Week 13

Welcome folks!

This week has been a little more exciting than the week before. On Wednesday I got a S’mores cupcake! Now I realise this doesn’t sound interesting, but let me explain. S’mores bars are a rarity here at Juniata, mostly because they are the only edible food on campus. Wednesday they had them in cupcake form.

Thursday was interesting as it was the kick off for Genocide Awareness Week with Ervin Staub. (See http://www.ervinstaub.com/) for more details. Ervin is a well accredited professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts and has done a considerable amount of work in Rwanda to prevent genocide. This was a requirement that I attended this event, and although a little depressing, it was fairly interesting.

Friday came another compulsory event- I swear Madonna has less events to attend! Unlock Your Voice- a celebration of women writers. Basically people took a piece of literature and read it out at a coffeehouse event. The turnout was more than I expected but a lot of it was a requirement for classes. Now Friday was stressful and I shall tell you why. The American Government had until midnight to make a deal regarding the budget otherwise the Government would close down. What did that mean for us? The trip to Washington DC on the Saturday would be limited as all the Smithsonian Museums would be closed, anything government ran would be closed. Passports invalid for travel, military wouldn’t get paid. As it was explained, no one working directly for the government would have a job until this issue was resolved and therefore out of pay. The national zoo would be closed, but the lions and tigers would still get fed. Panic! Saturday I was embarking on a long bus trip to Washington DC to primarily go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to see all the dinosaurs. Let me put this into context. I love dinosaurs and had been looking forward to this for a few weeks now; I had watched Jurassic Park in sheer preparation of seeing the dinosaurs in the museum. I was a happy bunny counting down the long hours that stood between me and the giant T-rex. I even phoned the museum trying to get some clarification of the potential shut down of the Smithsonian’s- they confirmed they could indeed be closed. I even got desperate enough to Google Natural history Museums in Las Vegas! 11:07pm they struck a deal- the Smithsonian’s would be open. Relief! I didn’t sleep through sheer excitement of seeing the dinosaurs.

9am we set off from Juniata College, Huntingdon on a four hour bus ride through the Appalachian Mountains to Washington DC. We passed through Maryland along the way and 1pm we arrived at the National Mall, Washington DC outside the Air and Space Museum.

First we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to of course see my dinosaurs. I was once again a happy bunny =)

They were so beautiful and well worth waiting for!

After that I did my rounds at Hard Rock Cafe then made my way along to The White House.

Meagan and I got slightly lost and ended up going to the Washington Memorial and then along through the World War II Memorial. At this point feet hurt, and there was a bike/trolley thing so we hopped in and $20 later we were at the Lincoln Memorial. I wanted the money shot of the reflection pool so we climbed and climbed to the top of the steps, turned around knowing the reflection pool was behind us and then we saw it.... EMPTY! Full of sand! It was a giant sand pit! We considered re-enacting the scene from Forrest Gump when he did his Vietnam War speech and Jenny came running through the water but in our case it was quick sand. However, we decided to take silly photos of Meagan leaning on the Lincoln Memorial. We did attract a big crowd but never mind.

Next Stop: Obama’s Crib.

We were ambitious; we thought we may get an invite for dinner but no. Along the way we did see the DAR headquarters [Daughters of the American Revolution] and a rugby match on a small piece of grass. The White House was well white. Nothing much to report on to be honest, we thought in the distance Obama was sunbathing in his Speedos on his decking but it wasn’t him.

We had to be back at the bus for 8:45pm so we hit the city for food. This was not to be. Restaurants are a rarity in DC- we asked a number of cops and security guards for places to eat and they replied there isn’t anywhere really in the city. Great! In the end we found Hooters Chinatown DC.

The bus ride back was long and tiring but a worthwhile trip to DC. Would I go to DC again? No but I am glad I went anyway. I much prefer New York. Meagan prefers New York too, but then again she is from Manhattan so it’s understandable.

Naturally Sunday was spent being lazy and trying to stay awake to do bits of work. Nothing to strenuous I may add. 

Monday was a BEAUTIFUL day until mid-afternoon and thunderstorms arrived. I am noticing the correlation between hot days and the storms arriving shortly after. It still stays warm though so it's not like the temperature drops at all. As stated above, S'more cakes were available, but now the real S'mores bars are back!!!

Hasta la vista!