Last day in D.C.

To begin our last day in D.C., again the first place we visited in the morning is a college. We went to George Washington University and explored the campus ourselves this time, since no campus tours were offered (due to the fact that it is now summer and less people are on campus). After the campus exploration, we headed to the Captain White Seafood City. We took the bus but got off at a certain point, due to the bus re-route because of the Memorial Day schedule. After a long half hour walk, we finally arrived at the seafood market. The smell of all types of seafood was flowing to our noses as we went about the market to buy our lunch. There were many food booths selling shrimps, little crabs, fresh oysters, and many more. For me, I bought a large box of calamari worth $10 (that you probably can’t get in SF). Now off our way back, another half hour walk to  the next place on our agenda. Originally, we were planning to visit the Library of Congress, but unfortunately it was closed today. As this may bring disappointment to some people, we had no other choice but to visit more museums that were nearby. We first visited the Holocaust Museum. Information and boards placed inside the museum were facts, details, and pictures of events that happened during the Holocaust, and most of them were probably what I learned during my high school years (and probably forgot most of the materials now). My experience at the Holocaust Museum recalled bits and pieces of information that I learned a couple years ago. One exhibition that struck me in the museum was the wall of numerous small tiles of drawings, in which I believe that seems to be done by children, which displays the wishes and thoughts to end war and have peace. Not only that it was a very colorful and pretty exhibition, but it also has a lot of meaning behind every piece of artwork displayed. “A picture is worth a thousand words.” This, is more than one picture, and it is surely worth more than a thousand words. One other quote that also struck me was “To the very last moment and with your last breath you tried to exist, you tried to outlive them. Morally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, you resisted all the time,” written by a Holocaust survivor. The Holocaust Museum was an experience for me to commemorate all those who have sacrificed for peace, those who survived the time period of war, and to appreciate what we have.
After visiting the Holocaust Museum, we walked through the Smithsonian Castle and into the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. There were many exhibitions in this museum, most of which is science related. The first exhibition I entered displayed many different types of gems and stones. With the crowdedness in the room, it was quite hard to walk around and take pictures of each exhibition, but I still managed to see many beautiful gem pieces. I exited the gem pieces exhibition and entered the astronomy exhibition room. I was somewhat excited as astronomy became one of my favorite topics after I took an astronomy class two semesters ago. Most of what I see and read in that exhibition was what I learned a year ago and still remember today. Later, I also visited the exhibition room which showcased some of the butterfly specimen, and also another exhibition of the bones of animals and human species. There was also a store that sells minerals and stone pieces for a very expensive price. As beautiful as those pieces may seem, I do not have the energy nor luggage space nor money to buy them and bring it back home to SF. Before we left the Smithsonian Museum, we shopped around the gift shop there and this was when I added on to my collection of magnets of places I’ve
travelled to, when I bought a magnet of Washington D.C.
Now here comes to the best part of this trip. Due to the fact that most of us did not had our umbrellas with us, we bought a bunch of blue ponchos from the Smithsonian Museum gift shop. And now off our way we were evicted, or forced out, of the museum and pushed into the rain, while trying to figure out how to put on our ponchos. From my perspective, it was as if we were a group of twelve blue ducklings making our way back home. We quickly made our way to the metro station, with our sticky blue thin plastic bag covers on us. Then later we had to put our ponchos back on after we got off the metro and walked to the dinner place. After we had dinner at Okibowl Ramen, we quickly made our way back home with our lovely ponchos of the day. What a great day to end our trip in D.C., with a moderately heavy rain and my first experience wearing ponchos. Now is the time where we need to get some rest and be ready to wake up early tomorrow to take the BoltBus at 6:30AM to New York! Farewell to Washington D.C. and greetings to New York!
-Shirley Tsang