Sunday, May 6, 2012

Days 13 & 14: So much neatness!!

Well, it was another fun filled weekend in the nation's capitol!


Yesterday (Saturday) I did several different things.  The first thing I did was go to the International Spy Museum.  It was pretty flipping sweet.  The first thing you do is go into this room and pick out your new identity.  You have several minutes to pick one of 16 identities and memorize all the information.  They then put you into a room for a briefing.  There is a short film about spies that plays.  Then you start seeing the exhibits, unfortunately they don't you take pictures!!  I know, right?!  It's not like there are top secret missions discussed or anything!  LAME.  Randomly throughout the museum there are checkpoints where you have to answer questions about your identity and you have to pass.  Of course, I was slightly freaking out, cause what if I failed....?  You also got new information about your mission.  Basically what I learned from the museum is, I can't trust anyone!!!  I have NO idea who is a spy!  My parents could be spies!  My professors could be spies!  I could be a spy!!!!  There were a ton of different gadgets that looked like ordinary things (pens, shoes, belts, coats, bags, etc.) but they were actually cameras, or bugging devices, or other things!  Fun fact: there are more spies in Washington D.C. than anywhere else on EARTH!!  I decided tomorrow on the bus I'm going to try to figure out who's a spy or not.  Probably the coolest thing I saw in the museum was the Aston Martin James Bond had in Goldfinger.  It was pretty cool.  I also learned how to pick a lock...but don't test me.  I also learned a lot about ninjas!!!  Overall, it was pretty cool.  Oh, and at the end we do a final "test" of our identity...I passed!!  They said I did so well I should be a spy, I was like oh...I know.


After that I went to the Old Post Office Building.  There is a food court and some shops, but they let you go up into the bell tower to get an awesome view of D.C. and since the Washington Monument is closed I figured I would do that!  First of all, people were being so rude yesterday!  There is a security check before you go into the Old Post Office and I was behind two guys.  They were giving the security guards such a hard time!  The guards asked them to take everything out of their pockets (like they ask everyone) and the guys talked back to them.  Then they asked them to remove their belts before walking through the metal detector and the guys talked back again!  It was very rude...but anyways.  It was a cloudy day so it wasn't that clear, but I still got some good pictures.  It was really neat to see everything from such a high point in the city.  There are wires over most of the openings, instead of glass, and there are signs all over that say "Do Not Touch the Wires" and other signs that said "Keep Hands Inside."  Well, apparently people thought those were options or suggestions. People kept sticking their cameras outside of the wires to get better pictures!  The poor security guard had to keep asking people to put their cameras inside and they would respond with "yeah yeah, it's around my neck!" or "I won't drop it!"  The security guard just kept saying, "yeah, well if you drop it and kill a person..."  Then some guy freaked out and was like "This is horrible design up here!  You can't touch anything!  You can't take pictures!!  What's the point?!"  It was super annoying...but here are some pictures I took!!





So that was pretty neat!  After that I rode the train to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.  There's not much I can say about this, except WOW.  It was so beautiful, breath taking, and it left me in awe.  There were so many little chapels and then the main church was.....I was speechless.  Here are some pictures!!








The pictures really don't do it much justice, but to see many more check out my Facebook!!  (It's a good thing the memory card in my camera stores thousands of pictures!!!!)  After the Basilica I decided to head back for the night.  It was a pretty lame Cinco de Mayo for me, although it seemed like our nation's capitol was the place to be for this grand Mexican holiday!  There were lots of people in sambreros and what not!  Looked like fun!!


Today (Sunday) I decided to have a somewhat laid back day.  I hung around the apartment this morning and then this afternoon I went to the National Gallery of Art.  It was alright...I mean, I appreciate art and everything, but it was A LOT of art and a lot to look at.  I saw some of Picasso's work and some Van Gogh paintings though!  So that was pretty neat!  It was mostly just a lot of naked people in sculpture or painting form, and you laugh, but I'm serious.  So it was a relaxing day for the most part, with some art thrown in there!  Here are some highlights!



Cupid on a dolphin....legitimately what it's called!



Picasso!

Van Gogh!

Dog...


Overall I had a good weekend, only 2 weekends left and I still feel like I have a lot to see!!  Hopefully I have a good week at work!!  More tomorrow :)


Shelby*

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