Three's a party - Davidson Life in DC

Living in a city is so much different from living at Davidson. The opportunity to live in a city with, near, around, next to, and close by a bunch of Davidson students is a delight. With no need to worry about cars, catcards, court parties, or social clicks, living in DC is going to make for a wonderful summer. The following is an account of two things – my social experience in DC thus far, and the class I am taking. But I guess I should probably give a bit of background on Davidon’s connections to DC in the first place. Oh and by the way, this is kind of a long post, and pictures are at the end so feel free to skip down if you like.

Each summer there is a “Davidson in Washington” (DIW) program that takes on roughly 15-20 students. This summer we have a slightly larger class of 22. Each student is responsible for securing his or her own internship for the summer. At the end of the program we receive two political science credits back at Davidson, one for our internship and one for a class we are required to attend two nights a week (Tuesday/Thursday). This year the class is being taught by Dr. Menkhaus who, ironically, also taught the DIW program when my boss was on it years ago. Ok.

For starters, I had a very fun first weekend in the city. On Friday I got off work at 6 (which is a little late for a Friday!) and went home and ate dinner. After spending some time with my roommates and neighbors, I headed to an apartment building about three blocks away to hang out with some friends from Davidson. One or two of the people there I would see on a semi-regular basis (namely Kellyn Sloan who is also from Kansas City originally), but for the most part they were all people I knew and would say hi to but never really spend time with. (I should probably note, they are all very friendly people, we’ve just never lived in the same place or hung out with the same people…but I like them all a lot!)

Our gathering grew over the next couple hours until we left to go out. Thus, we left and were walking around the city with a group of 15 people. This was an adventure by itself, making sure we all made it across streets at the same time and didn’t lose anyone. We (fortunately) only made one stop on the evening, a place named Sign of the Whale. It was really fun, but there was a cover charge and it was very expensive inside. As a friend put it, I’m not particularly fond of the idea of paying to pay for drinks.

The next day my roommate, Paul Ream, moved into our apartment. He lives in Richmond, so his parents just drove him up with his stuff. After he was settled in we decided to just go walk around. Our path took us past the White House where we witnessed a very small group of Iranian protestors. On a side note, it seems to me that security officials (and politicians in general) are (or should be) more than happy to let them stand there and protest in such small numbers as long as nothing threatening is going on, mostly because they were just yelling in Arabic or Farsi into a megaphone. I didn’t understand a single word, nor did most anyone else who was around I would guess. Doesn’t seem like the most effective way to protest…

That night Paul and I hung out in our apartment with our neighbors for a while, and then we went on a search for Davidson friends. At first the going was slow, and we met up with a couple people and just stood and talked for a while. Eventually we met up with Natalie Tagher and Nick Carney and went to a place named The 51st State. It was pretty fun, and we just sat and talked. Before we knew it we looked up and the place was mostly empty and it was 2am. At this point, my memories of being out in a city when I was abroad kicked in, and Paul and I decided we dearly wanted a kebap.

We walked about 20 minutes to a kebap place we found on our phone. Fail. It closed at 11. So we walked 20 minutes back and decided to head home. On the way, Paul convinced me it would be worth to go to McDonalds, which wasn’t exactly on the way. But we walked there instead, spent 40 minutes in line, but eventually ate two of the better McDoubles I have ever had (I don’t know if that is saying much). Since my mom reads this, I won’t say what time we got back to the apartment. Some things are better left unsaid.

The next day we ate lunch at Bennie’s with a few other friends from Davidson. Bennie’s is famous for their chili-covered-dogs with mustard, onions, and cheese. Let me tell you, I understand now why they are famous.

This week has been fairly routine, although I did start my class on Tuesday night. Dr. Menkhaus is currently out of the country, so this first week we are being taught by Dr. Rigger (whom I had for stats last semester). The first night was actually really interesting. Dr. Rigger is pretty easy to follow and learn from when she is lecturing about material she really knows. This course is on foreign policy, so we started by talking about the controversy brewing over Libya and the War Powers Act. I don’t know how Menkhaus will conduct the class, but we had lots of discussion throughout the class, which I love.

To wrap things up – three important notes:

(1) At work today we sponsored the launch of a campaign for a congressional race in Montana. In fact, it is the only congressional race in MT because it is all one district. Anyway, this is the Facebook page for Dave Strohmaier’s race, and though I didn’t have much to do with the design, it was cool to be behind the scenes for all the prep work and announcement.

(2) My dad was in town from Sunday-Thursday of this week for work. He was kind enough to take me to dinner Monday-Wednesday night. Paul joined us on Tuesday and got to meet my uncles who were there working with my dad, Jeff and Chris (in order of age, not coolness).  Afterwards he remarked: “your dad’s brothers are really funny to be around. They just go on and on and on.” To which I completely agree. Wednesday night Dad took me, Richard (who visited Vienna and is in this post), Natalie (who was mentioned earlier), Paul and myself out for dinner. Thanks A BUNCH to him for that…we stumbled into a place we thought would be good, but it also turned out to be super fancy. The food was unbelievable though, so…thanks Dad!!

(3) Class tonight was one hour of lecture and a second hour of a visit from Tommy Ross. Mr. Ross is the son of Tom Ross who was Davidson’s president my first two and a half years. More importantly, he is currently Harry Reid’s advisor on defense and intelligence policy. He is a Davidson grad (majored in sociology) and has certainly carved a path for himself here. Quite the interesting viewpoint on the Republican sweep in 2010, what it has meant for the last few months, what it is meaning for the Libya situation, as well as what the relationship is between the President and Congress, etc. Really cool stuff, and it is going to be great to have people come and visit every class.

That’s about all for now (sorry it was a lot). Enjoy the pictures and descriptions. Paul and I would like to encourage anyone who wants to come out and visit to feel free. I’m mostly looking at you, Paul, Sean, and Pat. The best way to get in a blog post is to be in DC. Or, complain about not being in it so I feel inclined to include you.

My Uncle Jeff at his daughter's wedding in May.  His 4 brothers gave him a
Henry Repeating Rifle for a  retirement present.

Our fire pit out back. I took this at
some point before I came to DC.

My sister's orchestra concert!

This is the view from my office out over the river.

The escalator at the Rosslyn metro stop in Arlington.  One
of the bigger escalators I've ever been on.  I get off at
Rosslyn for work every day.

The building straight ahead is my office building.  I work on the 9th floor
though my office looks out over the other side.

This is the view of GWU's "quad" (as Katie Mixon described it) at night from the rooftop of one of the buildings that
surrounds the "quad".  Paul and I went on a bit of an adventure.  It was fun, except there is so much light pollution that
the big dipper is barely visible.