In Washington, D.C. everything is prefixed with National, even the major league baseball team there is called the Nationals. I took a national trip to Washington, D.C. over the weekend. I wanted to see the cherry blossom while intoxicated with sake while reflecting on the impermanence of life. The Japanese have a word for this, hanami which translates to flower watching. Unfortunately, cherry blossoms only last for less than two weeks and I miss them by a few days so I got intoxicated with sake and reflected about the impermanence of life.
Aside of the cherry blossoms, the other big attraction in D.C. is Tai Shan the baby panda in the National Zoo. Tai Shan is by far the most popular animal in the zoo. People gather and gawk as the panda plays with a cardboard box or just kicks back beneath a tree. While at the zoo I noticed two things. First I noticed that the animals at the zoo are lazy, I mean I saw the fastest animal on earth, the cheetah, was fast asleep in the middle of the day. The other thing I noticed is that the zoo smells like poo, I mean you can fart at the zoo and can easily blame it on the elephant dung. For the most part I thought that the animals in the zoo looked bored. I thought that their cages where almost as bad as those for software engineers.
I was staying in Adams Morgan which I kept saying was named after Captain Morgan. Adams Morgan is a D.C. hot spot. Right on Columbia Road and 18st you will find a lot of great bars and restaurants. Adams Morgan also has a lot of Latinos and in fact someone said it is "the only place that looks like LA." I thought that McDonald's agreed with that sentiment because I heard salsa music coming out from the local Mickey Dees.
I thought of Columbia Road as the national La Calle Ocho. Columbia Road is like La Calle Ocho of Miami, Whittier Blvd. of Lost Angeles, or the Mission district of San Francisco. I was staying right on Columbia Road and on the Saturday i was awaken by the sounds of rancheras. It seems that on the weekends street vendors set up shop right on the sidewalk and sell everything from CDs to perfumes. I can't vouch for their authenticity but man you can get some great deals. If you ever in the hood stop by at Pepito's Taqueria and order a Gringo Burrito.
There is a lot of diversity in our nations capital. In D.C. you will see a lot of Ethiopian restaurants, hear a lot of Spanish music from passing cars, and check out the fine diversity of females that our nation has to offer. I have to give a big shout out to all the fine looking sistas in D.C. Forget the monuments, I think it is the women that makes this city beautiful. You see the diversity in the people, you will see Desi chicks wearing saris, Africans wearing Muslim yamakas, and me keeping it real with guaraches.
THE GOSPEL OF SOUL
National Geographic put on display fragments of The Gospel of Judas. The second or third century papyrus codex is written in coptic, ancient Egyptian written using Greek letters. The Gospel of Judas claims that Judas in betraying Jesus did so only because Jesus had asked him to. I wanted decipher the ancient text so I headed down to the international headquarter of the National Geographic Society. Definitely the Judas exhibit was the most popular, attracting a line to see just three small faintly written fragments from the codex. From what I saw, the codex definitely did not exonerate Judas but then again I am not the first on to cast a stone.
I don't understand how the city is laid out. From what I could tell there are three sets of street names, numbers, letters, and states running across the city in a horizontal, vertical, and diagonal fashion. Along U st. you will find Ben's Chili Bowl. Right on the menu Ben writes, "Our chili will make a hot dog bark." I would add, "And a grown man cry." I didn't cry but damn that be some good chili. I opted Ben's original chili half-smoked hot dog. I love the atmosphere at Ben's where you can eat to Motown hits. The line to the casher becomes something of a soul food conga line as those waiting for some chili groove to the jams.
Walking along U st. I notice that many shops' name play with the letter U. I was reminded of Sesame Street; this is brought to you by the letter U. On U st. you will find U-topia and Sun on U.
After strolling on U st. I headed over by H st. near China Town. There are a lot of non-Chinese businesses in China Town, I was surprised to see the wanna-be Mexican franchise Chipotle in China Town. In China Town you will find the Legal Sea Food restaurant which in our growing debate over immigration I translate as the Documented Sea Food restaurant. The Washington Flier is running an ad for the Legal Sea Food where their tag line is "Taste the legal difference", I thought every time I eat in a restaurant I was eating legally.
DOORKER
A doorker, according to the Metro, is a "person who crowds or blocks Metro doors, making it difficult for others to exit or enter promptly." While in D.C. you don't want to be a doorker. I would also add that while on the escalator slow foot traffic keep to the right.