Sunday: Snail Soup
As a part of DC's annual Restaurant Week (during which you can eat at fancy restaurants off of a prix fixe menu), I went to 1789, a restaurant in Georgetown. I had a snail and broccoli soup, steak, cauliflower au gratin, and a brandied cherry chocolate cake. Delicious!
Monday: King's Cake
I traveled by Metro all the way to Maryland for cake! King's Cake, that is. Catholic Forum decided to give out free King's Cake for Mardi Gras, but the nearest bakery offering King's Cake was 25 miles away in Rockville. The most difficult part was Mike and I each carrying four cakes on the mile-long walk back to the Metro station in 35-degree weather with 40-mph gusts of wind. I am still amazed that neither of us dropped any cakes.
Tuesday: Obama's Address
I enjoyed watching President Obama's address to Congress. For one thing, it's always exciting for me when something is going on at the Capitol, because I live a half-mile away, which is just ridiculously cool. Also, I was thrilled to see Justice Ginsburg there, in light of her recent pancreatic cancer surgery. She is so tough! I think my favorite sentiment from Obama's speech was what he had to say about education: "And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself; it's quitting on your country. And this country needs and values the talents of every American." Absolutely.
Wednesday: Ash Wednesday
Lent is my favorite liturgical season, so Ash Wednesday always means a lot to me. I went to Mass at the National Shrine, which was beautiful. I am dust and to dust I shall return (Genesis 3:19). Amen.
Thursday: Uncertainty
I went to Professor Goldberg's inauguration as a new endowed chair for law and religion on Thursday afternoon. I had Prof. Goldberg as my Constitutional Law professor last semester, and he was fantastic, so I was very curious to hear his address on "The Book of Job and the Role of Uncertainty in Religion and Law." The take-away point was that, just as there is much uncertainty in our understanding of our relationship with God, so also must we embrace the uncertainty of the law. It takes the quintessential question of Job--why bad things happen to good people--to the next level. And, here I thought that going to law school would increase my knowledge of the law, rather than increasing my awareness of how little I really know. Go figure.
Friday: Dodgeball
I participated in the annual Georgetown Law dodgeball tournament with some friends from my section. I was a bit dubious about joining the team at first because I had never played "real" dodgeball before, but my teammates allayed my concerns by pointing out that all I really had to do was, well, dodge the ball. (We played by the National Amateur Dodgeball Association rules, in case you were wondering.) My team actually won its first round, which culminated in a spectacular show of force by Brad, in which he single-handedly eliminated the four opponents that he faced alone at the end of the second match. Truly, the stuff of legends.
Saturday: Library of Congress
I got to check off another item from my DC to-do list: getting a Library of Congress reader identification card! You have to go to the Madison Building to register for the card, and then you're allowed to go into all of the Library of Congress reading rooms! How cool is that?! Very cool, let me tell you. Well, before studying at the Library of Congress main reading room (in the Jefferson Building; see photo below), I decided to check out the Law Library of Congress reading room, since it was also in the Madison Building. Boy, was it ugly. I will never study there again, unless I legitimately have research needs that take me there. Also, if you ever want to see the most intense people on Earth, check out the people who show up at the Law Library of Congress on a Saturday morning. Wow.
Anyhow, after a break for lunch and a brief promenade around Eastern Market, I headed over to the Library of Congress main reading room. I had to go down a series of hallways marked for "Staff and Researchers," which eventually led me to the cloakroom, where I had to check basically everything except for my reading materials. Then, one flight of stairs, another hallway, I signed in, nodded to the security guard, and... I was there! It was breathtaking. I tried not to stare at the ceiling too much while I was there because I didn't want to look like a newbie, but I failed miserably. Oh, well. It was so exciting to be in the largest library in the world, studying hard, President Obama's words echoing in my head:
"In a global economy, where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity. It is a pre-requisite. [...] It is our responsibility as lawmakers and as educators to make this system work, but it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it."If that isn't motivation to work hard as a student, I don't know what is.
The Library of Congress main reading room. How cool is it to study there? Very.(Photo courtesy of Urch.)
