Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Last Weekend in DC

So this was my last weekend in DC before going to study abroad in Egypt. I didn't come down to relax for a vacation or anything, but to maximally spend some quality time with some awesome people.

So I started off by emailing a whole bunch of people letting them know I was coming down. I picked up a random traveler who ended up not being so random, Mr. Muhamed Gendy. I met him Thursday for dinner through our mutual friend, Joe Essex. He was telling me how unfortunate it was that he wasn't truly seeing America, experiencing no culture shocks while here from Egypt. So out of the blue, I let him know that I was going to DC that Friday and he was welcome to tag along. And so we found ourselves headed to DC, along with my best buddy from the city, Jamal. Through an unfortunate series of events, Gendy caused me to miss the 7:30PM Chinatown bus after work and Jamal missed his bus from Wesleyan and wouldn't be in NYC until 8:35. So Gendy and I were going to catch the next Chinatown bus, which we were told would leave at 8:30, and Jamal would just come the next day. So we got on the bus and as usual, the crazy Chinatown bus lady of New Century Travel, the infamous one that unnecessarily bangs on the side of the bus, lied to us and the bus left after 9. Whatever, we sucked it up and got into DC at 1:30 in the morning. Luckily on the bus though, we met my buddy from work who went to GW and who I've given ballroom lessons to (not worth the price, as Kim and others would insert now).

Also, behind us sat this awesome awesome couple. The young wife was an alumni of GW and just recently graduated from Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Together, the couple were going to use the power of the pen to help liberate the chains of their people living in Western China. As Muslims from Western China they were persecuted for following any sort of religion and thus escaped to Turkey, wherein the wife admitted to being brainwashed by the fascist secularism there. However now, she is working against it all, and I am extremely proud of her. We need more people that will stand up and say no to injustices.

So we got off the bus and headed straight to Ivory Towers, the summer abode of our beloved Host, which is what he will be named from hereon out. The Host gave me a warm welcome and began inflating two air mattresses for us. As this went on, at around 2:30AM, I discovered this Christian brethren of mine recently became a full-fledged Zionist after returning from Israel earlier this summer. And thus, since I brought along an Egyptian straight from Egypt, the three of us ensued having a peaceful discussion in his living room as his 3 Hindu roommates slept peacefully. This lasted until 4:45AM at which time Gendy and I had to pray our morning Fajr prayers. We decided to postpone the discussion and ended on the good note that Gendy would be travelling to Church on Sunday with the Host.


A curse and a blessing of my summer job: giving me a strict biological clock that won't let me sleep in. I woke up at 9AM, gave Gendy directions to the White House and monuments so he can go be a tourist and then I tried going back to bed. I ended up waking up in an hour, so I was like, dangit, what am I going to do until then. I went to the gym. In between sets of the butterfly, I called and texted people to set up lunch. Saturday lunch was when I was going to meet everyone. At 12:30, I got back, showered and headed for lunch at Tonic, this new awesome rustic yet sleek place at GW. Around the table we had Jamal, Gendy, Kim, Brand, Omar, Drew, Samantha, Faraz, and Monica. The ten of us had a healthy breakfast at 2PM, I'm guessing a typical lazy weekend day in DC. All of us flustered about for a couple of hours, hit up the Marvin Center for prayer, hit up Coney Island for ice cream, and then ran back to Omar's dorm to iron Jamal's shirt so he would be presentable in front of Maggie's parents. Jamal came down this weekend to greet Maggie as she returned from studying abroad in Germany this past semester. Then, Faria met up with all of us at 5PM after work.

We all went over to the new Johnny Rockets to get dinner. Afterwards, Monica dropped off Gendy, Faria, and I at the monuments and we chilled there until 10:30PM at which time I called Faraz to see what was going down tonight. He said they were all at the Jumpoff so I stopped by but they were all going bar hopping. I opted out but asked Gendy if he wanted to check it out so he could see American culture, but I made sure, and asked Omar to watch him, to make sure he doesn't partake in the festivities. So as Gendy went off, I chose to instead hang out with Faraz, Palo, and Gadget at Faraz's apartment for some Xbox 360. It was freakin awesome, all of us playing Halo 2. I'm not a video game geek at all, but that was a phenomenal night. Playing until we became dysfunctional, which was around 1:30AM. We all decided to head out. Faraz walked us out since he needed to pick up his Chinese and so we waited with him at the corner of 21st and F. With nothing better to do, we continued our conversation, spitting out funny quips of people we knew, reminiscing about old-school Phi Psi and their antics, and just plotting the most stupid pranks, like pulling the Dutch Oven and every variation of it on Imran. Man, do I have to note now that Gadget is one mothereffin' funny mofo. This boy is so gruesomely witty, it's unbelievable. I can't wait to hang out with him more often. Luckily, he's only going to Georgetown Law, so he'll at least still be close by. So we shot the breeze for at least another hour until we really had to go home because Faraz's Chinese was getting cold.

