Signing Off

So the time has come.  This is my last week here.  The only thing I have left to do is pack.  I hate packing.  I also hate unpacking.  Which, I guess you can’t really hate one without hating the other.  You’re pretty much doing the same thing just in reverse order. 

Living in DC these past 10 weeks has been a marvelous experience.  The things I’ve seen, people I’ve met, and places I’ve been have truly made me a more cultured and enlightened person.  However, I find it odd that I choose to be down here the summer when there’s an earthquake, tornado warnings, and we have what was probably the hottest summer on record.  I would check into that.  But reliving some of those over 100 degree days is a little… too hot to handle right now… See what I did there?  Yea, you saw it.  But seriously, I think some supernatural force is out to get me.  WELL HE FAILED!  You hear that nature demon?!  I’m still here!  For now… I’ll be gone soon though.  So I guess he’s getting what he wants.

I still remember when I first came here and navigating the city was still a little confusing.  Now it seems like I have a map permanently in my head and I get anywhere I want like my body is on autopilot.  I feel like I have become fully ingrained as a citizen of DC, except I don’t pay taxes to it so I guess it’s not really official.  But who knows, maybe after I finish my last year of grad school, it could become official.  After being down here this summer, I would have no problem coming back and living in the DC, Maryland, or Virginia areas for good. 

Oh, you already know I’ve been to Maryland.  Well, I also visited Virginia for a friend’s birthday party.  That place wasn’t bad either.  They seem really big on karaoke though.  That comes off a bit scary. But we’ll see what happens.  I try not to plan much and just go with the flow.  Or, as my man Bruce Lee would say, “Be Water.” That’s the only reason I’m in grad school or decided to come here because I assure you. Graduate school was never in my plans and working for a summer in DC was not on my radar either.  Not until the opportunities presented themselves.

I have few little tidbits of knowledge for the next batch of cats rolling in:

• Ask as many questions and learn as much as possible.  Knowledge is power.
• Attend as many conferences or discussions as possible.  You never know what you might learn or who you might meet.  Even if you didn’t like it, you might still get a free lunch out of it.
• If you’re unhappy with your internship, let your supervisors know.  Voice to them what you want to learn, what you want to see, and what you want to do.  If they don’t know, they can’t help you.
• Attend as many events in the city as possible.  DC offers so much as far as free events.  Take advantage of all of it.

One Saturday, The Washington Center offered students a trip to Atlantic City, NJ.  Since I had never been there, I decided to go.  I didn’t gamble because I only had 40 bucks cash and refused to use their ATMs.  No way are you going to hit me a huge fee to take out money that you’re probably going to end up taking anyway.  That’s double theft.  I can’t have it.

The U.S. Small Business Administration set it up so all the interns could go on a trip to tour the Capitol Building.  Living in the RAF, you tend to walk past the Capitol a lot.  Also, I watched a concert on the lawn of the Capitol during Memorial Day.  But I had never stepped foot in it until now.  After you go through the line, you sit down and watch a 15 minute movie about the history of DC and the Capitol.  It used to be much smaller than it is now.  Here are some pictures from the tour:

Oh, I bet you thought I was done.  Nope, there’s still more to come.  Prepare for the last and probably best. An OMNIBUS NATE’S FOOD REVIEW! 

This is a jumbo slice.  I trust the picture really emphasizes the sheer girth of this slice of pizza.  My roommate and I got one while we were in Adams Morgan.  I literally had to roll my slice up like a burrito in order to eat it like a semi sane person.  It was a purely joyous occasion.

This is a jumbo fish sandwich from Horace & Dickie’s.  It’s a small little fish joint down on H Street which isn’t very far from the RAF. I learned about it because Adam Richman from Man V. Food went there when he was in DC.  I wanted to get some macaroni or potato salad as sides but they were out.  In case you are wondering, there is bread, it’s under that heaping mound of fish.

This was a sandwich called “Time Square.”  I got it from Loeb’s New York Deli, which is up the street from the office I work at. It has pastrami, fried egg, cheese, slaw, "special recipe" Russian dressing. Just reading these ingredients I knew I couldn’t lose. I was not disappointed when I picked this off the menu.

These are oysters from a restaurant called DC Coast.  During the month of June, they had a deal where you could get 12 oysters for 12 dollars during happy hour.  Every Friday in June, I went to DC Coast after work to enjoy these oysters.  Before this I had never eaten raw oysters. They were always cooked.  I must say, they are delicious.  They added some chopped up celery to each oyster, I assume it’s for some people that want some crunch with the slimy soft oyster.  That on top of some lemon juice and Tabasco sauce was an absolutely awesome.

