Overcoming the Sniffles

I've been battling a terrible cold for nearly a week, bleh.  Nonetheless, I forced myself to get a lot of work done from my bed, and even managed to drag myself out of the apartment for a bit of fun.  (Oh, the wonders of Dayquil!)  I'm feeling somewhat better today, thank goodness.

The human rights fact-finding report is coming along nicely.  After a major restructuring, our second draft is nearly complete.  I love the work that we are doing, and am so excited for our report launch on March 25!  There's a lot of work to be done between now and then, but I'm feeling good about it.

On Friday afternoon, after I got out of a make-up class, I spontaneously decided to go to the movies.  I had been dying to see The King's Speech, so I took the bus over to a somewhat run-down little theatre in Shirlington and watched it.  The theatre was almost empty, which could either be due to everyone on the planet having already seen it, the odd hour of the day (5:30 pm on a Friday is a bit early), or the dilapidated state of the theatre (especially the concessions--cold popcorn and warm soda, yum).  I really enjoyed the movie.  Colin Firth was brilliant, and I loved Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue.

I spent most of Saturday sleeping and working, but did manage to go out for a birthday party.  It's a funny story, actually...  For my birthday dinner last September, my dear friend Matthew decided to take an outrageously long bus ride all the way from Boston to attend, because, well, he had the time!  Matthew asked if his friend Camille could also attend, so that he could see her as well during his brief DC visit, and I was happy to have her come--the more, the merrier, as they say.  Well, things did not go exactly as planned, and Matthew's bus was delayed, such that he missed the dinner.  However, Camille made it, and we had a delightful time meeting for the first time at my birthday party!  It was a rather amusing way to meet someone, and we've run into one another since then at a Catholic young adult event in the city.  So, to reciprocate, Camille graciously invited me to her birthday party, which was Saturday night!  It was a costume cocktail party, with delicious hors d'oeuvres and fantastic outfits.  There was a 1920s theme, but I don't own a flapper dress or appropriate flair, so I decided to go as a reporter, which was a great hit!  I made a press pass to tuck into my fedora, and wore a vest and slacks, with a pencil and pad of paper as props.  It was nice to hang out with a bunch of people who weren't law students for an evening...  Sometimes, it's easy to forget that not everyone thinks and acts like a law student.

On Sunday, I pretended that I wasn't sick and went to school for a fact-finding meeting followed by Mass.  Then, I went home and slept and did work until heading over to Brad and Marie's for an Oscar viewing dinner party!  I made Bailey's Dark Chocolate Pudding for dessert, which is amazingly decadent.  Brad and Marie made a wonderful dinner (as always), including bruschetta, a fifteen bean soup, veal, and Brussels sprouts.  One couple who attended the party brought their adorable 10-week-old son, who was wearing a little raccoon onesie--so cute!  It was a lovely evening, and my first Oscar party.  It even made me want to watch more of the movies--especially Black Swan and The Social Network.

This week is going to fly by.  Speaking of flying: on Saturday night, I am flying home to California for Spring Break!  Bay Area kids, let's hang out...

Presidents' Day Caper

With my long weekend for Presidents' Day, and Chris in town, the past few days have felt like a vacation.  Chris has been to DC before, so we were able to do a lot of cool things slightly off the beaten path of tourists, including four things that were on my DC To Do list (at right).

We began our Saturday at the National Archives, and then walked a few blocks to the Old Post Office Tower.  The observation deck afforded us an excellent view of the Capitol from 270 feet:

However, it was extremely windy, with gusts of 50 mph, which was pretty intense:

After lunch, we walked past the White House to the Renwick Gallery.  On our way, we saw part of Saturday's Libyan protest.  At the Renwick Gallery, we perused an eclectic collection of paintings, and saw the Ghost Clock, which is truly incredible:

It looks like a grandfather clock with a sheet draped over it, right?  And yet, it's so much more.  Wendell Castle sculpted this entirely out of wood!  It was so difficult to tell that it wasn't cloth, even when examined closely in person.  Very cool.

We rounded out our Saturday evening at Co Co Sala, a "chocolate lounge and boutique," for a DC Cal Alumni event.  We chatted with older Cal alumni and sampled chocolate cocktails and desserts.  I had an "MMM Melted Milk Martini," which consisted of Svedka Vanilla vodka, Bailey's, and malted chocolate, while Chris tried the "Co Cojito," with chocolate infused vodka, fresh mint and limes, and dark chocolate flakes.  We also had three-course "dessert experiences," which were intense and delicious.  My favorite thing was the "Chocolate Onyx," which was a decadent brownie-like dessert with dark chocolate mousse, vanilla crème brulee, salted caramel, and crispy chocolate pearls.

