living in the district.

and by district i mean the district of columbia. d.c.

that's where i lived for about 3.5 months. my last months in the beautiful country that has captured my heart. fitting that it was the capital. 

my reason for living there: student teaching. was it everything i dreamt it would be. not in the least. in fact, i had a pretty difficult time there on lots of levels. 

trying to retell experiences from such a long period of time is not done adequately in one post. but i am giving it one post. so obviously it's a long one. and not at all adequate. 

first, a little ranting. 

i was extremely poor, having spent all my money road-tripping all summer, and if you can believe it didn't buy a single item of clothing (apart from 2 scarves) or shoes. i speak truth. so no shopping for me. it nearly killed me. 

student teaching in itself was a terrible experience. i think the whole concept is ludicrous. teaching in a classroom that is not your own and where you have no real control or power, having to adhere to the classroom teacher's rules and way of teaching, and yet expected to find and develop your own way of teaching and "taking over" the classroom for some odd weeks, "acting" as the teacher, teaching and disciplining kids that didn't know you a few weeks ago and who know you're not the real teacher. impossible much? and stupid much? or maybe that's just me? it probably was just me.

ok. rant over. for now. i actually did learn a lot. and learning is hard. did i have a bad attitude about it? yes. am i aware of all that this experience taught me? no. that will come later, i'm sure. over and over again.

my time was spent at miner elementary school in dc. 

of course i didn't ever remember to take a picture of this in the day-time. 

but the children. did i love the children? yes so much. most of the time. having a difficult time dealing with my first assigned mentor teacher (a story i might save for a much later post, when i can put the situation into a perspective that will yield constructive and mature discussion), i was moved to another (much calmer) classroom for the last few weeks. so i was lucky enough to get to know 40 some beautiful black 5th graders. and jorge. (who, btw, is also beautiful.) i might spend time later telling specific stories of the children and why i love them so, but the fact that i do love them is enough for now.

we worked hard on the hallway lines//one of the best pictures ever taken - look at those faces//i love this so much//oh the black kids. they sure had some moves.

perfectly captures the only student that made me cry at school. i both loved and hated this girl. no. not hated. i don't hate children. but she made me cry. in the bathroom. no one saw. maybe one day i'll share her story. love her though. a lot.

basically all my children in the cafeteria. many awesome black names memorized. wasn't hard at all (small lie).

at the playground - so cute//are these not some of the most beautiful girls you've ever seen?

and here comes some more ranting. this is written in complete bloody-beating-heart-in-my-hand-honesty: my last chance to find an american husband was dc. byu was over. my visa was expiring. i was leaving. and i had 3.5 months to find a soul mate. yeah yeah. laugh at my irrational brain. so, needless to say, i was a little desperate. not flirting-with-all-the-boys-desperate, just hoping-and-wishing-twisting-my-insides-and-quietly-crying-desperate, waiting for someone in the ward to notice me - the norwegian beauty of their dreams. their future wife and baby mama. but alas, this got me nowhere, and the more time passed, the worse i felt (and looked - let's face it, desperation leads to depression, which leads to decay), and the more bitter i got at the stupid, ignorant certain man i had chosen the very first time i saw him boys in the ward that didn't want to date me. so i started complaining. and occasionally skipping the last 2 meetings of church and every single ward activity. and that's productive. as well as extremely healing. so. major ward fail in dc. and that's that. no conclusion there (other than the one between the lines).

all of this i could obviously not anticipate as i arrived, early one morning into arlington, va. 6 am. the semester lay before me with hopes and exciting things laying in wait. i was excited. i was living in frickin dc. 

washington monument//vietnam war memorial//lincoln memorial//capitol building. (i'm noticing a pattern in my stance. does it maybe make me look skinnier?)

