Bone Marrow Drive

15 minutes, 4 do-it-yourself cheek swabs,
3 page questionnaire, 1 envelope,
and the chance to save a life.

Thursday Thirteen #6

Thirteen Things I did over break...a few hours early Pictures included because I don't like to read posts without pictures to look at. 1. Visited floormate at her home in NYC and got really excited over the fact that she has a doorman and all those fancy New York amenities. 2. Rode the subway ALL BY MYSELF to get there and was completely horrified by the uncleanliness factor. I think I've become a public transportation snob. 3. Saw a show on Broadway (The Drowsy Chaperone) and waited outside the stage door for autographs. (Bob Saget) 4. Did the obligatory holiday tour of the city 5. Got mad at BadBank once again (see post below) because using that card with a certain sports team glorified all over it really pissed off one cashier. It's just a game people! 6. Did not, unfortunately, overhear anything worthy of being sent to overheardinnewyork.com 7. Had a big family shindig (not in the city). It was nice because this may be the last one certain grandparents will be attending. 8. Visited various relatives and friends with incurable illnesses and/or cancer. It seems like there are so many people with cancer this year. This was definitely the "sick holiday." We've done a lot of reflecting and spending time together. 9. Went to New Hampshire to intern for a political campaign and held signs outside in below zero weather. Hey, we're freezing for our future. I also got yelled at A LOT on the phone by pissed off voters who just want the primary to be OVER AND WE KNOW WHO WE'RE VOTING FOR SO STOP BOTHERING US, OKAY?!?!. 10. Met the Candidate several times and Candidate's spouse once and was in a photo for a CNN article. (Although it wasn't a favorable article for the Candidate). 11. Met some really friendly volunteers working on different campaigns (as well as some totally crazy ones). 12. Came home briefly and in time for my mom to host a dinner party where the guests hadn't seen me since i was "just this tiny little girl hanging on to your mom and now you're all grown up and working in politics" etc. etc. 13. Made a donation to Locks of Love. Happy 2008, everyone!

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Thursday Thirteen #4

Some things from my recent trip to Guatemala. Enjoy!

Thirteen Things I did in Guatemala
1. Traveled with a group called Friendship Bridge (Puente de Amistad) that gives microloans to poor women to start their own businesses to help their families. www.friendshipbridge.org

2. Brushed my teeth in the street!
3. Stayed in the very beautiful and very colorful Antigua.

4. Crossed the breathtaking Lake Atitlan

5. Drove part of the Pan-American Highway

6. Bought local crafts

7. Took local transportation

8. Saw "temporary" camps for people displaced due to a hurricane induced mudslide. They have been living in these camps for 2 years now.

9.Met with groups of women in the program

10. Made home visits to see the improvement in the quality of life the program provides...and gave gifts to their children

11. Got burned! The burn on my arm then turned into a lovely trucker's tan.

12. Played Mad-Libs in Spanish (that is hard to do!)

13. Heard these women's stories and realized microlending is how we are going to end poverty!
...and we did much more!

One of my favorites: 16-year-old Juana. She is such a brave entrepreneur.

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Middle Eastern Stalker

Here's the whole (illustrated) story:
Over spring break I did a program in Washington, D.C.The program was run by Presidential Classroom and was called Future World Leaders Summit. (Yes, we had fun calling ourselves future world leaders of America). It was awesome because there were students from all over the world there. I was part of the Jordanian delegation.
(By the way, don't google image Jordan, apparantly a lot of strippers have that name, too)

We really bonded as a group and were known as the closest delegation there. One of the best moments was our street dancing for money.
Then, we tried to give all the money away to strangers and found that they are much ruder when you are trying to give them money than asking them for it.

Long story short, the week passed with visits to all the great places of DC. We were lucky enough to be there the week the cherry trees blossomed.At one point, we went to the senate building and accidentally stumbled into the hearing chamber (where people like Justice Alito - who we saw - are interviewed by the senators before approval). The room was supposed to be locked. It was really dark so we saw some buttons on the wall but our counsellor said maybe we shouldn't start randomly pushing buttons in a room of a government building that the security guards had told us not to go into in the first place. So we stumbled around in the dark and used the flash on cameras to see the room.

One of my roomates goes to a therapy school because she started sleeping around a lot when she was fourteen (lovely). She had to stay there for the first two years and could not even go home for Christmas (her parents were allowed to send her one present). Her therapist reads the letters she sends to her parents and friends, there is no rap music allowed, bed time is 8:30 and, if you open your door after then, an alarm goes off. She will be graduating in two months. There was soooo much drama around her it was like rooming with an episode of Laguna Beach.

The stalker part: There was one boy in the Jordanian delegation who began to get....close....to me. I noticed he started following me around and would sit next to me whenever he could. He followed me all around the Georgetown bookstore and put his arm around me several times. Kinda clingy and protective. Once I got back, he sent me this email:

hey!! how are you!!!! hope that you are fine!!! how did you do in the SAT exam!!!!

you know something, i didn't dry for 6 years, but when i knew that you left without saying goodbye to tou i cried......

nahida told me that you came and you were searching for me am sooooooooo sorry about what happened i hope that we will meet again....

i want to tell you something, i really liked you, you are the most beatiful grl i ever seen in my life, you have an amazing eyes, i really liked you and i hope that we can stilll together for the rest of my life....

thank you for everything, am so happy because i met person like you, hope to see you

(He means he had not Cried in 6 years - he was the least good at English out of all of the Jordanians)

The next day, he sent me this:

marhaba "hi", how are you!!!

so you have to visit jordan :) am fine the plane ride was good we had fun together

i hope that we will meet again and i hope that you will get a high mark in the SAT exam, we will be friends forever i will try to mail you everyday even if i only say "hi" to you just to keep in touch

by the way, i really meant what i said and i will never forget your picture

see you, yella

(yella is an Arabic word we all had a lot of fun saying and became an inside joke for our delegation).

Then yesterday I got this email:

hey lucy, am fine, how are you!! i remember that it was so funny i will ever never forget it and i will not forget ur eyes while we were looking at each other at the dinner...

ya i saw the pictures and i havfe pictures i will send them to u soon

hope to c u

bbye

best wishes

So, when do we think he will lose interest? (I'm kinda glad he is so far away so he can't "drop by." Bye the way, I do not remember looking into his eyes during the dinner. A and I have been calling him Saddam.

Totally unrelated: The girls from Japan were so cute and had really neat names.