Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Look out Congressmen, Kaytee's in town!

Today, for the first time, I spent my first 5 days as an official D.C. resident. I'm not quite President of the United States yet (give me a couple more weeks), but I have had a great start and a lot of firsts!


My apartment is in Columbia Heights in the North West part of D.C. It's a culturally saturated neighborhood with a lot of people my age (and a LOT of adorable puppies!), and I'm only a 15 minute walk from the metro. D.C. is fairly small, so once I travel the 30 minutes of walking/metro into the main part of the city I can pretty much walk anywhere. I'm living in my best friend Lindsey's room for the summer while someone sublets my room, and I love the apartment. It's pretty big with a nice kitchen and beautiful cream colored walls and window curtains. I'll be excited to settle into and decorate my room come the fall, but in the mean time the low rent is very nice.

I love going into the heart of the city and exploring. I've been to a few Smithsonians, a couple of random bars and restaurants, and Chinatown, which is much cleaner and nicer than NYC Chinatown. I found a nice Barnes & Noble with a cafe so I can continue my ritual of green tea and reading books for free. My best friend Katiri lives near GW University and the White House, so when I visit her it's a fun walk.

I am starting at a Chili's in Maryland that is only 13 miles away while I job hunt. Everyone at the restaurant is really nice and easy to joke around with. It feels like I've been friends with them all for months. The menu is exactly the same except for crab quesadillas, a Carolina style pulled pork sandwich, Sweet Tea and a Beach margarita.

I haven't really encountered one mean person yet since I've moved here. Everyone is so friendly and chatty. I've had random 10-20 minute conversations with a security bag checker at a museum, a stranger on the metro, and a man who works at a seafood store that I pass all the time on my walk to the metro. I can only describe the general atmosphere as the perfect mix of city-style independence and small-town community.

Hopefully I will have have a job doing humanitarian work by the end of the summer. This is definitely where I need to be to find this kind of work and I'm excited to get started. Wish me luck and I will keep you all updated on my adventures!

1 comment:

  1. HI KAYTEE,
    I'm glad you're so happy & are doing well. I was thinking about you today & was wondering how you were doing. I'm elated you like the staff at the new CHILI'S. Now if only the customers knew how lucky they are to have such a nice sweet pretty new waitress to serve them. Those crab quesadillas sound great. Best of luck finding a new humanitarian job. I missed you today at CHILI'S.
    STEVE
    P.S. I hope if you ever run for President you run as a Republican. I'd vote for you even if you ran as a Democrat.

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