Caitlin Goes to DC: Marines, Falafel, drag queens, and dance clubs

Friday night I went to the Marines Evening Parade in the Eastern Market area with my friend, Shruti and some of her other friends. In order to go to this you must be a member of congress or work on the Hill (term used for people who work at the capital). One of Shruti's friends worked at the capital so he got a bunch of tickets for us to go. It is basically a presentation of the Marine Band and drill team (or whatever you call people who spin guns). It was cool to see... but I wish they did more of the gun spinning and a little less music playing.

Marine. I would rotate this, but I can't figure out how!

AMERICA!

More Marines

After watching the "parade," Shruti and I rode the metro to Adam's Morgan. This part of town is rowdy! It's like Court Ave on steroids (Des Moines reference). After the bar, we went to a place to have a falafel. I had never had one, but EVERYONE kept telling me that I needed to try one. It was surprisingly good! Here is a little definition (thanks Wikipedia): ball or patty made from ground chickpeas and/or fava beans. Falafel is usually served in a pita, which acts as a pocket, or wrapped in a flatbread known as lafa. The falafel balls are topped with salads, pickled vegetables, hot sauce, and drizzled with tahini-based sauces.
As strange as that sounds, it was yummy! After eating my first falafel, I went to catch a cab. At this point I discovered that cabs in DC do not accept credit cards. This presented a problem because it was 4 am (bars close at 3 am) and the metro stops running at 3 am. Luckily, one of the guys in my group lent me $20 so I could catch a cab home instead of walk 45 min or more back to my house.

Saturday
I woke up around 11 am and my housemate and I decided to go to a pool. First we both needed food, so we went to an Indian restuarant called, "Masala Art." This was my first time eating Indian food! It was good!!!! I ordered the Tandoori Chicken and it was the perfect amount of spicy. After eating we went back to the house to wait for his friend to call him so we could go over there. I went back to sleep. I am very good at napping. Not even napping... going into hibernation. So, I skipped the pool and slept all day (oops!).
Later in the day I went to Columbia Heights to meet up with friends. It was a friend-of-a-friend's birthday, so they ordered bottle service at a club. A rather large group of us went. I had a blast!

Sunday
Morning was not pleasant. I got home around 4 am from going out and woke up at 9 am. I had told some other people that I would go to brunch at Perry's in Adam's Morgan. The place is very popular because on Sunday mornings they have Drag Brunch. Yup, drag brunch. So it is a buffet of food and after everyone has settled in, drag queens give a performance. I was with a group of girls so it was a blast! The drag queens were mostly lip syncing to music and dancing around. A couple of them used the microphone and told jokes and made fun of people. They also tend to single out the straight men in the audience because they are usually the most uncomfortable in these situations.