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Okay I haven't updated my journal in months and at this point I don't even … feel like trying to LMFAO. The only real things of note are seeing my school's production of RENT and The Hunger Games being awesome. Instead, I'm dedicating this entry to my DC adventures.
The entire week leading up to the trip went by in a giant blur. I worked on Monday, pulled an all-nighter, and then after that I got an email saying I'd been chosen to go on the Wolf Village diversity trip to Washington D.C.
Way back in February, I went to the info session and applied with I don't even know how many people, but I'm guessing a lot. There were only sixteen spots to go. I wasn't chosen to go (sadfais), but I was chosen as an alternate. Which was exciting, but after so much time never receiving another email, I forgot about it. Getting an email only a few days before was incredibly exciting, but also a little stressful in the sense that I had to pack and get all this paperwork together at the very last minute!! I couldn't think about anything else on Wednesday or Thursday. I was, as usual, incredibly irresponsible and went to dinner at Subway with my bros from coffee talks at 9 pm, and was wired for the rest of Thursday night. Telling my computer goodbye was incredibly difficult, but I didn't want anything to happen to it. Especially since we were staying in a hostel instead of a hotel. (It was a healthy experience for me.)
The people I went with on the trip were so sweet and amazing. It was really weird because even though we were all different, we clicked incredibly well. Among my favorites were a fellow English major girl I shared a lot in common with, the guy with the best name ever (Cordero Slash), and the kawaii Italian girl who told me she loved my name because it reminded her of Rue in the Hunger Games. So cute.
Friday was fucking crazy, in an amazing way. Since it was supposed to be a ~diversity trip~, one of the first things we did was go to Gallaudet University, essentially an almost all-deaf university. Because I knew Skye/Scott (who attends non-deafly) from LJ RP and he'd talked about it before, I had a vague idea about what to expect. Ish. But that vagueness was pretty much worthless compared to what I actually experienced. I seriously need to give Scott props for being as passionately helpful as he was. We had talked about just meeting up and saying hi, but he ended up sticking along and essentially being our tour guide. Everyone loved him and thought he was amazing. I seriously think our experience would have been a lot less impactful/amazing without him. There are things I was surprised to hear asked, but then I'm like, how can I blame them? Examples : deaf people and sports marching band etc. There's also something kind of humbling about -- well, my ~big experience~ was a deaf woman trying to make small talk with me, and even though I knew what she was saying (isn't it a beautiful day or something along those lines) I wasn't able to reply or do anything but nod.
After that we checked in at the hostel, relaxed, and then set out on a journey to see the white house. Samson decided to be the ultimate tourist and take pictures of bushes and shit. The craziest thing was that we ran into the NCSU teaching fellows, who were also taking a trip to DC this weekend. Which was weird on it's own, but then I saw Trey from work! We hugged and screamed and it was glorious.
Everyone teased me about "knowing everyone" and being so well-networked, but I really think its true. And I kind of love that. That thanks to the Internet, to being part of something, I'll always have someone I know within an arms reach. There's something beautiful about it. :')
Then we ate delicious indian/Pakistani food, and went back to the hostel to reflect and have deep thoughts before bed. (btw I got a bottom bunk against the window which was ideal and wonderful.)
Saturday was rough. I started with a skip in my step and a song in my heart -- and was flirted with by a cute boy from the Netherlands at breakfast. He looked vaguely like Hank Green, and when I told him I was from North Carolina he was like " that is the Wright brothers!!" It was adorable.
Anyway, I was ready to see this motherfucking parade. Which turned out to be pretty awesome, tbh. I didn't expect the floats full of random celebrities. I ended up standing for most of it, though, which ended up killing my feet/back/shoulders before we ever set out on any walking. We also discovered the joys of group text, and that Sampson will take a picture with almost anyone who passes him on the sidewalk. Cordero got his hands on … a vuvuzela and conducted lovely serenades during the parade. I don't even know.
The Japanese festival was a hot tranny weeaboo mess. I wanted to look at a lot of things, but it took me 20 minutes to get my hands on some pad thai and by then I was angry at the world. X( Comic-Con felt less crowded than this, okay. That said we caught some really cute things on the J-pop stage.
After the group I'd split up with finished that adventure, we went to check out some of the monuments. There were a lot of things I wanted to look at, but couldn't because a) I was with a group of people and forced to do everything they wanted to do, and b) there was no time and my life was a long long series of Sophie's choices. We saw the last two cherry blossom trees in bloom in all of DC, the air and space museum, and the Lincoln monument. And the Washington monument. That's it I think idk. Lincoln was especially cool because I'm a Civil War stan. I think I was just pissy because I'd rather spend time in a couple places and have ~deep experiences~ there than run from place to place like a gerbil on speed. BUT IT'S OKAY.
