Usual Sunday Foodie

For the usual Sunday blog I am going to talk about some of the restaurants I have been to this week in Washington DC and what I thought about them. I am going to start off with Potbelly’s. Potbelly’s is a chain sandwich place so they are all across the city of DC, Including right by my internship. I have been to Potbelly’s a few times due to its convenient location and have enjoyed what I ordered every time. The first time I ordered one of their salads, which are quite sizable at a reasonable price. The salad I ordered was wonderful mixture of fresh greens, dried cranberries, coated walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, grilled chicken and nicely coated in their signature potbelly’s vinaigrette. The second time I ended up trying a sandwich. I ordered a chicken salad sandwich which comes with provolone cheese. Potbelly’s makes their sandwich on half sub roles, which are a personal favorite of mine and then send them through a toaster to create perfectly crispy bread and melt the cheese for the sandwich. Potbelly’s also may have stolen my heart with their selling of Orangina and old school IBC root bear, one of my favorites. I would highly recommend Potbelly’s for a reasonably priced, good quality, quick lunch place.

Next up: Ben’s Chilly Bowl. A famous DC chilly place where only the Obama family and Bill Cosby are allowed to eat for free at. Ben’s is pretty good and was very busy when I went around dinner time. There is very limited seating so ordering to go may be best. One thing to know in advance Ben’s Chilly Bowl only accepts CASH not checks, debit or credit cards. I ordered the chilly cheese burger and my friend and I split chilly cheese fries. If you have not caught on everything is served with their famous chilly:) Which I must say is quite good! It is a pretty simple menu of fries, burgers, dogs, sausages, and chilly. Eat Ben’s chilly cheese burger and chilly cheese fries I must say is a messy affair but a delicious one! I would recommend it but it is not something I could eat every night.

Finally: Guapos, nearest one is located just up the street from Tenely Campus past the Tenelytown metro stop. Guapos is a chain Mexican food restaurant in the DC area (MD & VA). I went with a large group of people which meant no spitting the bill which is quite frustrating which it comes time to pay and calculate who ordered what. I do not really understand why restaurants will not slip bills in large groups because you could still require the 18% gratuity since it is originally from a 6 plus party, if they would allow this it would be much easier for the customer. But back to food, they have wonderful chips and salsa as well as guacamole! I ordered the chicken quesadillas, they were extremely filling and I actually was unable to finish them! I would say that it is a fun place but I think for Mexican food I preferred cactus cantinas more but Guapos is always busy and I did only have one dish.

Vengeance & Forgiveness

A common topic which keeps coming up in my seminar is vengeance and forgiveness. Now I am referring to forgiveness on a large scale in regards to ethnic cleansing and genocide.

The question is can forgiveness be given for such great crimes? But if forgiveness is not given the how can people move on from what has happened to them. If forgiveness is not given the cycles of hatred will continue, the same hatred which started the violence in the first place. So then how do you get to forgiveness? How can you come to terms with letting go of the angry you have for those who committed the crimes.

I think about it and wonder how can we ask someone to forgive someone who may have killed or raped a loved one of theirs for that crime? Why do we have the right to say forgive and you will feel better? Is it forgiveness for the greater good? To end the cycles of violence? Isn’t that a lot to ask of someone? But forgiveness is better than vengeance, because with vengeance will anyone really ever feel better? If someone kills your loved one does that give you the right to kill that individual? Will that make you feel better or be at peace? What about the people that person loves how will they feel if you kill them?

I feel it is all a vicious cycle. Where is there an answer to it? I feel forgiveness is the right choice. Forgiveness will put you at peace and allow you to move on from your grief. But how hard must that be, forgiving someone for someone who did something so horrific? I see the only way to be able to give forgiveness is by instilling conversation between the two sides so you can see them as yourself. But that is all that I see as a possibility other than that I do not have a solution.

