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.