Last Sunday in DC

I started sorting through all the stuff I have accumulated in the past six weeks.  I don't think I have to buy another suitcase, but I am sending home two small boxes with books and study material.

I went out today after noon.  I took the metro to Dupont Circle and walked up to the Textile Museum on S Street.  On the way I got to see a decorated elephant and some of the Embassies that are not right on Massachusetts  Ave that I had missed my first weekend here.  I also bought the greatest drink ever - a chai shake made with cinnamon ice cream as its base.  Yummy!

The Textile Museum is small, and worth the trek.  Currently they have two exhibits, a Second Lives: the age-old art of recycling textiles and Green: the color and the cause.  There were pieces that I enjoyed in both.  The quilt made from fabric scraps made in Afghanistan was stunning.  There were many pieces from India and Persia that were so beautiful.  They have an interactive area made up of textile making stations - looms, sewing and needlework.  Very clever way to introduce the various methods of textile craft.

After that I walked and walked, taking pictures of doorways as I went.  I had a great time going through neighborhoods and photographing doorways.  I ended up back at Cafe Divan for another stellar Turkish meal.  I caught the Circulator back to the Foggy Bottom metro and came back to the hotel.

I really enjoyed the day.  I love looking at buildings.  Some of my favorites of the  diplomatic variety included the Embassy or Ambassador's Residence of Cyprus, Haiti and the Netherlands.

Having a digital camera is a blast.  I took 112 photos today and didn't have to worry about wasting film as in days of yore.  I liked the small, tidy facades of the row houses in Georgetown.  Some have flag decorations, others flower boxes,  big flower urns or even a bear statue.  The houses are painted yellow, blue, green, white and brick.  The doors are also a variety of colors.  Some are set in archways, with columns or iron work and others framed with straight moldings.  Visually, so pleasing.

Tomorrow I have my last exam at 8:15.  Then I have another lecture or two.  Tuesday is wrap-up discussions with graduation at 3:00.   At 6:30 I will be on a plane heading home, inshalla.

Another day of walking

I decided to start my day at the Newseum.  Several people told me that it was a must see, but didn't tell me why.  I think I was expecting something slick and techy.  I wasn't expecting an emotional couple of hours including two exhibits where I stood and cried.  It is way powerful.  The Newseum starts the visitor at the lowest level with a quick, four minute intro video.  You exit and walk past part of the Berlin wall and accompanying information.  I was in San Diego, the fall after my college graduation.  I remember watching the news with Dad and Valerie on Theta Place and watching it fall. 

From there, you get in an elevator and go all the way up to the top level.  I stepped out on to the terrace and took the obligatory photo of the Capitol and other buildings.  It is a great view.  Then you walk back in and go past the collection of front pages leading up to and through the first days of Hurricane Katrina.  There is a room filled with enlarged photographs, reporters' notebooks, and more newspaper front pages.  There are a couple of places where they also replay portions of news casts from those days.  I stood there watching the broadcast where Robin Roberts says that her family survived but the family home did not, and cried.  I looked around and noticed that I wasn't the only one wiping my eyes.  The cumulative aspect of many of the exhibits is what got to me.



Reflection of FTC in Newseum

  The other crying episode happened in the 9/11 Gallery.  They have on display a piece of the mangled antenna that was on the North Tower.  The backdrop is a two-story collection of front pages from around the world.  Then there is a small theater area where there is a short film about the journalists who covered the tragedy.  The charred cameras and a partial press badge from a journalist killed in one of the towers is also in a display case.  The whole gallery isn't very big, but it packs a wallop in terms of a visceral response.  It is quite amazing. 

There are other really fun exhibits -- a big screen movie and a collection of photos from the Presidents' personal photographers.  A gallery of newspapers in chronological order in plastic cases for important days in history is also interesting.  There is interactive stuff for kids that is great -- booths where a kid can pretend to give a news cast and history games on computers.  I had to leave the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs gallery.  By that point, it was too much visually for me to handle.  Too much sorrow, tragedy, terror, disaster both man and nature made -- for me to cope with.  The photographs are award winning for a reason, but I had reached my capacity to take in those images.

