Annunciations

Today was like a series of days packed into one…. It began by realizing I’d set my alarm for when I needed to leave and not when I needed to get there. That made the morning slightly more stressful. But since I worked ‘til 7:30pm, just got home, and am exausted I can already tell today’s entry is going to just hit highlights which will probably be a relief to you…

Secretary Rice held a townhall mtg today for State Dept employees. It was an interesting effort to make herself accessible to all levels of the Dept by giving a speech about the importance of State’s work and then opening it up to questions. I didn’t have any good questions to ask but it was interesting to watch. I was curious as to how it would go…given that a lot of State is pretty hostile toward her. Actually, I think a lot of Americans are hostile toward anyone who achieves success and a higher pay grade than they do… and this directly contradicts the traditional American work ethic I’m reading about in this book I’m working on … Who are We? By Sam Huntington…it’s about America’s identity…. But anyways, I’m trying to figure out what’s changing...that the idea of taking pride in a small job that’s part of an important system is scoffed at ….and I’ll probably figure it out more later in the book. But anyways, I figured after Boxer (resisted alliteration urge) was so hostile to Dr Rice, she could handle the worst employees could throw at her! It also helps that people are more rude under their breaths than outloud since she is their boss technically. The lady behind cracked “why do we have to pay for water?” and it’s true, there is a system where you pay for a water cooler if you want one in your office. On the other hand, if you didn’t pay for it you wouldn’t conserve it so… it makes sense to me. But anyways, ppl were making fun of the fact she was trying to emphasis the importance of everyone’s jobs and the truth is they don’t think their jobs are important and that’s why they laugh at that idea. Others were pretty impressed the Secretary opened herself up like that. The highlight to me was when some old guy goes up and starts announcing he wants the Secretary to be informed about this nuclear power plant science development and the debate on where to locate it in China or wherever the EU picks… rambling on and on… until she sweetly interrupted him and proceeded to explain the details of the decision and how the Bush admin had favored Japan (not China) over the EU’s location and why and blah blah blah, while the guy stood there with his mouth hanging open at her knowledge of what he had considered his little “project” for 17 yrs. He said, “Well, I am impressed and please you know so much about this project!” It was funny how she put him in his place. Lots of the employees tend to assume she knows nothing about foreign policy since she’s the “outsider” but of course its insane to assume she’s in the dark since she’s been directing policy every bit as much as the Sec of State for the past 4 yrs… funny anyways…
This afternoon started really slow… like 2-4pm is SO slow…I have research to do but nothing pending or urgent so it’s hard to stay awake. Then right before I was going to leave, we have sudden major policy change which we need to do a ton of research to back up… it’s a good thing…looks like we’re going to get to sanction for religious persecution Saudi Arabia afterall despite their assistance in counterterrorism… but the last minute work kept me late and means I need to be working from home right now, but can’t cause the internet connection is down as usual…frustrating.
Ok, that’s all for tonight cause I can’t put thoughts together.
-marc/#2/marco/Martha/me

E-Mail at: abbasdancer@yahoo.com

Snowy Sunday: Take Two

Note: if this is your first time reading my entries, start at the bottom or else it will make little sense!

Well the weekend was uneventful in my life compared to the lives of others. If you want a glimpse of how much the Iraqi elections meant to some, check out an Iraqi’s blog: www.iraqthemodel.blogspot.com What he has to say is far beyond anything I could say…

I was rather unambitious this weekend—mainly wanting to recover from the week and get homework done. The latter hasn’t really happened yet so that’s my evening plans. It’s been rather relaxing around here… lots of snow and ice this weekend but not enough to give me the day off tomorrow.

So February starts this week. I do believe its my least favorite month of all. I’m sure it will be good this year… but as a month in and of itself, I really don’t care for it. Of all the winter months, it’s the one that’s cold when you’re kinda over the cold and snow thing, but it’s not yet the beginning of spring. It’s also short, which throws the whole rest of the year off balance. I still think we should have more months with 30 days rather than a random month with 28 most years. And the worst of all of February’s offenses: it contains Valentine’s day. The day invented by hallmark to torture singles into feeling left out and rejected.. I must say, I think Valentine’s will be much more pleasant in D.C. where I can forget it exists than it was at Asbury when February 1^st generally prompts the hall bathroom to be FULL of hearts and valentine’s decorations…put up by girls with boyfriends of course… who are rather hopeful their bf’s might pop the question that year. One year they decorated for Valentine’s halfway through January—AHH, why prolong the torture? At least in D.C. it is unlikely anyone will be asking me about my Valentine’s plans… anonymity has its virtues.

