Trailing Off...

That's my daughter on the far left, being recognized along with other students for her perfect attendance during the graduation ceremony for her Chinese school (she studied traditional Chinese characters). Of course, her perfect attendance was the result of parental enforcement, as Amber would've preferred spending her Sunday afternoons in her room, doing whatever teenage girls do on their electronic devices...

I came back on Thursday evening from several days in the other Washington to find the power out in our apartment complex due to a brief but violent windstorm that had blown through earlier that day. We ended up staying the night at a nearby hotel so I could have a hot shower after spending nearly five hours in an airplane, and for our daughter to get some sleep before school the next day. The electricity didn't come back on until sometime around four o'clock on Friday morning. Here's a short video of the storm pounding our living room video that was taken by my wife...:

...and a photo taken by my daughter, showing what the hallway looked like after the power had gone out (that ghostly spectre is my ሚስት:

The reason for missing an entire week of class was for family reasons, but suffice it to say that as a result, any chance I had of passing Amharic is pretty much moot by this point. It's been a struggle for a number of reasons, including a host of medical issues plus the month-long government shutdown around Christmas/New Year's, but there are far more important things to consider these days than getting a certain score on an exam. I'm confident we will be going to Addis Ababa on time regardless, and I feel that I have enough of a grasp of the language to handle daily communication. In the grand scheme of things, what has happened re Amharic study will be pretty insignificant.

This past weekend was Memorial Day, meaning a three-day holiday. Saturday being the last day we would have use of a car that we had been "keeping" for some friends of ours until they could sell it, I decided to do something I hadn't done in a while, namely go for a long hike. And so I drove into Maryland via the District of Columbia to the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park. Almost seven years ago my family and I went there to ride on a mule-drawn canal boat and to see the Great Falls of the Potomac River. This time my intentions would be somewhat more ambitious. After parking the car, I passed by the 1828 Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center:

Just as I did with Amber and Shu-E back in September 2012, I took a side trip over a pedestrian bridge to the Great Falls Overlook on Olmsted Island:

The overlook provides a tremendous view of the Great Falls, and makes clear why it was necessary in the early 19th century to construct a canal going to Washington, D.C.:

The real hiking commenced after checking out the view. Leaving the island and returning to the canal towpath, I soon turned right onto the 1.7-mile (2.7 kilometers) Billy Goat Trail A:

It soon became clear why my hiking guide describes the route as "difficult". While I don't know how the Billy Goat Trail received its name, only a mountain goat would have an easy time scrambling over all the narrow-edged boulders strewn throughout the path:

The view I had while eating lunch:

The most challenging part of Trail A was this 50-foot (15 meters) climb along a sloping cliff face. There were no guide ropes, and it was a matter of finding handholds in the rocks while making sure my feet weren't going to slip. At least I was heading up, which looked somewhat easier than having to descend, like these people were doing (the good weather and the holiday weekend no doubt brought out the crowds on Saturday). Considering my track record, when it came my turn to ascend, I made my way up very carefully!:

I made it back to the towpath without incident, then continued southeast to Billy Goat Trail B. While it had its fair share of boulders, overall B was a much gentler path:

An eerie moment while on the B Trail was when I came across this baby stroller standing just off the path. Perhaps the family left it there to venture into the forest, but there were no obvious side trails or paths that would've led down to the water. Also, the stroller appeared to have all the accoutrements parents bring with them, such as sippy bottles and toys. And if that wasn't unsettling, there was a creepy-looking guy resembling Old Man Marley from Home Alone who passed by me a couple of times on the looped trail, all the while glaring into my soul with an intensely disturbed gaze:

Back on the towpath of the old canal, and heading back in the direction of the visitor center:

I passed by a lot of wildlife along the towpath:

Soon after encountering the heron, I crossed the canal on a bridge and headed uphill to a wide path, before turning right onto the Valley Trail. This path in turn led to the Gold Mine Loop and the ruins of the Maryland Mine. Following the discovery of specks of gold by a Union soldier during the Civil War, the Great Falls area experienced a gold rush. Several mine shafts were drilled, but profits were minimal, and gold fever eventually dissipated. This processing mill is all that remains - the wispy streaks are the result of trying to take a photo through a chainlink fence, and do not indicate paranormal activity:

While there wasn't much to see, there were very few hikers on these trails, making for a peaceful walk (except for the sounds of traffic from MacArthur Boulevard, and the overhead jets flying into and out of Reagan National Airport). If I understood my guidebook correctly, the section I was walking on in the below photo was once part of the route of the Washington and Great Falls Railroad:

All in all, it was a pretty good hike and it felt great to be out in the woods again. I couldn't have asked for better weather, with the high in Potomac being a warm 82°F (28°C). I walked for more than 5½ hours, and covered a distance of 8.2 miles (13.4 kilometers), according to my hiking guide. And my legs were feeling it the next day!

