DC: The Job

Ostensibly, the main reason I was in DC was for my internship with AidGrade (see my previous post about AidGrade here). I've been telecommuting throughout the summer, but I wanted to meet some of the people I was working with and see Washington DC. Eva Vivalt, the economist who heads the program, was unfortunately away at a conference in Taiwan, but I did get to meet several of my fellow interns and Timothy Catlett who helps guide us through the meta-analyses.

We worked at the Georgetown University library, which is located on a beautiful campus (although, I think I prefer K's library to Georgetown's). Timothy is a graduate of Georgetown and both of the other interns in DC are students there. It was fascinating learning more about the school. Georgetown has a large number of international students, and from the stories I heard, they often come from very high up places in countries like China and Singapore. The entire school, in fact, has a very international focus, with an entire School of Foreign Service that sends many of its graduates into the State Department and CIA. Georgetown itself is still a Jesuit affiliated school, but apparently its student body is very diverse.

The first thing you see as you step onto Georgetown's campus

Besides seeing Georgetown, I also learned more about development economics. Developmental economics isn't as sexy as macroeconomics or antitrust stuff, but evidence based aid and trying to do the most good with limited resources has been seeing a surge in popularity as it becomes feasible to perform more controlled experiments in development. Developmental economics straddles a few different domains. It's very statistics heavy, but from what I understand doesn't get into the more abstract mathematics you find in other fields of economics. It involves working with a lot of public health issues, but delves into areas like microfinance and women's empowerment as well. Certainly there are many academics involved with developmental economics, but most members of the field are more involved with hands on projects (things like AidGrade or actually performing impact evaluations in other communities). It's a fascinating area, and I'm not sure whether or not it's what I'd want to do in economics. Apparently, once you decide to do developmental economics, you're kind of put on a separate track from other economics specialties because it involves a very different set of skills. I'm glad to have made some connections in this very unique area of economics.

DC: The Food

I'm back from DC now, but I still have more posts to do on my time there! Here I'll focus on the food.

I'm really not cut out to be a food blogger because I always forget to take pictures of my food before I eat it. I'm just always really hungry by the time it arrives. Fortunately, I managed to restrain myself long enough to snap photos of a few dishes before I devoured them, so I'll include those.

I was impressed by the variety of ethnic restaurants available in DC. During my time there, I had Thai, Ethiopian, Nepalese, Portuguese, and Mediterranean (plus I ordered Italian with some friends one night, but that doesn't really count). Some of my fellow interns were arguing about whether a Peruvian or Argentinian restaurant was better, which led me to realize that Kalamazoo doesn't even have a South American restaurant to the best of my knowledge, let alone one representing a specific country in that region. That having been said, you pay for the high rents imposed by DC's height restrictions in the price of the food. Reasonably priced entrees are seldom below 13 or 14 dollars, although there are good deals to be had if you're willing to look off the beaten path a little. In addition to ethnic food, I got to enjoy some of Georgetown's students favorite places. Among these was a great sandwich place that really makes me wish K had a good deli within walking distance (Stacks certainly doesn't count).

In terms of food experiences that stood out to me, there's:

-Basil, a Thai restaurant I went to on my first night in DC. The sweet sticky rice with mango was especially delicious.

My meal at Keren Restaurant. I had enough leftovers for a full lunch!

-Keren Restaurant, a great Ethiopian place just outside the downtown. The dishes come spread out on a giant piece of a sticky sort of bread, and you get a roll of the bread yourself. Instead of silverware, you use the bread to pick up the food. At the end, you get to eat what's left with the sauce soaked bread that the dishes came served on. It's really a fun, unique experience! I agree with Tyler Cowen that eating with your fingers definitely allows you to combine different pieces of food and flavors better than with a fork. I ate at Keren Restaurant myself and with my parents when they came to pick me up last weekend, and the three of us managed to eat for less than thirty dollars (including tip and tax).

