I spend a lot of time deciding what I should title each one of my blogs. After wasting too much time, I've come to realize that I am not capable of such creativity. Thus, I've decided that each one will instead be inspired by my favorite song of the week :D

Foodism

I love eating. Yes, this is probably one of my most favorite things to do, especially, when I’m on vacation. Which means, you are going to see a lot of food pictures… :) I don’t know if it’s right to consider this a vacation but, I think so. December 17 doesn’t feel too far away.

I know you might consider judging me for this, but I am Asian (Vietnamese), and that means that anywhere I go… one of the first things I’m going to do is try to find the Chinatown! Unfortunately, and I think I can say this on behalf of almost every other Asian in this city, Chinatown was a bit of a disappointment here in DC… So this wasn’t from Chinatown, but for my roommate's birthday, we found a Sichuan restaurant off Farragut North station. Just for some insight, Sichuan is a city in China famous for their spicy food!

The food definitely lived up to the restaurant's name!

Oh, and for those of you who are seafood lovers-muscles in particular-there’s an awesome French Bistro in Dupont Circle with an amazing menu.

For 9 bucks, this was too good!!

And of course, we didn't forget about desert :)

Frozen yogurt from SweetGreen in Dupont Circle

The National Mall

Before coming to DC, I visited Canada's capital city and I loved it. It was so beautuful and absolutely worth seeing for those Canadians who have not yet ventured there! However, the grandeur of the National Mall was something out of the ordinary.

The Washington Monument

World War II Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial. This was only one of three memorials dedicated to honor the veterans from the war, the names of whom are engraved on this wall.

Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately, the reflection pool was under construction :(

We didn't quite make it to see everything on the mall but it's a beautiful walk and it's always nice for a picnic. So, I'm sure we'll be back there soon. Hopefully, this was inspiring enough :)

Of course I did this inspirational tour with my new friends :) We did a bit of strolling down Constitution Avenue which was really an eye opener.

Work?

What do I do when I'm not strolling the center of DC? If I leave this program successfully—meaning that I haven’t been fired or failed any component of the program—I would have had to master my time management skills. There is so much work it’s almost overwhelming. Actually, it is overwhelming. Coming home from work at about 6pm every evening leaves me little time for anything else, on top of the work for our portfolio assignment and NOT TO MENTION our homework from the academic course!

My first programming experience, which happens every Monday afternoon, was somewhat engaging. As part of the Business and Global Trade program, we got to listen to Daniel Griswold from the Cato Institute on his views of the role of governments in a global economy. It was an interesting speech and I think a lot of people had much to discuss about this topic afterwards.

Song of the week!