The capital of the united states
The East-West Center in Washington DC was where we concluded our 5-week long journey with a certificate giving ceremony by Kevin Orchison, Program Officer at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), U.S. Department of State. Congratulations to all the fellows, we made it!
So DC was mean to us, when we arrived from San Francisco on Friday, the weekend was sunshine and 28 degrees C. The following Monday and the remaining days however was down to 4 degrees C, with wind, rain and coldness. I got a sore throat, followed by coughing and lost my voice three days later *not fun*
Cherry blossom
The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a spring celebration in Washington, D.C., commemorating the March 27, 1912, gift of Japanese cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo City to the city of Washington, D.C. We were lucky to spend the weekend seeing the parade, concerts, Japanese culture and the beauty of cherry blossom that is all around the Washington Monument area.
In Japanese culture, cherry blossom represents
the fragility and the beauty of life.
The best part: M U S E U M S !
One thing that I must do when traveling is visiting the museums. DC is an incredible place for this, the many Smithsonian museums are of free entries, and the National Mall (basically a stretch of area at the centre of DC which include the Capitol Hill, US Congress, White house, Washington Monument, Reflecting pool, Abraham Lincoln Memorial etc) houses so many museums and galleries.
I am proud to say that I managed to see 9 museums!
(yup, I pushed myself be it rain, shine or 4 degrees C weather)
- Natural History Museum
- American Indian Museum
- National Gallery of Art
- Holocaust Memorial Museum
- National Air and Space Museum
- American History Museum
- National Archives
- US Congress
- Library of Congress
Go check out my gallery section for photos I took of the museums and landmarks.
