Friday, I ventured out to the National Mall to take in the Smithsonian Folklore Festival. The featured countries were Latin/South America and Wales, and there was a section on the spoken word in African American culture, which was fantastic. I've had an interest in Welsh culture since I was fairly young, 12 or 13 probably, and I was interested in seeing all that the festival had to offer in terms of cultural significance and learnings.
I was not disappointed. There were food tents, music, poetry and storytelling, farming, nautical culture, carpentry and craftswork of all kinds, and the influence of Wales on the world. I know there were many others, but that's what I can recall. I spent some time there, in the hot and humid sun, luckily wearing my strapless yellow sundress, which I LOVE, taking in the exhibits and absorbing the culture.
I then met up with another KU alum near McPherson square, and we chatted over tea, iced for me, hot for him, about why I should move to DC, and how amazing it would be to live here, and why there's no good reason not to be out here. We talked a bit about his job, and also about new KU Law gossip, which was more fun than it should have been. He did a great job pitching the city to me, and made the thought of living here even more exciting than it had been for me previously.
After coffee, I went back to the Mall and sat in on some choral performances of Welsh ballads, and then had the chance to sit in on some story telling in the Giving Voice oratorium tent, where I heard two different styles of storytelling representing the African American culture. It was great, because I realized that these stories are really everyone's stories. We tell them differently, but the characters, the exxentric uncles, the overbearing mothers and grandmothers, they're all the same, across cultures, and when these stories are told, we can really see ourselves and our own lives in them. I loved that. The festival closed down at 5:30 pm, which was perfect timing for me to get over to Dupont Circle to meet up with Lizzy.
I hadn't seen Lizzy since we all met three years ago in Istanbul for the Summer '06 study abroad program, featuring guest lecturer Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Lizzy went to a different school, but she fit in with our KU brood just fine, and although it was only a month together, we've all managed to stay good friends since then, in some form or another. So it was great to see her, and see another neighborhood, which was a really nice one with a lot of historical significance.
We talked for over two hours, about school, life, working, travel, everything that we loved, dogs, boys, everything. We went to a nice little place called Bar Dupont, which was just the ticket. And while we were there, a massive but short-lived thunderstorm passed over the area, which led to a funny discussion about "weather" in different parts of the country. It was so good to just catch up after so long and realize how, although so many things have changed, some things, and some people, just don't. That's a wonderful thing to behold.
Lizzy also did a great job of convincing me to move to the city, so a double dose of awesomeness about DC had me floating on thoughts of being out here, all the way back to the metro. I made it back home in one piece, although it took longer than I thought it would to get home. A happy Friday for sure.
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