A Memorial Weekend in DC
I had confirmed my internship at the ABA’s Section of Dispute Resolution in April. Starting was a long ways away, June 1st. As with all things though, the date came a lot faster than I expected. A week after exams were finished and I had just dropped off my Law Review submission. A week later and I had just finished my seminar paper. Then I had to move with Camille to a new apartment, shop for a professional attire and pack it all in two days, and all the while figure out where exactly I would be living in DC. One of those things got dropped in the hassle and wouldn’t you know it, it was my living arrangements in DC. I made some frantic Craigslist searches, most of them from my iPhone since we lacked any Internet. With a handful of names in hand, and only one promising option, I got in a car on Thursday morning with Kevin, Natela, and Camille and started the drive to DC.
Yeah I got made fun of cause I brought along like eight pairs of shoes… Sure I could have brought along like a pair or two less. Frankly though, better to be safe than sorry. The drive was uneventful. Listened to a story about a parrot and some scientist’s diatribe about how speciest we all are. True to form I took a number of naps during the car ride. As we got into DC I hurriedly tried to cobble together plans with Vidya and my mom. See my mom had driven down to the DC the same day, separately. Vidya and her were to go up to Cornell for Ankit’s graduation. Since I had to find a place still and entertain my friends, I could not go. But since we were all in the same city, something not too frequent after this summer, I thought we had to get together. A mash of miscommunication and we finally found ourselves at Zaytinya, a middle eastern tapas restaurant. The food was okay, the deserts were great. That really was a theme of much of the meals over the weekend… Absolutely fabulous deserts. Company was enjoyed and then Vidya and Mom left to get up for an early morning drive, which was not conducted anywhere close to early in the morning, and we went back to rest up for looking at apartments the next day.
The next morning I got up at my customary early time. I can’t sleep past eight it seems unless I have slept very, very late the night before. Luckily for me, Camille is an early riser as well. We headed out and got some coffee and then took the bus from Union Station out to Foggy Bottom. We had an 11 o’clock appointment with an apartment. We were there too early in my excitement. So I called the guy, who was asleep and then the two of us went exploring. We walked out to the Kennedy Center and took pictures by the Watergate. We walked further down and explored some more before I finally heard back. It was now okay for us to come up. The apartment was quite literally a college dorm. In fact it was right across from the GW college dorm I might be living at. It would do for two months. I signed a hastily put together agreement and then Camille and I departed back towards our hotel. At least I now had a place to stay for summer. We got to Old Ebbitt’s and were joined by Kevin and Natela. The crab cakes I had were sublime.
After food it was decided that we should go canoeing. We took Metro to GW and walked over to the Thompson Boat Center right next to the Watergate. Camille is afraid of kayaks and so we picked up a more lumbering canoe. The waters were choppy that day my friend, “like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.” Well actually they were quite nice, except for one strong undercurrent. That thing pulled us out much further into the Potomac than I realized. I also realized just how shallow the Potomac is at places. I was hitting the bed with less than a quarter of my oar. The good thing was that I got a ton of great pictures from our ride and a decent workout too. More exercise was in store though, because we walked from the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the Washington Memorial and then back to the hotel. We were so tired that we retired straight to the restaurant in the hotel. Luckily they had a decent entrée and a killer desert. Filled with chocolate-y goodness I headed upstairs to watch basketball and promptly fell asleep.
The next day was zoo day. Don’t ask me why, but Camille and Natela absolutely wanted to go to the zoo. So we took the Metro and headed to Adam’s Park. The place was surprisingly not as crowded as I expected it to be. I also realized just how much my point-and-shoot can suck at times. Really wished for something that was better in low light when I wanted to take a panda’s picture or had a higher zoom when the tiger was all the way across enclosure. I wish I had the money to fulfill all of these dreams. I can’t stand a big camera, but it would be nice to have some more zoom or a better chip in there for low-light. Maybe the iPhone 4 will fulfill the latter dream. That night for dinner we went out to Jaleo. Jaleo was absolutely delicious. The food was good, the desert was absolutely outstanding. You see a recurring theme here? Seriously, the custard desert I had was so good that I have to go back there at least once before I leave DC just to take some desert with me. The night was topped off by watching Artest make the unfortunate Suns pay for some sloppy defense. I was sad for Nash and Grant.
The last day of the trip, before my friends and Camille had to drive back, was filled with two unlikely things when you go on vacation: shopping and a bad movie. I had desperately needed some professional clothes for work. Camille and I had made an extended shopping trip at Briarwood where I purchased a number of pants and suitable shirts. I however lacked shoes. I had my trusty pair of black shoes, but I needed some brown ones as well. So off we went to the Pentagon Mall. Natela tried to make me not feel bad by saying that this is a famous mall and all the tourists come here. It was packed. I actually spent a pretty penny, with two pairs of shoes and a few shirts as well. Then a quick trip to Marshalls for some necessities, like bedding, and dinner in Old Alexandria at Bilbo Baggins Cafe. That to me was a bit of a let down. The food wasn’t bad. It just was not as hobbit-like as I wanted it to be. Then came the worse part. See I love Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the video game. Its design was near perfect, voice acting lovable with characters that developed, and the script was some of the best work I have ever seen (not formulaic). So, I had to go see the movie. The movie was bad. Yeah, Gemma Aterton was hot and sure the effects were pretty decent, but really the movie was nothing more than “B-” Bruckheimer fare. Better than the last two Pirates movies but worse than the first and nowhere close to the greatness of the likes of Con Air. After the movie we went to drop off some of my belongings in the new apartment, meeting an unintended roommate, and then headed back to the hotel. On the way we were privy to a shooting and its aftermath and everyone asked me to please be safe.
This was probably the hardest day of them all. I knew I was leaving Camille for two months, but I was with her for three whole days. Those were absolutely wonderful days. I was now leaving her for two months (maybe a little longer) and she would not be able to visit me at all. Yeah, it was extremely sad. We had some lunch in Union Station at the America Restaurant. I really did not know how big this place was, absolutely amazing (I would not know its true size until two weeks later someone would tell me that there is a movie theater in there as well). Then they dropped me off as they headed back to Michigan. I did not settle into the new place properly for more than a few days without Camille with me. The weekend though was absolutely great. It was an intensely compact primer into DC. I got the lay-of-the-land and a quick tour of all the sites. Natela and Camille were able guides and I have a whole lot more of DC still left to see.