2 great men. abraham lincoln//martin luther king jr.

since i wish to become an american i figured i should have an in with the president. haha. lene, you so funny.

the next few days were spent exploring in the heat, food shopping at costco, and setting up my lair for the next few months.

i do miss this actually. however unnecessary it all was. cow blankie, rob pattinson, byu champions. oh the memories.

if it looks like i packed too much, i totally did. including most of, if not all, my children books (not knowing which grade i'd be teaching, i felt this act necessary. did i use a single one of those books? no. am i constantly learning painful and expensive lessons when it comes to packing (aka hoarding)? yes.), 3 pillows and a duvet, way too many shoes, and my cleaning supplies from my old apt. why you ask? idk. really, i don't know. most of this crap is currently stored with my angel of a friend, heather. if you wonder what happened to the cleaning supplies i reluctantly left them in the apartment. a tear may or may not have been shed. seriously, my mop has been with me since my very first apt at byu.

ok. it is now time to introduce the sunshine of my semester. what helped me through it all. my soft, funny, and true room mates. interesting combo, but it's what just came to me. ironically, my room mate situation was the one thing i didn't think i would be happy with in dc. yet. i wouldn't have survived without them. shalyn arrived first. then came joyce, rachel, heather, and finally megan. megan was my blonde, SoCal, insane room-room mate. and by insane, i mean insanely funny, hot, and with insane dance moves. i seriously don't have time or room (this is a lie) to explain all of them here, but tidbits will seep throughout this post and others in the future.

ready to get to know each other. we seriously experienced very little awkwardness. probably because we're all so mature.

because i am a very chronological person (can a person be chronological? well, i guess we all are..), i will retell the most important events (the ones i captured on camera) from the semester in a more or less chronological order.

starting with our first room mate dinner. (there is a great story about the fire alarm in our apt building, but i'll let heather tell it. as well as the duck salad story. i just can't talk about it quite yet.)

apparently there is a tv show called georgetown cupcake. or the shop is a part of a cupcake show. idk. i had never heard of it. but we went to dinner in georgetown so we wanted cupcakes for dessert. after i-phone searching for the place and walking for several blocks we arrived to a closing store. complaining loudly, heather got the attention of a gtcc (georgetown cupcake) worker, who found it in his heart to give 6 starving (lie) dc newbies 19 free cupcakes. we were extremely grateful. and they lasted 3 days. and were delicious.

it was a bonding experience to say the least.

the peanut butter ones were to.die.for.

the 10 year anniversary for 9/11 came quickly after our arrival in the nation's capital. and seeing that we lived only blocks away from a place of attack on that gruesome day, we went to the pentagon memorial. it was a special experience. a serene remembrance to the the innocents that died there.

then shalyn got her mission call. to chile. now, this girl surprised me time and time again throughout the semester. all of a sudden this awesome girl, a lot like myself (yes, i just referred to myself as being awesome) emerged. she listened to josh groban a lot in the beginning (but i like him, so that's ok), but then she busted out the real music, like eminem and lots of other rap/r&b artists i can't currently recall. but seriously, it was the best. she was singing/rapping all the time. and my favorite surprise: she loves black guys. almost as much as i do. many moments were shared between us as one spotted a beautiful specimen, got the attention of the other, and grinned like an idiot while raising the eyebrows up and down. it.was.the.best. needless to say, she came out of her shell, and i hold this young (she's like 4.5 years younger than me) beauty very dear.

so excited. this reminds me - i gotta write her.

when i was still really excited and hopeful about the ward (before the desperation truly surfaced) we went on a ward retreat to the woods of maryland.

and...hung out with each other. we were incredible at making friends.

bonfire turned dance party in the middle of the woods//rainy softball. aaaaall by ourseeeeelves...

but we also went to gettysburg, pa, so it was worth it.

i wish i would have read this book before i went there instead of after. (and this book.) it would have been more meaningful i think. still. an amazing place.

the cemetery was my favorite. we had an awesome guide//large battlegrounds. 

joyce was my outing buddy (not in a coming-out-of-the-closet kinda way) in dc. we went sightseeing rain or shine. when we went to eastern market it was shining. this is where i purchased my 2 scarves (which i love).

all i have to say about eastern market is: i am coming back when i have money. and buying mirrors, vintage leather bags, more scarves, dc photographs, and, of course, produce.

delicious breakfast in the form of maple, walnut french toast//scarves upon scarves//tomatoes//extremely desirable mirrors.

the first birthday we experienced was rachel's. rachel was the one i had the least in common with, of all the roomies. which, you know, is what it is. i spent the least time with her, but that doesn't mean that we didn't have good experiences together, or meaningful conversations. i appreciated her, and learned from her. and love her. i was seriously so grateful that i had such amazing room mates. because seriously, what are the odds that you will get along with all of your room mates (especially when there are 6 in one apt)? even the one i differed from the most i got along with. and i feel very blessed because of that. again, they helped me stay afloat.