The goat curry at Himalayan Heritage. 

-Himalayan Heritage, a wonderful Nepalese restaurant. The restaurant had a great decor, including Nepal tourism brochures. I had goat for the first time in a great curry.
-Cava Mezze, a Mediterranean restaurant I visited with my parents. This was the hippest place I visited, dimly lit and with lots of young people having fun. Cava Mezze is a small dish restaurant, where the table orders many appetizers and everyone has a bit of everything. Many of the dishes were pretty fun, including a cheese thing that they lit on fire (I don't remember much about it beyond that), some great meatballs, and a watermelon salad.
-Old Glory, a great barbecue place my internship director showed me for lunch. I was skeptical of bbq in DC, and while I still think it's not the city's strong suite (compared to the Ethiopian scene), Old Glory was impressive. I forgot that DC is actually pretty far south, so it's not too surprising that it has some bbq has some influence there. Barbecue is all about the sauce, and Old Glory had a great selection, including some delicious selections from Kansas City, Memphis, and Savannah. It also had the best corn bread I've ever tasted.

At Himalayan Heritage, they brought out this little appetizer. I forget how to really describe it, but it was great

The place I was staying at had a broken stove/oven, so I couldn't do as much cooking as I'd hoped to. Fortunately, the world of microwave dinners seems to be improving, and I found Amy's microwave meals to be quite tolerable. That and there was a Chipotle

DC: The Sights

Finally, an update on my time in DC! I've decided to roll out my blogging on this experience in a few phases, first a post on the sights I've seen, and then later will come food, my internship, and lastly some general observations. So keep your eyes peeled for those posts in the future!

But for now, the sights. There are a lot of great things to see and do in DC, including a ton of national monuments as well as 19 Smithsonian museums and the national zoo, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. I've done a lot over the past week, but I feel like there's still so much more to do! 

One of the many war scenes around the WWII memorial

I've been surprised by the depth of the experience offered by the national monuments. I was expecting to see them all in a few hours, but now I've spent two full evenings walking around them and still haven't seen them all! The World War II Memorial was the most impressive in a grand and patriotic sort of way, but I found the Korean War Memorial to be the most moving. I appreciate what the Vietnam War Memorial was trying to do, but it lost much of its impact because I'd already heard so much about it. My highlight for the war memorials was the free, personal tour I received from one of the rangers at the Korean War Memorial. 

Honest Abe

As for the memorials that focused on individual dead white guys as opposed to large groups of dead people, the Lincoln Memorial was indeed very impressive, but unfortunately crawling with boy scouts. I found the Jefferson Memorial to be much more enjoyable thanks to a little bit less crowding. The section under the memorial with background on Jefferson's life and the Enlightenment was especially...enlightening (hehe). A great treat was when I stumbled upon the George Mason memorial, someone who I'd known nothing about. Best of all, the memorial was completely abandoned, just a pleasant garden with a fountain in the center and the man of honor sitting quietly on a bench. It's really a great respite from the other busy memorials. I was impressed with how the FDR memorial, maybe unintentionally captured the more authoritative and communitarian spirit of FDR's presidency. Whereas Lincoln's and Jefferson's memorials have a more open and classical design that invites you to wander about and reflect, visitors to the FDR memorial are guided by massive stone pathways from opening to opening where they are confronted by massive inscriptions bearing quotes from the wartime president, often related to government planning. Running water is also a reoccurring theme, in what I believe is a reference to the Tennessee Valley Authority. However, the water also inspired some communitarian thoughts, with so many droplets of water being channeled in a single direction. Anyways, seeing all these dead white people made me wonder why there hasn't been a monument made of a woman yet! It made me wonder who they should pick if they decided to make one, I'm partial to Susan B. Anthony or Harriet Tubman myself. 

My man TJ, not to be confused with TJ Verville.

