Viva la Vida

Like my title?

I have the right to be hyper - I woke up at 4:28 this morning after approximately four hours and 28 minutes of sleep.

DC rocked, as always. I'm going to miss my regular trips to DC while I'm in Argentina - as soon as I get back, I'll want to take a trip to DC. The city is amazing, purely amazing. It's full of cafes, well-dressed professionals, beautiful architecture, rich history, international influence, and government buildings that shine orange and yellow in the morning sun. Every time I walk around DC, I marvel about how well-put-together the city is: monuments to influential figures, fountains, squares and circles, and parks are artfully placed between beautiful unique buildings. Every building in the city is uniquely decorated and/or created with elements of abstract form: because the buildings have a height limit (so they don't overshadow the Capitol and White House), they demand attention through unique form instead of imposing heights. I've been to a variety of cities in the mid-Atlantic: Baltimore, NYC, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Harrisburg, and Annapolis, and DC's atmosphere is much, much different from any of these other mid-Atlantic cities. It's truly one-of-a-kind. If you've never been to DC, go.

Here's the report of my day, and, well, my conclusions from the day!

If you ever go to DC, eat lots of pastries. I ate an unhealthy amount today. Yum. No regrets there! Considering there are, oh, only six or seven little cafes and bakeries every block, that shouldn't be a problem. And eat pastries at the bakeries with the comfortable lounge chairs. No explanation necessary. Don't worry, you'll find them.

I made a rather ridiculous mistake. Lesson: if you have an appointment to submit something, make sure you have the document you need to submit (and did not leave it in your scanner the day before). Long story: so, I came to DC with my dad (he had a meeting, and my sister and I tagged along) because I had an appointment about the Department of State to submit my FBI background check. In the morning (before 5AM, remember, and I got less than five hours of sleep), I grabbed my folder with my visa documents, including (I thought) my FBI background check and the ID and check I needed for the appointment. After lunch, my dad brought the folder down from his office, where I'd kept it in the morning, and I checked to make sure the background check was there before I headed to my appointment. It wasn't. After a few minutes, I realized where it was - still in the scanner, where I'd accidentally left it after scanning it to send to the translation service. I called the DOS and rescheduled my appointment to Tuesday. Second lesson: if you want a second day in DC, leave what you need for your appointment at your house. Hey, that's what I call a bright side.

DC nap tip: the grass on the mall is extremely comfortable to lie on. It's, uh, rather bumpy, to say the least, and there are random patches of dirt, but when you get past that, it's incredibly soft grass.

I call DC "the city of cranes" because there is always construction. For example, today, besides the array of cranes one can always see in the skyline, I passed three construction sites with roaring jackhammers, not to mention the fact that part of the mall is closed off because a new museum is being built, and that the Washington Monument was surrounded by scaffolding. So if you go to DC and everything is covered in scaffolding, don't be annoyed. It's part of the experience. 

Now, finally, here's the song this blog post was named after! And, yes, this does fit in with the theme of the post, because this song reminds me of DC; I'm always tempted to hum it when I'm wandering the city.