We finally come to the Coup de grace.  Yes my friends.  One weekend, I decided to take a trip up to U Street.  After walking around Howard University’s campus, I stopped by a place I have seen on many food and travel shows.  An establishment so ingrained in Washington DC history that you can’t talk about DC without someone saying “You have to check out Ben’s Chili Bowl!”  So check it out and I did and I might have to say that it was one of the best decisions of places to go in this whole city.  I can’t even express how good this food was.  I decided to only get the chili dog but next time, I’m going to go for the half smoke.  After that hearty meal, I spent a while just walking around the rest of the U Street Corridor.  There is a lot of stuff going on in that area. 

One Sunday, one of my roommates and I went to the Waterfront and walked around for a bit.  Our main goal was to check out the Cantina Marina.  It’s a bar/restaurant on a boat.  I had a crab cake burger.  It was very tasty.  My roommate told me he’s had bigger crab cakes at other places though.  This made me a little upset but just gives me a new quest for a later time.

I also took a trip to the Jefferson Memorial.  It was well worth the journey.  You also have an awesome view of the Mall and river from there.

So there you have it, my last testament of my life in DC this summer.  I hope you were able to live vicariously through my exploits in order to get a taste or idea of what DC has to offer.  I hope it inspires you to get out there and do something with your time in a great city such as this.  Please don’t feel obligated to do as much stuff as I did.  I’m from Pittsburgh.  There is absolutely nothing to do there.  So when I came here, I felt like a kid in a candy store and pretty much have been on a sugar rush ever since.  On my first post I said we were going to have fun.  Am I or am I not a man of word?  Yea, you’re welcome. PEACE!

Annapolis

Being one of the lucky 30 people to have gotten a parking space in the Residential and Academic Facility, I am at a bit of an advantage.  I don’t have to wait for the shuttle to go to the grocery store.  One better, I can actually pick which grocery store I want to go to.  I choose Giant over Safeway.  On top of that, I can carry, buy, and bring back much more than someone taking the shuttle.  But, I think the biggest advantage of having the “Natemobile” aka Sonya (yes, I named her Sonya because she’s a Hyundai Sonata… and I like Mortal Kombat) around is that I can travel places the Metro doesn’t go.

One of those places happens to be Annapolis.  Yes, boys and girls, Annapolis, Maryland.  The capital of Maryland and the location of the great movie of the same name staring James Franco and Tyrese.  Before I continue on with this story, allow me to digress. 

While having a car here does offer a great advantage, there is also a great disadvantage.  That disadvantage is the other drivers in this area.  Now, as stated previously, I’m from Pittsburgh.  We Pittsburghers are fairly easy going people.  We take our time getting places.  Getting somewhere the fastest way at the risk of our lives and other people’s is not on an average Pittsburgher’s mind.  I have noticed that is completely opposite to people within the DC and Maryland area.

People here change lanes on a dime often without using turn signals.  They honk at people when certain circumstances are out of their control.  If someone is trying to turn left and is being stopped by pedestrians or cars with the right of way, what gives you the right to honk at them?  Is that going to change the situation at all?  They also speed like a bat out of hell.  Example, on my way back from Annapolis, I’m driving along, going with the traffic.  Mind you, the traffic is going around 80.  A guy in a Mercedes is behind me begins flashing his lights at me as to imply I need to drive faster.  Unfortunately, that is not possible seeing as how there is a car in front of me.  He is so perturbed that he moves over to a far right lane and begins passing car after car.  Mind you, the traffic is already going around 80 which means he is going 95-100.  I’ll just never understand the need for all the rushing.

Anyway, I arrived in Annapolis; all the big buildings were made of red brick.  I did a little walking around, checked the sights.  It was a pretty laid back city.  But that’s not what I was there for.  I was there to see the water and eat some seafood.  I found the port; it was right next to the Naval Academy.  I tried to get in there, but it was all gated up.  I screamed through the gate “I pay my taxes! Let me in!”  They wouldn’t hear it.  So I left feeling defeated.  I turned around wagging my first in the air screaming “Next time Gadget, next time!” hoping it put the fear of a sequel in them.  I copped a squat on a pier for a while and just watched the boats sail by.  Some were big, some small.  All the people looked like they were having a fun time on them.  There was also a little band playing some music next to the water as well. It was very relaxing experience. 

After I was done walking around and relaxing at the port, I went and experienced the cherry on top of my visit. Indeed, it is yet another episode of NATE’S FOOD REVIEWS.   I went to Buddy’s Crabs and Ribs and had the SEAFOOD EXTRAVAGANZA.

