Trip to Washington, DC
During the weekend of January 18 through the 21st, I made plans to go visit my friends and BVS unit members in Washington, DC. Ever since I decided to come to the east coast for my BVS project, I always wanted to go back to DC. The first time I was there it was 1995 and I went with my NJROTC Unit. I can recall that I had a great time over there and it made me want to return in the future. Now, the opportunity to come back was knocking at my door and everyone knows that I always answer it.
Because my BVS project is in New Windsor, Maryland, I knew that eventually I was going back to DC for a visit. Two reasons that made that possible was the fact that is only two hours away. All I need to do was make it to a Metro station center and then just let the Metro take me where I needed to go. The second reason is some of my BVS unit members are serving in DC that gave me a reason to go and also a place to stay when I decided to go.
So there I was in New Windsor, having already spent 5 months here and haven’t made my way there yet. I guess I needed motivation to get my ass there and I got it. One of my unit members, Jillian Baker was serving there in DC just until she was able to go to her first choice in project, Latin America. Jillian is one my best friends in my unit and I wanted to see her before she left. I knew she wasn’t going to retreat so to me that was my motivation to go when I did.
I emailed Jillian and made arrangements for me to come down. She was living with 10 other people, most are BVSers, and most from my unit. The house approved of me coming down for the weekend and so my return to DC was happening. I had a good friend of mine here at the center, Dave Huber, give me a lift to Shady Grove, the nearest Metro station around Friday evening. It took about an hour for the metro to drop me off at Eastern Market, the place where Jillian picked me up at. I was a little worried that it was going to take longer than it did because I never been on the metro around here before. When I came off the metro, it was on and I was officially back.
Like I said above, Jillian picked me from the metro station and we walked to Subway to get some food and then we headed for the BVS house. When I first got there, Jillian gave me a tour of the 3-story house and I greeted the house members. I was so looking forward to seeing Rianna, Simon, Thomas, and Danielle again. I was also looking forward to meeting the other people that I don’t know. Jillian showed me where I was going to be sleeping at I chilled down there for a few minutes. Then came back up and visited Simon. The cool thing about coming down the day I did was it was Simon’s 21st birthday and they were all going out to celebrate it. I felt really going about going out on Friday, because it was the first Friday night that I went out and hung out with friends my age since orientation. The first thing we did was go to this sushi restaurant and had a little sushi. Then we walked a bit to this bar that had 3 floors to it. The bar was pretty cool; however I am not a big fan about hanging out at bars. If I am going to be drinking, I would rather do it from my house of other people houses. I made an exception this time because I was chillin my unit members and it was something that I needed to do since I feel like I am all by myself here at New Windsor. Don’t get me wrong, I love New Windsor, but every now and then I have to do something like this to keep me sane. Danielle, Jillian, Ulrich and I left early around 1:30am where the others stayed and kicked it until like 3 am for something. We came back to the house, and I finished the rest of my subway sandwich and crashed after that.
The next day, Jillian and I had planned on going site seeing. She had been meaning to make her rounds and visit all these places when she got to DC, but hadn’t yet. This was a great opportunity for her to do this because she was leaving in a week. She let me know ahead of time that she wanted to do this and I was with it because I wanted to revisit a lot of these places myself. The first thing we did was go to the Capital. I didn’t like going through all the security but nonetheless it was fun. We had a tour and we seen so many cool looking things that I had to take a lot of pictures of. It was great to hang out at the capital because that is the building that comes to my mind when I think about DC. The next place we visit was the Library of Congress. I enjoyed being in there because the building had a lot of history built into it. The building had style and it gave me ideas on what I can do for my next web projects. That is something that I took from the Library of Congress: ideas. After that we had lunch and ate tat this Mexican burrito place. After lunch we headed back to the house. Now I forgot to mention that the house members do not have a vehicle. They either walk or take the metro. When Jillian and I went to the Capital and Library of Congress, we took the metro and we walked a while. By the time we got back to the house I was ready for a nap. My back was pretty stiff and I just crashed for about an hour and a half. Jillian and I wanted to go to one more place: The Washington Monument. We took the metro there and walked about a mile to get to the monument and when we got there, there was a line of people ready to take the elevator up to the top of the monument. When we made it up there, I spent time taking pictures of what DC looked like from the top of the monument. It was cool, I really enjoyed myself. After about a half hour of exploring, we decided to walk all the way back without taking the metro. It was a walk that I won’t forget. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I was wearing my tennis shoes, but I was coming to DC thinking that they had a General Board van like Elgin does. Unfortunately I was wrong. I had to walk in my black shoes my father likes to call “mud clutters”. We came back and the chilled the rest of the night. Thomas, Jillian and I watched a couple movies that I brought, Ratatouille and Transformers. It was cool watching Transformers with Jillian because she would talk shit about most of the scenes of the movie. She says that Transformers is the type of movie that she would make fun of. Of course I have a different opinion on that. After the movies we all crashed.
