Week 6, part two, classical Indian dance at the Kennedy Centre and Georgetown waterfront

The outline of Georgetown University, founded 1789. It's the oldest Jesuit and Catholic university in the United States. 

 Throughout my time in D.C I've returned to the Georgetown waterfront. I've seen it from all angles now, from a kayak in the middle of the Potomac river, walking over the bridge from Rosslyn, walking down from Georgetown itself, and as a passenger in cars driving towards Virginia. I think I can honestly say that it's one of my favourite parts of the city.

The Kennedy Center

Unknown to many, the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts gives free performances everyday on its Millennium Stage (6pm Eastern Time), and these performances are then broadcast live over the internet. The idea, similar to that of the Shakespeare Folger library, is that the arts should be accessible to everyone. By their own admission; "these performances of music, theater, and dance feature emerging and established artists from the Washington area. across the nation, and around the world".

 

We were able to watch a performance by the Kalanidhi Dance company. The company is based in D.C, but draws heavily from classical Indian dance, namely the Kuchipudi style (an ancient type of dance focusing on "fleeting emotions, fluidity and religious devotions") . I've never seen Indian dance before aside from films, in which dances sequences were usually Slumdog millionaire style, and performed at the end of a film. In reality you notice the detail and complexity, every finger and toe of every dancer seems to have its own routine, combined with all the other body parts to give an impression of continuous motion. This is then multiplied up as every dancer seeks to be in sync with the others, or working to temporarily define their own solo role within a sequence.

 

Luckily as well as purely expressive dance, there was a narrative to accompany the routines, outlined beforehand. This helped to explain a lot of the context to someone as ignorant as me concerning Hinduism. I can now say that I know several scenes from the life of Lord Krishna, especially his defeat of Kaliya (a giant poisonous river snake) and the dancer portraying the snake was incredible!)  

 

View towards Rosslyn, northern Virginia

So there you have it, where else can you; watch Indian classical dance, watch the sun set over the cityscape, and walk through an entire hall of flags (see http://www.kennedy-center.org/about/virtual_tour/hall_of_nations.html for a virtual tour) on a casual wednesday evening?

Week 5, part four, "Home", Georgetown, and the Rocky Horror picture show

I took pride in cleaning te apartment and actually opening the blinds/ turning on some lamps as soon as my roomates moved out....I've even used the lamps as replacement roomates. They're quieter, brighter and actually provide light & warmth.

With all of my roomates stuff removed, I discovered something incredible. There is actually space to move in this apartment. (Plus...I found $5 in change!)

I returned to Eastern Market once again this weekend! What am I going to do without my fresh, local grapes and cherries, and more to the point - my Pennsylvania peaches? Fruit will never be the same again.

The Amish are really very good at farming. The food I get here is the same price as the supermarkets at home, but the taste is amazing, and has genuinely made me buy an excess of fruit...when I say an excess, I'm still talking around the 5-a-day level, but for me that's an achievement. I normally only manage 3 or 4.

Before I get too carried away with congratulating myself on my fruit and vegetable intake, I also have a confession. I think I am addicted to Fro-yo (frozen yoghurt, it's like soft ice cream). It comes in all flavours. It has so many toppings. Fruit, chocolate, cookie dough pieces, hot fudge sauce. You serve yourself as much as you want, then add stuff on top, and then pay by weight. I really hope this never catches on in England, or any attempt I make to live a healthly life could be endangered.

We also returned to Georgetown! Georgetown genuinely has the best cupcake shops in D.C (we're fast becoming experts on this...) especially "Baked & Wired".

Something weird happened in Georgetown (sounds like a film title...) first, I was in a bookshop with some friends when I picked up a travel guide for the British Isles (always fun) and was annoyed to find that the University of Cambridge was featured as a major attraction, for the age of the institution and the architecture of the city, but Oxford was not, only "Oxfordshire" was mentioned. When I decided to voice my opinion on the matter, loudly and sarcastically ("haha, it describes Cambridge as "the seat of academia" in Britain, I mean seriously...") to my friend who is also at Oxford, a guy our own age turned around from a nearby bookshelf.

My first thought was "oh, he might actually go to Cambridge. This is awkward." However to my amazement he said, "oh, do you go to Oxford then? I'm at Magdalen, where are you at?" I was so surprised that I didn't say anything for a moment, by which time one of my friends (who is at Magdalen and in his year) stands up and greets him. Turns out that they were old tutorial partners. Weird.

Anyway, we were now over this and headed to a cupcake shop, which was less crowded than "D.C cupcakes" (see previous Georgetown post) and finally sat down with our food. The wall had napkins on which people had drawn on, and written messages, and then pinned them up. We decided to write one saying "Oxford loves Baked & Wired!" and then draw our college crests on it. (People had put up places from across the world)

As we put our napkin on the wall, two girls who were sitting at a breakfast bar in front of us stopped their conversation and said, "wait, do you go to Oxford?" We then discover that one of the girls graduated this year, from my own college.

On the one hand the chances of 2 Oxford students meeting 2 other Oxford students in seperate places, in a corner of D.C seems strange. The more I think about it though, Georgetown kind of is the "Oxford of D.C", if you know what I mean. Georgetown is upmarket, academic, "historic", and full of bookshops. Perhaps it's not so much a coincidence that Oxford students in D.C tend to head to Georgetown (and to book/ cupcake shops), though it is insane that we happened to be in the same place at the same time as other Oxford students, twice in one afternoon.

No explanation needed.

