Jill Biden waved at me by Aiden H. '28

This IAP⁠01 Independent Activities Period, aka the month of January where students can take a long winter break, take unique, accelerated classes, just do research, or participate in a MISTI program, among other things. I only took one class and it already finished, so I decided with the extra time that I would go visit my girlfriend in Washington D.C. It wasn’t until a couple days before leaving that I noticed that I would be in town for the second most important event⁠02 because apparently y'all care about TikTok THAT much of the weekend: inauguration. Here’s a cluster of weird and very surreal moments that have happened while I’ve been here.

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Cut to the greatest dining experience of my life. We were walking around Georgetown shops and randomly decided to eat at a fancy restaurant (Brasserie Liberte, if you’re curious) because it sounded good despite our notable lack of fancy clothing and vibe. As soon as we walk into the entrance, two ominously tall workers in suits charged at us, holding us by the door and asking if they can search us. Confused, I said yes as one of the workers took my Barnes and Noble bag and searched through, asking, disappointedly, “Just books?” As much as I wanted to impulsively blurt something sarcastic like “Sorry I left the bombs at home :(“, I was too intimidated by the almost-definite weapons they had on them. I initially assumed this was all heightened security due to the election, but when shown to our table I noticed a line of security blocking off the backroom, and we officially decided someone important was in the restaurant. We did eat at a relatively weird time, but the restaurant was still very scarce, with us being one of four tables in the entire place, including the mystery guest. Considering it is D.C. and inauguration season, we weren’t entirely shocked that someone could be in the restaurant, but we couldn’t figure out who it could be. I threw out names of senators and political figures as I kept peeking my head back to see who it was. At one point I thought it was Liz Cheney because I saw a bright pink suit.

my side eye trying to see who was sitting at the table

the side of the restaurant (I was too afraid to try and sneak a photo of the security)

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Besides everything crazy that was happening throughout this experience, this food was genuinely crazy and totally worth it despite the minor manhandling at the door. They even gave us free French fries to apologize for “poor service”, which I think they did because all the workers were obviously on edge and constantly trying to act cool while sneaking glances towards the back of the restaurant.

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When our salad was brought out, a line of security started walking past us. An older lady at the table next to us stood up and started aggressively clapping, repeating the words “Thank You”. All of the other people in the restaurant looked up and noticed that it was not some congressperson, but quite literally the First Lady just casually walking right beside my table? As in less than a foot from me? She waved and smiled at everyone on the way out, and naturally it has been the only thing we’ve been talking about for days.

So I guess this is your sign to go to fancy restaurants for fun with friends, and maybe something cool will happen?

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The next day I visited Old Town Alexandria, which is slightly Boston-core in the way that it is all very brick and has a lot of historical features, albeit these were more educational as they were focused on Virginia’s role in the slave trade and not the superfluous patriotism of dumping tea in water, but I guess I digress. Old Town was a lot busier than normal because of the inauguration tourism, which I completely forgot about until I saw this:

Personally? A little deflating. In general? The funniest thing I’ve ever stumbled upon. Looks like Jill was waving goodbye in more ways than one.

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Cut to a very different dining experience. Tonight we went to a Lebanese restaurant in downtown/Penn Court. We took the metro from GW to Metro Center and were immediately reminded that tonight was the night before inauguration. In the three block walk to the restaurant, we had to walk through barricades in streets, have police officers usher us across sidewalks and around rallies, and turn down stands selling Trump merchandise.

The meal was perfect because the restaurant was peak ambiance and Lebanese/Mediterranean food is my favorite, but the entire experience felt like an event in and of itself, when we were just trying to eat? The police cars barricading off streets had their lights on, with every window becoming emblazed. with red and blue. Out of the window by our table I could see both pro and anti-Trump protestors surrounded by barricades and security, covered in light. This was all outside of the MLK Memorial Library with a man on a Jumbotron-esque screen asking if I had spread the word of Jesus recently. Everyone around us at the restaurant was discussing their plans now that the inauguration had been moved inside, and it took me a noticeable and important effort to check myself in public, to recognize that the color of a sweatshirt should not cause me to hate people sitting next other than me in a random restaurant. Something I hate in democracy is when one side loses, they suddenly don’t support democracy? This, as we probably all know, has happened on a large scale in recent years, but I think everyone is guilty of this and it peeves me to no end. Why was I allowing myself to get upset that people were exercising democracy by celebrating an open election? Shouldn’t I be glad that thousands of people want to partake in the free process of swearing in our next democratic leader? Am I nothing more than a hypocrite who would be in the masses I was watching with disgust from the restaurant? This is a common thought process I like to walk myself through, but in light of the most recent election not matching my personal political views, it has become something I find important, especially when I was surrounded by the very thick of it during my time here in D.C.

In the visual onslaught of Trump paraphernalia I was exposed to, I decided to test my own limits on the way back with some photos of my own. Despite the photos and the shirt being (hopefully) obviously ironic and satirical, even if a little true, I was still heckled and yelled by visiting tourists for wearing a shirt they disagree with even though I very much did not yell at theirs. It doesn’t matter though, because I find these very rodent-core photos of me not trying to freeze a hilarious way to enter the events of tomorrow.

do it for the vine or whatever

"do a silly one"

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