Church at the Movies and Marmon from Senegal

"You guys, it's 26 degrees outside."

This was the voice of my wonderful roommate Danielle as I woke up yesterday morning (Sunday) to get ready for church.

It was indeed cold, but fortunately it was sunny - that helps.

We went to church at National Community Church, which is a church that has five different locations across DC, and they all meet in movie theaters. The pastor travels to three of the different locations for three different service times and then the locations that aren't blessed with his presence watch him on satellite.

We went to the location in Union Station, which is about a 15 minute walk away from the apartments. It's one of the two closest metro locations to us, so the walk doesn't seem like any big deal at all anymore.

But there was a live band in the front of the theater, and it was very contemporary. Watching the pastor give the message on a movie theater screen was a bit of a trip, but after having been to Rock Harbor a couple of times back at school, it wasn't too weird for me. He gave a fantastic message out of Philippians 4 that really hit home. I could definitely see myself going back there.

Then we headed back home and made ourselves lunch. Then I did the reading we had to have done for class today. It was "Engaging God's World" by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. I felt like I was reading a lecture from my Theology 2 class - but it was still good reading.

At 5:30 p.m., we met up with most of the other WJCers to go over to one of our directors', Greg, apartment complexes for dinner. The complex is absolutely beautiful, and he and his wife had rented out the "club room" for the party. They made us spaghetti and salad and bread and had desserts. It was just a fun time of hanging out. Some alumni came, and other people from the CCCU, so it was fun to meet some more new people and enjoy getting to know the others better.

The rest of the evening was pretty chill, doing work on my piece for The Chimes and talking to the fam back home.

This morning we had class at 10 a.m., and it was extremely interesting. The reading that felt like Theology 2 reading turned into a complete parallel for journalism and how we should see our faith in reference to our journalistic career. Everything is really philosophical right now, but I think I'm grasping some of it. Karin and I came back for lunch and discussed it for a little while - it always helps me to vocalize the ideas.

We had class again at 2 p.m., and the lecture was once again extremely interesting. It was about the art and worship, and how separate the two are. I'm absolutely loving the subject matter we're getting here, and it comes in such an easy form to listen to and grasp.

Once class was over, we headed up to our apartments, and I was at a loss. I have a lot less stuff and responsibilities here, and so I'm finding that I tend to have free time on my hands that I have no idea what to do with. I'm completely not used to having free time on my hands - there is usually ALWAYS something to be done! So I sat and played Solitaire for a while, until Karin and I decided to attempt to make the couch comfortable and read for a while. While we were upstairs getting our pillows and blankets, Shanley, Mandi, and Andrea (three WJC girls) popped their heads in and asked if we wanted to go vintage shopping with them. That sounded more interesting so we headed out.

Apparently, in Eastern Market stores like to be closed on Mondays. So we didn't find any cool vintage clothing stores open, but we found a great used bookstore, and we spent pretty much the remainder of our time looking around in there. I bought two books that I need to read, both of which have been recommended by friends. So, hopefully I will be able to use my newfound free time to read this pile of books that is stacking up in my desk.

We came back and had "family dinner," which is now going to be on Monday nights. We had stuffed chicken, salad, mozzerella sticks, and green beans (which I didn't eat because I don't like them very much). It was yummy. I sat with Karin and Shanley and two guys from WJC (Zach and Mark) and then a guy from ASP (Jason). We had a really great time talking about scary movies and all kinds of dumb stuff that we all found absolutely hilarious.

After dinner, a group of girls and I decided we wanted to go somewhere, because all the boys were playing football on the National Mall, and we didn't want to go, but we didn't want to sit around doing nothing. So we found a crepe place online in Dupont Circle, and headed over there. It took us a while to get there because we weren't entirely sure where it was, but we eventually found it.

My first impression of Crepes-a-GoGo was that it was in a sketchier looking area. I wasn't entirely sure what we would find when we entered the very small door that we had to step down to. But to my surprise, we walked into a beautiful little crepe shop that was completely clean and cute and had TONS of comparatively inexpensive crepe options. I chose the King Samm crepe, which had nutella, bananas, coconut and almond powder, with whipped cream and powdered sugar on top. Talk about heaven on earth.

The two men behind the counter were both African American and had pretty thick accents, like they weren't originally from DC. They were extremely friendly and joked around with us the whole time. We found a place to sit down, and they served us our crepes, treating us like royalty the whole time.

Us girls sat and talked for a while, then one of the men came over and started talking to us. He was hilarious. His name was Marmon (sp?) and he was originally from Senegal. He's lived in DC for five years, and he just absolutely loved us. He asked us all our names, where we were from, made fun of us about where we were from, etc. Shanley has pretty squinty eyes, so he kept telling her she was from Taiwan - when in fact she is Irish. Haha. And he told the Iowan Eli that she was from Russia. And I was "Ah, Rachelle."

He gave us free coffee, which of course, I didn't actually drink, but enjoyed the warmth of. Then we started taking pictures with Marmon, because he was our new friend and we wanted to remember him. Then, Andrea asked to take a picture with him by herself, and he picked her up like he was cradling a baby and held her for the picture. It was fantastic. We were dying of laughter.

We finally said goodbye to Marmon (with the promise to return very soon) and headed out to catch the Circulator bus back to the apartments. We caught it - after sprinting for it for the second time tonight - and began our fairly lengthy journey back to the northeast side. But we made it back safe and sound, and now I'm just writing. I'm going to go hop in the shower here, but tomorrow is service learning, so I am returning to Food and Friends to bag more food for the terminally ill. Keep an eye out for more stories!

P.S. Mom - I found the button for my coat, so I'll sew it on when I find a chunk of time. Dad - thanks for the Facebook puppy pictures! She's adorable!!!