 

I went to a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Show at the E-Street cinema in Downtown. I feel as though this event itself deserves some kind of landmark recognition, because let me tell you, it was like participating in a cult. There were props, there were actors running around during the film, there were "regulars" (who watched the same screenings at least once a month, and knew th dialogue, as well as the songs, off by heart). I love the way in which throwing giant playing cards, or making audience members participate in acting out the on-screen drama was not seen as particularly  extraordinary. Nor was encouraging people to dance in the aisles during the Timewarp routine. For someone who had never seen the film before, I feel as if I'll never be able to think of it again without the accompanying sarcastic commentary of the person sitting behind me. That being said, I wouldn't have had it any other way, it way another one of those "only in America" experiences. 

 

The place where Lincoln was shot!

Since the film began at midnight, by the time we left it was pretty late, which provided an excellent opportunity to photograph landmarks without other people getting in the way. Walking through Downtown D.C at 3am was eery,  but oddly rewarding at the same time, as if we had somehow earned the right to see what most people, even residents, usually miss.

Week 1, part six

 

Union Station.This was the first Metro station that I saw properly, having got as coach from the airport and then joined the metro line at West Falls Church. Emerging from Union station for the first time all I remember is the view of white marble, statues, giant American flags, and a view out towards the Capitol, obscured slightly by the rain and humidity.The station also contains a shopping mall on several different levels!

 

View of the Potomac from a bridge that we walked across to get into Georgetown, which residents have deliberately kept slightly exclusive, by opposing any attempt to connect it to the Metro lines.

 

This is the sign from a cupcake shop me, some interns I work with, and their roomates went to, in Georgetown. The shop is famous because it has its own TV show. The fashion in the U.S at the moment is in making reality TV shows about people's everyday businesses (the most pipular seem to be bakeries, or those in the luxury industry, such as "below deck", concerning the life of a yacht crew) or the lives of "celebrities". I put that last part in quotation marks because I, to the shock of my flatmates, have no idea who any of these people actually are, or why they're famous. I get no entertainment from watching people drive around in limos, buying designer clothes or having "issues" (always on camera of course) with their family/ friends. Issues which are always resolved by extensive shopping trips, holidays, or spas and retreats.

 

Back at Georgetown, and having queued to physically get into the shop to buy a cake (only in America) my expectations were high. Luckily, having only seen cupcakes with a handful of different coloured toppings before, I was not disappointed. There was an actual cupcake menu for this place. They also did take-away. I chose "red velvet" because it wasn't chocolate (we may have already stopped to try chocolate chip pancakes earlier in the day...) and was just thinking about how ironic it would be if, after all that effort, I dropped my cupcake, when someone I was with accidentally knocked their bag against me and my cupcake hit the floor. I feel as though I have never known true heart break until that moment. If only my life were a reality tv show, then the sad, classical music would start playing, and the weird freeze-frames and close-ups of my face. Then I'd have an argument with the girl (who was extremely apologetic!) and it would be resolved by us buying more cake, and then giving interviews individually about how we felt about the incident.

 

However, what really happened was that a very kind staff member saw the whole thing and got me another one for free!

 

 

 

View of the Capitol building from the lawns. I like the fact that you can casually walk through the lawns to get to places, I suppose you can walk past the front of Buckingham palace, but the high gates and constant crowds mean that you'd never get a view as nice as this!

 

View of a old-looking building (they stand out in D.C) in Georgetown (possibly part of the university?) from the bridge we walked over, reminded me of Prague, or somewhere European. I'm glad we had a bit of a walk into Georgetown, in retrospect (at the time it was extremely humid and then rainy, so we cheated and got the Circulator bus back to Union station). When we left the Metro at Rosslyn we had technically left the District of Columbia, only to walk into it again a fewe minutes later. Once we were in the State of Virginia (beyond the border of D.C) the buildings instantly became more high-rise. Something notable here is how low the buildings are compared to most capital cities, D.C is completely unlike New York in that way. Strangely, the low-rise, modern look of D.C does occasionally remind me of my hometown, Milton Keynes (also built on a grid-system).

 

 The rule is, no building inside D.C can be taller than the Capitol building or the Washington monument. Kind of like how in Oxford no building/ spire is higher than the spire of the University Church.

 

I've met people my own age from all different parts of America now, and a Canadian! It's been amazing to listen to stories of "a coyote ate my cat", or "I live on a ranch". A girl from Oklahoma told my about the time a "twister" (my nan reminds me that this is an American word so I'm putting it in quotation marks) went through her backyard. A Canadian girl told me that the temperatures of an English winter are like a summer's day where she comes from. In return, me and some other Oxford interns are happy to talk about Formal Hall, the College system, and Sub-fusc*, which to be honest are bizarre even to most English people!

 

Something that stands out in particular is a girl I spoke to who is of American Indian origin. I learnt that the term "Red Indian" is considered offensive, and that the law surrounding the rights of women on reservation land has recently been changed. She's in D.C to work with the Division of Indian Affairs here in Washington, and wants to eventually become a lawyer to represent the people of her tribe, the Choctaws.

 

Vocabulary learnt;

 

"toque" - a type of wooly hat with two long tassles, this is actually a Canadian word (the Americans I was with didn't know it either). We have these hats in England, I just don't think they have their own name.

 

"noodling" - when you put bait on your hand and then catch a fish with it. A Texan assures me that although she's never tried this fishing technique, people do it in the "creek" at the back of where she lives.

 

*Sometimes I forget that not everyone understands Oxford vocabulary! Sub-fusc is the black and white clothing (white blouse, black skirt/ trousers, black shoes, and then the "academic dress" which includes the mortar board and gown) that students at Oxford wear for exams, matriculation (joining the university) and formal hall.