I’m procrastinating work by borrowing trouble from a day that has not yet come. It has been noted that I am getting fewer emails because you cannot “reply” to a blog. In fact, you CAN… just hit “comment”… but if you’d rather send an email the traditional way, I will start putting my email address on the bottom of my entries so you can just click and email… hint hint =)

#2/me/marc/marco/Martha

E-Mail at: abbasdancer@yahoo.com

Finally Friday

It sounds terrible to say I’ve really looked forward to the weekend, because the week has been awesome, but I’ve been so tired I am really glad to slow down a little. I have a lot of homework this weekend but even that is nice to be able to schedule.
Today was a double-day—I was supposed to be at Heritage until noon… but then my supervisor asked me to help host a mtg and it turned out it was a mtg on Cuba b/t State Dept officials and Hill staffers… a conglomeration of people with influence in different places with the same ideology, goals, and plans for Cuba. It was fascinating, to say the least… kinda like an underground movement…and encouraging to me as well. I ended up staying more b/c it made sense for my State Dept responsibilities, even though it happened to be at Heritage. It was 3pm by the time I got to State so it was a short day there. Catching up on missing the morning mainly.
I have a question that doesn’t pertain to life at all…. Why do people use the phrase “Done in Minutes” or “Ready in Minutes” as if that automatically implies quickly… think about it. My dinner tonight—I’ve sunk to the level of frozen dinners—said “Ready in Minutes”… what, as opposed to HOURS? Who expects a frozen dinner to take hours? I was thinking about this cause I got stalled on the metro AGAIN today… and as usual they announced we would be moving “momentarily” which means NOTHING… as opposed to hourentarily? the word minute generally refers to up to 60 minutes (thought it can mean more oc) and I think its dumb to use it to mean “a few minutes” oh well, no one asked me.
Anyways… that’s all for today. Email me!
Martha/marc/marco/#2/me

Thoughts on Thursday…

Well, I would have described it as a relatively uneventful day but since it’ll probably be the only day in my life that I get a phone call saying I’m on Fox News, that would be a pretty high standard for eventful! I guess (mom says) a clip of my meeting Condi Rice this morning was on Brit Hume this evening. Kinda bizarre… not like I left there wondering if I would make the news, since it was a quick meeting and the whole welcome ceremony was very State Dept focused so I didn’t expect it’d even make news. Anyway, if I’d known I was going to be on the news I mighta brushed my hair or something =) Jk…
Anyways, so yeah, I met Dr. Rice this morning and my first response was that her handshake was weaker than I expected from such a strong diplomat. Strange reaction, I know =) So she started her little speech with this: (from transcript)

Thank you. Well,
> this is a little different welcome than the first time that I came to
> work at the State Department. Now, that may surprise some of you, but
> I was, in 1977, an intern in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural
> Affairs. Now, there's a lesson in that: Be
> good to your interns.

The WHOLE rest of the day I was getting comments about how I might be SOS someday…and I think they were being unusually nice to me ;) What’s ironic is that I my natural response is “Oh, no I wouldn’t want to do that” and I have to be careful cause saying that offends people… they, oc, think they question is whether I COULD do it…not whether I WANT to… and to me it’s a s simple as knowing that’s not my calling… and if it were I could but since its not I don’t want it. I come across as snotty saying I don’t want to be SOS or hold any high office… when my attitude is the exact opposite! Kinda ironic.

One more thought on the mtg: the guys who stood behind me while she gave her opening speech were snickering and mocking her the entire time. It was very angering. In her speech she was talking about the long-term vision and mentioned that she got to work in the White House when the USSR fell but she knows the seeds for that were planted by people in the State dept in 1947,48,49. Oc, my thought was that the State Dept had a lot of commie spies back then but I understood her point. the guys behind me were mocking her saying "yeah, it might take 50 YEARS for us to see freedom but its coming"... what a NOW attitude! How selfish to not care if we're fighing for peace for the next generation... it's this attitude that if we're have to pay the price for something we don't get to enjoy its not worth it... Really sad outlook to live for THIS generation...


Umm…so today at work… lots of research and processing papers on Cuba’s religious freedom position. Helped out a fellow staff member who got stuck in traffic by taking notes on the beginning of a mtg on telecommuting until she could get there…that was interested cause a few office directors were so tense they started yelling at eachother. I’m surprised sometimes at the open hostility people will express at the State Dept…over big and little things. I’ve never worked in a non-Christian office so maybe this is normal but it is new to me… Hmmm, well Staff mtg turned into two hour thing but it was interesting. Afternoon was kinda slow…I was super sleepy so research was slow-going. Then we had a mtg with someone from Vietnam’s embassy so I went to go escort him. That was interesting.. we’re negotiating the release of religious prisoners specifically and “political” prisoners in general… I can’t tell specifics (sounds silly but seriously I’ve taken a written and verbal oath so I figure I’m responsible to keep it)… but we’re very happy with progress with Vietnam right now…it’s very exciting. Actually, my dual internships are putting me in kinda a strange situation… I’m privy to lots of classified info on Latin America and I’m also responsible for reporting to my Heritage supervisor on the latest news from Latin America so I have to figure out a way to keep what I know from classified sources and what I know from public sources separate cause it all blends together in my brain—most classified info is NOT so surprising it stands out in my brain… it just blurs together with public news and yet it’d be really bad to do that in my reports to Heritage… strange problem to have…

Well, I think that’s all the random thoughts for the day… I’ve stopped getting emails in the past couple days so write me please!
Martha/marc/marco/#2/me

Just Wednesday

Hmmm… I’m so behind in emails but I figured I can keep up on sharing my life though in many ways I’d rather be responding to everyone else’s….

