The St. Louis Chronicles - Day 5
I didn't have any sessions Thursday morning and had left time to catch up on e-mails. I went to a session in the afternoon about liberal arts colleges and why they are important for international students. Basically just some marketing points that would be good for representatives to highlight on their recruitment trips. I had some time to kill before an alumni reception downtown after my session so I walked to go get Cardinals tickets for the evening, then walked back downtown and still had a bit of time so I stopped to get some frozen yogurt.
I will note here that I will stop any time, anywhere to get frozen yogurt. It is the perfect snack. I have tried over 11 different places in the DC metro area alone. This frozen yogurt, at Bella's on Washington Ave was the best frozen yogurt I have ever had. My strategy for the self-serve yogurt shop: no toppings, just straight yogurt, small dollops of as many flavors that interest me or as will fit in my cup, no flavor swirls. I'm a purist. At Bella's I had sea salt caramel pretzel and honey vanilla and it was delicious. I chatted with the owner for a while, so as to arrive fashionably late to the reception, and I learned some interesting tidbits. She is from Michigan and was corporate for a long time, then she started this small business after getting burnt out on it. She sources her yogurt from some place in Arkansas which doesn't build all its flavors from one base like most places do, but builds each one from a separate base and my goodness could you tell the difference. Have I been ruined to Fro-zen-yo and Sweet Frog forever? ... Let's be real, probably not.
The GW alumni event was good for touching base with old friends and mentors. Then I moved on to the Cardinals game! I had been running in and out of the rain all day but even though it has rained all week I have never needed the umbrella. I have gotten a little wet but it always felt like a nice break from the canned air of the convention center. Busch Field is beautiful, much like Nats stadium. Though Nationals stadium has maybe the best concessions offerings ever. There was a downpour right around 6:30 that delayed the game until 8pm. I went with my friend down to Flying Saucer again and had a beer and got chatted up by two older St. Louis natives before the game. After leaving the bar, I asked my friend what she thought our chances were with those guys and she replied "roughly 100%". Nice.
The game was great. There is nothing like baseball on a summer evening. The Cards were playing the Kansas City Royals and they seemed to have the game in hand. Their new young pitcher, Wacha, made his debut that night. A 21 year old fresh from the minors, it was kinda fun seeing his stats come up on the jumbo tron with all zeros, and batting 1.000.
We left the game after the 7th inning stretch which turned out to be a great decision. It started to rain more steadily and heavily on our walk over to the Turkey party. They ended up delaying the rest of the game. Not a party where we eat turkeys mind you, but a party thrown by the country of Turkey, in celebration of student mobility in Turkey and furthering exchanges.
The Brazil party was something, but the Turkey party was ridiculous. They rented out an entire bar, and had free drinks for 2 hours. They provided food, and a huge dance floor. The DJ was cranking out 90s hip hop, top 40 standards, rap - it was amazing. He played Shoop and now my whole office knows that I can lip synch the entire song like a boss. Once again the music was enough for me to forget how much my feet hurt already and how awesome it felt to dance and see all these international educators go bananas on the dance floor. We had an absolutely amazing night, despite the pouring rain. When we finally left around 1:30am it was still raining heavily but we grabbed a cab and trekked back across town to collapse. Turkey party was definitely the highlight of the extra-curricular conference activities.
I will note here that I will stop any time, anywhere to get frozen yogurt. It is the perfect snack. I have tried over 11 different places in the DC metro area alone. This frozen yogurt, at Bella's on Washington Ave was the best frozen yogurt I have ever had. My strategy for the self-serve yogurt shop: no toppings, just straight yogurt, small dollops of as many flavors that interest me or as will fit in my cup, no flavor swirls. I'm a purist. At Bella's I had sea salt caramel pretzel and honey vanilla and it was delicious. I chatted with the owner for a while, so as to arrive fashionably late to the reception, and I learned some interesting tidbits. She is from Michigan and was corporate for a long time, then she started this small business after getting burnt out on it. She sources her yogurt from some place in Arkansas which doesn't build all its flavors from one base like most places do, but builds each one from a separate base and my goodness could you tell the difference. Have I been ruined to Fro-zen-yo and Sweet Frog forever? ... Let's be real, probably not.
The GW alumni event was good for touching base with old friends and mentors. Then I moved on to the Cardinals game! I had been running in and out of the rain all day but even though it has rained all week I have never needed the umbrella. I have gotten a little wet but it always felt like a nice break from the canned air of the convention center. Busch Field is beautiful, much like Nats stadium. Though Nationals stadium has maybe the best concessions offerings ever. There was a downpour right around 6:30 that delayed the game until 8pm. I went with my friend down to Flying Saucer again and had a beer and got chatted up by two older St. Louis natives before the game. After leaving the bar, I asked my friend what she thought our chances were with those guys and she replied "roughly 100%". Nice.
We left the game after the 7th inning stretch which turned out to be a great decision. It started to rain more steadily and heavily on our walk over to the Turkey party. They ended up delaying the rest of the game. Not a party where we eat turkeys mind you, but a party thrown by the country of Turkey, in celebration of student mobility in Turkey and furthering exchanges.
The Brazil party was something, but the Turkey party was ridiculous. They rented out an entire bar, and had free drinks for 2 hours. They provided food, and a huge dance floor. The DJ was cranking out 90s hip hop, top 40 standards, rap - it was amazing. He played Shoop and now my whole office knows that I can lip synch the entire song like a boss. Once again the music was enough for me to forget how much my feet hurt already and how awesome it felt to dance and see all these international educators go bananas on the dance floor. We had an absolutely amazing night, despite the pouring rain. When we finally left around 1:30am it was still raining heavily but we grabbed a cab and trekked back across town to collapse. Turkey party was definitely the highlight of the extra-curricular conference activities.
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