We had Thai food, which was good. The only thing was that the people who owned the restaurant WOULD NOT SPLIT OUR CHECK. It made no sense. I think they were just being lazy and made up this ridiculously complicated excuse so they wouldn't have to do more work. But omg Thai food.
I guess the most poignant moment for me on Saturday was what happened later at night, when the girls' room was winding down and just talking. One of the girls was worried about her ex-boyfriend because he was acting suicidal and she was like 99 percent sure he has bipolar disorder. I told her (and by proxy, everyone) my own story and experiences with being bipolar and suicidal in a way that was meant to give her hope that it could be okay. And I've never done anything like that before. Even though I'm reasonably candid about it on the internet, I don't talk about that with anyone IRL. It was really … heavy, for lack of a better word.
I think it also says something about how close and connected I felt with these people, despite only knowing them for a couple days. (The boys, too, even though they weren't there for that LMAO.) Like I can usually find one person to be like "eww loser >:c " and nitpick at them, but I think I genuinely liked every single person. And we all loved each other. Like there were a lot of random declarations of "I LOVE YOU GUYS." I've been on group trips like this before but this was the best one by far. 8(
Sunday was such an emotionally intense day -- which is pretty much expected, since we spent a huge chunk of time at the Holocaust museum. Which, as can be expected, was extremely depressing. It was weird, because although there was so much to be upset over, what really got me choked up was the wall with the pictures of people who aided the Jews and others who were persecuted. And the Danes protecting the Jews. I guess because, even though this horrible thing happened, there were decent people who tried to help. Even though it wasn't enough, even though they couldn't save everyone, they still made a difference. And omg I can't start on this or more tears will come. There is so much I could say and go on and on about, but I don't think I could ever talk enough.
After that, we had time to ourselves to see a few more monuments or whatever before leaving. And this was the best part because I split away from everyone and WENT OFF ON MY OWN. Haha this entire experience just made me realize how much I hate being herded into groups. I'm too used to being lone wolfchan and doing whatever I want whenever I want. But yeah, I ran away and got to see the WWII memorial and the Vietnam memorial, and had a lot of feels about them because I have family members who fought in both those wars. And it was just … an emotional time in my life idk.
But that was the end. We all gathered back up, took the longest, most convoluted walk back to the hostel, and then drove home. We all genuinely seem to want to keep in touch, which makes me really happy. If only so many of them weren't studying abroad students going back to their home countries after this semester. :(
The entire week leading up to the trip went by in a giant blur. I worked on Monday, pulled an all-nighter, and then after that I got an email saying I'd been chosen to go on the Wolf Village diversity trip to Washington D.C.
Way back in February, I went to the info session and applied with I don't even know how many people, but I'm guessing a lot. There were only sixteen spots to go. I wasn't chosen to go (sadfais), but I was chosen as an alternate. Which was exciting, but after so much time never receiving another email, I forgot about it. Getting an email only a few days before was incredibly exciting, but also a little stressful in the sense that I had to pack and get all this paperwork together at the very last minute!! I couldn't think about anything else on Wednesday or Thursday. I was, as usual, incredibly irresponsible and went to dinner at Subway with my bros from coffee talks at 9 pm, and was wired for the rest of Thursday night. Telling my computer goodbye was incredibly difficult, but I didn't want anything to happen to it. Especially since we were staying in a hostel instead of a hotel. (It was a healthy experience for me.)
The people I went with on the trip were so sweet and amazing. It was really weird because even though we were all different, we clicked incredibly well. Among my favorites were a fellow English major girl I shared a lot in common with, the guy with the best name ever (Cordero Slash), and the kawaii Italian girl who told me she loved my name because it reminded her of Rue in the Hunger Games. So cute.
Friday was fucking crazy, in an amazing way. Since it was supposed to be a ~diversity trip~, one of the first things we did was go to Gallaudet University, essentially an almost all-deaf university. Because I knew Skye/Scott (who attends non-deafly) from LJ RP and he'd talked about it before, I had a vague idea about what to expect. Ish. But that vagueness was pretty much worthless compared to what I actually experienced. I seriously need to give Scott props for being as passionately helpful as he was. We had talked about just meeting up and saying hi, but he ended up sticking along and essentially being our tour guide. Everyone loved him and thought he was amazing. I seriously think our experience would have been a lot less impactful/amazing without him. There are things I was surprised to hear asked, but then I'm like, how can I blame them? Examples : deaf people and sports marching band etc. There's also something kind of humbling about -- well, my ~big experience~ was a deaf woman trying to make small talk with me, and even though I knew what she was saying (isn't it a beautiful day or something along those lines) I wasn't able to reply or do anything but nod.