as for rachel's birthday. we went to arlington cemetery, which is, one of the most amazing places i've been. it might be because it was early fall, a beautiful sunny day, and simply gorgeous, but i'm pretty sure it's spectacular year-round.

tombs//changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier//stones on jewish tombstones. 

at night we had a special sunday dinner and mouth-watering dessert. unfortunately, the day wasn't all that exciting for rachel - it was, in fact, the opposite. but we tried to cheer her up. i don't know if we succeeded. you know when you're sad sometimes nothing or no one can better your sadness. her birthday was celebrated nonetheless, and i remember it fondly. 

bday girl//all that were there that weekend//chocolate volcano of some kind.

the reason why i remember it fondly is probably because of selfish reasons. after dinner we dragged rachel to the playground (there's nothing like being coerced into doing something you're not in the mood for when you're in a bad/sad mood), where heather, joyce, and i had lots of fun, while rachel was one the phone, and eventually wandered back home.

on the playground we swinged (swung?) and climbed trees like we were children. and then joyce and i picked up a guy (ps: hot) playing basketball like we were teen-agers. it was a real fun time.

swinging like ze children//trying to get joyce down from the tree - it took a while.

oh. and then there was the time when joyce, heather, and i tried to find hot wardies mingle with the ward at a soccer game. fail. again we hung out with ourselves. losers much? but you know, we had fun. and that's all that matters. and joyce got to show off her new do (the bangs), even though no one of importance saw it.

the losers. but cute bangs.

we (some of us) had a real swell rs president who actually tried to take care of us poor, friendless student teachers, and took us out to eat a couple of times (by "took us out" i don't mean paid for us. i mean, she was swell, but not rich).

i sometimes think of her, and how she, out of the kindness of her heart (mixed with the duty of her calling), reached out to us. she didn't have to do that. and i know i wouldn't have. but i would like to would have. you know. the more i think about her, the more i appreciate what she did, the time and effort she spent trying to get to know us and making us feel like we mattered. her name is sarah.

dessert at a really neat restaurant in arlington that i don't remember the name of.

one of my favorite things that we did in our apt was weekly sunday dinners. we would take turns cooking a special meal, and kept it going the entire time we were there. it worked out great, and brought us closer together. it was kind of a family ritual. and we all know (if you've ever watched the news or read studies. or listened to general conference) how important family meals are. sitting together, eating, talking. it was good. good for us.

and can i just say. that i made a kick-a meal the first time i did it. i had found some recipes in my fave magazine, glamour, and was dying to try it out. which i did, mighty successfully. who wouldn't want to marry me? (soul mates in dc, that's who.)

yams, delicious salad with crispy cheese, and yes, that is a soda can in the chicken's butt. the recipe called for it. and guess what? it worked. like a charm.

halloween came early in 2011. i love halloween. obviously (referring to pictures # 107, 98, 72, 44, 11, & 10 (oldest pic being #1). halloween isn't halloween without an awesome and time-consuming costume. it had been a couple of years since i was scary for halloween, so i went with the classic zombie.

all done up//the trick: glue on the face, covered by toilet paper and then make-up//sue sylvester, goth, stick out much? zombie, beauty with no costume, halloween? idk.

although very home-made, it did earn me shared first place in the costume contest at the ward party some of us attended. i only went to show off my costume somewhere. all that work and not any publicity. couldn't happen. it was, however, not the same, since i hardly new anyone there. not that anyone recognized me.

but we came, we carved, we danced, and we went home. and i won. did i mention that?

joyce carving her first pumpkin ever//1. this is what i shared 1st place with? 2. lamest present ever: a bag of apples and a bag of caramels and a bag of shredded coconut. to share. lame//in the groove heather and happy as a clown shalyn. 

and then took some creepy pictures on the way home. to make the costume worth it.

zombie in the bushes//zombie on the sidewalk// zombie in the foyer//zombie on the phone in the elevator.

