Week 10 (double digits!)

Another great week gone by. The weather, usually, is great now and the semester is rapidly coming to a close. I find myself making a mental note of al the sites I still want to see and activities I still want to indulge in while I am here in DC. There are plenty of Smithsonians that I have yet to explore, restaurants at which I'd like to eat, and government buildings I cannot leave Washington without seeing (i.e. THE WHITE HOUSE), not to mention work that I must complete before I lose my window of opportunity to distribute my stress evenly over my remaining time here.

This weekend I finally had the opportunity to experience the Cherry Blossom Festival that EVERYONE talks about. Up north we have the fall foliage, which attracts a lot of visitors, but it is spread out over all of New England. The Cherry Blossom Festival is a large concentration of people around the National Mall.

I admit I was taken with the Cherry Blossoms; it was quite a sight seeing them all lining the perimeter of the basin. What's more, Saturday there was a kite festival as part of the opening events. Never have I witnessed that many kites afloat. To be honest I have not had much experience with kites. But it was a "kodak moment" seeing dozens of kites whipping past the Washington Monument. Accordingly, I tried to take some good scenic/artsy pictures with little success.

An attempt to be artsy...this is why I am a science major

I also observed that flying a kite is not really just an activity for small children--in fact, I would say that the adults accompanying each kite was more enthusiastic then their youthful counterparts. The adults were excitedly calling out commands, coaching the children on how to properly gain altitude with their kites. I some cases it was actually the children who were observing their parents as they scampered across the lawn with their pirate ship kites dipping and swaying in the wind. It is nice to see that adults can take joy in such a simple activity; it was at times hilarious, but nice. Although, I think their kids may have wanted a longer turn.

The pirate kite I was referring to...behind it is an ecstatic father, behind him a bored little girl

There were many photo opps at the festival and I was not the only one who thought so. Cameras were nearly as bountiful as the people themselves. Walking along the basin one needed to dip and dive out of the way of photos being taken by excited tourists and DC natives alike. I made many valiant attempts at shooting my own postcard scene with the Cherry Blossoms, the basin, and the Jefferson Memorial, with moderate success in only a few photos of the MANY I took.

Okay, so UNH Study Abroad does a photo contest...I think that they would eat this up

This was just a strange man dressed as Abe Linclon, riding a tricycle, lugging around a life preserver in the back...for your enjoyment, I have no comment

Artsy with the blosoms...this one I think is pretty good, it only took me about 13 tries to get it

An attempt at a postcard picture--I'd buy it...I wouldn't spend too much on it though

At work this week I had a new experience to add to my list. My supervisor's connection to a prominent think tank got us an invite to a briefing on a report assessing Coal to Liquid fuel production. We were not able to attend the meeting in its entirety, but we were there long enough to hear a lot of interesting things. Think tanks, are a very interesting prospect--and I may even consider working at one now. For all I can tell they have equal influence (in some circumstances more influence) on policy than a federal agency does. One of the interesting things at the meeting was that it was held to brief the environmental NGOs on the report. Representatives from NRDC, the Sierra Club, and Environmental Defense were all in attendance. Hearing the questions that they posed and watching their interactions with the presenter was of great interest to me. Yet another facet of the policy formation process unveiled.
Until next week?