After that we checked in at the hostel, relaxed, and then set out on a journey to see the white house. Samson decided to be the ultimate tourist and take pictures of bushes and shit. The craziest thing was that we ran into the NCSU teaching fellows, who were also taking a trip to DC this weekend. Which was weird on it's own, but then I saw Trey from work! We hugged and screamed and it was glorious.
Everyone teased me about "knowing everyone" and being so well-networked, but I really think its true. And I kind of love that. That thanks to the Internet, to being part of something, I'll always have someone I know within an arms reach. There's something beautiful about it. :')
Then we ate delicious indian/Pakistani food, and went back to the hostel to reflect and have deep thoughts before bed. (btw I got a bottom bunk against the window which was ideal and wonderful.)
Saturday was rough. I started with a skip in my step and a song in my heart -- and was flirted with by a cute boy from the Netherlands at breakfast. He looked vaguely like Hank Green, and when I told him I was from North Carolina he was like " that is the Wright brothers!!" It was adorable.
Anyway, I was ready to see this motherfucking parade. Which turned out to be pretty awesome, tbh. I didn't expect the floats full of random celebrities. I ended up standing for most of it, though, which ended up killing my feet/back/shoulders before we ever set out on any walking. We also discovered the joys of group text, and that Sampson will take a picture with almost anyone who passes him on the sidewalk. Cordero got his hands on … a vuvuzela and conducted lovely serenades during the parade. I don't even know.
The Japanese festival was a hot tranny weeaboo mess. I wanted to look at a lot of things, but it took me 20 minutes to get my hands on some pad thai and by then I was angry at the world. X( Comic-Con felt less crowded than this, okay. That said we caught some really cute things on the J-pop stage.
After the group I'd split up with finished that adventure, we went to check out some of the monuments. There were a lot of things I wanted to look at, but couldn't because a) I was with a group of people and forced to do everything they wanted to do, and b) there was no time and my life was a long long series of Sophie's choices. We saw the last two cherry blossom trees in bloom in all of DC, the air and space museum, and the Lincoln monument. And the Washington monument. That's it I think idk. Lincoln was especially cool because I'm a Civil War stan. I think I was just pissy because I'd rather spend time in a couple places and have ~deep experiences~ there than run from place to place like a gerbil on speed. BUT IT'S OKAY.
We had Thai food, which was good. The only thing was that the people who owned the restaurant WOULD NOT SPLIT OUR CHECK. It made no sense. I think they were just being lazy and made up this ridiculously complicated excuse so they wouldn't have to do more work. But omg Thai food.
I guess the most poignant moment for me on Saturday was what happened later at night, when the girls' room was winding down and just talking. One of the girls was worried about her ex-boyfriend because he was acting suicidal and she was like 99 percent sure he has bipolar disorder. I told her (and by proxy, everyone) my own story and experiences with being bipolar and suicidal in a way that was meant to give her hope that it could be okay. And I've never done anything like that before. Even though I'm reasonably candid about it on the internet, I don't talk about that with anyone IRL. It was really … heavy, for lack of a better word.
I think it also says something about how close and connected I felt with these people, despite only knowing them for a couple days. (The boys, too, even though they weren't there for that LMAO.) Like I can usually find one person to be like "eww loser >:c " and nitpick at them, but I think I genuinely liked every single person. And we all loved each other. Like there were a lot of random declarations of "I LOVE YOU GUYS." I've been on group trips like this before but this was the best one by far. 8(
Sunday was such an emotionally intense day -- which is pretty much expected, since we spent a huge chunk of time at the Holocaust museum. Which, as can be expected, was extremely depressing. It was weird, because although there was so much to be upset over, what really got me choked up was the wall with the pictures of people who aided the Jews and others who were persecuted. And the Danes protecting the Jews. I guess because, even though this horrible thing happened, there were decent people who tried to help. Even though it wasn't enough, even though they couldn't save everyone, they still made a difference. And omg I can't start on this or more tears will come. There is so much I could say and go on and on about, but I don't think I could ever talk enough.
After that, we had time to ourselves to see a few more monuments or whatever before leaving. And this was the best part because I split away from everyone and WENT OFF ON MY OWN. Haha this entire experience just made me realize how much I hate being herded into groups. I'm too used to being lone wolfchan and doing whatever I want whenever I want. But yeah, I ran away and got to see the WWII memorial and the Vietnam memorial, and had a lot of feels about them because I have family members who fought in both those wars. And it was just … an emotional time in my life idk.
But that was the end. We all gathered back up, took the longest, most convoluted walk back to the hostel, and then drove home. We all genuinely seem to want to keep in touch, which makes me really happy. If only so many of them weren't studying abroad students going back to their home countries after this semester. :(