Today was not as hectic as yesterday but I am still very tired and wanting to get to bed early since I have to leave for work around 6am.

So the day started by doing exactly what I’d been fearing I’d do for two weeks now: falling down the escalator at the metro. Sounds funnier than it felt. Actually, it’s about 250 steps, if the escalator were stopped, straight up…so deep that you can’t see the top or bottom while you’re in the middle. They’ve been covered in ice and snow which makes them slippery oc.. but I was in a hurry so I tried running down them anyway… It would happen on the day I was wearing a skirt and tights, but fortunately I only fell a few feet before I caught myself my grating my leg along the ridged steps… mangling some flesh but avoiding falling further and landing on my face. It was a rather bloody painful mess… NOT the best way to start my day. It’s still bothering me…. I can hear Laura, who is petrified of escalator, telling me that they’re scary… but the alternative of hitting the emergency stop button and climbing 250 steps is NOT attractive! Besides, other people would mob me for doing it cause THEY don’t want to climb oc… but Laura always hits the emergency stop button!
Anyways, the day got better from there! At work I continued progress on the Secretary of State memo package. My changes last night got erased, which was frustrating but oh well. I also did some research work going through State Dept archives on Latin America. It’s amazing the things you find out. For starters, without revealing classified information, lets just say that I wouldn’t be flying aerocontinente (Peruvian airline) even under its new name and the reason has nothing to do with the drug dealer who started it. I also found out a very creative way to smuggle drugs: inside squid. There’s all kind of stuff in these files… and yes, I really did find relevant info for my work as well!
After work, I ran to the NAE conference for dinner and lectures. Dinner was better than last night since last night the “bruschetta” was cream cheese in place of Mozz and canned tomoatoes…eww! Anyways, I was there in time to sit with the Asbury team so that was fun…get back into the Asbury zone/bubble for a little while and catch up. Ironically I’ve talked the most this week with Mallary, a girl I slightly knew and had classes with… girly girl, little ditzy but sweet… but this week I don’t mind shallow talks about shopping and clothes…its kind of relaxing almost! Anyway, I also talked to Holly Hatlo, who I didn’t know very well, a lot and that was nice.
The speakers were a refugee from North Korea and Mike Horowitz who is an activist for religious freedom in general and NK freedom specifically. It was very good and moving… lots of hope that a regime change will happen this year if Americans are willing to support it by refusing to economically support China while they are keeping the NK regime alive.
In other news—we got a Secretary today! Everyone was kinda relieved the waiting process for Secretary Rice’s confirmation is over. She comes in tomorrow and I will have a chance to meet her and hear her speak. I am excited.
Frustration of the day: Major newspapers including NYT found a frontpage place for Hillary Clinton’s encouragement to an abortion rights group on Tuesday. They found a backsection small place to mention that 100,000 people had marched in Washington AGAINST Abortion on the same day. Why was Hillary’s speech to a hundred people news and why are a couple hundred protesters fighting for a liberal cause ALWAYS news while 100,000 people a/g abortion ISN’T news? Ergh. I hate the media.

Quote of the day:
Somebody told me how frightening it was how much topsoil we are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire and nobody got scared. - Jack Handy

And my stupid sign of the day—on a mattress store I pass on the way home… says “Better sleep through science”… I know what the MEAN, but to me that conjures up the image of students sleeping through science class… doesn’t it sound like a suggestion? “Ya better sleep through science so you’re awake for math class”… somethin’ like that. =)

Earth-shaking happening of the day: John Ponce arrived! I heard the labor and delivery story from Mom tonight, but Deb you and Jess still owe me versions when you get a chance (she gets a bigger grace period…=) …. I can’t wait to see him…

Oh, and I also found out Tori (my aunt) is pregnant with twins…which is really cool cause she’s ALWAYS wanted twins and she’s also always said that it would be like God for her to get pregnant w/twins with her 6th child and this was her 6th… except now it’s 6th and 7th…and that’s really cool. Oh, just realized that’ll mean I have two sets of twin-first -cousins. That’s kinda unusual I think..esp. one on each side.

