writing) this one only takes place in hard-and-firm-reality half the time. The land of Here where everything from lost socks and earrings to people who were never found end up was quite interesting.

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins 
Continuing the theme of books written by Nerd Fighters, Stephanie Perkins released Anna and the French Kiss last year around Christmas and John Green recommended it (it was actually the first book I got on my Kindle).  Then this Christmas when I went to get a copy for a friend I saw she had published another book, so I got that too. I started it on the plane and I very much enjoyed it. Although I would say that I liked Anna a little bit more than Lola, but that most likely had a great deal to do with the fact Anna is set Paris and Lola in San Francisco, because Paris has a much more enchanting and romantic character and I've had the chance to visit the landmarks Anna explores. The boy-next-door is quite charming and little things like his hair puff and happy dance were cute nods to the Vlogbrothers. (DFTBA ^_^) His knack for creating gadgets sparks her to point out that "Just because something isn't practical doesn't mean it's not worth creating. Sometimes beauty and real-life magic are enough." Lola's quirks made her a little too charactery to be a really great character, but nonetheless I still very much liked the book. (I also really really like the fact that nonetheless is one word.)


Having read lots of great fun fast reads lately, my inner lit major decided I needed to balance that out with a Russian novel. So I've started Anna Karenina on my Kindle (it's much easier to carry around huge books when they are not in fact huge) So far I have read 3% and can keep about the same percentage of their names straight, but I'm also honestly enjoying it as well. It's got one of those famous opening lines: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." And my favorite books tend to have great first lines as well, what with "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." and "They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days." (or perhaps it's just the I like Daphne Du Maurier and she's got killer first lines)
I'll post about Anna Karenina whenever I manage to conquer it, along with whatever else I end up reading in the mean time. Books suggestions are always welcome (even ones that aren't from John Green). 

Paris for a Day

Last week I took a quick little WONDERFUL trip to Paris. The main reason was to see Rei, since Paris is about half-a-world-closer than Hiroshima.  And how much of an excuse does one really need to go to a city as great as Paris?

I played the oh-so-fun game of find the best plane tickets, and ended up with flights out of Dublin into Paris on Aer Lingus. It was not much more expensive and was much more convenient than Ryan Air.

CityLink's bus route map

My flight out of Dublin was at 18:10 (I switched my phone to military time so I would stop confusing myself, cause 18 does not in fact mean 8pm - very important). I took the CityLink bus literally across the country from Galway to Dublin-- such a cute tiny little country they have here. Only took about 3 hours from coast to coast and there was some very-Irish-looking-country-side to see.

Once I got to the Dublin Airport I went through their very-speedy-and-not-overly-serious-security. At my gate I got to watch the breaking news on the TV about a Mr. Goodwin who had just been stripped of his knighthood - scandalous!

It's a short flight, we got up in the air and had a great view of all the lights in Dublin at night, then the dark of the Irish Sea, then the night lights of London, then dark of the English Channel then pretty soon you could see the glow of the City of Lights. I stayed at The Oops Hostel again. When Jamie and I were in Paris after our semester in Rome we stayed at a couple different places, some of which were significantly sketchy, but Oops was really nice. The rooms are really nice, plus they have free internet and breakfast!

Rei and Masami 

Wednesday morning I took the green-ish-blue-ish-Metro-Line-6 and met up with Rei and her husband. It was really super-dupery-duper-wonderful to see Rei and to met her husband again. We got lunch at the Deux  Magots which is for 1920s Paris, what the Eagle and Child was for the Inklings -- Hemingway, Sartre, Picasso, and pretty much all of their crazy and talented friends were regular costumers. We enjoyed some amazing food and chatted about our regulars from work and such. Rei got to switch between English with me, Japanese to translate for her hubby, and French with the bow-tie-clad-fancy-French-waiters.

