This by turns fills me with excitement, reluctance, and abject terror. A part of me wishes I could spend more time here, to travel and do an American Christmas, but I am also excited to see my family, friends, and Keele again - and to spend some British pound coins. Oddly, I have missed British money.
Instead of complaining, I'm just going to continue to make the most of the time I have here. Every weekend is going to be a landmark! For Fall Break, it was Washington D.C.; Halloweend; November the 6th is the Carolina Renaissance Faire, in Raleigh; then there's a flurry of Long papers to hand in; kind friends who have invited me to visit their homes; the important Harry Potter release on November 19th; Thanksgiving trip to New York between the 24-28th... and then we will be winding down to the end of term.
It was fun to be tourists in D.C. for Fall Break, it's a relaxed city. I fell in love immediately with its tree-lined streets and beautiful, terraced apartments.
In some ways - particularly in Georgetown and Chinatown, when we ventured out of the tourist areas - I was reminded of London. However, I was constantly reminded of the striking gap between rich and poor. I think that the USA's lack of a strong welfare state becomes clearly evident in larger towns and cities. On nearly every block there was a person sleeping on the sidewalk, and I can see how the American Dream often falls away.
Having said that, here I feel very optimistic, like anything is possible if you want it enough and work for it... and have a bunch of money. In my American Literature 1 class, we are studying colonial Literature, and some write with great hope and excitement about the New World... when I think about the hugeness of the place and how much there is to see, I totally understand them. Even in D.C., there is probably enough to keep a person busy for weeks. We managed to pack a lot into our two days, though.
We went to the National Museum of American History, where we saw the original 'Star Spangled Banner', and Dorothy's ruby slippers. At the Capitol, we took a tour of the building and heard about the construction of the dome during the Civil War. We also saw The White House - because you just have to - the memorial monuments, the Obelisk, The Library of Congress, which still holds all of Thomas Jefferson's books, the Botanic Gardens, the Mall, Chinatown - where we discovered that the rumours are true, Dunkin Donuts really does make unreasonably good coffee - Georgetown and the shops in the High Street... it is very easy to spend money in the USA, everything seems so beautiful and cheap! I did some Christmas shopping and ate my first genuine American pretzel.
It was a great Fall Break and I'm sure I will return to D.C., because there's still plenty to see. While there I saw how America really is a 'mixed-up' country, like Sherwood Anderson said, it's not only full of contradictions but it's a big melting pot of different cultures.
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