Arriving in D.C.

After submitting all my final assignments at the end of the Spring 2022 semester, I had a few extra days in D.C. that I wanted to make the most of. I had a long list of places that I wanted to see during the one semester I had while studying abroad at the Main Campus. Of course, this included seeing some of the most ‘touristy’ parts of the city: the Washington Monument, the National Gallery, Lincoln Memorial, and the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin. However, I wanted to do more than just visit different parts of the city: I wanted to experience the less-seen, unpopular, hidden parts of D.C. which are always the essence of a city. I wanted to experience D.C. as an insider. On my last day, I went to the Wharf and strolled into an adorable bookshop. While looking at a the elaborately decorated shelves, I came across a book titled 111 Places in Women’s History in Washington D.C. That You Must Not Miss. The book was a sort of a travel guide of the city but unlike traditional travel guides, it included places that only D.C. locals would know of. More than that, it explained the role and contribution of many women who had shaped the city’s history and culture. It was the one book I needed as a guide to experience D.C. through an insider’s perspective, but when I held it, I only felt sadness. It was my last day and there was no way I could have seen all these places in that time. Without looking further, I put the book back and hoped that if I ever came back to D.C., I would use it as a guide to explore the city.

You can then guess the extent of my surprise and happiness when a year later, on Day 1 of our trip, we received a copy of the book. To me, it was a full circle moment: I had returned to D.C. and this time was starting the trip with a tour of the city through the lens of women. Moreover, our tour guide was Kaitlin Calogera, one of the authors of the book 111 Places in Women’s History in Washington D.C. That You Must Not Miss. Kaitlin guided our tour to the Lincoln Memorial, Roosevelt Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial and the Library of Congress amongst other places. For me, the highlight of the tour was visiting the Lincoln and the Vietnam War Memorials. I had been to that place on multiple occasions while I was studying abroad in D.C., but I was unaware of the profound contributions women had made to the memorials. For instance, I did not know that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was designed by Maya Lin, an Asian American woman who won a national competition to become the architect for the Memorial. We also saw the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, a sculpture of three women and one wounded man-something I had missed on my many previous visits to the National Mall-that pays tribute to the contribution of women as both civilians and as nurses who served in the war. Seeing and acknowledging women’s monumental contribution behind some of D.C.’s most iconic locations was exactly the insider’s perspective I wanted to know about the city.

After the tour, we went to grab lunch at Busboys and Poets, a famous restaurant/bookstore that was a cultural hub for artists, writers, and activists. The books, cards, and stationary at the entrance of the restaurant caught my attention and I spent a long time browsing through the selections. I noticed that some of the books had a sign on them marking that they were the staff’s favorites which I thought was really interesting. I made a note of some of the books and look forward to reading them soon. I also read up a bit about Busboys and Poets and found out that it was started by Andy Shallal, an Iraqi-American artist and activist who had advocated against the Iraq War which made the place all the more special to me as a cultural hub.

We had the afternoon to ourselves and I had long planned on going to the National Gallery of Art’s East Building. The East Building housed a variety of contemporary and modern art and was closed for renovations while I was in D.C. in early 2022, and so I knew that I absolutely had to visit it during this trip. I browsed through the collection and finally saw some of my favorite paintings-Matisse’s The Open Window and Derain’s Mountains at Collioure- but I also found a new favorite painting: a self-portrait by- a woman- Sarah Cain. All these experiences had made the first day of the trip incredibly wholesome and set the bar high for the following days of the trip. Oh and did I mention, I was lucky enough to get a copy of the book signed by not one, but both of the authors.