A Week of Walking
Jul. 14th, 2009 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kazariMy last fortnight in summary: I spent the 4th and subsequent week in DC playing tourist with my family. Good times were had, but it was my family so by the time we got back on Thursday I needed a vacation from my vacation. Friday was spent physically recovering and unpacking and getting shit together as mom planned to leave on another trip Saturday morning. My Saturday and Sunday were spent at my TEFL class. Literally all day each day, too, as the class runs from 8AM-6PM. I'm still not sure what to make of it. Monday and today have seen me dead. I have homework for the first time in 6 months and a dress to change the flounce on which I will do once the pain subsides.
Now for more detail! (In text, that is. For the accompanying photos in order check my Facebook gallery.)
We left for DC on Friday, the 3rd. Naturally, it wasn't a direct flight. But, it wasn't so bad. Well, except for my parents' inability to deal with technology. The machine used to check bags was just beyond them. Our hotel ended up being two blocks south of the Air and Space Museum. You could, no joke, see FEMA HQ from my parents' hotel room and the Dept. of Agriculture was across the road in the other direction. That first night we took the subway to a Chinatown area that was just flooded with cops. I counted 12 in an hour. I don't think I've ever seen this many cops at once just out and about. My father being the chatty cathy that he is tapped one on the shoulder and asked what his favorite place to eat was. Oh, yes. The rest of us were mortified. But, the Italian place he rec'd was fantastic. I even found a new brand of bottled tea!
We decided to join the festivities on the 4th itself. We lined up for the parade right in front of the National Archives -aka the start of the parade route. There were plenty of assholes who could not fathom that there were people behind them that wanted to see the parade, though, and we spent about half of it getting a better view of flat tourist ass than actual parade floats and whatnot. I was surprised how many of the groups in the parade were international groups. After that ended, we had ourselves some lunch, slathered on the sunscreen, and waited in line to get a seat on the West lawn of the Capitol Building for the free concert that accompanied the fireworks. Thing was the grounds opened at 2PM and the show didn't start until 8PM. Oh, it was fucking nuts. I ended up listening to the Star Trek audiobook on my mp3 player to pass the time, but the people around me made sure the time ticked by slowly and painfully. The bitch behind us decided to kick me in the head repeatedly while I lay on the grass and then yelled at me when I cried out and tried to move her foot off my face. There was a family of about a dozen other assholes directly to my left that caused even more problems. Despite the fact that every adult member of their family weighted a minimum of 300lbs, they felt one tiny blanket was enough. And, they had no problem shoving me any time they were confronted with the limitations of their tiny reserved space. Also, they had a toddler with them who thought it was fun to poke me and jump onto me. I literally wanted to murder them. The interns in front of us were well behaved, but still rather depressingly stupid. During the show they took pictures of the TV instead of the stage. The show wasn't half bad but for my constant abuse. Though, I was miffed when Natasha Bedingfield's one song was sung from a stage in the audience on the OTHER side of the lawn. Not fair! Drained in every way, I was more than happy to just go back to the hotel room and pass out that night.
Sunday was considerably nicer. Actually, it was fantastic. We spent the morning at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. My mother was like a little child and wanted to see all the things that were mentioned or showed in the latest Night at the Museum movie. We walked through at least half of the exhibits and spent way too much time in the gift shop. Air and Space is an amazing place. Oh! We did, however, spot a typo in the WWII exhibit: Nagoya spelled Nagoyo. What? We had lunch in the basement cafe at the National Gallery of Art. Best strawberry sorbet I've ever had! Possibly also the most expensive. We spent an extensive amount of time in the West part of the building absolutely mocking the religious paintings. Even my mother joined in. There are some humorous photos on Facebook of this. My mother and sister, the nurses, also diagnosed the baby Jesus paintings. Some of those kids are really diseased! We could barely walk at this point, but we still needed food so we made a token pass through the Sculpture Garden to plan. Sadly, the world shut down at that point. Everything closed. We tried to walk towards the Washington Monument but oh were we falling apart. Spotted a couple of Hetalia cosplayers on the Mall near the Washington Monument. Took a cab back to the hotel and had McDonald's for dinner.