Refreshed by a bag of chips and soda, I went out into the 96 degree afternoon and walked up to the National Portrait Gallery.  I needed a bit of beauty to soothe my heart and stomach.  Even though it was a bit of a walk, I'm glad I went.  My favorite individual piece was Looking for the Mountain by Pat Steir.  The two rooms of portraits of America's Presidents were great. 

As I'm typing this, a mystery about my day has been solved.  All day I passed by people wearing soccer jerseys.  Every other group of people had a Manchester United jersey or a Barcelona one on.  There is a game on tonight with the two clubs near by.  No wonder!  And the event is sponsored by Turkish Airlines which explains the call from my husband earlier telling me that there was something major happening in the area, he just wasn't sure what or where.

The other thing that was different today than other days I have walked around were the number of times that police provided escorts of big, black Chevy Suburbans or other limo type cars with country flags on the hood.  The first time I heard all the sirens I assumed an ambulance or fire engine needed to come through.  But no, just foreign diplomats or our own.  Several cars came up Pennsylvania Ave and entered the private White House driveway.  Let us hope our lawmakers are hammering out a deal this weekend.  Enough said.

After the art, I took the metro over to the Farragut West station and walked over to a camera shop that I had read about.  It wasn't worth the trip.  But now that I was over on 20th street, I decided to go by the north side of the White House to St. John's Episcopal Church.  The facade is smaller than I expected, as was the Blair House.  But that didn't stop me from taking even more pictures.  I continued down 15th Street and walked to the Ellipse and took another photo of the South side of the White House.  Apparently I missed Matt Damon who had been with the protest marchers for Education earlier in the day.  Oh well.



Flags at the White House gate



Building next to the W Hotel

 

I did, however, see Mary Murphy from So You Think You Can Dance.  She was dancing at the open air stage behind the Washington Monument for National Dance Day.  She led the group in a beginner level salsa.  That was fun.  Before she got on the stage, there were performances by a flamenco group, three women contemporary dancers and a step troop.  I had left the area to get the metro at the Smithsonian when I heard Mary's voice over the sound system.   I went back so that I could participate in that salsa.

Smiling from her infectious joy in dancing, I left the Mall and went to the metro.  I was hot, but happy.

Antsy

I'm getting antsy -- for the training to be over, to go home, for the heat to break, to cook in my own kitchen, for sleeping in my own bed, to know where I will be posted.  I was expecting to hear this week, but it didn't happen.  It looks like New Delhi is a no, but Chennai is now on the table.  Limbo is so hard.  I just want to know!

I stopped by the post office this afternoon and picked up a couple of boxes.  I have lots of books that need to be shipped home.  Putting them in my suitcase would cause a weight failure and add an additional $50.  I think I can send them home for less. 

ABC News just had the most gimmicky segment on their broadcast tonight.  Let's have five average Americans solve the debt crisis.  They had a list of cuts to chose from, but few of the stakeholders who would actually feel the impact from the spending cuts were at the table.  The the idea of terminating the home mortgage deduction and ending the Bush tax cuts for couples making over $250,000 were suggested and then nixed.  Big surprise, they had homeowners, a woman from a wealthy couple, and a small business owner who would not agree to those.  Gotta protect their own interests.  But, they did go for cutting government workers' salaries (no surprise, as we are public enemy for some unknown reason and no representative at that table), cutting defense (no military in the group), raising the social security threshold until 68 (with nobody nearing retirement amongst the five), cutting nuclear weapons (good idea, we have more than enough to ensure mass destruction), and one more thing that I forget.  Then the reporter was like, see they can solve the issue in under an hour.  Really?

I'm not saying I know the answers and have a plan of my own that I wish those in Congress would put forward.  But I do know that it is more complicated than that news segment.  Cut government workers' pay -- easy if it doesn't affect you.  I've already had to have my wages frozen.  I'm not particularly interested in having my pay cut, thank you.  I would have taken that option off the table, had I been asked.  On the other hand, I don't make over $250,000 and I am not opposed to having those that do, lose their special tax breaks.  So don't produce a news segment that makes a completely artificial scenario and make it appear as if that could actually be reality.  I'm not that stupid.

