Kitzka_MC: Around the World in Half Day: Embassy openhouses in washington DC.

My wife found about this weekend's embassy open house in Washington DC'. The embassies from around the world had their doors open to public, and in DC, they are all clustered together in a few neighborhood. This is got to be one of those "only in Washington DC" type thing. I mean, move over Epcot Center, this is a real deal, not the fake pavilion.We had to go.

Unfortunately, Saturday is one of my daughter's school day. (Yes, my daughter does go to school on Saturday. It is one of those international school deal.) I asked her if she wanted to go to the open house. She chose the school over it. So, we took her to school, went to DC, and went back to the school to pick her up. We didn't have much time, but for short while we went, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

The first stop was Saudi Arabia. Why Saudi? We wanted to go somewhere exotic, and a volunteer guide at Dupont Circle told us that Saudi was pretty good. I told my younger daughter we were going to the country of Aladdin and Jasmin. Come on, can you think of any other chance to visit the embassy of an Arabian Kingdom?

It's actually a pretty big building, and its all covered with marble and granite.

What struck me was their openness. They invited us right into the lobby, where good looking Arabic men and women were introducing their cultures to the visitors. We tried their Arabic coffee (interesting. it was brewed from green coffee bean with several spices) and dates, watched them dance, (kids were very cute.) learned a little bit about Mecca. You know, what's most intriguing were all those people in Arabian clothing. I did not take many picture of them though. I just felt bad taking picture of people for some reason. They were very exotic and very beautiful. My daughter got a henna art on her hand. It was so cool. That and green balloon made her happy. My wife said she truly felt a benefit of being in DC for the first time. We all had a good time. They even fed us lunch. Salad and Kapsa (a rice dish with chicken).

Next stop was Australia, somebody told us they had some animals there. There was a line to get into the embassy. People were giving out some food, "Try it. It's b**f sausage". "b**f?" it rhymed with "safe" I totally didn't understand what he was saying there. I mean, it could be anything at this point. I have no idea what Australians eat, and I know there were so many strange animals down under. It turned out they were just "beef" (one of their major export.) OMG, they actually talk like that. every person working for had that (of course) Australian accent. Something about it made me smile. I've only heard it on TV, they actually talk like that... Anyway, went through the security and there we were, greeted by a native Australian guy playing some music. He was amazing. Then, inside, they were quite interested in showing their economic interest and ties with US/rest of us up in northern hemisphere. I tried Australian wine for the first time (wine, cheese and sausage, they really thought about the event there.) As for animals, they had a several big lizards and a frog. No kangaroos but still interesting.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time to go into another embassies. It was time to pick up my older daughter. However, many embassies were having exhibitions outside, singing and dancing, just generally having a good time. Here are some of the photos.