Have a good day!
Marc/marco/#2/Martha/me

Time for Tuesday

Today was one of those days you can only explain illustrate its busyness by sharing biological facts: you know you’re busy when nature calls at 8:30 am and is still waiting to be responded to at 5:45 pm.
Wow, it was so full it’s hard to even start to talk about it! Ok, so I went to Heritage this morning… (If you don’t know, Heritage is a conservative think tank,,,) I went through a quick paperwork orientation etc, a really nutso tour (the girl giving the tour was a little disoriented…we started on the 7th floor of a 7 floor blg, went down to the 5th floor, then to the 1st, then to the 6th, then the other part of the 7th, then the 4th, then 2nd, finally third, and ended up where I’m going to be working though by that time I’d forgotten what floor I was on!) anyways, I met with Steve Johnson, the Latin American analyst I’ll be assisting. He’s a really nice guy… gave me a quick rundown on his ideology and what he considers major issues in LA right now…I kinda knew that stuff since I read his publications. He talked a little about where heritage fits into the scheme of think tanks as a conservative but not libertarian… as well as the difference in how they completely separate their funding from their research fellows… I didn’t know this but I guess other think tanks use their analysts as fundraisers and if you’re making money based on what you do or don’t say that kinda reduces the clarity of your research. Anyways, then he talked a little about the research he wants me to do…and how he wants to use me to go to mtgs in the area a/b latin America and take notes for him since he can’t go to everything and it’ll give me a chance to meet the who’s who of Latin American policy analysts from all over the world. Then I got a computer orientation (if one more person explains to me how to send an email this month! AHHH!) and got ANOTHER email address for Heritage (I’m up to 9 addresses I regularly check now…) … Then Steve Johnson asked me to play hostess for this mtg of Mexican congressmen/women that were coming to Heritage for lunch to meet with Steve and discuss the need for Mexicans to not see any joint military/border control work with the US as an encroachment on their sovereignty. THAT was interesting since I’d never met any foreign govnt elected official like that I don’t think… and oc they didn’t speak English so I got to practice using my usted formal verb forms! It was relatively simple and fascinating, however. Talk about getting thrown into the mix!
I left that lunch and literally RAN (well, I was sitting on the metro but I ran the walking part) to the State Dept, arriving just in time to pick up a key to the main auditorium and go escort the NAE Student group that was arriving. Btw, for clarification, this the annual National Assoc. of Evangelicals student leadership conference, which I attended through Asbury last year and is how I got interested in doing internships here….
Anyways, I didn’t realize our office had to sign all the students in (w/temp id cards) since we’re the hosts. That took a long while, but it was very funny cause Dr. Neff was surprised to see me doing that (I told him I would be at the state dept I think but he forgot…) and started telling Rich Czicik (sic), who is like one of the directors of the NAE who oversees this student conference all about me and how I was one of his students etc.. So Rich gets all excited cause I’m like a “success story” to them since their hope is that these students in the program will get interested enough to go back to DC for an internship… then he ended up introducing me to everyone and telling them to ask ME questions about internships which I got swamped w/ but anyways…
The other thing that was funny is that Dr. Neff and Stan Wiggam (Asbury director of admissions) had to wait for ME before they were allowed to enter the auditorium since I was technically their escort and the state dept follows those rules carefully. Dr. Neff and I both laughed over the idea of him needing ME to give permission for him to go anywhere. Anyways, so then I was asked to intro the ambassador, which I REALLY didn’t want to do cause I don’t know his bio well at ALL and was unprepared, so Rich ended up doing it, thank God. One of the President’s assts came over to speak too since he can’t be there when they go for the white house briefing… The whole mtg went well …except Arthur (Asbury student) got really really sick the security guard came to tell me he was throwing up in the bathroom…so I had to go get J-Ed (other Asbury student) to go get him so I could put him in a taxi to go back to the hotel. Poor guy is really really sick… anyways, I didn’t realize I would end up practically running the whole mtg…THAT was a strange situation since I feel like a student but I was not in the studen’ts position and even rich was asking me how to schedule the speakers and everything… it was funny cause Dr neff was acting so proud of me (he reminded me of grandpa the way he was talking to everyone about me) … and some of the Asbury students were rather confused to see me since they didn’t know where I was etc… and then I had these brown-nosing homeschooler-appearing students (non-asbury) coming up wanting to see if I can get them a couple minutes to talk to the Ambassador… which I was not going to do obviously cause he’s way too busy and they weren’t allowed to go anywhere w/o me escorting them anyway. Besides, they just wanted to get an in in hopes of an internship and there is NO way he would remember them a year from now…he had completely forgotten he was speaking at this thing until I reminded him! Then he didn’t know what to speak on so I reminded him what he spoke on last yr and it was funny cause he started his speech today with “last year Rich asked me to speak on …. So I’m going to do that again…” and o/c the only way he knew what rich asked him to do last yr was cause I reminded him! Very funny to me…. Anyways, the whole experience was kinda strange…being on the other side of the blue badge and stepping up to lead. Makes you realize how unglorified some things really are…. And it was also funny cause I felt like a celebrity with everyone asking me the questions and Rich making over me like I’m the NAE’s prize student (when he didn’t know my NAME earlier this morning and even when he did mention me he said “Martha Harrison” until Dr. neff corrected him!=)… Very amusing...he even made me pose for pictures with the ambassador and prez’s asst… you KNOW how I HATE pictures…
Anyways, so when I finally escorted the last student out of the building and made this mad rush across the building to turn in the auditorium key before 5 oclock I was EXAUSTED…I also hadn’t eaten all day. So I finally got to my office, got out my classified harddrive (we have to lock EVERYTHING classified up at night) and checked my State email I was SWAMPED with work—all KINDS of info to add to the memo for Sec Rice and legislative emails and just STUFF… and I wanted to be at the NAE dinner at 6pm to hear this Economics expert. So I rushed through what had to be done tonight, and plan on going in super early tomorrow to catch up… then the Amb. Starts handing me misc. projects but fortunately those can wait til tomorrow too. I never even saw my Deb Schneider (my supervisor) today…it was too crazy! So I locked things back up and ran to the metro to arrive just a few minutes late for dinner.
Sat between a group of Evangel students and a professor from Lancaster Bible College. I quickly established the Evangel students were too snotty to talk to me (I had the same experience with Evangel students last yr… for some reason the fact that I’m A/G but haven’t chosen to attend an A/G school makes me a traitor…) so I talked to the professor instead. I really enjoyed talking to all the professors who bring students to this thing (it’s colleges from around the country-usually one prof and a few students)… This prof (I forgot his name) was rather interesting to pick his brain and experiences during dinner… lived in Kenya w hile, teaches a zillion subjects from history to sociology since it’s a small bible college w/limited staff. While I enjoyed talking to him and mean him no disrespect, I was overwhelmed once again with how blessed I was at Asbury with incredibly intelligent professors. I learned this last yr when I got to know profs from other colleges as well: not all college professors are particularly smart or wellversed in their fields. I was spoiled at Asbury. Even those professors with whom I often disagree (in non history subjects) or I felt like had liberal influences on their teachings, they are ALL very intelligent and I always have found it easy to hold profound respect for the level of knowledge and experience they old. That is not true in many other colleges, I have found. For example, this history professor who did his undergrad and graduate work in history, couldn’t even give me a period or type of history in which he was particularly interested. Further discussion seemed to reveal his knowledge was limited to textbook chapter summaries. A VERY sweet and sociable man… but I don’t think I could respect him as a professor when he holds no ability to think philosophically or converse intellectually. I was blessed beyond what I realize!
Anyways, the speaker was REALLY good tonight. I wasn’t sure what to expect—the president of Americans for Tax Reform. Sounds boring, no? It was HILARIOUS! He had such a good way of stating conservative arguments while keeping me in hysterics. In talking about the need for privatizing Social Security, he pointed out that under the current system it is in the it is in the government’s best interest if we all die at age 67 and it is not healthy to have a government against our longevity! I learned from him too… he explained why the budget deficit is such a ridiculous thing to be worried about because by focusing on that we’re fretting over where the Govnt gets the money its spending and it doesn’t make a big difference if they borrow 10% and steal 90% or if they just steal the whole 100% cause the point is they shouldn’t be spending big money, not where are they getting it to spend! He defined the deficit as the Govnt spending more than they’re stealing from taxpayers… and explained how the focusing on erasing the deficit is a distraction from the real issue which is lowering taxes and creating a flat income tax rate. I also like the way he put the ridiculousness of worrying about a trade deficit: they get paper, we get stuff, why do we think we’re losing in that deal?! Ok, I’ll stop on economics but I have to repeat one more thing…when the subject of Europeans came up he said “Europeans..hmm, well first of all, all the smart people left there a long time ago and came here so we just have leftovers there to deal with” … Anyways, perhaps its boring to read about what he said but it was fascinating to hear and I was glad I went even though I was so tired I almost didn’t.
Wow, at the current rate this blog is turning into a book! There were a zillion more small things that happened today that made it both crazier and more enjoyable… Oh, couple thoughts on Heritage… my workspace is in a room with a ton of other interns all crammed in… and I don’t know if I’m missing something or something happened before I got there, but the atmosphere is TENSE in that room! No one SPEAKS to eachother or even acknowledges one-another’s presence, even though they’re shoulder to shoulder working. It’s all really strange. The only other intern starting today was a homeschooler-looking refuse-to-crack-a-smile type so I wonder if conservative interns are just not as pleasant as the liberal interns at the State Dept? Seems strange. Hopefully I can crack some shells and get to know some of the heritage interns a little better. They all seem SO SO much older than me! I felt like a child…they all look at least 25! Oc, their internship program is so competitive that maybe that’s why? I don’t know, seems strange to me.
Anyways, I’ll stop cause this will take too long to read and I need to try and get to bed soon cause I had a hard time getting up today and it will be much earlier tomorrow.
Miss you,
#2/Marc/Marco/Martha/me

