News from the Trip, Part 3: The Melting Pot

One of the things I'm really enjoying about Washington D.C. is the diversity. Walking down the street, or sitting in a restaurant, or riding on the Metro (subway), or anything else, you pass people from all over the world. They are speaking all kinds of languages.

To some of you, that might sound kind-of annoying. I promise it's not. It's beautiful. It takes me back to the foundation of our great nation, when people came here from all over the world, shared their culture and their language and their experiences, and built this amazing country together. And now, today, we're still melting; there are still migrants coming from all over the world to build a life here.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, we went to Arlington Cemetery on Monday. (I need to do a whole separate post on Arlington, I know!) One of the things I noticed was all the different languages... even though it was a cemetery! There were tourists from many different countries who were visiting our nation's most prominent military cemetery. I passed a group of Asian youths admiring the Iwo Jima monument; a Hispanic family watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns; a Moroccan man enjoying the view from Arlington House; a French couple taking pictures at Kennedy's grave; and more.

You literally cannot walk down the street without hearing several different languages.

The workers at the hotel come from many different places. There are a lot of Indian people (not Native American Indian, but India Indians). In fact, of the dozen or so restaurants near the hotel, 3 of them are Indian food. The Hispanic people here come from a lot of different places -- not just Mexico.... so even the diversity is more diverse than at home :o)

So, my point is just this: As white people speaking English, we're part of the minority here, and I LOVE IT. It's educational and humbling. And it's beautiful.

News from the Trip, Part 2: Time Changes

We flew in to D.C. via Detroit. Apparently Detroit is 3 hours ahead (I thought they were just 2 hours ahead), so when we arrived at 3am Pacific Time, it was 6am local time. And the sun was getting ready to rise. It was very weird to have a sunrise at that hour. We'd watched the sun go down around 8pm when we were at home, then 7 hours later it was back up!

My sense of time was already pretty screwed up from flying in the middle of the night. That, combined with the "early" sunrise, helped the shift into the new time zone fairly quickly.

But yesterday (Monday) afternoon, I stared thinking about time "back home." For instance, when we hopped on the subway at 5:30pm, I was thinking, "Back home, it's 2:30pm. My co-workers are still at their desks, perhaps thinking about an afternoon cup of coffee; it's nearly Tea Time for Graham. Everyone still have a couple hours of work to do."

And when we got a phone call last night at 11pm, I thought, "Well, it's only 8pm back home. That's not too late to call your buddy." Of course, it would have been nice if that "buddy" here in DC had turned off the cell phone before he went to bed :o)

When I woke up this morning I considered making a phone call, but then I realized, "It's 4am back home; the person I want to call isn't awake yet! And neither is anyone else I know!"

I guess what I'm trying to get at is this: I went through a couple changes in time zone on the way out here, but I didn't really feel it, so it's weird to me that I'm actually in a different time zone! I'm surprised every time I think about what you all are doing back in Oregon.

News from the Trip, Part 1

Earlier this afternoon I told myself that I was going to get back to the hotel and blog about the trip thus far, in FULL detail. Seriously, the plan was to sit down for an hour or two and write, and upload pictures, and get all the great info out there for the world
(okay, and for my own records),
but by the time we got on the subway for the last trip home, I was very tired and getting motion sick, so instead I crashed on the bed for about an hour.

Now that I'm up, have eaten dinner, and am in my jammies, I don't really feel like writing anymore. Mostly I just want to watch Brothers & Sisters
(side note: Mom, I think you might like Brothers & Sisters; we should chat about this later)
and get a full night's rest.

Except here I am, and I've started blogging. So I will try to give a brief overview of the trip thus far...

The plane rides were fine. No trouble with timing or picking up the connecting flight, so all my silly worrying was just exactly that... silly :o) The first leg of the flight was a little annoying. I ended up next to a large, older man who stank of B.O. and felt that he deserved the elbow rests and the space (MY space) on the outside of the elbow rests. I was basically touching him the whole flight. Eeeew.

Plus there was a screaming baby, four times over. I didn't mind it too much
("That, folks, is why you pack earplugs!")
but the kid did wake me up two of the four times. At one point in the middle of the flight (aka, in the middle of the night), an old lady picked a fight with the father of the screaming kid, while mom was trying desperately to calm the boy. It was a tough situation for all. Everyone survived, but were sleep deprived.

I was exhausted when we reached D.C.; I think I got about 3 hours of sleep between the two flights. We figured out how to catch the subway and hopped over to the hotel. It was 10:30am and check-in wasn't until at 3pm... but our room was ready! So we managed to drop out bags and grab a nap before hitting the subway to Arlington Cemetery.

So... I think I will leave it at that for now. More stories and some pictures tomorrow, I hope!

Kinda finished house front...

The front of the house isn't really done. The deck still needs some love (railing, sanding, staining), and we still have quite a few plans for the yard, BUT the front of the house where we replaced the window is done. Sealed. Painted. Window is trimmed. Attic vent is in place.

So let's all take a deep breath and admire the awesomeness before I launch into the next round of projects :o)

Baby Lucy's present!

Our very good friends Adam and Paige just had their first kid! We're very excited for them. So excited, in fact, that I made a little gift for baby's bedroom:

There are holes at either end of the sign where it can drill it into the wall. These holes get covered up with wooden "buttons" -- as you can see in the picture below (sorry it's a little fuzy):


Now, before you give me too much credit for the awesome craftyness, I must give credit to my sister. She made a similar gift this Christmas for our new nephew.


In case you're curious, here's a little bit about these friends of ours: Adam and Nate grew up going to church together, so they've been friends a long time. They played paintball together in high school, and even lived together for a little while in college. Ironically, I first met Adam long before I ever met Nate, as Adam was my very first Home Teacher when I joined the LDS church.

I became friends with Paige in college. In fact, it was at a church gathering in her apartment one fateful Monday night when I first met Nathan. (This was back when he was a loud mouth, sported massive facial hair, and wore coke-bottle glasses.)

Adam and Paige have a really awesome marriage, founded on their mutual love for all kinds of gaming. Oh, and it probably helps that they are some of the nicest, most upbeat folks you could hope to know.

Congrats you two!!!