Langley in D.C.

My great-great Aunt's house is covered wall-to-wall in things she has brought back from seventy-something years of travel: zebra and giraffe masks in the stairwell leading to the basement, green and blue china on glass shelves, a brass hookah pipe, Russian nesting dolls. She was born in 1921, went to college, never got married, worked, [...]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SWKzF2h6ms&feature=youtu.be Jan 1-5: Liam visited D.C. and we met up with friends, made pasta, went to Smithsonian museums, and treated ourselves to some sushi!Jan 6: back to workJan 7-8: first real D.C. snow was magical but didn't last long...Jan 9: Ailih and I happily on our way to a speak to the YAV board 🙂 [...]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsAwHHCXPvU&feature=youtu.be December was a cozy month. The YAV house watched lots of Christmas movies and I successfully made risotto for the first time. I met up with friends, went to the Newseum and won a gingerbread house competition with the YAVs. The YAVs also participated in "The Longest Night," a night in memorial of those [...]

Yesterday, my co-workers and I stopped what we were doing, gathered around our TV, and waited for President Trump to make a public statement on Iran. We were hoping he wouldn't go off script. We were hoping we wouldn't go to war. It was incredibly stressful, and I carried that stress downstairs with me to [...]

Every Sunday night, the YAV house gathers in our living room with our site coordinator, Blair, for dinner and devotions. This week, while the Netflix "fireplace for your home" burned and crackled on the tv, Blair asked us to go around in a circle and name one thing we felt grateful for. The common thread [...]

https://youtu.be/Agxx0l0Jro8 I wasn't as good at recording one second every day in October and November. It was both a busy and a restful month. My Dad got married, I settled more into my work placements, and various friends came through D.C. The YAVs settled into our cozy house together (and watched a lot of Scandal), [...]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=undj73PzdxI&feature=youtu.be Here is a 30-second snapshot of what my first month as a YAV in D.C. looked like, one second of every day! Aug 26 -- Traveling by train from Orientation at Stony Point to D.C.Aug 27 -- Our first day in D.C.! Here's a view of the Capitol Building.Aug 28 -- Walking by Library [...]

This week, I published my first blog with the Office of Public Witness. Writing a blog for OPW was a bit different than writing for my personal YAV blog, because it was more driven by argument and policy, rather than emotions or reflecting on personal experience. Here's what I wrote (edited by Christian Brooks, Representative [...]

We hopped on the X2 bus to meet Debra on Hopscotch Bridge. Sara, Sam, Jack, Ailih, Keyah, and I had just crossed the street when we heard a yell from a car driving past: "Helloooo, YAVs!" A man helped Debra unload her walker from her car and she gathered the six of us near to [...]