With a wiggle and a shimmy, and a twirl twirl twirl, the tension that I had been feeling all day…read morewas starting to drain away. I had been planning my husband's surprise 40th birthday party for nearly 2 years. And in the last 6 months, random sticks would poke into the spokes of my plans, causing me to have heart attacks several times. I was already upset and uptight over the situation with the party venue (http://www.yelp.com/biz/karma-gaithersburg), and I wasn't sure if I could take another thing going wrong. Before I knew it, it was nearly 7, when I booked Shadiyah to perform for our guests. I was just about to panic (yes, it was only 6:55, but you really don't know about me and my "Cruise Director Julie Clipboard"), when Shadiyah arrived. Not only did she arrive on time, but she was careful to "hide out" in the service area so the guests wouldn't see her until I was ready for her. Very nice touch! Her performance was awesome! Although I know absolutely nothing about bellydancing, she was energetic, graceful, and fun! Although my guests were (mostly) too shy to join her on the dance floor, she made an effort to bring people out of their shells and was really amazing! When I originally called her up to book her for my event, she was great at describing the various types of dances, and what she thought would be appropriate for my party. In addition, she was fantastic about follow up. She would call and send emails every step of the way. I think I booked her for 10 minutes, but she ended up performing more like 20. I knew that she had another event to go to after mine, but she never seemed rushed, in fact, after her performance, she stayed around for a few minutes for pictures. All in all, a great performance and equally importantly, a thorough professional. It was a pleasure working with her and I'm so glad that I booked her for my event (even if I didn't get the FTR for it...haha!)!

I like belly dancing I really like belly dancing for all the reasons that you know beautiful woman…read morebeautiful form beautiful everything. For entertainment purposes it serves all men, women everybody. It has a history that goes back way back thousands of years ago beautiful sexy women have been showing their style and grace with this wonderful art form. Today this art form still is carried on by practitioners of the dance. Shadiyah is one of those wonderful art forms. She's got style, she's got grace she can balance a tray full of lite candles on her head and roll all around the floor and not burn herself. Put a scimitar (middle eastern sword) on her head blade up and she will shimmy all around the room with it never falling off. She can roll a gold coin on her stomach and give you change or flip it heads or tails you call it. She has a cane that she will grab you out of your seat and make you dance to the hypnotically pulsing rhythms of the middle eastern music. Veils unlimited: she can twirl them whirl them spin them and dress them up and never miss a step. Shadiyah has a very engaging and elegant glowing personality and she is willing to talk about the art of the dance after her performance to inquiring minds. I had the joy to experience her performance at a friends birthday party a couple of years ago and look forward to seeing her perform at one of the many restaurants around the area that she dances at. I certainly recommend her if you need family friendly entertainment for birthday parties, corporate functions, wedding parties, anniversary parties, etc. Only thing she does not do is bachelor parties for obvious reasons, no need to ask for drunken trouble. Seek her out and maybe you can learn her dance from the workshops and dance classes that she teaches when not performing every week somewhere all over the WMV and around the country.

Got two tickets for District Oktoberfest and had a great time. It was my first time going, so I had…read moreno clue what to expect. It's essentially like a pub crawl on your own pace. You definitely want to go with a great wingman. We met some interesting people along the way asking us why we had a lanyard with a big punch card attached to it. So we explained we get to go to each one of the bars listed and get a 12oz beer. We went on a Sunday (instead of Saturday) which only included 7 bars instead of 8. I think the tickets started at $45, but many other people we spoke to had gotten them at a discount though other businesses. We started off by checking in at RFD. We showed ID and picked up our pass. Though the event lasted from 12-8pm, the registration was only open from 12-3pm. We arrived shortly after and luckily the guy was still there. We made our way down the street to the next bar. All of them were on the same street except for Capitol City Brewery which required a little more of a walk. We figured we'd be too tipsy to "crawl" all the way there last so we tackled that early. By the fifth beer I was at my comfortable limit so I didn't push it. If you pay full price for the tickets, then you end up saving a little bit of money than if you had gone to each bar individually. If you get the tickets at a discount then I'd say it's worth it, if you really like to drink. All in all, we had a great time and would love to do this again.

This was an awesome experience!…read more We got our tickets through a Groupon special. We checked in and got our Oktoberfest badges and festival information. We loved the flexibility of this event! We had an Oktoberfest beer at 8 locations in the Chinatown area. We could visit each location in any order we wanted, and had 9 hours to do so. We checked in promptly at noon and had until 9 p.m. to visit each spot. There wasn't a designated area for Oktoberfest participants, so we had the flexibility of sitting where ever we wanted, and order food/more drinks as well. All we needed to do was present our badge and we got our beer! Each location marked our badge to indicate we had been there. The badges also made it easy to find other festival goers at each establishment. This was a fun way to try out a lot of new beers and watch some football! Yay for Fall!!

