All's Well that ends well

Tonight we went to the show "All's well that ends well" at the Shakespeare theatre company.  It was great.  We got really cheap tickets and the show was great.  The show is about a girl who loves a guy who doesn't love her back but then eventually does.  It was funny and a the production was really good.  There were actors that had been small roles on Friends, the movie Jack, and several other tv shows. It's a theater company where lots of great actors go when they aren't really doing tv shows and movies. 

Iwo Jima Episode 2/New Room

There was a group of people that missed the last trip to Iwo Jima, so I went with them for round 2. It's not a place that gets old or anything so I was glad to have another opportunity to go see it.  Every time I see it it seems bigger and more impressive.  We had a little bit more time so we went over the the bell tower.  The view from there is amazing, and everyone really enjoyed it.  It was a great night. 

Not much else has happened, but I have settled in my room and it finally is starting to feel like home, so I am putting up a picture of it.

nationals game/national portrait gallery/ wok n roll

We decided to celebrate Labor day with Americas favorite past time.  Baseball. We found some cheap tickets online so about ten of us decided to go.  The nationals are not the best team in the league, but the stadium is nice and baseball games are generally fun.  the game itself was great, the Nationals crushed the mets 12-3 and there were some fun moments. Not much else to really say about it.

NATIONALS GAME! (clockwise from far left: Ben, Me, Aubrey, Robby, Scott, Brittany, Bree and Liz)

After the game I went and met some other friends at the Smithsonian National Portrait gallery, to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit.  I like Rockwell a lot because he paints such a simple world.  His paintings remind me of the fifties, Happy Days, the Brady Bunch, Andy Griffith, and that generation and culture.  I bought an 8x10 postcard of this painting below in the giftshop because it reminded me of the movie "the sandlot." 

Choosin' up by Norman Rockwell

After the museum we went to "Wok N Roll" which is in China town, just a few blocks away from the museum.  I had been pretty excited to try it out because there is cheap sushi AND Chinese food.  And it is located in the Mary Surratt boarding house.  Mary Surratt was one of the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination, so the building is pretty famous.  Now it has a chinese restaurant.  I wonder if they did that as a way to continue punishing surratt a century later. The food I had was great, combination fried rice and General Tso's Chicken.  I realize that almost every single entry I write has a good deal of food commentary, and I am ok with that.  because I am all about the SCONEing. 

On another note, my feet are suffering quite a bit lately.  I made the mistake of wearing new sandals to walk around the city one day, and they wore holes in my feet.  I think they started as blisters, then wore through a few more layers of skin.  This is what they look like. Woof. My right foot is just as bad.

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.

Georgetown cupcake/ Jefferson Memorial

SCONing: Saturday of new eateries.. Last night we tried a new dessert place: Georgetown cupcake. It was a bit of a walk, and had a long line, but the cupcakes were good. And there was a group of about 18 of us who went, so that was fun. None of us have internships tomorrow so everyone felt a little bit adventurous about staying out later. I got some good pictures.

After that we walked over to foggy bottom and headed in the direction of the Jefferson memorial. It was a bit of a trek, but it was worth it. The Jefferson Memorial is so cool, and I love how it is out on the water. We were there until about eleven, when they shut off all the lights while we were still inside. I actually thought that was kind of cool. There is a quote in there that I really like. “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?” A perfect argument against the seperation between church and state. Anyone who says the founding fathers meant to write God out of the constitution completely is lying. And that is important to remember. Every liberal pundit I have hear lately has said that Glenn Beck and the “restore honor” tea party are a bunch of old crazy white people. It is sad to think that old crazy white people are the only ones that embrace the values and ideas our nation was founded upon. I would like to think that it’s not true, but we know that the nation has been moving in that direction for a long time, and the current government is highly representative of that.

China town/ iwo jima

after my security appointment I had most of the day left, so I decided to explore around the area I work.  China town is awesome.  There are about a hundred asian restaurants, and I found five or six that I am really excited about.  One is a dim sum place, which I love.  One is a place with a $3.50 lunch special.  it might be gross and it might make me sick, but i have to try! And I found a place that looks like it has really good sushi.  So I am excited about that.  And it has happy hour every weeknight with dollar sushi, so we will need to do that sometime.  Delicious restaurants are crucial to the enjoyment of my work experience. just kidding. kind of. There is also an urbs right there.  


Tonight after institute (which was great) we decided to go to Iwo Jima.  One of my favorite places in the entire world.  I remember going there when I was little and then again when I was in eighth grade.  The monument itself is amazing and inspiring, and such a great symbol of patriotism.  I was reminded of the movie "flags of our fathers" which wasn't my favorite, but the story behind the monument and the picture that inspired it is pretty amazing.  In short, the picture taken of the men raising the flag at Iwo Jima inspired huge bond influx that helped America win in World War 2.  There is a lot of backstory about who really raised the flag and who got credit and stuff, but I don't want to dwell on that.  ALSO everyone should consider seeing Letters from Iwo Jima.  It is much better, and tells the story from the Japanese perspective, so it is actually in Japanese.  


"uncommon valor was a common virtue."  I will probably never have to raise a flag in a warzone, or even see a warzone.  I will probably never have to carry bodies of friends out of the fire and hell of a battlefield. Whenever I think i might have troubles or hard times, I should just remember that.  We often think about that in regards to Pioneers that struggled and lost everyone and everything.  Our lives, in comparison, really aren't that hard.  I guess we do have our own challenges, but it just makes me respect those soldiers in the statue even more.  This brings me back to my original question from my first blog post.  When I was thinking about the Rally that brought in half a million people from all around the country. WHAT MOVES PEOPLE? what drives them?  A simple image of soldiers raising a flag inspired Americans to give hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of dollars to the war effort.  An idea, "restore honor" brought Americans from all over the country to a four hour rally in 90+ degree heat and humidity. What moves people?  Honor. Values. Patriotism. Just to name a few.

The department of justice

sSo I don't know if I have mentioned it on here yet or not, but my security clearance for my internship at the department of justice has taken a little bit longer to clear than expected, so I have had a few days just to hang out in DC.  Today though I went in for the first time to get finger printed and have them review my papers with me.  The place is in the middle of china town, which I will talk about a little more later.  I went the other day looking for it, but gave up thinking that I had the wrong address.  It is literally hidden between two buildings.  In the fifth harry potter, the secret headquarters of Harry and co. was hidden magically, between two normal buildings.  When someone wanted to get into it, the two buildings magically spread apart and the headquarters appeared.  Watch it.  the department of justice's office of justice programs is the very same.  it is hidden between a pub and the german cultural center. Not really hidden, but there is no sign for it or anything, so if you didn't know any better you would think the Gold doors are a part of the German cultural center.  But I got to go in, and it was awesome.  can't wait to start working there. Below is a picture of it from googlemaps.



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