As a Duke student, chances are you'll end up in Washington, D.C. one way or another. Whether you will pay your dues as an intern, work the corporate ladder or protest the establishment, this politicized concrete jungle is probably in your future. The capital city is home to a growing population, few of which actually have D.C. roots. Yet Washington is not the multicultural love parade that an idealist may imagine; like at Duke, the people tend to separate themselves along ethnic and cultural lines, mingling briefly during daytime hours for work or polite conversations on the Metro before trotting back to their respective comfort zones each evening. In the sunny refuge of the weekend, however, the population re-emerges for socializing, and also for the prospect of buying or selling cultural goods. Good old-fashioned capitalism has a new face in the capital, one that paradoxically unites while revealing divisions.
Adams Morgan, known most infamously for its standing-room-only bar scene, is a favorite weekend gathering point for those looking to buy or sell. The area is home to large Ethiopian and Latino communities, and has the injera and empanadas to prove it. Other cultures join the mix, too. Stores boasting American antiques, West African masks, Oriental rugs and BlueCult jeans beckon from open glass doors while urban hipsters sip iced coffee and margaritas between shopping and conversing. The area, formerly home to D.C.'s working class, is increasingly becoming a habitat for young professionals and those looking for respite from the suburbs.
Nearby Dupont Circle boasts a plethora of restaurants, an amazing bookstore/bar/café (Kramerbooks), and an impressive pick of world stores. One Japanese store offers up kimonos, painted sushi platters and Japanese candy, and a Himalayan Buddhist store carries items such as Buddhist rosaries and hand-carved wooden sculptures.
For many, Eastern Market is little more than a mysterious destination on the Metro line, but for the savvy the fresh-food and farmer's market on Capitol Hill is a great place for outdoor shopping. Local farmers and artists set up shop in the sun and stand beside works that are begging to be picked up as you walk past. Argentinean paintings, hand-made earrings and Indian scarves are just some of Eastern Market's standard fare. Dressed-down staffers from the nearby House and Senate buildings peruse photographs of Prague, while commuting northern Virginians eye antique furniture. Ethiopians, Americans, Indians, Guatemalans--all stand in and around shaded tents, participating in the cultural exchange with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
In D.C., the disenchanted and the optimistic all share the same Metro and the same exhaust-smothered streets. For some, this city can be a veritable foreign zone; it can be a grand, almost frightening enigma that's best viewed from the square lawns of suburbia. However, D.C. has too many layers to peel to retreat to the suburbs or to one's summer apartment; some of the city's most enticing opportunities lay in the comfort zones of others. Culture through commerce?
That's just one of D.C.'s unexpected realities.
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