Tales from DC: What I'll Miss About Washington

U Street in northwest Washington, D.C.

It's impossible to be comprehensive here because there is so much I love and cherish about this city. But I'll try to be brief.

This city has taught me so much. When I came here to study at Georgetown and work at a semester-long journalism program, I thought I came well prepared. I was wrong. It was humbling how much I had to learn and learn quickly. And now that I'm leaving I'm realizing I'm a more confident person than I've ever been before. As my wife recently noted, this city was a chapter in our lives where we really grew our resume and developed more professionally.

But beyond that I'll truly miss the PEOPLE of Washington, D.C. I felt the similarly when I left West Palm Beach--I still miss the people of West Palm Beach. But what's different this time is my attachment to the PLACE. I love the place that is Washington, D.C.

I love that it is a city as broken as it is beautiful.

It's Mizzou!

This has been perhaps the toughest decision I've had to make, but today I confirmed my slot on the doctoral cohort at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Missouri's program, faculty and resources just seemed to fit me and my needs as doctoral student better than the others. This morning, they offered me an additional fellowship--thus offering me more financial assistance than Texas and Maryland. In addition, there would be numerous opportunities for further professional development in Missouri. Beyond, the great mentor figure at Missouri, I'll have a much better ability complete my research cognate at Missouri.

This will be a big move for Mimi and I. And it will be difficult to leave all of the people we love in Washington.

The only things that really have shaken me from Missouri are fears--fears of leaving the places I love and the people I love.

The opposite of faith isn't doubt but fear. I have been fearful when I should have had faith. And besides the cruel winters and the occasional tornado, what's so scary about the Midwest? It's risky to leave the people and places you know behind but great stories aren't written about those who stay comfortable but about those who take risks.

Here goes.

Tales from DC: National Half Marathon

Me, the day after. Plenty of energy and stamina, but some joint soreness.

I've come a long way.

I'm too goal-oriented for my own good, and I don't often glance back to see where I started.

I've struggled to be athletic when I was younger. As a kid with childhood asthma, I was benched the entire year I was in little league soccer. It doesn't help that I also was born with a leg twisted funny so I tended to trip over myself when running. Of course the only way to fix problems like that is to, well, run anyway. But that's hard to do when you're sitting on the bench.

After soccer, bless my parents, they put in martial arts. Turns out the next best thing for leg twisted like mine was to do a lot of kicking. I did a lot of kicking. I kept the inhaler in the sensei's office desk and it took some time to ween myself off of it. I used to have to use it two or three times during a one-hour class. Gradually, I got to where I only needed it once. I remember the day when I took it out the last time--very out of breath and ready to use it. But I decided I didn't need it. I finished the class and felt mildly proud when I finished the class without needing to use it. I didn't tell my parents, or anyone really.

I joined track in high school because my friends were doing it and because there were pretty girls and because my friends made me realize I should be doing a sport where you got to hang out with pretty girls. At first I threw disc and shotput which made no sense because all the rest of the guys were linebackers and I, well, wasn't a linebacker. But then I got into doing 4x400 relays and fell in love with running.

I took a considerable break from it when Mimi and I moved to DC. Balancing fulltime work and fulltime graduate school is crazy by the way. But since I've restarted, it was with the goal of working up to a marathon at some point. Halfway there!

The National Half was a good race. I was warned to train hills, but I thought that was ridiculous (this is DC! What hills?!). Apparently there are quite a few. So some soreness in my ankles but no blisters and no other soreness.

A Letter to the University of Pennsylvania

Annenberg School of Communication
University of Pennsylvania
3620 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
19104-6220

To Dr. Michael X. Delli Carpini,

Thank you for your letter in late February. As you know this was an especially competitive year and I've been particularly impressed with the rejection letters I've received this year. With such a promising field of candidates, the decision making process has been especially difficult.

While there is no easy way to say this, I regret that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me admission into the Fall 2011 doctoral cohort. Despite your excellent qualifications and experience in rejecting potential doctoral students, your letter does not suit my needs at this time.

Therefore, I will be assuming a position on your doctoral cohort this coming August. I will be attending the accepted student orientation the last weekend of March and I look forward to seeing you there.

Respectfully,

Greg Perreault

What's New? 2010 Edition.