Monday Meanderings...

Well, technically its after midnight and that makes this Tuesday but its Mondays blog anyway. It seems an eternity ago that the alarm jerked me out of my dream of snow melting and flooding the city and back to the reality it was time to go to work…

This morning was staff meeting which I always enjoy as a time to get to know the other IRF officers better. Lots of talk about the inaugural address and how it affects IRF. Some argue that its great words but Secretary Rice won’t back it up, other argue the opposite. Regardless, everyone’s happy that the official policy of the executive branch of the government backs up the office’s mission…particularly important since its so disliked by other State Dept offices who see it as a Christian movement.

I spent much of the day working on a memo package for Secretary Rice. I’m figuring out all the formatting and drafting so we can present her with specific decisions regarding sanctions on the nations with severe religious persecution. It’s an interesting project though its requiring a lot of legislative research which is new to me. Kinda cool protocol says it all has to have my name on it…any grammar mistakes Dr. Rice catches reflect directly on me =)

At noon the Ambassador asked me to join him to go participate in the rally kicking off the national march for life today. It was my first, obviously, at the national rally and the size was overwhelmingly huge. It was so cold today that everyone was miserable so the turnout was even more remarkable. Several senators and congressmen spoke and then Amb. Hanford talked to them afterwards since the allies of the pro-life movement are generally the same allies of the IRF movement. Amb Hanford is a former senator so he knows many of them that way too. I found out my fave Senator went from evangelical to catholic this year (Brownback of Kansas) so that’s a little strange and something I want to look into.

