Loony Goes to the Zoo

Yesterday Loony and I went to the zoo (Smithsonian National Zoological Park=FREE) with several other World Vision interns. Here are some highlights:

An Aves Class Reunion

Loony and friends and a gorilla

Are you my mother?

Black and White Buddies

Loony Goes Camping

This weekend Loony and I went camping to Shenandoah River State Park. You'll get quite a good idea of the wonderfulness of this weekend by looking through the photos below. (Most of the bird portraits are thanks to Rufous who did a lovely photo shoot.)

Loony plays Settles of Catan. Those poor little settlers, ruled by such a gigantic black and white bird. 

Loony goes canoeing/frisbeeing.  

Loony endorses Keens.

Loony and friends.

 Loony and his hat...too late for the royal wedding but still quite fetching. 

Loony appreciates wildflowers.

Loony nesting (?) on the Victory Hat.

Loony and Kumbe.

Loony enjoys the campfire. Too bad he had to go to bed early and missed the silver clouds.

Loony tries on Kumbe's lifejacket. A little bit too big, eh? 

Loony's Tent.

Loony loves the spotlight.

Loony takes a nap in the hammock.

Summer Reading List

Here you will find a compiled list of summer reading book suggestions from friends. I have only read Til We Have Faces, the abridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo, one of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books, and quite a few of Chaim Potok's books. That means that I cannot personally recommend the rest of the books, but they must be pretty good cause my friends told me they were. And I like my friends.

The "summaries" are my own based on Amazon.com descriptions. I'm going to see how many of these I can read this summer. Feel free to take ideas from here for quiet reading days. Happy Reading!

Fiction

Farenheit 451: A Novel (Ray Bradbury) – Set in a dystopian future, a “fireman” has the job of burning illegal books

The Count of Monte Cristo (Unabridged = over 1200 pages) (Alexander Dumas) – A historical adventure story about hope, justice, vengeance, mercy, and forgiveness

East of Eden (John Steinbeck) – Steinbeck considered this his greatest novel

Till We Have Faces (C.S. Lewis) – Lewis’ version of Cupid and Psyche, told through the eyes of Orual, Psyche’s older half-sister

Moloka’i (Allan Brennert) – Historical fiction about a girl in a Hawaii leper colony

In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (Nathaniel Philbrick) – A true story about a shipwreck and the terrible ordeal of the survivors

Series

A Novel on the Edge of the World

Scared (Tom Davis) – A photojournalist at rock bottom travels to Africa to cover the AIDS crisis; there he meets a young orphan and his life is changed

Priceless (Tom Davis) – About the photojournalist working to educate people about social injustice and his involvement in a campaign to rescue women trapped as sex slaves

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith)

The Hunger Games Trilogy (Suzanne Collins)

The Hunger Games

Catching Fire

Mockingjay

Christian Books

Unlocking the Bible Story (Colin Smith) – Smith shows how Jesus Christ is the focus of Scripture, indirectly or directly, from beginning to end. Beginning with the Old Testament, he unlocks rich, life-changing truths while encouraging and strengthening readers in their daily walk with Christ (4 volumes).

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University (Kevin Roose) – The true story of a secular Brown University college student who chose to spend a semester at Liberty University

Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin’s Path to God  (Brennan Manning) – The sequel to The Ragamuffin’s Gospel, about how true and radical trust in God can transform our lives

Stuff Christians Like (Jonathon Acuff) – A humorous look at all things Christian

Good Authors

Chaim Potok (I think I have to say that right now Potok is my favorite author)

The Chosen & The Promise

My Name is Asher Lev & The Gift of Asher Lev

David Baldacci

List of Novels: Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner, The Simple Truth, Saving Faith, Wish You Well, Last Man Standing, The Christmas Train, Split Second, Hour Game, The Camel Club, The Collectors, Simple Genius, Stone Cold, and The Whole Truth; and in his young adult series, Freddy and the French Fries: Fries Alive! and Freddy and the French Fries: The Adventures of Silas Finklebean.

Mary Higgins Clark

I'm off camping for the weekend with friends--time for some hiking and camp desserts. Have a lovely weekend!

