Although Washington, DC is about an hour train ride away from Baltimore, I have only been a couple of times. When one of my friends in my American Sign Language (ASL) class, Danny, got tickets to an ASL open mic night, I knew I had to go!
The ASL event was at night, but we decided to go to DC early and spend the day there. Our first stop was the famed Signing Starbucks. Although I’ve been there once before, it’s such a cool environment that I’d go every day if I could. As soon as we walked in, it was like being transported to another world. The continuous hum of city traffic and people’s voices was transformed into a quiet calm that reminded me of being back home in Texas. I was nervous to order in ASL, but the woman working was super friendly and fingerspelled slowly for me so I could understand what she was saying. The Signing Starbucks is definitely a must for any DC trip.
After this, Danny wanted to show me one of his favorite restaurants in DC—Maketto. The food features a mixture of Cambodian and Taiwanese flavors, both of which I’d never had before. I was really excited to try stuff I can’t really get back in my part of Texas. We ordered an insane amount of food and everything was delicious. The relaxing environment was a nice break from all my busy classes, and the restaurant owner even greeted Danny by name. This was a super fun stop because I got to try new things!
Since we both had some assignments to get done, our next stop was visiting the Bloomberg Center, which is part of the Hopkins network and only a short walk away. It felt surreal walking by the Capitol because I’ve never seen it in person. The Bloomberg Center was so nice that it felt like something I’d have to pay to enter (but our J-cards get us in for free like any other campus building). It has amazing views of the Capitol, 1-stories, and even a piece of the Berlin Wall on display. The classrooms were super modern and had beautiful cityscape views. Every weekend, Danny goes there to study and, after seeing the building, I understood why. Everything was so fancy that it actually made me wanna get my work done instead of procrastinating.
After a few hours of studying, Danny wanted to show me one last restaurant he likes—Clyde’s. This one was just classic American food, but it was way more upscale than any place I usually go. Since we weren’t really hungry, we split one entree and a dessert that we let the waiter choose for us. I had the best meatloaf of my life. Our waiter was incredible too; he made sure our single entree was served on two plates for us. Between both stops, we took a lot of food home, but one of the best parts of eating out is having leftovers!
By now, we were running a little late to the ASL open mic night, so we quickly walked over. Although it hadn’t started when we got there, it was crowded, and tickets had completely sold out. We snagged two open seats in the back and signed with everyone around us. The event was for individuals of all levels of ASL, so in addition to deaf people, we met a lot of hearing people who were fluent in sign or still learning. There was an interpreter, which I found to be really helpful. We watched as songs were signed and poems were recited in ASL. We even got to see a visual vernacular (VV) story, which is a storytelling technique we learned about in class that mixes body language, facial expressions, and miming. These ones are especially fun to watch because they’re so theatrical. Before we left to catch our train back to Baltimore, we watched a group play a signing version of the game “Telephone,” which was a hilarious way to end our night.
Our trip to DC was super exciting. I got to try a bunch of new foods and become immersed in the deaf community. Everyone was patient and welcoming to us. I got to see firsthand just how tight-knit this community is and understand why language teachers always say immersion is the best way to learn.
