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May 11, 2007
37.5hrs in DC
Washington District of Columbia is a wonderful berg. It is the capitol of the most powerful nation on Earth—a nation which developed an entire continent. Everywhere you go there is a little plaque saying "something happened here". It has history all out of proportion to its size...
Historical note: the bits Northern Virginia that we think of as being "part" of DC (Arlington Cemetery, the Pentagon) were once part of DC. I find it amusing that the District is reclaiming its own...
Did I mention history? Even some of the monuments have monuments on them—Here’s one denoting the building in which the US/Canadian border was fixed. Over there, on the Lincoln Memorial, you will find a plaque showing where MLK JR spoke. Perfect...
I spent a lot of time complaining about the weather. Until I met a man who had done his duty in Korea. Apparently, Korea is even more humid than Hawaii, and temperatures can fluctuate between 85F and 0F in a single 24hr period. I still don’t know how do deal with humidity, though. I’m just trying to shut up about it...
I am definitely a California boy. There were lots of black people. And white people. But there wasn’t anyone else. I didn’t see any Americans who were not either black or white. Where were all the Hispanics? Chinese? Japanese? Indians? Similarly, while I heard a lot of people speaking other languages, I didn’t hear many people speaking English with a foreign accent. I did hear a bunch of US Southern, Midwest, and North-East accents-- “Old America”, rather than “New America”, to play with Rumsfeld's phrase. It wasn’t bad, just different...
One other note, while I’m on the subject. A Secret Service member told me that if I wanted a White House tour, I would A) need to sign up 6 months in advance, and B) talk to my congressman. I snapped at him, and I don’t think he knew why. His implication that only men were in Congress rankled—In my decade of voting, I’ve only ever cast 1 vote for a male congressional candidate. I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it. I’m sure it was just a linguistic tick in the way he was raised. Still, his use of language delegitimized—even somewhat—my choices in congressmembers...
The Constitution and Declaration and Magna Charta are as grand as I recall. I kind of get how Christians feel about seeing the Shroud of Turin...
I wasn’t there for pleasure, however. I had an interview to attend. It went well, I think. I start on 21 May...
Posted by Andrew at May 11, 2007 12:50 PM