marathon day/ capital concert

Friday was a great day because our briefings ended at 12 so we had the rest of the day to do fun things. So after briefings finished we went to Pentagon city to go swimming with our friends over there.  (julie, adeline, stefi and kelly, some of our favorite people) Then we went to Good Stuff Eatery for dinner.  It was fantastic.  Another burger place, with great fries and great shakes too.  It was a different kind of burger than Rays hell burger, but maybe just as good.  loved it.  then we went home and watched movies at the Barlow Center in our fantastic basement recreational area.  The barlow center is great, and I am really liking the people that are here.

Saturday was a MARATHON kind of day.  we started our day in the museum of natural history, which was great, but we may have spent a bit too long in there, because by the time we left I was pretty bored of it.  The geology and minerals section seemed to stretch on far too long.  There are about a million rocks in there, and each one has a little paragraph description written by it.  It only took about one of them to make me want a nap.  I did like the mammals, that humongous shark jaw that was probably even bigger than jaws himself, and a few other exhibits.

After the Smithsonian we walked around the mall and sat by the washington monument (it was too late in the afternoon to go up it) then walked through the WWII memorial, which was neat.  I had never seen it before. Then we walked down to the Korean memorial. I love the Korean memorial because it is so real.  The statues of the soldiers fighting represent the war itself, and the faces carved into the wall represent the individuals that fought and died.  To me, this memorial represents the idea of that war is fought by people with names and identities and lives. Individuals fought together, but they were never just a mob of nameless, bloodthirsty monsters.  When we look at casualties of war we often see numbers of those killed, and think about how terrible it is based on the quantity of them.  This memorial forces us to look at the quality of those lost.  The individuals who gave everything for freedom and peace.  Not the collective, and not the mass. After the Korean we walked past the Lincoln memorial and took a look at it.  I had read a little bit about it recently, and learned that his hands in the statue itself have particular meaning.  One hand is open, representing his open-mindedness, and the other is closed representing his will and resolve towards preserving the union.  We at dinner at a restaurant in Watergate called Chens.  it is just Chinese fast food, but it is pretty famous because it has been around for a long time.  Presidents have eaten there and so do a lot of important people.  It looked subpar from the outside, but the food was delicious.  I understood why it had the reputation is has immediately.  

After church on sunday, we went to the national cathedral. It was cool, and reminded me a lot of Notre Dame.  It might be smaller, I'm not sure.  And there is no quasimodo.  And it is much more American, with most of the writing inside in English (as opposed to Latin, like most cathedrals) The Cathedral was neat, really pretty, and a great sunday cultural experience.  On sunday night, we had our first group pot-luck.  There was about fifteen of us involved, and everyone brought something different.  It turned out quite well, and all of the food was not only edible, but pretty good too.  It was a fun time.  After that, we went to the National Orchestra concert in front of the capital.  it was great, the played music by John Williams, James Horner, and Leonard Bernstein.  A couple of singers from the Army Chorus sang the love songs from west side story, which was great.  The concert experience was neat because you are literally sitting on the capitols front lawn, and the music was fantastic.  It would have to be for it to be the "National Orchestra." All in all, great times were had.