On Sunday, we all just kind of kicked it, Thomas and I spent like the whole day watching movies and just chillin. We went out for lunch. He went to this Chinese restaurant and I went back to Subway. We came back and watched another movie. During the evening though everyone wanted to go to the Banana Café, their place they like to kick it at. To me that was exciting because it was another opportunity to hang out with everyone. The Banana Café is a two-story place. Downstairs was the restaurant where we all had dinner. After our dinner, we went upstairs to the bar and we did some karaoke. Now this was a kick it place because it was a Sunday with Monday being a holiday and the place look like it was dead. There were two guys at the bar, a few young girls doing singing and us. That was it, which made it real comfortable to kick it and have a great time. We stayed there for a couple of hours and we went back to the house. From there we just chilled and I stayed up and had a good conversation with Thomas.
The next morning, I got up and talk to a couple of guys that lived in the house with the crew. Everyone else was either gone or still sleeping. Most likely still sleeping because it was a holiday. I walked my way to the metro station, called Francie to come get me at Shady Grove and that was my weekend in DC. Without a doubt, this was the best weekend that I had since leaving to BVS. I look forward to doing this again later on this year. It was a weekend that I will never forget and I want to “thank” everyone at the house for allowing me to come down and kick with the them.
JCI
BVSer; Unit 275
Information Services
COB General Board
Brethren Service Center
During the weekend of January 18 through the 21st, I made plans to go visit my friends and BVS unit members in Washington, DC. Ever since I decided to come to the east coast for my BVS project, I always wanted to go back to DC. The first time I was there it was 1995 and I went with my NJROTC Unit. I can recall that I had a great time over there and it made me want to return in the future. Now, the opportunity to come back was knocking at my door and everyone knows that I always answer it.
Because my BVS project is in New Windsor, Maryland, I knew that eventually I was going back to DC for a visit. Two reasons that made that possible was the fact that is only two hours away. All I need to do was make it to a Metro station center and then just let the Metro take me where I needed to go. The second reason is some of my BVS unit members are serving in DC that gave me a reason to go and also a place to stay when I decided to go.
So there I was in New Windsor, having already spent 5 months here and haven’t made my way there yet. I guess I needed motivation to get my ass there and I got it. One of my unit members, Jillian Baker was serving there in DC just until she was able to go to her first choice in project, Latin America. Jillian is one my best friends in my unit and I wanted to see her before she left. I knew she wasn’t going to retreat so to me that was my motivation to go when I did.
I emailed Jillian and made arrangements for me to come down. She was living with 10 other people, most are BVSers, and most from my unit. The house approved of me coming down for the weekend and so my return to DC was happening. I had a good friend of mine here at the center, Dave Huber, give me a lift to Shady Grove, the nearest Metro station around Friday evening. It took about an hour for the metro to drop me off at Eastern Market, the place where Jillian picked me up at. I was a little worried that it was going to take longer than it did because I never been on the metro around here before. When I came off the metro, it was on and I was officially back.