Monday bright and early we headed to Arlington. We were running later than the previous day so my mother told me not to bother with sun screen because we wouldn't be there long anyway. MISTAKE! We walked all through those winding roads and I turned lobster red. I hadn't realized just how VAST Arlington is. Those rolling hills are quite striking. And, there are more monuments than I realized. My mother and sister insisted on visiting the nurse's monument, but we also watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns and visited the grave of JFK. Already starting to ache, we headed for the first of two Anthony Bourdain inspired meal choices: El Pollo Rico. My father had literally sat down with a notepad and the DC episode of No Reservations to pick and choose our meals for the trip. While we got horribly lost on the way to this place, holy fucking hell was it worth it. This was both the cheapest and best meal we had the entire week. This roasted chicken is just heavenly. I wish I could go there every freaking weekend.
Mom wanted to relive her summer of hippie love and visit the Library of Congress so that's where we headed after lunch. We didn't have tour reservations so we were limited to the foyer and few exhibits. Of course my father being an idiot had his pocket knife on him. Security was fun. We tried to stop by the Capitol Building to see about a tour but they had to shut down the street due to an abandoned backpack. Instead, we went to the United States Botanical Garden Conservatory which is just across the way. Mom was in heaven. Jessie and I stuck our aching toes in the fountains. The Conservatory is an amazing sanctuary. We relaxed outside the Conservatory with bottles of water we picked up on the far side of the Reflecting Pool and debated where to eat dinner. We ended up going to a district of restaurants 4 blocks east that we estimated was the favorite hangout of staffers and interns. Oh, the service sucked balls. And, the interns were oh so full of themselves. But, it was nice to just sit and eat.
I was so exhausted and achy that Tuesday I just spent the morning in the hotel room with a bottle of Advil and some aloe gel. I got a call around lunch time from my mother inviting me to take a cab and see the National Aquarium with them. My mother had been itching to see an aquarium after that recent "Tuesday afternoon" credit card commercial started getting heavy airplay. Sure enough, it was a Tuesday afternoon and she was there with her daughters. We were close so we decided to stop by the White House visitors center and then stroll past the White House itself. We didn't decide on our vacation dates early enough so we didn't have time to reserve a White House tour. Oh well. Next time. We had lunch in the Smithsonian Museum of American History... Which was actually pretty disappointing. Oh well.
We booked it outta there and put on some nice clothes and caught the subway to the Kennedy Center for a showing of the touring Broadway musical edition of "Spring Awakening". My father decided wisely not to come. My sibling was on cloud nine. She'd taken a class on musicals and done a paper on Spring Awakening. I was pleasantly surprised. The choreography was amazing. And, the music is by Duncan Shiek! For the uninitiated, Spring Awakening was originally a play written in Germany circa 1890 about young people and sex and society and it is very, very frank and none too pleasant. It was promptly banned. Now, it's an award winning musical. I like it- and not just because there were extremely attractive men in schoolboy getups dancing and singing expertly. But, that did help. After the show let out, we all made a silent agreement not to discuss any of it with each other (I thought my mother might walk out during the sex scene) and picked up some McDonald's for a late, but pleasant, dinner.
Wednesday was relaxed and chill. We started the day at the modern art building of the art museum and had lunch there. I was extremely enamored with the photos of miniatures by Thomas Demand and the cakes by Wayne Thiebaud. We got in line for a Capitol Building tour after that. Nothing special. Actually the Capitol Building's tour was as self important and ridiculous as congress itself so... Appropriate. We were so tired for the week we just chilled in the hotel room in the time between that tour and the second stop on the Anthony Bourdain No Reservations tour: Cafe Atlantico. My father was giddy like a little kid to go to this place. He insists it was one of the top 5 meals he's had in a restaurant in his life and worth every penny of the $300 bill. My meal wasn't so much, but whatever. Everyone else was happy. And, it was innovative food.
And.... Thursday we left. It took the entire day to get back to KC and I was more than half dead when we finally pulled up to the house. Friday was a scramble to get the pets home, the laundry done, the groceries acquired, and everything together for my mother's trip to visit her friends in her hometown on Saturday. I could barely move through most of it. My ankle is still aching. My heels are battered and abused. My sunburn hasn't stopped peeling yet.
Saturday and Sunday saw the start of my TEFL Certification Course. Saturday was better than Sunday. The woman running the show is, well, I'm not sure. She's an amazing person, that's for sure. She's Canadian-Indian and married to an African American military man. Between her family's world-wide origins and travel, her own lust for language, and her husband's various deployments she's been everywhere and taught English there to boot! That being said, I'm already wishing the class had more substance and less anecdotal stories about her two decades of experience in the field. The three texts this class has provided, though, are nice to have. They contain a shit ton of the information that I'd been trying in vain to assemble piecemeal from websites over the past few months. Grammar review? Check. How to write a lesson plan? Check. Sample lessons? Check. But, well, it has yet to be proven if I'm smart enough to do this. My confidence is still shot- but a few encouraging words from Sakie on Facebook just now are helping. I've got homework to complete and email before Thursday night and the flower girl dress yet to sew as soon as I'm up to it.
