Sunday, May 2, 2010

The Weekend Report: Walking Around the World

I started the weekend with an epic walk. 

And I mean epic. 6x6 and I left our repective apartments at 7pm on Friday, and proceeded to walk to the airport and back (obviously). It took us 2.5 hours (and we are quite the brisk walkers). Why? Well, why not? (The map below is one-way...so we actually walked 12 miles!)


We saw two airplanes pass close overhead as they approached the landing strip...pretty cool stuff. 6x6 got her "aviation fix," I got some exercise and cleared my head from the workweek. So it was an unconventional Friday night, but good nonetheless.

Then Saturday I went to Senegal, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, and Korea.

Really!
It was Passport to DC weekend, and 31 embassies had open houses. Technically an embassy is that country on American soil...so yeah, I did a bit of world traveling, all within a 2-mile radius of my house. (And this is why I love DC.)

Senegal was pretty sparse. Australia had an aborigine playing the didgeridoo, and some cheese samples. Trinidad and Tobago were the best - steel drums, dancers in costume, and really cool art. In the Bahamas I shook the Bahamian ambassador's hand, and ate a conch fritter. And a nice Korean boy translated "Mollie" into Korean on a name tag for me.

I'm really into embassies - mostly because there are so many near me, and I'm very intrigued by the aristocratic diplomat concept. I started noticing them on my first run in DC - a few miles out Massachusetts Avenue takes you past more than 10 embassies! So, being the true IR nerd that I am, I created Embassy Bingo! Basically I just printed out a spreadsheet of all the countries with which the US has diplomatic relations, and encouraged my roommates to check off the embassies that they've seen.

Anyway...

After refreshing ourselves with more Diet Coke than people should drink, my friends and I returned to my apartment for a many-hour baking experience, the likes of which have never before been seen in the Eat Run Read repertoire (look forward to that post next week)!

Sunday was a bit more low-key, brunch and yoga and errands and reading. Overall a good weekend! And I'm looking forward to
Shortcut to Europe, the EU embassies' open house event next Saturday (because May 9th is "Europe Day" - who knew?).