d.c. weekend

Yay! I had a very good weekend. It was the best weekend I think I have had since I have moved out here. It was wonderful to see Christine and get to chat with her about everything that has gone on in our lives since India. She is such an amazing, rare person and I feel so lucky that I have gotten to see a small part of the world with her. I was telling her that I really hope we get the chance to travel again together, since I had so much fun with her before. Being with her in India enriched my experience tremendously, and I appreciate that very much.

I took the MARC train into D.C. on Friday night after work, and met up with Christine at the train station. We went to her place and she cooked Thai and we chatted. Then we went out to a fabulous coffee place called Busboys and Poets, a coffeehouse/café/bar where we stayed until early in the morning.

On Saturday, we hit the monuments. Christine lives on Capitol Hill, so she is really close to the monument area of D.C. We walked up to the Capitol Building, which is a lot more squat that I thought it was. I envisioned this towering dome, but the dome itself is just a small part of the building’s structure. Christine told me that when Congress is in session, they fly flags for both the House and Senate. Late one night, at about 10 p.m., her roommate was running by the Capitol and saw that the House flag was flying. When she got home, she told everyone and they flipped on C-SPAN to find out what was going on. It turned out to be an important environmental bill that they debated on late into the night.

We walked up the Mall towards the Washington Monument (which WAS as large as I expected). It was such a beautiful day on Saturday; sunny, not a cloud in the sky and in the low 60’s. Great for wandering.

The rest of the monuments are formed in a circle, so first up was the Jefferson Memorial. His is very similar in architecture to the Lincoln, because it has a statue, quotes and the same pillars. All of his quotes were about the equality of man, and the justice of God. It was very cool. As I walked along, Christine and I talked about how those quotes and writings are still very relevant today, considering the current situations in America and abroad.

Next was FDR. This is an interesting one because it spans all four of his terms in office. It starts out with the Great Depression and the New Deal and then spans into WWII. There are a few statues of FDR himself, but there is also a statue to Eleanor Roosevelt, honoring her commitment and importance to the creation of the United Nations. I LOVE the U.N., so of course I respect her greatly. I cannot believe that she doesn’t have her own monument, truth be told. But I think it is extremely significant that she would be included in the memorial to her husband, recognizing the important role she played in his presidency and policy.

The next two were right next to each other, Korea and Lincoln. The Korean memorial was very interesting because I know very little about the war. I had never realized that so many people had died and been injured in that conflict (the U.S. death toll was 54,000, wounded 100,000). Those are extraordinarily high numbers for something I didn’t know much about.

I have to say, I was not that impressed by the Lincoln Memorial. I had it in my mind that it would be this massive structure, but it was not as large as I expected. That being said, there were quite a few interesting things about it, especially about the statue itself. I have seen many pictures of the memorial, in history books and movies, etc. But standing in front of the statue of Lincoln you are overcome with the awesome power the sculptor portrayed in someone who is sitting. Sitting is usually very passive, but his face looks alert, focused and strong, his foot is forward as if he is ready to stand up, and one of his hands was a clenched fist.

By far the most moving monument was the Vietnam Memorial. I had a huge lump in my throat for a while as I fought hard to keep the tears back. The personal tragedy of the people who visit is very evident. I couldn’t help but think about how powerful it would be to see the name of your relative or friend memorialized in the same place as some of our country’s greatest leaders. It is extremely touching to see people who have traveled to the memorial to trace the name of their loved one off of the wall, or to leave a precious memento. It makes you realize the great tragedy that war really is.

We went by the White House next. I was, again, surprised at how small the White House seemed. I had imagined this monstrous building set far, far off the main street. But instead it was a more modest house, very close to the surrounding buildings. It’s amazing that so much power resides in that small building. After that long day, Christine and I had Thai for dinner and then crashed at her place.

Sunday we went to church at the National Cathedral. This I was impressed by. I love churches anyway, but it definitely was on par with the older gothic churches I have seen in Europe. The cathedral was only recently completed, in 1990, so it has some more gothic touches, like gargoyles shaped like fish and Darth Vader (I kid you not!).

We had met up with Christine’s friend Jack at church, and we all went out to eat at an Ethiopian place. It was the first time I have had Ethiopian food and it was pretty good, though I don’t think it will ever be my favorite. Anyway, I caught a quick train out of D.C. that night to come home and make kheer (it’s an Indian rice pudding dessert). We are having a potluck party tonight for a few of the women in my department who are leaving at the end of the month, and all of the food people bring is Indian. The kheer turned out o.k., although it needed more rice!

So, yeah, I had a good weekend.