washington d.c. in short:
it took 8 hours to drive there. it was a rather pretty drive. the windows were down and it was over 95 degrees in the car most of the ride.
we stayed at trinity college, in small dorm like rooms with couch-beds. not to be rude, but i can't imagine this being a home for a year or longer for the students who attend. anyone would or could go insane staring at the wall. the campus was very nice though, with old stone buildings and everything was very green.
here we are eating at a mexican restaurant (the first night). we were told it was very close to a metro stop, but then found out (through experience) that it was actually a 45 minute walk away. fiona and I walked a little ahead of the group and talked about many things. we were all very sweaty by the time we arrived and drank loads of water.
the food was very good, but for some reason made me sick to my stomach. i threw up twice.
emily and alicia are in this photograph. we got to know them over the trip. really nice & pretty ladies. they go to school with us in geneseo.


we also went to this cafe/ book store that looked incredibly small from the outside but was actually very large when you walked through to the back. we were seated directly behind a man who played guitar and sang cover songs and we ate a very interesting dessert of pear and cinnamon ice cream. our legs stuck to the seats. it was very warm in there. winston, you would have liked this place, in a watch people sort of way.

( waiting for the metro.)

we also went to the portrait gallery, which was very cool too. some of our favorites were l.l. cool j,
gertrude stein, f. scott fitzgerald, and the modern art section.


skip ahead a little bit and we decided to part ways. two went to George town, one went to her sisters, and the other three took a metro to the Mall, where we looked at the monuments late at night. fiona was determined to be in the presence of abe, so we walked a good distance in order to say hello.

(fiona and emily with abe.)

so. in between all of these little outings, we attended a peace conference.which consisted of panels and little lectures based around the situations in Iran, Iraq etc. Oil, and our government. some of them were incredibly interesting- especially, i thought, the woman who spoke about Iran and the connections to the oil companies in the United States and the way in which our government tries to 'secure' the oil supply in order to maintain control and make billions in profits (see: war in Iraq and movements towards Iran). our government, as it stands, makes decisions in order to pander to these companies (since many in the bush administration are connected to these companies, they make a profit as well). these are things i guess i already knew in a way, but it helped to have it repeated and confirmed with statistics.

this makes it all the more pressing to get candidates into the house/senate that do not support these types of policies. it's devastating that we have a government (the administration) that does not care about it's people, or honestly, any other people either. so vote & tells others to as well- and get them out of there.

so. the ride home was pretty and dangerous. it was raining hard at times, but the hills were steaming and the wind was carrying the fog up into the sky. home safe.

xo.
c