Washington D.C.
Watching 'The West Wing' out of the corner of my eye, paying by the minute for internet access in a youth hostel, 1009 11th Street, in Washington DC baby!
That's right. So unbelievable! (yeah, singing in my head, but quite a few others watching tv, and one other just sat down at a computer, so we'll save ourselves the humiliation just this once...)
Crazy unvelievable day. turns out America is not just a myth. it's millions of layers of myth and symbol and dude, the white house actually exists! I mean, i knew that, but now i know that! and the capitol, the library of congress, supreme court...
So very cool
went to air and space museam. dad would be SO very jealous. But it solved the great quandry that was his birthday present. But i won't say what it is cause he'll read this and i wanna surprise him over a pot of mussels when i get home.
So arrived here last night. Left Laramie at 6am yesterday, mountain time, with todd and lisa. Arrived Denver airport around 9.30 and flight boarded at 10.50 so walked todd to his gate and went window shopping. was very self controlled but found mum's favourite photographer so invested in some cards (she would have spent a lot more but i have some more shopping to do). Glanced at a few model planes but didn't pull out my wallet. Got an ice tea and headed to gate B25. United airlines don't feed you anything except for 'snack bites' some of which are very hard to identify but i ate them nonetheless and drinks. but the coffee wasn't so bad. Pulled out my laptop and started new novel for nation novel writing month (www.nanowrimo.org). Beautiful computer is gonna be a nice accessory to airtravel... forever! Joy
Flew into Ohare at 3ish, central time (one hour ahead of mtn), and assumed i had 50 minutes to get to gate B9, turns out i had 30 mins as departure was 3.50. bought myself some lunch. tried to get in touch with angela hoping to share transport once we arrived in D.C.. Failed. Fortunately decided to start lunch by B9 and noticed line of ppl under sign saying 'Washington D.C.' so put food in back pack and headed to join queue.
Flew out of Ohare next to friendly businessman. Stunned once again by beauty of chicago and autumn trees. Spotted the navy pier which i couldn't see on our descent.
Then we headed toward D.C.. Watched a bit of will and grace and read my next text for Amst, Topics, due tuesday evening. Again, no food, accept for the sandwich i smuggled in from Ohare. Yummy focacia, ham, swiss, tomato and lettuce but kinda soggy. Apple juice great tho.
Arrived D.C. and tried Angela again. Got thru as i got on the shuttle to the terminal. She stayed with a friend nearer the airport so nocando. Found info desk to ask if i'd be safe on my own, on public transport, at 7.30 pm (2 hours after sunset), in a city i'd never been to before. "Sure" he handed me a timetable for the bus i'd just heard announced 'leaving now'. walked leisurely to gate (would've been leisurely without heavy luggage but more just slow and painful) and got to bus before it left but didn't have a ticket. so went to hunt for ticket desk. 20 mins later was directed back to door 4 where i started, and found desk by door. bought ticket. grrr. and bus arrived.
once again hit with realisation that 'i'm in washington D.C.', huh, weird thought. unreal really.
looked out bus window, knowing perfectly well that i wasn't anywhere near anything i've ever seen on tv, but watched intently anyway. Got off bus at metro and bought ticket, went thru gates (learnt how to use them the hard way in hong kong) and let imagination run through a few worst case scenarios standing on platform, waiting for train.
got on train just fine and several calls from elisabeth later (cut off by being underground, or moving or something but it worked half the time) decided to go to dupont circle and meet her and her friend for dinner. changed trains at metro central and two stops later took longest esculator ride of my life. waited ten minutes until lisa (elisabeth, same girl) and her friend arrived. lugged bag and tired self to restuarant up the road. cutest little buzzing french place. that serves mussels. made my menu selection rather easy.
very full and tired, decided on taking taxi to hostel. on $8 including tip - so worth it. would've spent another couple on the metro anyway. and my shoulders really appreciated the $6 i spent on their well-being.
registered at hostel and had a wonderful shower. won't forget that in a short time. then added a few words to my nanowrimo count before bed.
met lisa at convention hotel (bought starbucks, against all my moral values, but desperate times) at 8am. registered for conference. decided we'd both go to 4pm sessions and sightsee until then. already listed all the cool stuff we saw. but will go into more detail wheni get the numerous photos on here.
only a few minutes left on line so better run. spending most of tomorrow in conference sessions and saturday will be a bit of half-n-half. head back sunday morning. probalby have to taxi much of way to airport as bus doesn't go till 8.15, and flight leaves at 8.45. gonna hurt my pocket, that is. but will be in denver in time to see phantom of the opera in the afternoon. yay! wonderful week!
aright, adios
That's right. So unbelievable! (yeah, singing in my head, but quite a few others watching tv, and one other just sat down at a computer, so we'll save ourselves the humiliation just this once...)