The next day was pretty quiet (and my leg muscles were somewhat sore), with the only activity being Amber and I walking to a nearby park to play a round of miniature golf. On Memorial Day Monday, however, legs be damned, I dusted off the bike (literally) and took it for a ride along the Washington & Old Dominion Trail. Knowing that I would be very rusty, I set a time limit for myself of 30 minutes' riding in one direction. Going was no problem; coming back, however, my knees quickly gave out, a reminder of how old and/or out of shape I've become. At least the leisurely pace of the return ride allowed for some photo snaps, like this one of this hunky stud muffin at the thirty-minute point, sporting his off-the-rack Carrefour T-shirt while posing next to his second-hand non-performance machine:

A community garden along the bike path:

I just can't seem to get away from reminders of work:

My extremely modest goal is to complete this 16-mile (26 kilometers) loop before we depart for Ethiopia. Considering the state of my knees after the day's short 11.4 mile (18.3 kilometers) ride, I might have better success walking the trail:

A man practicing the sax by a stream. This scene recalled the many times I would see (and hear) musicians practicing under bridges in Tōkyō 東京:

And in other recent news of note...

As on a Darkling Plain (Wendy M. Ross, 2006), an ukiyo-e 浮世絵-inspired porcelain tile artwork on the streets of Clarendon:

Roses in bloom at the Bon Air Park Rose Garden in Arlington:

We've had a lot of lightning-and-thunder storms recently (see above and below), but I'm even more intrigued by just what kind of bird feels the need to communicate loudly just after midnight:

At her graduation ceremony Zhī-huì was also honored for success selling lemonade (!) and doing well in a speech contest. My daughter has never hidden her dislike for having to spend two hours in a classroom on Sunday afternoons learning the traditional characters 繁体字 still used in Taiwan, but while she's fluent when she comes to speaking Mandarin, she struggles with reading and writing. A functional illiterate, in other words. Someday she will thank us for this, probably around her sophomore year in college when she'll "rediscover" her Taiwanese roots in her Asian Studies class:

With my sister and nephew at Kona Kitchen in Lynnwood, Washington:

This past Saturday evening/Sunday morning saw an impressive display of lightning. This video was taken from our balcony at around 0030 hours on Sunday:

Amber's 7th-grade band gave a concert on the day after Memorial Day, and my wife and I were there to lend our support:

I tried to upload a thirty-second clip of the orchestra performing the Colonel Bogey March, but apparently even that short snippet was too much for Blogger to handle, so I've posted it instead to my Facebook page. For the rest of you, here's the classic rendition, from my favorite film of all time:

Professional Courtesies

A photograph on the wall at the National Go Center in Washington, D.C. It shows two Go players having a match overlooking a scenic lake, possibly Heaven Lake on the China-North Korea border

For the past three Saturdays, I've wanted to do some hiking, and for the past three Fridays it has rained, heavily at times, threatening to turn trails into muddy morasses. At least this Saturday there were other options on the table. Out in Rockville, Maryland (an area known as Little Taipei due to all the Taiwanese expats living in the area) there was the 2nd Annual Taiwan Bubble Tea Festival. My wife, however, had no interest in celebrating her homeland's national beverage, while my teenage daughter had already made plans to meet some friends for tea (oh, the irony) and to watch some anime videos at a nearby cafe. Not wanting to partake of 珍珠奶茶 all by my lonesome (in any event, I prefer my nǎichá pure, without tapioca balls or other toppings), I opted instead to take the Metro into D.C. to see what was happening during the European Union Open House, when all 28 embassies of the E.U. member countries in Washington (yes, even including the British) open their doors for the public to come inside and have a look, offering national dishes and performances of traditional folk arts, like these dancers in front of the Romanian Embassy:

Outside the Latvian Embassy:

Not EU-related, but this statue of Korean-American political activist Soh Jaipil stands outside the Korean Consulate, next door to the Embassy of Latvia:

I would only visit two embassies on Saturday. The first was the Embassy of Slovenia. I've been to the country twice, the first time way back in 1997; and the second visit just a year ago. Unlike many other embassies in Washington which are housed in charming, early 20th-century townhouses, the Slovenes work out of an uninspiring modern structure, but that was the only disappointment of my visit:

Being serenaded while waiting in the queue outside:

A wall display of beehive panels, a traditional Slovenian folkcraft:

Entry into the embassy included two tickets for complimentary shots of wine. Alas, they didn't have any bottles from Ptuj, where I had gone on a very enjoyable wine-tasting visit 22 years ago:

The embassy had a lot of small dishes to sample...:

...as well as complimentary national flags. And, yes, I'm sporting a Baltimore Orioles cap and an FC Bayern Munich jersey. I actually own a Slovene national soccer team jersey, but I didn't wear it as I don't like to draw attention to myself (see Latvian photo above):

Leaving the Slovene delegation, I debated where to go next. I considered going to the UK Embassy, but if the long lines outside the Slovenian and Croatian (which I had walked by earlier) embassies were any indication, I was sure the British mission was going to be very popular. Instead, I decided to make the half-hour walk in the opposite direction to the Embassy of Lithuania. As I walked along California Street, I passed by this building with the flag of Ethiopia flying from a pole in one corner of the grounds. Seeing as the actual embassy (according to Google Maps) is almost an hour on foot from the Embassy of Slovenia in a northwesterly direction, and I was moving in a northeasterly manner, I don't know what the function of this building is - there weren't any signs or nameplates that I could see:

Finally reaching the Lithuanian embassy on 16th Street NW, I was dismayed to see a line much longer than the one I had waited in earlier back on California Street. However, it turned out most of the people were queuing to get into the Embassy of Poland next door, and I only had a short wait:

Visitors were allowed to have a peek at the rooms on the second floor:

Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas, two pioneering Lithuanian pilots who tragically died in a crash of their plane in 1933:

Šaltibarščiai, the national dish of Lithuania. Not being a fan of beets, I gave it a pass, as I did during the time I lived in Vilnius:

I didn't pass up the chance for a taste of a Lithuania brewski, however. Ah, memories...:

So only two out of twenty-eight visited, but those two hold special places for me. I would've liked to have visited the Embassy of Belgium, but it's comparatively isolated compared to the other EU missions and I'd already done a lot of walking on a muggy Saturday morning/afternoon (and of course it would later rain heavily). On the way back to Dupont Circle (I also visited a couple of bookstores in addition of embassies), I strolled past the Embassy of Belarus, not an EU member nation for obvious reasons:

Back at home. I was certainly feeling Slovenia (and Lithuania, though the latter wasn't handing out any flags with catchy tourism-promotion slogans):

And in other news of recent vintage...

There's nothing special happening in the photo below, except for my sneaking a quick shot of my camera-shy spouse in the background while shopping at H Mart Falls Church:

Orthodox Good Friday fell on April 26 this year. To celebrate the run-up to the Orthodox Easter holiday ፋሲካ, my Amharic classmates and teacher first had lunch at the EYO Restaurant and Sports Bar in Bailey's Crossroads...:

...then attended an Ethiopian Orthodox Church service, held at St. Andrew's United Methodist Church in Alexandria. Our teacher provided us with suitable clothing for the occasion:

There was a lot of bowing and scraping going on. Thanks to my bad knees, I could only observe and not participate:

Taking Amber out for dessert one weekday evening to Toby's Homemade Ice Cream & Coffee in Arlington:

The month of May is Passport D.C., an event celebrating Washington's international culture. As part of the festivities, the first two Saturdays of the month are devoted to embassy open houses. This past Saturday witnessed all the EU embassies opening their doors (see above). On the previous Saturday, a number of non-EU countries took part in the Around the World Embassy Tour. Shu-E expressed an interest in going, but the event coincided with the National Go Center's May the Force Be With You/Cinco de Mayo Go tournament, which my daughter wanted to participate in. So while Amber was playing her matches (she won two out of four games), I took walks around the neighborhood. To my surprise, I discovered the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) 駐美國臺北經濟文化代表處 (Taiwan's de facto embassy in the absence of formal diplomatic relations) was only a 12-minute walk from where my daughter was pondering her next moves. Considering the Republic of China's unfortunate status, it came as no surprise the office wasn't participating in that day's embassy open houses event:

A pair of foetus-like figures by Taiwanese artist Kang Muxiang 康木祥 stand guard -  Regeneration 迴生 (Stainless steel cable, 2016) on the right; and Unlimited Life 無限生命 (Copper cable, 2017) on the left:

My walks also took me past the National Presbyterian Church, not far from the TECRO office:

At the beginning of this post, I made reference to all the rain we've been having recently. Here's a brief example filmed from our balcony one evening:

Having dinner at the Lost Dog Cafe in Arlington:

Last Thursday while I was driving along the Lee Highway in Falls Church, I passed by the National Memorial Park. Seeing a sign pointing to a "Buddhist Memorial Garden", I decided to turn in and have a look. It was easy to locate the Vietnamese Buddhist Garden:

A nearby section contained a number of tombstones etched with Korean names and Hangul characters:

And in another corner of the cemetery was this tombstone. The late Dr. Yawting hailed from Taichung 臺中, while the still-living Dr. Huang comes from Taipei 臺北. Both express(ed) their eternal love for Taiwan:

Last Friday my Amharic class went out to an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch yet again, this time to Dama Pastry & Cafe in Arlington. The late Haile Selassie ቀዳማዊ ኃይለ ሥላሴ may have been overthrown in a coup way back in September 1974, but at least some in the Ethiopian diaspora support an imperial restoration:

Lunch on this occasion included kitfo ክትፎ, the raw meat in the center of the plate. It tasted good, but I think it was the cause of some gastronomic discomfort later that evening:

The restaurant was close to the Air Force Memorial. I drove over after lunch to have a look at the three memorial spires, and to admire the view across the Potomac to Washington:

Today is Mother's Day. Amber and I gave Shu-E a DNA testing kit, a gift that holds the potential to shatter some closely-held beliefs regarding one's background. For dinner, the three of us went to the Yechon Korean Restaurant in Annandale. It's open 24 hours, because you never know when the urge for bibimbap might strike at two o'clock in the morning:

It should be fun to learn the results of the DNA test in 6-8 weeks' time. Han? Manchu? Mongol? Japanese? Stay tuned...