Ladies and gentlemen, this marvelous feast contained shrimp, clams, oysters, mussels, crawfish, snow crabs, and blue crabs.  When the waiter brought this to my table, I almost cried in happiness.  The only things missing from this feast were lobster and scallops.  From my understanding of seafood, that makes sense because lobster is more northern coast seafood.  Crab is the king crustacean around these parts.  The crawfish weren’t as tasty as the ones I’ve had in New Orleans but I was able to look past that.  Other than that, this was a meal fit for a king and I drove home a happy camper.  That is until I got back into DC city limits and got blasted by humidity again.  But talking about the summer heat might be a blog for another day.  Here are the rest of the pictures of my trip, PEACE OUT!

New York Trip

Being from Pittsburgh, it is a bit of a pain to travel to New York. Not that it has stopped me from going multiple times but it’s just a horrible experience. One was by train and took about 8 hours. I told myself I would never do that again. Granted, if I drove, I could probably shave a good amount off that time. However, who wants to deal with trying to find a parking spot in Manhattan or paying a crazy amount to park somewhere for a weekend? So, as much as I love the people I know in New York, I just haven’t been able to bring myself to visit there often to see them.

However, now I’m in DC, the travel time to New York has been cut from 8 hours to around 4.5 hours by bus. I could also probably shave another hour or two off that drive giving traffic conditions. There are tons of bus services in DC that go to New York. Megabus, Boltbus, Peter Pan, Greyhound, DC2NY. The list is huge. One thing a lot of these bus lines advertise is wifi on the bus and power outlets so you can use your laptops. That was also a nice pull to take bus. Let someone else drive while you watch a few movies.

With that being said, I’ve been to New York twice since I’ve been in DC. Both times to visit separate friends. The first time I took the Peter Pan bus. It did indeed have wifi but it did not have power outlets. Sadly, the battery that came with my laptop only lasts 2 hours at the most so I was able to get one movie done before I just shut down the computer. Luckily enough, to keep me occupied, the bus driver played The Blind Side. I forgot how hot Sandra Bullock was. But that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, I got to where I needed to go. Lucky for interns that stay in the new residential facility, we are only a few blocks from the Greyhound station as well as Union Station which many of the bus lines and trains stop. So I have my pick.

It was nice being back in Northern weather for a while. It’s was cloudy and in the mid 70’s. It also rained for more than 10 minutes but didn’t become extremely humid afterward. On the Sunday of my visit, we went to the Puerto Rican Day parade. I didn’t even know it was going on that weekend. I’ve been to many parades in my day but nothing beats that one unless you’re in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. It was a giant party full of Puerto Rican flags, horns, dancing, and music. And, I got to see Jennifer Lopez for 2 seconds. That was awesome. Later on we went to this restaurant called the Frying Pan, which is a boat right on the Hudson. That was a nice until it start raining very hard and we were without any sort of cover.

The second trip to New York was to visit a friend for The Fourth of July. We share a similar love for food. So, under his guidance, we partook of many delicious foods. Delicious Vietnamese food in Chinatown, pulled pork Cuban sandwiches, cow tongue tacos, and Indian Curry from Brick Lane Curry House where Adam Richman from Man vs. Food did the Phaal Challenge. Needless to say, I did not participate in that challenge. I ate regular curry. A few other people tried it. They were not in the best state of mind and body afterward to say the least. Vomit may have been involved. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

My friend lives in SoHo. That’s an area of Manhattan I haven’t seen before. It’s a very nice area and right next to NYU. On top of that, the subway drops you off right there from the Bus Terminal. One night, we even took in an improv show at the Upright Citizens Brigade and I know I saw Streeter Seidel from College Humor in the audience. For the fireworks, we went to the roof of my friend's building where he works at. His building is right next to the Hudson River where the fireworks were set off. That was a much better situation than dealing with a crowded street level location. One night, we went to a bar called the Olive Tree where the tables are made of chalkboard so you can draw on them with chalk and play games like Pictionary. To add to that, at the same bar, I happened to see this bald guy standing around that looked very familiar to me. Immediately, I remembered he was on an episode of Flight of the Conchords, which is one of my favorite shows. It only lasted two seasons sadly. I didn’t really want to go up to him singing “Do the doggie bounce!” He would have probably hated that. But here is a clip from the episode of Conchords here was in:

University of Maryland

My roommates decided to go out of the city to their respective destinations during the weekend.  Where they went isn’t important.  The fact that they weren’t here is very important.  Ergo, vis-a-vis, concordantly... 

