Blogs from District of Columbia, United States, North America - page 8

Geo: 38.8921, -77.0241Editor's NOTE: Normally Glenn proof-read's my blog and does some major editing, however I am not asking him to do this for me, since he needs a break. So bear with me if there are misspelled words and the grammar is incorrect. Thanks for reading. This morning we got up to have breakfast with Gene and Cheryl Martin along with our hostess, Verna Martin. We ate at Country Squire or otherwise known as SquireSide Cafe I needed some more sugar, (right!), so I ordered Sticky Buns French Toast. Delicious. We enjoyed lots of laughs as we shared parts of our lives. Gene Martin has been down to Guatemala for the Intermissions Conference for a good part of the past 10 years. Glenn has gotten to know him as he is a foot reflexology guy. ... read more

Georgia to Washington Georgia on my mind.......and Jane and Joe our two friends from Athens, Georgia. Who we met in a Pub in Belfast Northern Ireland. As we head from Nashville and travel through Chattanooga, Georgia. Feeling very excited about meeting our friends again, however staying in people's homes we feel a little rude , though we love people to visit us, we're just not used to the opposite. Stressing for no reason we arrived at there beautiful home, and were greeted with so much warmth, we instantly felt very comfortable. Joe and Jane had been excited too, it's amazing how you meet people and you are instantly drawn to them. We enjoyed being in their home so much, and feeling part of their family. Alice the family dog even made us feel welcome, she took ... read more

How many Americans does it take to change a lightbulb?. 2. One to change the lightbulb, one to wave the flag. Seriously, the relationship with the flag is overpowering. You buy a toothbrush (made with imported materials) and it has the flag on it. A homeless person sleeping under a tarpaulin has a flag on their belongings. The Washington monument is surrounded by flags which he would never have seen (50 stars not 13). About 1 in 10 are wearing some item of Stars and Stripes clothing. Television ads are 50% medical products, 30% dog products(including dog medical) and the rest about credit services. Inbetween are old movies and bad reality tV. The collections in the national gallery are almost obscene in their opulence. A room of el Greco, a room of Raphael, 2 rooms of ... read more

four days and three nights in a moving cupboard on a train. Rumour has it that the chairs fold into a bed. This worked for us but I donT know how most of the locals even fitted through the doorway let alone the seats. We were supposed to have internet on the train but this didn't happen ergo no posts until now. the scenery for the first few days was wonderful and due to the practice of seating people at meals with other random travellers we did meet quite a few different people. We even found some people that actually followed our unique form of English. The trains obviously do not run according to schedule and we barely made our connection in Chicago and then we arrived late into DC as well. I doubt that any ... read more

Ah my dear friends and family: You know what they say about all of the best laid plans... In my last post, I detailed the plans and path surrounding my Master's International candidacy and upcoming Peace Corps service. That post marked my original departure date as July 22, but - as many of you have been aware - that date was later moved to, well, Thursday, July 14. That being the case, I think all of us expected this post to look a little different than it's about to. This platform seemed the most appropriate to make my final, firm announcement that those plans - yet again - have changed. On June 30, I received a phone call from Peace Corps explaining to me that my legal clearance had not been processed due to an administrative ... read more