Food Critic for the Week

So, I have a few more restaurants to talk about in Washington D.C. First would be the Banana Café near the Eastern Market metro stop. I would not really recommend this place. The food I felt was a bit overpriced for the quality which it was. I went with three of my friends for brunch. I ordered the waffles with strawberries, whipped cream and banana syrup. The waffle was rubbery. My waffle only came with one strawberry, and the syrup was already pored all over my waffle. Maybe that last one is just a personal thing but I do not like being served waffles, pancakes or French toast with syrup already on thing, it makes them soggy. My waffle was around $12 (and it was one of the cheaper things on the menu) which I felt was overpriced for the quantity as well as the quality. Again I would not recommend this restaurant.

If you are looking for some really good all American burgers I would suggest Z-burger. This is right across the street from the Tenley Campus and they accept eagle bucks which is nice if you are looking for something other to eat then the Tenely Café. I really like their bacon cheese burgers they are delicious and I am sure not good for you but I do not care since I am not eating them every day:) They also have really good milkshakes in tons of different favors! Their onion rings are a little too doughy but their French fries with the spices on them are really good. It could be seen as the East Coast version of the West Coast In n’ Out.

The last place I am going to talk about is The Diner. The Diner is in Adams Morgan and open really late (possibly 24 hours, but do not take my word on that). They are set up like an old school diner and have pretty good egg sausage sandwiches. Not as good as Steak & Eggs or the commons back at my home school but still quite good. But, of course with the egg sandwich comes home fries which are delicious at this place! They were cooked perfectly and had just a hint of spices to give them a little more flavor. The Diner also has really good milk shakes, I ordered the chocolate one (they only come in the three flavors of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry). It was really good!

Well that is all for the restaurants around D.C. but do not worry I will be back next week with new critics of places around D.C.

A little fun in a different city

So, with the good weather here in NYC I decided to explore central park a bit. A pleasant surprise for me was discovering the Alice & Wonderland statue there that I did not know existed in Central Park:) The reason why I find this so funny because when I was in London, while exploring Hyde Park I found the Peter Pan statue, in Boston I found the bronze make way for ducklings’ statue, in Copenhagen I went to see the Little Mermaid statue but it had been moved to go on tour in China. So, finding another child story character in a big city park was a lovely surprise.

This past week I have been doing some of the normal site seeing of NYC. I went to Time Square and went to the M&M store, the Hershey store, Toys R’ Us store (which has a fairest wheel inside it!), as well as seeing all the Broadway theaters. I went to the statue of liberty and my friend and I wore the silly tourist crowns the whole trip to the island! It is something so ridiculous and funny, you should always remember to have fun and be able to laugh at yourself.

One night my friend and I ended up doing lottery for a Broadway show and ended up getting tickets. The tickets were for the front row and the play was fantastic! After we ended up rushing the back door and getting all the actors to sign our play bills and get photos with all of them!

This trip to NYC was so much fun! I had a great time visiting my friend and seeing all the NYC sites. NYC is great city with so many different individual styles walking down the street. It was great to have a change of scenery for a little bit.

The Big Apple

A great thing about being in Washington D.C. is having the ability to travel to cities that are nearby for really affordable prices. MegaBus is a wonderful invention. Since we are on spring break I decided to go visit a friend who is studying in New York City! I stayed with my friend in Brooklyn.

Here are some places you should definitely go if you are in NYC. In Brooklyn there is a great thrift shop called Beacons Closet. You can find some really great stuff for a reasonable price. For instance I bought a great string of pearls for 5 bucks! I also bought a white Banana Republic short jacket for $15. It is a perfect jacket for the spring weather that has started showing up in D.C. Another place to go for good shopping is Buffalo Exchange (which are across the U.S. but there are not anywhere I am from in Vermont). Buffalo has a mixture of graphic tees and more professional clothing which is great since that is what my wardrobe is consisting of as this moment. They also have a great selection of dresses!

If you are going to Brooklyn a place you must go is the Chocolate Room, it is wonderful! Everything is chocolate! You start out getting a bit size sample of whatever their special is that day. When looking at the menu it is always hard to choose what you want. I ended up getting the Brownie Sunday which I highly recommend! It was the best Brownie Sunday I have ever had and worth every penny I paid for it. Another place I liked in Brooklyn is Fish & Sips it’s a little restaurant but has great food. I got a white fish with this spicy rub on it over rice as well as the lemonade. Now if you go here get the lemonade because it is not just lemonade it is the slushy lemonade/lime thing, I do not know how they make it but it is delicious.

