Sometimes it takes a little extra push to engage one's "hometown" like a newcomer. The transients, expatriates, exchange students, etc. often take more energetic and aggressive attitudes toward meeting people, visiting places, seeing attractions and generally enjoying the town. In every major metropolitan area, there are publications, lists, books, sites and newspaper sections dedicated to highlighting the good stuff to do in town. Now that I am back in Washington DC (if for only for a year or two), I feel as though I must learn to engage the city of my birth like a spunky, native mid-westerner might -- embrace my inner newcomer, if you will.
In an effort to effect the latter, I called a college buddy, and incidentally a Washington transplant, to discuss/complain about my semi-self-imposed isolation in Chevy Chase. When I left for Haiti over eight months ago, I had friends and relatives who just moved down to the area in the last year. They were getting their bearings still when I left. Upon my return, I find them completely entrenched in all things Washington. And truthfully, I feel more admiration than surprise because I can easily see how this is analogous to building communities and friendships in Wells, England, Granada, Spain, and Les Cayes, Haiti, which I did without so much as a thought.
Though I am in the midst of applying for jobs, masters programs and hunting down a new place to live, there is no reason why I should not attend thematic happy hours, clubs, lunches, joining an association or two and maybe even (eep!) joining a kickball league... right? So... how to emulate those rose-colored shades and see my dear old friend, the capital of our great nation, as a recent transplant might?
Last night I joined a hill-staffer friend for dinner in Chinatown. We picked a bustling place -- one reviewed in a new, swanky Washington magazine as having excellent food. We were not spotted nor did we do much "spotting" but it felt like we were "somewhere," which is a start I think. Next I joined one of those "transplant" friends I mentioned at a thematic happy hour in Dupont. I had called him earlier and laughingly begged him to "reintroduce" me to my hometown. He did literally that -- presenting me to a wide array of his libertarian friends, many of whom write influential blogs and columns for local and national media engines and have a lot to say about national policy... how Washington.
One would think that it would be easier to assert oneself into an American community rather than a foreign community where language and many other things present constant barriers. Strangely, I feel more at home confronting those (usually artificially) boundaries as a transplant, no matter where, than I do learning to relearn my hometown. This time, though, I have decided to take it on as a challenge.
Watch out Washington, Portia's back!
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