Are you Happy?

I came across this interesting map of happiness levels in the US (dark orange=happy, light beige=not as happy) over at the NYT today. How is it possible that people freezing in Alaska can be so much happier then people in sunny Florida? Another mystery of life. But now I know that I should probably try to move to the Midwest. There are lots of international development jobs to be had in Nebraska, right?

These are a Few of my Favorite Things

D.C. is a bustling and right now, very chilly city. I feel like everyone loves the city for a different reason, and I've really fallen for its diverse and intellectual environment.  I'm not sure there is any other place in the world where people are so into a 5-page "quizzo" that is harder than most college exams at the 4 Ps bar, or people are more excited for the night of the State of the Union than for St. Patrick's day.  It took a while to get adjusted to the city, but lately I've grown very much in fondness for it.  Here are some of my favorite places in D.C.:

The Newseum:

They have an excellent Pulitzer Prize winning photography gallery that is truly amazing.  I warn you most of the photos are really emotion and depict horrible events from history so it can be somewhat depressing.  But the exhibit has the stories behind every photo and also a video running with interviews from the photographers that really adds to the already moving photography.  I highly recommend spending at least an hour or two in this one exhibit.  The price of entry to the Newseum itself is pretty steep (around $20/person I think) but the pass is good for two days and the rest of the exhibits are really cool as well—they have a piece of the Berlin wall, a 9/11 exhibit, international exhibit, and Hurricane Katrina exhibit.  You could spend two days easily exploring this place.  Totally worth it.  

Kramer Books & Afterwards Café:

Hands down the best bookstore in D.C., for people who are connoisseurs of such things.  Although the café part is a bit pricey the food is great.  And the best part is whenever there is a wait at the café -which is pretty frequent during busy hours, including brunch on the weekends- you can just browse through books to keep yourself occupied.  It’s a little tight in there since it’s a small space and is almost always crowded, but the selection is truly amazing.  It’s like an avid reader went through the hundreds of thousands of books housed in Barnes & Noble or Borders and picked out the only ones truly worth reading, and these are the ones that make an appearance at Kramers.  That is so helpful because I love going to bookstores just to browse for new finds, and there is always something worth reading that I’ve never heard of at Kramers.  They really cater to the international crowd and have the books categorized well, which makes it easy to find the things you’re interested in.  And the deserts from the café are amazing.  And I believe they are open 24 hours on the weekends.  Can’t say enough good things about this place.  

Tryst Café

Okay so I know pretty much everyone my age loves or loved the television sitcom “Friends”.  And I’ve always wanted to find a place to hang out with friends and have a coffee that was exactly like Central Perk from the show—somewhere you can put your feet up and really relax on nice comfy couches to pass the hours socializing or reading.  Well—here it is!   Right in the heart of the Adams Morgan neighborhood.  The atmosphere lends itself to chatting and relaxation, with a big bar (for coffee and alcohol at night) along the wall and lot of couches and big tables set up just right for customers—the space is fairly large but it’s almost always crowded, which is the only downside.  The place is just offbeat enough, without being overboard with the original paintings and clever names for dishes. Their food is decently priced and they feature a large breakfast and lunch menu to go along with your delicious latte.  The only problem is, being in Adams Morgan, it’s not accessible by metro!  This is the kind of café I wish was right across the street from my apartment.  

Bistrot du Coin

We just discovered this delicious French restaurant in the heart of Dupont Circle—the glowing pink Christmas tree above the front door and the packed tables on a Tuesday night indicated this was going to be a good find—and it was!  For a French place the prices were cheap, the menu was really diverse and had lots of options, and the steak frites were amazing.  Definitely would recommend—they even sell decently cheap wine by the bottle.  

Hey, Obama

Hey Obama & Secretary Clinton:


Let's be on the right side of history. The world will not end if Egyptian people are free to choose their own leader.


"No government can survive against the will of its people. The era of governments persisting on pressure and repression is over. . . . We are all passing, and will be judged on what we leave behind."
-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan

Dominican Paradise

Our trip to the Dominican Republic over winter break was a refreshing and relaxing escape from the stress and bitter cold of Washington, D.C.  Our goal was to see the “real” DR (i.e. no visits to Punta Cana or related areas), partly in the anticipation that if James continues to work out of Haiti and I work with an NGO that the DR could be a good place to locate our home for a few years.  We both had never been but had heard great things from returned Peace Corp volunteers and other friends who had spent time there.  We were not disappointed—it is hard to believe that the DR shares an island with the failing state of Haiti, the contrast is so stark.  While Haiti is deforested and very mountainous, the DR is replete with lush vegetation and (where we were at least) fairly flat.  While Haitians by and large suffer from malnutrition, poverty, and general misery, Dominicans are a fairly prosperous and boisterous bunch—they are clearly a country on the rise.  Hope and forward-thinking rather than despair and gloom are the norm on the eastern side of the island.We left frigid D.C. on a bleak Monday morning and arrived by mid-day in the sunny capital of Santo Domingo, on the southern coast of the country.  On first sight it appeared as most low-income countries do, a somewhat dreary and small airport filled with posters warning of the signs of cholera, sponsored by USAID and UNICEF.  But as soon as we exited and were able to hop right into the rental car in the lot outside the airport, it was clear this country really had it together.Driving through the outskirts of Santo Domingo on our way out of the city we paralleled the beautiful Caribbean Sea to one side of the road and the modern trappings of the city on the other.  Dominican driving is much like other developing countries—which is to say completely crazy and sometimes borderline suicidal.  Driving in such a country, avoiding disaster is a true art form. Our goal was to reach the Samana peninsula on the north coast before nightfall, which gave us about five hours.  The actual drive ended up being around seven or eight on mostly small highways.  Unbeknownst to us the country just completed a super-highway connecting the Samana with the capital city which would have saved us getting lost numerous times and about five hours of travel time.  But the journey was interesting, and whenever we stopped to ask directions people enthusiastically offered their services and pointed us back to the correct road. 
 

