Recap

Picture of me and some coworkers
 on a private tour of the National Archives (thanks Boeing!)

I've lived in DC for about 3 and half months now. As I have met more people and become busier at work I have had far less time to update my blog. I apologize for the lack of posting. However, don't interpret my lack of postings as a lack of interesting activities I've been up to in DC. Besides keeping my friends and family up to date on my life I also intended for the blog to help me chronicle my experience here. Well I failed at that because I'm now failing to remember some of the fun and unique experiences I have had thus far. Oh well, here are a few thoughts.

Kickball

Stock Photo-not my team. You get the idea though.

I'm in an adult kickball league on Thursday nights. We play on the National Mall, right in front of the Capital. As most of you know (and my Father laments), I am not what most people classify as "an athlete". Luckily, that puts me as roughly average in a kickball league. It's very laid back and our team is comically bad at times.  I only knew about 3 people on the team when I joined but I have since met numerous different people. After kickball all the teams go to one or two bars where we hang out all night and play flip-cup. The various kickball leagues are emblematic of the young person culture in DC. Because the city is so 1. Transient 2. Network focused, everyone is always up for meeting new people and new experiences.

Boston

Karen at the Harpoon Beer
Festival we went to in Boston

A lot of people in my program at work travel quite a bit when they're in the DC rotation. They take advantage of the fact that DC is so close to some many big cities. I'm just a 3.5 hour bus ride to Philly and 4.5 hours to New York City. I'm also about an hour from Baltimore but no one seems to mention that city so I'm not overly concerned about that. Well I have done none of this. I instead wanted to integrate myself into the DC culture as much as possible. I have my whole life to visit other cities, who knows how many cities will get to live in.

All of that being said, I did take a short plane ride to Boston a few weeks ago. I am lucky enough to have an amazing friend who not only let me crash on her couch, but also spent the entire weekend showing me around. I had a great time and would love to go back and spend more time.

A few things to note:
1. There are a lot of white people in Boston.
2. Boston is shockingly walkable. Extremely nice.
3. There is really no separation between the 'historic' areas and the rest of the city. It's strange and very cool.
4. The city is so casual. I'm pretty sure I could have sat down in a nice restaurant in a T-shirt.
5. I went to Cambridge to visit Harvard. Harvard is surprisingly small but very nice.
6. It really is a very cool city. I met a lot of very good people and had a fantastic time.

Out

Kyle and I out at some Hill staffer bar

I don't have a ton of "stories" per say because so much of my activities consists of eating and drinking my way through the city with friends, which is fun but not "blog worthy". DC has spoiled me with great bars and restaurants. One of my roommates knows just about everything about food in DC. Between him and other friends I have had an incredible variety of excellent food. For example, I had grasshopper the other day, which was interesting. I don't think most experts consider DC a "top tier" food town but from what I read and hear it is on the rise. Experiencing so much good and interesting food has been one of my favorite things about living here.

Small Town
About 600,000 people live in the District. About 5.6 million people live in the broader DC Metro area. That being said, I still randomly run into people I know somewhat frequently. My roommates who have lived here for years always run into friends when we're out. Despite that it is a "big city" it feels quite small at times. I enjoy that attribute most of the time.
That's all for now. My plans aren't solid for the future but I'll most likely be out of here sometime during fourth of July weekend. My parents will be in town this weekend. I'll actually try to take pictures with them so I have something interesting to post.

The Bay

A few weeks ago I took a weekend trip to the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland with some friends. Here’s the recap:

We went to stay at a friend's parent's house. They are retired and currently living on a boat, sailing around the world. They only return home about every 18 months so their house is vacant most of the time. They live in a private community that has an interesting history and some unique rules. It's called Scientists' Cliffs. It was founded in the 1930s by wealthy professors. It is essentially a liberal utopia. You must have a college degree to own property in the 280 home community. 

It was an incredibly relaxing weekend. We spent the days walking on the beach, going for hikes in the woods and walking around the area.  I don’t have many crazy stories to share (that would defeat the purpose of a relaxing weekend) but it was a really great time.