It's been a long time since I've posted. For whatever reason, I thought that graduating from Georgetown while taking on more work would still leave me more time than I had in my previous life season. I guess I feel like I don't have much to share. But I do have some "exciting" happenings from the last few months. Some of which are actually exciting.

(1) I apply to be a Canadian! 

After two years of waiting to hear about Canadian Citizenship application, I found out that I was granted dual citizenship! But that they sent the documents to my old address in Florida! And that, because I hadn't changed my address I would have to reapply completely!

So I reapplied a few weeks ago. And it was arduous. But Mimi loves Canada because of the Avonlea books and because of Robin Sparkles from "How I Met Your Mother." I love it because my dad's side of the family is from the very-Acadian New Brunswick community of Grandfalls. And I like gravy on my French fries.

Communion Confession

Context: I take other people's religions seriously. I am religious, I work with the religious and did my recent master's thesis on Islam. So then I am placed at my grandfather's (very Catholic) funeral. While I am baptized Catholic, I'm not confirmed and thus am ineligible for communion according to the Catechism. Thus the situation unfolded...

The French spoken at the service is not Parisian (my grandfather being an Acadian), but I can still catch a bit of it. My grandfather by the way was a Jedi Master-level Knight of Columbus. They had uniforms, swords out--everything. During the service it comes time for communion, and while not Catholic, I am aware of the Catholic tradition of the "blessing." With the "blessing," a non-Catholic can approach the priest during communion and receive his, well, blessing without taking the bread or wine. To note that you would like the blessing, you simply cross your arms. I explain this to my wife and sister.

So communion begins and I approach the priest with my arms crossed. The priest offers me the communion bread. I pat my hands against my shoulders to emphasize ("Blessing!").

The priest seems to consider that maybe I don't understand French, so in broken English: "Take...my body..."

Tales from DC: Senate Security

Every semester, we ask students to go in teams on a scavenger hunt of the city. One of the stops, inevitably, is to the office of the senior senator from their state. Last semester, a team ended up at a Senate office building going through security when the alarm went off on the tall, male student in the team. And the alarm at the Senate is no joke, it's loud with lights and booming speakers: WAHN WAHN.

Security (moving toward him with the wand): "Sir, do you have any keys, loose change--"
Student: "Oh! Keys..."

He goes out of security, puts to keys in a container and heads back through. And the alarm goes off again. WAHN WAHN.

Security: "Sir did you take EVERYTHING out of your pockets?"
Student: "Well...I still have my cellphone."
Security (agitated): "Sir, please put your cellphone in the tray as well and come through again."

The student goes out of security, puts the cellphone in the tray and comes through again. The alarm goes off again. At this point, a crowd is forming. Security uses the wand and wordlessly passes it over the students belt. Beep beep beep.

Student: "Oh...yeah, my belt..."

The student leaves security again, takes off his belt and walks through again. The alarm goes off. WAHN WAHN. Again. Security uses the wand and stops over his feet.

Security: "Son, are you wearing steel-toed boots?"
Student: "Ahhhh....yeah."
Security (long pause): "How did you get here?"

Questions followed related to whether the student had ever been on a plane or entered any sort of government building.

Mia and Me: Why My Dog Drove Me Crazy And Why I Miss Her

Mia at our apartment in Chinatown. Washington, D.C.

Mia and I didn't get off to a great start.

I grew up in a house with over-affectionate, lick-lick-lick German Shepherds and Golden Retrievers. When I was dating a very hot Baylor girl (who is now my wife), she expressed that she wanted me to meet her dog. Sure. I would have followed her anywhere.

Mia came into her parent's house in Texas as a part of a pack of animals that included Oliver "who has a weird eye condition" and Suzy "who's totally blind, by the way." They ran for an overflowing dish of food. Mia, a Cocker Spaniel, managed to nudge her way in between the two other huge dogs to eat. My girlfriend (Mimi) invited Mia over and Mia was very excited to see her. Mia took one sniff of me, stared for a moment and then ran back to her dish. I felt slightly snubbed. No licks?

"She likes you," Mimi said.
"I couldn't tell."
"Oh, she scared to death of guys. At least she came up to you."

Almost six years after our initial meeting, I held Mia in my arms at Friendship Animal Hospital as our vet euthanized her. And I held her long after her heart had stopped and the vet had left. I cradled her head which was covered in the tumor that would have strangled her painfully within weeks, if we didn't put her down gently.

