So here I am in Washington DC. I said on facebook that I probably wouldn't have any Internet access until I got home, but what you really want, you tend to get, yes? So I'm on for a brief stint in the business center... at least until some businessman comes in really needed to update his portfolio or something. I feel like quite the loser taking up one of the two computers to update my xanga of all things. I'd try to keep this brief but I'm not a very brief xanga-er, as you have seen.

Washington DC is really a special place. The rush hour traffic is incredible. They have some ridiculous streets here - four lanes wide, but the two lanes in the middle are interchangeable. There's these lights hanging overhead to show you which way each lane goes. In the morning, both of the middle lanes go toward DC to accomodate the mass clog of commuters hurrying in to work; in the evening, this is reversed, and at all other times, the lanes are half and half. The metro system also encourages you not to add to the clog by offering reduced rates at non rush hour times. It's pretty awesome, by the way, the metro system. The only comparison I have is the one in Beijing, that subway is freaking scary and madly crowded. Next to that, the DC metro seems quite tame and well-organized. I'm a pretty logical person, good at following directions. The ticket-buying machines, the boarding areas, the maps for the different lines, were all clear and easy to follow. The cars weren't terribly crowded, and the stops were well-labled, even if the announcements were incomprehensible. In short, the metro system was very easy to use - important because parking was ridiculous, especially at the National Mall, where every patriot apparently has to make a compulsory pilgrimage.

On the first day, my mom and I drove to a parking garage near the Silver Springs metro station that utilized meters within the garage. Whatever. We followed the crowd of commuters and miraculously managed to find the station, where we puzzled over the fare and the different lines but eventually managed to arrive at the National Mall. None of the museums were open that early, so we walked around the sculpture garden, which had some truly bizarre exhibits, including massive bacon (actually I think they were brush strokes) and people hopping around in sacks (no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't explain this one).

At 10, we headed over to the National Museum of Natural History, which is basically like every other science museum we've ever been to. It's got your atmosphere of primitive earth, your dinosaurs... a mammals exhibit (apparently now they've eliminated the "gives birth to live young" requirement, but added a "has really awesome earbones" requirement - no joke), an insects exhibit, an IMAX, a gift shop... Of course there were also fossils, and a look into the development of mankind, and an overpriced cafe.

Being far too cool for museum food, my mom and I took the metro to the Chinatown stop which took us, go figure, to Chinatown. We were expecting something like the NYC Chinatown, but the one in DC was not that Chinese. We saw one Chinese restaurant, and a CVS with Chinese characters on its signs, but there was also a lot of other nationalities doing business there. My mom asked a hapless, Chinese-looking passerby for a good place to eat. This random stranger was nice enough to not only recommend us a noodle store, but also to walk with us to make sure we found it. This was either A) really great advertising or B) a sign that DC people are pretty nice.

We drove out for dinner that night. My dad hadn't parallel parked in about 10 years, and was having difficulty getting into a meter. A random woman, stopped in traffic, rolled down her window, and said, "Hey, want me to do that? It's easy!"

So we gave her the keys, and she parallel parked for us in about 2 seconds flat. Easy.

Today the whole family went back to the National Mall, where we visited the Air and Space museum, waited in a huge line (twice) for tickets to the Capitol (our tour guide was so nice and projected wonderfully, but you had to feel sorry for him because about one half our our tour group didn't seem to understand English. I can still see the way he cringed/grinned in that perplexed yet amused manner as no one responded to his jokes), had a look at where the House of Representatives met, and then walked down to the Art Museum, where we succumbed to museum food, as it was 1PM, and we were sick of walking.

Our biggest priority this trip has been parking. The parking garage by our hotel is a ridiculous $24 a day, no re-entry. The parking garage across the street is only $12 per day, except that the day only extends from 7AM to 7PM, meaning our car would get kicked out for the night to wander, homeless, through the streets. The parking meters are 25 cents for 15 minutes, which is a dollar per hour. This seemed exorbitant to us, but the meters are free at night, from 6:30PM to 7AM. This means that every afternoon at about 6PM, we have to scramble for a meter spot (any later and it becomes really hard to find one). We stick in half a dollar of quarters and then we can't move it until the next morning. We have to get up at 7AM to either put in more quarters or hopefully leave. Have I mentioned that during the day, the meters are supposedly limited to 2 hours a go?

At the National Mall, there is free parking... for 3 hours... starting at 10AM. Since our family arrived at 9 today, my dad had to sit in the car for an hour so it wouldn't get ticketed or towed. After lunch, we were already over our limit, so my dad went to sit with the car in case any policemen came (none did). Conveniently enough, he was not interested in art, so my mom and I visited the art museum ourselves. I think we walked through every exhibit in the entire museum, no joke. About half of it was Mary and Jesus, and maybe another quarter was food. Why do painters like to paint fruit so much? There were also a lot of dead birds, Ken, though to be fair, I think most of them were meant to be plucked, cooked, and eaten.

(I wanted to write an entry comparing and contrasting art forms, namely visual art, creative writing, and lyrical music, but I'm just too tired.)

At any rate, my feet do not feel happy right now, and I'm not really thinking coherently. I think we're coming home tomorrow night, though, so I just have to hang on until then. :)