Salsa Dancing at Habana Village

This past Friday, Erika and I decided to attend a salsa dancing class at a Cuban restaurant located in Adams-Morgan. Habana Village offers group salsa lessons Thursday through Sunday, and we decided to go Friday in order to take advantage of the unusually warm weather that particular night. Habana Village offers two classes, beginner and advanced, that are simultaneously taught in the same room. The instructor began with some basic salsa moves to gauge which class would be more appropriate for the student. Once the two classes split, Erika and I decided to head to the beginner side only to be stopped by the instructor who encouraged us to remain on the advanced side. We were obviously flattered, seeing as this was our first salsa dancing experience ever. Men and women were divided into two separate rows, and we would face our partners. We would rotate partners every five minutes, giving us the opportunity to dance with everyone. There were a wide variety of ages and personalities in the class, from the very awkward to the very confident alpha-male. The instructor, an older Cuban man, was hilarious and very helpful. In his Cuban accent, he would urge the women to let the man lead, and he would encourage the men to be assertive. I learned a couple of moves and only stepped on a man’s feet twice (I consider that success in my book). After the lesson, Erika and I decided to have dinner downstairs in the restaurant. The food was amazing! Although my mother’s Brazilian rice is my favorite dish, the Cuban rice at this place was a close second. After the lesson, the room upstairs becomes a salsa dancing club where people can practice their new moves or where experienced dancers can show off their moves. We returned upstairs, but did not stay for a very long time. The room was packed, and the options for male partners weren’t that great. For example, I danced with a man who was three inches shorter than me and another man whom I am almost certain was older than my father. As Erika perfectly expressed: “I like that age, just not in that way.” We will certainly be returning for another night of salsa dancing, and we will definitely be bringing more people from our group.

--Samanta

Ice-Skating at The Sculpture Garden

In an attempt to make the most of the winter season here in D.C., three of us decided to walk to the Sculpture Garden for an afternoon of ice-skating. The Sculpture Garden belongs to the National Gallery of Art and features a collection of statues throughout the garden. The day was chilly, so we bundled up in excessive layers, ready to confront the Washingtonian cold. After arriving at the Sculpture Garden, we rented ice skates for a reasonable price (and I say this because most things in D.C. are expensive). At this point, it is important for me to mention that the last time I went ice-skating, I was a fearless nine-year-old. Since then, things have changed quite a bit. The other two students, Erika and Tim, gracefully skated ahead of me, often passing me twice, as I struggled to just stand in my ice skates. Strangers could sense my fear as I skated by them, desperately grabbing onto the bar with a terrified look on my face. Needless to say, I fell twice that afternoon, incurring some painful bruises and embarrassing stories to tell my future grandchildren. By the end, I could at least make it around the ice rink a couple of times without frantically holding onto the bar. After ice-skating, we grabbed some hot chocolate by the ice rink and walked back to the Congressional in what locals would consider a snowstorm around here. In other words, it was lightly snowing. Overall, I found the experience very entertaining, and I am sure that others who witnessed me pathetically struggle that afternoon would agree, too.

--Samanta

On Friday night I was able to enjoy a meal in Chinatown with one of my graduated sorority sisters from Ohio State. She just moved here in January to take a job with the Senate. She lives on Capitol Hill as well, so we met at the metro station and traveled to Chinatown together, where we ate at a place one of her coworkers recommended, called Vapiano. While we ate delicious Italian pasta and pizza, we talked about all that she does in the Senate, and remembered how the first time we met we had talked about wanting to live in D.C., and now a few years later we are finally both here. Our dinner together also reminded me of how important connections are in Washington, because she offered to put me in contact with several of her friends and coworkers this semester that are starting careers similar to what I want to start doing in a few years. It was a wonderful night in Chinatown; you can never go wrong with great food and an old friend!

-Erika

Politics and Prose

A friend who studied in D.C. for a semester last year told me that I should definitely try to make it to the bookstore Politics and Prose while I’m here. She also recommended going when there was an event involving an author speaking at the store. I went on the website and looked up their calendar of events, and was surprised to see the number of authors that come to speak at the store... there is an event almost every day! I chose one that sounded interesting, and set off on Saturday morning for the store. Because of some metro delays, I made it just in time to hear Louis Michael Seidman, a Professor of Law at Georgetown University, start speaking about his new book, On Constitutional Disobedience. His main argument in this work is that because our country is so radically different from the way it was in 1776, we should no longer follow the Constitution. Because this is such a bold and controversial argument, many lawyers were at the event, and asked very tough and intelligent questions during the Q & A time at the end. After the event, I walked around the store and was even able to purchase a book that I had been looking for. Overall, it was a great experience, and I felt that it was a setting that one could only find here in Washington, D.C. 

-Erika