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…