Culture Club

Do you remember the first time you realized that there were other cultures and countries that existed besides your own? I vividly remember that point in my life where I realized that there were other people with different languages and traditions than my own---and I remember thinking how cool it was that we all coexisted on one planet, and all had something different to bring to each other. I have always been lucky to have parents who embraced different cultures themselves, and never discouraged us from learning about them. That's one thing I think I LOVE about living in DC. You never have to hunt down an opportunity to do something really unique and different-it's all at your fingertips.

The past few weeks, we've gotten a chance to do tons of great cultural things...I just love it. On Nov 9th, Al and I went with our friend Colleen to see our first Cirque du Soleil (Corteo), which was incredible. Those people can do some pretty amazing things with their bodies, and are extremely talented. My favorite part was the jugglers though....I guess I'm easy to please--while the other performances definitely required a great deal of skill and agility, I still found myself liking the juggling act the best. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't necessarily easy, but compared to what the others were doing, it was not as strenous. But, I still loved it.

Then, over the weekend, our friend Christina took me to an Acoustic Africa concert that featured 3 African performers-Habib Koite from Mali, Vusi Mahlasela from South Africa, and Dobet Gnahore from Ivory Coast. It was AMAZING! Before the concert, Christina had given me CDs of 2 of the performers, but seeing the performance live was very moving. The three artists harmonized together beautifully and there were all sorts of people in the audience of every shade and culture. At one point, when the performers were really jamming, someone from the audience hopped up on stage and started sprinkling money on top of Habib Koite. Christina informed me that an African tradition is to sprinkle money on a performer so that you can dance with them. Before long, there were about 10 people on the stage putting their dollars above each of the performers. Quite a sight! The woman performer Dobet was a fantastic dancer-weaving in traditional dances of her tribe into her music. Awesome!

This past weekend we just took in the city, and hit the National Portrait Gallery. I have never been-wasn't my cup of tea, but I'm glad we went. I guess I just prefer other types of other art- impressionists, landscapes, photography, not so much portraits. After that, we went for Thai and caught a movie in Chinatown-Stranger than Fiction-which I definitely recommend. Great cast, good story.

Glad to be out and about, and enjoying all the opportunities the city has to offer. Always good to know that there are things out in the world that can bring you some perspective on your own life.