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?).