Washington D.C., Week One | December 31, 2017 - January 7, 2018
I've been living in D.C. for two weeks now at the time of writing this, and it's a little-but-not-quite surprising how quickly I've settled back into the big city routine. The novelty of living in D.C. is not quite what it would typically be as I already spent three months here not too long ago, so while I now live in a different suburb and take a different route to work and actually work in D.C. and not across the Virginia border, it's still a routine I'm familiar with and a pace of life I'm accustomed to.
I drove up with my parents on New Year's Eve Eve to transport all of my belongings. We intermittently moved in boxes throughout the weekend, pushing stacks of them against the back wall to be unpacked later. The rest of our time was spent running around the city trying to stay warm amidst the Arctic blast and eating at D.C.-area hot spots, first at St. Elmo's before church for toasted bagel sandwiches and Stumptown drips, then Holy Cow for burgers, Compass for hot coffee and Moroccan mint tea, and Jinya for New Year's Eve ramen. We rode the Metro - the cars unusually quiet - into the District to walk around the National Gallery, walking among the Impressionist painters then through a Vermeer exhibit, which the three of us agreed was technically impressive but visually dull.
After my parents returned home, it was left to me to settle into a daily routine of work and not-work. After a few final days of nothing before starting my job, which I spent reacquainting myself with some of my favorite District spots and getting lunch with a friend from the summer, I was thrust into the world of government grants and timelines.
As for my new home life -- my roommate and I get along well, though we only cross paths briefly each day as our work schedules are off by an hour on both ends and we each have our various evening activities to attend. But on the first Friday night of being here, after a hellish day of weather delays and building security related problems, we both settled into the couch with full glasses of moscato and watched The Americans, and it was a relief to know that no matter how stressful living in the capital can get, at least life in my apartment is good.
On the Sunday afternoon following a full week of living here, I had a taste of the fun of being an active person on the internet, as I met up with a few fellow instagram friends at a coffee shop in Arlington, where we talked about coffee (of course), the annoyances of social media, and life in general. That same Sunday evening, I visited a fellow churchgoer's house to try a new small group that, funny enough, was hosted in the same neighborhood I lived in over the summer, just one block over. While the group was not the right fit for me, it was a relief to know that this year will not be the same as last summer, where I had too few activities to fill my time with and felt the full weight of continual loneliness. Now I have a job where I interact with five other introverts daily, an apartment with a friendly roommate I come back to every evening, and a new church family to grow into and meet new people in. It's only been two weeks, but everything is already starting to fall into place, and I'm happy that D.C. is where I ended up.
After my parents returned home, it was left to me to settle into a daily routine of work and not-work. After a few final days of nothing before starting my job, which I spent reacquainting myself with some of my favorite District spots and getting lunch with a friend from the summer, I was thrust into the world of government grants and timelines.
As for my new home life -- my roommate and I get along well, though we only cross paths briefly each day as our work schedules are off by an hour on both ends and we each have our various evening activities to attend. But on the first Friday night of being here, after a hellish day of weather delays and building security related problems, we both settled into the couch with full glasses of moscato and watched The Americans, and it was a relief to know that no matter how stressful living in the capital can get, at least life in my apartment is good.
On the Sunday afternoon following a full week of living here, I had a taste of the fun of being an active person on the internet, as I met up with a few fellow instagram friends at a coffee shop in Arlington, where we talked about coffee (of course), the annoyances of social media, and life in general. That same Sunday evening, I visited a fellow churchgoer's house to try a new small group that, funny enough, was hosted in the same neighborhood I lived in over the summer, just one block over. While the group was not the right fit for me, it was a relief to know that this year will not be the same as last summer, where I had too few activities to fill my time with and felt the full weight of continual loneliness. Now I have a job where I interact with five other introverts daily, an apartment with a friendly roommate I come back to every evening, and a new church family to grow into and meet new people in. It's only been two weeks, but everything is already starting to fall into place, and I'm happy that D.C. is where I ended up.
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