Towering Sundaes

Just now my roommate and I went to the new Serendipity 3 in Georgetown.  Ice cream for dinner is a definite yes--in moderation and only on certain special occaisions.  It's college, right?  No grown-ups!  No rules!

I'm kidding, for the most part.  But not, at the same time.  Sometimes you just gotta have dessert for dinner.  This was a super-mega sundae, too, so you almost have to have this for a meal rather than dessert after a meal--I barely ate today in preparation.  We both got the Fried Oreo Sundae, and it was absolutely fantastic.  Oh. My. Word.

It was 3 scoops of really dense cookies and cream ice cream (with oreo AND chocolate chip cookie swirled in), 5 fried oreos, whipped cream, fudge, and of course, a cherry on top.  Here's an approximation of what it looked like, courtesy of google:

I hate when people take pictures of what they're eating at a restaurant, but I will gladly benefit from their photos in lieu of taking my own obnoxious food-pics.

But really though, doesn't that look outstanding?  I'm so glad we've got a place like this now, I see many a birthday party to be had at Serendipity, it's one of those kinda places.  It only recently opened so not too many GW kids have been yet, but I know that once everyone's back on campus it's going to be rather busy with sweet-toothed colonials looking for a taste of the newest Georgetown hotspot.

Yay for experiencing new things!  And for having our just dessert!

Email me at shireens@gwmail.gwu.edu

~~~Shireen

The 9:30 Club and Late-Night Chili

Last night, with my visiting friends in tow, I went up to U street for a concert at the 9:30 Club.  My friend was super excited when she found out that Christina Perri was going to be playing there while they were in town, so she asked if we could go.  I didn't know ANY of Perri's songs, but tickets were $20 so I figured what would it hurt?

Well then I listened to the most famous song by Christina Perri, "Jar of Hearts".  It's pretty teen angst-y and a slightly more hardcore version of just about every Taylor Swift song, so I was pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy any of her other music or the concert.  I listened to bits of one other song as well and was like, OY.  It was slow chick-y teen ballads, in my opinion.

Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised!  She has a really cool, raspy, unprocessed voice and her and her band put on a pretty good show!

Funny story, though: me and the two others that didn't go to see Christina ended up liking her opening band better!  They were old timey rock mixed with some Nashville and Jazz sounds all combined to make a sweet alternative rock sound.  They were called Honeyhoney, and they're actually signed to Kiefer Sutherland's record label, which is pretty awesome.  He's even in their music video!



After the concert, we went to Ben's Chili Bowl, since we were in U Street anyway, it was late, and I couldn't let them leave DC without having some chili cheese fries from THE Washington take-out joint.  It was delicious, as always, and they were big fans.

Below is the storefront followed by our president eating there!  He's known to stop in once in a while.

Even if you're not starstruck easily, that's pretty awesome.  It's my dream to run into him at Ben's or Ray's Hell Burger or one of those other places sometime during my tenure in DC.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

As always, shoot me an email with any questions or anything!  shireens@gwmail.gwu.edu

<3 Shireen

Another touristy day!

As I said in my last post, having friends in town for the weekend allowed me to do a bunch of fun stuff usually reserved for tourists.  So today, we walked from the White House to the Capitol and stopped at some sights along the way.

It was a long and slightly tedious walk, but it was such a great way to see the city!  They saw just about every Smithsonian and a bunch of other important buildings along Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues.  After our walk, we got a delicious, well-deserved meal at Spike Mendelsohn's Good Stuff Eatery.  He's the guy from Top Chef, if you're a fan of the show.  More importantly, Good Stuff is a seriously good burger joint.  It's also the sister restaurant and neighbor to We The Pizza, which I wrote about in my Good Pizza in DC post.

Tonight, we're going to see a concert at the 9:30 club, so I'll tell you how that goes!  Catch ya later.

Email me at ShireenS@gwmail.gwu.edu

<3 Shireen

Midnight Monuments!

I have friends in town this weekend, so yet again I have the best excuse ever to get all tourist-ed up.  Last night, we went to the FDR memorial, the Lincoln memorial, the Korean, Vietnam, and WW2 memorials, and walked along the tidal basin.  The monuments are gorgeous at night when they're lit up and whatnot, and the city looks so pretty from the tidal basin.  It was so nice!  Although I've spent many a late night at the monuments during the past two years, it never gets old.

Like my photos?  Have questions?  Email me!  ShireenS@gwmail.gwu.edu

~~~Shireen

Politico Playbook Breakfast

I know this sounds crazy, but I went to another free DC event with important people today!  It was a breakfast speaker series through the Politico news company.  Today's broadcast was with Senator Mark Warner from Virginia, and the topic focused on the debt crisis and the workings within the Senate to raise the debt ceiling.

Here's the video from the interview:

And, I got free breakfast!  It's been a swell week for me, I wish I had known about all of these things sooner!  I'm definitely going to be going back; it was great discussion, interesting people, a good networking opportunity, and free breakfast--all at the Newseum, which in itself is a cool place to go to just because.

