Thanksgiving break:
Ronald Reagan International Airport, where we camped overnight on our last night. Everybody should camp overnight in an airport at least once in their lives! Put it on your list of things to accomplish before you consider your life complete.
This is Chinatown in Washington D.C.It's like any normal town, except that the signboards are translated into Chinese (Starbucks = 星巴克, Subway = 赛something, etc.) and there is Chinese food.
Metro: their version of MRT. Very expensive ($7.80 for a day pass, or $3+ on average per single trip). It's super, because it takes us to the very doorsteps of most of the attractions.
How cool is this!??! Church of Scientology. Hahaha maybe Tom Cruise attended service here before.
International Monetary Fund building hahahaha wooohoooo!
The World Bank Group, just beside IMF.
Federal Trade Commission building
WWII Memorial. This is only one of MANY.
Lincoln Memorial
Jefferson MemorialTook this photo from across the island because I couldnt be bothered to walk over, and we had no time to anyway.
Vietnam War Memorial
Korean War Memorial
Washington Monument
The White House
U.S. Capitol
Library of Congress
Holocaust MuseumWashington D.C. was really cold. I almost froze to death the first night I was there. Was really relieved to leave for Pittsburgh to escape the wind chill.
We slept in a hostel located really conveniently, like five minutes from a metro station just across the street from a 7-11. Can't remember what it's called. Talked to some people there who had really interesting stories to share. Should have taken some photos of the hostel. It didnt occur to me at that time. But I will remember to take some photos of our NY hostels.
We had a special pre-Thanksgiving dinner, cooked by the people who run the hostel. It was my 4th thanksgiving dinner. The first was at a BRIDGES meeting in campus, the second (thanksgiving lunch actually) in UBC and the third in Peabody dining hall. For the sake of people who don't know, thanksgiving dinners consist of long bean casserole, turkey, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. It is standard thanksgiving fare. Meaning, I ate the exact same meal 4 times. Well, it kinda made up for the past 20 years of my life not having celebrated thanksgiving day.
Thanksgiving day is a really big thing here. It's almost on par with Christmas. Long ago, when Columbus came with his new immigrants, they fed themselves by toiling the soil. The native americans were helpful, and taught them farming stuff to help them with their produce. During harvest time, the new immigrants found that they had a lot of food, and were very grateful to the natives for it. Hence, they decided to hold a harvest festival and invited the natives over to dine together. That was the very first thanksgiving dinner. Henceforth, people have kept the tradition of having a thankgiving dinner once every year during harvest. This also explains the type of food served (natural food grown from the ground, like pumpkins, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc).
Oh, another thing. I made an effort to appear in most of the photos this time. haha.
We slept in a hostel located really conveniently, like five minutes from a metro station just across the street from a 7-11. Can't remember what it's called. Talked to some people there who had really interesting stories to share. Should have taken some photos of the hostel. It didnt occur to me at that time. But I will remember to take some photos of our NY hostels.
We had a special pre-Thanksgiving dinner, cooked by the people who run the hostel. It was my 4th thanksgiving dinner. The first was at a BRIDGES meeting in campus, the second (thanksgiving lunch actually) in UBC and the third in Peabody dining hall. For the sake of people who don't know, thanksgiving dinners consist of long bean casserole, turkey, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. It is standard thanksgiving fare. Meaning, I ate the exact same meal 4 times. Well, it kinda made up for the past 20 years of my life not having celebrated thanksgiving day.
Thanksgiving day is a really big thing here. It's almost on par with Christmas. Long ago, when Columbus came with his new immigrants, they fed themselves by toiling the soil. The native americans were helpful, and taught them farming stuff to help them with their produce. During harvest time, the new immigrants found that they had a lot of food, and were very grateful to the natives for it. Hence, they decided to hold a harvest festival and invited the natives over to dine together. That was the very first thanksgiving dinner. Henceforth, people have kept the tradition of having a thankgiving dinner once every year during harvest. This also explains the type of food served (natural food grown from the ground, like pumpkins, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc).
Oh, another thing. I made an effort to appear in most of the photos this time. haha.
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