Just a Nice Day in America

Whhaaaaattt?

I know. Bizarre.  This is a side of the east coast I don't know. Beautiful weather?  I'm wearing sweatshirts and closed-toed shoes just because I don't know what else to do. It does rain randomly, which I'm really not prepared for at all (my refusal to buy rainboots has been an issue since maybe the 9th grade), which is obnoxious, but it hasn't been a serious problem thus far.

Anyway, so I'm sitting outdoors for the second day in a row at present.  Yesterday I went to the National Mall with my roommate, which is a typical touristy thing to do, but it was such a beautiful day, and it just seemed like the most logical place to be outside.

You can kind of see the cross in the mall.  Also, this is my only Google Imaged photo, the rest Katharina took (and I helped!) and are real photos that I sort of have the rights to!

I'm sure most of you know what the National Mall is, but just to recap, essentially the center of DC is built up around 5 major buildings: the Capitol Building, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Washington Monument at center.  Feminist-types have pointed out that the way these are arranged forms a cross, and at the center of the cross stands a huge phallic symbol, but the most important thing to note about the mall is just that it's this big, well kept lawn, around which there are huge symbols of America that draw thousands of tourists daily.

So anyway, we left campus and hopped on a train and got of at Metro Center, which acts as a kind of nice midpoint for the city.  Where we got off, we stumbled in to the USA Science & Engineering Festival, which took over a bunch of streets near the National Mall with mobile science exhibits and other cool interactive science-y things.  We sat down and watched this presentation some guy was giving about energy production and conservation.  We only caught a very little bit of his presentation, but he was trying to explain the problem in a way that everyone could really understand, so he was very dynamic throughout the whole show, kind of similar to a show at a theme park where they try to keep you entertained.

Here's a photo of him talking to himself (via a pre-recorded video on a huge screen)

He was great, but not that great, so we left.  We thought about trying to find a nice place to sit, and so I suggested maybe we could try going to this hotel called Hotel Washington.  This particular hotel has a rooftop bar that had a supposedly great view, and when my mom was in town, we tried at least 2 or 3 times to get up there (but I kept getting carded, story of my LIFE here...). So anyway, we found this hotel and miraculously had no trouble getting up to the rooftop!

Huge letdown. Kind of a boring view, although the view of the Washington Monument was nice (but it's a giant tower, where in this city is the view of the Washington Monument NOT nice?).  I mean, yeah, cool, but not worth four attempts and three rejections to get up there.

Stupid bar.

So after this, we decide to just go to the mall like normal people. But since we were nearby, we went to go see the White House, you know, go say hello to the Obama Family.  Barack keeps texting me to chill, but I've been so busy, so I figured it'd be nice to stop by and say hello.

He seemed a little preoccupied though, so we didn't stay long.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day on the grass at the mall.  Katharina took a bunch of pictures of American flags, I did some research (free Mall wifi, best decision to ever come out of Washington), and we checked out a couple more touristy things like the WWII Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. Then, we got a little tired, so we decided to lay down...

All in all, a good day.

Today is a even more low key. I'm just sitting outside my dorm.  At Tufts, there exists this one albino squirrel who hangs out on campus, and when you see him when you're walking around school, you feel good because you know you've just experienced something rare and awesome.  On Tenley Campus (where I live now), there was one black squirrel when I first got here, which I thought was a really funny coincidence because of the Tufts Albino Squirrel.  Now, however, there is an entire family of black squirrels, including one baby one, who just ran by.  Adorable.

Mid-October Updates

Sorry for no posts for so long, I'm actually not really sure what I've been doing that's kept me so busy, but I'm sure it was something important.  Since my last update (I know you were all really excited about my hair cut...):

• I took my midterm exam.  So exciting, I know.  I think it went well.  I spent a fair amount of time killing myself studying.
• I found BOMB Mexican food near work, this place called Taqueria Nacional about two blocks away.  They have really good Yucca Fries, and really awesome cheap tacos.  I may never go to Chipotle again (whaaaaatt???)
• I ate so many chips I thought I was going to vomit once.  I went with my roommate to this restaurant to meet her friend and his girlfriend for drinks on Friday, but since I can't drink, my brilliant solution to the awkwardness was to eat everything in sight.  Clearly this worked well.
• I'm sick. Sucks. My nose is raw, and I'm quickly running out of stolen toilet paper to mitigate the nose-flow.  Also, I now talk like an 80 year old smoker/13 year old puberty boy.

This post comes because I'm supposed to be writing a memo outlining what I would suggest as an effective communications strategy for the President's economic policy.  So I spent all weekend in the Reading Room coughing up a lung and reading the testimony of various economic scholars on the president's economic policy.  I think I get it.  I wonder what percentage of America really doesn't...

So essentially, I'm having a stupid week.

Although, I was realizing today that I'm about 6 weeks into my program, meaning it's about half over.  I'm kind of bummed about this for a lot of reasons, probably mostly because I wish time didn't move so fast, but also because I feel like I'm finally starting to hit my groove.  I'm actually working really hard (whhaaaatttt????) and also really enjoying the things I'm doing and my friends here (I think I maybe actually should buy a camera, because I'm starting to want photographic evidence that I was here).

So this is a really dumb post.  I hope nobody comments on it.  I'll try to do something exciting and with photos this weekend!

Also...

I got a haircut.  I always wait til times when I'm home to cut my hair because a. getting haircuts causes me significant anxiety and b. I can usually avoid paying for them when I'm home.  I hadn't messed with my hair for actually almost an entire year though, and it was really long (which actually looked kind of nice sometimes, but was starting to get really ridiculous).

Me before my haircut! 

After deciding my hair situation had finally gone too far, I went to this Fantastic Sam's-like place in a strip mall in Virginia (I housesat for the Morans this weekend, so I was hanging out on that side of town).  As soon as I walked in and sat down at a chair, I realized I'd made a huge mistake.  The only people getting their haircut were a 12 year old boy, a middle aged man, and two elderly women who were actually balding.  

Immediately, I start to panic.  The woman who's cutting my hair asks if I speak Spanish, and then proceeds to sternly chide me for the next 30 minutes about how I'm such a pretty girl and I obviously don't put any effort into my personal upkeep.  I show her the length that I want in the back, but she tells me that my hair grows so fast, so she'll cut more. Great.  She starts cutting, and in my panic I realize that I'm starting to look like Victor from Smoke Signals right after he gets enraged and cuts his hair off with a knife. I feel like I'm going to vom. I start frantically planning where I'm going to go after this ordeal is over to have them fix my hair, imagining then that they too mess up my hair, and after going to four or five hair salons, I just end up with a buzz cut.  Or worse yet...

After about 45 minutes of agonized cutting, blow-drying, and crying, the woman announces she's done.  I open my eyes.  I look pretty much the same, except with shorter hair.  I thank her and pay (but don't tip too generously because I'm still feeling kind of nauseous from the whole ordeal), and leave.