DC Trip

I went up to D.C. last weekend to attend an NSF conference related to my fellowship. I took the bus to the airport which went pretty well. I got to sit on the corner and appreciate this sight
Which may be the most beautiful thing to see, ever. A mango tree in bloom. Ahhh, I can't wait until they start ripening in June...mangoes from the tree are what angels eat, I swear.

In D.C., in addition to attending a few talks, two other fellows, one teacher and I presented a poster about the research project all of our students are doing right now.

I'm not sure why this picture is so crummy, probably because I carry my camera around in my pocket and there's something weird on the lens. I'm wearing my glasses because my eye got all red and puffy and goey. Great. It's better now though.

We attended the conference in the morning and visited the sights in the afternoon. We saw a lot of this:because our advisor booked us a VERY far away hotel. I fully support that choice though. It was cheaper, which meant that more people got to come along.

Noemi and I ran around quite a bit together. She is definitely good company. We went to the postal museum:It looked just like a big post office when we walked in and we were a little nervous. I mean, I love looking at old fashioned post boxes as much as the next person..but...c'mon. Luckily there was a downstairs.

Noemi got up close and personal with Owney the Postal Service Mascot. I really really hope that the scraggly looking dog in the box is just a model, and not an actual taxidermy'd Owney. Noemi was REALLY excited about Owney. So was I. The postal museum was surprisingly empty. I don't know why. The exhibit on small town post offices was especially fascinating.

After the Postal Museum we headed to the American Museum of Natural History. We saw some more stuff... Anna met up with us there. A refresher for my newer readers: Anna is like my BFF. We met a bunch of years ago while we were both Smithsonian Interns. Therefore, this trip to D.C. was a perfect place for us to meet up. Here's a little trip down memory lane for you guys. Anna and I, summer 2005.



And March 2010:
At the American History Museum we ran into Zeus..I mean George Washington. We asked some guy to take our picture, but he only took a picture of us and George's knee, so we had to ask someone else to try again. We're polite so we waited for the first guy to walk off.

We walked around outside for a bit and checked the big landmarks off our list. The weather was really nice and there was even some sort of Fly-Your-Kite festival going on, which made the Mall seem even more American than usual. The Castle. Check.
Washington Monument. Check.
YEAHHH!!!!!!!! I LOVE THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT!!!! --Noemi
The Capitol. Check.

And, last but not least. This one's for you, Mom. Crazies with signs.

It was a nice trip. We had a lot of time to site-see, the conference was useful, and I got to see Anna...probably the highlight of my trip, next to the Crazies With Signs...of course.