That is all from the big apple for now.

A Walk Down Embassy Row

As part of my peace and conflict resolution program we are going to be traveling to Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey to look at the Cyprus conflict. So, this past week we have been visiting the embassies of Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey.

On Wednesday we visited the Cyprus Embassy and met with the Ambassador of Cyprus. What was so wonderful about this was as students we were able to meet with the actual Ambassador of Cyprus not one of his assistant. Now I cannot really go into detail about what was talked about during our meeting but it was very interesting. The Ambassador made the meeting very personal.

On Thursday we visited the Greek Embassy and met with a member of the Council to the Greek Ambassadors. The Greek Embassy was very beautiful. The council member was very informative. The meeting with the Greek Council member was much more formal I felt then the meeting with the Cyprus Ambassador. This conversation even though was formal was also off the record.

This Friday we visited the Turkish Embassy and meet with a Political Councilor to the Turkish Ambassador. Let me say the Turkish Embassy is fantastically beautiful. The art and light figures (as odd as that sounds) are beautiful. The meeting we had with the political councilor was very interesting it was an academic meeting of discussion. The individuals who we spoke with gave us there honest opinion on issues. Now again this was all off the record and a personal conversation meaning I cannot repeat any of it, but it was an awesome conversation to have. It is so interesting to hear the real opinions of people on the issues we are studying not one handed out by the government or officials.

Don't Always Believe the Horror Stories

Before I came to Washington Semester something I was nervous about was what my responsibilities would be at my internship. You hear horror stories of being a lowly intern and having to get everyone in the office coffee and making photocopies all day. I knew I did not want that, but how would I avoid it?

So, I wanted to share the wonderful experience I am having as an intern. I was given the assignment to research the deportation of Haitians from the United States back to Haiti. I then would draft a statement on behalf of TransAfrica Forum for the immediate halt of the deportations. What is so wonderful is something actually happened with this statement I drafted. The statement was posted on the TransAfrica Forum; the link to the statement is on the main page. Below is a link to the page the statement I drafted is on:

http://transafrica.org/2011/02/policy-overview/caribbean/haiti/transafrica-forum-calls-for-immediate-halt-of-deportations-to-haiti/

What is so great it that I feel like I am doing something at my internship that matters not just mindless busy work. I am really enjoying this internship. After creating this statement I then had to write up a briefing on the deportation of Haitians from the United States. This was more research to do then for just the statement since it needed to be five pages or so. After completing the briefing I moved on the larger project of researching gender based violence which has spiked with the IDP camps. Since women’s history month is March I need to have the report done quite quickly for it to be used at events and briefings on what is occurring in Haiti in regard to gender based violence.

So, the point is do not get worried about your internship and the horror stories you here, because honestly you could end up with an internship which is really rewarding. :)

Dignity

In my seminar we have been going over dignity a lot. We have also talked a lot about the loss of dignity or the violation of dignity. This got me thinking what is dignity to me? What is my dignity? Here is what I am up with.

My dignity is something that is not supposed to be violated. My dignity is something that if violated would most likely leave me in a state of not even know what to do with myself.

There are three values of mine that if violated I would not know what to do. The first of my values is my right to make my own choices; the second being my right to think what I want; the third being my right to free speech.

If someone forces something upon me that I did not want, I would feel violated. I would be enraged and desperate about what to do since I would not know what to do. I would want to find a way to restore my dignity. I think that would be one of the hardest parts, not knowing how to get back what was taken from you with the violation of your dignity. Because the attack which was made upon you cannot be taken back so how do you get your dignity back?

If someone told me I could not think the way I wanted to or say the things I wanted to I would not know what I would do, because how can one dictate what I think and say?

This thought keep reminding me of the novel 1984 were I feel the main character’s dignity was attacked. I try and imagine myself in the setting of 1984 with Big Brother, spies, double speak, lies, deception, and simple acts really being acts of revolt. How would that even be, I see the society which 1984 takes place in being one of the ultimate attack on dignity because it is a government not only trying to control what is said but what is thought, and that is one of the scariest most angering things to me because how can you control ones thoughts that are not your own.