Week(end) 1: Natural History Museum, American History Museum, Washington Monument, National Archives

After we FINALLY finished with our four day orientation with lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl, we spent Friday afternoon in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, which was fun because we nonstop laughed at all the silly animals that went extinct. Harsh? Maybe. But who wouldn't laugh at a saber-toothed deer? There was also a really cool exhibit about how graves and bones can tell us just as much or more about how people live (and die) than archaeology alone. It specifically addressed early settlers in the Chesapeake and everything from occupational markers like little chinks in teeth caused by holding pins in your mouth if you are a tailor to what a shattered skull looks like. It was gruesome and cool.

It only took us three visits (spread out over two weekends) to finish off the Smithsonian American History Museum. There is some good stuff in there. Lots of exhibits about wars, presidents, first ladies, science, entertainment, and art. Some highlights: the exhibit which chronicled every way American has ever been involved in, the exhibit with pop cultural items like Kermit the frog, the presidential exhibit where you got to pretend to be giving a presidential speech, and the Colbert portrait.

WWII mittens with a trigger finger.

Lincoln's actual hat. This is what is cool about the Smithsonian. This stuff is ACTUAL.

I wish.

Me hijacking FDR's inaugural address.

Washington. Toga. Abs.

On our second visit, this Friday, we did more of the science-y things, like transportation overland and oversea, as well as the Kinsey collection of African American art exhibit. Pretty much that took up the entire 4 or so hours we spent on day 2. Day 3 was a mission to finish the exhibits before our scheduled ride to the top of the Washington Monument, so we learned with purpose about the invention of the lightbulb and other cool electronic devices, pop-up books, Julia Child's kitchen, and science's changing role in our world (which included a hilarious and unreasonably large chunk all about the birth control pill).

Mom and Dad: Found your next recreational purchase!

And don't forget to pack this: an electric marshmallow toaster.

So much psychedelia. So much birth control.

So our visit up the Washington Monument was a success, with hardly any line (we are learning that winter is the best time to do the most touristy things). The view was pretty cool, but the windows are only about a foot tall and people were kind of bad at sharing in the small space at the top. One of the other cool things about the Monument that we learned about on the way down in the elevator is that states donated local stone for it, and California donated a block of gold (which obviously didn't make the cut) and Northern and Southern states donated stones inscribed with sassy comments about the approaching fight over slavery.

View from the top of the Washington Monument towards the Capitol.

Today (Sunday) we tried to find our books for classes. It was a wild goose chase. We got some Starbucks to console ourselves, which I promptly spilled all over Brittany's scarf and our table. We managed to salvage the day by going to the National Archives, where we saw the "Charters of Freedom" (it should sound all echoey and serious in your head, like the guy who says "Pigs in Space" on the Muppet Show). In addition to the Declaration of Independence, which you can hardly read anymore because its so faded, there is the Constitution which is much better preserved, and the Bill of Rights, and an original copy of the Magna Carta. Apparently there were several originals and the US got its hands on one somehow (I'd like to imagine the mob was involved, but the plaque said something about the Perot Foundation). Also in the rotunda there are two murals and George Washington looks hilarious in what looks like white leggings.

LEGGINGS! Proof that this fashion trend (like all good things) was begun by our first President.

My favorite part, though, was the exhibit about the various functions the National Archives performs, with handy examples of all sorts of documents and interactive displays. We got to hear conversations that FDR recorded (illegally?) in the Oval Office, saw the Homestead Act paperwork filed by Pa from Little House on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder's real life dad), and there was a fake computer showing the White House website, circa its first incarnation in 1994 (the computer was vintage, also).

Archives from the outside. Looks like...lots of other buildings in DC.

Orientation - the touristy part

We started our first day at the Supreme Court, where we waited outside for a good 45 minutes in the freezing weather before being allowed in, where we learned that the Supreme Court Justices are sassy. Clarence Thomas sort of just rocked and spun around in his chair, John Paul Stevens almost fell asleep, Ruth Bader Ginsberg repeatedly referred to the disputed amount of money in millions rather than billions, and Justice Scalia was kind of rude. He was in favor of dismissing the case and exercising the "get out principle of our jurisprudence." It was cool to see Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan in action as well, after all the news about their nominations and confirmations. We watched about 45 minutes of argument about a contract dispute between the US government and an airplane manufacturer (we all guessed Boeing).

Obviously, there were justices when we were there. And a full house of spectators. And Secret Service.

After that, we walked over to the Longworth House Office Building, where we ate lunch and waited until an intern from Rep. Mike Capuano's office could take the group on a tour of the Capitol. Except, I didn't go. There are 16 of us and the limit was 15 people, and since I'm interning in the Senate and will presumably be in the Capitol so much I'll get sick of it, I stayed behind. Apparently it was good, but instead I just got my Library of Congress reader card before everyone else and wandered around Capitol Hill a little.

Madison Building of the LOC, which looks like Mugar on steroids and is where we got our reader cards

I met up with the group again after they all got their cards, and we went to the Jefferson Building, aka the pretty Library of Congress building, to learn how to request books and where the reading room is, and got plenty of dirty looks from people actually doing work for being a giant out of place group that was not doing any work at all. After a long day, all of us students decided to have dinner (and some drinks, let's be honest) at the Hawk n Dove, which is conveniently located nearby.

