Nashville

I am in the Nashville airport after 4 days of great food, good exploring, lovely weather, and some quality music.  I came down from DC with Evan for a couple of days.  I work remotely right now, and I can just as easily work from Nashville as I can from DC, so I figured I would try to see something new.

Nashville is a beautiful city.  It is green and lush.  The urban areas to not spoil the beauty of the setting.  That is partly because the urban areas are small, and fairly unobtrusive, and partly because there is a lot of open space around Nashville.  It is an interesting mix of southern hospitality, warm and welcome people, a modern urban food, art, and cocktail scene, honky-tonk and state capital.  It mixes all these things pretty well (I say as 4-day expert).  I enjoyed it very much.

We arrived on Sunday night and took a driving tour of Broadway and the downtown strip.  We went along 2nd street and the bars there, and then back through downtown.  We had dinner at a Tex-Mex place called El Chico.  It was not remarkable, but it was good.  I am not an aficionado of Tex-Mex, given that it is not so popular in the West.  It involves queso which is a definite Mexican tradition.  Check it out.  It is a funny cuisine.  It is like middle America ran headlong into Mexico.  After dinner we went to our hotel and then walked around the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.  We were staying next door to the Grand Old Opry concert hall.  It is an uninteresting brick building that is steeped in music history.  EVERYTHING around it is named Opry something rather.  The Gaylord Opryland Hotel is a massive hotel and conference center that is like Disneyland for southerners.  It is so strange and themed and landscaped and all indoors.  It smells like a casino and Disneyland were blended together with lots of southern accents.  After our walk we went to bed.

During the days we mostly would exercise in the morning, then have a delicious lunch, work more in the afternoons, then go out for excellent dinner food. On Monday we worked from the Dell offices on their sprawling compound by the airport.  We had massive burgers at Gabby's, worked more, then went for another walk prior to dinner at Peg Leg porker.  It was amazing bar-b-que.  The line at peg leg was long, but worth the wait.  We had bar b que nachos, and pulled pork.  The meat was so tender; sweet and savory with a delicious give to it.  It was almost buttery.  No one flavor dominated, not too seasoned or sauced, allowing the meat to speak for itself in concert with the other flavors.  IT was awesome.  I tried some local Yazoo beer, too.  It was crowded the whole time we were there, but there was space for seating and we never felt cramped.  It was in a cool part of town called The Gulch.  It was a great experience eating there.

From Peg Leg we went into downtown so I could see Broadway on foot, drink some beers and listen to music.  We walked out to the midway point of the foot bridge and we took some great photos of downtown.  We wandered into a bar and listen to Garth Brooks covers for a while.  Then we continued on to Mike's Ice Cream for delicious hand-made ice cream.  We walked out to the river and sat on benches along the river and ate our ice cream cones before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Tuesday I was able to hang out in East Nashville and go to Barista Parlor for incredible coffee and workspace.  I went into a shop called Fuselage where everything was expensive and too hip (4 sizes too small) for me.  It was a well-curated store though.  I just didn't need a $98 vintage union jack scarf, or $38 bespoke candles.  We stayed in East Nashville for dinner, drinks and trivia night at the Hop Stop where they had many many beers on tap, and great food.  It was a bar b cue centric menu with nouvelle takes on everything, but the food was still good.  I drank too many beers, but we took 3rd in trivia and had a great time while doing it.  My brother has some great friends and coworkers here.

Wednesday I was working out of the Dell offices all day again.  We took a trip back to East Nashville to eat incredibly delicious tacos at Mas Tacos Por Favor.  They are the best street tacos I have had outside of Mexico or Los Angeles.  I also had a rich and creamy cold-brewed iced coffee with horchata instead of milk.  It was fantastic.  I would say there are a few good cases of great coffee in Nashville, but overall the coffee game is lacking.  That evening I went for a run along the Cumberland river.  It was beautiful and green.  I got almost as many stares as in Africa (fitness must not be as common?  I had something on my face?  I don't know...)  But it was green and beautiful and the river made for a great backdrop.