We then headed off to find Notre Dome, stopping into St. Germain's on the way. Walking along the Seine was incredibly cold with nearly-non-stop-freezing-wind, it was beautiful though and feeling your fingers and toes is overrated. Galway has generally been sweat-shirt-cold during the day, so the real winter cold of Paris where it snowed the night before was quite chilly. We looked though some shops and enjoyed Paris and catching up-- along with some Crepes ^_^

My dear Aubry got me a super awesome travel book, one of the sections entertained me with its fitting title:

This book already knows my adventures so well

Before I left I jotted down my confirmation numbers and metro routes and all, I wrote a little list of 

4 out of 8 ain't bad right? Just means it's a real adventure

things to do while in Paris. As I wrote said list I thought, "Well there's no reason I would deviate form this itinerary." Haha my brain is so cute sometimes.

It's all good though, cause the important things went really smoothly and the rest is the adventure of traveling. I had a book to finish and one to start on my Kindle, but then my darling Kinny decided to freeze up on me-- so that postponed a couple of the things I'd jotted down, not a big deal at all. I did: stay at Oops, eat crepes, make my wish, and see Rei so I got half of my list :)

The other things on my list were to go to the top of Notre Dome. However the entrance for the tower had this sign saying it was temporarily closed "Due to the climate". Then I walked over the bridge and found the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, however it was also temporarily closed that week because the owner had just passed away at age 98 after having run his bookstore since 1948.

Awesome bookstore which hosted just as many famous authors as Deux
Magots as well as passing writers who worked and stayed as well.
"Be not inhospitable to strangers
Lest they be angels in disguise"

Although I still haven't gone up the towers yet, we ended up getting to Notre Dome right before Mass began, which was really neat to see -- can't beat the smell of incense while you explore a cathedral. Unplanned details can be the best part of adventures.

After I parted ways with Rei and headed back to my hostel, I decided it was too early to go to sleep, but too late to wander the city by myself. So I went one of the multiple "Cinemas" on the Blvd Goblins near Oops. Though it was funny to watch an American movie with French subtitles, the theater was really nice and the tickets were cheaper than back home, which was nice.

In the morning I managed to get my train ticket to Charles De Gaulle airport despite the fact I don't speak French beyond "Merci", "Paris", and "oui" and the fact that French people say "CharlesDeGaulleAeroport" really really fast and not at all like we would pronounce it. I was pretty proud of my smile-and-apologize-and-speak-english-while-they-speak-french-communication skills. The rest of the traveling went well and was topped off with Irish pot pie and Japanese cookies on the bus ride back across country home to Galway.

Carthage College Choir and George's Mom

     Last night Star, and her roommates and I went to hear choral music at St Nicolas (the really old Anglican/ Church of Ireland church, really old= hundreds and hundreds of years).  The singing was wonderful and the old stone church was built with amazing acoustics.  First a choir from Carthage College in Wisconsin performed and then the local choir from Galway sang as well. The spirituals were the highlight, although Star and I were ridiculously excited when

George's monument 

the American choir sang Oh Shenandoah as their final song. (It was our theme song at camp in 2006 and so we got really excited when we saw it in the program, like excited-to-the-point-we-kinda-scared-star’s-poor-roommate-excited.)

St Nicolas’s is full of incredibly old tombs along the walls (and in the floors as well, which makes me feel slightly odd to walk across them). My favorite of the tombs is this one on the wall memorializing young George Fredrick De Carteret who was my age, 22, when he died in 1843.

ta

It's still a little hard to read, but this is the close up of what it says

I’m a history and literature major because I love stories. A lot. (I love people, they’ve all got stories!) The plaque has so many stories packed onto one carved stone scroll. His mother seems like the type that would be organizing MADD if she lived a century and a half later. And the verse she chose is not one of hope, or comfort, it’s just descriptive because it relates to young George’s mother as well. It also captures such a particular moment in the childless mother’s grief when the loss is overwhelming and “irreperarable”. Plus how many sentences warrant the use of a word as awesome as tempestuous?

Today I went to a coffee shop and enjoyed some tea, a chocolate muffin, and their free wifi. As well as worked on the job seeking and all. Shop street was fun since it was bustling with people and street musicians (who have an impressive balance, I’ll get a picture next time I pass them, really I will).