DC TRIP

We started our 4th of July at the National Archives where we saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Magna Carta. COOL! I signed the Declaration! We waited in a long line for this but I thought it was cool to see the original docs. The handwriting was so pretty!

Then we went on a tour of the Capitol. I never knew but during the war of 1812 the British set fire to the Capitol and burned a lot of it down. There is also a statue of Brigham Young in the Capitol because each state gives a statue of a person to display in the Capitol so Utah naturally chose BY. There is also a portrait of Joseph Smith in the National Portrait Gallery and a sunstone from the Nauvoo Temple in the Smithsonian Museum of American History soooooo IDK.

Then we took the tunnel/secret passageway (!!!) to the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building which was probably my favorite thing we saw in DC! I hadn't been before and it was just gorgeous. We learned a lot of fun little facts about it from the tour...we always try and take a tour if it's free because you learn so much more! The building was absolutely beautiful. Bury me there, plz.

Then we traipsed over to Capitol Hill for the "Capitol Fourth" concert on PBS. It was pretty cool..........I thought Barry Manilow was pretty terrible. The best part was when Neil Diamond sang Sweet Caroline and all the drunk Americans + me were like "BAH BAH BAHHHHHHHHHH." I embarrassed CJ by dancing a lot and getting really into everything. Honestly if you ever go to DC for the 4th skip this though because you will not be able to see the fireworks. How lame is that? We only went because we assumed it would be the best place to watch the fireworks from. Not so. We ran out once they started and got down on the mall where we could actually see them.

The next morning we went to Old Town Alexandria which was honestly probably my favorite part of the trip. We ate at The Majestic and it was sooooooo good. That fried green tomato was to die for, best cheese of my life. I also had a BLT which is my favorite food basically and it was just divine. I recommend this place if you are looking for a cute classic place to eat but we paid a little more than we usually would for lunch. ANYWAY. The whole town was just so adorable. For example, this house with the 13 original colonies flag...I die! We also visited a beautiful Episcopal church which George Washington and Robert E. Lee both attended and that was very cool. Much of it is original which was awesome. Also, Queen B on Queen street.

Then we went to Arlington. Not much to say about this except that CJ and I got into a heated discussion about when war is justifiable and when it isn't and how I hope my kids never join the military and if they try to I won't let them, etc. Beautiful trees, this is just one example.

For the evening we headed up to U street to explore and eat at Ben's Chili Bowl! This is a historical black neighborhood where Duke Ellington got his start as well as many other jazz greats. Ben's Chili Bowl was fun, all I ate was a milkshake because I still wasn't very hungry. Ben is a smart man because chili is basically the cheapest thing you could ever make and he charged $5 for a bowl. 

CHA CHILI CHING. You have to go though. For the experience. CASH ONLY.

Lincoln Memorial! I don't particularly love Abraham Lincoln as a president (not going to elaborate..ha) but nevertheless this is a very historic site. March on Washington, anyone??? Not to mention it's gorgeous at night and you have a great view of the national mall.

The next day we went to brunch at Founding Farmers. YUM. Dat bacon doe....I wish I could express how delicious the bacon was. Recommend but you have to make a reservation.

We went to the White House. I told CJ that when I'm president he will be known as the First Gentleman. Don't think he liked that title much. The cool thing though is that across the street there is like this little peace camp set up and it has been there since 1981 as a protest against nuclear arms. Led by a woman named Conchita who has been carrying on the longest continuous act of political protest in the United States. Go, girl.

This is probably my favorite piece of art we saw. It's called "Electronic Superhighway" by Korean-born artist Naim June Paik. I loved all of his work but this one was soooo cool as the TVs in each state represented that state. So for example in this picture you may be able to see the potatoes on the screens in Idaho or the Golden Gate Bridge in California. Pictures really don't do it justice because the screens are constantly changing and I just love the depiction of American culture. After this we went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History which was soooo crowded but we did see the ruby red slippers and Kermit.

Then we went to Geogrtown. So adorable but we were sooooooo exhausted as it was the last day of our trip and DC involves a lot of walking. Sometimes the thing you want to see is like a mile away from the nearest metro stop which...I don't think I have ever been a mile away from a metro stop in NYC haha. We got a cupcake at Baked and Wired which was sooooooo good. I didn't want to go to Georgetown Cupcake because we have one in SoHo and I think their cupcakes are dry. Sorry not sorry.

P.S. I am really proud of myself for planning this trip because CJ is the master trip planner (he planned our trips to Paris and Lisbon and he is really good at picking out what to see and do) but I did it this time since I have way more free time than him right now. And we had fun! And ate good food and saw a good balance of touristy and not so touristy stuff. YAY ME.

Missing Paris.

I went to Paris almost two months ago.

I still remember literally everything about the trip! It was one of the best weekends of my life and I feel so lucky that I was able to go.

I started writing like this really long post detailing everything we did but I just decided that it's probably better to focus on highlights.

-The Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees. I think I gasped 100 times. Such an awesome first night.
-Our hostel was party central. Made friends with Peter from China. Obviously. Turned down billions of free drinks while we were planning our weekend in the lobby. MORMONS.
-Used our shirts as towels.
-Climbing so many stairs at the Eiffel Tower. Ate a Milka bar at the top.
-My favorite place we ate was the little bakery we went to on our first day. I had quiche and coke light and a chocolate tart and each one was the best I have ever had. The waiter said I had a very American face. Thanks!
-The catacombs! So creepy but so great.