Cool right?

Yeah!  So email me at shireens@gwmail.gwu.edu

~~~Shireen

YET ANOTHER Artsy Event!

Tonight, two of my friends and I went to another art-themed event!  This one was at The Open Society Institute on 17th and Penn.  It was super swanky.  They have a rotating set of photographic exhibits in their offices, and this one is related to human rights in Bangladesh, Burma, Yemen, in Eastern Europe among Romani, and in California among high-risk juvenile prisoners.

The pieces were super poignant and had beautiful composition, and it was so cool that they let you roam through the office to view all the art.  The photographer of the California prisons pieces was also there--awesome.  We felt like such bigwigs hobnobbing with liberal non-profit elites and artists and whatnot, and also there was more free food!

Seriously.  I'm gonna get fat off these catered events!

But the best part wasn't the food, even!  Or the art (whoops...)  It was the roof!  From the top of that building, you could see just about all of DC and far into northern Virginia, too.  We were all kicking ourselves for not bringing real cameras, so we just struggled to capture the awesomeness of the view on our crappy camera phones.  It failed, but here are our attempts:

Gorgeous, no?  Making me happy to live in DC.  For sure.

Email as always: ShireenS@gwmail.gwu.edu

<3 Shireen

The Textile Museum

Today, I went to a press conference to announce the partnership of The Textile Museum with our university!  It was really fun to be at a GW special announcement, and the reception afterwards was delicious!  Seriously, we pull out the stops for VIPs.  There were amazing hors d'oeuvres and fancy drinks (non-alcoholic) and FANTASTIC finger-pastries.  Really yummy.  Ahhhhhhh.  Oh yeah, so the museum...

Well I got an email yesterday saying that President Knapp was going to be announcing the opening of a museum on our campus at a press conference, and I was invited!  (Everyone was...)  But my friend and I decided to go!

We had no idea what the museum was about, though, so walking into the SMPA building was a bit mysterious.  We darted our eyes around looking for clues--decor, the crowd, how that crowd was dressed--any clue we could find.  Upon entering the Jack Morton Auditorium, our sleuthing was rewarded when an attendant asked, "Textile Museum?"  So we didn't exactly solve the puzzle ourselves, but the case was cracked!  Textiles, eh?  Ok, GW, I'll bite.

I'll admit that it sounds kinda lame at first.  Then I think of how I'm Persian and they'll totally have Persian rugs and stuff.  Additionally, they have tons of other rugs, tapestries, clothing, and all sorts of other, well, textiles.  But all the images were so pretty and thanks to GW, they'll be adding to the collection and have even more space to showcase and store their artifacts!  We're building a 35,000 sq. foot building around 21st and G streets to house all these pieces, and there will be a spot at our Virginia Science and Technology campus for warehouse space.

There will also be GW-related artifacts.  Not the school, the guy.  Cool, right?

Well that's it for now, back to summer business!  Email with any questions:  shireens@gwmail.gwu.edu

~~~Shireen

Birthday Weekend

Hi everyone!

The famous carrot cake that I must have every year...

I just celebrated my 20th birthday this weekend at home. It was a really fun weekend full of housesitting (not eventful but profitable), sushi, tapas, carrot cake, family, friends, and phone calls from friends far away! I was so happy to hear from many of my GW friends who are working in DC this summer. Several of my professional sorority sisters left me a sweet voicemail with all of them singing happy birthday. My best friend from home also got me these enormous blown up silver balloons that took up my whole car when I had to drive them home from her house. It was really fun. 

In other news, nothing is going on : ) I am just enjoying the relaxing summer that is somehow continually rainy here!! Work is going well even though at times I feel like I am doing a lot of database work. The good thing is is that I am doing work that my supervisors would be doing if I weren't around, so I feel good about that and it feels like I am really helpful to have around. 

Hope everyone is doing well and hope to hear from you if you have any questions! marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu

- Marisa

Portland Chillin'

I'm loving being home, but it does get lonely at certain times. I am so happy to have a few friends here and to be doing really great things, yet at the same time it feels so different than high school. In a way, this is my first summer home from college only because I studied abroad last summer and was only in Portland for two 3 week intervals. It felt like holiday break twice, instead of a long drawn out spell of hanging out, working, relaxing, and doing fun things. I do think I made the right decision in deciding to move home because that way I can work an unpaid internship without worrying about room and board (it is so expensive to live on GW campus during the summer or to find an apartment to rent for just a few months!). But at times, I wonder if there would be a cool internship waiting for me in DC. Maybe next summer. Who knows!

Anyway, I thought I'd update you all on some things I have planned for July. My birthday is coming up this weekend and it's making me feel like this summer is passing by so quickly!!!

The Oregon Country Fair was last weekend and I went on Saturday. Can you say crazy awesome hippie town? It was amazingly fun and a new experience for me.

I'm also planning on going to a Fleet Foxes concert, berry picking, and more. If you're a new student or a perspective student with any questions, as you can tell, I have a lot of time on my hands! Get at me with your questions :) marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu.

- Marisa