That night we went to Bricktop's which was only okay.  But the best was having cocktails at Patterson house.  They make hand crafted cocktails that all include many expensive ingredients and liquers, and are generally cocktails dressed to impress.  The setting is a lovely old house with tin tile roofs inside, low dim lamps, ceiling fans, cozy booths, and hip people.  It was a chic spot to get to hang out with Evan and his friends.  We stayed for a couple of cocktails and then left before the place was too packed with well-heeled hipsters and Vanderbilt folks.  We cruised down music row and then headed back out to the hotel.

Now here I am at the airport, ready to fly back out.  It was a great trip!  I want to come back and dig in a little more.  I still can't get my head around the accents.  The southern drawl adds 3-7 extra syllables into everything and ranges from quaint to unintelligible.  I want to see more music and understand that scene a little better.   I would like to have hot chicken, which I missed this time.  I want to do a little more shopping and eating and drinking.  So, I am starting my next trip list now.  Hopefully Lee can be with me on the next one, too.

Nashville Note: In Photos

Nationals Baseball

Blossoms

Hitting the Gym...Sort Of

Since being back in DC, I have been so happy to get to go running a lot.  The weather has not always cooperated up to this point, but now as we move towards May, things are only looking up.  The trees are getting leafy, the flowers are out, the weather is consistently not angrily blowing sleet directly and personally at me while I run.

Running is lovely, and with Meridian Hill Park across the street, there are great stair sets I can run.  However, I have been wanting to find a gym where I can also lift weights.  I don't want to get ripped, just more fit and strong to help my running and tennis game.  I want something like this ideal body.  So, I have begun the gym hunt.  Fortunately for me there is a YMCA a 5 minute walk from our apartment.  It seemed like a good place to start.  I think of the Village People happily costumed and festooned in flamboyant sequined headdresses touting the benefits of such an affordable, supportive place.  This Y is a little different.

I walked in the Y in the brand new renovated building.  The lobby of the Y opens directly into Sweet Green.  For those of you who know DC, that should set off some warning bells.  For those of you who don't, click here.  It is a great place.  I was greeted by a woman who handed me a form to fill out.  She asked me why I had been so lazy and never showed up before.  Okay not really she asked if it was my first time in, and that she would set me up with a tour. 

After filling out the form, Chris, a young, fit black man came over to me and said "LOOK AT ALL MY MUSCLES! WHY DO YOU EAT SO MUCH CAKE? HAVE YOU CONSIDERED PROTEIN POWDER?" And after my brain's self judgement filter switched off, I realized he actually introduced himself and offered to show me around.  The gym was beautiful, not like any Y I had seen in the past.  It was full of young 20-somethings and early 30-ers, mostly white or ethnically ambiguous enough to be hip and nonthreatening to the general populous, and wearing designer workout clothes.

He showed me the ecomill treadmills that are powered just by running, no electricity (why not just run outside?) and the 4 types of elliptical machines and 3 types of stationary bikes.  It was all over whelming.  So many bodies moving in a poorly timed ballet, in sync but chaotic.  It was overwhelming.  Behind the cardio floor was the pool and the weights were below us.  It was new and clean and modern.  The locker rooms were spacious with nice showers, saunas, and steam rooms.  It was all very good.  At the end of the tour he said, "So I hope you feel pressured enough by all these young bodies to buy a membership immediately!  Thanks!"  Then he directed me to the same woman as before who asked about my laziness.  She smiled sweetly and explained membership options.  I told her I would have to talk to my girlfriend about it first.  She nodded her understanding and said, "alright then, enjoy quitting before you get started this evening!"  Then I used my free day to work out.

I think I will get used to all these things again.  But the gym just seemed like a lot.  And it seemed funny to walk outside to exercise inside after not doing that for two years.  And all those aggressively fit and nicely dressed young people were intimidating!  So many yoga pants!  But I can do it.  The gym search continues, and in the meantime, I will be out for a run.

Washignton, DC Part 1

I am finally sitting down and having some time to write on here for the first time since being back.  I have been back a total of 12 days.  In some ways it seems like I have been here a lot longer, in some ways, the time is very short, and I feel like I just arrived.  Either way, it is not that long, and musing over the actual perception to reality difference is a bit too meta to really be interesting.