Crazy unvelievable day. turns out America is not just a myth. it's millions of layers of myth and symbol and dude, the white house actually exists! I mean, i knew that, but now i know that! and the capitol, the library of congress, supreme court...
So very cool
went to air and space museam. dad would be SO very jealous. But it solved the great quandry that was his birthday present. But i won't say what it is cause he'll read this and i wanna surprise him over a pot of mussels when i get home.
So arrived here last night. Left Laramie at 6am yesterday, mountain time, with todd and lisa. Arrived Denver airport around 9.30 and flight boarded at 10.50 so walked todd to his gate and went window shopping. was very self controlled but found mum's favourite photographer so invested in some cards (she would have spent a lot more but i have some more shopping to do). Glanced at a few model planes but didn't pull out my wallet. Got an ice tea and headed to gate B25. United airlines don't feed you anything except for 'snack bites' some of which are very hard to identify but i ate them nonetheless and drinks. but the coffee wasn't so bad. Pulled out my laptop and started new novel for nation novel writing month (www.nanowrimo.org). Beautiful computer is gonna be a nice accessory to airtravel... forever! Joy
Flew into Ohare at 3ish, central time (one hour ahead of mtn), and assumed i had 50 minutes to get to gate B9, turns out i had 30 mins as departure was 3.50. bought myself some lunch. tried to get in touch with angela hoping to share transport once we arrived in D.C.. Failed. Fortunately decided to start lunch by B9 and noticed line of ppl under sign saying 'Washington D.C.' so put food in back pack and headed to join queue.
Flew out of Ohare next to friendly businessman. Stunned once again by beauty of chicago and autumn trees. Spotted the navy pier which i couldn't see on our descent.
Then we headed toward D.C.. Watched a bit of will and grace and read my next text for Amst, Topics, due tuesday evening. Again, no food, accept for the sandwich i smuggled in from Ohare. Yummy focacia, ham, swiss, tomato and lettuce but kinda soggy. Apple juice great tho.
Arrived D.C. and tried Angela again. Got thru as i got on the shuttle to the terminal. She stayed with a friend nearer the airport so nocando. Found info desk to ask if i'd be safe on my own, on public transport, at 7.30 pm (2 hours after sunset), in a city i'd never been to before. "Sure" he handed me a timetable for the bus i'd just heard announced 'leaving now'. walked leisurely to gate (would've been leisurely without heavy luggage but more just slow and painful) and got to bus before it left but didn't have a ticket. so went to hunt for ticket desk. 20 mins later was directed back to door 4 where i started, and found desk by door. bought ticket. grrr. and bus arrived.
once again hit with realisation that 'i'm in washington D.C.', huh, weird thought. unreal really.
looked out bus window, knowing perfectly well that i wasn't anywhere near anything i've ever seen on tv, but watched intently anyway. Got off bus at metro and bought ticket, went thru gates (learnt how to use them the hard way in hong kong) and let imagination run through a few worst case scenarios standing on platform, waiting for train.
got on train just fine and several calls from elisabeth later (cut off by being underground, or moving or something but it worked half the time) decided to go to dupont circle and meet her and her friend for dinner. changed trains at metro central and two stops later took longest esculator ride of my life. waited ten minutes until lisa (elisabeth, same girl) and her friend arrived. lugged bag and tired self to restuarant up the road. cutest little buzzing french place. that serves mussels. made my menu selection rather easy.
very full and tired, decided on taking taxi to hostel. on $8 including tip - so worth it. would've spent another couple on the metro anyway. and my shoulders really appreciated the $6 i spent on their well-being.
registered at hostel and had a wonderful shower. won't forget that in a short time. then added a few words to my nanowrimo count before bed.
met lisa at convention hotel (bought starbucks, against all my moral values, but desperate times) at 8am. registered for conference. decided we'd both go to 4pm sessions and sightsee until then. already listed all the cool stuff we saw. but will go into more detail wheni get the numerous photos on here.
only a few minutes left on line so better run. spending most of tomorrow in conference sessions and saturday will be a bit of half-n-half. head back sunday morning. probalby have to taxi much of way to airport as bus doesn't go till 8.15, and flight leaves at 8.45. gonna hurt my pocket, that is. but will be in denver in time to see phantom of the opera in the afternoon. yay! wonderful week!
aright, adios
posted by Amy at 7:19 pm
2 Comments:
Hi Amy, I was looking around for information about Noble Fir Christmas Trees and found your Washington D.C. post. It's not bang on what I was looking for but it was a good read so I'm glad I found it! I can see why it showed up when I searched on the term Noble Fir Christmas Trees. Thanks a lot and I'll stop by again :-)
Had a bit of time to kill today Amy so I was sniffing out info on buy an xmas tree for a project I'm working on. Your post Washington D.C. came up when I searched on buy an xmas tree. So thanks for an interesting read, glad I found it even though it's not completely related to what I was looking for! I'll look back from time to time if that's OK. Bye for now
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