It has been one full week since I left Manila and headed over here to Gaithersburg, Maryland to do some work at our main office. Those seven days were a blur, as I tried to let the whole experience of traveling to another country (particularly America!) sink in, I couldn't find the time to fit everything I wanted to help enrich my experience. Plus the fact that I don't have my Philippine driver's license with me and that we only have one car (there are 3 of us). It kinda ties you down.

A few nights during the weekdays, and finally over the weekend, I (or we) finally found the time to act like tourists. With cameras in hand and ignorant appetites for the sights and sounds of the US, we headed for the tourist spots. On Saturday we visited Udway-Hazey Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, which was interesting at the least. Displays ranged from old World War II planes, missiles, stuff on aviation history, and Space Shuttle Enterprise (which wasn't really used in space).

Sunday saw us headed for Washington D.C., with the weather finally relenting a bit, calling off the rain. We found ourselves visiting Lincoln Memorial, which was the most significant site that I ever found myself visiting. Here's the guy who fought for the belief that all men are free and abolished slavery in the United States. I found myself trying to soak up the significance of what Abe Lincoln did. It was a great experience by itself. We also visited other significant sites -- The Vietnam War Memorial, Korean War Memorial, World War II Memorial, and the Washington Monument. The wind was blowing something fierce, and it was too cold to continue on to the other sites in the area. We had a quick 4pm lunch on hotdogs and egg rolls and called it a day.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), my Sunday wasn't over. I, B2, and Lem headed over to our friend Corey's house to watch the Super Bowl. I was quite psyched to be taking part of one of the great American traditions -- watching the game with friends while drinking beer. The Pittsburgh-Seattle game wasn't a pretty one, but it was good enough to keep me awake (I was pretty tired after our long field trip downtown). Pittsburgh won (yeah!), and we finally (finally!) called it a night. I slept in the car on the way home.

More adventures to come.

This entry was posted 2/06/2006 09:07:00 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.