Rhode Island Quirks

On Wednesday, my friend and I went shopping on Main Street, so I thought I would just show some cute/quirky Rhode Island things! 

Daisy Magnets! Don't worry, there were Zachary and Emily ones too :)

Troll Shop? I don't know... 

A store full of clothes and accessories made in RI! 

And since I took ZERO pictures on Thanksgiving (I know, sue me!), I am now skipping ahead to Friday haha. 

We went to the movies and saw Silver Linings Playbook with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. It was really strange, but also hilarious and cute! I enjoyed it and I guess a lot of people wanted to see it because the movie theater was packed! 

After the movies, I ate dinner at another friend's house, while sitting by the fire :) So beautiful! That is the Celtics game on in the background too. 

Then, I couldn't possibly leave RI without going to Newport Creamery for an Awful Awful- the big one is mine haha. For those of you who don't know, an Awful Awful is like a milkshake, but so much better! I forgot how good they were until I had one. 

The rest of my time in RI was extremely relaxing, but too short. I came back to DC on Saturday night, but now I'm planning my return trip :)

Are there any quirky things to do or places to go in the town you grew up in?

What is your favorite ice cream or milkshake flavor?

Did you see any movies this weekend?

I haven't been here in a few years...

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but here is a good one for y'all :)

This past week I was in Rhode Island for Thanksgiving! I hadn't been back to RI in quite a few years, so it was nice to go back to the place I grew up. 

My trip started off pretty badly though. My first flight was delayed by over 2 hours, causing me to miss my connecting flight! But I finally made it (on a plane with free TV, Sirius Radio, and snacks!) and luckily I have amazing friends who are willing to pick me up late at night from the airport :) 

The next morning, I woke up and went for a run. I saw my old house:

My elementary school (of course my finger and shadow are in the way):

Beautiful RI scenery:

The harbor:

And my run wouldn't have been complete without running into people I knew- this is a small state, you know :) 

How often do you visit places you used to live?

Did you travel anywhere this weekend? Have a flight trouble? 

I finally went to the Kennedy Center!

On Sunday night, my friend invited me to go to a Jazz/Comedy show with her at the Kennedy Center! I have been dying to go there, so of course I said yes! I think this is one of the most beautiful places in DC because of the building and the views :)

Hall of Nations

Georgetown

Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument

Arlington

Blurry, but chandeliers in the hallway. 

Kennedy

Orchestra Hall

The show we saw was called "An Evening of Comedy and Music with David Alan Grier and Jason Moran's Big Bandwagon". Grier is a comedian who hosted the show and did some stand-ups of his own. Jason Moran and his band played jazz music at the beginning of the show and during some of the comedy acts- they played a song with Grier about potato chips and a song with Faizon Love about christmas and scat singing. 

There were two comedians other than Grier. I mentioned Faizon Love... I don't know if y'all recognize his name, but he was the store manager in the movie Elf! The other comedian was Marina Franklin; she was hilarious and had a lot of jokes about politics, which I loved. 

The show was only an hour and a half, but it was great! I would have never thought to combine jazz and comedy into one show, but it worked. 

I swear this is the end of my post- sorry it was so long... but aren't these the coolest Toms ever?! Thank you family!!! 

Do you remember the store manager from Elf or did you know him from other movies?
Have you ever been to a comedy/music show combined? 

Stars and beautiful views!

On Saturday, I went to the National Museum of the American Indian. I wasn't as interested as I thought I would be in some of the exhibits, but the exhibits about the creation of the universe and where they are now were awesome! 

This picture shows a Saguaro from Tucson and talks about American Indians there! I liked seeing something about home :)

This was the creation exhibit. Stars covered the ceiling and you could go into little cave-like areas to read about how American Indians view the solar system, the earth, and more. Also, they had video screens playing creation stories about constellations and how the stars were named. This was probably my favorite part.

This teepee was huge! The picture doesn't really do it justice, but I was amazed that they actually take this down and travel with it. It was way bigger than a regular tent that you would camp with. 

This is the outside of the museum and the whole design of the building is flowy like this. I'm not sure how to describe it, but this website describes the architecture. Basically, most of the exhibits had curved walls and flowed from one area to the next, without harsh lighting and the quiet feel that you get in most museums. 

On Sunday morning, I ran a Veterans' Day 10k! It was a really hard race, but the views were amazing and I was happy to finally run a race in DC. 

I did better than I thought I would in the race, woo hoo! But I pulled a muscle and now have to take a few days off of running- bummer. At least I have this awesome run and these beautiful views to tide me over! 

How did you show your support for Veterans Day?

Do you know of any American Indian tribes where you live?

International Festival!

On Friday, The Washington Center had its International Festival with interns from all over the world sharing their cultures. 

First, students set up tables to display stuff about their countries- here is an altar from Mexico. I remember making these in high school for Day of Dead! 