On Sunday, we attended Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and walked through the dozens of beautiful side chapels.  We then had an amazing brunch at the historic Old Ebbitt Grill, which is across the street from the White House and has been frequented by a number of presidents and other important DC figures since 1856.  I was blown away by the Grand Marnier French Toast, which was absolutely perfect and delighted me with its hazelnut butter.  Although the wait was half an hour to get in, we were able to sit at the oyster bar and order from the full menu with no wait.

We spent Sunday afternoon at the National Museum of American History, and then attended a free concert at the National Gallery by the Vivaldi Project.  The line to get in was incredible, and I think we were some of the last people allowed in to the limited seating area before they cut off the line.  The theme of the performance was "Venice: Vivaldi and His Rivals."  I have to admit, the Baroque period is not my favorite era of classical music, but I nonetheless enjoyed the opportunity to compare so many composers in one sitting.  My favorite piece was definitely Handel's Trio Sonata no. 7 in F Major.

Monday was Presidents' Day, so we went to Mount Vernon to celebrate George Washington's birthday! I have been to Mount Vernon at least half a dozen times, but every visit brings me additional joy--I am even a card-carrying Friend of Mount Vernon!  For Presidents' Day, Mount Vernon was free to the public, which made for a very crowded plantation.  The opening festivities included Miss America singing the National Anthem, and awesome presentations by the Old Guard Fife & Drum, including military demonstrations:

After we toured the house and the grounds, we returned to the Bowling Green for a "surprise" birthday party for George Washington, organized by Martha Washington and Dr. James Craik (Washington's good friend and personal physician, as well as the Surgeon General of the Army):

The birthday party involved more from the Old Guard Fife & Drum, as well as the presentation of several birthday gifts, such as coral, new spurs, and a cane (which Washington tried, and failed, to insist was merely a walking stick).  Washington and Dr. Craik also taught us the correct lyrics to Yankee Doodle, explaining that the lyrics that we all know are very insulting.

On Tuesday, Chris and I began the day with tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  It was worthwhile, and we got a preview of the new $100 bill being printed.  Here's Chris with a million dollars in $10 bills:

After the Bureau, we checked out the U.S. Botanic Garden, and had some buffalo for lunch at the Mitsitam Cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian.  We rounded out our exploration with a visit to the National Building Museum, which has a lot of cool exhibits.  Alas, we didn't have much time to see everything, but we did see an exhibit on the design of the World Fairs, and a great little exhibit on LEGO architecture!  There were some great buildings on display, including San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid:

We also had an opportunity to play with LEGOs at the end of the exhibit.  Chris made an abstract structure, and I was inspired by the Campanile:

All told, I am confident that Chris and I saw more in a weekend than many of my classmates have seen in three years  (see more photos here).  It was a welcome change of pace to take a few days off from work.  There's a lot of work to be done between now and Spring Break in a week and a half, but I'm feeling recharged!

Step Back, Doors Closing

It was Thursday night.  I hustled down the escalator at Gallery Place - Chinatown, the Metro stop I take to get home from the law school.  My journal meeting had gone just past nine o'clock, and I was trying to catch a train that would get me to the Pentagon bus terminal in time to catch the ART 87 bus, which would get me home in time for my book club chat.

Drat, the next yellow line train wouldn't be there until 9:25.  I pulled out my iPhone 4G, my big Christmas present from my family, to text Cindy that I would be a few minutes late to our chat.  I then began to read my email, which can accumulate to unmanageable levels if I don't stay on top of things.  Ooh, an email from Chris about his visit!  I started to type out a response, and before I knew it, my train had arrived.

I boarded the train, still typing, and sat down by the door since there were two seats available--one for me, one for my gigantic backpack, weighed down with my laptop, two textbooks, the Bluebook, and various other things that I need to function as a law student.  The intercom ding-dinged, and a familiar, polite, female voice told me for the thousandth time, "Step back, doors closing."  I settled in for the 12-minute train ride and kept typing.  The train conductor announced the next station, "Archives - Navy Memorial."  That's when it happened.

