USA

Today I really realized I only had a few days left in DC, so from here on in I was pretty hardcore at what I saw and who I met with. Looking back on it I think I crammed a lot in, especially given the weather, but the sun was shining almost the whole time, and that made a HUGE difference.

This morning I went to the Australian Embassy to meet with Dan, one of the AusTrade representatives there. We went for coffee and he showed me around our mighty impressive Embassy in DC. It’s much more substantial than I expected, and has some excellent artwork and very interesting photographs of past and present PMs with Presidents. Clearly some very important people have walked these halls. I also had the opportunity to learn more about the workings of the Embassy, and how all the various different aspects of it (Defence, DFAT, AusTrade, AusAID, Passports etc.) function. Pretty interesting stuff, actually, although I’m not entirely sure whether I could work there. It might just be too confining. I think I need to do some more field work first.

At lunch I went with Dad’s workmate Cliff to the Old Ebbet Grill right near the White House. This place just screams old money, but it does serve amazing food. I ordered the crab cakes and they came warm, soft and delicious. I have been so spoilt on this trip!! Backpacker, my arse!

For the rest of the afternoon I did some sightseeing along the National Mall, taking advantage of the fine weather and visiting the Washington Monument. The view from the top is amazing, particularly when it’s not that busy on a winter weekday afternoon. I highly recommend it! There’s a nifty exhibition on who Washington was, and his achievements, and also on the elevator down they discuss the different stone used in the construction, and the parts donated by each of the states in the Union.

Just before sunset I nipped over to Arlington Cemetery. Arlington is famous for being the resting place for JFK, Robert Kennedy, Robert E Lee and many other powerful Americans. However, it’s also the burial ground for any ex-military personnel should they request it. Thus it’s a working cemetery, with approximately 6 funerals a day. This means it’s always growing, and it’s HUGE. I only had time to walk around a small section of it, but it’s always a sobering experience and one that I won’t forget easily. That many dead – as far as the eye can see in most directions – just seems such a waste.

Tonight Jen and I had dinner at the newly-opened Whole Foods in Fairfax. This place is HUGE and awesome. Think of a Coles/Woolworths with almost entirely organic fresh produce, and a mini food court inside, selling cooked versions of the fresh food they sell. Great stuff!

I have made it my mission this week to see at least one person a day. I’m here partly to sightsee and partly to meet people (or as I like to say, to ‘cold-coffee’ with them). I was intending originally to intern here for a month or so, and head north on the weekends to visit friends. Circumstances changed, however, and that was no longer an option. So a few weeks back I amended my plans and decided to spend about 4 days in each of the cities I was going to spend 2 in, and stay for over a week in DC and a week in Boston. This gave me time to meet the people I wanted to meet, as well as do some proper sightseeing around the region. The only problem with this plan was the weather. It’s traditionally bitterly cold in the Northeast at this time of year, and even though this year has been far milder than previous ones (did someone say “global warming”?), I highly doubt Montreal will be ‘warm’!

The other weather-related issue is transport. Many airports and train stations in the area close down for some or all of winter as the snow and wind makes travel hazardous. Chicago’s O’Hare Airport is notorious for cancelled flights, so hopefully I’ll be able to build some buffers into my trip to allow for delays.

Anyways, so today on my mission was the International Spy Museum, Ford’s Theatre, the National Building Museum, the Smithsonian Castle and seeing Akemi. And, surprisingly enough, I did it all! Just!

I started at the International Spy Museum, near the FBI. Interestingly enough, for one of the few non-free museums in DC, it is one of the most popular. It’s two stories of espionage, intrigue and gadgets. It’s very well done, although a bit tacky in parts. The history of spying goes right from the Chinese in 500BC to the end of the Cold War. Interestingly enough, there is little discussed beyond 1990. I’m guessing this is largely because they can’t access or display the still-classified records, but it would have been nice to speculate.

There were also some interesting exhibits on Hollywood and spying, and how one has influenced the other. Apparently, the CIA etc. took cues from the early Bond vehicles when outfitting their protected cars. Nifty, eh?

Ford’s Theatre and the Lincoln Museum, just down the road, were my next stop. It was here that Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth whilst attending the theatre. It was quite a small museum, and unfortunately due to rehearsals we couldn’t see the box Lincoln was sitting in when he was killed, but the artifacts that are there are as chilling as they are interesting. They even have the pillow that he was sitting on, and his coat! Complete with blood stains!

From there, I headed down to the National Building Museum to see what it was like. I’d heard good things about it, but to be honest architecture in and of itself is not my forte. I like admiring buildings and structures, but not necessarily reading about them. This museum though, is something special. The building itself disguises an enormous atrium, which is home to one of the Presidential Inauguration Balls. The two exhibits that I managed to fit in today were on Green Houses – or how to build an environmentally friendly house – and on DC itself. The first exhibition was fascinating, and really well done. It showed the many different options for homebuilders, citing examples from around the world, who want to live in a ‘green’ house under a budget. I picked up the booklet if people want to look at it. It makes for very interesting reading.