The tables also had samples of food. It was awesome! I tried food from Belgium, South Korea, Mexico, Panama, Kyrgyzstan, India, China, Canada, and more. 

Mexico had chips, salsa, and guacamole- the guacamole was so good! Belgium had some sort of cookie  cake, South Korea had a cinnamon tea and a rice ball that tasted like a granola bar, and Canada had maple syrup, of course haha. There was a lot more food, but I can't remember all of the names :(

Next was the part I was looking forward to the most- the talent show! I actually kept asking people when it was supposed to start because I couldn't wait. 

The guy above is a dancer from South Korea and the group below from India did Bollywood dancing, including dancing to the song Jai Ho (from Slumdog Millionaire)! 

I could not believe how talented everyone was! A bunch of students from the other counties danced and sang too. They all had amazing voices and the dances looked like a lot of fun. 

What are your favorite foods from other countries?

Do you know any cool dances from other countries?

Election 2012!

First off, this is not a political post! I do have my own opinions about politics (obviously), but this post is more about events surrounding the election.

On Sunday, I was walking around downtown when I ran into this:

Hello Kitty's Campaign Headquarters! There were buses around the city promoting the campaign, but I didn't know she had a headquarter. 

There were areas to take pictures with Hello Kitty backgrounds, games, activities, a shop, people promoting Hello Kitty's message and...

Hello Kitty! The candidate herself. She ran under the Friendship Party and the people at the headquarters told us her platform was to create more happiness, friendship, and fun. Just thought this was a cute little thing relating to Election Day :) 

The funny thing was, her headquarters was across the street from where the company I work for held its Election Night Party! The party was at Ultra Bar, which is this 4 level club in downtown DC.

From these pictures, you can see the ground level from a balcony on the second level. The party was a lot of fun (when I wasn't working)! But I was a little surprised when the presidential election results came out so early- luckily the party still went well after that! 

Hope everyone had a good election night- and remember that even if your candidates didn't win, at least we all have the freedom to vote and voice our opinions!

Did you vote? I did! But by absentee ballot instead of at the polls. 
Did you do anything for the election night?

This is just crazy...

So here is the rest of my weekend! I don't have very many pictures, so I'll combine it all together.

Friday, I went out to dinner with my class and my professor to Dino, which is this really good, but expensive restaurant in Cleveland Park. Let's just say we were all extremely full after that dinner! Thanks TCU- college students love free meals :)

On Saturday, I went to the Museum of American History. It was a little sad because all but 2 or 3 exhibits were closed for renovation. But I did get to see the Inaugural Dresses for the First Ladies. I love Michelle Obama's dress!

And Harry Potter's robe! Darn you, blurry photo. 

And a preview of a new exhibition about Julia Child! Here is a quick view of her kitchen. 

Then I went to the Museum of Natural History, but I realized all the pictures I took were really gross, so I won't post them. I saw a lot of fossils, skeletons, and real mummies! I'm surprised by how interested I was in all of that- usually I would be disgusted haha.

After that was the Celtics game, which I told you all about :)

On Sunday, I went to the Holocaust Museum again and finally got to see the whole main exhibit! It was sad, but informative. It's a museum that gets you thinking about how stuff like that happens- very thought provoking. But no pictures allowed in this museum!

History591Fourteen.com

As for today, it was pretty crazy. I meant to go exploring since I had all my homework finished, but I went to turn in my midterm for class and it was gone! Mysteriously vanished from my computer. Needless to say, I spent all day rewriting it, so hopefully next weekend I will have more exciting posts for y'all :)

Have you ever lost stuff on your computer or have your computer break down entirely?
Do you like seeing mummies/fossils/skeletons/gross stuff at museums?

Boston Fan For Life!

Normally I post about my weekends in order, but I'm going to write about Saturday night first, since it was the most exciting :)

I went to the Celtics vs. Wizards game at the Verizon Center! Tickets were only $22- and we got free hats and a free pizza when we bought 4 tickets at once.

Our seats were pretty high up, but it seemed like there wasn't a bad seat in the place!

Here comes the team! Go Celtics!

Walking on the court... gotta love the Celtics green. 

The Celtics started off the game really well! They immediately got a lead over the Wizards. Here is Garnett taking a free throw. You can see him on the screen:

Time out Celtics! Also, the time outs and time in between quarters were awesome. Most times they played music and showed people in the crowd dancing. It's hilarious when they show kids because the kids seem to LOVE the camera- they start busting out moves like crazy! But there was this cool old couple who danced to Gangnam Style and the camera stayed on them for the whole time out! 

The game was close at the end. The Celtics seemed to lose it during the game and in the last few seconds, there was a one point difference in the score. I was nervous that the Celtics would lose! 

But no need to worry- the Celtics won! It was a great game and now I can cross the going to the Verizon Center off of my DC Bucket List :)

Have you ever been to a NBA game?

What is your favorite NBA team?