Just as the train doors opened at the station, a man ran up from behind me and snatched my phone right out of my hands and sprinted out the door.  I shouted, "HEY!" but before I had time to even think about how to react to the theft, another man from the train bolted after the thief, in an apparent attempt to apprehend him and save my phone.  I grabbed my backpack and ran out of the train after the two of them, but they were both unencumbered by backpacks, and made it up the first escalator much more quickly than I.  I reached the top of the escalator just in time to see the thief leap over the ticket barrier to the Metro station and continue running toward the second escalator to the street level.  Without hesitation, my would-be hero followed suit, vaulting over the barrier with ease.  I fumbled for my SmarTrip card and quickly paid for my short train ride, hurrying up the second escalator after the two of them.

It was at that point that I noticed a third guy had gotten involved with the chase.  The station had three escalators, two going up, and he ran up the escalator next to mine and beat me to the street level.  By the time I reached the street, the scene unfolding was intense.  It seemed that the thief had outrun my hero, who was instead confronting the third guy, who turned out to be the thief's buddy.  My hero had pulled out his phone to take a photo of the third guy, who started shouting and maybe pushed him away.  I stood a few steps back, unsure what to do, when a fourth guy got involved, pulling a gun.

I reeled back, saying, "Whoa, whoa!" in a hushed attempt to diffuse the situation.  The man with the gun then pulled out his badge, revealing himself to be an off-duty DC Police officer.  His wife and four-year-old daughter stood near the entrance to the Metro, petrified.  The officer took control of the situation, separating my hero from the accomplice, until the Metro Transit Police arrived a few minutes later.

I thanked my hero, who, incredibly, was berating his failure to catch the thief.  "I'm so sorry," he kept repeating, "I'm a distance runner, not a sprinter."  We chatted for a while as the police interrogated the accomplice, waiting for an officer to take our statements.  I learned that my hero was an FBI agent who had moved to DC about four months ago.  I thanked him profusely for his attempt to apprehend the thief, and we discussed how no one else on the train, on the platform, or on the escalators had gotten involved with the chase.  There were dozens of people who might have intervened, but only my hero had overcome the instinct for self-preservation and taken action.  I marveled at his boldness.

We gave our statements, and I received some information about how to get the police report in five working days.  The officers chatted with us, and it turned out that one of them was from Livermore, California.  When I told him I was from Sunnyvale, he not only knew the city, but recollected that there was a good Chinese restaurant in downtown, but he had forgotten the name.  "Tao Tao?" I offered.  "Yes, that's it!" he replied excitedly.  We all laughed at the coincidence of having met in DC, so far from the Bay Area.

The police gave my hero and I free entry to the Metro--apparently being robbed or trying to run down a thief merits a free ride.  We boarded the yellow line train, and chatted.  I got off at Pentagon City, over an hour later than I had anticipated, and took a cab home, the last ART 87 bus of the night having departed long ago, and the next 10A bus not arriving for ages.  I mused about all of the things that could have gone differently to avoid the situation: I could have borrowed Jess' car to get to school (she was out of town), my journal meeting could have gotten out sooner, I could have jaywalked at 5th St. NW, I could have stood on the escalator instead of walking down it, I could have walked to a different part of the train platform...  So many events had to coalesce just so to result in the theft, and yet, there we all were.

Moral of the story: don't have your smartphone out when you sit close to the door late at night.  The Metro has been warning us about this common crime for a while.  I am usually very aware of my surroundings and put my phone away if I think there's a risk, but I didn't detect an unsafe situation when I boarded the train that night.

Whirlwind

It has been a whirlwind start to the semester.  On top of my course load, I have been doing a lot of work for the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy, and my human rights fact-finding mission just finished the first draft of our report.  This work has taken up so much of my time that, lately, I've been wishing for more "free time"--not to go have fun, but simply to have time for both homework and sleep.

Fortunately, things should be slowing down a bit soon.  I am really looking forward to this weekend, because we get next Monday through Wednesday off for Presidents' Day, and my dear friend Christopher is coming to visit!  It will be so lovely to take a few days off from the frenetic pace of the semester to live the life of a DC tourist while knocking off a few items from my DC to-do list.

Before we get too far into the semester, I wanted to take stock of my classes.

Family Law II: Georgetown Law splits family law into two courses: marriage and children.  I'm taking the class on children.  It's been very interesting so far, to think about the rights of children, paternity/maternity issues, how to define parent, and financial responsibility.  While I don't anticipate working explicitly in family law, I know that many of these issues will be relevant in any public interest career, so I'm glad to be getting an overview.

