DC

When I was in the sixth grade, my class took a field trip to Washington, DC...our Nation's Capital. I'll never forget running around on the Smithsonian Mall with my classmates, taking pictures with the Capitol or the Washington Monument in the background.

Years later, I landed an awesome summer job working in DC while in between my sophomore and junior years in college. Looking back, I should have appreciated the job and all it had to offer even more. I visited embassy after embassy...afternoon tea at the British embassy, weapons briefings at the Israeli embassy, cultural exhibitions at the German, Brazilian, Chinese, Saudi Arabian and numerous others. There were White House south lawn speeches for visiting dignitaries and briefings at the State Department, Energy, Agriculture, Commerce, the OEOB and the World Bank. There were times I sat in the chair of the Speaker of the House, ate in the Senate dining room - where Jess Helms once commented that we both must go to the same barber. Ha. Obviously just not the same school of thought. Still the most fun was visiting the Smithsonian again, week after week, with an enthusiasm for the culture that didn't exist when I was in sixth grade. Although on nice spring days, I would find some shade under a tree on the Mall, put my backpack under my head and recline without a care in the world. Of course, watching the hot men jog their lunch hour away wasn't too bad either.

Little did I know that after graduating from college, I would spend the next 16 years in Washington. Living first between DC and NYC at Marymount University and NYU, then on Capitol Hill, then Alexandria, and finally Fairfax after a short stint in Manassas. As time wore on, I did tourist things less and less.

Last week, after being out of DC for just over two years, I had the opportunity to go back. There were lots of cars, tall buildings, people and concrete for days - all things that I'm not used to now living in this small seaside village. The work with the client wasn't all that exciting but my new perspective on the city was.

The food, from anywhere in the world, is really something that was appreciated when living there...even moreso with the lack of good ethnic food diversity in Provincetown. I ate Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, BBQ, some good home-cooked salmon (Thanks Barge and Yurek!) and not once did my feet take me to a Starbucks or Caribu Coffee - it killed me, but it didn't happen!

After landing at National Airport - no thanks Bob Barr, I will not refer to it as Reagan National - my taxi took me up the George Washington Parkway and past the Pentagon where the newly dedicated monument to the victims of the Pentagon attack on 9/11/01. Moving. Then we passed the Air Force monument - wow, very very cool!

And so the week continued...viewing Washington DC thru a new lens - the fresh, new perspective of an outsider...and I liked it. Being back there, albeit for a limited time, the city was fresh and clean, growing and vibrant but most of all, DC is a very beautiful city. Proud monuments, statuesque buildings, rolling fields along the Potomac, traffic jams and some genuinely nice people...I miss it.