I arrived on Tuesday the 17th on a 15 hour flight from Dubai.  It was rather unremarkable.  I slept a lot, I ate 4 times, and watched a number of movies.  When I arrived, customs and immigration was the quickest at Dulles that I have ever experienced.  It took less than 45 minutes to go through immigration, gather my luggage, and pass through customs.  It was refreshing.  Usually, because of the ineffective way Dulles shuttles people from the international terminal to the main airport terminal, there are bottlenecks that are frustrating and interminably irritating after traveling from far-off parts of the world.  Luckily, I was greeted on the other side by the smiling face of Winnie Auma, our Uganda country director and my good friend from Village Enterprise.  By brother picked us from the the airport, and we began a crazy day.

My brother treated us to lunch a local diner, and I was thrilled to eat a delicious club sandwich.  Winnie ate biscuits and gravy for the first time (yeah I know, like the fattest American food, but it is legit).  Then we went to his house where we prepared for a meeting by having a skype call with Ellen in Uganda.  Then we took an Uber black car into the city, all the while I was deliriously pointing out monuments to Winnie.  This whole time I was g-chatting with Lee who did not know I was in the US, and I was pretending I was in Kampala getting ready to come to the US.  Surprises.

The black car dropped us at FHI 360 where we had a preparatory meeting for a presentation we would be giving on that Thursday.  From there we went to a meeting with the funder of our randomized controlled trial (impact evaluation) that is running on our program in Uganda.  We met Konstantin in Dupont Ciricle (I was afraid Lee would catch a glimpse of me in the circle like one of those tabloid photos of bigfoot) so I was trying my best to cover my face.  Winnie, Konstantin, and I went to the meeting and then we walked down to Konstantin's office where my brother again met me for the grand surprise!

Evan, Rebecca, and I all went to Kapnos in the 14th Street area of NW where Lee was waiting, none the wiser that I was going to be showing up with Evan and Rebecca.  It was so nice to see Evan and Rebecca pull up in front of Konstantin's office.  It was surreal to be in DC, and I had only been there for 9 hours at this point, but I was excited to see Lee's face.  We agreed that we would all walk into the restaurant, and I would come in last, somewhat hidden by Evan (I am easily hidden because I am dainty).

Evan and Rebecca walked in first, and they both said hi to Lee and hugged her.  She was beautiful in a floral dress, sipping a glass of champagne and absently thumbing through her hair.  I was last in line to say hello and at first she simply said "hey!" and then it set in that I was there, and not supposed to be there, and surprising her, and that I was there, and for the next 10 minutes she laughed, while crying, and just saying "oh my god."  It was a pretty spectacular reaction.  We had a lovely dinner all four of us, and then we went back for my first sight of OUR APARTMENT!

The apartment is lovely.  It is just the right size, there are tons of windows that throw beautiful light on every space, and it is so nicely decorated.  Lee worked hard and did an amazing job of setting the place up.  It is compact, but spacious, and not cramped.  It feels like our place, and it is such a comfortable, welcoming space.  The building is lovely, and directly across the street from Meridian Hill Park.  We are a close walk to the 14th Street strip, U street, Shaw, and Columbia Heights.  It is ideal.  We unfortunately did not even have time to do nothing and enjoy each other because we both had to work a lot.

The next two days were filled with meetings, conferences, presentations, and courting potential funders, and current partners.  But finally, over the weekend we had time to just be together.  It was amazing to know that we could go to dinner, and not feel like we had to go all the restaurants we needed to.  We could go out, stay in, go for walks, and not feel  like there was pressure to try to do everything all at once.  We shopped for the apartment, went out for tacos with a dear friend who I hadn't seen since Christmas, went to the National Zoo, and generally enjoyed being together with no hurry for the first time in two years.  We cooked meals, made grocery lists, and planned dinners.  It was such a nice thing.