Immigration Law & Policy: I am really enjoying this course.  It feels a bit strange to have waited so long to take this course, given that this is what I want to do with my career.  Indeed, I find that between my internship with the Arlington Immigration Court and the other courses I've taken, I already know a lot of the material.  Nonetheless, it's nice to have all of this information presented in a coherent matter.  Plus, our professor is very passionate, and we have a lot of great policy discussions.

Law & Development: This course is not what I was anticipating.  I thought we'd be looking at how developing nations use the law to develop.  Instead, this is basically an economics course.  Seeing as I majored in International Political Economy, everything covered so far has been a rehash of things I learned in undergrad.  Hopefully this is just setting the framework for the course, and we'll get into development policy issues soon.

Non-Profit Organizations: I was also surprised by this course.  It is a lot more technical than I expected.  It feels like my Corporations class from last year, but looking at the formation of 501(c)(3) organizations.  Yet, it's not a tax class--there's a different course that looks at 501(c)(3) status.  Although the material is a bit tedious, I think it is good to understand the laws governing the operation of non-profit organizations, because I will most likely be working for non-profits in my career.

Fact-Finding Seminar: This is a continuation of the year-long seminar for my human rights fact-finding mission, but we don't meet very often as a class.  We've broken up into two teams--report writing and advocacy--and I'm on the report writing team.  It will be exciting to get feedback from the advocacy team on our first draft!  It was a great feeling to meet last night to take a look at our compiled first draft, which is 47 pages long, single spaced.  We put in a solid amount of work, and I'm pleased with the results.

Gallimaufry of Gallivanting

Hey, gang!  It's been a while.  Here are the highlights from the past six weeks...

• It was nice to be home for Christmas with my family.  Christmas presents included a new iPhone 4G (soooo awesome) and a Brian Wilson jersey with a World Series patch.
• My brother Dan and I went to the UC Botanical Garden and roamed the streets of Berkeley.  I hadn't been on campus in ages; it was nice to be back.
• I saw some good friends from high school and Cal, which involved a lot of board games and restaurant outings.  For example, Alan and I played an outrageous game of Scrabble with FOUR bingos, fueled by bottomless cappuccinos at Denny's.
• I spent a week in Kingston, Jamaica, doing human rights research on the deportation of persons with mental disabilities.  It was an extremely productive trip, and I'm really excited to write up the report and do advocacy with my classmates!  Also, Jamaica is beautiful, and I would like to go back soon to actually see the island instead of spending 16 hours a day conducting interviews and typing up notes.
• Classes started.  I'll talk about my schedule in a separate post, but suffice it to say that school is a lot more manageable when one is not also doing an internship.
• I took advantage of DC Restaurant Week by hitting up two delicious restaurants: Acadiana and the Capital Grille.
• Jess and I went to the symphony at the Kennedy Center, and now I am in love with Beethoven's Triple Concerto.  Go listen to it!
• I went to the World of Pets Expo with Jess and her friend Ekat, which was entertaining.  The best animal there was definitely the sugar glider.  Sooo adorable, and completely willing to live in your pocket.  I want one!
• On our way to the expo, we stopped at Sonic, because neither Jess nor I had ever been.  It was delicious.  I am a huge fan of tater tots, and I cannot begin to express the awe-inspiring nature of the Red Velvet Cheesecake Blast.

That's all for now.  I left out the part about me working a lot and staying on campus really late almost every night, but, hey, I'm in law school, so that's implied.

Respite Draws Nigh

Who would like to join in on a holiday revival of Still Thinking, the ever-popular virtual book club?!  We haven't chosen a book yet, so head on over and post your suggestions for a good book to read and discuss over break.  Kudos to Cindy for getting the ball rolling.

In other news, I have a final exam today (International Law of Labor and Employment), all of my papers are due tomorrow, and I fly home to California on Saturday!  In the meantime, Jess and I have had a few sanity-sustaining study breaks, including the National Symphony Orchestra Pops holiday concert, a screening of the delightful movie Tangled, and a game night featuring Scrabble and gin rummy with our friend Gabe.  (Yes, I won at Scrabble.)

Also, it has been very, very cold here as of late.  The wind chill is just awful, bringing temperatures down near zero!  On my walks from the law school to the Gallery Place - Chinatown Metro station, it's been so cold that breathing is painful (thank goodness for scarves).  I never thought I'd be hoping for the temperature to get up to freezing.  At least we might get a couple of inches of snow today--snow is pretty.

I'll Be Home for Christmas

I'm in the midst of finals, but all I can think about is coming home for Christmas.  Two papers, one exam, and ten days to go...