this perfect moment soon be leaving me
Tomorrow I fly to Belgium. I am...simultaneously hyped, pumped, and full of careful and anal-retentive worry that I might just leave behind something highly crucial. I have carefully placed everything I need on my dresser, and have made a list. (Yes. I really am this insane about traveling. Better safe than sorry.)
brownie_utonium arrived Sunday evening, and I have dragged her everywhere I could around Northern Virginia. Our exploits were varied and numerous. They encompass several days worth of hijinks and trips to shopping centers and Washington DC. I shall therefore list several key points in these many brave excursions.
~ We are both shameless food worshippers and snobs. Day one involved a gelato shop and a frozen yogurt place called Iceberry. If you have one of these around here, go try the honeydew-flavored yogurt. I had mine with sliced mango and kiwi, and she had hers with mango and blueberries. We also went to the gelato place twice. It was newly opened and therefore very stark, but the gelato itself was delicious. Almond-flavored was perfect and went well with the dark chocolate flavor, and mango was also tasty. Dinner places included a Thai restaurant which I, well...found something palatable at, (she loves Thai,), fondue, California Pizza Oven's awesome pizzas and sticky toffee pudding, and pulled buffalo sandwiches, salmon, wild rice, fiddlehead fern and asparagus salad at the cafeteria in the Native American History museum. If anyone is near DC, go to the Native American History museum's cafeteria. It has really amazing cuisine based on Native American dishes.*
- Went to DC to go to...as many Smithsonian museums as we could possibly fit into our day. We hit the Freer gallery and drooled over the Asian, Russian, African, and Indian art. There was an especially nice exhibit set out to look like a very colorful street, and a blackboard on which we posted concerns about the world. Most of them were about racism and cultures trying to reach out to each other. One of them said, all in block letters: "Loneliness." I drew a picture of hands trying to touch each other, and a question mark hovering between them. Many, many pictures were taken, and we went to the gallery store. Because we're wimps in the face of commercialism. I bought a novel by Murakami and The Pillow Book, which I've always wanted to read. brownie_utonium bought a Japanese horror movie, a CD of Thai pop, and an adorable book of the Hindu deities illustrated in cute, almost PPG style. Also on the list of museums, we went to the Natural History museum, the Air and Space museum, and the Native American History museum.
- Went to Wegman's and GrandMart to buy huge amounts of unusual foods such as canned coffees and teas, pomegranate juice, Japanese candies, melon mochi, and cheese. LOTS of cheese.
-Getting my passport took forever. While waiting, we went to the Books a Million near the agency and looked over their gay and lesbian section. Most of the books were written about and for gay men. Ninety percent of the serious books on homosexuality were about gay men, and didn't mention lesbianism. Ninety-eight percent of the lesbian-centric books were erotica. It's nice to know that objectification and fetishization of women is alive and well even in the LBGT community. (Speaking of which, New Hampshire legalized gay marriage! KEEP 'EM COMING!)I bought 'The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Childhood Among Ghosts', which was amazingly feminist and gorgeously full of imagery and a fascinating female lead with her fascinating mother, Brave Orchid, and talks about the sexism inherent in Chinese society at length. She purchased 'Olivia', which I hope to borrow or possibly buy a copy of my own.
* The museum itself was horrifyingly, depressingly sad. I don't think it would be for a normal American, but the impact of what these people have lost and have to settle with, and that the majority of the exhibits dealt with cultures and people who were dying out over time- it impacted me.
brownie_utonium arrived Sunday evening, and I have dragged her everywhere I could around Northern Virginia. Our exploits were varied and numerous. They encompass several days worth of hijinks and trips to shopping centers and Washington DC. I shall therefore list several key points in these many brave excursions.
~ We are both shameless food worshippers and snobs. Day one involved a gelato shop and a frozen yogurt place called Iceberry. If you have one of these around here, go try the honeydew-flavored yogurt. I had mine with sliced mango and kiwi, and she had hers with mango and blueberries. We also went to the gelato place twice. It was newly opened and therefore very stark, but the gelato itself was delicious. Almond-flavored was perfect and went well with the dark chocolate flavor, and mango was also tasty. Dinner places included a Thai restaurant which I, well...found something palatable at, (she loves Thai,), fondue, California Pizza Oven's awesome pizzas and sticky toffee pudding, and pulled buffalo sandwiches, salmon, wild rice, fiddlehead fern and asparagus salad at the cafeteria in the Native American History museum. If anyone is near DC, go to the Native American History museum's cafeteria. It has really amazing cuisine based on Native American dishes.*
- Went to DC to go to...as many Smithsonian museums as we could possibly fit into our day. We hit the Freer gallery and drooled over the Asian, Russian, African, and Indian art. There was an especially nice exhibit set out to look like a very colorful street, and a blackboard on which we posted concerns about the world. Most of them were about racism and cultures trying to reach out to each other. One of them said, all in block letters: "Loneliness." I drew a picture of hands trying to touch each other, and a question mark hovering between them. Many, many pictures were taken, and we went to the gallery store. Because we're wimps in the face of commercialism. I bought a novel by Murakami and The Pillow Book, which I've always wanted to read. brownie_utonium bought a Japanese horror movie, a CD of Thai pop, and an adorable book of the Hindu deities illustrated in cute, almost PPG style. Also on the list of museums, we went to the Natural History museum, the Air and Space museum, and the Native American History museum.
- Went to Wegman's and GrandMart to buy huge amounts of unusual foods such as canned coffees and teas, pomegranate juice, Japanese candies, melon mochi, and cheese. LOTS of cheese.
-Getting my passport took forever. While waiting, we went to the Books a Million near the agency and looked over their gay and lesbian section. Most of the books were written about and for gay men. Ninety percent of the serious books on homosexuality were about gay men, and didn't mention lesbianism. Ninety-eight percent of the lesbian-centric books were erotica. It's nice to know that objectification and fetishization of women is alive and well even in the LBGT community. (Speaking of which, New Hampshire legalized gay marriage! KEEP 'EM COMING!)I bought 'The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Childhood Among Ghosts', which was amazingly feminist and gorgeously full of imagery and a fascinating female lead with her fascinating mother, Brave Orchid, and talks about the sexism inherent in Chinese society at length. She purchased 'Olivia', which I hope to borrow or possibly buy a copy of my own.
* The museum itself was horrifyingly, depressingly sad. I don't think it would be for a normal American, but the impact of what these people have lost and have to settle with, and that the majority of the exhibits dealt with cultures and people who were dying out over time- it impacted me.