Our first stop was Las Terrenas, a small, as of yet off the tourist track beach town populated mostly by locals and European (French and Italians mostly) beachcombers.  After checking into our hotel  around 9 pm our first act was to head down to a beach-restaurant for some Presidente beer (a very delicious national staple) and light dinner.  The next morning we headed for Playa Bonita, a thin stretch of beach that was practically deserted.  Unfortunately the first few days were a bit chilly (low 70s) so with the wind coming in off the water we ended up wearing our sweatshirts while lying on the beach.  We spent two lazy days in Las Terrenas, mostly decompressing and enjoying the beach.Our third day was spent driving a few hours to the town of Las Galeras.  On the way we stopped in Limon to investigate the “Cascada de Limon”, an amazing waterfall we were informed we could not miss.  The hype was warranted, as James and I soon found ourselves on scraggly ponies making the hour-long trek through forests and small mountains to the beautiful and very large waterfall.  Our guide, a young 18 year old boy named Andre, walked the whole way on foot, yelling at the poor ponies to hurry up.  When the going got really rough we abandoned the ponies and hiked through a small waterfall and down a steep grade to the waterfall.  It was a great experience and one of the best views and waterfalls I’ve seen anywhere.  We met many local people as we walked along the trail (including a 3 year old toddler carrying a glock—I hope unloaded) and bought some chocolate from an older man who was selling it out of his house.  Clearly the people who live along the trail were used to providing services to foreigners or Dominicans on vacation and traveling this path, and their entrepreneurial spirit shown through. Las Galeras provided more beautiful beach views, and once again we were shocked by the lack of other tourists on the beach.  Those who we did run into were mostly Europeans—I guess all the Americans congregate along the southeast shore near Punta Cana, because I don’t think we saw a single other American while we were there.  One of our best experiences was the trip to Playa Rincon, named one of the ten best beaches in the Caribbean.  In our little old beat up Chevy Aveo rental we drove for about 45 minutes up and down on mud roads to reach the beach, but once we arrived it took our breath away.  I had a delicious meal of beans, rice, fried plantains, and fish cooked by a friendly woman named Claudia at one of the few beach shacks near the water.  A few groups of Dominicans from the city were our only other company on the beach, it felt like we had the whole beach to ourselves.  For New Years Eve we hung out at a local bar with a few ex-pats and some locals.  For not the only time on our trip we struck up a conversation with a Haitian who was living in the DR.  He told us he left his country years ago, and hasn’t been back or heard from all of his family after the earthquake. January second was my birthday so we did another horseback ride, this time to a beach where our guide shimmied up a tree to throw down coconuts for us to try.  Apparently there are three different kinds of coconut (who knew?) and we tasted all three.  We also explored a remote cave next to the beach, which kind of freaked me out to be honest.  After my experience with bats in Nicaragua I might never be able to enjoy caves or anywhere that houses bats ever again. The drive back to Santo Domingo was much easier because by then we had figured out there was a new highway, and our little Chevy hung in there for the high-speed and always nerve-wracking drive back.  Our vacation ended with a great five days in Santo Domingo.  The capital city (unlike many other capital cities in Latin American countries where the best advice is to get out as soon as possible after landing) is beautiful and full of historical sites and other tourist attractions.  We visited museums, enjoyed great food and nightlife, and in general enjoyed the Dominican culture very prevalent in the city.  Dominicans are known for their love of baseball (soccer is not big there at all, surprisingly) and we managed to get tickets for a winter league game in their new stadium.  The stadium was modern and actually looked like a minor league or small major league stadium in the U.S.—they were even selling hotdogs and pizza!  Team spirit was at an extraordinary level in the stadium, with each team even having its own marching  band (who did not hesitate to bang away on the drums during plays) and vuzuzuelas in full blast.  My favorite part of the evening was the “besos cam” (equivalent of the kiss-cam) where they zoomed in on fans and then the announcer proceeded to narrate each kiss as it was happening.  Hilarious. Dominicans are wonderfully friendly and open people, and they definitely have the laid-back attitude of Caribbean people.  Their attitude toward Americans from what I can tell is overall positive (despite their reasons to not be so fond of us) and they seem extremely eager to be helpful to tourists.  I felt safe everywhere in the DR, probably more so than any developing area I've been besides maybe India. It is very easy to see how people can be so cheerful despite their economic situation (there is still pretty intense poverty in some areas) when you realize that the weather is almost always at least in the 70s, they have amazing music and dance, and it is really hard to be too far away from the beautiful beach given the size of the island.  Plus, they make (and consume an astonishing quantity of) amazing beer and rum. Basically, they've got it made. div>

1/11/2011

My after-Christmas vacation time was spent in the Dominican Republic, which is part of the reason I haven't written in so long. A trip report from the DR is forthcoming as soon as I have a spare moment to write, promise!