And we're walking

As my time in DC is running down, I've spent the past two days walking and taking pictures during my free time.  Yesterday I was too antsy to sit in the computer lab and read the remaining Self-Instructional Guides.  Instead I hopped on to the shuttle to Main State on C street and walked over to the Renwick Gallery.  I loved the mauve-pink walls, drapes and set up of the rooms as much as the artwork.  The piece of art that drew me the most was a textile called The Silk Rain Forest.  It reminded me of the glass fence that I saw at Heard Museum in Phoenix.

From there I walked back to Lafayette Park and tried to get a photo of the north lawn of the White House.  I didn't notice that I had one of the settings off because the pictures came out too light.  But I did get a few of a different Statue.

I wanted to see the FDR Memorial, so I walked down 17th St.  I passed by the Daughter's of the American Revolution Museum.  The museum itself was closed, but the outside of the building was mine to photograph.  The light played off the leaves in such a way that I couldn't move on for quite a while.  After about 30 shots, I told myself to keep going.

I hadn't been down to the Tidal Basin and it is so lovely.  There are benches set up a along the ridge and I took advantage of a few.  I passed by the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial that will be opened on August 28th.  By the time I got to the FDR Memorial, my feet were getting tired and feeling the lack of support in my sandals.  Unlike some of the other memorials, this one take the viewer on a journey.  There are many statues, quotations, wading pools and waterfalls that all add to the experience.  The sound of the water enhances adds another sense into play. 

I had in my mind that I wanted to see the Marines at the Iwo Jima Memorial at 7:00.  There isn't a convenient metro right by the Tidal Basin, so I ended up walking over the Arlington Bridge, around the perimeter of Arlington Cemetery to the Marine Corps War Memorial.   I got there about 6:30 and gratefully plopped down on the grass.  After five minutes my calves felt on fire.  I looked at my legs and the parts that touched the grass were hot, red and inflamed.  Instantaneous rash.  I tried sitting crossed legged, but that didn't help, the burning crept to the sides.  I didn't know what to do.  I was so tired, hot and in pain that I couldn't just get up and start walking.  Plus, I hadn't come all that way to leave before the performance.

The atmosphere at the Memorial was very sweet and family friendly.  Many marines were mingling with the crowd.  There were several cub scout troops and the marines were talking with them about their uniforms and such.  Regular people thanked them for their service.  It was a nice gathering.  The performing band was great.  The music, formations, energy -- it was all good.  I stayed through the section of Appalachian Spring and then left. 

My rash was mostly gone by this morning.  I got up at 5:20 and hurried through the morning routine so that I could get back to DC and take pictures at the Lincoln Memorial around sunrise.  I was able to catch the light just right.  The steps seem to be a favorite early morning exercise prop.  Instead of running stadium stairs, DC people run memorial stairs.  As I took my time walking up the steps, I could hear the rapid pit-pat of pit-pat of ten other people passing me by. 

I also went by the Vietnam Women's Memorial.  A man was there taking pictures.  I sat on a bench and ate a granola bar while he worked.  He seemed to not be capturing what he wanted because he kept going around and around and around.  I'm not sure what angle or expression he hoped to catch, because he didn't linger on one spot.  As I sat there, three fearless squirrels chased each other all around my bench.  One paused long enough for me to get it on film.  When the man left, I tried to employ some of the techniques that I learned over the weekend.  I think I had some success.

On my way up to the shuttle to head to FSI, I passed by the Institute of Peace.  I just love that building.  It is a relatively new building and it speaks to me.  The one odd thing about the DC skyline is the uniformity of height.  There is a building restriction on the height of buildings.  It takes a while to realize why the skyline is different, but I think that is the reason.

