Passport DC Open House by Raz

The embassies all over DC were always elusive to me. Most are beautiful, well-secured buildings. But what do they look like on the inside?

Well, I finally got my answer on Saturday when I checked out Passport DC Embassy Open House. It was a great event. It reminded me a bit of my trip to Epcot Center as a kid with the long lines and the global experience. My friends and I were there from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. We made it to nine embassies, four of which had set up booths at the Art Museum of the Americas. Thank goodness I wore sneakers because it was a lot of walking. There were shuttle buses, but we waited for maybe five minutes and ended up just walking.

It was really neat to see the inside of the embassies. Most were decorated in art and clothing to showcase the culture. Many also had movies playing which showed their country’s landscape and traditions. Some even had shows and exhibits. I caught karate and carving demonstrations at the KORUS House, Embassy of the Republic of Korea, a steel drum performance at the Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago and a dancer at the Embassy of Botswana. Most of the embassies also had snacks, depending on how you hit them. I tried something at the Korean embassy that looked like a white cheese puff, and turned out to be banana-flavored. I had a delicious flatbread pastry at the Guatemalan embassy as well. Most of the embassies let visitors wonder around one to two levels and check out different exhibits. Some herded the crowd through a specific route.

Next Saturday is the European Union Open House, which I plan to check out as well.

There were some good shots from the Flickr pool as well – check them out after the jump.

From Rukasu1

Indonesian Embassy

Uzbek Embassy Cloths

Trinidad and Tobago Embassy

From Nestum23

Venezuelan Embassy