City

One of my first posts talked about my “fair Verona,” the city of Washington, D.C. I visited here when I was 18 and fell in love with the city, the sites, and the opportunities. For the next several years it was somewhat of an unconscious goal of mine to live here. When the opportunity presented itself I took it. So here I am, living my small dream. But DC ain’t all glitz and glamour. Behind all the federal buildings and congressional hearings and fancy hotels and expensive cars there is a dirty side of the city. Grimy streets, honking horns, dirty panhandlers, wailing sirens, and all the other not-so-idealistic elements of a large city. I fell in love with the city and I still love it, but I don’t see things so idealistically as I did when I was 18.

The most striking thing to me is how lonely people can be here. I’m not just talking about the homeless guy that sits under the tree on my way to the Metro. There is an element of loneliness in a lot of people here. You can be in a crowded subway car and be all alone. You can be hurrying your way to work through the flow of people and be all by yourself. No one makes eye contact, no one looks at you, no one knows your name. The juxtaposition of crowds and solitude is truly ironic.

That's not the only stark contrast. It's surprising how if you walk two blocks in one direction you will pass both towering office buildings and boarded-up storefronts. You see the good and the bad. I pass beautiful Christmas decorations, monuments, and parks on my way to work. But I also pass cigarette butts, trash, and used condoms on the sidewalk on my way to church. Just down the street from where I live there are several posh hotels. They seem really nice, but you have to remember the bad side of things when you read in the paper that people there were held up at gunpoint last week. I myself am in the middle of a contrast right now. I'm trying to do and experience everything I wanted to do before I have to leave, while simultaneously trying to finish all the work I have to do before I'm done.

This blog entry is also a stark contrast to the overly optimistic entry I wrote at the beginning of my stay here. Maybe it's just because today is a Monday. Or maybe it's because I've gotten a better view of what the city is like. I still encourage anyone to visit, however. Even seeing the good and the bad, it's still worth the trip. And given the chance to do it over, I'd do the exact same thing and come to DC. It's crazy and busy and sometimes gritty and ugly, but there's no other place like it in the world.