D.C.

The Megabus was long and quiet, letting me catch a little sleep despite the freezing temperature. I arrived in DC a little after one AM and walked to the corner to see the Capitol. It was impressive, lit up against the night, but my leaning on the corner's lamppost elicited a holla from two young guys in a car, so I walked back to the bus station. Nicki picked me up promptly afterward, and I met her boo, Marvin. We got decent pizza together, then parted ways and hit the hay. The following morning, we took the AU bus to the metro. The Metro. The marvel of architecture and transportation as envisioned by Big Brother. I couldn't wrap my head around the workings of the metro card- swipe in for free, it tracks your exit, and charges you by the distance traveled. There's no personal information encoded on them (though it's an option to do so), but I'm dubious about whether or not the metro is the only technology capable of tracking the cards. In voicing this, Nicki exclaimed, "It's the capitol. It's a little more expected." That sounds like what they want you to think.... :P It was a short walk to the zoo, free, like every other cultural institution I'm so jealous of. Our first route had very few animals in it. No sloth bear. No panda bear. No fisher cat. There was a clouded leopard, which was one of my favorite big cats as a child, and I was pretty into the big cats. Unsurprisingly, my favorite exhibit wound up being the dual tiger/lion enclosures. The solitary tiger paced along the concrete barrier of the water and seemed to follow us. The lions of the National Zoo had cubs in May, and the adolescents were more lively than any other big cats I'd seen. In watching them, the impending rain unleashed. We took shelter under a bamboo alcove, as there was nothing solid in view. The lions ignored it. Ignoring the rain wasn't hard for us, but ignoring the ensuing humidity was more difficult. It was a new experience for rain to only worsen the condition of the heat. Another interesting stop was the bird house. In one open air room, there was a blue bird, about the size of a squat crow, whacking something against a rock. It was a mouse, thoroughly dead. Leaving, we walked to Adams-Morgan, a neighborhood solely dedicated to "food and drink." A sign warned caution to vehicles, as the main drag becomes an informal pedestrian zone after a certain hour. I got a crepe, and we bunkered down at Nicki's falafel place to wait out the returning rain. It lasted through the meal and into leaving, so we took a cab back to the university. Nap time. Some hours later, we were ready to hit the streets. Marvin knew people at a few clubs, but we wound up sitting at DuPont circle and enjoying the early morning. It was lovely and had me thinking of petty romance. Nicki dropped me off at the bus stop early the next day, so I read The Fountainhead. This continued on the bus, ending only when I took the luxury to cry for a few silent moments.