Condensation

I never expected to go camping while here in DC. But I did. On Friday night, in fact.
After a tiring week, I didn't really want to accept the invitation to sleep in the woods of Maryland with only blankets. I ended up going though and had fun nonetheless. A couple other guys from the apartment and I were dropped off at this random park my friend found out about. We then wandered into the park, looking for the campgrounds. Despite the pitch blackness in the trees we found a site tucked away which we thought wouldn't too near the main drag because we had not registered with the park service. Basically, we just sat around the fire and chilled for an hour and a half and then using our four blankets slept on the ground. An hour or so after we and lain down, we were awakened to bright lights. A representative of the Maryland law had found us and proceeded to ask three guys sleeping in blankets, without a car and only a few pieces of gear on the picnic table what the heck they are doing in the woods. I explained to him that a friend had dropped us off, that we are students spending a semester in DC and just had an urge to go camping. He told us that since we didn't have a sticker showing our registration, we would be in big trouble the next night if we were still there sans sticker. The rest of the night was cold, warmer, cold, warm, colder, warm and then the sun came up. We walked to a bus stop and found our way to the metro station at about 10:30 the next morning, carrying our blankets and smelling like campfire.
Even though it was not beneficial towards my sleep habits and I initially did not want to go, it was refreshing to get out of the city into the woods and just be.

Last night, a friend here from Burundi made us all African food. There was soo much good stuff to eat, it was really great and extremely generous since she bought it all. Something we also did last night, which has been going on for about a week is reading aloud short stories from a contemporary short fiction book I had found back home for $1. It's been a lot of fun taking turns each night, reading aloud the different pieces. Of course, since they are contemporary stories, the endings seem abrupt, they are usually heavy and real and often contain more "mature" elements. It's a lot of fun to just sit around and imagine together though. Another station of rejuvination for us from the constant barrage of theories, politics, philosophy and theology. While in DC, I've needed those times, like camping or stories to just be, relax, gather and condense all that I have been learning.