-The huge mall where I looked at 200-500 euro baby clothes for hours. (not literally)
-Best McDonald's in the world.
-Macarons from Laduree for the first time. The world stopped.
-Watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle at night. LALALA SO PRETTY!
-St. Michel's, highest stained glass to wall ratio of any cathedral in the world. Gorgeous.
-Notre Dame.
-More delicious food.
-Sitting in the park in Paris writing down my wishes and dreams in my journal. Bliss.

-Notre Dame...beautiful. I was Catholic in another life.

-Love lock bridge. I liked watching these beautiful people smooch. I wanted to cry!

-Moulin Rouge, we did the Can-Can, as you can see.
-Musee d'Orsay. One of my absolute favorite parts of this trip and my whole study abroad. I saw so much beautiful art there IN REAL LIFE including Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, and Gauguin. I remember walking through this museum and thinking, "This is the most my feet have ever hurt."
-We went on a riverboat cruise that we thought would be covered but we had to sit on the uncovered top and it was pouring rain.
-Then we were looking for somewhere to eat and we found this tiny pizza place that was really warm and full of hot waiters, so we went there. I paid like 15 euro for a pizza, but let's just forget about that. It was really delicious and a lovely dining experience overall.
-Waited in line at the Louvre for an hour and a half on free museum day.
-The Mona Lisa was not underwhelming. I thought it was beautiful.
-Searched for Hammurabi's Code in the Louvre for over an hour and we never found it.We asked like 100 different workers for directions and every way we went we got to a dead end. So...still haven't seen that.
-Literally RAN up the Champs Elysees to get to Laduree for macarons before we left.

-Ran even faster to our bus back to the airport to catch our flight. We barely made it.
-A pinky promise to come back someday.

"Lalalalalala, Life is wonderful."

All I want to do. Is travel around the United States and go to ALL the major art museums. Actually not even just all the major...all of them...all.

I've never considered myself to be museum bourgeois or like super hoity toity or anything, but the more I learn about these works of art and the people who created them, the more unsatisfied I become with just looking at photographs in my textbook.

My most recent obsession? Abbott Handerson Thayer. He sought to create an ideal American woman in his paintings. My favorite is The Virgin.

Caritas

The Virgin

Angel

First stop in my grand tour: Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. Anybody want to come with?

Also- I wouldn't wish a cold sore on my WORST enemy. So terrible.

And one more thing- I didn't say thank you to the boy who just came into this study room to take out the garbage because I was too distracted. Worst. Feeling. Ever.

GK

I love my Humanities class. Today we talked about photography. And it was amazing and I think I could look at early photography all day. Some of my favorite photographs we looked at were taken by a woman named Gertrude Kasebier.

An interesting story about Gertrude is that she created a portfolio and took it to Alfred Stieglitz, a prominent photographer of the time and Georgia O'Keefe's husband. He had a studio and published a photography journal, etc. He wouldn't give her the time of day! He was like oh I'm not concerned with flowers and other things that women are concerned with. So Gertrude had one of her male friends take her portfolio in a few days later and present it to Stieglitz. Of course, Stieglitz said it was some of the best work he had ever seen, phenomenal, blah blah blah. And I bet he felt really dumb when the guy told him that it was Gertrude's work. To Stieglitz's credit, he published Gertrude's work in his magazine. It was the first issue to showcase one artist exclusively.

Quakers in Love.

Do you want to know the coolest thing I learned today? Of course you do.

Today in my American Humanities class, we got to talkin' about Benjamin West. You've probably never heard of him...I hadn't either, which is really unfortunate. He was one of the first American-born artists to be renowned the world over, and his paintings are really quite good. This is him. He is a sexy Quaker.

I really could tell you tons of stuff about him, because he is awesome. But, the purpose of this was just to tell one quick story about him. (Just so you know how great this guy is though, I'm seriously contemplating naming one of my kids after him somehow.)

Okay so like 1760ish, West traveled to Italy and then throughout Europe, and finally settled down in England. He never went back to America.

So he started thinking about getting married, but he didn't really like English girls...they were just too much for him. He longed to marry a good Quaker girl, but of course there were no Quakers in England because Charles II killed them all. So he wrote home (Philadelphia) to his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth, asking if she would come to England and marry him.

No response.

He wrote again. Nothing. For weeks he wrote her letters without getting a single response. So he asked one of his friends to just go ask Elizabeth personally if she would marry him. Awkward, yes, but desperate times call for desperate measures! Turns out she hadn't gotten any of his letters...her father had intercepted them and BURNED THEM ALL.

Guys. Guys.

Well Elizabeth's brother and dad found out that this messenger had come from Benjamin so they locked her in a room in the highest floor of their home. Benjamin obviously had to have her. So three of his close friends got like this huge ladder and went in the dead of night to sneak her out. They put her on the next boat to England, and as soon as she got there, she and Benjamin were married.

This is a painting of Elizabeth West and their son, Raphael. The original is in Salt Lake...and I NEED to see it. When asked about her husband, Elizabeth said:

"I tell you with perfect truthfulness, I have never found fault in my husband."

Seriously, guys. Love story. America. Yes.

Oh, PS, who were the three friends who snuck Elizabeth out?

A signer of the Declaration whose name I don't remember.

Another guy who became the First bishop of the American Episcopal Church.

Ben Franklin, MOTHALICKA.