Helen and Joel really couldn’t have picked a more stunning fall day than today for their engagement pictures. What a fun and beautiful afternoon we had walking around Meridian Hill Park, the National Mall and the Tidal Basin for pictures. Oh, how I love living in DC with all its wonderful places to photograph.

Well, things are a little different when you’re one of about two dozen riders in the I Street Bike Social. People on the sidewalk clap. And they cheer. And yes, they dance. Certainly, it helps that the ride leader has a stereo system hooked up to his bike. It’s surreal to be pedaling down K Street at night, all lit up by semi-empty lobbying offices, while “Stayin’ Alive” booms from in front of you and cyclists surround you.

It’s also so freakin’ cool. I think we must’ve looked like a small parade that lost its way.

Most people seemed to be new to tonight’s bike social. There were several riders like myself who came alone. There were also some random bicyclists we picked up along the way, which added an air of whimsy to the ride. See in the picture above the two guys riding away from the rest of us? They were heading somewhere else and decided to join the fun. Cheers all around, as I recall.

Jordan, our ride leader, started this bike social for his employer BicycleSPACE after seeing a similar bike ride in Boulder, Colo. Here in DC, we started out at the BicycleSPACE office at 4th and Eye St. NW at 8 p.m. – close to sunset – and then wound our way through H Street, Capitol Hill, the National Mall, Foggy Bottom and Georgetown. A light breeze blew and the temperature was just right as we coasted around. DC is beautiful at night. We had some mishaps with the contraption carrying the stereo but Jordan played some good tunes: Adele, Rhianna, Outkast. I tried boogeying on my bike but that’s actually kind of hard if you don’t want to crash. Which made me realize I had never listened to music while riding my bike.

As I mentioned before, other people seemed surprised and really pleased to see us. We weren’t doing anything special, but somehow, being part of the group made us all look special. By the time we took a break by the Potomac River, the sky was dark and I gratefully drank from my water bottle. After about 20 minutes, we headed up K Street. I broke off at 11th St. to go home. Two hours of leisurely biking was enough for me.

For all the fun I had, I think the name “bike social” is a bit of a misnomer. It’s not like all us bicyclists were talking and laughing and socializing all the time. I did chat with a cool woman who just moved here from Wisconsin three weeks ago. I also talked with a nice gal wearing a bike helmet that looked like a houndstooth ball cap. But for the most part, those conversations and the whole night gave me more of a sense of community. People seemed to simply enjoy being a part of this small band of bikers, taking over one or two street lanes at a time – even in Georgetown. Which is kind of crazy if you’ve ever been in Georgetown.

Can’t wait for next week!

I left my hotel at 6:30 a.m, ran down the street leading to Hoan Kiem and saw hundreds of people walking, stretching and sometimes running in a counter-clockwise direction around the lake. It’s that counter-clockwise direction that surprised me the most at first. Until I ran out there, I hadn’t realized I expected to run clockwise. Those Communists, they have to do everything differently. Hehehe. Better to go with the flow than get run over.

Any exercise you can imagine people might do around a lake, people were doing it. Most people walked while chatting with friends or family. About a half dozen men ran (no female runners except me). Most people wore loose clothing but there were a few groups of young girls wearing tight tank tops and shorts. There were old people in pajamas pushing their wheelchairs. Several groups of about 25 women performed synchronized calisthenics to music, including the Muzak version of Que Sera. Barechested old men swung their arms to and fro while walking at a brisk pace. Lots of people stood around moving their hips in circles, like they were hula hooping without the hoop. There were about 10 women dancing while balancing plastic balls on small tennis rackets. Several couples waltzed to classical music blaring from a portable speaker. I saw one older man stretched out on a yoga mat and one woman walking backwards. There was even one enterprising lady sitting with a small scale, so you could check your progress after your morning constitution.

By 7 a.m. the fun was pretty much over. The exercising ranks had thinned to almost nothing and the motorcycle traffic had picked up considerably. I wish I were around for another morning of running and people watching around Hoan Kiem!

