 Media Credit: Lauren Silberman |
Try some new things. D.C. is full of restaurants serving food from countries most Americans can't locate on a map. Chances are, most students haven't the vaguest idea what people eat in Nepal or Ethiopia. Head down to Adams Morgan or U Street, pick a country and dig in. A few places to try are Fasika's Ethiopian Restaurant and The Rumba Café, both in Adam's Morgan. It can be surprising how good food from the parts of the world that haven't been marketed to death can be.
Because many people on campus will be off getting food poisoning in the Caribbean or making their debuts on "Girls Gone Wild" in Cancun, take the week to make some new friends. Get together with a few other people who are sticking around and head out to an area nightspot. Aside from drinking and dancing, the city has plenty of alternative hangouts from which to choose. Why not play pool at Georgetown Billiards, Atomic Billiards or any of the other pool halls in the city? Brush up at the Hippodrome beforehand, maybe watch The Color of Money a couple of times and then go rack 'em up.
Or do something really out of the ordinary and go watch the Sunday night competitive slam poetry readings held at Teaism in Penn Quarter. Slam isn't the typical flowery verse read in English class or the abstract language poems that grace the pages of literary journals. Like the name implies, Slam poetry is edgy, explosive and energetic. Slam is something between traditional poetry, performance art and freestyle rap. Poems are not just read, but performed and even half acted out. Contestants read their original material and may not use props. They are awarded points for content and delivery as they compete for spots on the D.C. slam poetry team. Entry into the contest is open, so students are welcome to bring their own original works and see how they stack up. If reading poetry aloud sounds like a daunting task, patrons of Teaism can also serve as amateur judges during the slam contests, scoring the poets on a scale from one to 10.
Mundane things will inevitably come up over the break, but try to do them in less ordinary ways. For example, instead of just going to the closest movie theater to see the latest blockbuster, see it at the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park - easily the best movie theater in the city. The screen is bigger than most D.C. theaters, the plush chairs are more comfortable and the theater's atmosphere is straight out of a 1930s movie palace. Sure, it's about two bucks more expensive than Union Station, but it's especially worth it for action movies, epics and any other movies that benefit from a really big screen.
