Week 11

Veteran’s Day is one of those holidays that you don’t really think about unless your school or office is closed. Or if you’re in D.C.

There were a ton of things going on around town this weekend as veterans poured into the city from all over. A friend flew in from Nashville for a few days, so I figured that Sunday would be a great day to drag her all around the monuments and memorials to see what was going on! We’d stayed up pretty late on Saturday night catching up on Kid Nation online, so we didn’t quite make it out in time to see the actual ceremonies. We spent a while at the World War II Memorial, though, and it was so cool to see veterans and their families taking it all in. I guess the major attractions have all become part of the landscape for me since I grew up visiting a lot as a kid, so it was really neat to remember how meaningful these things really are. It was also pretty insane to see veterans there who are younger than I am. It blows my mind.

On Monday, we decided to hit another hugely important D.C. spot: The Wheaton escalator. Before you start laughing or thinking I must be really running out of things to do, it’s the tallest escalator in the Western Hemisphere. It’s seriously massive and takes 2 minutes and 45 seconds to ride, according to its oh-so-reliable Wikipedia page. We rode it up and down a few times to make it worth the trip out there. In case you’re completely intrigued and want to make your own pilgrimage, it’s second-to-last stop on the Red line towards Glenmont. You’ll only find one that’s taller, and it’s is all the way in Hong Kong. Bummer!

Things are still manageable on the work front. I realized today that I’ve only got about 15 days left of my internship, and I can’t believe how fast it’s gone! Things can get pretty intense around there, so we have to take some time out to have fun—Today was our Thanksgiving dinner, Arlington Refugee Services-style. There was turkey, but there were also some incredible homemade Ethiopian and Egyptian dishes because we have some unbelievable cooks among us (of which I’m definitely not one!). It was a great time to hang out and take a breather. Afterwards, it was back to business: Picking up winter coats from a coat drive in the big blue van, searching the internet and newspapers for job fairs, trying to sort out information for the annual report. All that. We’ve been notified of a few new families that will be coming in the next few weeks, so I hope I’m around to see them.

That’s all for now!