Washington D.C. (or K.D. in D.C.)

Washington Monument

World War II National Memorial

One of the most striking things about Washington D.C. is how hard it works to memorialise itself. The buildings are to an unbelievable, and consistent scale and - most uniquely - covered in quotations. They fill the ornamentation of the Library of Congress and the Capitol, they add pertinence to monuments and purpose to buildings: "Taxes are what we pay for a civilised society - Oliver Wendell Holmes" emblazons one of the federal revenue buildings for example. Literally writing one's own history. 

Lincoln Memorial

The National Mall

The Vietnam War National Memorial

The Tidal Basin, with the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in the background

One of my highlights of the weekend was walking around the frozen basin. The snow, and the time of year, meant I near enough had the route to myself. Very serene, and the perfect atmosphere to take in the various memorials that line it, all unique in their characters. The Martin Luther King Memorial opened in 2010 and was very powerful. The FDR Memorial stretched over several hundred metres, and was designed so that you walked through different sections of his career, the carvings to represent which were all set slightly differently to evoke different senses of history. (Does that sound pretentious? I hope not, it was just very effective!)

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

The Wright Brothers Plane, one of many highlights of the National Air and Space Museum - I also saw Buzz Aldrin's space suit and touched the Moon (rock).

The Library of Congress (my happy place)

 The Library of Congress was a phenomenal building - just so ornate! It was built after the British torched the original congressional library housed in the Capitol in the 1800s . . . Thomas Jefferson donated almost 5,000 of his own private collection to start the new library, and they are on display today. I also got to see the first map of the United States (Montreal is just marked as 'Iroquois Lands') and a Gutenberg Bible.

By the time I came out of the library, the city was under Winter Storm Alert - the snow was pretty intense. The roads were emptied and nobody was on the streets. It was very peaceful for me, especially as the roads in the centre are so wide and I was able to wander in the quiet and really enjoy the snow. Definitely a content little K.D. Luckily there is a tunnel connecting the library and the Capitol building, so I popped straight through to do a tour.

The Capitol Building

The Library of Congress

The Supreme Court

The Folger Shakespeare Library

 Speaking of contentedness, the Folger (who knew) is one of the leading Shakespeare research institutions in the world. Not only was the inside beautiful, with ornate jesters tiled into the floors. While I wasn't able to go into the reading rooms, they had a fascinating Renaissance Cryptology exhibit - those guys were sneaky!

Georgetown University

I visited Lizzy (my friend from Edinburgh who is on exchange at Georgetown if you didn't know, TOP LASS) in Georgetown. A fabulous bubble only 20 blocks from where I was staying - but so different. Home to most of the members of Congress, it is extremely well-to-do. We even saw the pub where J.F.K. proposed! It was so nice, and surreal, to catch up over cupcakes so far from home. By the time I was heading home, the city was in shut down - I had to walk all the way back. Again, very peaceful and pleasant in the snow fall. The next morning it was already mostly melted however, and it was POSITIVE two degrees - practically tropical!

The Capitol Building

The Arlington Cemetery

The cemetery serves as the national burial site for members of the U.S. military and over 400,000 American servicemen and women are buried here along with members of their families. It is also where J.F.K. and his family are laid to rest. I've been to the World War Two graves and been dumb-struck by their scale, but this was something else - stretching for acres and acres over rolling hillsides. From its peak you can view the whole D.C. skyline and get a glimpse of the Pentagon. A very impressive and poignant location.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Week 5.2: Ice hockey, icicles and midnight museum tours.

Well February has arrived far too quickly, and we're already a week through. 2015 is already pipping 2014 to the post as the quickest year since records began, and my incredibly busy February will no doubt continue to fly.

As for the last few weeks, a lot of excitement has been on the cards. Since Ottawa I have attended a HABS game at the Bell Centre, hit up a wintry Jean-Talon market, gone to the Best Buddies art auction (so fun), celebrated Helena's 21st, watched (and loved) my first Superbowl, ice-skated some more and most recently had a 'flashlight' tour of the university's Redpath Museum. 

The hockey was fab, the Canadiens won in the last few seconds, which created a great atmosphere. I couldn't believe the size of the crowd or the speed of the players! Definitely good fun, and also very unique to experience a bilingual sporting event - commentary, anthems and chants all in two languages for one country's crowd! I couldn't resist buying myself a foam finger to boot, definitely *not* a complete waste of $10 . . .

We also had a great time at McGill's Redpath Museum, it also happens to be Canada's oldest! Tours started at 10pm, and it was a case of bring your own 'flashlights' - very much 'Night at the Museum'. The dinosaur skeletons, taxidermy and shrunken heads all made for creepy night time viewing. We were told to look out for the mineral that glowed in the dark . . . very impressive - though the task was made slightly easier given the volunteer in a lab coat stood next to it with a U.V. light! Note - courtesy of my camera's 'low light mode' it doesn't look half as eery as it was, you'll just have to use your imagination!

The one unifying thread of all these? The cold - we've had another bout of snow these last five days or so, and its currently past the stage of 'fresh plough' (I'm starting to learn all the snow terms . . .) so the pavements are slushy and vile. I suppose better than when they are inches thick in compacted ice, though. You can't win! 'Zamboni' is another new word for my dictionary - the slang term for ice rink re-surfacers. Well, Zamboni is in fact the company that make the machines for the NHL; so it works the same way as us calling vacuum cleaners 'hoovers'. I find it very fun (and am probably alone in doing so) that I live somewhere where an ice re-surfacer warrants a colloquialism!

I am pretty certain the above paragraph is one of the most boring things I've written for this blog, and that's probably indicative of quite how book bound I have been for the past fortnight or so . . . and will continue to be for the next few weeks. Once again it is midterm season and I have deadlines and exams coming at me from every which way - joy! Luckily, I have a trip to Washington D.C. booked to mark the end of them all. Unluckily, its an added deadline to work towards . . . I need everything done before I jet off!

I also have a conference paper to write as my research has been accepted to be heard at a conference at the University of Victoria. Its a fab opportunity academically, but also gives me a very good reason to head west and explore the far reaches of Canada during our 'Spring Break'. In fact, its such a good opportunity, Mum is flying out too and we are taking the train to Vancouver together. It takes just over four days from Toronto and we get to stop off at a plethora of fantastic Canadian cities en route. The route itself is meant to be stunning, too, and there is even a glass roofed carriage on board for us to watch the mountains slip by. I'm pretty excited for that, and it'll be lovely to explore Vancouver and then Victoria (home to the university)as well.