I was amazed out how ‘rural’ it was, even though it was just an hour outside of DC. People (myself included) tend to think of areas and states by their major cities. All of New York is New York City, all of Pennsylvania is Philly and Pittsburg…or all of the East coast is black turtle neck wearing liberals, the Midwest is all dumb farmers, the West coast is all yoga practicing hippies, etc. etc. However, by and large, when you get out of the major cities people and towns are pretty similar everywhere.  The broader town we stayed in (not Scientists’ Cliffs) reminded me very much of suburban/rural Iowa. It’s a slower pace of life.

One night we wanted to do “local” things so we went to a great seafood place that our friend worked at as a kid. Then we went to one of the local bars. When the 4 of us walked in we doubled the number of people there. As you can see in the picture we were very happy to be there- judging by the death stares we were receiving, the regulars were less happy to see us. The bartender did teach me how to play Keno, which for some reason I thought was the greatest game ever. Keno is a bar/casino type game where you pick a bunch of numbers on a score card and then wait and see if your numbers come up. My back of the envelope statistics told me it was essentially an impossible game to win, but that did not stop me from having everyone help me pick my numbers 

and losing 8 straight games ($8 well spent).

I wish I took more pictures to share but I’m terrible at remembering to do so. Oh well. Excellent weekend with excellent people.

NOTE: Sorry for the delay in posting. I’m struggling to find the time. I’ve been up to a lot of interesting things that I wish I could tell everyone about! 

Extended Stay

As I mentioned in my last post I have been quite busy lately. Most recently, Carrie has been in town so we've been doing as much as possible around town. I won't bore you with all of the details but I'll run through the itinerary and hit the highlights. Later in the week I'll catch you up on some of the things I have been up to before Carrie got here.

Carrie's job is headquartered in DC so she was here for work for the week. She came out early so we could have time to see the city together. Here's the highlights! I apologize for the length of the post but we did A LOT of things! 

Thursday

• We stopped by the local farmers market and bought some food for the week
• Dinner at Oyamel, a modern mexican tapas place. Best Brussels sprouts I have ever had in my life.

Friday

• Jog around The Capital, including a beautiful sculpture garden I had never seen. 
• Stopped by the National Gallery of Art to see some select exhibits, including the only Da Vinci in the United States.
• Next we went to the land of Northface jackets, bleached blonde hair, and college kids driving their father's Audi: Georgetown. We ate a late lunch a Belgium cafe and did some shopping. I'm on the search for an awesome coffee mug for work but couldn't find anything. 
• Checked out the Kennedy Center - Millennium Stage for a free jazz concert. 
• Then we headed to Dupont Circle area for pizza and beer. 
• We finished the night back at my condo where my roommates were hosting a party which was a lot of fun.

Saturday: 

• Saturday was pretty dreary and rainy. Per my insistence we went to the National Air and Space Museum. It must have been "annoying children who lack manners" day at the museum because the place was crawling with sticky kids who were oblivious to...well...everything. I almost took a picture of a child leaning over a sign that said "NO LEANING". There are some decent exhibits though. I found the Wright Brothers exhibit very interesting.  
• After lunch we went to the National Portrait Gallery to watch a free jazz show. The jazz was mediocre but the awesome board games they had for people to play were highly entertaining.
• We ended the evening with dinner with one of my roommates at a Spanish tapas place in our neighborhood. My roommate is probably the most knowledgeable person I have ever known when it comes to cooking, restaurants, and food in general. He's a lot of fun to go out with because he knows the perfect things to order at every restaurant. 

Sunday

• We went for another jog in the morning so we could see the Washington, Lincoln, Korean, and Vietnam Memorials. 
• Later we headed to Eastern Market which is a combination of a farmer's market, art show, and bizarre. We really enjoyed all of the cool art. Our favorite was a lady who was selling hand carved figures from Africa. Unfortunately, "Zebras that sit on the edge of shelves" don't go with either of our decor so we couldn't support her. My second favorite was a guy selling prints of old cigarette ads. It's so strange to read them now because they say things like "Most Doctors Smoke Camels!". 
• After brunch at a French Bistro we went to Ted's Bulletin where we got an "adult" milkshake.
• We finished the night at a restaurant called Founding Farmers. It is a popular new restaurant that specializes in local food and overall "green" business practices. 