Besides the monuments, I've also seen some museums! Of course, there's the good ol' Natural History Museum where, disappointingly, everything was not alive as in Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian. I've gotta say, while the Natural History Museum was great, it didn't floor me. I'd take the Imperial War Museum any day. What were amazing were the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum, which are housed in the same building and sort of flow into each other. I spent over three hours mesmerized by all the amazing photographs and paintings, seeing everything from civil war era photos, to a landscape of old America, to Eminem. I then headed across the street to the International Spy Museum, which I'd heard great things about. Now this museum cost money unlike all the free Smithsonian museums, so my bar was set a little higher. I gotta say, the place was quite disappointing. I was accosted by an extremely rude security guard in line, and once I got inside there was nothing that impressive. I was also surrounded by smelly boy scouts. The information was all superficial and the exhibits were unimpressive. My advice: don't go. 

One of the hundreds of volunteer stitched pillows found inside the National Cathedral.

The last two things I've been to are the zoo and National Cathedral. I love zoos, so I loved the National Zoo, but it's a pretty standard zoo. I was impressed by their small mammal exhibit. The National Cathedral though is one of the most amazing things I've seen in years. As a gothic cathedral, I think it can go toe-to-toe with anything in Europe, but where it really shines is in all the Americana inside. At what other cathedral does one of the stain glassed windows have a moon rock in it? What about a kneeling pad that a volunteer hand stitched JFK's face onto? I took the ten dollar self-guided audio tour, and it was completely worth it. If you ever find yourself in DC, the cathedral is a must visit location. 

A view of the cathedral from the outside.

I am still planning on seeing the Air and Space Museum and any other Smithsonians I can, the MLK memorial and a few others, and whatever else comes my way! Stay tuned for a food update sometime in the upcoming week! Take a look through my many photos below.

An altar to Mary inside the National Cathedral

This is the Children's Chapel inside the National Cathedral. Everything in it is scaled to a 6-year old's size, and all the pillows have animals on them.

MLK, the Dali Lama, and many other famous individuals have spoken from this pulpit in the National Cathedral.

The Washington Monument, still being repaired from the 2010 earthquake

The Washington Monument across the lake at night.

From the American Art Museum. A man made this out of aluminum and garbage in his garage over the course of decades. It was a throne for the second coming of Christ, and not discovered until his (the man, not Christ) death.

A quote at FDR's memorial from the president himself. Psh, concern about unemployment, what a socialist!

Me at the White House (well, White House adjacent)

The WWII memorial at night

"...Like Clockwork"

I'm writing this post from Washington, D.C. I'm planning on writing an update of my activities once I have time to do a proper post this weekend. Suffice it to say I'm having fun so far!

Until I get a D.C post up, I wanted to draw some attention to the new Queens of the Stone Age album that I've been listening to for the past month or so, ...Like Clockwork. Queens of the Stone Age was one of the first bands I listened to...but I didn't really start listening to music until I started playing Rock Band (as in the video game) my freshmen or sophomore year of high school. So, I got in on the whole QOTSA scene rather late. This is the first time I've been around for the release of one of their albums.

I was impressed by ...Like Clockwork. I think the consensus over at meta critic is generally correct; this is a good album, but not quite as good as Songs for the Deaf. My favorite track is Smooth Sailing, and My God is the Sun captures the feel of the album.

Four Days of Independence

I know most people only celebrate Independence Day on July 4th, but for me, once July starts, I can't stop celebrating independence until the fireworks are over. That's why I headed up to Riley's (my girlfriend, for those who don't know) parent's lake house this past week to make sure I celebrated my four days of independence to the max.

Riley lives in Chicago, but she and her family spend about half the summer at their lake house in Shelby, Michigan about two hours north of here. I've had the pleasure of spending many a beautiful day there over the past two summers!

