Jazzercise

I’m by no means an athlete, but I like to get my workout on now and again. Back on campus I sometimes like to venture out to the Tiernan Field House at Scripps, and sometimes, when I’m super desperate, I’ll even go to Ducey. Unfortunately, however, there is no Ducey gym in Washington D.C, so I decided to pick up jogging. I have been a consistent jogger in the past, and I tend to like the activity, but as the DC winter crept up, and the cold blew in, jogging became impractical. So, my roommate Abby and I began to hunt for a gym.

Let me be blunt, the gym hunt blew my mind. I never knew that it costs so much to look fly. The first gym that I toured was the YMCA…the YMCA! I thought that Y’s were supposed to be inexpensive community gyms for people who live in urban areas… I was so wrong.

In DC, a student membership to the YMCA is $60 a month plus a hundred-dollar starter fee! If you’re not a student then it costs $75 a month! I wouldn’t pay a gym that kind of money unless they had a ‘we can make you look like Adriana Lima’ guarantee. I mean, for that much money I could just pull a Heidi Montague and have plastic surgery!

Obviously, I was disheartened, but then fate stepped in.

One day, while I was perusing the World Wide Web I came across the website for the Holy Grail, also known as Washington Sports Club. WSC has a trail membership deal that allows you to join for a month for the bargain price of $30! Not only are the prices good though, the gym itself is amazing. There are Zumba classes ( my favorite), boot camps, ellipticals, and everything else that anyone could ever want from punching bags to dance studios. And to top it all off, the Washington Sports Club has a steam room.

What is a steam room? You might ask. Well, a steam room is a facial for your whole body that costs you approximately 1 dollar a use! It’s amazing, so amazing in fact that I plan to drag my roommate Mackenzie to it right after I publish this blog post.

I dont have a picture of the gym so I thought I would use this one. I'm sure we can all agree that Boehner goes to the gym...probably one with a tanning bed. 

Lesson of the day:

When winter threatens to make you fat, join the Washington Sports Club.

Turkey...the country that is!

Several weeks ago my friend Laila discovered the best kept secret in D.C…. embassy parties! In D.C. all of the embassies are located in a beautiful part of town called Embassy Row. Apparently, every now and then the embassies host parties in order to up their popularity within the District, the trick is finding out about them. After getting an insider tip (from a website called Cloture Club), my friend Laila invited our entire class to a party at the Turkish Embassy Residence. Amazingly, only two of us showed up (Abby and I), but it was great. The building was beautiful and ornate, plus there was music, food, drinks, and culture, and it was all free!

We mingled in the living room of the Turkish Ambassador, dined on Turkish delicacies, and even hung our coats in the official embassy coatroom, complete with moving shelves!

The Embassy Residence

Free food!

Overall, the evening was pretty perfect, however there were two awkward moments…

First, after we sat down to eat, a Turkish man who wanted to chat with us, but who obviously didn’t speak English very well, joined us. This led to a very strange interaction, which ended with he and I silently and awkwardly smiling at each other for a while before he got up and walked away.  After that, I became concerned that he didn’t know anyone. Accordingly, I followed him around for the rest of the night to make sure that he was having fun.

Second, we ingested the most disgusting food that was ever created. In general, Turkish food is amazing! It’s savory and unctuous and wonderful, however, every genre has it’s pitfalls, and Turkish cuisine is not exempt. With dinner we were served some baba ganoush that’s recipe goes like this:

Take one eggplant and soak in 4 cups of formaldehyde until ripe and tender

Macerate with a large fork until chucky and yet simultaneously milky

Add in a squirt of Vegemite and a pinch of ash

Heat in a smoker at 800 degrees Fahrenheit for 7 hours

Garnish with chopped tomatoes, serve, and enjoy!

…Even Abby, who is vegetarian and eats like an exotic bird, literally spit her’s out before exclaiming “Dear Jesus! Get it off my tongue!”

The offensive culprit can be seen in the top left corner of the middle plate. (cream colored)

Lesson of the day: Always go to the embassy parties, but keep that baba ganoush out of your mouth!

My beautiful dates :)

The Queen of Turkey

You know you’re not in Claremont when…

Washington DC is not Claremont, California. The weather is colder; there are tall buildings, and you’re not constantly surrounded by 18-22 year olds. However, regardless of these differences, it is easy for a CMCer to become complacent in the District because of a delusional thinking pattern, which I like to call TNCenitus. To be more specific, those who suffer from TNCenitus harbor the belief that regardless of time or place “If anything happens, Camp Sec will pick me up in a golf cart.” Obviously, this thinking is flawed, but I must admit even I suffered from it in the beginning. That is, until the cold hard DC streets taught me some big bad lessons.

