Firstly, I am in love with this city. Washington D.C. is a wonderful mixture of people from all over the country and the world that are here to do great things. Everyone you meet is attempting to have an impact on the world in some way whether that's by going to graduate school, working at a nonprofit, or showing children how important an appreciation of culture is. People here are very focused on career goals and whom you know, so it is often one of the first questions asked when meeting someone new.
I live in Petworth, which is a neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of D.C., and is jokingly called Notyetworth as it is in the process of gentrification. The rotunda of the Capitol is the point of origin for the city's quadrants even though it is not the geographic center of the city. It was laid out this by Pierre Charles L'Enfant way back when the capital was moved to D.C. from Philadelphia. Petworth is a nice quiet neighborhood, but I'm hoping to move to a neighborhood that has a little more going on.
All of the time leading up to the Inauguration was spent getting to know the city and the attractions better, so I've been in a lot of museums and neighborhoods doing research. It's nice to have a job in which you become better at it by doing fun things. Here are some highlights:
1. I went to the White House's Diwali Party and met Joe Biden, one of the leaders of Americorps, and was mistook for the only other white person there multiple times even though he was a foot shorter and carrying a musical instrument. Apparently, we all look the same to people from India.
2. I saw one of my favorite drag queens Latrice Royale perform, and I also went to a drag brunch with my friends Jenae, Ben, and Hillary. No offense, Birmingham, but people up here know how to put on a show. Also, brunch is the cool thing to do. I've never been to brunch so many times in my life.
3. I experienced snow for the first time in a place where life goes on as normal. Where was the line at the grocery store to get bread and milk? How were people driving? These are the musings of a Southern boy. Also, do not talk about the Blizzard of 93 with anyone. They will laugh when they find out it was only 8" of snow.
4. This may not seem monumental, but I also learned what "cold" is. My Alabama definition was below 60. Now I am so happy to see 40+ on the forecast. I now actually wear scarves, coats, and hats, and I have no clue what flip flops and shorts are anymore.
5. I've really enjoyed living in a city where there are choices for nightlife. Alabama really didn't offer much of a variety. Here there are the super divey bars of Adams Morgan, the young professional areas in Virginia, the snobbily rich clubs of Georgetown, the unique and cluttered U Street, the great dance spots in Dupont Circle, and the impossible to get to music venues of H Street in Penn Quarter.
6. I went to New York to get my license there and watched the Alabama Crimson Tide roll over Notre Dame. I also saw Peter and the Starcatcher, which was amazing, and I was lame in restaurant choice the entire time, so I need to do a better job of that next week even if Olive Garden was so good.
Since this is just an overview, I'm going to move on to my Inauguration tour, but I am going to try in the future to do short updates about cool things to do in the city.
My group was an AP Government class from a town in Connecticut, so thankfully they were accustomed to cold. The first day the bus dropped them off to meet me at the National Portrait Gallery/ Museum of American Art. These two museums occupy the same building and flow in and out of one another on each floor. The best known collection there is the Presidential Portrait Gallery, but there are also rotating exhibits of modern American artists and an amazing neon light and television screen map of the United States, picture below, by artist Nam June Paik. Behind every state is a collection of televisions depicting something that state is know for. For example, behind Idaho is a video loop of potatoes. I snuck a picture with the Obama painting while my group was walking around. I tried my best not to let any of my political leanings come out, which was semi successful.
After spending time in those museums, we walked to Ford's Theatre and Peterson House, where Lincoln was shot and died respectively. This is a good area for D.C. branded souvenir shopping, especially if you want discounted Romney apparel. From here, we continued on to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Air and Space Museum, and the Hirsshorn Sculpture Garden before dinner and a tour of all of the main monuments and memorials at night. One of the main tenets of student travel is to fit as many activities into a day because it is both cheaper and a tool to make them fall asleep when they get back to the hotel. Walking from Washington to Lincoln to Jefferson with stops in between will definitely do that.
The second day of tour was the day before the Inauguration, so we avoided downtown because there were so many road closures and detours. We began the day at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home in Virginia. They have a museum and education center now that make the attraction worth going to if you're not a fan of house tours. It's best to go during off season because the guides in the home can give you a more in-depth commentary of each room. With so many people here, each room guide had a minute long speech prepared that they just said over and over again. Our next stop was Iwo Jima followed by Arlington National Cemetery, but something got in the way.
