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...
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