DC

This past weekend, I was in Washington D.C. On the first day, we went to the NCCP (or was it NCPC?). They're the ones that figure out where monuments go. It was kind of boring and though they talked about the memorials a bit, they spent most of it talking about what they do. When they asked if anyone had any questions, well only the teachers do. I think urban planning is still out of most of our realms, and also, most of us haven't been in D.C. since junion high, so we don't know what to ask about. I mentioned later to our teacher that I thought it would have been better to go to that place last, and she told us that in past years, the speakers would always go into detail about the memorials, but this year they only mentioned them briefly. Afterwards, I went around the western end of the mall with Waz, Ken and BKish. The Roosevelt Memorial I think, is truly an impressive memorial and a pleasant place to be. We took a lot of photos around the giant scotty dog. We went there, the Jefferson Memorial, up to the WWII memorial then to the Vietnam Memorial and then to the Korean Memorial. By then, my poor bladder was dying of overload, so I sounded the alert and we headed back to the hotel (it was already 8pm by then anyway). For the evening, we went to Georgetown with Hannah and her friend who wanted to wander. While walking there, I recalled my friend Christina transfered to Georgetown - except I couldn't call her with my nifty new cell phone because I had no internet connection and therefore could not look up her number. Very sad...It's been years since I last saw her.
After a day of walking, we weren't so much interested in wandering as in eating. We ended up eating at Unos. We were seated at the table at the highest spot of the restaurant, which was pretty cool. We ordered around 9:30 and got our food around 10-ish. I threatened Ken while we were waiting that if the food wasn't there by 10, I'd have to gnaw on his arm. He said that Kish was probably tastier, to which I said Kish was hairier. Ken's reply was handing me the butter knife. Fortunately for both of them, the food arrived in a timely fashion. The table was completely silent for a good 20 minutes while we gobbled down everything on our plates.
The second day was the work day. I spent all day drawing the Korean Memorial and in the process got burned like a lobster. At 4, I went with a few classmates to meet everyone at the National Building Museum, which is supposedly just on the other side of the mall. It turned out to be on the other side along with seven extra blocks. After an hour of walking, I was very unhappy and my back is now brown. Not my front, not my legs, not my arms. Just my back. I hope it goes away soon. After our meeting it was off to Union Square to meet Stef's cousin. He hadn't seen her in about ten years and we were tempted to line up all the little asian girls (there were four of us) and have him pick her out of the lineup. Sadly, it didn't happen. We ate at Capitol City (a microbrewery - I don't think her cousin realized we were all underage) where Cathy had the most delicious desert ever. Then, we tried to get to Georgetown before all the stores closed. Sadly, we only made it in time to glance through FCUK and the United Colors of Benetton. Waz didn't get to go to Urban Outfitters for her flask...After that we just went back to the hotel where we all sat up talking for a while.
Day three was awesome. We all got up early and slept all the way to Mount Vernon. We got free tickets to go on the boat tour which was at 10:30 leaving about 30 minutes to kill. I wandered through the craft tents and there were perfect pewter Jeffersonian cups that I would love to buy, except they were $25 a cup. Maybe when I'm rich. As it is, I bought some really nice handmade soaps - bug hater's bar (lemongrass scent), Grapefruit Tea, Peppermint Citrus, Cinnamon Oatmeal and Spiced Lime. I can't wait to use them, but for now, they're freshening up my bedroom (Ben commented the other day that the whole apartment smelled funky, except my room - I thank the soaps). The boat tour was just like 8th grade, except this time around, everyone forced me to slather myself with sunscreen. I don't know if it did any good, I know I did get ever so slightly redder. By the time the tour was done, I had literally an hour and a half to find a place, make my documentation and meet up with everyone. I speed walked most of the plantation and ended up sitting in a shade at the slave memorial. At first it was just me and Hannah drawing quietly (interrupted at one point by an annoyingly loud and shrill little girl) and then a bunch of classmates who were done came by and decided to take a nap by me. Guess I just exude sleepiness... We all went to eat lunch at the Mt. Vernon restaurant afterwards. There was chicken, summer squash and mashed potatoes - very yummy. I ended up sitting next to the third year coordinator, Christine, who commented that we were the most punctual group she's ever taken on the trip (I like to think we're just hungrier than other groups). After lunch, we went to Dunbarton Oaks, which I decided would be a great place to get married. Not that I'm looking to get married anytime soon, mind you. Still, it's a beautifully designed garden. I ended up sitting under the bright sun again, on a ledge overlooking the fountain terrace (I just happened to like the only restricted area) drawing pretty flowers. Christine came up behind me at one point and said I picked a good spot. It feels like the trip was over way too soon. We hopped on the bus and headed back to campus, and I got to hang out with Ben for a little while.
O yes, and they picked my watercolors as one of the sets to show the NAAB people. Yay!