It was so cold out there I thought my toes would be gone by the time we returned to heat. The president spoke via live phone for a few minutes (he’s at camp david w/dr. rice) and it was interesting to be in such a pro-Bush crowd for once. Oc, the large majority of the crowd was from out-of-state. Saw Randall Terry talking to everyone—blast from the past. Amb. Hanford is from N.C. so he knew him from protest days in Charlotte. Funny what a small world… Alan Keyes and various other senators spoke as well before the actual march kicked off and we headed back to get stuff done at the office.

About mid-afternoon I looked out the window and was shocked to see it snowing AGAIN. It just keeps coming. The closed schools early because of the cold. Ironic to me, since classrooms are heated and in Arequipa I have often taught classes while bundled up and shivering cold without heat so it seems sad they have so little resistance to cold here!

I was happy to get my assignment back today and get an A. I’m still confused as to the professor’s preferences since he give me good grades but edits some of my writing to make it more secular. Perhaps he tries to be moderate on some issues where I am strongly conservative. Hard to read into little comments he makes but he does think I’m skeptical because I refused to embrace any utopian ideas of bettering the world. Perhaps I am, but if so, it is only because I fear the destructive power of utopian lies.

Tomorrow I start at the Heritage Foundation. Should be a new and interesting addition to my life. One more way to keep busy.

Miss you,
Marc/marco/Martha/#2/me

Snowy Sunday

Well, I finally completed my assignment for school, so I am free! Of course, the fact the prof gives out the following weeks’ assignments early creates this perpetual feeling of behindness even right after turning one in. Actually, I really didn’t like this week’s reading. It was a lot of different articles and chapters by different authors but it all equated to socialistic utopian lies. I sure hope we were supposed to see that and slam it cause I did! If not, oh well. I’d be surprised to discover this prof isn’t as conservative as I’d once thought… But I don’t think anyone w/more in their head than a Harvard education can possibly believe that crap. It’s more idealistic than ridding the world of tyranny! Actually, I referenced that in my analysis—though I didn’t mention Bush by name. The prof has been sending all of us a lot of diff articles on the address. I don’t know how he really felt about it. When I talked to Dr. Neff about it today I was glad to discover someone else who had the same exact reaction I did: neither positive nor negative. Ok, great goals, leaders are supposed to have vision, sounds good… but reality is it won’t happen cause we live in a fallen world and there will always be tyranny and the govnt can’t bring true social and political freedom in the absence of spiritual freedom. As Dr. Neff said though, idealism is far better than cynicism. Perhaps my analysis of these papers was a little cynical but it makes me angry because it is the exact same ideology that made the Cold War last so long—and the price for that was paid in lives.

Ok, I’ll get off my political … umm, what do we call that? Not footstool…not pedestal… oh, you know what I mean I’m sure but the word for the thing you say you’re standing on when you’re lecturing is completely evading me at the moment. Anyways…

We got more snow last night…but not nearly as much as further north so I could still get out. Since where I’ve been going to church is directly accessible from the metro they didn’t cancel services when other churches did. However, Union Station had a fire alarm go off during the first service and we all had to evacuate and stand outside in the cold. It brought back lots of Glide-Crawford memories from Asbury as we waited in the snow… Then the services ended up being combined with worship on either end and a sermon in between. It was a good service…esp. considering the distractions…

After church I went out to Arlington cemetery for a walk since I wanted to see it in the snow. I love finding a deserted spot and analyzing the gravestones…figuring out how old these men were as many died in active duty and how long their wives outlived them. Found one today where the son died and then the father died a couple days later. The mother survived them both by 30 years. I’m sure she had quite a tragic life’s story. It always overwhelms me to see the miles of gravestones of those who served our country. I just had to answer an essay question about what I consider America’s fate as a superpower. I hate it when what I really think is one thing and what I want to believe is another. The price that has already been paid for this nation is so high…how can that be thrown away now? I’m glad that our lives are being given in the service of a Kingdom that cannot be ruined by later generations.

After Arlington I went to the hotel where the Asbury team is staying to meet w/dr neff. The team was all at the holocaust museum, but he came back early since he’s been bringing a team to DC every year for like 20 years so the same exact museum routine gets a little old. We had a good talk for a few hours…I had lots of pent up questions I wanted his opinion on! We talked about everything from the future of Asbury as a Christian college to escatology and the antichrist…and as usual I came away with about 4 books I’m DYING to read now. Oh, I got something cool a couple weeks ago. I found a book designed to keep track of the books you want to read and to mark when you read them and notes on them etc… It’s so perfect for me since my list of books to read grows so much faster than I read! Ok…where was I? I paused to go order this one book I have to read cause Dr. Neff said it would help with my confusion on my grad school class. Anyways… it was a really good talk.

