Welcome to D.C.

Not sure where to begin, so here it goes...This past Tuesday I flew to Baltimore to stay with my Godmother Pat, and Uncle Ron for a few days before heading to Washington D.C. and then to a trip across Germany for two weeks, capped off with time in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Riga. These four weeks will no doubt be incredibly influntial, enjoyable, and enlightening...and, perhaps exhausting. To try and make sense of it all I decided to write...if nothing else, I'll have something to look back on when I'm old and gray...maybe?

My time spent with Pat and Ron was fantastic. It's hard to believe that it has been almost 10 years since the Summer I visited them after hgh school. Baltimore was a lot of fun, Ron's cooking was absolutely outstanding, but hands down my favorite part of the trip was yesterday when Pat and I spent the day together doing nothing in particular (The O's game was great too!). Having the chance to spend some real quality time with her was great. It's amazing how similar we are in some respects, especially our bond as teachers.  Lunch at Cafe Hon (It's a Balmer thing) was one of the best parts of the day. Hopefully it won't be another decade before I get to visit them again!

I arrived in the sweltering D.C. heat - heat index of 124...and, decided to do the tourist thing. Clever? Made it to the Newseum, which was cool - especially the room with front pages papers from across the decades. Then it was off to the National Archives...my visit wasn't at all motivated by Nicholas Cage, but apparently National Treasure inspired droves to see our documents, because the line was disgustingly long. I didn't have much time before having to be at the Goethe Institut for orientation, so I took a walk to the White House. No tour, but still really cool to see in person.

Back to the hotel to clean up, and off to the Institut.  I am so impressed with everything so far. Our group leader, Sarah, has been tremendous leading up to this point and got orientation off to a great start. We were given a crash course in German where we learned the essentials...how to order beer, where the bathroom is, etc, etc...and then had a fantastic meal. The 15 other people in my group all seem like a great group. We're very diverse in a lot of ways, but we also have a lot in common. I'm sure we'll have a great trip together.

After dinner a group of 6 of us set out on a night tour of the D.C. Some of the monuments are so much better at night...the darkness and dramatic lighting can be very striking. I'll get some pictures up when I can, but the Lincoln Memorial and Korean War Memorial were hands-down my favorites.  After three hours this evening it was back to the hotel for my last night on American Soil for the next 3+ weeks. I am so stoked for tomorrow. Orientation starts at 11:30, so the plan is to get up early to head to the Archives before returning for orientation...and from there, we're Munich bound! Cannot wait!