Week 1 Update 1/28-1/31

Hey Everyone! So here is my week update. I'm going to name 3 exciting things that happened from Thursday through Sunday.

Thursday:
1. We had our first Arabic and Chinese class. The first 5 weeks of the class will be spent learning Arabic. So far I can greet people and say my name is. We also started to learn how to form the characters. I can write الباب, which means door. Yay!
2. We had our first French class too. The class is very small; it's just Caity, Audrey, Jorge and me. The class also only meets on Wednesday (Thursday this week because of the State of the Union Address) and Saturday for 90 minutes.
3. Thursday was a normal school day. It was not very interesting. I also can't really remember what happened. It feels so long ago.

Friday:
1. I had two quizzes on Friday. One in Math and one in CoGoPo. It's officially started to feel like school. It's not as crazy as HB yet. I'm sure that's coming though. I have an English essay due on Friday.
2.We our final ethics and leadership class of the week. We wrapped up our Case Study on Haiti.  Noah gave a Powerpoint about the history of Haiti which involves a lot of corruption. After the presentation, we were divided into 4 groups, and we were all give a challenge. The challenge was to research various organizations to find out which one was the best to donate money to for Haitian earthquake relief. My group was Caity, Trevor, Teddy, and I, and we were assigned to research NGO's like the Redcross and MSF. Forty minutes later, after making various extremely professional phone calls, we decided that MSF was the best organization to donate to. After everyone was finished, all the groups met back up in the parlor to discuss which was the best way to donate money. The other groups were UN Organization, Microfinance, and Alternative. Through thorough discussion, the group decided that if we were to donate money to Haitian relief it would be through Microfinance.  Microfinance has the outlook of "teach a man to fish" which is the best way to provide relief to third world countries because it teaches the people how to live and to thrive.
3. Even though Friday night isn't the official start to the weekend, we treated it like one. After having Thai food for dinner at school, we trekked around DuPont Circle in search of Ben and Jerry's but we ended up at Krispy Kreme instead. Once back at the dorm, we all played a giant and extremely epic game of Scattergories. It was a great way to bond. Everyone is really starting to click! It's amazing how in just one short week, we have all become great friends. Everyone keeps saying how it feels like we've known eachother for years.

Saturday:
1. Saturday morning classes are not fun; at least they don't start until 9:20 and are at the dorm instead of the academic building. At 9:20 I had French class for 90 minutes. It's not bad at all. We do a lot of dictation writing stuff. My speaking is getting better as well. After that, at 11:00, we had English class with the whole group back at the dorm. We discussed to articles that each presented a different view on ethics. Stemming from that discussion came a very larges discussion on whether or not it was ethical to donate $200 dollars from our food fund to the Microfinance organization that we had decided on on Friday. Everyone had such good input. My favorite thing that was said was "my parents didn't graduate from high school and they may not know chemistry, philosophy or calculus, but they did teach me humility and integrity. I think that we should, of course, donate the $200." I found that statement extremely persuasive, because honestly to those whom much is given, much is expected.  And yes, we did decide to donate $200 dollars from our food fund for the next 2 weeks.
2. It was snowing like CRAZYYYY for DC, at least. There are at least 6 inches of snow here. My mom told me that we have more than Cleveland which is so not normal. All the people from Seattle and the South were loving the snow, while the majority of the northenerns were just rolling their eyes, thinking oh joy.  Everyone did end up embracing the winter wonderland.  A group of us, myself included, decided to walk to a park and play a game of football in the snow. It was super fun. After that we walked to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It's amazing to see our history right before our eyes.
3. Saturday night was so much fun. Noah was on duty so he cooked us a great dinner of turkey burgers and steamed carrots. He's my favorite chef so far. Later that evening after spending some time chilling in various people's rooms, everyone decided to play a game of Mafia. It was so fun! I ended up being killed early on. Darn Mafia! After that we played Apples to Apples which is normally played with people you have known for years, so it was unusual to play with people that I've only known for a week. It was still so much fun though! I love the people here! I just love being in DC in general.

Sunday:
1. Basically, I sleep like a pro. I slept until 11:30 and was like the last person up. My room is on the first floor, directly across from the Common Room. Yupp, sleeping through all that noise takes skill.
2. Today we ventured to a new line on the Subway. A group of us took the red line to the green line to the Columbia Heights stop so we could go to this epic Target. It's huge and it's definitely bigger than the one in University Heights. After that some weary members of the group headed back to the dorm while the rest of us went to Ben's Chili Bowl. Apparently it's a big deal in DC, but I'd never heard of it. The chili was really good, so it was definitely worth all the hype.
3. We had our weekly dorm meeting today. Robbie, the RA, had us play a game where we all said a name of someone in the group that correlated with each statement.  For example, who reminds you most of home - Caity because she is a lot like Helen; who makes you laugh - 2 people said my name, so I guess the strange things I do are funny? That's always a plus. No more being reserved! (cough Helen cough); or who are you most curious to see what they are doing in 20 years - the most popular answer was Will.

Overall, it's been an amazing first week. Everyone is settled in and loving it. I can't wait for week 2 to begin, so we can have more fun adventures and experiences. But it's late and it's my bed time. Night Cleveland and DC. :)