I've been remiss in my writing again, so I'll need to jam the last few months into this entry:The Cherry Blossom Festival
The weather has finally lifted, which means there is a lot going on in DC. It all got going with the Cherry Blossom Festival. All I will say about the cherry blossoms is that they live up to the hype. Any of you who are planning on coming to visit us in DC should seriously consider coming next spring.
Embassy Passport Days
Another DC event worth coming to town for is Embassy Passport Days. Embassies around town open their doors to the public. They have food, entertainment, art displays, speakers, and all kinds of events. Last weekend Chris and I visited Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Argentina, and Trinidad and Tobago.
My favorite was probably Ethiopia. The ambassador was like a rambling old professor who gave everyone a history lesso
n about the long ties between Ethiopia and the U.S. - amongst other tidbits about Ethiopia. We had honey wine, spongy bread, and some meaty stew-like dish. We also picked up a bag of Ethiopian coffee. (They invented the stuff, if you didn't know.)Pakistan won for most fun. It was an outdoor party with samosas, henna tattoos, and dance music. I think most entertaining had to go to Peru though. That is mainly because of the baby alpacas. (Chris has a real thing about alpaca's. He says he finds them repulsive, but I think he secretly wants to become an alpaca rancher.)
DC Art Exhibits
Of course, there is always a plethora of art to go see. We hit the Phillips this weekend. Most of it was pretentious modern art like Rothko. They did have a couple interesting Daumier, a beautiful Renoir, a Van Gogh (not his best), and a Chagall. Most interesting was Jacob Lawrence's migrations series. It deals with the migration of southern African Americans to northern cities in the early 20th century. I think it is done travelling the country, a shame if you haven't seen it. But you can log on to the site, see some of the works, and enter your own migration story on the Phillips website.
Even more impressive than the museum exhibits were some works we saw at the Zenith Gallery. The exhibit they have right now is called Drama Queens. It showcases work by Shelley Laffal and Chris Malone. Check out the Zenith website for some examples. Amazing in person. I wanted to fill up my house.
DC Concerts
Everyone comes to DC. It is an embarrassment of riches. I don't believe I mentioned in any previous blogs that we saw Pink Martini at the Kennedy Center. They played with the pops and it was a bit of a pops crowd (read, mature). It was a lot of fun though and China has got major charisma, even from ten miles away. We also hit Morcheeba, which was quite a bit less fun, lots of aging former ravers.
Best of all, we saw Eryka Badu who is just a little bit crazy, but in a good way. She came out in a 1950s-ish dress with an apron and a bob and she played all kinds of crazy space age sounds, in addition to the tried and true favorites of course. For the encore, she came out in a leotard and sang to some yoga balls. (No I'm not making that up.)
DC Classes
When not at art exhibits, concerts, embassy events, or (occasionally) working; I've been busying myself with classes. Chris and I took a salsa class. (It wasn't pretty.) Now that is over and I've moved on to yoga and kickboxing. Basically, I've come to the conclusion that I am completely uncoordinated and it is a miracle that I can stand upright.
A Delaware Sidetrip from DC
Finally, Chris and I took a side trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. We took the side trip in acknowledgement of the 10th anniversary of my 25th birthday. The winter weather hadn't completely cleared yet, but we managed to get one gorgeous day. Rehoboth is the perfect weekend beach destination. It has nice, wide beaches without a lot of seaweed or sand fleas. There are a surprising number of great restaurants and tons of gay bars.
We stayed at a great bed and breakfast. The cook was from San Marcos, Guatemala - one of the towns we stayed at while we were travelling. I even had a chance to use my (now rusty) Spanish. All in all, there were plenty of distractions from the awfulness of the event.