Sometimes one just needs to sit still for a while.
Now for more detail! (In text, that is. For the accompanying photos in order check my Facebook gallery.)
We left for DC on Friday, the 3rd. Naturally, it wasn't a direct flight. But, it wasn't so bad. Well, except for my parents' inability to deal with technology. The machine used to check bags was just beyond them. Our hotel ended up being two blocks south of the Air and Space Museum. You could, no joke, see FEMA HQ from my parents' hotel room and the Dept. of Agriculture was across the road in the other direction. That first night we took the subway to a Chinatown area that was just flooded with cops. I counted 12 in an hour. I don't think I've ever seen this many cops at once just out and about. My father being the chatty cathy that he is tapped one on the shoulder and asked what his favorite place to eat was. Oh, yes. The rest of us were mortified. But, the Italian place he rec'd was fantastic. I even found a new brand of bottled tea!
We decided to join the festivities on the 4th itself. We lined up for the parade right in front of the National Archives -aka the start of the parade route. There were plenty of assholes who could not fathom that there were people behind them that wanted to see the parade, though, and we spent about half of it getting a better view of flat tourist ass than actual parade floats and whatnot. I was surprised how many of the groups in the parade were international groups. After that ended, we had ourselves some lunch, slathered on the sunscreen, and waited in line to get a seat on the West lawn of the Capitol Building for the free concert that accompanied the fireworks. Thing was the grounds opened at 2PM and the show didn't start until 8PM. Oh, it was fucking nuts. I ended up listening to the Star Trek audiobook on my mp3 player to pass the time, but the people around me made sure the time ticked by slowly and painfully. The bitch behind us decided to kick me in the head repeatedly while I lay on the grass and then yelled at me when I cried out and tried to move her foot off my face. There was a family of about a dozen other assholes directly to my left that caused even more problems. Despite the fact that every adult member of their family weighted a minimum of 300lbs, they felt one tiny blanket was enough. And, they had no problem shoving me any time they were confronted with the limitations of their tiny reserved space. Also, they had a toddler with them who thought it was fun to poke me and jump onto me. I literally wanted to murder them. The interns in front of us were well behaved, but still rather depressingly stupid. During the show they took pictures of the TV instead of the stage. The show wasn't half bad but for my constant abuse. Though, I was miffed when Natasha Bedingfield's one song was sung from a stage in the audience on the OTHER side of the lawn. Not fair! Drained in every way, I was more than happy to just go back to the hotel room and pass out that night.
Sunday was considerably nicer. Actually, it was fantastic. We spent the morning at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. My mother was like a little child and wanted to see all the things that were mentioned or showed in the latest Night at the Museum movie. We walked through at least half of the exhibits and spent way too much time in the gift shop. Air and Space is an amazing place. Oh! We did, however, spot a typo in the WWII exhibit: Nagoya spelled Nagoyo. What? We had lunch in the basement cafe at the National Gallery of Art. Best strawberry sorbet I've ever had! Possibly also the most expensive. We spent an extensive amount of time in the West part of the building absolutely mocking the religious paintings. Even my mother joined in. There are some humorous photos on Facebook of this. My mother and sister, the nurses, also diagnosed the baby Jesus paintings. Some of those kids are really diseased! We could barely walk at this point, but we still needed food so we made a token pass through the Sculpture Garden to plan. Sadly, the world shut down at that point. Everything closed. We tried to walk towards the Washington Monument but oh were we falling apart. Spotted a couple of Hetalia cosplayers on the Mall near the Washington Monument. Took a cab back to the hotel and had McDonald's for dinner.
Monday bright and early we headed to Arlington. We were running later than the previous day so my mother told me not to bother with sun screen because we wouldn't be there long anyway. MISTAKE! We walked all through those winding roads and I turned lobster red. I hadn't realized just how VAST Arlington is. Those rolling hills are quite striking. And, there are more monuments than I realized. My mother and sister insisted on visiting the nurse's monument, but we also watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns and visited the grave of JFK. Already starting to ache, we headed for the first of two Anthony Bourdain inspired meal choices: El Pollo Rico. My father had literally sat down with a notepad and the DC episode of No Reservations to pick and choose our meals for the trip. While we got horribly lost on the way to this place, holy fucking hell was it worth it. This was both the cheapest and best meal we had the entire week. This roasted chicken is just heavenly. I wish I could go there every freaking weekend.
