Adventure #2: Trustfully Mine

Disclaimer: I currently do not have a camera, so my stories are going to be a lot less interesting until I get one! Do not fret--I'm in the process of researching and buying a nice one :) But until then, I'll be borrowing some of Upshire Girl's pics ^^; 


During college, I had the hardest time waking up in the morning for 8AM classes. Little did I know, renovation construction outside your window is the key to rising early in the morning. I woke up this morning to drilling and whatever they were doing out there around 7AM. Still incredibly groggy, I actually thought that something was wrong with the fridge. Our fridge is pretty loud, so in my sleepy stupor, I assure you that was the most logical explanation for the ruckus outside my bedroom window. Upshire Girl was completely unaffected, that lucky duck! After failing to fall back asleep for the next half an hour, I ended up watching more Ugly Betty for a bit then dozing off until 11ish. Then the real adventures began! After a lovely breakfast of a toasted Thomas' Everything bagel (with extra cream cheese because I'm a fatty), Upshire Girl and I went downstairs to take our UCDC ID pictures and head out for the day. I must say, they had a pretty ghetto setup for the photo "booth". A random electric pink towel hung on a rod behind a regular cushioned chair to serve as our photo "booth." Yes. A pink towel. Poor Upshire Girl--they made her take the picture 5 times because the camera kept taking blurry shots. 


Once pictures were done, we head out to CVS to grab a SmarTrip Metro card so we could navigate more easily through public transit. Surprisingly, the walk was nice and short AND we got to see the gorgeous East Coast-style homes and apartments. There was a lot of oo-ing and ah-ing, as well as random outbursts about how much certain places look like landmarks from Harry Potter. We caught the Metro Red Line toward Glenmont after asking a dude from Greenpeace about where the station actually was. Side note: We were both really shocked that the Greenpeace guy didn't flip out and stalk us like California Greenpeace folk. 


Anywho, we took the Red Line down to Union Station. Let me tell you, that place is pretty gorgeous for a train station. Filled with shops and vendors, this train station was no ordinary train station. The Amtrak ticket vendors looked more swanky than any that I've ever seen. Heck, even TACO BELL looked FANCY. We strolled around looking at random shops, stopping at Express (disappointing) and the usual girly stores. Then, a strange feeling came over me and I suddenly felt like going into Swatch. I've always walked by it before, but wasn't very interested. Perhaps it was air composition today.  Maybe it was the sleep deprivation.  Or... it might have been the lighting in the mall! Whatever it was, it compelled me to buy a watch. There were actually a couple of pretty spiffy ones, but I ended up going for this one:

It seems like this watch was always meant to be mine.  When the sales associate rang up the sale, the register displayed the item's name "Trustfully Mine."  Clearly, it was the work of fate.

After browsing some more and we ran into Obama and chatted for a bit.  He even let us have a photo op!

We soon grew tired of the mall and ended up exploring outside Union Station, where we found a replica of the Liberty Bell.  I knew it was a replica because: 1) I knew it belonged in Philly, 2) It didn't have its characteristic crack, and 3) I've stared at pictures of the Liberty Bell for hours when working on graphics for the Legacies of Liberty program for The History Project ;)

Now, I'm not sure if this is true of everyone on the East Coast or if I just ran into some unfriendly people, but I've noticed that if you say "excuse me" to get someone's attention, they will ignore you.  Upshire Girl and I tried to get several people to take a picture for us, but using "excuse me" doesn't work.  Perhaps they thought I wanted to mug them.  Hm...


Wanting to kill more time before the residential orientation at 6:30PM at UCDC, we wandered about the area and found this important-looking building:

And as we ventured further, we found Capitol Hill!  In the same bout, we found the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress.

 

My favorite part: The Library of Congress.  My inner history nerd became giddy with delight once we stepped through those doors.  But let's save that story for another day!  Upshire Girl and I have so much more to explore at the Library of Congress, so a full report on how that goes will be up soon.  Look forward to it! :)


-Agent024


P.S. I am aware that the pictures are EVERYWHERE right now in the blog.  Rest assured, I'm refreshing the HTML knowledge to rectify this problem.  Hopefully I'll figure it out soon! :)