Accordingly, for this blog post I thought I would recount some of the nighttime adventures that made me jump, run, scream, and ultimately realize…”Toto, we aren’t in Claremont anymore.”

1^st) You know you’re not in Claremont when you find street-locks.

Several days ago, my lovely roommate Abby discovered a smattering of disembodied dreadlocks strewn across the street. Of course we returned to take pictures! I’m not sure how a person could lose their dread locks on the street, but I like to think that a man had a Pedro moment when his hair was making his head hot, so he shaved it.

2^nd) You know you’re not in Claremont when strangers throw cans of beer at you.

Once, a grown woman threw a full beer at Abby, Mackenzie, and I from her porch. She then proceeded to laugh so hard that she convinced me that it was funny, so I laughed too.

3^rd) You know you’re not in Claremont when rats chase you into traffic.

Several weeks ago, Abby, Mackenzie, and I were walking when a huge rat ran across the sidewalk right in front of us. Instantly, I started screaming and in my panic I started to run into the street. Meanwhile, Abby, who feared that I would be hit by a car, also started screaming and chasing after me. Poor Mackenzie looked on in confused horror. After we had all calmed down, we realized that a strange man had witnessed the whole ordeal. He was practically rolling on the ground laughing at us.

4^th) You know you’re not in Claremont when you find a blood covered man.

Once my roommates and our friend Katie were walking at night when we found a man passed out on the street. At first we thought that he was drunk, but as we got closer we realized that he was covered in blood. Instantly, Katie took out her phone to call 911 and Mackenzie and I tried to see if the man was ok. As we got closer I noticed that the man was young and that he had cuff links in the shape of Texas. As we stood over him he started to wake up; he was totally disoriented. He managed to tell me that his name was Newman, but then he freaked out and tried to run (really all he could do was crawl) away from us. Eventually, he got picked up by an ambulance and we walked home…it was weird.

Saturday Outing!

My roommates and I were getting a little stir-crazy this past week so we decided that we needed a Saturday outing. Lucky for us, there was a craft fair being held in the northeast quadrant called “Crafty Bastards”. So Mackenzie, Abby, and I took the train all the way out to the NOMA-Gallaudet metro stop so that we could walk to the fair, which was located in front of Union Market.  

Now that's a beautiful wrist.

Overall, the craft fair wasn’t our thing; we were expecting grandmas with embroidered pillowcases. (Which was dumb, the fair was called Crafty Bastards… whose grandma hosts a craft fair called Crafty Bastards?) Instead, we found the hipster apocalypse, complete with ridiculously overpriced knickknacks.

However, the outing wasn’t a complete waste because we discovered two new eateries. First we checked out Union Market, which is essentially a mall of mini restaurants and grocery stores. The place smelled amazing and we definitely plan to go again!

Showstoppers. 

Then…then we found the holy grail!

Just East of Union Market sits a collection of ethnic food markets. Among these markets is the most amazing little Mexican market that doesn’t have a name. At this market, we bought a pineapple, a mango, 1 large bag of rice, tortillas, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, 4 large tomatoes, 2 plantains, 10 jalapeños, 8 yellow onions, a bunch of fresh corn, 1 bunch of cilantro, 1 head of purple cabbage, and beets, ALL FOR UNDER $15!!!!!!!!!!

I literally squealed when the cashier rang up the total price.

The Magical Market!

Look how festive!

  

In order to celebrate this new grocery store find we had our friend Jessica over for dinner and we made fried fish tacos with pineapple mango salsa, Spanish rice, and black beans. It was the best meal that we have had in weeks!

The last supper...

Lesson of the day: Don’t let failed outings get you down. Just remember, most Bastards aren’t even Crafty enough to find cheap produce! 

ELECTION NIGHT!!!

If you were to ask me why I chose to study in D.C. this semester, I would say:

1) To find Barack Obama and make him fall in love with me

2) And/or John Boehner

3) Because it’s an election year

On November the 6^th, one and a half of these dreams came true... 

As you may recall, I am currently an intern at the newspaper The Hill, and excitingly, on election night I was asked to cover the national RNC party, which was held in the Reagan Building downtown. So my fellow intern Colby and I got all gussied up and headed out to the shindig. 

Can you say business casual??

If Uncle Sam married the Statue of Liberty their reception would look like this party… The venue was decked out in red white and blue; there was a ton of free food, and a slew of country music performers including Rodney Atkins and Jo Dee Messina.