Jefferson Building - the pretty one

Day 2: Trolley Tour, Ford's Theater, National Cathedral
Today, we took the DC Old Town Trolley Tour as a big group, which was a nice change from all the walking yesterday. We saw a bunch of the sites from the bus, like the Capitol and Supreme Court (again) and the Jefferson Memorial, among others. The only places we stopped were on the side of the road as some trucks hauling howitzers needed to pass (Hu Jintao is in town), at Ford's Theater, and at the National Cathedral.

It's almost like I'm back in Spain, what with all the howitzers.

Presidential Box in Ford's Theater, including original couch and portrait of George Washington (used before the Presidential Seal to indicate the Office of the President)


View from the tower

Tomorrow the tourist-ing ends and real DC stuff begins, specifically academic and internship details and a visit to our residence (hard hats still required?).

First days in DC

I'm finally in DC. I did not want to pack and did a lot of whining in the days before I left, mostly because the last plane ride was so heinous and I hadn't yet recovered. This plane ride was not as exciting as the last one, but that's probably for the best.

Today, Brittany (my friend from Boston and DC roommate) and I decided to do a little exploring. We took the metro to Woodley Park in order to take a look at our residence, where we will be residing...at some point? See for yourself.

This does not bode well.

Conveniently, there was a CVS next door, where we bought our SmarTrip cards (which by the way costs $10, $5 for the card and $5 of value. We are not in Boston anymore. Boo). Then we went to Federal Triangle and walked the Mall. We saw the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, White House, and Capitol. The hotel we are staying at is right near the capitol, so after grabbing lunch we headed back to recover.

WWII Memorial

Abe, no big deal.

Korean War Memorial

'Sup Obamas?

Capitol. I may or may not get to do some interning in there.

Backside of the Capitol

Tomorrow we are going to dinner with the program, and then Tuesday we start "orientation," which may or may not be a waste of four days of my life.We have the preliminary schedule, which consists of lots of taking us around to tourist sights and even on one of those trolley tours. At least BU is paying for it.

The Journey Home, or THE LONGEST DAY

A slight delay on this entry, probably because I didn't really want to relive my trip back to Eugene:

I knew going into this that my epic odyssey to get home was going to be just that: an epic odyssey. From Venice to Madrid to JFK, then switching to LaGuardia, then on to Minneapolis and finally Portland, and if all that goes well then the car ride back to Eugene. I guess that’s what you get for having adventures on the opposite side of the world.
Some statistics:
• Trip legs (or more pertinently, opportunities for lost luggage): 4
• 39 hours in airports and airplanes (from 5am Venice time to 11am Portland time)
• Total flight time (that’s time my butt spent in a coach seat): 18 hours
o Venice-Madrid 2.5 hours
o Madrid-JFK 8.5 hours
o LGA-MSP 3 hours
o MSP-PDX 4 hours
• Times through security: 3 (Venice, Madrid, LGA)
• Window seats/Aisle seats: 2 and 2
• Airport food consumed: magnum ice cream, bottle of water, peanuts, pineapple cubes, oreos, salad (with balsamic vinegar!), chai latte, yogurt, fruit cup
• Airplane food consumed: tortellini, red wine, coleslaw, lemon/chocolate cake, roll, coffee, kit-kat bar, icky fruit cup, disappointing muffin
• Passport Stamps: one leaving Madrid, one arriving in New York
• Time zones: 9

The flight from Venice to Madrid seemed longer going back, especially since a little girl was kicking the back of my seat for the entire two and a half hours. I had a 6 hour layover to recover, at least. The flight from Madrid to JFK was the one I was least looking forward to, it being 8 hours and all. On the bright side, I sat towards the front in a window seat, and next to a man I at first wanted to call Señor Body Odor (for obvious reasons), then Mister Lush (when he poured a mini bottle of vodka into his Coke light and asked me if I was going to finish my vino tinto) but finally we settled on the title of obnoxious Luxembourgian interpreter. He was a bit pompous, bragging about how Indira Gandhi was the favorite person he’d worked for and making me guess that he was from Luxembourg (I can only imagine the gloating if I’d not guessed correctly).

Our arrival in JFK was delayed slightly by the fact that we had to circle the airport for a half an hour because they only had one runway open and then we sat on the tarmac because we had no gate. Luckily, I was asleep for most of that. Unluckily, that was pretty much all the sleep I got on that flight. In LaGuardia, I sat outside security with my bags all night because they cannot check bags overnight with a few of my new closest friends and three vending machines. Unfortunately, I had zero American money and no ATMs to be found. What I did find was a nice Italian woman to talk with, and we commiserated about transatlantic flights. We were then joined by kind of a crazy woman, who proceeded to tell us in great detail about how she has visions of places and people, and feels strongly connected to Saint Francis of Assisi, and how that figures in to each and every coincidence in her life (which, of course, are not coincidences at all). The flight from New York to Minneapolis wasn’t bad; I even got some Dunkin in the airport. In Minneapolis, I was worried about connecting because our New York flight had been a little late. No need – the Minneapolis to Portland leg left an hour and a half late after a “weight issue” in which they called for volunteers to be bumped. Thankfully, Delta felt my pain and had free wifi on both flights. Well, really it was Google who sponsored it. Thanks, Google!

Then, after arriving in Portland, we still had the two hour drive home. This is why I like to fly into Eugene - once I touch down in Oregon I expect to be home pretty much right then, not have to spend two more hours sitting on my butt on I-5. But I digress - I've now been home for four days and still have 11 more before I have to get on another plane.