Thomas Friedman Lecture At GW: Hot Flat and Crowded. Exploring D.C

Dear followers from distant lands,

I’m not feeling very bloggy lately and I’m going to take a break from this blog for a little while. I’m just not into it at the moment. I’ll continue to write in my journal though. If i take pictures, I’ll post them here.

On January 21st Thomas Friedman gave a lecture at my school (gwu). It was pretty bad ass. I totally agree with mostly everything he talked about … the climate, where the jobs are going to be in the future, etc.

I took some pictures while exploring d.c. and I wanted to share them with you.

moon

I really like taking pictures… I thought of being a photographer once… I don’t know. It’s not really “my passion” but it would be a cool career. I am no where near as skilled as I would have to be though. I guess I’m an amateur photographer because it makes me happy but i’m not professional. I think I will get a better camera in the summer. It’s weird. I take all my pictures with my phone and they turn out great!

I’ll see yall later.
TK

Exploring D.C.

So, if you remember, one of my new years resolutions was to explore D.C. more than did last semester.

Today I took the advice of my beloved girlfriend and embraced spontaneity. I did my yoga and then set out on the town around 1 pm. My plan was to go to the botanic gardens/national arboretum. I get those two confused. The one near the capital. They might be the same thing? Idk. Then I’d make my way back to the lincoln memorial, maybe check out the american history museum, and call it a day.

I went a different way than I usually go to get to the mall. Usually I go down to the duck ponds and then cross over to the mall. This time I went by the White House. OMG it was such a nice day… check it out.

Heaven in a 2045 x 1536

Pretty awesome. I’ve discovered that a large part of my mood depends on whether it’s sunny or not. My rational if something bad happens is like… “well at least it’s a nice day. really, these things don’t matter. all that matters is the moment and it’s a fucking nice day.” If it’s gray and cloudy… it’s hard to rely on that, so every bad thing is magnified and there’s a damper on everything good that happens.

I thought everything would be closed today… being martin luther king day and all… but I saw people going into this one museum near the White House, so I was kinda curious and decided to go in. It turned out to be the Renwick Gallery. Okay the outside isn’t all that amazing, but the inside… my god… I thought I stepped into some kind of victorian mansion. It was beautiful… red carpet going up the stairs, HUGE gallery room with lots of windows, lamp statues, hardwood floors, ornate rugs, gigantic chandelier, the whole deal. Arguably the inside of the building was more esthetically pleasing than the paintings.

Now, I don’t know anything about art and don’t pretend to know anything about art. When I go to galleries, I scope out the interesting ones and write down the names so that maybe when I’m older I can get copies in my house. Just like the Shadow Gallery :-P (V for vendetta).

The ones I found interesting are:

“Columbus Circle, Winter” by Guy Wiggins

“Gathering Mists” by Charles Warren Eaton

“The Necklace” by Richard E. Miller

“Vinnie Ream” (self portrait)

After the Renwick gallery, I waddled my way over to the federal triangle (made up of commerce, epa, old post office, national archives, department of justice, and the IRS).

The Old Post Office was humongous.

I passed by this pond-like area. In the spring or when the water comes back (they stopped water flow for the winter months), I want to drink tea and read or write and think while I’m sitting at one of the tables alongside it.

It turned out to be very appropriate that I was exploring d.c. on martin luther king day. There was this one quote with an eagle saying that freedom and individuality cannot be separated. You don’t really think about freedom when you’re in america. It’s one of those things you take for granted. So much of who I am is based on being able to disagree with people and think my own thoughts. I wonder what I would be like if I grew up in another country… would my personality change or would I be the same, only constrained? There were all these quotes carved into the ground where I was walking over from lincoln, martin luther king, george washington, etc.

Checked out the IRS and the EPA. Took this kinda artsy picture…

I really wanted to see the FBI building, but it was oddly difficult to find. It was right across the street from the Department of Justice apparently, my eyes were just not working. Finally found it. It’s so… different from the other buildings. The other buildings have those huge pillars and are ornate. The FBI building is just a box with box windows. It’s kind of drab, but also serious I guess.

After I walked around the FBI building, I made my way to the national archives and saw the declaration of independence/constitution. It was incredibly faded. You couldn’t even make out the writing any more… it’s sad because I think when my kids get their chance to see it, it will just be a blank piece of paper. I wonder if they would still keep it on display if it was blank?

So far, of all the buildings, I think I like the national archives most. It’s so big and profound and clean (we’re talking about the outside here. The inside is just like any other building). It makes me think I’m back in Roman times.

After national archives, I was gonna get back to my plan to visit the botanic gardens (I really wanted to see the chinese garden/architecture), but I was soooo drained from all the walking and thinking, so I ended up taking the metro back to my dorm.

Didn’t exactly follow my plan, but it was an awesome, fulfilling day.

New years resolution + Exploring D.C.

Dear reader,

My new years resolutions are coming a bit late, but here they are:

1. Get A’s in all classes
2. Explore D.C.
3. Investigate FBI internship possibility
4. Plan an abroad trip
5. Plan courses for next four years
6. Get a summer job

I was tentative about including number 6, but I decided to because I need money.

Although it’s not a new years resolution, I am now budgeting my gworld (my gworld) because last semester I ran out of money halfway through. Live and learn.

My mac… again… displayed the kernel panic message. I ended up re-installing snow leopard because I had enough of that message. So far, no problems.

This week, I attended all of my classes and now I refuse to bring my laptop to my classes because it’s a distraction. I just bring a notebook and a pen and take notes. I did my best to take every class seriously even if I was bored or found the material uninteresting. I’m going to base my studying off the notes I take instead of what’s in the book.

This friday (today) I explored the city with a large cup of spontaneity. I didn’t know where I was going to go or what I was going to do. I just kind of walked around and checked out things that interested me. It actually turned out very well. I got in the ticket line for the washington memorial, expecting them to be out (they’re free and people usually get them early in the morning), but they weren’t, and it so happened (it was 2 p.m.) there was a 2:30 pm tour! So I was like, well why not! and got tickets.

It was my first time up the washington monument. When I visited D.C. with my Dad, we didn’t go because we didn’t have enough time. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet I guess, but today I did!

There was some waiting (you have to take an elevator up to the top), but once I was up there … it was stunning. I really want to go up there at night. I’m pretty sure you can do that when it’s non-winter hours. Here are some pictures I took. It was a pain in the ass to upload all these one by one, so if you really do like one, click on it so I know.

I also walked around the white house and the treasury.

After touring the washington monument and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (near the smithsonian castle and the african art building) I walked to china town and bought two new coffee mugs. Oh! The Gallery was pretty bomb. I looked at indian art, chinese art, and middle eastern displays. Nothing all that noteworthy… but it was interesting. Perhaps more on that later.

Side note… a couple of days ago I ate a delicious chili cheese dog for 1.50 and saw the potomac river all frozen over…

OKAY ENOUGH PICTURES!

Wow those were a lot of pictures. My favorite is of the one cup of coffee. Anyway….

I very much enjoyed being spontaneous and I think I will do that more often. I forgot how awesome it was to explore… I saw a side of the city I never would have seen if I had stayed in foggy bottom. The china town area is much more… city like… than the foggy bottom area. I liked it. I think I’ll visit the FBI academy and I have a lot more museums to check out. I wanna go to the spy museum again (I went when I was little) and I wanna go to the crime and punishment one. Exploring was very exhausting, but filling. I did so much walking today! I walked all the way from china town back to my dorm…. OH! speaking of my dorm, I could see it from the top of the washington monument… it was like 3 blocks from the white house. I’ll have to make a little mark on the picture.

Happy friday!
TK