The Adventures of Trooper Gabi: After Spring Break

I will write more about my spring break tomorrow but I first I am going to give everyone an update on my Georgetown life ever since Spring break because it has been eventful and busy week (where I not really doing any real school work). So I came back and had to catch up with my friends (returning from short breaks are the best because you had so many adventures yet you only did not see each other for a short enough of a time period that it feels like nothing happens... its weird!). So once I get back at Georgetown on Sunday I am once again at the Tombs on Monday (I wonder how one of my posts without the Tombs would fare? I bet it would be rather short) where I would get this pin for St. Paddy's Day that said "Irish Power at the Tombs 2010" which I decided to wear everywhere (even to class... not as cool as pajamas to class but still pretty cool). Suddenly I realized I was so excited for St. Paddy's Day. I had never been excited for St. Paddy's Day. I had always gone to parties for St. Paddy's Day since my freshman year and I knew everyone loved it but this year it was different because I was pumped (I had a butterflies in my stomach feeling for two days prior to it). As a result I wore my pin everywhere and wished I was a Black Irish (cannot pull off the normal Irish because of my Spanish roots). I do not believe it was just my Dublin experience because that happened prior to my St. Paddy's Day in London (although my Dublin experience was epic with baby-sized fish and chips, Irish breakfast, Irish Coffee and Irish pubs!). On the actual day I went to the Tombs to see my Irish friend do some Irish dancing with the Georgetown Irish Dance Team and have an Irish car bomb myself (not as epic when one of my friends did not go to confession to have her first drink, an Irish car bomb, during Holy Week). At the Tombs I wore red because I had no green (I made everyone look like it was Christmas which is even better than St. Paddy's).

Then my weekend consisted of a lot of stuff. It was epic! I left campus three times within 24 hours (I sometimes do not leave campus for two whole weeks so I think I might not leave now until Easter Break just because I left so much in one day). The first night consisted of the Fish Fry (this is supposedly a Midwest thing which might explain why I have never heard of it... actually I just do not get the Midwest). I won a t-shirt in the raffle (it actually had some green... it was my luck that it was no longer needed despite my St. Paddy's day party later in the night!). There I also ate a lot of hushpuppies (I have no idea what they are but they are delicious). I had so much hushpuppies that I just needed to go back to lay in my bed for an hour just to digest the food before I could take a half-hour nap (might also be exacerbated by taking a keg by myself three blocks, including the giant 35th Street hill just because I was dared to do so... the guy at Dixie's knew I could do it because he saw I had determination). I also saw that Dixie's (the liquor store) does not accept Puerto Rican ID's and had a sign that said that they will not take your ID unless you look like you are at least 40 (First, I do not want to look like I am 40. Secondly, why? why? why?). Then after my successful nap (I actually have only a success rate of about 50% in my naps) So then I could get ready for the Knights of Columbus St. Paddy's/ St. Joseph's Day Party (St. Joseph's Day was ignored in favor of the drinking friendly St. Paddy's... it's the equivalent of the Cinco de Mayo). There I had car bombs with four of my girlfriends where I drank it faster than everyone else (one of my girlfriends is a pure Irish girl that can drinks like no other and the other one, midnight J, just spent a whole semester in Scotland also drinking a lot... I am still a lightweight but my chugging skills are unparalleled, possibly because of my constant water chugging). I would end my night at 4 because the party was just so good and there were people that needed help going home (it always happens!).

