Surviving Hurricane Irene: Booze and Rock Band

During my 6 week trip home, I visited many cities. At the end of August, my friend Rachel and I drove to Columbia, Maryland, which is just outside of Washington, DC to see our college friends Ellen and Ben. We arrived just in time for Hurricane Irene.

Get the supplies!

We were not right on the water, but the tropical storm was still headed our way. The threat of power loss and mass panic was very real. As a girl from the Midwest, where only lame tornadoes ever occur, I was quite psyched about this. Ellen, on the other hand,  is from Buffalo, NY and has never been one to take any natural disaster lightly. By the time we arrived, Ellen and Ben had stocked the fridge with what we thought would last for days. After inspecting the pull, we realized we totally sucked at stocking up on supplies.

Our Hurricane Survival Kit.

We basically had no real meals, just lots of cheese and unhealthy foods that involved cheese. We didn’t even calculate the booze correctly. The next day, before the storm got really serious, Rachel and Ben had to make a beer run. We once again failed at buying real food. We basically lived off cheese, crackers, bagel bites, buffalo chicken dip and s’mores. Oh and obsurd amounts of Jack Daniels Honey Whiskey and beer.  No complaints from me!

American Culture in the eye of the storm

As we awaited the storm, we made Hurricane drinks and started to take drinks anytime someone on the news said things like “hunker down” and “stay safe.” We played Rock Band, watched horrible movies, and played drinking games all while eating food that is absolutely terrible for us. It felt so good to be American. I realize I just painted Americans in a terrible light, but it felt very comforting. In Argentina, people are all about going out, spending money and being fancy. It was so nice to just hang out with my friends and drink on the couch.

Rockband during a Hurricane. What would you do?!

Cabin fever

The original plan for Sunday was to head into DC and maybe even Baltimore to see the sights. The problem was, one of the main sights is the water. DC was a mess, so we ruled that out right away. We looked into parks in all the surrounding cities, but all parks were closed due to the storm. We sat inside, drinking wine at 3pm and snacking on the leftover buffalo chicken dip. We kept discussing the idea of leaving the house, but we simply couldn’t think of anywhere to go. In the end we killed 2 bottles of wine and took a walk around the block. Oh to live a simple life like that with my friends every day!

Oh yeah, the White House and stuff

The next day we were actually able to make it into DC. We walked along all the usual sights, stopped in the Smithsonian and even saw some

Hey look, it’s the capital!

sort of weird protest/praise thing going on outside the White House. It was really hard to tell what was going on. Some people were holding signs that just praised Obama. They didn’t seem to be preaching to any specific audience or even really know why they were there. Others were standing and sitting in front of the White House gates looking as if they were posing for a class picture. A few others had the usual protest signs. The city was actually really fun and interesting, even for someone like me who isn’t fascinated by history or politics. I would love to go again and spend more time in the city, but let’s be honest, the best part about this trip was surviving a hurricane with some of my best friends.