I heart DC

Isaac and I had a great time. Here are some of the highlights:

1) Riding the Metro. Isaac loves putting the ticket through the gate thingy and I love how cheap it is, and I feel cool that I know how to use it.

2) The Smithsonian: We hit the National Museum of Natural History and saw the huge fossil collection, watched an Imax movie about sharks, and bought some DIY geodes from the gift shop.

3) The Fulbright Orientation: I absolutely love being invited to this conference because the people I meet are so incredibly awesome. I still struggle with a little of that impostor syndrome when I'm around these folks. This time I gave a talk on making the most of the Fulbright year through outreach, and I scared the crap out of the folks heading to Bangladesh this year.

4) Meeting of the Bloggers: I finally got to meet my cyber-friends Zeenat and Tanveer. I found Tanveer's blog a while back and started reading Zeenotes a short while later. It turns out that we have a mutual friend, and we've developed a casual blogular relationship since then. The visit was great and I enjoyed some delicious vegetarian food cooked by Zeenat's mom especially for me (thanks Khalamma!) I'm hoping Z. posts some of the pictures she took of Isaac and Raffae on her blog so I can link! (And I was completely mesmerized by their beautiful daughter Zoya. I love girl-children!) (AND there is a child in the world who is as picky as Isaac. Raffae and Isaac ate plain spaghetti for supper.)

5) A little bit o' activism: Isaac and I stopped by Senator Kohl's office for "Coffee with Herb". He hosts these meet and greet sessions every Wednesday morning and agrees to take pictures with his constituents. I wonder why he doesn't bother to come to Wisconsin to meet his constituents very often? I put in a plug for the Fulbright program and then stood by as members from the Campus Antiwar Network at UW-Madison (they happened to be visiting DC as well) asked the Senator some tough questions while video-taping him. In case you missed the link to the whiteboard protest I did a while back, please check it out.

I'm glad to be back in the Wilderness for now, though, and I'm looking forward to my class starting on Monday. (That's a lie, I'm dreading it.) I still need to finish my paper, I must think about moving, my brother's wedding is next weekend, and blah blah blah. I'm gonna take a nap.