The rest of the week we were less active because we both had to work. We did manage to hit some good restaurants though, including Ethiopian, Latin American, Indian, and Sushi. 


On Tuesday we caught a concert at The Blackcat, one of the popular alternative music venues in DC. The main band was UK based "British Sea Power". It was a fun show. See the video below for one of their songs. As a fun side note, the day after we were at the concert there was a shooting a block away. Read this article for more details.

Friday was supposed to be Carrie's last night in town. We went to the Wolly Mammoth Theater to see the show "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" by the Chicago based "Neo-Futurists". This show was probably the most fun I have ever had at a play. It was incredible. I highly recommended the show to anyone who lives in Chicago. The general concept is that they do 30 plays in 60 minutes. The plays are all done at random based on what number the crowd shouts out. The plays ranged from hilarious, to touching, to profound.  Excellent.

Carrie was supposed to fly out on Saturday morning but St. Louis got hit badly by tornadoes so her flight was delayed until Monday morning.  It was sad she had to miss her family's Easter but I was happy with the extended stay!

All in all it was a great week. We did so much we struggled to remember everything we saw! She gave me a great excuse to check out a lot of the tourist spots I have been wanting to see. 

Sorry for the delay...

Sorry for the delay in posting. I've been extremely busy with work and I was out of town a couple of weekends ago. This past weekend Carrie was in town visiting. On the upside I will have lots of interesting and exciting posts to come! Until my next post, please enjoy this picture from my weekend trip to the Chesapeake Bay.

I will also take this opportunity to shamelessly plug Ben's cooking blog, which I find enjoyable.  www.dinneradventure.blogspot.com

So a guy walks into a bar...

Last night I didn't get home from work until about 9:30 so I decided to stop into the brewpub right around the corner from me for dinner. There was a few open seats at the bar, and after scanning the crowd I found the perfect guy to sit next to- a middle aged man with long hair, a bad suit, and a fisherman's hat who was smelling his own hair. Why would I sit next to the craziest looking guy in the place? Because while 50% of normal looking people have something interesting, intelligent, or fun to say; about 90% about crazy looking people have something entertaining to say.

This leads me to the point of this post. I see a lot of odd people walking around DC. There are different people in every city across the world, but because I walk a lot of places and always take public transit I see (and sometimes meet) a lot of interesting people. Here's a list of a few interesting ones:

• Going downstairs to workout one day the elevator opened to an old man in a tweed suit and bowtie who was on a Segway! I don't know proper Segway etiquette but I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to ride them indoors. 
• While walking to the metro I saw an older woman with long gray hair wearing a short skirt and super bright multicolored tights. I assume she was some sort of burnt out flower child who is now an NPR executive.
• Then there are the numerous people who walk down the street singing at the top of their lungs. What a strange activity. Most of them don't even have headphones in. They're just loving life. Good for them.
• I was taking a cab to a bookstore a couple of weekends ago and my cab driver was extremely well read. After I told him I was going to a bookstore he handed me the pile of books he was reading. They were mostly on foreign affairs and policy. I asked him about one because I didn't recognize the subject: The Republic of Biafra. He proceeded to explain to me the history of Nigeria and the late 60s Nigerian Civil War. Interesting conversation. I tipped him well. 

Oh and the hair-smeller at the bar? Besides an uncanny voice resemblance to the famous movie reviewer, Gene Shalit, he wasn't that interesting. He did spend most of my short stay throwing ice cubes from his glass into the trashcan behind the bar-I'll count that as "entertaining".

Twins Jazz: A Review

As you all know I'm a big jazz fan. DC is a great town for jazz, however, I haven't been to a legit jazz club since I've lived here. Today after work I decided to take the metro a few stations north of my stop to the historic U Street area for a quick concert at Twins Jazz.