The next day I went to Tombs brunch and it vaguely reminded me of Leo's brunch on the weekend where people go to recount their shameful stories of the previous nights. Normally we eat breakfast by ourselves the night after a party so you lose that sense of community through shame (also Tombs has a much better environment that Leo's so it is definitely much better). As much as I rant against Leo's I do miss it. Let me clarify I do not miss the food (although the breakfast would be nice and I believe that if I had a block plan I would use it all in breakfast... I really do love breakfast!). What I do miss the social atmosphere of it (it is much harder to socialize when you do not have a common meeting place). Therefore, I just love brunching and I can eat breakfast for any meal (I love eggs, hash browns, and waffles... there are just so many good breakfast foods). Then later in the day I would actually study a bit (I did not really do a lot of that during the weekend... when I actually do some of my work is a question with no real answer). After that I would go to Bangkok Bistro where I decided to eat sushi (I am really trying hard to be vegetarian but sushi is my real downfall... actually I can now expand that to seafood as a whole food category). Then I would watch the final minutes of the Kansas-Northern Iowa game where I would be rooting for Kansas to lose (I do like underdogs but I never knew I would like something from Iowa so much). Then after that we would watch Beauty and the Beast (it is truly my favorite Disney movie and Belle is my favorite). I could go on and on in my romantic mode about how it really represents true love (despite one of my friends trying to say that it has bestiality and the Stockholm syndrome... stop breaking my dreams of true love!). One of my friends would point out how my night was just a Triumvirate of B2 (things those initials are BB). Then as I was returning home and stopping by Vital Vittles to get myself some sweets because it was Sunday and I needed my weekly dose of sweets when someone called my name from 20 feet. It was my friend MT with a group of her friends, including a Guatemalan visitor. She invited me to a club and like the "Trooper" that I am I would say yes immediately without having any idea where I was going. Only that everyone was going and that I knew most of them. I was nearly killed in hugs (I was dumbfounded for about 10 minutes because of what happened... I cannot say no to my friends... ever). It made it so funny because my friend, midnight J, who I had been most of the night with and had just seen her 20 minutes texted me that she was going to the Tombs with her friend from Scotland and all I could sketchily reply was: "Currently in New York Avenue." We ended up in Northeast DC in a place called Warehouse (it was a literal warehouse!). There we danced to techno (so London and I loved it). Then we left because it was already 3 and our Guatemalan visitor had to leave.

Then on Sunday morning I did Tombs brunch again (I can do brunch everyday... especially when I get to eat coffee cakes, poached eggs and brownies in one meal). Then I would go off campus to a lecture on Catholic University (second time off-campus in a day but wait for it because there is one more). Then I would return to work in the RHO and go to Lau 5 after that (I had not gone to Lau 5 in forever and I knew I needed to reconnect with it... it feels ignored). Then at 9 I would leave off-campus again for a third and final time within 24 hours with my friend B2, midnight J, and midnight J's roommate from Scotland. We would go to the Dubliner (irish pub by the Capitol). I would have Magners for the first time since leaving London and had fish and chips (British and Irish fish and chips are still better). We then saw that people were congregating around the TV to watch the health care reform vote (Joke: You know you are in Washington when people are watching the news in a pub rather than March Madness). Due to the high probability of two of us getting a heart attack we decided to leave to see people cry in front of the Capitol when te Senate voted (also what better thing is there to do than walking through the DC at midnight on Sunday?!?!). Instead of seeing proponents and opponents of the health care bill we would see the stragglers for the immigration protest (like anyone would pay attention to them during the middle of the health care debate?). I considered going to the immigration rally due to my connection with it through my spring break experience but I was too busy (also nothing has connected with me except the March for Life... which remains the only protest I have gone to while in DC despite the fact that I do in fact live in the political capital of the world). After that we would keep on walking through the monuments (and taking pictures). Finally we got to the Washington Memorial where we decided to take jumping pictures in front of it (we would take about 50 pictures until we got a perfect one of just 3 of us). Then two guys offered to take the picture of all 4 of us together. After some problems understanding each other and 10 other pictures we finally got a good picture (even though midnight J looked like a fallen angel and B2 looked demonic). Then the guys would strike up a conversation with us and when I found out they were Brazilian I could not resist speaking to them in Portugese (they said I spoke Portuguese well but I have not decided if they were being sincere or they were just hitting on me). So after that they asked to take a picture with us and we reluctantly agreed to do it. So they got a guy to take it (do not be surprised if our pictures end up in Brazil). Then we decided to go back to Georgetown. However, before we went our separate ways we decided that we needed another so we got on top of the John Carroll (stuff that we have to do before graduating... but I don't want to graduate?!?!?!?). There I would look pretty (What do you expect?). Then I needed to go to bed because even I need to sleep.

Adventures of Trooper Gabi to be continued...