Things I thought about while swimming, snorkeling and lounging around Cham Island:

1) I’ve never seen such brilliantly blue starfish. It looks like some kid spread blue Play Doh in the shapes of stars all over these rocks.
2) The water is so clear!
3) I didn’t know there were so many pastel-colored coral.
4) Did someone drop a big blue soccer ball into the South China Sea? What? It’s a sea anemone? No way!
5) Why don’t I know more about the underwater ecosystem?
6) Oh my goodness, schools of silver fish seem to be swimming circles around me. So cool.
7) This was totally worth the $40 I paid to Cham Island Diving.

One of the many reasons I love Korea – cultural experiences in the airport!

One of my best memories of being a Girl Scout in Jeddah was celebrating Thinking Day. This was when Girl Scouts and Girl Guides from other countries living in the city got together for one big hoe-down. Okay, not exactly a hoe-down, but one big cultural exchange.

The day began with a procession of scouts from each country carrying that country’s flag. I always wanted to carry the United States flag. I thought it would be fun to march around in my green uniform and hold the flag straight up. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t drop it. I never got to find out. Instead, I sat on my school gym floor with hundreds of other scouts as groups of girls glided by with flags, including those of India, the United Kingdom, France, Pakistan, the United States and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Girl Scouts fascinated me the most as they appeared to have run to the fabric store and wrapped themselves in bolts of gray cloth from head to toe. Well, except their faces, thank goodness.

What does any of this have to do with these photographs here, apparently taken in the present time, at my present home, without anyone wearing a Girl Scout uniform? (Though that would be kind of cool.) Well, Thinking Day also involved food. And the other night, as Dulce (from Mexico), Ting-Ya (from Taiwan) and I (half from South Korea), cooked foods from our countries, I remembered Thinking Day. How lucky am I that more than 20 years later, I keep having interesting cross-cultural experiences with my friends?

Ting-Ya showed us the massive amounts of preparation that go into creating a Taiwanese dish. I showed them how to make kimbap. Pictured above is the very first one I’ve ever made without my Mom’s assistance. And Dulce made an American salad with ingredients all the colors of Mexico’s flag. Now I’m thinking of throwing a Thinking Day-type dinner party, where everyone brings a dish from a different country. Yum!

There she is: a purple-enthroned picture of the Virgin Mary, parading through the streets of Cusco. A Peruvian friend said these Virgin Mary processions take place all the time. Marissa said she sees parades almost every week. I imagine how much a parade a week would enliven my life and hope I wouldn’t take it for granted.

The Plaza de Armas in Cusco, Peru, attracts both tourists and birds to its colonial architecture, such as La Compañia de Jesus (Jesuit Church) and the fountain in the middle of the square. I love this picture because there’s so much going on: church spires glowing in the setting sun, bird flying, tourist in tough vest looking at the sites, fountain spouting water, person walking past the fountain… More to come!

When my mom and I visited Rome, I couldn’t wait to visit the Pantheon. You see, not only is the building 2,000 years old, it also has a hole in its dome. When it’s sunny, light streams through this oculus; when it rains, water falls through. I could see storm clouds building in the distance. Maybe, just maybe, I’d be lucky enough to see it rain in the Pantheon? My mom said she was ready to go. I stalled. “Oh, look at those pretty engravings over there! Aren’t these crosses over here shiny?” Yeah. What I really wanted was rain, rain, rain. And finally, it came. And it was magical. The rain fell in slow, sparkling sheets. Most everyone stopped what they were doing and stared up at the dome. Flashes popped and cameras clicked. A couple umbrellas snapped open. A red-and-white chain kept visitors out of the direct path of the rainfall but many people still got wet. Oooh. Ahhh.

While at the Pantheon we were also lucky enough to hear a choir performing inside. A Catholic church group from Manhattan, Kansas (my birth city!) were walking from famous public building to famous public building in Rome and singing their hearts out for free. So lovely.