On my way home I stopped at the health food store, as Sunday has become my shopping day somehow. Shopping at this store (the only one convenient) has really been an eye-opening experience. Did you know, for example, that there is a such thing as organic lemonade? This is very different from non-organic lemonade which I’m sure has some evil component such as LEMONS… I also discovered there is no organic version of sauce mixes so they must be all inherently non-organic so they won’t even sell them. On the other hand, they do sell Haagen daz so they haven’t completed eliminated all real food =) I shop carefully now…having had two bad experiences: chicken teriyaki that turned out to be chicken flavor tofu and not real chicken…and organic crackers that are so earthy and organic they haven’t quite left the forest yet—they taste like bark. Ahh, the joys of a health food grocery store… but thus far I’ve avoided the “Organic Soil Juice” (ie-it MUST be mud!)…. And hey, maybe I’ll get smarter cause I had organic mac&cheese for dinner. ;)

Anyways, that was my day except for coming back and doing homework which I’ve already complained about. Oh, and I listened to Central’s service via internet. The women’s testimonies from the encounter weekend were…uh…emotional =) I knew the weekend had to have been miraculous when Mavis gave Deb walker a MICROPHONE (ky translation-that’s like givin’ mrs deitrich a mic) … the testimonies were good and made me cry…but I also had to laugh because over the radio they all sounded like weepy women! Oh, and whatever mavis did at the beginning didn’t translate over radio so I’ll have to get a first-hand account.

Now I’ll get to sleep cause I’m starting new hours tomorrow of 8-6 because I want to take one morning off a week for Heritage.

Happy Monday!

Marc/marco/#2/Martha/me

Snowed In

Well, the promised snow of the weekend has certainly arrived! Everything in D.C. shut down around 2pm when about 8 inches had fallen and it was still coming. I attempted to get to the Library of Congress to do some research and was there just long enough to get my library card when they shut down. But at least I got my card--I'm excited to have access because I absolutely love the library. I like any library but this is the ultimate! It's also my favorite building in D.C. I think... I took a walk down the mall before heading back--I try to do that everytime I'm downtown to appreciate where I am-- and it was snowing so hard I couldn't see the Washington Monument from about 100 yards away. Oc, the white does blend in! Everything was pretty deserted... and it would have been a great site for a snowball fight but I figured that picking a fight with one of the few strangers around might have been hazardous to my h ealth. =)
I stopped at starbucks and did homework for about an hour before heading home. I tend to get more done when I'm away from an internet connex... or when my connex is down here at the house cause it's down alot! This week's assignment is on a lot of different papers which makes it harder. My prof doesn't assign huge volumes of reading, but his excerpts are very specific which can be more confusing. My textbook is largely a conglomeration of different articles, and if he assigns a couple pages out of a 20 page articles, I often have to read the entire thing to understand the 2 pages enough to answer questions on it. I've made good progress though I think...so I'm not as far behind as I feared...for this week...
Backing up in my day, while I waited for my laundry to finish so I could leave this morning (I tried a new home drycleaning product...kinda cool!=) I tried the news and ended up that I caught the end of a movie..."Message in a Bottle"... I saw the movie in the theatre when it came out...i think I was 13 or 14..i remember cause i saw it with Amber and Erica and them wanting to do anything with me was a milestone at that age...ahh, the early teen years =) Anyways, I remember when I saw it I hated it and thought it was sad... but that didn't thwart me in watching the last 30 minutes today... don't see it if you haven't. I remembered that it's about a widower and his wife dies at the beginning so I thought THAT was why its sad...I FORGOT that after finally letting go of his wife and being ready to tell the new woman in his life that he loves her, HE dies and leaves HER a widow (well, minus the marriage part...)..so it's just a big circle of tragedy and completely hopeless. Oh well, at least I got my laundry done...
The snow delayed the Asbury team's arrival...I just talked to Dr. neff and they just arrived in Baltimore... I'm sure they'll be exhausted by the time they arrive in D.C. so I'll just try and catch up with them tomorrow.
I don't think I told anybody about the most asinine (sic) security check ever. I went to go pick up my metrochex...the govnt gives all employees some coupons for the metro to supplement transportation charges to and from work... and where I needed to go in to pick them up was 4 feet from the main entrance... but they made me go around the corner, take off my coat, gloves, scarf, hat, and sweater... walk through the metal detector...set it off... get scanned, gather my stuff...get redressed, get my bag... and THEN go back to the main entrance and pick up my metrochex. It took about 10 times as long to get through security as it would have for them to just hand them to me... the actual "picking up" process was 2 secs and since I was right THERE before i went thru security it made NO sense because if I had a bomb or a gun I would have used it when I walked in the door and not after I went around the corner and thru security. I didn't go anywhere after security that I didn't go before! Anyway, it kept three guys employeed putting people thru the check... the dept of transportation has never been known for efficiency... Ergh... Then today at the library of congress, I walked in the door, to the counter, got my card ( a 4 step process...it has a picture and everything!) and walked out. Then they had to check my bag to make sure I wasn't stealing any books... HELLO, I was within eyesight of the gaurd the entire time and never even went within 500 ft of a ROOM with books...much less near an actual book! It was insane...he was even inspecting my journal to make sure it didn't belong to the library of congress. I thought about making a pithy comment about not being famous enough for my journal to be in the national library but he looked a little serious for any jokes...
While I'm rambling about inconvienances..I had the excitment of getting stuck on the metro today! I was feeling so generous I gave up my place on the first train to wait for another so everyone else in a bigger hurry could get through. then the second train broke down one stop away from home and therefore ganna's saying "be sure no good deed will go unpunished" proved true. We sat for like 20 minutes and then they made us get off and wait for the next train. I won't make THAT mistake again...it's all push and shove to get on from now on!
I don't think I have any particularly brilliant thinking moments today. I promise not all my days are this boring to read about...I hope =)
#2/marc/marco/me