Like I said above, Jillian picked me from the metro station and we walked to Subway to get some food and then we headed for the BVS house. When I first got there, Jillian gave me a tour of the 3-story house and I greeted the house members. I was so looking forward to seeing Rianna, Simon, Thomas, and Danielle again. I was also looking forward to meeting the other people that I don’t know. Jillian showed me where I was going to be sleeping at I chilled down there for a few minutes. Then came back up and visited Simon. The cool thing about coming down the day I did was it was Simon’s 21st birthday and they were all going out to celebrate it. I felt really going about going out on Friday, because it was the first Friday night that I went out and hung out with friends my age since orientation. The first thing we did was go to this sushi restaurant and had a little sushi. Then we walked a bit to this bar that had 3 floors to it. The bar was pretty cool; however I am not a big fan about hanging out at bars. If I am going to be drinking, I would rather do it from my house of other people houses. I made an exception this time because I was chillin my unit members and it was something that I needed to do since I feel like I am all by myself here at New Windsor. Don’t get me wrong, I love New Windsor, but every now and then I have to do something like this to keep me sane. Danielle, Jillian, Ulrich and I left early around 1:30am where the others stayed and kicked it until like 3 am for something. We came back to the house, and I finished the rest of my subway sandwich and crashed after that.
The next day, Jillian and I had planned on going site seeing. She had been meaning to make her rounds and visit all these places when she got to DC, but hadn’t yet. This was a great opportunity for her to do this because she was leaving in a week. She let me know ahead of time that she wanted to do this and I was with it because I wanted to revisit a lot of these places myself. The first thing we did was go to the Capital. I didn’t like going through all the security but nonetheless it was fun. We had a tour and we seen so many cool looking things that I had to take a lot of pictures of. It was great to hang out at the capital because that is the building that comes to my mind when I think about DC. The next place we visit was the Library of Congress. I enjoyed being in there because the building had a lot of history built into it. The building had style and it gave me ideas on what I can do for my next web projects. That is something that I took from the Library of Congress: ideas. After that we had lunch and ate tat this Mexican burrito place. After lunch we headed back to the house. Now I forgot to mention that the house members do not have a vehicle. They either walk or take the metro. When Jillian and I went to the Capital and Library of Congress, we took the metro and we walked a while. By the time we got back to the house I was ready for a nap. My back was pretty stiff and I just crashed for about an hour and a half. Jillian and I wanted to go to one more place: The Washington Monument. We took the metro there and walked about a mile to get to the monument and when we got there, there was a line of people ready to take the elevator up to the top of the monument. When we made it up there, I spent time taking pictures of what DC looked like from the top of the monument. It was cool, I really enjoyed myself. After about a half hour of exploring, we decided to walk all the way back without taking the metro. It was a walk that I won’t forget. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I was wearing my tennis shoes, but I was coming to DC thinking that they had a General Board van like Elgin does. Unfortunately I was wrong. I had to walk in my black shoes my father likes to call “mud clutters”. We came back and the chilled the rest of the night. Thomas, Jillian and I watched a couple movies that I brought, Ratatouille and Transformers. It was cool watching Transformers with Jillian because she would talk shit about most of the scenes of the movie. She says that Transformers is the type of movie that she would make fun of. Of course I have a different opinion on that. After the movies we all crashed.
On Sunday, we all just kind of kicked it, Thomas and I spent like the whole day watching movies and just chillin. We went out for lunch. He went to this Chinese restaurant and I went back to Subway. We came back and watched another movie. During the evening though everyone wanted to go to the Banana Café, their place they like to kick it at. To me that was exciting because it was another opportunity to hang out with everyone. The Banana Café is a two-story place. Downstairs was the restaurant where we all had dinner. After our dinner, we went upstairs to the bar and we did some karaoke. Now this was a kick it place because it was a Sunday with Monday being a holiday and the place look like it was dead. There were two guys at the bar, a few young girls doing singing and us. That was it, which made it real comfortable to kick it and have a great time. We stayed there for a couple of hours and we went back to the house. From there we just chilled and I stayed up and had a good conversation with Thomas.
The next morning, I got up and talk to a couple of guys that lived in the house with the crew. Everyone else was either gone or still sleeping. Most likely still sleeping because it was a holiday. I walked my way to the metro station, called Francie to come get me at Shady Grove and that was my weekend in DC. Without a doubt, this was the best weekend that I had since leaving to BVS. I look forward to doing this again later on this year. It was a weekend that I will never forget and I want to “thank” everyone at the house for allowing me to come down and kick with the them.
JCI
BVSer; Unit 275
Information Services
COB General Board
Brethren Service Center
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