At around 3AM, Gendy, the Host and I found ourselves all in his apartment under almost the same conditions as the night before. However, this time, the Host had a little whiskey in him and so the conversation progressed a little rougher. We settled down at 5PM which was when we realized the Host and Gendy had to wake up for Church at 9AM and so did I if I wanted to meet Raj with Monica. So Gendy and I prayed the morning Fajr prayer and passed out. The Host's air mattress is one amazing device.

At 9AM, I found myself waking up the others, let alone myself. I promised Monica I'd be ready by 9:30 but she decides to come early. I protest, get ready at 9:30 on the dot, and then go down to get some Dunkin' Donuts. We drive over to Raj whose showing his campers Arlington Cemetary that day. After living in DC almost two years, I had never been there until that day. Seeing rolling hills of gravestones pushes you back a bit. It was Sunnah to visit graveyards, probably because of the humbling effect it has on individuals. We watched the Changing of the Guards and the Wreath Laying Ceremony for the unknown soldier. I got in trouble there for having my Dunkin' Donuts coffee which I forgot to throw out but luckily, there was a garbage can nearby. We then jumped onto Raj's tour bus at which point one of his interns began hitting on me. I played along and then walked away. (A joke! ha ha.) We wished Raj a farewell and then walked back to the Kennedy family's grave site and that hurt even more, to see the deaths of his two children by his side. Monica and I walked back to the car, a little more disillusioned by life.

Monica dropped me back to base at the Host's wherein Drew, Gendy, Monica, and I decided to grab lunch at Mehran's one last time. Mehran is Drew's favorite restaurant and I'm the only brother willing to go with him. Plus, Monica's never been and Gendy was craving some halal meat, so we all went and got some Butta Chicken! Oh, the butter chicken, good times. We stuffed ourselves and began jetting for the Chinatown bus since we were aiming for the 2:30PM bus. For some reason, because of Omar, all three of them decide to see us home from Chinatown. So Omar, Drew, and Monica took us all the way to Chinatown. Since the trains were on a weekend schedule, we were obviously late, missed the bus, but were fine since there was another bus at 3:30. Jamal was saving seats for us with Maggie. So Jamal kind of made us miss the bus on the way down and we did the same for him on the way up. It was fine, since I got more time to chill with my buddies watching funky anime in the Chinatown bus office and Jamal got to spend more time with his Maggie. We said our farewells and off we were to New York.

As usual, I met an interesting individual sitting next to me on the bus. She was a UPenn second year med school student. Her friends went to GW Law and she was visiting DC so I got some more insight into the law school. In addition, she has some friends that are into the financial services industry since she was a bio and finance major in college. We connected in between conversations Jamal and I had. We got into New York at 9PM and I got home at around 10:30PM at which point I prayed, got ready for work, and passed out since I had to wake up for work at 6:45AM the next day. And there you go, having one of the most awesome weekends ever despite the doldrum summer days of DC. If you're surrounded by awesome people, that will just make up for everything else. Thanks guys, to everyone that made my DC weekend amazing. Sam and I finally caught up. Faraz and I were no longer strangers. Gadget is my new shooting the breeze partner. Drew's finally listening to me about life. Omar seeing more truth. The Host posing more barriers. Faria being un-talkative as usual. Kim and his brilliant cheapness. Raj and his new earring, which you should take off buddy. I lost a bet and thus you must take off that thing. Not cool buddy, not professional. "Take it off", said Monica. Thanks and God bless all my friends. You've truly shown me how much we mean to each other, with your cliff analogies and your patience regarding the final Harry Potter book that came out that weekend. Thank you for everything. Yallz the best! I'll so definitely miss you all when I'm off in Egypt, but I hope you all continue reading the chronicles of my life. It starts off with this post as practice, but hopefully I'll get better. And of course, I hope to be up to date on all of your lives as well. Post up and remember to let me know how things are going.

With Love and Patience,
Shams

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