Athletic Journey

Today, we had the most athletic journey yet. Waking up at ten in the morning, we head for the private school, Georgetown University. There, we received a tour by a Georgetown college student and we learned all about the buildings and the culture. While the weather was scorching hot up in the 90s F, every time we walked inside a building, the blast of the cool air from the AC always refreshed me and made me feel guilty that I took San Francisco’s cool weather for granted. Regardless, I learned some pretty cool traditions that the students had. For example, before one graduates, they must first sit on the lap of the huge John Carroll statue, steal the hands of the clock and send it to someone, and dance on top of the water fountain. Also, there was a square on the floor that one cannot step on because it is bad luck. Everything they had was very interesting and cool.
Next, we head to DC’s Chinatown. At first, I thought it would look very similar to SF’s Chinatown, but I was very wrong. The gate was beautiful carved but had the vibe of San Francisco’s but it didn’t feel like Chinatown. Instead, I felt as though I was on the streets of Hong Kong and my home city, Macau, China. It was very modern with shops named both in English and Chinese. Some of them were even quite hilarious. Then, I noticed that the racial demographics here were not mainly Chinese, but a more diverse community of African-Americans and less Chinese people. However, the food in Chinatown do serve many Chinese and Asian cuisines so I was happy to a have a meal more close to home.
In our last place, we went on a night tour to the National Mall. Our tour guide was amazing. He told us that this was his fourth tour of the day but he still managed to be very loud and clear. He was also quite funny, telling us jokes and being sarcastic at times. The night view of the monuments are insanely beautiful. My personal favorite was the World War II memorial. The fountains were lit with color and each of the columns were bright. Today’s journey was exhausting with the long hours of walking but what we got out from it was way more valuable and memorable.
-Angela Iao