As we drove up to Iwo Jima, we saw Mario Lopez filming on the side of a hill for extra right by the street. I told my group not to run across the street and bother him, but they couldn't help themselves. The segment producer told them if they were quiet they could be on the show. After twenty minutes of listening to him say the same sentences over and over, she kept her promise. My entire group stood with him and filmed a few shots of him asking questions about The Bachelor and Michelle Obama's bangs. He asked one woman what she thought about the First Lady's new haircut and her response was "Bangs! Bangs! Bangs!" This became the response to everything for the rest of the trip.
Because of our extended stay with Mario, we had to do a whirlwind tour of Arlington. If you are looking for a good workout, try jogging up and down the hills of Arlington just to get to the changing of the guard on time. The cemetery has a plethora of cool things to see like President Taft's grave, the Tomb of the Unknowns, and the Eternal Flame. Robert E. Lee's home is on the hill and has just been renovated and refilled with furniture and is worth seeing if you can handle the hike up the hill.
The next morning we left the hotel at 5 in order to get to our assigned parking location near the Nationals stadium about 2 miles away from the National Mall. When we arrived, the mall was not very full, so we decided to pick a spot toward the back to save time getting to lunch afterward. This apparently was not what the volunteers wanted us to do. They kept telling us we had to move forward but couldn't actually make us move. After about half a dozen of these people came up to up, the head volunteer came and said that we could move or the armed guard could make us move. We decided to move to the very back by the CNN tents just so we had space to roam about, get snacks, go to the bathroom, and do this thing called the Penguin Dance. As soon as the section we were originally in started filling in, we got the exact spot we had four hours beforehand.
The event itself was wonderful even for my kids wearing their Mitt Romney sweatshirts under their jackets. I was glad to have my Smithsonian sunglasses on to hide my tearing up during the speech. I loved all of the performances even the poem. My group kept getting excited for Beyonce and were let down every time someone else was announced. I think everyone needs to go to an Inauguration at least once in their lives because it's the perfect example of what American politics can be. I felt so patriotic that day. It gave me so much hope that we could move forward and work together to make the country a place that we want it to be. Will Congress get it's act together? Will President Obama keep the promises he made? Will the Supreme Court make some historical and tough decisions this year? Hopefully, so. At least we have the opportunity to work together to make things happen across party lines.
After the lip synced national anthem, we made our way through the crowds for a quick lunch at the American History Museum, which has some of the best but expensive food especially if you like barbecue. We then tried to make our way back to our bus, which was quite the trek. I have to give it to my group. They were amazing at walking long distances without complaining for the most part. We were trying to get back to the hotel so that they could take showers and get dressed for the Inaugural Ball my company threw for all of the groups. Unfortunately, the hotel lost power twenty minutes before we got there, so it was cold showers and no hairdryers. The Ball was like going to a prom except I was a chaperon sitting in a different room avoiding the dance floor. I loved getting to talk to other tour directors and coach drivers about their trips and experiences. It's an opportunity not often seen during the rest of the year.
The next day was their last, so we hurried over to the Capitol to meet the Senators of Connecticut with a few other groups and then had a page led tour of the building. One of the senators was newly elected and is serving on the foreign relations committee that did the hearing with Hillary Clinton the next day. The tour of the Capitol was great even with our guy admitting that it was only his second time. We got to see the cool little subway they use to get to and from their offices and the stairs everyone walked down during the Inauguration. When the tour was over, I had all of the groups meet at the Helen Keller statue before we did a quick run through of the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court next door.
After a lazy lunch at the Madison Building of the Library of Congress while the coach driver was getting the coach fixed, I said good-bye to my group and sadly walked back to the metro to come home. I can't believe how quickly the four days passed, and I just hope that the kids picked up on how wonderful a place D.C. is and how much they can learn by experiencing other places and how much difference they can make just by caring about what happens. I can only hope that my next group will be as good as these kids were.
My next installments will be about Philadelphia and Albuquerque!
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