Fall

So yesterday at 9.30am, after a mere four hours kip, I roll myself out of bed and drag myself out into the chilly but beautifully clear D.C. morning and sluggishly crawl my way towards Dupont Circle to watch the Arsenal/Spurs game. On my way, despite the fog enveloping my sleep-deprived mind, I notice quite how charming the "fall", as tis called over here, really is. As you can see, the colours are really incredible.



This is an, umm, house in Georgetown. For those amonsgst you who are uninformed as to the true extent of the lavish wealth on display in Georgetown, compared to most of 'em, this is a small and somewhat muted residence.



Another picture, but more picturesque this time, of the great American phallus.



This one is of the Jefferson memorial which I finally got round to seeing yesterday. Someone who's paid more attention in class than me (not difficult I know) will, I'm sure be able to tell you why Jefferson was so deserving of such a mammoth monument.

Looooooooser

One of the perks of going to school in the political hub of the Western World is that the place attracts somewhat more than its fair share of high profile political figures. Look who came to speak in Gaston Hall today:



John Kerry i.e. the guy that the majority of American voters believe is less capable of leading their country than this joker:


Oh dear. Did I accidentally put a picture of a monkey in place of one of George W. Bush, with the inference being that said President has little more value in the White House than a chimp? Guffaw. Guffaw. Guffaw. Am I original or what? That being said, you try a google image search for "chimp" and see how many results you get that include him. Also, why not try searching for Bush and see how many monkey pictures you get.

Anyway JK, who lives just down the road on O St. was here to talk about American foreign policy and the American exit strategy for Iraq. He didn't really have anything desperately insteresting to say but he seemed intelligent, coherent and genuine. Maybe that's why they didn't vote for him.

Georgetown.

I've realised that despite being here for a couple of months, I have yet to show anyone any pictures of the University itself. It's an impressive looking campus with about as much history as the entire country. Sure beats the crap outta Sussex at least - oh yeah, and Sheffield as well.



Healy Hall. No idea what this building is actually for but it's quite impressive doncha reckon?



As you can see, the campus is quite green, although this was taken back when it was still sunny which it really isn't at the moment. The weather here is very confusing. Two weeks ago I was complaining that it was far too hot and then I come back from Pittsuburgh and it's Winter all of a sudden. Weird.



The "Multi Sports Facility" or "American Football pitch". This is where the Hoyas routinely get stuffed by many other bigger, faster, better teams. It is a somewhat tedious game so who really cares. I'll give you an explanation of what a "Hoya" is another time.



The Dahlgren Chapel and fountain in the square behind Healy Hall. The school is run by the Jesuits and apparently this is their doing. I'm not sure what a Jesuit is. I think they're like gremlins but nicer.



A random one this. I leant my camera to a girl called Elle, told her to go out and take me some photos and this is what she came up with: a gang of sailors waiting for a bus. Add your own amusing caption here.

New York, New York

Although it was weeks ago that I was in NY, I thought I should post a couple of pics from my oh so brief, drunken jaunt in the apple. This one is a view from Central Park.



And this one is the John Lennon memorial mosaic in an area of Central Park called Strawberry Fields.

Vodka Pong

This one takes some explaining. "Vodka Pong" is Katie's up-the-stakes adaptation of an American College drinking game known as Beer Pong or "Beirut". Two teams stand at either end of a table and attempt to throw a table-tennis ball into one of the opposition's goals, a triangle of cups with a small amount beer in each one. If successful the other team has to drink the contents of that cup. As drinking games go it's kinda shit, especially if you're a distinctly cack-handed basketball-player like me. If that's the case, instead of being a crrrrrazy rapid route to drunkenness it becomes a somewhat tedious trip towards sobriety. Appreciating this, and also looking to prove to the Yanks what a hardcore boozer she is, Katie thought the thing to do was substitute piss-weak American lager for something slightly stronger. Muuuuuch better.....

It's been a while.....

Oh dear. My vision is blurry, I have an artificially inflated sense of self-esteem and the sun is still shining outside. Oh yeah, and for every three letters I type I have to delete two. Diagnosis: daytime drinking.

In my defence, I only went to the Lucky Bar to watch the Arsenal but (tragically) they have a $10 (which essentially means three pints) minimum spend policy. What is a man to do?

You see, my Tuesday afternoon off this week happily coincided with the Champions League games, so instead of diligently confining myself to the library for an extended study period - I have two mid-term exams next week - I toddled my way off to Dupont Circle and took refuge amongst D.C.'s expats Irish, English, German and Italian. And very glad I am that I did, as I watched a very solid win for my boys (reassuring after losing to West-bloody-Brom on Saturday) but one that only served to highlight quite how dependent we are on Henry. Pleeeeeeeease don't go to Madrid Thierry.

And in other news.......

Okay, so I haven't written much in a while and maybe the photos don't say as much as I thought they did. Here's a quick and distinctly haphazard run-down of recent events this side of the pond.

