Friday, maybe!?

I breathed a sigh of relief when I met up with my Kansas buddy at Sydney Airport. Nicci Wood, Planning Engineer at Wellington City Council, is a blast; I can tell that we are going to have an awesome time together. So we arrived into Dallas International Airport late and after 33 hours of travel, we were just about holding our eyes open with our in flight toothpicks. We found Greg Bruce, fellow, Townsville City Council (www.townsville.qld.gov.au/) waiting for us at departures. The shared ride to the airport was a rude shock to the senses, not because we were in almost 100% humidity but, because Greg proceeded to strike up a conversation with a US Army Guard about Quantum Physics for the WHOLE duration of the trip. Appropriate conversation topic for 1AM, I think not!

Saturday

To ward off jet lag, I got up early to meet the other Aus and NZ fellows at brekkie. Blair Dickie (www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/), Paul Chambers (www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/), Ian Fitzgibbon (www.warrnambool.vic.gov.au/), and of course, Nicci and Greg. I feel really good, these guys are really easy to get along with, so we decided to make our way to the Metro together. We quickly worked out how to buy our tickets, jumped on and travelled to the Smithsonian Station. The Metro system in DC is popular with locals, and very easy to use. Although it is rather congested due to track works. On par with Bangkok! I've noticed that lots of people ride bikes around DC (Fig. 1), there are a number of shared paths and bike share (www.capitolbikeshare.com) bicycles available. Fig 1. Man with cool bike The next few hours were spent wandering like zombies in the general Smithsonian Museum (www.si.edu/Museums) area until we stumbled across, Capital Bar (www.capcitybrew.com/ ). The bar occupied us until 6pm, it was unlike I have ever experienced, the patrons looked just like they were out of a scene from the Fresh Prince of Bell Air (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fresh_Prince_of_Bel-Air)! In the evening we found ourselves a Japanese restaurant to eat at, the best sushi I've ever tasted (www.hanarobethesda.com/). After a drink at Rocky Bottom (www.rockbottom.com/) it was late to bed again! I arrived to find my Indonesian roomy, Synta set up in our room.

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Bike share bicycle in DC

Sunday

An early start again. This time the Aus and NZ group and I ventured into the city again. We did the tourist route of National Mall, the White House, Constitution Gardens, the earth works at the Reflecting Ponds, the Lincon Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Korean Memorial...the list goes on.

Verita Stewart do not publish without permission

Construction site at the reflecting ponds

There were some worthwhile sights to see, lots that was not my cup of tea, particularly the Book Fair. I loved seeing all the public place recycling facilities that DC has to offer, but along side that... the architecture is beautiful and American History is really fascinating. After all that exercise of the tourist route (15km approximately) we decided that it was appropriate to stuff our faces with some true American food. We caught the yellow line to U Street to visit Ben's Chilly Bowl (www.benschilibowl.com/) which the Lonely Planet Guide (www.lonelyplanet.com) says it is a “must see”. Ben's definitely met (and exceeded) all expectations. I ordered a famous half smoke, and we tried the culinary delights which were Chilly and cheese fries. Whilst stuffing our faces, along trundled the owner of Ben's. The aptly named "Mrs Ben" who posed for pictures with us. I recognized her because I recently saw a documentary by Anthony Bourdain (www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Anthony_Bourdain) which featured the history of Ben's. One thing I have noticed about the US so far is the excessive use of plastic cutlery, including polystyrene. If it's not wrapped in plastic, they'll wrap it in plastic when you order. they'll offer you a bag, when it clearly has a handle. I hope these restaurants that use plastic and polystyrene for everything recycle the plastic cutlery and cups. There is PPP everywhere, which is encouraging, but most are sponsored by private companies like Pepsi and Coke. Which makes me think why? Full from the fun and games that were Ben’s, the boys headed off to shop, and Nicci and I headed off to sight see! We managed run over our time limit in exploring the National Archives where bill of rights at the National Archives, and the some Henry Moore’s at the Hirshorn Museum Sculpture Garden and some modern works at the National Gallery Sculpture Garden (including some more waste management solutions).

Verita Stewart do not publish without permission

Waste management at the sculpture garden

We were on a strict time limit to make it back to the Hotel to meet all the other Fellows at 5:30PM. The Metro was horrendous on the way home and we ended up getting to the hotel an hour late. But, it is good to see that the locals actually use their metro and it seems a popular form of transport. Many carry bikes on the train to complete their commute. Another observation is that unlike in Australia there is a large number of taxi cabs that are either electric, hybrid or run on alternate fuel. Although we were late, we ended up heading out to dinner at an Italian Restaurant called Ollazo (www.olazo.com) with all fellows… five Indonesians, two Chinese fellows. Afterwards, we all bonded (and talked shop) over a glass of beer at Rocky Bottom (our new local).  I’m beginning to notice that some of the most meaningful conversations between the fellows are being had on the Metro, the bars or in our free time. We are all facing common issues with Climate Change such as climate variability, deteriorating infrastructure, water, energy and vegetation management and managing public perceptions among others. I can’t wait to start the ICMA State Department Program tomorrow.