Joshua Bell in the Metro

I found this Washington Post article linked in another blog. It's a long read, but worth it. If you don't have time, here's the synopsis: The Washington Post planted world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell in the L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station as a street artist during morning rush hour. Just about everybody ignored him. Sadly, I could have just as easily been one of them. You get so used to trying to ignore other people (because they're annoying, crazy, dangerous, dangerous-looking, or foul-smelling) that you tend to filter out just about everything. Zach and I almost blustered past an act of kindness this past weekend as we entered the Metro station. A man with a woman and two kids came up to us saying "Do you need tickets?" and tried to hand something to Zach. Our gut reaction was "Let's get away from these people!", but it turned out they just wanted to give us their day-passes, since they were done with them. So we rode the Metro for free all night. A random act of kindness from a stranger. Maybe this article will as a reminder to me, and everyone else, to take time to appreciate life and beauty wherever you find it. Even if it's 7:13AM and you haven't had your coffee.

Long Time No Post

It's been a long time since my last post, but that's because not a lot has been going on. Nobody really wants to hear about the HOA meeting I went to or what the weather is like here (cold). Seriously, we woke up to snow yesterday. Wah?

I'm not even sure it's worth breaking my silence to talk about last night. A group of us went to see my favorite band, the Kaiser Chiefs, at the 930 Club. It was awesome. There seemed to be a lot of British people there. Before the concert, we went to a restaurant called Dukem, which was my first experience with Ethiopian cuisine. It was really good, although strange not to get any utensils (you tear off pieces of injera bread and pick up the food with it). Dukem was near 2 other Ethiopian places, and there was an Eritrean place across the street from the 930 Club. Apparently, you can't swing a dead cat on U Street without hitting an Ethiopian restaurant! One friend said that area is known to be "Little Ethiopia". In other news, my trip to Cameroon in May has been called off. I'm a combination of bummed (I wanted to check another country off my list) and relieved (2 weeks is a long time to be away).