A Very D.C. Weekend

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

While riding the metro home on Friday, the train driver said over the PA system, "I wish you all a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious weekend." Thanks, train driver, cause that's what I had.


Rock the Mall
Apparently 2012 is the year of 100th anniversaries: for Fenway Park, the sinking of the Titanic...and the Girl Scouts. This weekend D.C. was invaded by over 200,000 Girl Scouts and the various adults they brought with them for the Girl Scouts Rock the Mall: 100th Anniversary Sing-Along. So many little girls!!!

My housemate and I rode the metro to Eastern Market on Saturday morning and experienced a preview of the sing-along. Yes, right there on the subway I sang along with "Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other's gold." I came to D.C. expecting to be far away from the whole "girls' camp" thing, but  it found me. My poor housemate, who never did girl scouts and never went to camp, was in culture shock.

Tourist-y Stuff with International Justice Mission (IJM) Interns
Eastern Market...yummy crepes...beautiful Thomas Jefferson Library of Congress building...tour of the Capital building...Good Stuff Eatery milkshakes.

Shopping
*Read in a sarcastic voice* I love clothes shopping. *end of sarcastic voice*
God has just given me other gifts... Well, I'm going to be a bridesmaid in a wedding at the end of this summer, and I had to find a dress. (Thanks to my Rachacha friend for her assistance in getting started on the whole dress shopping thing, despite our lack of success.)

I found it yesterday, though, with the help of my mom's best friend who was down in D.C. for the weekend. She also took me to church, drove me to REI (sleeping bag shopping) and Trader Joe's (must have cereal!), took me out to a Thai restaurant for lunch, and was just an all-around wonderful substitute mother and good friend.

Back to the dress and the wedding: now I am ready (I think/maybe/I hope) to wish my dear, lifelong friend well as she steps into this new stage of her life. We've known each other ever since I was born. For me, that's a really long time. Love you, Redwing!

PEI Intern at WVUS

WVI, SO, NO, RO, ADP, ...

Ah, acronyms. These are a few of my new aquaintances here at World Vision this summer. Day two and I'm on the way to learning the lingo, but some of the people who have been working here for years say they still come up against ones they don't know. Orientation is over as of lunch today, so now I get to start in on my assignments. I'm at the point where my manager has explained to me what I'm going to be doing...I understand it...but I haven't quite figured out how to put it into normal English yet. Give me some time.

Commuting

If you haven't ever commuted via a metro system before then you should try it out. It definitely puts your head in a herd mentality mindset. Just follow the crowd (and pay attention to the signs). I really do enjoy riding the metro because I love watching people. Having had good experiences on the Tube in London also helps my appreciation of public transportation.

Here's the DL on Boston's T vs. Washington's Metro vs. London's Tube:
The T: It gets you where you need to go, but you are quite glad once you get there because you are thankful you were able to figure out where you needed to go and you are glad to get away from the interesting smells and dirtiness.
The Metro: It's very clean, the signs are clear, and life makes sense...but it's kind of boring.
The Tube: "This is livin', this is style, this is elegance by the mile" (Thanks to Grandpa from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). Nothing quite beats the unique station decorations or the recordings of various announcements in British accents. Mind the Gap.

Trader Joe's (Last, but certainly not least)

There's one here in Arlington, VA. Yay! Trader Joe's = a familiar sight from home in the midst of all sorts of new experiences. New experiences are wonderful, but a jar of TJ's peach salsa puts some normalcy into a life of transition.

The End of SEND

Three weeks is not a very long time. It's just enough time to say hi, get to know people, and then miss them when you have to say goodbye. I finished off my internship with SEND's media department last Thursday. I'm really thankful for the time I had out in Michigan to learn what it's like to be part of the media team for a mission agency.

Here's my fancy desk with not one but TWO laptops:

 And then the media team has their own special chairs. Classy. And the director of the department is working diligently in the background.

Notice the loon? Meet Loony. He'll be traveling through D.C. with me this summer since I don't get to live on a lake in Maine all summer and listen to loons calling every morning and evening.