Now our house is emptier in her absence. The garbage stays in the can. The tennis balls are packed up in a small bag. No one barks when I go to take a shower. There are no new mystery stains on our couch.

Forecast for Washington this weekend...

Tales from DC: Why I Shouldn't Do Recruiting

Last semester, I was sent on a recruiting trip to South Florida. After presenting something about the study abroad journalism program I work for, I paused for questions.

Student: Where do students typically go after they graduate from your program?

Greg: Excellent question. In the last year alone, we've placed five students at Chili's, four at Barnum and Bailey and one at Ringling Brothers.
(silence)
Greg: Nah, just yanking your chain. Ringling Brothers fell through.

Tales from DC: Men and Shoes

In a early class period this past semester:

Male Student: I noticed that in our Frequently Asked Questions paper, you mentioned that you should bring a pair of comfortable shoes to walk in and then heels for work...uh...I know that's just for girls, but should guys bring a pair of comfortable shoes too? You know. To change at work.

Greg: Well, you can. People might call you Mr. Rodgers, but you can.

Tales from DC: Lede Writing Exercise

An exchange from a recent lede writing exercise in class. The exercise was based on a Denzel Washington press conference for the movie "The Book of Eli:"

Student: Alright, here's my lede. "Life...is a journey, said Denzel Washington in a press conference held--
Greg: Wait! Here's an even better one: "Life...is a highway."

(laughter)

Different student: And Denzel would ride it all night long.

Tales from DC: AIDS joke at Church

At Church this Sunday: my wife introduces me and a mutual friend to two pre-school teachers we've just met. 

Pre-School Teacher: "Your names are Roger and Mimi? Oh! Just like Rent."
Mimi: "Except that my husband's name is Greg. And we don't live in New York."
Me: "...and we don't have AIDS."

No laughs. Wrong forum for jokes about AIDS? Too soon?

"The Arab"

The Coverage and Representations of The Arab in Western Media

This is a street ethnography performed in late 2009 in partnership with Amy Johnson of Georgetown University's Islamic Studies Department.

Part One

Part Two

Classroom Quote: A Cause to Fight For

During one stretch of the semester, I have students follow a blog. One particular student this semester decided to follow the "Kindness" blog at USA Today. Result:

Greg: "So what's going on at the Kindness blog?"

Student: "Well, they had a really interesting article on breast awareness. Even though breast awareness month is done, there are ways we can keep breast awareness going the whole year--"

Greg: "Umm...Do you mean 'Breast Cancer Awareness?'"

(Uproarious laughter)

Greg: "Although I'm glad you mentioned that cause. Guys in particular will have no problem getting behind that one!"

100 Confessions: American Catholic

(74) My oddest Church experience:

I was in Washington, D.C. for a semester internship. One Sunday, my roommate and I decided to adventure out and try some random church. I didn't have my glasses on and from a distance I saw a sign for an "American Catholic" Church. What is that? Sounded good though. So I walked up the church, met the priest. The priest was dressed in all red and had torso-length dreadlocks.

After I took a seat it struck me that this wasn't a very diverse congregation. The priest came up to talk with us.

Me: "How is American Catholic different from Roman Catholic?"
Priest: "Actually, it's African-American Catholic. You all sit tight and enjoy the service!"

It did seem odd to us when a girl came out and did a sort belly dance on the altar. The priest got in there and did some dancing too. As it turns out, the priest was a defrocked Roman Catholic priest who started his own church after allegedly molesting a young girl. He argues that it's all a lie and the Roman Catholic church is racist.

Wild experience.

Tales from DC: Quotable Boss

Heard in the classroom last week:

Boss: "Lutheranism had a hold on Germany for centuries. It really was the quinessential German religion until Hitler came around."
Greg: "Man, Hitler just ruins everything."

Another one:

Boss: "Washington, D.C. is made up something I call the Iron Triangle. The Iron Triangle is the world of journalism in one corner, the world of politics in another, and the world of causes, academia, think tanks in another. The Iron Triangle--"
Greg: "Would be an awesome sporting event name. Can you imagine? 'Welcome to the Iron Triangle!'"

Believe it or not, I'm pretty sure my job isn't interrupting class with random asides.

