Holiday Log #1 Baltimore/Washington DC
I have decided, if I don't do it now, I will never do it. So here are stuff which I have done for the previous week. This is going to be long: so I'm splitting into a few parts. If you are interested, then read on :PDay 1: 21/11/2006: Baltimore
Basically the whole week I was in holiday mood... There is only 1 class on this day, and most importantly, mid-term and essays are over!! So spent the whole afternoon preparing and making food: took a nap, cut the watermelon into small pieces, made tiramisu, realised I do not have anymore ladyfingers and Irish Cream, rushed downtown to get them, Yiran/Yi Chung/Grace came, thawed and fried beef, brought everything to SSA's thanksgiving dinner, had fun talking crap and eating Zhen Xin's very nice turkey (which I went to buy with him the night before) Jude/Laura's very nice rice noodles and Teck Chuan/Chyan Ying's Char Siew, and receiving comments for my tiramisu. Then went to the travel plaza to pick Wen Yu up, went to Fell's Point, ate/talked some more, walked with him to Inner Habour, took a bus back, wrote my resume, slept at 2:30am.
Day 2: 22/11/2006: Washington DC
National Portrait Gallery
National Archives
Constitution of the United States
Declaration of Independence
Me, Kang Yi, Gerald, Ding Ding, Bilin, Wen Yu @ Penang, Washington, DCLast day of class: There is only one organic chemistry lecture. Everyone was asking me not to go, but, if I really not go, I won't be called xiaoyang. So after sending Wen Yu to Penn Station, I went to class, and as expected there is only 10% attendance, Yiran and Yi Chung were not there, so only Grace, Ting, Ming Fei and me were there. Greenberg didn't go through a lot of things but he did start a new topic, so it is still a correct decision to not have skipped :)
Immediately after class I rushed down to DC: Gerald, Bilin, Ding Ding and Kang Yi were all there. Reached DC around lunchtime, having made a stupid mistake by eating lunch at Penn Station (I forgot Union Station has a ultra huge and nice foodcourt), and met up with Wen Yu at National Portrait Gallery. The big group had gone for lunch as they were very hungry (they took an overnight bus down from Boston, changed bus at NY, reached DC at 5:30am, got badly treated by the reception guy, hmms, well... I would have taken plane into Reagan or Dulles instead :P), and went ahead into the Spy Museum.
The National Portrait Gallery housed all the portraits of the Presidents of the United States, including the famous George Washington portraits by Gilbert Stuart (including the unfinished one which is used on the dollar bills). There were a few rather interesting historical exhibits as well, including a video recording of JFK's 'Ask not what America can do for you' speech, Time magazine covers, caricatures, Abraham Lincoln's photo with a crack across his forehead, Franklin Roosevelt's speeches, etc. There are a lot of other exhibits as well, but none of which I had a deep impression, except for one which shown a (fictional) scene of Sierra Nevada which(indirectly) served to convince people to 'Go West'. It is really heaven depicted in the picture.
Met up with the rest at the Spy Museum after that... It is just opposite the National Portrait Gallery. They were waiting for Kang Yi, whose handphone died and could not be located inside the museum :) Then we went to the National Archives, where the original Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights were kept. As I have been taking classes on the Constitution (and I am going to start writing another essay about due process after I finished this), all these took on a different meaning: I wouldn't say I completely understand everything but at least I am not just a tourist whose sole purpose is to take photos of the documents.
Then it would be the highlight of the day: food! (Singaporeans are, well, food oriented, as always.) I brought everyone to Penang, and we ordered quite a bit of food, nice food :) Expensive though...
Everyone was tired (of course, overnight bus and arrived at 5:30am...) so they decided to go back to the hostel, and I was in time to catch the 8:40 train back to Baltimore. My next destination is Chicago, which I have not even started packing :P
Just to mention: it was raining the whole day, and the temperature hovered around 3 deg. When I was waiting for a bus at Penn Station, I stood in the drizzle for 20 straight minutes, and was nearly frozen to death...