the prince of sweden came to miner. i know what you're thinking. this guy, right? well, that's what we all thought. me, the principal, all the drooling females at miner. but no. it was this prince of sweden.

extremely slightly disappointing, but still a real live prince. that i got to meet. along with a bunch of black, american children (and adults) that really didn't get how big of a deal this was. but they were excited. and the red carpet of miner was rolled out for the prince. needless to say, it was a whole-day party.

swedish people trying to connect with the dc children//waiting for the prince//waiting to eat with the prince.

the prince answered many interesting questions from the kids//eating with prince daniel//this is not the prince, but the swedish minister for health and social affairs - göran hägglund. but can you blame the students for asking if they were brothers? they look almost exactly the same.

pippi longstocking and a swedish viking in a shakespeare-inspired costume?//my student was lucky enough to be the prince's guide for the day//meeting the prince. he was seriously so nice. 

the day after the prince came we had "museums" at school. and this quadriannual tradition is a big deal at miner. every classroom is transformed with a theme and games or various stations dedicated to the theme and some form of educational learning. it's quite extraordinary. and off-the-chain chaotic. 

some people went all out. spending countless hours collecting shoeboxes to build a pyramid outside the classroom. 

this took weeks. at least mucho days. and hours hours hours. kudos. 

[ pause. a shout-out to euseung. this guy. drove with him to school every day. very entertaining. and more importantly, so kind and caring. he drove my mom and i to the temple when she was there, and not only that, took an extra trip into dc so she could see the school. and to watch the way he cared about the children and how he cares about teaching is truly inspiring. he gets it. 

plus. he helped me so much with boy advice. when i say helped, i really mean gave me advice, which i may or may not have followed, and which may or may not have worked (both to both is true), and he listened to me rant about my boy frustrations. time and time again. 

so thanks for everything, euseung. ]

my class had equatorial guinea, which i now know still very little about. (except that it's the only spanish speaking country in africa. i think.)

kids waiting patiently at the carpet for some food//decorating station//african princesses teaching about their country (not really their country).

but we did have a cool cafe in our classroom with "equatorial guinean" food. it was a raging success. and lots of fun for the kids. who worked really hard. for once. what?

preparing to make mini-muffins//vacuuming the cafe/classroom//cooking//eating//head chef cleaning up.

time for another joyce and lene outing. this time. rainy. but still fun. it was joyce's birthday, and we went to the natural history museum. which was the place most visited by me during my time in dc. not because i loved it the most, but because it's easy, free, and entertaining.

i met my relatives//obligatory kissing picture with the dino?//joycita y lenita.

that night we went to the cheesecake factory for joyce's bday dinner. it was fun. girl's night out. we (i) even went wild and ordered a virgin mojito. an act that may or may not have led to flirtation with the waiter, which may or may not have led to me voluntarily being peer-pressured into leaving my number and what may or may not have been a proposal for the mentioned flirtatious waiter on the check, which may or may not have led to him texting me right after, which may or may not have led to a date with him the next day, which may or may not have led to an make-out session innocent kiss in his car, which may or may not have led to another date, which may or may not have led to another session kiss, which may or may not have ended that which had no purpose in the first place.

what? just kidding...but not really.

virgin mojitos//one of my favorite pictures of my darling, megan//all the girls.

the only field trip my class went on (that i got to be a part of) went to the folger shakespeare library. they had representatives come to our class to teach them about shakespeare and eventually train them in rehearsing and performing romeo and juliet at the library. this month, actually. i wonder how it went. anyway, here are some pictures of my black babies.

waiting x4//boom! you just got shakespeared by some 5th graders. best expression. about to sneeze?

shalyn's birthday soon followed. and it was celebrated at an amazing place, introduced to us, so very graciously, by none other than our fellow (but married) student teacher, the incredible ali spittler. thank you. the place is: good stuff eatery. they have the most delicious everything. go there. we did. and we ate a lot. as is evidenced by the mountain of trash we left behind on the table. (actually, we probably cleaned it up.)

posing w trash mountain//love megs//eating angrily? ps: joyce was totally there too.

and i especially loved it, because, hello: cows and 'goodness gracious'.

i do say this often//"please take a picture of me with the cow!"