The place is kind of a dump, as many places are in the area, but it was a dump with charm. If you weren't looking for the place you would almost certainly miss it. It's been around for almost 25 years and it looks like it hasn't really been updated since it opened. Tonight it wasn't a normal group that played together often. Every Wednesday of March they were doing a Women in Jazz night. Through overhearing conversations I learned that the musicians were mostly former Howard University students who still live in the area.

First, The Pros: The band was good. The night had a jam session feel as opposed to a concert feel, but that was fine given it was a Wednesday 8pm show. They played together well and had a few really great moments. The pianist was especially good and the drummer was solid. The standout of the night was the female singer. She was fantastic. I also liked many things about the atmosphere. The dirty windows had broken shades in them that were leaning against broken florescent lights. The chairs didn't match and the tables were too close together. The bathroom was generally disgusting and the lock was broken. Christmas lights and various signed jazz photos were their idea of decorations. All of this added to the authentic and warm feel of the place.

The Cons: While I've been to numerous jazz clubs over the years I have never been to what I would consider to be a true, authentic club. My image of what it would be like was completely formed from pictures of 50s jazz legends. I had two big problems with the night. First and most importantly, the musicians smiled too much. Serious jazz musicians don't smile when they play. It says to me that they're not taking it seriously enough. Jimmy Buffet smiles when he plays, Miles Davis did not smile or laugh. My high school jazz teacher described the look you should have on your face when you play or listen to great jazz as the look you have when you smell something rotten. It's a "stanky" face.

The other problem I had was the smell. Jazz clubs should smell like smoke and gin. Do you know what a jazz club smells like when a city passes a smoking ban? Ethiopian food and bad perfume. I prefer smoke. My final complaint was that the stage was too bright. I would have possibly been able to get over this if the bass player wasn't wearing a matching faux suede jacket and boots whose color could only be described as "Grimace purple".

Despite my complaints, this is a great club! It's fairly cheap and the music is very solid. I look forward to going back on a weekend when they have a regular band playing.

Beware of Jet Blasts and Online Reviews

Last Saturday I drove to Norfolk, VA with some coworkers to go on a tour of the Navy's newest Aircraft Carrier, The George H.W. Bush. It was impossible for me to get a good full photo because of the size so here is an internet photo. All of the rest of the photos are mine.

A few fun facts before I get to my story.

• Northrop made the ship for $6.2 Billion. This past week the SEC allowed Northrop to divest its ship building division to focus on more profitable defense projects.
• The ship is nuclear powered. It needs to be refueled once every 23 years (yes, years).
• The ship holds up to 5000 sailors. 
• There are usually about  65 aircrafts on the carrier but it can hold up to about 90 depending on size.
• The U.S. has 11 active aircraft carriers with 2 more planned and 1 more being built. The next closest countries (Italy and Spain) have...2 aircraft carriers each.

On the way down we decided to find a seafood place because we were extremely close to the ocean. The place our phones sent us was interesting to say the least. It was a little dive place in a shady area call The Willoughby Inn Seafood Restaurant. It had a 86% on UrbanSpoon and was generally well reviewed. We did not think it was as great as the collective internet. If any of you are in the Norfolk area I would pass on the Willoughby Inn.




The tour was extremely interesting. We got to go in a lot of the unclassified areas. It's incredible to think that up to 5000 people live on this ship. We saw their sleeping area and it was easier to understand how they all fit.

This trip confirmed that I made the right choice by not joining the navy. I was ready to be off the ship after only two hours. Everything was so close and cramped. It made me very uncomfortable.

It's hard to describe just how large everything was on the ship. For example, they still have an old school anchor and every link in the chain to hold the anchor weighed 300lbs.

Of all the fascinating things I saw on the tour I was most intrigued by the food the sailors ate. From what I saw and the impression I got from the sailor giving the tour they live on fried food, pizza, and soda. I'm not sure how they work long hard days eating food devoid of any nutritional value and dripping in grease. I thought the military has been improving their food quality over the past few years? I'm not delusional enough to think they would serve free-range organic eggs and locally grown heirloom tomatoes but I wasn't expecting 80% of the calories to come from wings and Pepsi.

All in all it was a fun trip. I would highly recommend touring an aircraft carrier if you ever get a chance.