I know that it seems like my days are full of non-FSI time, but it is easier to write about what I am doing outside of training than inside the classroom.  We are studying American Citizen Services.  The material is challenging in a different way. Hearing about morgue visits and the ways used to identify a body would have been easier before lunch rather than after, but what are you going to do?  That isn't how the schedule worked out today.

This evening I got out of my usual space.  Kathy from MHC picked me up and drove me down to Old Town Alexandria and we had a great dinner and conversation.  I think it has been 24 years since we last saw each other.  It was so much fun to catch up.  We ate Thai and then had ice cream on the way back to the hotel.

When I called Mom's, they were eating dinner made from our garden veggies -- zucchini on toast with cucumber and tomato salad.  Next week I'll be picking cukes!  This week's episode of So You Think You Can Dance has been fantastic.  The dancing is incredible.  I've had a hard time concentrating on what I'm writing.  Hope I've been somewhat coherent.

Last full week

I'm so ready to go home.  I need these next 8 days to fly by without losing focus.  When I got to FSI, the ground floor felt very cool.  After the power outage on Thursday afternoon, the AC had kicked on and it felt so good to walk into the building.  However, the cooling system in the upstairs classroom had not received the systems go memo.  And we had all our lectures in the room.  Soporific.  At the first break, half the class hustled to the cafeteria and returned with large coffees or cold cokes/Red Bull/Monster drinks.  Those of us trying not to depend on caffeine, stood in the entryway downstairs for a few minutes to lower the body temp.  Anything to help fight the urge to nod off.

I had hoped to hear today where I might be headed next month, but no such luck.  Maybe tomorrow.

More photos and art

I took the morning off to wash clothes, pay bills and just relax.  I needed an extended break from the heat.  It got cooler today, if you count mid-upper 90s as a cool.  I went out in the afternoon, and started out at the Freer and Sackler Galleries.  The focus of those two galleries is Asian art.  They have Japanese screens, Chinese pottery, Hindu temple statues, Turkish tile, Persian ceramics, ancient Korans, a section of Whistler paintings, and a special exhibit of Chinese Buddhist figures taken from an excavated cave temple.  It is an odd, yet beautiful mix.

The Freer building itself is architecturally pleasing to me -- lots of archways and a courtyard with a fountain.  I tried to remember the "low and close" instructions from yesterday as I took some pictures.  From there I kept my camera around my neck and shot some more around the gardens behind the museum and the Smithsonian Castle. 



Freer courtyard





Smithsonian Castle



Since it was still too hot to walk around the Capitol I stopped in at the Air and Space museum.  Mostly I sat down and people watched.  There was so much going on I couldn't focus.  There were kids running all around and having a great time.  I think I would have had more fun and Nedim and Selim been with me.  Plus the section on the missiles was really sobering and scary. 



Missile relfections off lunar vehicle



I tried to keep to the shade as I walked out of that museum and towards the Capitol building.  I wandered through the Botanical Gardens, seeing if I could frame the dome with the trees in the gardens.   I couldn't get too much on the ground because the pavement was so hot, it burned the tops of me feet as I tucked them under me.  I guess I have to get low and close when the ground isn't so hot.



Me - hot & sweaty with wild woman hair

 By the time I got close to the Capitol, I had sweat running down my face into my eyes and I couldn't see what was in my viewfinder.  So I have some random guy in red in a bunch of my shots and I don't even remember seeing him in real life.  Oh well.  I did get down on the grass to take some photos using the flowers to be the bottom third of the frame.  Those came out OK.

I had read a review of a Thai restaurant on Friday in the Howard University area so I took the metro up there around 5:30.  The restaurant is very small, but it has high ceilings and feels airy.  The food was delicious.  Definitely worth the metro ride.  After dinner, it was a straight shot down the yellow line back to Crystal City and the hotel.



Shaw/Howard Metro Station

 I have to get organized for tomorrow.  I have used 3 purses this weekend and need to put my studying gear back into my messenger bag.  It is back to work and the TB check up after a nice break.  I feel like I've done a lot of sight seeing this weekend.  I only have 9 more days to go and then I fly home.  Woot!