Take Me Out To The Ball Game...

By Brendan Lin

By design, everything about Washington, D.C. screams "America." Most of the city, from the grand monuments littered across the Mall to the relics enshrined in the National Archives, tells the story of how our country came to be. It's quite an experience seeing all of it with your own eyes.

I'm from California, where this feeling is conspicuously absent. There is definitely history there, but it follows a different timeline. Missions. The Gold Rush. El Camino Real. Don't get me wrong, it's all very interesting, but there are no Civil War battlefields or homes of Founding Fathers in the 31st state. For me, at least, coming to D.C. reminds me of how far we have truly come as the United States. It's truly a different feeling.

It seems fitting, then, that my first ever MLB baseball game was at Nationals Park, Washington, D.C. last Friday (Nationals vs. Marlins). What an experience! I could not believe what I had been missing all these years. I went with two fellow WAIP students, Sarah and Katy, both of whom had been to some kind of professional baseball game before. I was enthralled. Next to me was a Russian exchange student who was going to her first baseball game with her "host" family. The father was explaining every aspect of the game to her, from what a strike was to what it means to make a run. She seemed very confused but interested. Behind me were two young boys, obviously big fans, yelling at the top of their lungs whenever their favorite baseball players went up to bat. At the 7th inning, everyone sang "Take Me Out To The Ball Game," a song I knew by heart but never got to use. It was one of the most relaxing days of my time in D.C. so far. The scenery was nice, too! The river was visible from where we sat, as well as the Capitol dome. This was a fun departure from the businesslike, politically-charged Washington I had come to know so far. I enjoyed myself. The burger was great too.

The three of us had walked to the game, so we decided to walk back after it was over. The great thing about being a WAIP student is that it's usually impossible to get lost on the way home- all you need to do is find the Capitol Building and head towards it! The air was nice, the atmosphere was friendly, and Washington was beautiful.

Half an hour later, as we neared our apartment building, we came upon the Supreme Court, lit up in the night. Katy, the aspiring lawyer, begged us to wait and take photos of her in front of it. Eventually, all of us decided to walk up the steps and stare. A problem I've always had in D.C. is that I never manage to wrap my mind around what I'm looking at. For example, when I see the White House, my brain knows "President," but it can't fathom the enormity of its significance. It's just too much.

So I stood, staring at the Supreme Court building. An entire branch of government in one building. Okay. Interprets the Constitution. Okay. I was struggling to really get my head around it.

Then I thought about China, and what life was like in parts of that country. Websites blocked. People "disappeared." Foreigners' laptops discreetly searched. An entire year that has been deleted, purposefully, from Chinese history (1989).

I looked up at the columns of the U.S. Supreme Court, patted it slowly, and thought, "Thanks."

And that was my Friday.

Nationals Baseball Game

Katie Gibbons
Blog Post #1

On Friday, September 26, 2014, I attended my first Major League Baseball Game.  I went to the Washington Nationals baseball field for a game between the Washington Nationals and the Miami Marlins.  I went with Sarah Spaulding and Brendan Lin. We got to the stadium around 7:15PM.  Once we got in, I was amazed. It was so big and there were so many people!  When we bought our tickets, there was a special called Beltway Burger Night.  For $20, we got our ticket, a burger, fries, and a drink.  We went to the concession stand called Foggy Bottom Grille.  Once we got our food, we stood at bar shelves looking onto the field.  The food was great and we didn’t miss any of the game because we wanted to eat.  Once we were done eating, we went to find our seats.  We were in Section 403, Row B, Seats 12 – 14.  Even though our seats were the highest section up, we had good seats and could see everything.  The Nationals were doing really well and were winning up until about the 5^th inning.  In the 5^th inning, the Marlins took lead by a few runs.  But as the game went on, it went downhill.  By the top of the 9^th inning, it was 15 – 7, Marlins were winning.  We decided to leave in the middle of the 9^th inning. Even though the Nationals lost, overall, the night was a success spent with some great friends!

Trudging Through the Swamps of the Anacostia

This past weekend, I found myself waist deep in a swamp somewhere in the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens along the Anacostia Riverfront. Armed with a stylish pare of one-size-fits-all waders - something straight out of a Bass Pro Shop catalog - and oversized hedge trimmers, I spent three hours cutting through invasive lotus leaves while dodging large water spiders and trying my best not to get physically stuck in the mud… not the typical way to spend a Saturday morning.

I was participating in a large group service project with my fellow interns, a bonding ritual of sorts that ended in us helping each other out of layers of mud that clung to our legs like quicksand. There was one point when a fellow intern was legitimately stuck in the middle of the pond, requiring us to collectively pull him out using some sort of gardening weapon. It looked - and felt - like something out of Swamp People.

Me and my fellow Social Office interns sporting our flattering waders. 

Oddly enough, the project was a blast. After moving past the very real fear of snakes slithering past our feet and the greenish muck of the swampy waters, the hours spent laughing at the ridiculousness of what we were doing and commending one another for getting up early on a Saturday was a truly unforgettable experience. Seeing a national park located within the actual city limits of DC, especially one sprinkled with beautiful pink lotus flowers, made the laborious morning a memorable one. Not saying I'd do it over again, but lotus-trimming will absolutely go down as the most unique "volunteering" experience I've had to date. 

Lotuses. Everywhere.

Check out the park’s history here, and be sure to visit the gardens for a hike as the leaves turn for fall! 

- Sarah Montell