100 Confessions: Upstaging

(64) Apparently I have a way of making people feel inadequate. This is ironic since I'm usually plagued by my own inadequacies. But this came to my attention during the road trip my wife and I were on last week. In the course of our couch hoping, we ended up staying with a college friend on the Eastern seaboard and got a chance to meet her boyfriend. I really liked the guy. In my mind, my conversation with him sounded like this:

Dude: "Yeah, I'm really into creative writing."
Greg: "Really? Me too!"

Dude: "I've never published anything. I'd really like to develop my creative writing by going to graduate school at the local state university."
Greg: "Neat, I'm in graduate school myself."

Dude: "I think I might like to teach high school at some point."
Greg: "Cool, I'm in teaching as well."

My wife, upon later reflection, said the conversation went a little more like this:

Dude: "Yeah, I'm really into creative writing."
Greg: "Really? I just finished editing my fourth novel. I'm really proud of this one and think it will sell. I've got about four or five short fiction publications right now..."

Dude: "I've never published anything. I'd really like to develop my creative writing by going to graduate school at the local community university."
Greg: Oh community school huh? I'm at Georgetown right now. One year left on the Masters!

Dude: "I think I might like to teach high school at somepoint."
Greg: "Like 'em young eh? Yeah, I teach college students."

In my defense I can't help being awesome. Joking. And the above is a dramatic exaggeration.

100 Confessions: Celebrities

(57) Celebrity craze is weird to me. This may seem odd coming from an avowed media bug, but I don't go crazy over celebrities that same way others do.

Case in point: Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, and Jack Nicholson are all in town filming a movie. DC came out in droves to celebrity watch. My wife forced me to walk home that route so she could see if she could get a glimpse of Reese Witherspoon. I dragged my feet and acquiesced. Along the way a woman claiming to be in the movie asked me to carry some of her stuff to the set. Mimi talked her up, played nice, etc.. I didn't talk because I don't believe she was in the movie. I think she was lazy. The people on set seemed to recognize her, but that doesn't mean much. She said she'd tell Jack Nicholson how helpful we were. I was like "uh...thanks." I've waited all my life for Jack Torrence to be thankful for my work. (Name dropping seems to indicate she's not a big deal)

That said, there are people I would fawn over if given the chance, but they're not exactly "celebrities." They don't appear in the tabloids. They're writers. I would totally get an autograph from Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cruse, Stephen King, and David James Duncan. But I can't really think of anyone else.

Reflections on the Red Line Metro Crash

It wouldn't seem right not say something about the metro crash here in DC. I'm not sure I can add much to the conversation, except to point out the obvious: sober looks on the metro, metro operators arguing about what went wrong, the metro headquarters bathed in black banners.

The Washington Post did a powerful feature worth your attention here.

But let me just give two of the strong human interest anecdotes included in the story, which profiled each of the nine dead:

LaVonda "Nikki" King, 23, of Northeast Washington

LaVonda "Nikki" King, 23, of Northeast Washington had boarded the Metro chattering away about her new career. She was on the phone with her mother, talking about the fliers she wanted to make to promote her new business, LaVonda's House of Beauty.

"I was talking to her as she entered the train," said her mother, Tawanda Brown of Upper Marlboro. "She was so excited. She had so many dreams about the salon." King had signed the paperwork for the Forestville salon space just Friday and was headed to pick up her sons, ages 2 and 3, from day care.

When Brown saw the crash coverage on TV, she knew: "My daughter's on that train." She spent a sickening night visiting six hospitals before authorities knocked on her door at 3 a.m. to tell her King was dead.

Dennis Hawkins, 64, of Washington

Scores of children in different parts of the District were affected by the loss of Dennis Hawkins, 64, of Washington.

Hawkins had no children of his own, but he was beloved by kids at the school where he worked and in the church where he taught, friends and relatives said.

He was on his way from work at Whittier Education Center in Northwest Washington to teach vacation Bible school in Ivy City when he was killed in the crash.
...
Members of Bethesda Baptist Church waited and waited for their Bible school teacher to arrive Monday night. Cobb's grandmother was enrolled. Finally, word from Hawkins's family reached a church official. And they began to mourn.

Nicole Clifton, principal at Whittier, said Hawkins was a retired teacher who worked as Whittier's right-hand man.

"He was the heartbeat of the school. He was my go-to person," Clifton said.