Anti-Tsunami

Here are some details on my first week here.

First, props to Delia for hooking me up and decorating - she and Basil worked for countless hours setting up my new pad. Basil picked me up at the airport, and was just such a trouper. My apartment looks and feels gorgeous. I feel so at home in it.

So, I’m here. Somehow it feels like I’ve never left the East Coast. It’s not like I feel more comfortable here than in SF, but it feels very normal (much longer than a week) — much moreso than I anticipated. In my head, San Francisco is this distant dream fantasy world vacation place. It’s almost mythical, and certainly magical. Because my memory is so distorted, I don’t feel displaced (though population-wise the general dearth of East Asians and abundance of chain restaurants feels foreign).

When I first arrived, Priscilla was here (she was actually sleeping in my roommate’s bed, while he was here unexpectedly). Seeing her was amazing - it was like no time had passed, even though so many circumstances in our lives have changed. I am so happy she is just a hop, skip, and a jump away in NYC.

I spent the first few days with my new roommate, Ahmed, (the nicest guy ever - watch out Martino - Delia is in love with this one) who turns out to be Emily Stasko’s high school classmate. He is a wealth of knowledge about everything related to Iraq. He is so willing to talk about really important issues in a candid and respectful manner.

Then, I had a housewarming party (actually Meet the Parent, D.C. style) on Sunday for about 30 folks. The composition of the party was interesting because it was mostly girls. In my former lives, I had predominantly female friends. But, most recently this had changed markedly. This party was 80% women. It was very hot outside, but wonderful to reunite with some people who I haven’t seen in many moons. I got some really generous gifts, saw old photos of a former Andrew, and chatted with people of my yesteryears. The party was mid-day - totally relaxing - a bit more subdued than what I’m used to. That description pretty much sums up how I’m feeling. Not depressed, but just a bit slower; somewhat subdued. Vanessa noted that I serially repeated the preposition "in San Francisco" ad nauseum. I have been attempting to curb this.

I started my position on Monday along with another co-worker who just relocated from Las Vegas. (Funny coincidence is that I saw him give a presentation at a conference in San Francisco. The interesting thing about him is that he barely knows Washington, D.C. I gave him a walking tour of Dupont, Adams Morgan, U Street and Woodley Park yesterday, with the latter being his favorite. I felt sort of expert.)

We started with an HR orientation, where I realized how good GGU’s benefits were. I felt like I asked too many questions. I also realized that I displaced my Passport and Social Security Card for I-9 purposes (note: you can only get 10 Social Security cards in your lifetime - what happens after that???) After much stress, I realized that I wouldn’t be terminated without the relevant paperwork.

The work environment seems quite Utopian. My office is in an old mansion with lots of windows and free, unlimited green tea. My co-workers are extremely friendly (lunch together every day) and respectful. My Associate Director is a total sweetheart. Apparently there is political diversity in my office, and at our intro lunch, co-workers wanted to know my (and my new colleague’s) political leanings. [I am always shocked when people don't assume I am a Democrat.] The politics are slowly but surely seeping into my everyday conversations and I feel markedly more tolerant of conservative ideology than I used to, perhaps as a coping mechanism.

My job description is less labor intensive than I had expected, to the extent that I am no longer responsible for planning events or for marketing them — apparently there are event planners and marketing managers for that. I am really excited to build something from scratch. I was also shocked to learn that I don’t have to take my own trash. This is a great luxury. This week was one session of orientation for incoming GW students, and it was so well-organized and community-oriented that it completely foiled my experience at Golden Gate.

I have wavered a bunch already on the degree thing and I think I am going to take classes starting in the Spring, and I am just going to take things out of interest. I can say that I have been very impressed with the Media and Communications School, so I might do something journalism-oriented — just because it excites me (and the student composition is very International).

One major issue is that everybody eats way too much American food here, namely salads and sandwiches. (Today’s goat cheese and sundried tomato one was actually quite nice.) There’s only so much of this a man like me can take. I am sweating for Lahore. It’s actually killing me. Don’t get me wrong - the salads are good - but it’s just a little rote.

Later in the week, I got together with Sally and Bernie, Andrea’s parents, and my mentors. They are good people. They made me feel better in sharing their story about moving to Chicago; specifically how they were not keen on the move and they totally can’t consider leaving now, even though. And, although they have no reason or intention to leave, if they were to move anywhere, it would be to this region.

Today felt more homey. I did happy hour with Mercer at my new pad - we just picked up the pieces after a little hiatus. She’s adorable — someone I have tons of conversational chemistry with — we could jabber on for hours. Then, my roommate came to surprise me with great ethnic food. Tonight I had a notable free dinner with Yanna and Akeisha (and Akeisha’s boss, the owner of a large DC temping agency) at Jimmy K’s. Akeisha somehow had a big connection at this restaurant and we had everything all-expenses-paid. I ate salad, tuna tartare, wine, coffee, soda, spinach, filet mignon, lobster, creme brulee. My meal was worth in the range of $170. I spent $20 on tip. It seems they are trying to promote this high class restaurant and this is their way of doing it. I have no objections, save for the fact that my belly is significantly larger. I joined the GW gym to change that.

D.C. impressions so far:

Positives: The walk to work is beautiful and exciting (architecturally, landscape, etc.) - I pass by all sorts of interesting buildings, embassies, etc., co-workers and job are great, monuments at night are gorgeous, my neighborhood is walking distance to everything cool, cabs are plentiful and cheap (though I am taking them way too often), I get to reunite with old friends.

Negatives: People here don’t smile when they walk down the street, lots of talk about muggings, people talk too loudly on their cell phones to demonstrate their importance, dress as if there is a mandatory dress code, and the restaurants are way too expensive, too much emphasis on "dating" in the culture, lack of relationships between local business owners and customers.

Parking Lot:

Note #1: My cell phone is acting funky and I can’t receive text messages.

Note #2: The nearby gayborhood Safeway is called the "Soviet Safeway" and seems proportionately more gay than the one in the Castro.

Note #3: Not sure if I’ll become the District’s Kevin Bacon, but I have already started bumping into people everywhere. Yesterday I met a student who went to KO in Hartford and who knows a bunch of UConn law profs from my former life there. I also bumped into Bryony, my co-worker, my waitress from the other day at Old Glory (yay for Southern BBQ), among others.

Note #4: I always had a dream of showing my mother an image of a woman on a restaurant banner who looks just like her. Mission accomplished and everybody agreed, including a homeless guy who thought it was her, and mentioned this in lieu of asking for money.

Note #5: Last night there was a scary-as-hell lightning storm. The night before I had a terrible ketchup nightmare

Basically, so far, I totally see what everyone had said to me. D.C. is a great place to be young, and seems like it would be totally cool for 3 years. Who knows what the future holds? I hope California is in the cards. In the meantime, I am AOK.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 23rd, 2006 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.