In Downtown Silver Spring, the Cultural Arts Center is part of a Montgomery College satellite…read morecampus. It is modern, clean, wheelchair and easy to access, with ample parking - including open lots and a garage, and numerous handicapped spots. The facility has gender specific rest rooms and also a gender neutral family rest room. Before the event that we came for, the snack bar was open - with surprisingly well-priced sodas, beer and wine, and snack items. We came for the David Russell classical guitar concert - part of the John E. Marlow Guitar Series - on a Saturday evening. Wow! He is absolutely amazing - and offered a flawless and entertaining and mesmerizing and calming 2+ hours of music! Before the concert, we were treated to a discussion about the music in a one of the many rooms available for lectures and gatherings. We also were treated to bonus content during the concert - including a performance by the youth winner of a classical guitar concert and a proclamation presentation from the Montgomery County Council - recognizing 25 years of this type of programming initiated by and in honor of the Marlow family. The auditorium space was large and comfortable, with no poor seating anywhere - including the wheelchair section (great view, about a third of the way back in the theatre style seating). What a great space and place for appreciating and learning and celebrating culture and art - and life.

Went here to go see Bhi Bhiman. This is my first at the venue and will not be my last. The staging…read morefor the show was pretty cool as well as we were on the stage. It is also close to Cristfields so it's a win-win.

Snally seems to have come a long way. I believe 13 years strong now! It sounds like post-pandemic…read morethey had some struggles returning to form, but I can affirm that the 2025 event was top notch and well attended by visitors and brewers. There were over 450 beers to choose from, with breweries from all over the world participating, and options came in every possible variety. I tried some new ones I have never heard of, from breweries I have never seen offered, and that is what a beer fest is all about. Despite tons of people and tons of offerings, there was plenty of space, a good amount of porta-potties, good food choices (my fave was Soko and their terrific double smash burger), easily accessible giant water jugs, and areas to sit or stand. Three stages, too with live music, DJs, and live podcast tapings throughout the day. Your ticket got you a complimentary tasting glass and as many free 4 oz pours you could handle. Food was extra but prices were reasonable. Regular tickets, which they call Kraken passes, were $85 this year (including fees and taxes), while VIP passes were double. Quite pricey for what you get, but for a once a year opportunity to explore some new beers with the Capitol Dome as a backdrop? I can dig it. For those curious, VIP gets you early entry, a dedicated tent/seating space, and your own porta-potties. I don't think that justifies the added price - I think they should lower the price slightly and offer some free merch, but many beers did run out before the end of the day, so if are a true beer fanatic, it's worth looking into. My favorite new discovery was Forager Brewing's imperial porter, the pudding goggles. Fun to say and even more fun to drink.

Came here with friends. Tickets were around $70 a piece. The line to get in was incredibly long,…read morebut went quickly. The lines inside the beer festival however did not go quickly. Crowds were massive so it was difficult getting to try different beers. They did hand out a few full sized at the beginning. A few beers were sold out by the time I got in for regular admission but the price for early entry didn't seem worth it to me. Overall, I would consider coming again but it isn't my favorite beer festival I've been to, it fell a bit short.

Nowadays, walking the corridors of any mall can be a rather mindless act with Sears, JC Penney,…read moreFoot Locker, Victoria's Secret (and their clones) offering the same innocuous litany of storefronts. However, when I walked through Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg this week and saw a storefront sign that read "Splendid Chinese Ethnic Groups," I admittedly did a double take. Those four words were as incongruous a name as I had ever seen on any storefront anywhere. So, naturally, I stepped inside to investigate. That's when I quickly found out that, in fact, "Splendid Chinese Ethnic Groups" isn't a store at all but, rather, an exhibition space. Stupid me. I should have known better. The mall, as I knew from the moment I walked in, is currently all decked out to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year. That's because, for years now, Lakeforest Mall has assumed a pretty prominent role in celebrating the Chinese New Year locally. In tandem with the Chinese Culture and Community Service Center, which is based in Gaithersburg, it has celebrated the Lunar New Year with an assortment of performances, exhibitions, and cultural demonstrations throughout its corridors (using its long walkways and, yes, vacant spaces as the local Chinese community might have once utilized the streets in and around Chinatown before shifting demographics moved the epicenter of the Chinese community to Montgomery County). The theme for this year's celebration, as I learned, happens to be "The 56 Ethnic Groups" of China. So, what I stumbled upon as I happened to walk the mall with a friend as I did was, in fact, this year's "special exhibition." And, it's an interesting one at that (considering the exhibition's small size and rather meager appearance). Along each of its walls, placards and photographs, filled with historical information and factoids, highlight the various Chinese ethnic groups (many of whom are seemingly obscure minorities) and give them a bit of much deserved attention and public spotlight. As I tended to the left and right walls, I read about the Derung, Oroqen, Tu, Lahu, Hui, and Han ethnic groups (among many others). Despite being Chinese myself, it was an education to say the least. I know very little about Chinese ethnic groups...well, except for the Han (the largest ethnic group, the one that most everyone thinks of when they think of Chinese people, and the one that I happen to belong to myself). Referring to the placard on the wall and to what I could recall, I told my friend who was with me, "Yes, that's the ethnic group that I belong to. It's actually the largest ethnic group in the world. Han Chinese comprise about 92% of China's population. In total, that's 1.3 billion people and roughly 20% of the global population." My friend who is from the ultra-tiny country of Luxembourg was utterly flabbergasted by these numbers. Seizing the moment, I continued, "Yeah, we love to have sex all the time. That's why the population is so huge." My friend soaked it all in. "In fact," I went on, "Thousands of years ago in ancient China, we invented sexual intercourse." My friend just shook his head in awe; and, I think for about three brief, spellbinding minutes, he actually believed me.

