Trip out to Rockville

Since I am earning a salary here in the US, I was required to get a social security card. I found that the office that is nearest a metro is in Rockville, so I found an excuse to get on the metro and have some fun exploring the area! Rockville seems like a really nice place. In fact, it felt like it was catered for Asians. There was a Chinese supermarket place right opposite the social security administration building, and a number of restaurants selling Asian food, like Chinese, Thai and Japanese.

My most exciting part of the trip involved me going to a Japanese restaurant! My experiences in the past have informed me that any place with a Zagat sign can’t be too bad, so I simply had to get int this Japanese place called Sushi Damo in Rockville and have my lunch there! I also felt I owed myself a nice meal after working so hard on my brithday.

And the food was amazing. I didn’t have my camera with me (although I really should have. The city centre was really nice!), but i did have my iPhone! Here’s what I ate:

Both the soft shell crab and the sashimi were awesome. Especially the salmon one, although its generally seen as lower grade. In any case, I realized two things while I was having my meal.

First, it felt great that I was spending my own money! I didn’t have to consider whether I was wasting someone else’s money, and I also knew that I did have the money to spend on myself if I wanted to. I guess I understand a little more about why people like to go out shopping and stuff. There seems to be some sort of satisfaction with the actual spending of the money itself, not just satisfaction with what you bought. Man that’s starting to sound academic. Shoo!

The second thing, is that there were a couple of Caucasians looking at what I was eating and how I was using the chopsticks (the noobs asked for spoons and forks), and I suddenly felt more aware of being a foreigner. It felt weird and exciting at the same time. i really should have more of these excursions. I’m thinking I’ll bring my readings out and go find a Starbucks somewhere in DC to read instead of cooping myself in my room like I usually do. That’ll probably be fun!