Day 34: Washington DC

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This morning we had to get up early to make it to Williamsburgh station to catch simultaneously the slowest, but most expensive, train service on Earth: Amtrak. All very nice and shiny, but not even any wifi (they gave me a look like I was an idiot when I asked). I was met at the other end in Union Station, Washington, by my next host Tom Field (after some confusion, since he told me to look out for a bald man and he was wearing a hat). Tom and his wife Marcia live in Arlington, a suburb of DC which is actually over the river in Virginia. Tom is now 80 and has had a pretty high-flying career as a lawyer. He did undergard over here, PPE at Oxford in 1956 (he remembered fuel rationing due to the Suez Crisis) and then went to Harvard Law School. He has since worked in the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, set up a not-for-profit organisation to do with tax law and now lectures at Georgetown. More excitingly still, he was actually present on the Mall when MLK Jr made his 'I have a dream' speech. Due to their location they frequently have Pathfinders to stay (this year they're having 5 out of the 8 of us) and Tom reckoned he'd had over 100 to stay in total - impressive!

After dumping my bags in his car he showed me around Georgetown Law School which is just off the Mall, a big strip of grass through the middle of the city which has all sorts of monuments and museums along it and Capitol Hill at the far end. The law school was ridiculously big and shiny, since it seemed every alumnus who had made a bit of money wanted to leave his name on a plaque there. It even had it's own gym and swimming pool, which were far nicer than the ones which serve the whole of Oxford University.

We then went on a tour of the main political-type sights: the Supreme Court and the big Congress Visitor Centre. This was a massive 'propaganda extravaganza' as Tom put it - reams and reams of chat about how great the US democracy is (in no coherent order) which would have been much more convincing if I hadn't just witnessed the massive Debt Default Crisis the week before. They also entirely skimmed over the fact that the Conneticut Compromise included the fact that slaves counted for 3/5 of a white person when calculating the proportaional representation for the House of Representatives, despite the fact they weren't allowed to vote.

On the way back to his house we decided to take a detour and fit in some stuff for my project. First we went to Potomac Boat CLub, because he mistakenly thought that was where Georgetown crew row out of. It was still good to meet the rowers and see their club though. We then drove along the river to the actual Gerogetown boat club, which is right next to thw Watergate hotel where the Nixon scandal took place. Not much too see, but still pretty exciting.

Once back at the house I sat and chatted with his wife Marcia, and then we went out to dinner at a local Afghan restaurant which was really yummy.

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Photos

Georgetown law school, just off the Mall
All very shiny and expensive - they have a separate gym and swimming pool inside which is bigger than the one for the whole of Oxford Uni!

A monument on the Mall that we walked past
This is to all the innocent Japanese Americans who were sent to prison camps in the west during WWII - pretty hypocritical!

Washington Monument
Built by the freemasons, so apparently there's all sorts of weird symbolism

The White House
Yep, I was too lazy to get out the car so this is all you'll get

The Potomac
Taken from Potomac Boat Club