I felt like I am going to a meeting of some secret society when I went to Latvian Christmas Bazaar…read morebecause it was not advertised except on the Latvian Lutheran church web site. That feeling grew stronger when I saw that there is no visible sign outside of the building about the bazaar inside the building. I saw all the people using one particular not-specially marked door so I followed the suit. All that changed when I entered the building seeing the children begging the parents to buy them Latvian chocolates and elderly people moving without any hesitation, exactly knowing where they are going. That was confirmed when one couple told me that this bazaar is their 47th Latvian bazaar in the row. I understand that sentiment of no advertising, the banquet hall is just a perfect size for the local Latvian community and more people could mean longer lines and less comfort. The market was very nice - cool shirts and stuff by ethnografix; traditional clothing, jewelry and Christmas decorations and lot of food to buy and take home. The kitchen and 6 Latvian ladies in it seemed very well organized. People nicely stood in the line and moved quickly to get Latvian winter food. I was reminded that the ethnic festivals offers only what was available at that time in the country of origins (no strawberries in Fall). They also have plenty of available free juice and water and the utensils were made of metal (it is almost always convenient plastic). The sausages were tasty and offer variation in taste; sauerkraut was almost sweet and I loved it; potato salad was made with eggs. The cakes were even better - both, cranberry and mocha cakes were great choices and any restaurant would be a proud proprietor to have them. There were moist and sweet but not too sweet - perfect. Latvian Christmas Bazaar was successful venture, enhancing my desire to visit Latvia one day and experience Latvian rich culture even more.

A festive bar crawl that starts at daytime noon on a Saturday for $40 for 8 margarita drinks at 8…read moredifferent venues (all in close walking proximity) along Dupont Circle with no entrance fee and happy hour deals on food isn't so bad when you're with good company, styling in mini sombrero hats.. why wouldn't you want to join in on the fun?! The schedule is completely spaced out so you can catch your breath from each drink as opposed to cramming social time, drinking, and dance floor into a few hours on a typical weekend night at the club, usually leaving you broke for the 1 or 2 shots of patron (even though you chugged it for the pre-game, duh) and ultimately spot on shwasted. Smelly clothes, bad stories, regrets.. it's just a mess, maybe unclassy, sometimes trashy. Maybe I'm just getting old so I enjoyed this kind of event better than those kinds of nights. But seriously.. this entire play plan is genius.. I wish I could've stayed throughout the whole day and thoroughly enjoy myself with everyone else, but our day got cut short with other upcomings so we didn't even get to finish our 8 drinks. I'm more a "bar" type of person, so casual to semi-formal dress up was also perfect for me. My only problem was the date.. c'mon DC push it to a warmer Saturday please and mix it up more with the venues! I bet a lot more people would look forward to it. I feel like this gig has potential to do so much better, don't let it get wasted!!

I do have to say my friends and I had a blast. We wore cute hats and we roamed the city while…read morechatting. We were definitely having fun while in cinco de mayo style. However, I was a little thrown off by the checkin process. It was so disorganized and chaotic. On top of the check in madness, the workers who were checking us in did not ask to see our tickets nor did they ask for an id. On top of that they did not even ask for our full names. They asked only asked for our first names.... News flash... I'm sure there are many many many Anns on that list...

In this age of the technology, it is cool to be nerd and sciency. Bill Gates certainly helped out…read more 53rd Annual Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show, March 18-19, 2017, is a place where you can see a lot of strange people like me, who are curious and amazed about the smallest things. It is the best minerals show within the driving distance from DMV. Not only that you can see amazing colors and forms but you can touch and smell (If you smell Sulphur for example). Cheap and unique necklaces were going like the hotcakes. You can pan for gold, or model/polish rocks, learn a lot and be amazed. You can haggle/negotiate the cost (sometimes) or you can just window shop for inexpensive or expensive minerals, gems or rocks. As with any hobby, people are very passionate and friendly about it and there was a lot for the kids to do.