On a cultural note, the grocery stores here are insane.  After coming from Hoima where there are 11 things to choose from.  The grocery store here just makes me stop in my tracks.  In 3 or 4 grocery trips, I have generally ended up with at least 7 random things (mostly cheeses or cheese products), and spent much more than intended.  The tropical fruits in the store are stupid expensive and not ripe, there are more cereals than anyone could possibly eat, I can begin to describe how amazing it is to have whole grain and health food options.  It is all overwhelming.  And, no one tries to sell it to you!  You just go and casually pick what you want.  It is overwhelming.

On another cultural note, everyone looks like me here.  I know that seems obvious, but there are so many white 20 somethings who have facial hair and preppy clothes in this area.  At the grocery store, the park, the bars, anywhere, there are so many of me around.  I never confronted either my sameness, or that I could be so different based on the context.  It is pretty amazing.  The crowds of people, cars, options, and general transition have led to a few panic attacks, but those have been manageable, par for the course I suppose.  Even if I am not actually dying, I feel like I am, and I think about how I could just be buried under varieties of cheese and hot sauce and suffocate under the pile, and then the panic seems all at once more tangible, but less threatening.  Cheese is a double-edged sword.  More on that later I s'pose.  

Running through Foreign Lands

Yesterday I had a profound realization.  Well, a couple, and all in the span of 38 sweaty minutes.  It was a big run for me for a lot of reasons. 

In general, running in Uganda has some element of adventure associated with it.  The roads leave a lot to be desired, when they are there.  There is a constant gaggle (I will get back to gaggles…) of small children running, laughing, pointing, generally creating chaos around you when running.  Often there are myriad wild to semi-tame dogs that take interest in the activity.  There are adults that sporadically take enough interest to cast a lazy call of  mzungu (white guy), and sidelong stare to indicate their general sense that what I am doing defies logic.  Then there are geese.

This is where I go back to gaggles.  On one particular running route that I follow in Hoima, there is a gaggle of geese that torment me.  It started about 3 months ago.  I first came running down there on a rainy morning.  There were two geese, a white goose and a speckled goose.  As I approached them, jogging slowly along, they began to crane their necks and ruffle their feathers.  I moved to the other side of the road and kept going.

The next few runs I didn't see them.  But then, about a month ago, I was running, and as I got to that section of road, there were at least a dozen geese, grazing the road where I was supposed to run.  At first I thought, "they are geese, they should see I am a superior animal, and get out of my way, like chickens do."  This was VERY incorrect.  The geese tightened into a pack, craned their necks, opened their beaks to expose razor-like rows of something akin to teeth (do geese have teeth?) and HISSED at me!  They lifted their wings and jabbed their goose heads toward me.  My heart was racing (I realize writing this how pathetic it is, don't worry).  My heart was racing (I was running after all) and so I darted to the side of the road, and sprinted past them.  I also hissed back.  I don't know, it seemed right at the time.

Then, yesterday, again I was running, and not only did I time my run such that I encountered every school child in Hoima leaving school for the evening, but the geese (more like geese-stapo) were in the road again.  So after enduring 30 minutes of heckling by children (I mean I doubt they are judging me, but I don't speak the local language, and really, they are of course judging the giant white man running nowhere in particular) I got to near the end of my road and again had to meet the geese.  They are intent on adding an additional component to my work outs by adding shots of adrenaline into my runs.  This time, the side of the road was blocked, because someone turned the shoulder of the road into a garden for growing sweet potatoes and cassava.  I couldn't trample the garden.  In my head I imagined running through the garden, killing all the sweet potatoes, and a mother and 14 children all weeping, fists balled up against their eyes, wailing "what's to become of us?"  So I made the choice to run through the geese.  They moved.

So all in all what has happened?  In sum, nothing.  I dealt with running through crowds of curious children and geese.  I saved a Ugandan family from starvation by not trampling their garden due to an unreasonable fear of domestic fowl (someone once told me that geese bite), and I lived another day.  It is often curious running in East Africa.  There is always something that reminds me how excited I am to run when I get back to the US.  At least I can take solace that in Rock Creek Park there will be no attack geese, and the whole city of DC will not be alerted to the fact that one white guy is running.

But really, why does the owner of the geese just let them out like that?