Mom wanted to relive her summer of hippie love and visit the Library of Congress so that's where we headed after lunch. We didn't have tour reservations so we were limited to the foyer and few exhibits. Of course my father being an idiot had his pocket knife on him. Security was fun. We tried to stop by the Capitol Building to see about a tour but they had to shut down the street due to an abandoned backpack. Instead, we went to the United States Botanical Garden Conservatory which is just across the way. Mom was in heaven. Jessie and I stuck our aching toes in the fountains. The Conservatory is an amazing sanctuary. We relaxed outside the Conservatory with bottles of water we picked up on the far side of the Reflecting Pool and debated where to eat dinner. We ended up going to a district of restaurants 4 blocks east that we estimated was the favorite hangout of staffers and interns. Oh, the service sucked balls. And, the interns were oh so full of themselves. But, it was nice to just sit and eat.
I was so exhausted and achy that Tuesday I just spent the morning in the hotel room with a bottle of Advil and some aloe gel. I got a call around lunch time from my mother inviting me to take a cab and see the National Aquarium with them. My mother had been itching to see an aquarium after that recent "Tuesday afternoon" credit card commercial started getting heavy airplay. Sure enough, it was a Tuesday afternoon and she was there with her daughters. We were close so we decided to stop by the White House visitors center and then stroll past the White House itself. We didn't decide on our vacation dates early enough so we didn't have time to reserve a White House tour. Oh well. Next time. We had lunch in the Smithsonian Museum of American History... Which was actually pretty disappointing. Oh well.
We booked it outta there and put on some nice clothes and caught the subway to the Kennedy Center for a showing of the touring Broadway musical edition of "Spring Awakening". My father decided wisely not to come. My sibling was on cloud nine. She'd taken a class on musicals and done a paper on Spring Awakening. I was pleasantly surprised. The choreography was amazing. And, the music is by Duncan Shiek! For the uninitiated, Spring Awakening was originally a play written in Germany circa 1890 about young people and sex and society and it is very, very frank and none too pleasant. It was promptly banned. Now, it's an award winning musical. I like it- and not just because there were extremely attractive men in schoolboy getups dancing and singing expertly. But, that did help. After the show let out, we all made a silent agreement not to discuss any of it with each other (I thought my mother might walk out during the sex scene) and picked up some McDonald's for a late, but pleasant, dinner.
Wednesday was relaxed and chill. We started the day at the modern art building of the art museum and had lunch there. I was extremely enamored with the photos of miniatures by Thomas Demand and the cakes by Wayne Thiebaud. We got in line for a Capitol Building tour after that. Nothing special. Actually the Capitol Building's tour was as self important and ridiculous as congress itself so... Appropriate. We were so tired for the week we just chilled in the hotel room in the time between that tour and the second stop on the Anthony Bourdain No Reservations tour: Cafe Atlantico. My father was giddy like a little kid to go to this place. He insists it was one of the top 5 meals he's had in a restaurant in his life and worth every penny of the $300 bill. My meal wasn't so much, but whatever. Everyone else was happy. And, it was innovative food.
And.... Thursday we left. It took the entire day to get back to KC and I was more than half dead when we finally pulled up to the house. Friday was a scramble to get the pets home, the laundry done, the groceries acquired, and everything together for my mother's trip to visit her friends in her hometown on Saturday. I could barely move through most of it. My ankle is still aching. My heels are battered and abused. My sunburn hasn't stopped peeling yet.
Saturday and Sunday saw the start of my TEFL Certification Course. Saturday was better than Sunday. The woman running the show is, well, I'm not sure. She's an amazing person, that's for sure. She's Canadian-Indian and married to an African American military man. Between her family's world-wide origins and travel, her own lust for language, and her husband's various deployments she's been everywhere and taught English there to boot! That being said, I'm already wishing the class had more substance and less anecdotal stories about her two decades of experience in the field. The three texts this class has provided, though, are nice to have. They contain a shit ton of the information that I'd been trying in vain to assemble piecemeal from websites over the past few months. Grammar review? Check. How to write a lesson plan? Check. Sample lessons? Check. But, well, it has yet to be proven if I'm smart enough to do this. My confidence is still shot- but a few encouraging words from Sakie on Facebook just now are helping. I've got homework to complete and email before Thursday night and the flower girl dress yet to sew as soon as I'm up to it.
Sometimes one just needs to sit still for a while.
