Out & About

What’s up world! Hope all is well with you and that wherever you are, you’re staying nice and warm. And for those living in Southern California, Arizona, or Hawaii right now, I envy you.

Finally, after 5 feet of snow that caused DC to shut down for several days, life has moved on! The snowstorms are finally over, I went back to work for the first time in 11 days on Tuesday, and most importantly, I got to leave my apartment! So naturally this past week was a lot more interesting than the previous. I had quite a busy Friday night last week. I first met up with other members of the International Affairs Program in The Washington Center and watched an Israeli documentary called “Promises”, a movie about seven Israeli and Palestinian children that manage to form a friendship against all odds. This movie puts the grotesque politics of both parties aside and focuses the entire movie on the thought process of the kids, what initially runs through their minds when they find out that they’re meeting, how they interact with each other when they meet, and how they feel after forming that relationship. It was a really touching story. Here's the trailer of the documentary for anyone interested in seeing it; I highly recommend it.



Immediately afterwards, I walked to my cousin’s apartment where I picked him up and then met up with some of my friends at a lounge/bookstore called “Busboys and Poets” where they were hosting a poetry slam, a place for poets to showcase their poems so that they can compete for a spot on the local poetry slam team. Now this was the second poetry slam that I had ever attended, with the first one being in San Diego, and quite frankly, I was less than pleased. There were some good poets, but for the most part, the poets that I heard in San Diego were much better, which surprised me because I thought this would be better than anything on the West Coast. At any rate, it was still a very fun and eventful night regardless.

Here I am anxiously waiting to buy my ticket for the poetry slam!

Yes, you are seeing this correctly. I am sitting on the stage of the poetry slam. They leave seats up on stage for the people that show up late and can’t find a seat in the seating area.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to help give some of the military officials from the South Asian region at our most recent seminar at NESA a tour of Washington DC. We visited some of the main sites around the city, like the Lincoln Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and the White House. Unfortunately I cannot show you the pictures of me with some of the officials that I toured, but at the very least I can at least show you the pictures of where I visited. It had been a very long time since I had visited (I think I was 5 or so). The Lincoln Memorial was absolutely beautiful. Not only was the architecture of the building and the quite a sight to see, the view overlooking the entire capital from the memorial was also wonderful. Had we not needed to leave so soon, I probably would have sat on the footsteps of that memorial for a while. I’ll also be going back in the springtime to take more pictures.

In front of the White House

Standing right in the middle of Lafayette Square

In front of the Washington Monument

In front of the World War II Memorial

Inside the Lincoln Memorial

Outside the Lincoln Memorial

Well it’s been quite an eventful week. Next week, I’m going to visit Norfolk and Suffolk, VA and get a chance to see an F-22 Raptor fighter jet in person! Until then, take care, and hope you enjoy the rest of your week. Peace!