Sunday, November 30, 2003

Washington D.C. was surprising to me. I think I expected it to be something else. I don't know...bigger or older or something.

It is a very pretty city...everything seemed pretty clean. I guess they pay people a lot of money to scrub it down so it looks good to tourists and politicians. The White House was much much smaller than I expected. The first thing I did there was go to the Holocaust Museum. When is one in a good space to go to that, I wonder? I just kind of went because it was the first thing we ran into on my list of places to see. It was heavy and intense. I learned a lot about the Holocaust that I didn't know. It was also sort of...packaged, I guess. I just kept thinking about how it seemed a little like a big, shiny advertisment. Not an advertisment...but it was all very slick. But I guess that is good because people are most responsive to things that are slick and well-packaged. But I'm really glad I went. I learned a lot.

Terri and I got our pictures taken in front of the White House and in front of the Washington Monument. It is hard to avoid the Washington Monument, though, because it juts out into the sky and you can see it everywhere. We passed on getting our pictures taken with the cardboard cut-outs of Bush and Clinton.

We also cooked a pretty impressive Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a real turkey! We labored for over an hour in the grocery store trying to figure out what our capabilities were in the cooking a turkey sphere. In the end, we decided to go for it and we cooked a pretty nice turkey. I was a little suspicious...it may have been slightly pink...but Terri and her sister said it wasn't, so I trusted them. Still, I think we did pretty well.

The weekend was somewhat relaxing and totally fun. Today, I had to get back to teaching reality and plan for the week, but everything feels much nicer with the knowledge that I only have three teaching weeks until break! And on December 21st, I fly to Portland! I don't come back until the 1st! So, Portlanders, what is up for New Years?

I hope to also make it to the Bay Area for a spell...though money is looking bad on that front. But if I can lie, cheat, and steal for the dough, I'll be seeing you folks, too. ¶ 7:15 PM