The Party :)

For our part, Colby and I had arrived at the party with instructions to find famous people, talk to them, and note interesting tidbits along the way. But, as the night wore on, we began to see that we were failing. By 8:30 we had yet to find a single lawmaker. However, I knew that John Boehner was scheduled to speak at 9:00 so I planted myself at the front of the stage at 8:40, determined to be in the first row, which is where I ended up snapping this lovely picture.

The tan man of my dreams...

Right after the speech I realized that my phone was about to die, so Colby and I set out to find an electrical outlet. Eventually we found one in a small hallway in the back of the building. As I bent down to plug in my phone Colby started beating me violently on the back. So I turned to say “Colby, hold on a second I’m trying to plug my phone in.” As I turned around, however, I saw John Boehner walk out of a door across the hallway and step onto an escalator accompanied by at least 10 people in staff and security.

When I saw him he waved at me and then we had a mini conversation that went like this:

Gracie: “Hi!”

Boehner: “Hi there, how are you?”

Gracie: “I’m great. How has your night been?”

Boehner: “Great so far, I think.”

Gracie: “Well have a great one sir!”

At this point I’m pretty sure he was about to proclaim his love for me, but then he reached the end of the escalator so he just waved goodbye instead.

This was when I noticed Colby…Poor Colby in her panic couldn’t even make herself look at him. Instead she just stood facing me, giggling uncontrollably with her hands covering her face: they were her only defense.  After he was gone she looked at me and said, “I always cry when I see famous people." Then, she burst into tears! Later we decided that it was fine that she had acted this way. It had made the whole situation more dramatic and therefore much more fun!

About two hours later Mitt Romney lost the election, and let me tell you, that party shut down faster than a jackrabbit on hot pavement. So I left to join some of my fellow DC programmers who had spread themselves around the city at private parties, in clubs, in the excitement filled streets, and even at the White House where thousands of people had gathered and where apparently, a naked man had climbed a tree.

I know that many of my fellow programmers this semester chose to come to D.C. to be here on election night. I can only speak for myself, but I have to say, D.C. did not disappoint! 

Lesson of the day: No matter how successful your day has been, a dashing tan man can always turn it around... Unless, perhaps, you're Mitt Romney.

Halloween!

   I must admit, the students of the DC Program had a very lack-luster Halloween this year. We had a 10 page lit review due the night of the 31^st and another paper due several days later Accordingly, my roommates and I spent Halloween typing away in our tiny living room as the end of my childhood became brutally official at the ripe age of 20.

            To make up for this sadness, my household decided to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve several days late with a group party. So we decorated our house, made homemade apple cider and ginger snaps, and sent out a sassy invite.

Hey everybody! Gracie, Abby and I think it is time we

have another group get together. So tomorrow from 5-8 pm

we will be hosting a fall party. We know this is last

minute so we will provide some food etc, but if everyone

can try to rally and bring something that would be great!

Let us know ASAP what you can bring. Costumes

are suggested and there will be a pumpkin carving contest

(with a special prize for the winner). So BYOP... bring

your own pumpkin. Also, Gracie would like this to

be a costume party with a cat theme and, therefore,

would appreciate cat costumes from everybody.
Now just to recap:, BYOP, BYOCC (cat costume)

            Unfortunately, only my roommates, my visiting sister, and I dressed as cats, but hey, we still had a great time! We ate cookies, and, sang songs, and everything was great, that is, until we played charades.

            In my eyes, this final game showcased the biggest downfall of the CMC administration.  CMC produces economic geniuses, debating phenoms and even long boarding pros, but as I witnessed, CMC students are left to graduate with little to no charade skills.

            We were pitiful. So pitiful, in fact, that laughter-induced tears filled my eyes as I watched the group’s feeble attempts to act out simple clues like “Kim Kardashian” and “Hurricane Sandy”. Though I hate to admit it, deep down I know that if we were forced to face a team of Scrippsies with their CORE backgrounds, which undoubtedly included a class or two on interpretive dance, we would have been trounced.

            Regardless of our epic failure at charades, however, the get together was such a success that everyone ended up staying late!

            The next morning, some of us met up to go to the National Cathedral, which is gorgeous! I would very much recommend this activity to anyone, religious or not, just for the cultural and musical aspects.

            Then after the service we headed to the U St Corridor for some Ethiopian food at Dukem.

            All in all it was a great weekend for the DC Program crew!

What a Lady's Man! Get it Nick (Please note the pumpkin garland)

Gingersnap Love :)

Our beauty astounds, or so I've been told

The Gentlemen

The hostesses/roommates (Abby missed the act like cats memo)

My sister! Yes, I know, we look alike.

The Cathedral Crew

The National Cathedral

A big'ol pile of Ethiopian food!