A few weeks ago I skipped my Thursday afternoon class and zoooooomed up to New York on the Greyhound where I met up with Ed and Kit for the evening. Proceeded to get nicely sozzled, kipped on the floor of their hostel, woke up with an horrific hangover and went and sat with the boys in Central Park to recover. Pictures to come.

Studying obscenely hard. Before any of you had even picked up a pen I had taken two mid-term exams. Still haven't got my U.S. Foreign Policy result back but snatched an 85 for Bureaucratic Politics (not as good as it sounds, they actually mark out of 100 here - I know someone who scored 100.5%. WTF?). Is that subject as dull as you think it is? Umm, yes.

As you may have read, I was up in Pittsburgh the weekend before last to stay with Chris. I was pleasantly surprised. With Pittsburgh being a steel town I had expected it to be an American equivalent of the grim grey-ness that is Sheffield. Actually it's much nicer and much greener. Although it does only have three taxis running an any given time which meant I speant the first two hours of my stay in the city waiting at the damn bus terminal. It was a fun weekend. UPitt students seem to be much less uptight than those of GU and don't all seem to think the sun shines out of their........ dad's wallets.

Last week was fairly quiet. The baseball playoffs have begun and I am a fan of this game so I've watched many a match from the comfort of my dorm lounge (not actually all that comfortable). During one of the infinite number of commercial interludes there was an advert that began "Tim Kaine opposes the death penalty. Even in extreme cases." An ad for the upcoming gubernatorial contest, my initial (and very naive) thought was that this Tim Kaine fella sounded like my kinda guy. Except this was not meant as promotion for the Democrat candidate but for his Republican opponent Jerry-"fry 'em, don't try 'em"-Kilgore. This my first real look at the use of negative advertising in US politics and i was not impressed. I'm not inclined to launch into a big ol' anti-death penalty rant but I fail to comprehend the meaning behind "an extreme case". Surely any murder trial is fairly extreme? Who's to say that one murder is worse than any other? Secondly, I struggle to understand a political system that could be simplified to such an extent that people will vote for (or against) one guy or another purely based on his policy on a single issue. The U.S. political system seems to me to be in a bit of a mess but are Americans really that dumb? Mebbe - mebbe not. Anyway, enough of that. Moving on....

Speaking of murders and other nasty things I saw today int he paper that D.C. has just announced its lowest murder figures for 40 years. That should prove reassuring to all of you who may or may not be aware that Washington used to be the gun-death capital of America. On a less positive note, last weekend saw a number of shootings in the NW quadrant of the city. And this is sposed to be the nice bit. I think i might stop walking around late at night with my headphones in.

I went to my first gig in D.C. last week. I've been suffering from live music withdrawal and had missed a few that I wanted to get to so I took a gamble on Anna Nalick at the 9:30 Club.
It was a lorra fun although musically good rather than great. She had laryngitis so performed an acoustic rather than rock set which I think was probably nicer than it would have been. She chatted a lot to the crowd, reprimanding an older couple for "making out" and making everyone sing Happy Birthday to one of the audience.

Umm, what else? I wrote the one essay I have for this term at the weekend: A two-thousand word-er examining the representations of bureaucratic theory in A Few Good Men. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.

Okay, I'm done. I have a camera cable of my own now, so I'll throw some more pictures up soon.

Rock 'n' Roll

I'm not sure if it really comes across how cool this is but it's a picture of a Don't Walk sign (i.e. a hand) with the middle two fingers covered in black tape so the general impression is of the "rock 'n' roll" hand gesture. Taken near notorious New York club CBGBs in Greenwich Village.

Capitol Building

Where they lock up all the country's national politicians to keep them away fromt he real people. I'm sure I should know more about it but, well, I don't. Like most things wealthy and powerful in the U.S., it is very very big and very very white.

The United States Supreme Court.

Impressive huh? This is the highest of high courts in the land, where nine justices sit and "interpret" the constitution. Can be held somewhat responsible for W. being President. The motto at the top reads: Equal Justice Under Law.

Taaaaaaaaake me out to the ball game......

American rounders is really all this game is but I am, it has to be said, quite fond of it. This was taken at RFK stadium at the start of the game between the Washington Nationals and the New York Mets. Although fairly new to this game, as far as my understanding of it goes, the Nats' problem was that they couldn't hit the ball as hard or throw it as fast as most of the other teams. Bit like the Aussies really.

Who says Pittsburgh's the Pitts?

An interesting evening it has to be said. Gotta love the Spice Cafe, Pittsburgh. It's not often that I get song dedicated to me (/us) but this evening, the marvellous reggae act Wisdom gave me and Chris a fine shout-out before going on to play a magical rendition of UB40'S "Red Red Wine". Lovin' it.

Looking, umm, East, I believe, from Arlington National Cemetery. At the end of that big ol' road is the Lincoln Memorial, the pointy thing is the Washington Monument and if look really really closely you can see the Capitol building in the distance.

Classic D.C. image this un. The reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln memorial with the Washington monument reflected in it. Bit of a cloudy day unfortunately but there haven't been many.

Ducks!

Cute little quackers in front of the Lincoln memorial. Nuff said.