[ pause. let me take this time to write a little something about a very dear friend of mine, who i have now known for about 2.5 years. mrs. ali spittler. mentioned above. in our elementary education program cohort at byu i didn't really connect with many of the other girls. don't misunderstand that - i liked them all. but there was ali. (and mindy. but she didn't go to dc, so she will not be mentioned here more than just this once.) we connected. and seriously, she is my idol. she's such a great person, and i think has barely any bad in her. (the average person has a lot.) i look up to her so, and value our friendship more than i think she can know.

i hoped so much that she and i would spend lots of time in dc together. because i expected to not get along with my room mates, i planned on spending most of my free time with ali (which i am sure her husband, brian, is really glad didn't happen). but we didn't do anything together. this makes me sad to this day.

fortunately, i was at the same school as she during student teaching (ali, euseung, shalyn & lene = the miner gang), so i saw her every day, and we had some great bonding moments over teaching. and ali is yet another example to me of a dedicated teacher. she really gives it her all, and works hard to make sure she is the best teacher she can be. i want to be more like her.

this is like the only picture i have of ali from dc. (tear.)

ali during museums. her classroom for off the hook.

so ali. thank you for who you are. and your friendship. ]




once a week we went to my absolute favorite fast food "restaurant" in the entire world - that's right - chick fil a. omg. another semester saver for me. a memorable trip was the friday we went there first, and then went and saw breaking dawn, and then went to serendipity, the place with deep fried oreo sundaes. hello heaven. (literally, because you die of heart disease.) it was a good night in dc.

joyce and heather at chick fil a.

and then came probably one of my most favorite days in dc. it was just a happy day. again spent with my sunshine, joyce. it was the day we went to the zoo. it was fall. but it was sunny. and such a peaceful day. we just walked. talked. and looked at the animals. once in a while i'll just have a happy day (wow. that sounds depressing. once in a while i'll have a happy day.), and there might not be a particularly spectacular (say that 10 times fast) thing that happens - i'm just happy.

so thank you, joycita.

lovely fall day.

it of course helped that this lion just stood there, perfectly in his mufasa-pose, for a long time, making it possible for me to take some awesome pictures. me, and this lion king enthusiast.

classic.

and there were beautiful, glowy things too.

then came thanksgiving. and another ward function. by this time i was sick and tired. and literally sick. i caught a cold and lost my voice for a weekend. that made it really fun trying to have a conversation with the "really interesting" girls (oh, did i mention our ward was 90% girls. ok. more like 2/3 girls (this is the truth)? no? well, it was. goody.) across the table. all i could do was whisper. so i doodled instead.

i seriously do love ze chocolate men//willkommen//dolph.

[ this requires a break. a break to tell about the theme movie of our time in dc. most of the phrases doodled here (except the one about ze chocolate men - that's my own) come from one of three movies i ever quote, just go with it (the others being mean girls and twilight, of course). after my good friend and former (but at the time, current) roomie, sarie and her then boyfriend (now husband) casey introduced me to this movie at the provo dollar theatre that summer, i was in love. this movie is beyond hilarious. so i bought it on the cross-country road trip. then i introduced it to my room mates in dc and the rest is history. if i say we watched this movie every 2-3 weeks i would not be exaggerating. and so, naturally, we quoted it all the time.

so, watch it. laugh. read what we doodled on the thanksgiving table. and laugh. ]

source




break over. back to thanksgiving. we (the ones who didn't go to new york, namely megan, heather, joyce, and myself) cooked a delicious and huge meal and vegged out basically all break. it was glorious.

behold. the feast.

i was in charge of the turkey. and boy, was i in charge of the turkey//dessert table - we had like 4 desserts//so much delicious food.

the dc temple was visited less frequently than i would have liked, but i did go a few times. and the last time i went, i went with shalyn. it was lovely. as the temple always is. but especially because it was with shaytard and because there were christmas lights there.

love this pic//posing in front of the beauty at night.

my last haircut was in december 2011 (it currently does not look good.) and got celebrated by shalyn's first time in a real club. we had fun. like models always do. (it was ok.)

i like short hair. but miss the long hair. so it's coming back. plus. we look so hot.

the last birthday celebrated was dear old megan's. and let me tell you about megan. she had some thug-a high school student she would tell the most hilarious and terrifying stories about. and she had the oddest mentor teacher that she would tell the most hilarious and terrifying stories about. it was entertaining. but i obviously sympathized with her fright at the time.