The Cooks are right by Lake Michigan and enjoy a spectacular view

My massive catch

This most recent trip was an especially eventful one for me. First, I got to witness the The Blues Brothers for the first time (I thought it was great, especially as a Chicago lover). Next, I had the pleasure of visiting the the Country Dairy, a wonderful dairy farm in New Era, Michigan. All their dairy products come straight from their own cows, and boy do they have a lot of dairy products. In addition to the obvious ice cream, you can get unlimited refills of chocolate or skim milk for 1$ and order from a number of cheesy entrees that come with a side of cheese curds. Riley's mom, Sharon, remarked that the whole experience felt a bit more Wisconsiny than Michigany, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I think I am still moving some of those dairy products through my system though. Because it was a little rainy, Riley and I headed over to the Muskegon Museum of Art. I was incredibly impressed by this small museum's deep collection. Of particular interest was the 85th annual Regional Exhibition, showcasing fascinating art from all across Michigan. Riley and I spent an hour and half in there and didn't even get through half the museum! If you have the chance to go, I'd say it's well worth the 7$ admission (5$ if you're a student).

Riley provided an artful interpretation of one of the pieces we saw at the Muskegon Museum of Art

But this was only the tip of the iceberg for my celebration of us not being Britain. I went fishing with Riley and her younger brother and expert fisherman, Leo. I managed to reel in my second fish ever, a twelve inch bass. This was a big improvement on my first catch, a small bluegill. At this rate, I'll be catching a pike in no time! My 4th of July dinner was an all-American experience with ribs and corn (the bok choy salad that Riley and I prepared aside). Riley's dad, Chris, spent much of the day preparing ribs with his own special recipe, and was kind enough to share a few tips with me. Needless to say, they were delicious, with the meat falling right off the bone and into my mouth.

After the ribs came the most freedomful experience of the whole week: the Shelby Township firework show. This "show" consisted of every person in Shelby who had some fireworks going to the public dock by Stony Lake and setting them off. I'm sure that the legalization of big fireworks in Michigan helped make the show especially spectacular, but Riley assured me that the huge rockets were common even before the law changed. I was deeply impressed by the display that I saw. It was fun to sit at the edge of the lake and witness the fireworks being set off all around the area. I thought that the show was especially American because it involved a bunch of individuals coming together to independently set off their fireworks in a display that ends up enriching the community, calling into question the notion that fireworks are public goods.

One of the many fireworks set off by the good people of Shelby, despite being a non-excludable good. 

As always, Riley and her family were fun and gracious hosts. I can't wait to visit the Cook Cottage again! 

An Important Anniversary

Today marks the first day of my second month of blogging! During my first month (June 5th to July 5th) I have made 14 posts and gathered 379 pageviews (although I'm not sure all of those represent real people, but they don't count the times I look at my blog). According to pageviews, my most popular post was Sodexo, Creative Dining, Monopoly, and Duopoly: Food at K. I encourage you to go back and read through some of my old posts that you may have missed!

I'll be posting updates on my 4th of July later today or maybe tomorrow. In terms of the upcoming month, I'm heading out to Washington D.C on Monday. I'll be there for two weeks working with Aid Grade, so expect to see some posts about my time out there!

Begun, the Pinball War has

I wrote recently about my dad's recent tuneup of our pinball machine, Banzai Run, and how I completely dominated it. Well, we reset the high scores and made some other rules adjustments, and it seems that my domination is no more.

CJM - Clifford John Mulder. KJF is just an automatic score that comes when you reset the machine

My dad set the first high score on the updated machine under the new rules. I can attest that the game is now MUCH harder. It'll be awhile before I break 10 million again.

Of course, I wasn't going to just let my dad's high score stay there at #1.

See ya later, KJF

I managed to edge out my dad's high score by 20 thousand points, a very small amount in Banazai Run. But this was not the last volley. 

CJM, back in first

My dad beat my high score by a more impressive 200 thousand. It seems that with the barriers to entry lowered for the high score table, there has been increased competition on the ol' pinball machine. I say bring it on!