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Published: January 5th 2011
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Thanks to 2 connecting flights to catch- one in Knoxville where there was icy rain, and one in Chicago; and our plane from Austin being delayed by almost an hour, its a miracle that we got to Washington at all. Luckily the flight from Chicago was delayed, so we were able to connect. On the flight over there were 2 amazing moments- one was the sunset- the most brilliant shade of orange you could imagine filling half the sky. The second were the lights of the city as we flew into Chicago. I swear that city is more spectacular to fly into at night than New York!
We fit a lot into the two days we had there. On the first day it started snowing the minute we left the hostel. It was freezing and I was totally under-packed. All I had was a summer scarf I bought in texas, a beanie, no gloves. Also, trudging through the snow all day my shoes and socks got wet. It wasn't the greatest of combinations. Anyway, on the first day we went around the White House (once when it was snowing rather heavily, and once again later so we could actually see
Whitehouse
Notice the sniper on the roof? it properly). One thing I'll say is that the White House is smaller than I thought it would be. That's not a bad thing, I just find it noteworthy as an example of a rare American choice of class over size (or maybe thats a bias from staying in Texas so long).
We went to see the national christmas tree, which was an absolute disappointment. We spent the whole rest of the day remarking on every christmas tree we saw that was better looking than the national christmas tree (which happened to be any christmas tree you could imagine). Seriously the thing looked like someone had thrown a net over it to haul it in for lunch. I suspect it was a lazyman's way of putting the christmas lights on the giant thing. I'm sure the tree looked better at night.
Back to the point: we also went to the top of the Washington monument. They have pictures there that show what the view usually is, which was quite funny to compare with the white snowy blur we were seeing that day. Then we walked past the reflecting pool up to Lincoln memorial which was pretty impressive. From
All Rugged Up
And still freezing there we went to the Vietnam Veterans Monument, which is pretty cool seeing as we'd spent a class on it in my Asian American studies class (there was a lot of controversy around it when it was first built). We finished off the day at the Museum of American History (which is one of the Smithsonian museums). I saw the first ever American flag. But probably my favourite thing was the portrait from the Colbert Report that not only did Stephen Colbert choose to donate to the museum, but that they chose to hang in quite a prominent spot. Very impressive.
That night we signed up for a free tour of Georgetown courtesy of the hostel we were staying at. While it was rather cold, it was nice to see Georgetown university (including walking around and in some of the buildings) and some of the houses of Georgetown, including where JFK used to live before his presidency.
The next day we went to Arlington National Cemetery a few train stops but a whole other state away (in Virginia). Its where John F. and Bobby Kennedy are buried, as well as people like William Taft. It was also really
Snowy
Walking to Lincoln Memorial interesting going to Robert E. Lee's house (which sits on a hill at the top of the cemetery- the North decided to start burying their dead specifically as a way of making his ouse unlivable). I didn't know that Robert E Lee was not-so-distantly related to George Washington. Also learning more about American history, which I in general know little about. Arlington is the official military burial ground and all veterans have a right to be buried there. While there are about 8-16 burials there a day I still felt privileged that we got to see a military funeral procession go past while we were there. After that we went to Capital Hill and got a tour of Congress which was pretty good.
We spent that night looking for a cheap bar around the hostel to no avail. But at least i got a proper scarf, hat and gloves from H&M. The next day we caught a megabus (cheapest way to get around the East Coast) to New York City....
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