Welcome to DC

I'm here - finally! I arrived yesterday with Jonathan and Stephan. We were the first to get to our site, except for Don of course, who stayed in New Windsor and walked 7 minutes to get to his project. It took about an hour to get from Baltimore to DC, and then we waited for an hour for our host to pick us up. Jonathan and Stephan are amAZed by the kindness here. Here's what happened on our first day:

- On the train, a guy heard where we were going and helped us make our stop. Then he helped us buy transfer tickets, got us through the turnstyle when Stephan's ticket didn't work, carried one of Stephan's bags, and dropped us off at our next train.

- While Stephan was waiting with our bags at Eastern Market station (Jonathan and I were finding food), a guy started talking to him about the city and gave him his number.

- When we went grocery shopping, the people in front of us in line and behind us in line started talking to us about DC, the best food markets, etc.

- When I got off the train in the evening, my ticket was for the wrong price, and I didn't have 65 cents, and the station manager just let me through.

After the first event, J & S both said about 5 times, "that would never, ever, ever happen in Germany." Apparently people from the South think that DC is cold and harsh, and people from the North think it's super friendly. I think it's super friendly!

Our house manager, Danielle, picked us up at the station and gave us a very brief tour of the house. Then I took a nap and the three of us ventured out to buy some groceries for our evening meal. Danielle had warned us about "sticker shock" in DC, and she was right - I bought a loaf of bread for $4! Between the three of us, we probably got 4 bags of groceries for $50. I went from eating for about $2 a day, to at least $15 dollars a day. BVS is going to exhaust their budget on us...

The house is old and a little run down, in Capital Hill, a nice area. Danielle said I could walk from the Metro station to my house at night by myself. Nice! The house is three stories, with a kitchen and bathroom on each floor. I would much rather have another living room than 2 extra kitchens... The basement has windows above ground and a living room. I live on the top floor with a roommate, Daniela (Dani) from Germany. There are now 4 Germans living here (11 people altogether). Dani got here 2 weeks ago from Germany, so we will be newbies together. She will only be here for 3 months. She works as an intern at the UN in some Latin American office - she speaks Spanish all day at work. I really like her!

The whole house is kind of like The Barn, only more transitional since people arrive and leave at all times of the year. The cupboards for instance, have a random assortment of pots and spoons all kind of shoved together. I couldn't find any lids! Nobody was home in the evening to welcome us except Dani, but my Goshen connections pulled through as I thought they might. I can't believe how many Goshen-ites are here... Dani and I met up with Hilary, Maryan, Landon, Dominique, Benj Yoder, Anna Mast, Micah Jost, Glenn. The last three were visiting, but still! We hung out at Dominique's apartment (they all live like 3 blocks away from each other, but across town from me), and then went to a really great club. There was no cover charge, everybody was dancing, people weren't too dressed up, and there were some great oldies mixed in with new music. Meanwhile, Jonathan and Stephan were at the house when some people came home, and they all went out together. I'm glad that worked out.

So! What else? We have a flat roof that is accessible, a little garden & picnic table out back, and a house bike. There's a house computer too, but most people seem to have laptops, which is great for me. I hate typing on laptops because my hand always brushes the cursor area, and the cursor jumps all over while I'm typing. Plus it's nice to have an English keyboard with the "y" and "z" in the "right" places. (I've been borrowing German laptops.) The ceilings in the house are tall, my room has three windows and a sink, the roads and sidewalks are wide, and the city is short. That is, there aren't many skyscrapers or anything, and the city is broader than it is tall. In that way it reminds me of Minneapolis more than say, Philly. It's really pretty (from what I've seen). We live about 5 blocks from the Capital Building, but I haven't seen it yet. There will be soooo much to see in this city - parks, museums, universities, rivers, governmental stuff. Maybe I'm in the honeymoon stage after all!

My address here is:
643 G. St. SE
Washington DC
20003

I don't know the house phone # yet. Ok, time to do some exploring. I have Monday off of work, so more time to settle in. It's been great to hear from you guys. I got one snail mail at orientation and it was so exciting and unexpected!