The First Two Weeks

Wow...I can't believe I've been here two weeks! So much has happened but then again its gone by fast. I've been slowly realizing I should keep a real blog, even though I resist it because I hate fads... it makes sense because I'm trying to keep several people up on my life and can easier tell the people I'm close to what's going on. I'm far behind in correspondance with almost everybody so if you don't know what's been going on...here's a summary:

At the State Dept:
I've been playing two basic roles: heading up the Latin American portion of the Office for International religious freedom, and assisting the Ambassador with whatever projects he is currently working on.
This has meant alot of my time has gone toward preparing briefing papers for the Ambassador before his meetings, going to meetings with people from various countries where there isn't religious freedom and taking notes on their testimonies so those can be used in our reports and all the U.S. contact with those countries can include pressure to increase religious freedom... I've also been working alot on Vietnam, because right now we are preparing an ultimatum for them that they have to release the pastors they have imprisoned and open the churches they have closed or else face economic sanctions. They are promising to do whatever we ask, but we have to get everything in the form of a binding agreement. this means I've been researching and gathering specifics about instances of religious persecution in Vietnam that have to stop as well as doing legislative research for the economic sanctions we will impose if they do not follow through. It's exciting work in that it's really accomplishing something! I've enjoyed my work alot.
This week I also start some part time work for the Heritage Foundation, assisting their head Latin American analyst with research projects. I am exciting about this opportunity to build a relationship with and work under someone I respect as one of the world's best conservative experts on Latin American issues. I know I will learn alot.

On the relationship/living situation front:
Everything with Lisa, my "housemate" has been working out fine. She's in her early fourties and works for a newspaper full-time. We get along fine though we are both very busy and don't see a ton of eachother. I am trying to build a relationship whenever I have the opportunity because I feel like the Lord wants to use me in her life. She considers herself a Christian but is mainly ritualistic about religion and doesn't seem to have a concept about relationship with Jesus.
I am getting along great with my coworkers at the State Dept. I really like the kind of people that are attracted to the work of the IRF office. Not all are Christians, but the non-Christians are largely open seekers and no one is anti-Christian, which most of the rest of the State Dept is.
Other than that, I've been pretty much a loner thus far. Since I love independence, that hasn't bothered me terribly. I miss everybody and have had a few lonely nights, but have been more emotionally stable than I expected! Of course, phone calls and emails have helped alot!

On the Life in D.C. Front:
All anyone asks me is if I've seen the president yet! The answers is finally YES! =) I caught part of the inaugural parade downtown yesterday, as found myself one of the few non Bush-haters in the crowd. Of course since only 9% of D.C. voted for Bush, that is not surprising. It was exciting to see the president anyway.
I have also heard speak and shook hands with Collin Powell, as he was on his way out of the office heading up the State Dept this week. I hope to see Condi Rice next week, she'll be coming in as soon as the Senate confirms here. It's proved to be an exciting time to be at the State Dept with all the changes occuring...I love watching the dynamics.
I've spent my weekends thus far mostly in museums...which I love of course! Just being in D.C. is such a blessing. Every morning on my way to work I watch the sunrise over the Washington Monument... and I keep telling myself not to take that for granted--even as I'm rushing along and freezing cold... Though I'm finding some things about city-life rather new and strange, I am thrilled to live so close to such wealths of historical information and locations.
I feel so much at the "center" of things here. Monday is the big march for life. The ambassador was confused and thought it was today so he dragged (drug?) me downtown today only to discover he was confused and it's not 'til monday! it'll be neat to be in town for that anyway.
Tomorrow the whole Asbury team arrives for the conference I went to last year. I do not know any of the students going very well, but I am very excited to see Dr neff and pick his brain about grad school questions.
Speaking of which...the other front of my life, Grad School, is going well thus far. As most of you know, I just have one online class: International politics. It's a lot more challenging than I was expecting but pretty good so far...I'm being forced to figure out what I believe about things i've never even thought about but I am also learning alot.
So that's a basic summary of the past two weeks! I'll try to put an entry here daily and then I'll email any additional thoughts that only apply to you... I really don't want this to seem impersonal and I'm only giving the site to those I am closest to because I want to be able to share my heart....and I'll warn you that aloneness has made me prone to philosophizing so feel free to skim!
Miss you!
Marc/Marco/Marcus/#2/Martha/me