lost in washington dc

this was where i stayed in man@assas, virginia. it's a branch of marriott, called residence inn, conveniently located just at the exit of interstate highway 66.

it looks small, but the area occupied is pretty large, i got lost a couple of time inside. i must say, until you step outside, you'd think that we are somewhere in spain because almost all the workers inside are spaniards. the stay there was pleasant though.

this was the car that i drove around in, a Mazda 5. the first one hour after i got this car, i kept turning on the wipers instead of the left right signals because i was not used to left hand drive. once, i even entered the opposite lane!

then i didn't know how to open the lock of non-driver doors because when i pressed unlock on the car remote, only the driver's door opened, until my brother told me few days after that i must pressed twice consecutively to open the lock for all doors. oh i see...

my brother visited me from new york since he had a function to attend in washington dc just 40 minutes drive from where i was. so we arranged a trip to, where else, washington dc.

i decided not to drive there because i heard it's hard to get parking in DC area. even if there is, it's parallel parking, and i cannot do parallel parking. so i drove to this metro station, parked my car and we took the train to dc. it was $2.35 one way for a 25 minutes ride.

btw, nearby the metro parking, there were traffic signs saying, 'kiss and ride' and 'park and ride'. now i finally know what those mean :)

i could see a lot of writings all around DC area, on the wall, on arches and like this one, is on the walkway. i didn't bother to read what it's about because it's all poetic and complicated. god knows who understood them. for all i know, this could be part of some hidden clues that should lead you to some holy grail or something. on that bone-chilled day, i'm just so not interested to poke my nose around, so i just snapped this photo and then made a pass...

washington dc reminds me a lot of.. ok some may hate me for this.. malaysia's putrajaya! why? because there were all buildings and so less people around. at first you would be mesmerized by all the buildings and structures but after awhile, they just looked the same and started to feel pretty dead. not what you would call a lively bustling city.

this one is the treasury department building. something like minister of finance i supposed. someone in green rides on the horse in front. not hulk, but must be one of the past presidents. not george bush definitely, he would get thrown down by shoes in no time.

there were lots of squirrels by the carpark where there were trees. i thought they should be hibernating by now? squirrels do hibernate right? anyway, caught this one in its cute act, eating chips out of the dumpster. i envy those americans sometimes, even their pests are cute and adorable.

i think this is called washington monument on my background. i wanted to walk all the way to the base but it was so damn cold so i just be content by looking from afar. after all, it's just a piece of plain sharp structure with no colour with at most, probably some writings or quotes on it. big deal. my shoes has more details.

few more buildings which i won't bother to describe. by this time, i thought i have seen this building before a few blocks away. or was i just making a circle? anyway, i'm sure it must be some important ministry building. FBI or CIA headquarters probably? hmm should not be, or else i would see mulder or scully hurrying by carrying some X-files heading to north dakota or something.

one place that got me excited once i arrived in washington DC is the smithsonian's museum of natural history. this is the washington branch, not the new york branch, so it's an elephant at the main hall instead of the T-Rex. better, at least at night when all the displays come alive, it's just an elephant running lose.

i made my way straight to the dinasour section because for me, museum of natural history = museum of dinasours. i like dinos. i guess i'm just a kid at heart. the fact that once these gigantic creatures roaming the earth is pretty cool, don't you think? my favourite is the triceraptops. gosh it was enourmous ok , and i read, this was not even the full-sized one. gosh..

this one is the fossil lab where volunteers help to do the sample preparation. cool right? i don't mind volunteering myself doing this kind of cool stuff in that glass box and have sam neill and laura dern gawping in awe as we demonstrate how we used the dino DNA extracted from preserved jurassic age mosquito to create dino eggs.

one section of the museum displays this 45 carats blue diamond. it looks all shiny and glittering but it could be due to the lightings. actually i was quite surprised we could go near to look at this. shouldn't they be installing infrared beams that go zig-zagging crossing each other around this display box? maybe they thought since tom cruise could descend from the ceiling using rope and steal this anytime he wants, the infrared won't do any good anyway.

ok this is me outside the museum. full stop.

and below are some other buildings blah blah blah..

at last we arrived at the white house. i asked if it's possible to get in the whote house but get this, i was told that apparently even the americans need 7-8 months reservation in advance because they want to check your background and stuff before allowing you in. huh? that's insane right. i felt stupid just asking the question. unless you're the nightcrawler in x-men, don't count on it so soon.

there were works around the white house compound. i guess must be for the inauguration ceremony next month.

i was walking along when i noticed this. ok this is obviously some protest banner. but what's that white lump in the center? we turned around and ok.. it was a tent. the lady inside asked us to come near and take some pamplets but we politely refused in case some FBI or CIA would come out of nowehere and detain us in guantanamo bay. you don't wanna mess with american government.

my brother and me. he's studying in new york at the moment. he paid me a visit in virginia since he just finished his exams and need to be at washington DC few days after.

one last look at washington/virginia region, then i'm gone.



...ed