We went down as part of the course, leaving on Wednesday to attend seminars/talks on Thursday and Friday, but as a group we decided to then stay on for the weekend to do some sightseeing. So, we set off on Wednesday at around lunch time. DC is about 350 miles from Ithaca and we were being driven in a minibus by the two program organisers, Profs McGregor and Fraiser. Although they are both very nice people they are also both about 80 years old and their driving styles were unique and interesting. We had several close shaves on the way, including nearly hitting a car parked on the hard shoulder and almost crashing head on with a car coming out of the hotel car-park but after 7 hours on the road we finally arrived. The talks were alright but not really worth writing about, on Thursday we were at the National Institute for Health and on Friday we were at the United States Department of Agriculture. On Thursday night we ate at a place called the Mongolian BBQ, which was very cool. You made your own stir fry using the meats and vegetables provided and then took it to the BBQ, along with a sauce of your choice, and watched the chef's cook it on a big heated plate.
On Friday the holiday part of the week started, much to every one's relief! We stayed at a very old but also very cheap hotel, not very nice when compared to the Comfort Inn we had been put up in for the nights before but I've certainly stayed in worse places in my time. There was plenty to do in the city and most of it was free. Sights that I took in include the Capitol building, the White house, The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, The museum of modern art, the air and space museum and the National Zoo. There are far too many photos for me to put up but I've included a couple below.
We also checked out a few bars and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and before we headed back on Sunday I also managed to make it up to the cathedral and joined in with the Sunday afternoon ringing, which was nice. Then it was the long drive back, although thankfully this time with one of the Cornell students, so it was a much more relaxing trip.
Today it was back to work in the lab, to find that my experiment had not worked so all the work I have done so far was a waste of time. Tomorrow Myself and Fi are setting off for New York ready to fly home on Wednesday for our exam on Thursday, then it will be back to America on Saturday to carry on with the course over here. It's going to be a hectic few days but I'll try and get round to updating this at some point.
Hope you are all well.
Stephen xx
The Washington Monument seen across the lake from the Lincoln Memorial
The White House (not to be confused with the Capitol Building, which has a dome on the top)
2 comments:
You got to ring in DC? You didn't tell me that- how cool!
Well written article.
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