 

...I got to enjoy solitary solitude of aloneness.  It was awesome. Not that I don’t like my roommates.  I’m just a hermit by nature.  A lone wolf if you will. I believe Kanye West said it best: “With so much personality, what more could you want from me? I could be by myself and enjoy the company.”  That’s so true it isn’t even funny in my case.  On that note, Kanye also interrupted some bloggers just to let everyone know that I have the best blog of all time… Of all time!

I never had a roommate or had to deal with people all up in my personal space until I went to college.  So, I had to get use to it pretty fast.  However, needless to say, when I graduate and look for a place to live, it shall be only me.  Alone.  Mr. Solo Dolo.  I already have it planned out.  First two big purchases will be a wonderfully giant lazy boy recliner and a giant flat screen TV.  Maybe a HD projector if I have a big enough wall to use it on.  It shall be glorious… Ok, I’m getting off track, moving on.

After spending Friday and Saturday in my solitary solitude of aloneness, I decided to go on a little adventure on Sunday.  After looking over some places I still need to visit, I saw that I haven’t taken a trip to the University of Maryland yet.  So that’s where I headed.  From the Chinatown station, UMD College Park is about 15-20 minutes away on the Green Line.  I walked around the campus for a while, it was very beautiful.  I believe some sort of orientation was going on but I didn’t really see anyone.  After my visit, someone told me there is apparently a statue of Jim Henson with Kermit the Frog on campus somewhere.  I’m really mad I didn’t see it. I would have loved a picture.  Who didn’t grow up with Muppets? They’re awesome.  I don’t know if I could really name my favorite one either.  I think I’ll have to lean toward Statler and Waldorf:

 

    

I’ll have to go back up there later and go on a search for that statue.

They also have a small strip mall across from the campus that has things like Boston Market and Game Stop in it.  What else would a college guy need? There also happened to be a 7-eleven which I quickly went into to buy a Slushy in order to continue my meandering.  It was very hot.  You’d think I’d be use to it by now.  But every day seems to reach a different level of hot.  It’s crazy.

While walking back from the Metro, I took a stroll down to their area where all the fraternities are located.  Normally it’s referred to as Frat Row.  I happened to see a chapter of my fraternity Tau Epsilon Phi.  So I knocked on the door to introduce myself.  I got a tour of their house and hung out for a while watching a little big screen TV.   All in all, I’d say it was a very good Sunday.

Georgetown

One of my roommates and I recently took a trip to Georgetown. While planning the destination, I quickly found out that there aren’t any Metro stops near it.  However, that was quickly resolved.  Every once in a while when I am looking out the window or from the balcony of my apartment, I see a bus that says “Georgetown” on it.  After doing some researching, I found it that type of bus was call the Circulator and it leaves from Union Station.  Bingo, simple means of transportation to Georgetown.  Plus, it is only a dollar.  Well, it was a dollar.  DC has boosted Metro costs across the board so I don’t know if the Circulator got a new price or not.

I think I need to take this time to congratulate D.C. for its public transportation.  Not only is it reliable, on time, and frequent (during the work week, weekends are a totally different story).  But it’s also very clean.  These qualities are not the types of things you find in Pittsburgh. 

So, I make it to Georgetown University from the Circulator.  I must say how nice that area is.  The campus is beautiful with a lot of very big buildings.  Also the neighborhood surrounding the school is very quiet and cozy feeling.  A good amount of construction was going on in one location of campus.  No idea what they were in the process of building though.  This weekend was apparently an alumni weekend.  They were getting ready by setting up tables and putting up signs welcoming back Alumni.  I didn’t see many students walking around.  I don’t know if I should chalk that up to the fact that it is summertime or maybe the fact that they may have all be walking around down where all the shops are.  While on the bus, we drove up M St NW which was full of restaurants and shops.  After we were done exploring the campus, that is where we headed.

Now it is time for another edition of NATE’S FOOD REVIEW!  Being an unpaid intern, you have a very small budget.  So, sometimes, it’s very hard to find a place that you want eat when you are out and about which won’t make your wallet scream at you.  We found this place called Moby Dick’s House of Kabob.  It’s apparently a chain around here.  I ordered a Lamb Platter.  It was pretty good.  Kind of like a deconstructed gyro. The restaurant in Georgetown is very small.  It has 3 tables and one counter for you to sit at.  A lot of people seemed to be ordering their food for to go instead of standing around waiting for people to leave like me and my roommate had to do because we had nowhere else to go to eat the food.  I would try it again but perhaps at one of their bigger places.