The second exhibition looked at the initial design for Washington DC by L’Enfant, and how the current city differs from it. DC, like Canberra, is a purpose-built capital city. It was located near the Mason-Dixon line (the line separating North and South in the Civil War), and was built on a swamp. It was originally a diamond, half from Virginia and half from Maryland. The SW part (belonging to Northern Virginia) has since been given back, and is now Arlington County. The rest is divided by the US Capitol Building and the Mall into NE, NW and SE. As it turns out, L’Enfants plan was fairly well adhered to, but only after many years. Initially only the Mall and its direct surrounds were kept to plan. The rest has come since.

I had a quick visit to the Smithsonian Castle to look around and watch the video on why the Institution exists etc. It was founded on money left to the US by Mr. Smithson, a Brit who had never set foot in the US, but wanted to create a place for people to learn (but not a university). Nifty, eh?

That night I headed to a bar in Courthouse to farewell Akemi. Akemi is a friend from USyd who now works for USAid and is heading off to Iraq on assignment with them. I met some of her excellent friends in DC and had a great Shepherd’s Pie. Stay safe Akemi!! If you want to read of her deeds, check out her blog .

Sunday 14 Jan
Back at the house to be domestic. Watched a lot of Firefly! Nearly through the whole season now!

Monday 15 Jan
After so many days of not really doing anything, I decided to make the most of my remaining 5 days in DC. It didn’t get off to the greatest start with me sleeping in, but that was fine. I more than made up for that later.

My initial plan was to visit the White House and surrounds and visit the Compucat Washington office (my Dad’s work). Due to the aforementioned sleep-in, I had a quick whistle-stop visit to the White House (which was OK as you cannot enter it post-9/11). For lunch, Emily, Ellen and I had planned to meet and discuss Sydney. Ellen works with my Dad in DC and Emily, her daughter, is heading to Sydney on a study abroad program in February. So they both came armed with loads of questions on Sydney and Australia and University etc. etc.

It’s Emily’s first trip abroad on her own, so it’s a big move! She’ll have an awesome time, that’s a given. The only issue that was raised was her taking Health Sciences units. These, at USyd at least, are taken on a different campus. One that is quite far away from downtown. So I think she’s decided to scrap them, which luckily at USyd is a really easy process. We never have ‘full’ classes so changing preferences is easy. (Not that I would have ever considered it ‘easy’ before I traveled abroad!)

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Café in DC. As far as I am aware, this was my first trip to a Hard Rock. It was surprisingly good actually! The portions were gigantic, of course, and the beer was poured horrifically badly, but the meal itself was tasty and SO filling.

After lunch I visited the National Archives. These house the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution), the US Constitution (with Hancock’s famously large signature), and a copy of the Magna Carta. It was a fascinating museum, although being a public holiday (for Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday), the main documentary wasn’t running. I’ve heard this place can be mega-busy in the summer, but right now it was dead quiet, which was nice. I can imagine 100 people all bustling to see the Bill of Rights wouldn’t be pleasant.

From there I walked back down the National Mall to the Freer Gallery of Art. I really didn’t expect to stop here at all, but once I was in, I was hooked. It’s a fantastic gallery of Asian artifacts and design. Being the egg that I am, I am always on the look-out for anything Asian and here it was, right in DC. I think I was the only person in some of those galleries at the time, but nonetheless the calligraphy and everything else was amazing.

It is little stops like that which make me happy to be traveling independently again. If I was in a tour group, there would have been little chance that we would have stopped at the Freer Gallery, let alone spent time there to see the whole museum. I really enjoy going at my own pace again!

Finally, on Saturday, Kristin and her friend Melissa came to pick me up and we went downtown. Kristin and I met in Singapore in 2005 when we were both studying on exchange at NUS. I haven’t seen her since May 2005, so we had a lot of catching up to do! Melissa is her ex-roommate from William & Mary.

We visited the National Mall (the central boulevard of Washington, DC – NOT a giant shopping centre!). Off the Mall are all the Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery, the monuments, the US Capitol Building and the White House. Many government offices also spread off the 2-mile long stretch of lawn and pedestrianised pathways. Today we visited the Korean, Vietnam and WW2 War Memorials, the Lincoln Monument, the US Postal Museum and Union Station.

We had intended to eat at the famed canteen of the National Museum of the American Indian, but due to a burst water main, both it and the National Air & Space Museum were closed for the day! Just our luck! We eventually found lunch in the Union Station food court. We ate dinner at an Iranian restaurant in McLean, VA. The place is called Shamshiry, and has the greatest menu I’ve ever seen. In fact, it was so good I took a copy for my collection of souvenirs!

An excerpt:

“ Shirin Polo – This is one of the most excitingly different, unusual and demanding of the Persian rice dishes. But it is also one of the most rewarding. The sweet rice is seasoned with spices, perfumed with sugared orange peel and made crunchy with pistachios and almonds. It tastes as if imaginative honeybees created it.”

“Baklava – Baklava is considered the grandest of all pastries … the taste of baklava will please you.”’