It’s time to thank my donors. (You know who you are.. :-)) I really appreciate your support and you keep me going…

Thanks a lot,
Splette

Matcha frappuccino – my favorite

I discovered green tea frappuccino in Japan in 2004. There they call it ‘matcha frappuccino’ and frappuccino is only one of a thousand things the Japanese like in the flavor of green tea. I became an instant fan, too. Years later when I was in San Francisco I realized that (unlike Germany) they sell the green tea flavored frappuccinos here, too. During  my trip I visit Starbucks on an almost daily basis for the free Wifi and to work and blog. To my big disappointment I realized this year that the green tea frappuccino had altogether disappeared from the Starbucks menu.
It wasn’t until months into my trip that someone suggested to me to simply ask for that flavor although it is not on the menu. And amazingly, they still got it! What an insider tip. If you haven’t yet, give it a try some time. Soo good…

Just some general comments about my blog:
In case you haven’t noticed, yet: New blog posts do not always appear at the top. This is because sometimes I take a bit longer to write about some places I visited earlier (I am still looking for the right words to describe Knoxville, TN). So, it may be worth checking if there are any new posts further down the page. I send out a tweet with a link whenever I post something new: http://www.twitter.com/splette.
Some people have complained about not being able to comment. The comment function was a little hidden in the past but should work in general. I have added a little bubble next to the headlines to make it easier to find.
If you have any other suggestions for improvements, let me know!

The White House

It’s 7 am and I wake up in a different world. The bus is arriving at the National Mall in DC, an impressive view. We stop at a traffic light right in front of the United States Institute of Peace (surrounded by a tall fence). I wonder if the institute is part of the Department of Defense. I get off at the bus stop and start walking. It’s cold but nothing like the apokalyptic snowstorm the news made me to expect.

Chinatown

The nice thing about DC is there is a Starbucks on every block. This one is only a few blocks away from the White House. People on the next table discuss international affairs. Yep, I am not in Knoxville, Tennessee any more. I get a hot chocolate, go online and start looking for a place to sleep tonight…

My hostel

No luck with the couchsurfing but I find a centrally-located hostel, a bit expensive though. It turned out to be a great place. Very friendly, clean, safe. Some of the usual weird/crazy guests (I wonder if I will turn into one of those after a year of traveling). My stay in DC turns out to be quite different than expected. I am very busy with scistyle work (two deadlines on the same weekend), my private projects, keeping up with writing emails and organizing things. Eventually, I spent most of the time with my laptop at Starbucks in Chinatown and get to see only a few museums in DC, all of which I love. The National Mall is truly impressive! DC is extremely different from Knoxville, TN (are you surprised? I am not…) … not just bigger. Interestingly I found DC to be very calm taking into account that it’s the capital of the U.S. I expected it to be a lot more busy.

Hirshhorn Museum

A short side note for my WeightWatchers® friends. Since I got to DC I am on a radical diet. Need to get rid of all that extra baggage that accumulated due to Paul’s cooking, Christmas and the Knoxville burger-stuffing-spree. But no, I won’t start blogging weekly updates on how many pounds I lost…

Back in 2007, when I first visited the US (for a study visit at the Oak Ridge National Lab near Knoxville, Tennessee), my colleague and I spend our very first night at a Super 8 Motel. As it turns out this very Super 8 Motel at Papermill Rd. became the scene of a shooting last month. If my mother gets to know about this….