and more often than i would have expected (considering her frightful days at the high school), but not often enough, megan flung the door to our room open as she came home from school, music plugged in, dancing like a maniac. it was the best part of many of my days. especially the first time she did it.

she.can.move.

i have since read/heard that dancing makes people happy and have danced like megan (obviously not like megan - she's the master), just letting it all hang loose (bruno mars quote). carefree-all-bodyparts-moving dancing. very liberating. and perfect for happiness seekers like myself.

so, thank you megan. and happy birthday.

we went to nando's//fave self portrait of joyce (of course i did self-portraits at every restaurant meal)//photo bombing the self portrait//these poses are hilarious. i am so glad we did them.

megan is a creeper//and then she's not. no bday complete without gtcc.

although i did switch to a much calmer and organized classroom, it didn't always look like this: students sitting, quietly, paying attention, raising their hands, participating. oh no. this was a special occasion. visitors from the embassy of the democratic republic of the congo. still. look how cute they are.

engaged. notice the congo flag//jam packed.

our mentor teachers took us out to eat towards the very end of our time at miner, and we had a really nice time. i have tremendous respect for these teachers that dedicate their lives to teaching these inner city kids. they are difficult to deal with, and come from horrendous experiences, which makes them sometimes nearly impossible to teach, but, yet, these people find value in helping them learn and succeed.

true examples of teaching.

ali, lene, shalyn, ms moore, euseung, ms roman, mr sowho, ms jones.

then came our last day of student teaching.

oh.happy.day. i was lucky enough to be rewarded with a party by both 5th grade classes, dosed by cards and gifts. flowers and cake. even speeches.

it was very touching. had i not been extremely tired from having spent most of the night getting gifts/cards ready for each student and teacher, exhausted from 3.5 months of student teaching hell, and overly joyed it was over, i would have cried. thinking about it now makes me moved. seriously, the students were so sweet. and all the girls cried in the bathroom and then ran and suffocated me with hugs. they were so cute.

and i am extremely sad that i will most likely not see any of them ever again. i seriously loved them so. and still do.

some of the wonderful teachers i worked with//my last 5th grade//my first 5th grade//being hugged by beautiful children - nothing better (except student teaching being over).

that night we went to the obligatory celebratory dinner. but we were so exhausted. so it wasn't very memorable. except for the best chicago style deep dish pizza (in dc) at uno grill.

exhausted and overly tired=really good sense of humor//probably my fave self portrait ever//rachel and i looking rather tired?

i seem to be the last one to leave. always. (maybe i will dedicate a whole blog post to this traumatizing issue of mine, but maybe not.) and dc was no different. one by one everyone left. but i got some quality time with two special girls. heather. and megs. separately. together would have been even better.

heather i had known as long as ali, because we were in the same cohort. and i am so glad i lived with heather. she is a ball of fluffy dynamite. she's so funny and thinks many people and things are funny. including me. so obviously i automatically love her. she's a really good friend. and she'll happily help anyone in need. but what i love most about heather is her positive and optimistic attitude, no matter how hard things get.

i would call her heatheroo. and she would call me lene.

hanging w nemo and his friends at the natural history museum//and of course our monkey "ancestor" friend//a shot of heather and the monument one cold cold night we ventured out. 

just flying at the air and space museum//taking pics of ourself - hot and cold ones//outside at night before we went to a movie and dinner - best date ever.

and then last, but not least. christopher bradshaw graced me with his company and helped me out as i left (in shock over still being unmarried and - a whole separate issue - leaving the u.s.) in ways that few people would.

this man's friendship will be exemplified in a future post about true friends.

i love christopher.

mlk memorial//my friend.

(this is technically last, but christopher drove me to the airport a few days after he came to see me, so he's 'last, but not least') a few hours before i left i went to miner for the last time to say a final goodbye to my babies.

it was bittersweet.

eating christmas lunch//jorge smiling?//being cute, gorgeous and beautiful.

and there you have it. my dc experience. was it what i had hoped? no. am i glad i did it? yes. do i value it? absolutely.

thank you dc. i will be back.

after all, my soul mate it still there.